INTO THE WOODS

INTO THE WOODS

L.A.D.S. at The Tractor Shed

26.08.2017

A good summer for Sondheim. Sunday in the Park with George from NYMT earlier this month, Follies at the National next week. And out at Latchingdon, my seventh Into the Woods, staged for the first and probably only time in a barn, with vintage tractors lining the stalls.

It's a popular show with amateur groups, despite the challenges presented by the staging and the score. A further challenge here was the absence of an MD to conduct – the accompaniment is karaoke style, which, to my surprise, works well, even for Sondheim. Though it has to be said that balance and acoustics conspired to rob us of some of his lovely lyrics.

The design had a charmingly naïve simplicity – trees were carried on and off, the birds were suspended from a stick, Granny's little cottage acted cleverly as a screen to spare us the worst of the Wolf's depredations. The garlands of flowers extended onto the apron, a useful acting area where the orchestra pit might have been.

Carole Hart's production combined music and movement to excellent effect, especially in Act Two, where numbers like No One Is Alone and Children Will Listen had a huge emotional impact. The Giant was well suggested by heavy footsteps and falling leaves, the beans by firecrackers. The choreography was by Aimee Hart, who also made a splendid Witch, hook-nosed before her transformation, strikingly elegant thereafter.

Many more first class performances: a lovely Baker's Wife from Carol Richardson, letting her hair down for a tumble with her Prince in the woods, her Baker Matthew Bacon, very strong in the “No More” sequence, Ben Braden's sunny Jack, Yasmin Lisa Sharp's Cinders, Freya Brown's Little Red Riding Hood [“I Know Things Now” very nicely done] and Tasha Gooderham's Rapunzel. There was a good deal of doubling – Cinderella's Prince and the Wolf, as is the custom [an impressive Adam Hart], but less usually Scarlette McSean gave us both Snow White and a particularly emaciated Milky White, and Rapunzel's Prince [Jacob Dawes] was given a Wolf of his own, plus Three Little Pigs as his prey. Notable contributions too from Daniel Tunbridge – striped blazer, panama – as the Narrator, Judi Embling as the wicked Stepmother, and Robin Warnes as a Chekhovian Mysterious Man.

A thought-provoking mix of fairytales – the Grimm and the gory never far away – the ending especially moving, with the stage peopled by the quick and the dead, a stylishly simple routine ending with everyone turning upstage, save for that one wistful “I wish”.  

NOISES OFF

NOISES OFF

LADS at The Tractor Shed, Latchingdon
16.06.16

Michael Frayn's backstage drama is still the best of the Show Goes Wrong genre.
And it's given a welcome revival this week in the unlikely setting of the Latchingdon Tractor Shed, a venue probably not on the OtStar Productions tour list …
A complex set, with all those essential doors, many of them on a raised level; it all spins round to reveal prompt corner and the wings, and is trundled back again, in full view, for the disastrous last act. Bravo !
It's a difficult play, even for the most seasoned pros. We saw the [postponed] first night, which would be the first audience preview, weeks before opening, in the real world. So there were some hiccups and hiatuses.
Nonetheless, much to amuse, and some fine farcical performances: Daniel Tunbridge as the harassed director, and Aimee Hart as the dozy ingénue, catching the style of the Whitehall farce very impressively.
Reliable character support from David Hudson as the whisky-fuelled reprobate Selsdon, and Joan Cooper as Dotty Otley, typecast again as the cheerful char.
Adam Hart makes an athletic Garry, Moir Gunfield gives a lively, confident Belinda, with Alan Elkins her on-stage husband. The “Nothing On” company is completed by Vicci Rayner as the hard-pressed ASM, and Aaron Gardner as the jack-of-all trades Company Manager.

Carole Hart's production, a considerable achievement for a village society, has many enjoyable comedy moments, many of them physical: the tumbles, the wordless wrestling behind the scenes, and the glorious moment when Poppy drops her bombshell at the end of Act Two. “And curtain!”

production photograph: Keith Spencer

SHOW HITS 2014

SHOW HITS 2014

LADS at the Tractor Shed, Latchingdon

27.08.2014

A broad definition of “hits”, and of “show” in this frequently entertaining miscellany. From Stratford East to the West End to Broadway and Hollywood, from music halls to vaudeville

“Some Magic To Do” - from the recently-revived Pippin - makes a promising curtain-raiser, with jugglers and unicycles, and the finale, surely a first, has Spamalot segue into Hair, with happy hippies letting the sunshine in to the Tractor Shed.

Many gems and curiosities along the way: Stanley Holloway's Battle of Hastings, delivered deadpan by an E L Wisty lookalike, and Abbott and Costello's classic 50 Dollars cross-talk sketch, which will doubtless be even slicker come Saturday night, and a delightful soft-shoe Me And My Shadow.

The Great American Musical is well represented: Too Darn Hot, nicely jivey, If Momma Was Married [from Gipsy], Somewhere That's Green [from Little Shop] and an outstanding Miss Adelaide from Guys and Dolls, which just happens to be LADS' next big show in November.

Other musical highlights – Just A Bowl of Cherries [belted out like Liza], That's Life, and an amazing found-percussion sequence.

Dance numbers [ably choreographed by Vicki Bird and Aimee Hart] include Jailhouse Rock, Electricity and a brilliant Bye Bye Blackbird.

Some very tiny performers in the Somewhere Out There medley from children's movies, and, a highlight of Act One, a string of songs from the Great War, linked by original dialogue in a moving musical tribute to the fallen, produced and directed by Judi Embling.

This year's Show Hits is produced by Michelle Kuta, who directed it with Aimee Hart, assisted by Carole Hart. James Tovey is in charge of the music.

TWO PLAYS FROM GOD'S COUNTRY

TWO PLAYS FROM GOD'S COUNTRY

Latchingdon Arts and Drama Society

The Tractor Shed Theatre, Latchingdon

29.11.13

Mary Redman was at the Tractor Shed ...

For people not familiar with the name of Lee Hall who created the two plays performed at Latchingdon, he is the award-winning North Country man who wrote the original Billy Elliott, Cooking With Elvis, The Pitmen Painters and the screenplay for War Horse plus the controversial children's operetta Beached. Beached was finally withdrawn after its language and scenario were criticised by commissioners Opera North and the children's school.

The two one act plays seen here are I Love You Jimmy Spud which dates from 1995 and Spoonface Steinberg dating from 1997.

In the intervening decades we have become much more familiar with families living from hand to mouth while people with cancer have given many more accounts of living with the disease.

The Hart Family of LADS were kept busy this evening with teenager Adam playing Jimmy Spud who is seen applying for the post of trainee angel. Firstly interrogated by a stern Angel Gabriel played by Keith Spencer, we then see him at home with Mum (Carole Hart) and his unemployed father (David Hudson) who develops cancer. Then there's grumpy on the surface Granddad (Robin Warnes) who later sheds tears with Jimmy over the death sentence facing his father.

Aaron Gardner is the bright Scout who becomes Jimmy's friend and in a hilarious scene is given sight of his robe and budding wings.

Adam is convincing in the role of someone who firmly believes that alienated beings will become celestial beings.

Kath Lang's costumes include Jimmy's intricate lace work robe and nascent wings plus Gabriel's full blown angel outfit.

All of this was accompanied by appropriate snippets from Handel's Messiah.

The North Country dialogue was sometimes a bit tricky to follow but the cast were genuinely deeply involved in this tale of an outsider.

Spoonface Steinberg, a sensation when first broadcast on radio because it is a no-holds-barred portrait of a young, autistic, Jewish girl of diagnosis, treatment and outcome of cancer. Against a background of Callas arias, specifically chosen by the playwright, she explores her reactions and attitudes to the disease and its effects. In the process bringing to life her parents, and Mrs Spud their cleaner from the previous play. A genius with numbers she has a shrewd, direct understanding of events and people despite any drawbacks from her autism.

It's a tour-de-force 45-minute monologue and Aimee Hart, who is scarcely more than a teenager herself, gave a gripping account of this play and this character who fades away before our eyes.

Directed by Arthur Barton assisted by Alan Elkins and Carole Hart it is a play that Tractor Shed founder director Peter Jones has long wanted to put on and he played a helpful advisory role in this production.

Discussing the use of the somewhat clunky revolve he is of the opinion that “we could not do it any other way”. It did, however, add a lot of wasted time between scenes. The other drawback overall seems that the prospect of two such hard-hitting plays may have deterred the audience which was small but very appreciative of LADS' efforts.

VISITING HOUR

VISITING HOUR

Latchingdon Arts and Drama Society at The Tractor Shed

23.03.13

Richard Harris [no, not him, the other one] has a long pedigree of scripts for telly, plus a couple of popular hits for the stage.

Visiting Hour [1990] is a lesser work, a sequence of six scenes set in a hospital ward. From The National Health to Our Boys, it's a potent metaphor for the wider world.

LADS' production boasted a lovely ward in two-tone green; real beds too.

Not well lit, with much of the area in shadow. The transitions were smoothly handled, with curtains drawn round beds, the visiting bell and the beep of cardiac monitors.

The writing, and the acting, were patchy. Two of the pieces are monologues. Carole Hart coped well with Keeping Mum: a little bedside housekeeping, a few home truths and then a darker dénouement as her marriage breaks up and she is chillingly revealed as a serial, compulsive hospital visitor.

The other monologue, which had very little to do with the rest of the scenes, saw Robin Warnes' Mr Archer sharing a lifetime of memories and snatches of song with no-one in particular, his only visitors two ghosts from the past.

Lighter moments elsewhere, with Gill Bridle confronting her paralysed husband with the farcical infidelity that led to his accident. Bill Wright was excellent as the unfailingly cheerful Mr Darbon, bemoaning the dearth of Ronnie Ronalde on his hospital headphones. He's the unwitting star of a transplant documentary, made by his media-whore of a surgeon and a comically camp crew.

Going Home saw Tricia and Cheryl, stewed prunes and apple tart, recovering from hysterectomies while the voice of doom and the busybody pass through the ward. It did boast one of the few laugh-aloud lines of the evening: "Monday she loses her womb; Friday they take all her furniture."

And the slightly surreal last scene – Magic – was enlivened by Keith Spencer's amateur magician and Holly Hallam's Sandra, feeding the payphone with 10p pieces in a vain attempt to rescue a relationship.

By their nature, these scenes are static. Director Arthur Barton moved his actors as much as plausible, and sometimes more, but there were still some dreary longueurs, punctuated sporadically by interesting, touching or amusing moments. Much like life on the ward, I suspect.

SEASON'S GREETINGS

SEASON'S GREETINGS

LADS at the Tractor Shed, Latchingdon

17.11.12

A real church choir carolling in the foyer, but that's about as far as peace and goodwill go in Ayckbourn's classic Christmas comedy, revived by LADS in the Tractor Shed.

It's done, if not in the round, then at least on the floor, as the playwright intended, with a nice set including a landing, with bedrooms off, and the dining room and lounge right under the audiences noses. It obviously proved a bugger to light, though; the hall was often in total darkness, for instance – a scene played in the dark should not mean a scene with no lighting whatever.

The festive season often throws families together, causing tension, tempers and drunken tears. Here, we have Neville [Daniel Tunbridge] and his bright young wife Belinda [Jamie-Leigh Royan]. Into their suburban home come childless doctor Bernard [a nicely fussy performance from Robin Warnes] and his dypso wife Phyllis [Eileen Judd]. And ex-colleague Eddie [David Hudson], with Pattie, his heavily pregnant wife [a convincing sense of desperation from Carole Hart]. Here's Bel's spinster sister, with her duffle coat and lisle stockings [Vicky Melhuish] who's picked up an author at her book group – Alan Elkins making an intense, bemused Clive.

And, discovered in front of the TV watching a seasonal action movie, is Uncle Harvey, excellently characterised by Keith Spencer.

There were some very amusing scenes, like the drumming bear in the farcical close to Act One, or the awkward encounter between Belinda and Clive. And, of course, the priceless puppet show, with Bernard increasingly frustrated by his incompetent stage-crew, and a cynical Harvey the chief critic at the dress rehearsal.

But I was left with the feeling that there was more to the play than we were getting – not all of the actors explored the depth of their character – like all of Ayckbourn's work, the farce and the fun are only the surface …

Season's Greetings was directed, as it was in the Village Hall back in '85, by Gavin Rouse. It was good to be down with the action – we could almost have handed Bernard his Third Pig – feeling as cosy as one can in a vast agricultural outbuilding.

SHOW HITS 2011

SHOW HITS 2011

LADS at the Tractor Shed
31.08.11


How did a redundant tractor shed attract a talented company of younsters to spend their summer nights preparing a very enjoyable, and highly professional, variety show of songs [and dances] from the musical stage ?

Well, that's a story for another day. Suffice it to say that Show Hits 2011 was a fast-paced, slick sequence which never lost energy or style.

It began with a generous helping of Sister Act, with a very lively Deloris, and some impressive chorus work.

And ended with the Queen fans' juke-box musical, We Will Rock You, with familiar numbers [though not alas Bohemian Rhapsody] belted out with enthusiasm and a great rock backing.

In between we had two lovingly revived “Gerald Wiley” monologues off the box, a very stylish title number from Cabaret, and the Waltz duet from Sweeney Todd, which honesty compels me to say was the only performance where all the words were audible. Not to mention brief encounters with Rent, Wicked, Legally Blonde and Glee, and a commendably simple sequence from Glee: the a cappella ending to Say A Little Prayer was a musical highlight.

The sixteen-piece orchestra – the envy of many a West End pit these days, and maybe a tad over-powered for this acoustic and these vocal forces – was directed by the prodigiously talented Kris Rawlinson, who also managed to appear in two numbers, including Shrek in a green mask of his own making …

The younger performers – some cute Cockney tots here – got a chance to shine in a medley from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which featured a brilliant knees-up number [Ol' Bamboo] and the car itself, magnificently recreated by Frank Burgess. We're promised a period cab for Pygmalion, LADS' next show...

Show Hits 2011 was directed by Cathy Hallam, with Mandi Tickner, and choreography by Vicki Bird.

FOOTLOOSE


Latchingdon Arts and Drama Society at the Tractor Shed
16.04.10



Footloose the Musical was sniffed at by the critics, but has had a successful afterlife touring the US and the UK, as well as becoming a popular high school musical.
Not hard to see why. It follows the lucrative furrow already ploughed by Grease, Fame, Saturday Night Fever, Smoky Joe's and Glee.
Peter Jones's lively production for LADS at the Tractor Shed, with energetic choreography by Vicky Bird, did its best with the paper-thin improbable storyline. Perhaps it's just as well there were no more plot twists, since not all the lyrics that drive the narrative were audible.
The one-horse town of Bomont has banned dancing following a fatal late-night teenage car crash. Cool Chicago sophisticate Ren McCormack [a stunning performance from Alex Martin] is the catalyst for a change of heart in the Reverend Shaw Moore – Robin Warnes having no difficulty convincing us as a stick-in-the-mud to whom all dance is anathema.
Elsewhere the accents were authentic only in the younger performers.
The songs ranged from the dire to the forgettable, though the young lovers [Martin with Marianne Davies excellent as the pastor's rebellious daughter] made the most of their duet – Almost Paradise – perched high on a bridge above the town. The most successful numbers were the harmony trios, Somebody's Eyes, Learning to be Silent, and the quartet Holding Out For A Hero.
But if, despite the best efforts of Kris Rawlinson and his band, much of the music was anodyne, there were compensations aplenty, mostly choreographic: the duet from Ren and good ol' country boy Willard [Dan Bavin], the opening number, answering the train, and the extended megamix dance sequence at the end, seemingly shrouded in the sulphurous smoke of eternal hell fire.
Great dancing, and palpable energy and enthusiasm, made for an impressive spectacular – one rural backwater bringing to pulsing life another.