THE MARTYRS' WALK

THE MARTYRS' WALK

DOTProductions on the streets of Brentwood

31.03.12

Stood with the people of Burnt Wood to witness once more the life of William Hunter, weaver's apprentice, little more than a boy, who would not bow to the Church of Rome, its bishops and its priests, and met a terrible death by burning in the reign of Mary.

From the crossroads, and his early life, to the ruin'd Chapel, here doing the office of Saint Paul's, past The Swan, The White Hart and the Lion & Lamb to the Common, beyond the sign of the Artichoke, where he stood bravely at the stake as the fires consumed him. We met on the road his Parents, his accuser Justice Antony Browne, his brother Robert who led us through the tale, and the Bishop of London, that men called Bloody Bonner.

I myself played some small unlook'd-for part in these sad proceedings, being roped in, as the saying has, to personate one John Laurence, priest and Black Friar, who met the self-same fate two days after William, in Colchester Town.

The Martyr's Walk was street theatre devised and presented by DOT productions, and supported by Brentwood Borough Council and the Brentwood Renaissance Group.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Brentwood Shakespeare Company at the Brentwood Theatre 
14.04.10


It's almost a commonplace now to set the Bard in the 30s, but Louise O'Connor's stylish staging for the Brentwood Shakespeare Company was very easy on the eye and the ear, and made for an enjoyable, if not quite magical, evening.
Some very accomplished actors did full justice to Shakespeare's verse, though sometimes, particularly in the first two acts, a lighter, more throwaway touch would have helped to keep the text on its toes.
If the Scout Troop Watch were only fitfully funny, the eavesdropping scene was most amusingly done. Grandmother's Footsteps in the prologue were neatly echoed by the moving penthouse in Act 3, and I liked Don John's shady trio, silent comedy criminals to a man.
Sydney Hill had gravitas and military bearing as Don Pedro, and Neil Gray was a convincing lovesick Claudio. Chrissie O'Connor's Ursula spoke the words with style and conviction, and Katie Burchett was affecting as the young, innocent Hero.
The two unlikely wooers - “horribly in love” - were Diane Johnston as the pleasant-spirited Beatrice, and Jim Crozier as the gruff, cynical officer Benedict. Especially in their later scenes there was real chemistry between them, and if “Kill Claudio” wasn't so much of a shock, it did arise logically from the altercation, and their final falling in love was well worth the waiting for.

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM

College Players at Brentwood Theatre

18.09.09

Kate Atkinson's first novel transfers remarkably well to the stage: the story of Ruby Lennox and her dysfunctional extended family makes an absorbing drama in Bryony Lavery's adaptation, which was impressively staged at Brentwood by the College Players.

Ruby – too clever for her own good – is guided by her therapist as she revisits her colourful past. Emma Feeney gave a beautifully observed performance in the role – funny, and deeply moving in places, she held the narrative together as it leaped the generations and travelled from Whitby [paradise with Auntie Doreen] to Scotland [hell with the Ropers] via the Trenches and the lost property cupboard of the afterlife.

There were many more fine performances in a very large cast – Dawn Cooke's blowsy Bunty, and Lindsay Hollingsworth's Grandma Nell, ageing 50 years in an instant.

Lauren Bracewell's wondrous production had many memorable, moving moments. The ghosts of York crowding the stage, with the tiny lost sister weaving through them, the layers of memory in the shoeless shoe box, the expressionist fire and the climax on the ice. Music and lighting were effectively used to enhance the drama, set against a palimpsest of peeling wallpaper and family photographs.

programme design: James Feeney