BACKNANG CHURCH CHOIR

BACKNANG CHURCH CHOIR

at Chelmsford Cathedral

04.11.11

The Kantorei der Stiftskirche, Backnang made a welcome return to the county town to give a very well supported lunchtime concert.

They began with Schein, an early Baroque composer, followed by Schutz. The centre-piece of their programme was a marvellously energetic performance of Bach's Singet dem Herrn, and they ended with two pieces from the Romantic repertoire, by Albert Becker, also very brightly sung, and Mendelssohn's setting of Psalm 91.

Their director, Hans-Joachim Renz, also chose Mendelssohn for his organ interludes, from the Sonata in B flat, which sounded splendid on the nave organ.

On the next day, the German choir joined their hosts, the Chelmsford Singers, in a joint concert featuring more Schutz, more Mendelssohn as well as favourites from Mozart, Bruckner and Handel, with Stephen Tilton sharing the podium with Renz.

SHYLOCK

SHYLOCK

Guy Masterson at the Cramphorn Theatre

01.11.11

Jim Hutchon was in the Cramphorn ...

Guy Masterson has made a mission of producing and developing one-man plays for others which he launches on successful provincial tours throughout the UK and Europe.
On welcome occasions, he performs these himself, and this examination of Shakespeare's Jew is an example of his work at its finest and most revealing.
Unlike the current trend to 'rehabilitate' Shylock's temperament in sympathetic terms, Gareth Armstong's treatment is to neither blame nor acclaim, but instead, to reveal the rounded person and his history, warts and all.
Masterson is, above all, a master story teller and he had the audience in the palm of his hand from his first utterances.
They swayed forward as one in the quiet passages and rocked back in the furious ones.
And I doubt a single member of the full house left without a singularly modified picture of the Jew who tried but failed to redress the balance of his benighted race.

COMPANY

COMPANY

Brentwood Operatic Society at the Brentwood Theatre

05.11.11

Phone rings, door chimes, in comes Company !

Sondheim's classic concept musical, now over forty years old but still pertinent and edgy, was given an audacious make-over in Emma Jane Sweeney's impressive production for Brentwood Operatic.

A bare black cabaret stage with stools, band behind a gauze, and the amazingly confident performers moving around the auditorium, never missing a beat or a note.

It's bachelor Bobby's 35^th birthday, and those “good and crazy people”, his married friends, have organised a surprise party. As ever, he's on the outside looking in, or rather, in this brilliant, bold staging, he's in the middle, and they're all addressing the three sides of the audience. Other clever moments were the karate moves, the umbrella bouquet and the superbly sustained Side by Side sequence.

Samuel Gilmore-Cousins was a decidedly detached Bobby, laid-back and casual; he delivered his big numbers with élan. But there were no passengers among the five couples and three girlfriends in Bobby's life. Space only to mention a brilliant Sarah from Nina Jarram, some great vocals from Abby Lowman, and a perfect performance from Samantha Thompson as the dumb blonde flight attendant who leaves Bobby's bed, bound for Barcelona.

The musical side was just as polished as the dramatic, with a great band under MD Ian Southgate. This score has some of Sondheim's best numbers, and we had slick, professional renditions of the “Crazy” trio, Marry Me a Little, City of Strangers, Being Alive, and of course the title song:

No strings, good times, just chums, company !

HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES

HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVES

Greville Theatre Club at the Barn Theatre Little Easton

03.11.11

This early Ayckbourn was a huge success at the time, and has remained popular ever since.

In a typically clever staging, it takes a wry look at relationships, superimposing two living rooms and two dinner parties, as ordinary mortals practise to deceive.

Greville, in John Richardon's assured production, rose to the challenge admirably, helped by an ingenious set[Richard Pickford and Steve Bradley] and impressive period detail [the wallpaper, the Ewbank, the all-important phones, the polo-neck shirt].

They fielded an experienced sextet of actors who between them recalled much of the best British comedy acting of the decades since 1969 – shades of Pythons, hints of Little Britain.

David Bone was the “hopeless” Frank, unable to complete the most basic task or the simplest sentence, with Madeline Harmer effortlessly elegant as his “rich old boot” of a wife. She's having a fling with the awful MCP Bob [a very convincing, nuanced character from Steve Braham], who's married to sulky, dozy Terri [the excellent Carol Parradine, wonderful as she reached the end of her tether as she knocked back the dinner party vino]. The seventh character, thankfully never seen except in photographic form, is ”big, fat, spoilt” baby Benjamin.

The dinner party guests – the slightly creepy Featherstones – were played by Jonathan Scripps as William, and Sonia Lindsey-Scripps superb as the nervy Mary. Her portrayal was faultlessly sustained, and she got a well-deserved round on her exit line.

The set pieces were done with confident aplomb, and while I can imagine a production in the tenth week of a national tour achieving an even slicker pace and rapider repartee, we had nothing but admiration for the carefully crafted climaxes, the parallel menus, the phone quartet at the end, and of course the conflation of two dinner parties from hell, with the famous stage direction “William and Mary swivel”.

How The Other Half Loves was produced by Jan Ford, and directed by John Richardson, who sadly died very suddenly on Sunday 23rd October.

Greville dedicated the performances to his memory, and their tribute read, in part:

JR as he was affectionately known, was one of the kindest of men and contributed fully to so many aspects of our productions.

John was keen to direct "How The Other Half Loves" and was totally committed to the enterprise. We know that he would have wanted us to complete his handiwork and present his vision to our audiences. We will all miss him greatly.

CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN

CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN

at the Mercury Theatre Colchester

31.10.11

for The Public Reviews

Collaborations and joint ventures are familiar features of our theatrical landscape in these hard times, but few so adventurous, or as enchanting, as this Captain Corelli.

It is based on Mike Maran's magical story-teller's adapatation, and here Maran himself plays Dr Iannis, with his trademark deadpan, deliberate delivery. As if the thoughts and feelings are dragged from deep in his soul. But this time the other characters are not left to our imagination, but spill out from Maran's mind as exquisite rod puppets, worked by a talented team of ten puppeteers, who also occasionally act as the Cephalonia crowds.

We discover Iannis sitting cross-legged by his late wife's grave, sharing his wine and his thoughts, sketching in the political background and his personal pre-occupations.

Chief among them his sixteen-year-old daughter Pelagia. She is played by leading Georgian actor Natalie Kakhidze, totally convincing both as the innocent, idealistic teenager, and in the touching closing scene, as the grandmother who finally confronts her Corelli, a lifetime too late.

Mercury stalwart Tony Casement plays the Italian captain, in a memorable performance full of swagger and humour; musicality, too, though alas we never hear his mandolin. Gus Gallagher is Mandras, the illiterate fisherman and freedom fighter. Roger Delves-Broughton contributes several character roles, notably Roger, the British secret agent who effects Corelli's escape from the island.

The puppets also make their mark as the people of the island. Though it has to be said that from the back of the auditorium one would lose much of the nuance and the subtlety of their movements, and the exquisite details of their features [they were designed and made by Nino Namitcheishvili]. I liked round little Father Arsenios, and of course the audience's favourite, the little pet goat.

Levan Tsuladze's production, first seen last month at the Kote Marjanishvili Theatre, Tbilisi, was full of effective stagecraft – the candle-lit procession, the triumphant arrival of the Italian forces, the parachute angel, and the “Titanic” moment with Pelagia and Corelli on the motorbike, longing for the world that awaits them “after the war”.

But there was much intimate emotion too, like the scene where Corelli talks of symmetry, or the final confrontation between Pelagia and Mandras, who has kept her letters, and now has learnt to read them. I missed the tenderness of Carlo's love for Corelli, and his sacrifice only becomes clear here in recollection, but the heart of the story, and its lessons about love in its many forms, and about lives tarnished by war, survive strongly in this unique version. It ends, of course, with Iannis's headstone joining the others on the island, and his daughter walking off arguing with her Italian captain, before cast, puppets and puppeteers take their calls to the strains of Corelli's catchy theme-tune – Tornero.

Photograph: Robert Day

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews