LOOKING BACK AT 2014

A time of farewells at the arts desk.

“Jon Richards”, Peter Andrews and Jim Hutchon, who all influenced me at various stages in my critical career, died within a few months of each other this past year. They leave an enormous legacy of support, both practical and literary, for the local arts scene.

Looking back at my own pieces this year, I've selected a score of events, to which I was invited, either as blogger, arts correspondent for the Chelmsford Weekly News, or contributor to Sardines, Remote Goat or The Public Reviews.

To some extent this choice is yours too. My blog is interactive. You can leave comments – they'll be posted quicker if you don't remain anonymous – you can click to say how far you agree, or you can affect the star rating - *****KO, ****A-OK, ***OK, **so-so, *no-no - just by clicking on the stars !

So these are the shows that still, at the year's end, keep their 5-star rating.

Pantomimes at the Mercury Colchester [very much back on form this year] and the Queen's Hornchurch, whose Return to the Forbidden Planet was a hugely enjoyable farewell from Artistic Director Bob Carlton. Their stylish Gatsby and their hilarious Lend Me A Tenor also made the cut.

Kytes' Speaking In Tongues at BrentwoodTheatre all the more impressive for coming as a surprise; Sister Act and Tommy, both at the Palace Westcliff, more predictable hits, perhaps.

On a much smaller scale, BlackEyedTheatre's Dracula in January, Forbidden Broadway in the West End, Patience from Charles Court Opera, The Mikado from Opera della Luna. Outstanding local performers in Chelmsford Ballet Company and in ten-year-old Tomorrow's Talent, both going spectacularly from strength to strength. Musically, the Northern Chamber Orchestra at the Civic, and splendid choral events from the Writtle Singers, the Waltham Singers, and the Chelmsford Singers et al in the Cathedral.

And, of many commemorations of the outbreak of the Great War, Merry It Was To Laugh There, a poignant perfection from a small local tour which I was lucky enough to see twice.

title picture: CBC's Nutcracker

JOY TO THE WORLD

JOY TO THE WORLD

Chelmsford Singers at St John the Baptist Danbury

20.12.2014

Making his first visit to the Church on the Hill, James Davy proved a genial host for this seasonal mix of old and new.

Beginning with a spectacular setting of Joy to the World from the choir, sounding fresh and enthusiastic in the charming, if slightly chilly, church. Other choral highlights were a crisply sung Sir Christemas, Sund's tender Newborn Child [sung in the original Swedish] and the timeless simplicity of Davy's own arrangement of There Is No Rose, an English carol almost as ancient as this medieval building.

The pews were packed; the congregational singing was impressive, too, joining the choir in a suitably schmaltzy version of White Christmas, and John Rutter's imaginative I Saw Three Ships, with tuneful whistling from the assembled gentlemen Josephs.

Weston Jennings, accompanying on piano and organ, gave us a Baroque Pastorale solo, and there were readings from Dylan Thomas and Robert Bridges, whose Christmas Eve 1913 seemed especially appropriate for this country church.

The old words came to me

by the riches of time

Mellow’d and transfigured

as I stood on the hill

Heark’ning in the aspect

of th’ eternal silence.

HENRY IV PART ONE

HENRY IV PART ONE

RSC Understudy run at the Barbican

18.12.2014
08.01.2015

Greg Doran's agreeably traditional Henry IV comes to the Barbican after its Stratford run; and this is a chance for the unsung understudies to take centre stage.

It's an opportunity they grasp eagerly, with both hands, and with some spectacular doubling. Robert Gilbert is a no-nonsense Hotspur as well as a lisping Rakehell, Elliot Barnes-Worrell [pictured here in his regular role] an endearing Ned Poins as well as Mortimer. And Leigh Quinn, who normally goes on merely as “Traveller”, gets to play the two wives – speaking and singing in Welsh – and the two boys, potboy Francis and Peto, the young Eastcheap lad sucking his liquorice stick. She is wonderfully watchable in all four guises.

Wearing the Obelix trousers as the “melancholy lion” Falstaff is Joshua Richards, who's usually his old mate Bardolph.

In an ironic twist of fate, the King himself is played, as usual, by Jasper Britton, his understudy being injured.

The production, redirected for this cast by Owen Horsley, is enjoyable without being particularly illuminating – there's a nice running gag about Quickly's “husband”, the weary procession of pressed men is a memorable image, and the “lofty instruments of war” are well suggested by a surround-sound experience – musical score by Paul Englishby.

In Part Two, Quinn is still very much to the fore, playing Peto and Falstaff's Page [scoffing a bag of nuts this time] as well as Lady Percy and the Groom in the last scene, spreading “More Rushes!” for the [somewhat depleted] royal pomp, Falstaff's sad undoing. She is also left alone on stage at the very end, in place of the epilogue, possibly a premonition of the fate of the boys and the luggage at Agincourt just a couple of years down the line …

The real Mistress Quickly [Paola Dionisotti] is on duty in Eastcheap [despite what the cast sheet claimed], and Elliot Barnes-Worrell is back again as Poins. Joshua Richards is the ageing fat knight - “blasted with antiquity” - excellent, with Jim Hooper's lovely Justice Shallow, in the elegiac Chimes at Midnight scene.

Simon Thorp is the ailing Henry IV this time, very good on the amnesia and the apoplexy, though Jasper Britton still gets to walk on, notably as a green-faced Mouldy, one of the Gloucestershire recruits, who all enjoyed themselves hugely on this understudy matinée.

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

CHRISTMAS AT BLACKMORE

The Stondon Singers at the Priory Church

16.12.2014

A delicate Christmas pot-pourri from this exceptional chamber choir, directed by Christopher Tinker.

The centrepiece was In Terra Pax, in which Gerald Finzi encases words from Matthew's Gospel in a poem by Robert Bridges, placing the Bible story in an English countryside setting. Beautifully sung here, with the significant solos – the Poet and the Angel - impressively handled by Mark Ellis and Michelle Arthur. And Michael Frith at the organ valiantly deputizing for the orchestra.

A similar theme in Peter Warlock's Bethlehem Down, which, like Jesus Christ The Apple Tree, featured exquisitely modulated pianissimo passages.

Tinker's own setting of I Saw A Maiden was tenderly phrased, and the folk-inspired Scots Nativity by Colchester composer Alan Bullard had a movingly eloquent simplicity.

There was a new Holly and the Ivy from Matthew Owens, and a different In Dulci Jubilo, “a multi-layered cake”, with a high soprano line the frosting on top.

We had several chances to raise our voices, from Advent hymn to Adeste Fideles, and the evening was bookended by Es Ist Ein Ros' – first in the Praetorius original, then in a magical, mystical arrangement by Jan Sandstrom, its beautifully sustained notes floating up to the ancient rafters.

DANNY THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD

DANNY THE CHAMPION OF THE WORLD

Brentwood Theatre Company at Brentwood Theatre

13.12.2014

A very different kind of magic from last year – no music, no dancing, but a low-key bedtime story, moving and uplifting, which in David Wood's faithful adaptation captures the love and loyalty at the heart of Dahl's 1975 original.

It's a tale of poachers and pheasants, rich and poor, with plenty of food for thought as well as excitement and suspense.

Against David Zelly's cheerful cardboard cut-out design – the caravan and the cars play a key role here – Danny and his Dad take on the squire and his gamekeepers, sharing the secret ways of taking gamebirds: the horse-hair stopper, the sticky hat, and the boy's own invention, the sleeping beauty.

An enthusiastic cast of seven is headed by Jackson Pentland's gentle father and Porl Matthews' convincing Danny – their relationship is compellingly portrayed in several intimate scenes, Danny's adolescent frustration and fearlessness against his Dad's worldly-wise affection for his only son.

Both the doctor and the taxi driver are women in this version [Abi Taylor Jones and Joelle Campbell] – good strong performances, though I'm not sure why the doctor and the vicar's wife [Elka Lee-Green] speak like country bumpkins.

The villains include Allen Watts' gamekeeper Rabbetts – he also plays the kindly village copper – and Lee White's hilarious Hazell, working the audience in traditional melodramatic fashion, with a sneer, a glance, a flick of his jacket. His apoplexy at the sabotage of his shooting party is a highlight of the show, as is the involvement of the audience as his honorary beaters.

Ray Howes' heart-warming production is the ideal antidote to the deafening delights of the panto; an enchanting escape into a lost world of childhood.

production image: Carmel Jane Photography