STEVIE

STEVIE

Chichester Festival Theatre at the Minerva

07.05.2014

A parlour forever Fifties. Antimacassars, whatnot, dog-eared sheet-music, reeds and moon-pennies [honesty] on the upright piano.

“All aboard for a day in the suburbs!” - Palmers Green, to be precise, home to Peggy [Stevie] Smith and her dear Lion Aunt, brought to life on the stage in a seamless blend of memoir, poetry and dialogue by Hugh Whitemore.

Lovingly directed by Christopher Morahan, this is the kind of theatre Chichester does uniquely well. Not only Simon Higlett's evocative design, but the three pitch-perfect performances.

Zoe Wanamaker is the poet, neurotic and drily droll, awkward of posture, devoid of fashion sense, issue of an unsuitable marriage, lingering hopefully, smoking too much, escaping at the last moment from the drowned submarine of conformity, weeping in the bathtub. A funny, poignant performance, capturing the physique as well as the psychology of this lonely pocket Hercules.

Lynda Baron the Lion Aunt – a mane of grey wavy locks bringing a Yorkshirewoman's disdain of stuff and nonsense, eagerly anticipating her niece's approval of the Yorkshire brew, enjoying junket with brandy and cream, and at the last sleeping her life away in her favourite armchair, which her niece will briefly inhabit before leaving the suburbs, welcoming the Friend at the End of the World, penning her last poem as Life's railway train gives one last mournful whistle.

Every Man, watching from the parlour's shadows, quoting the odd verse, is Chris Larkin. He also plays the chaps in Stevie's life, most memorably the car-owning friend and literary critic. It is he who gives us her best-known work, Not Waving But Drowning, as she stands stock still, a vertical cigarette burning down like a votive candle.

Fourteen-year-old, why must you giggle and dote,
Fourteen-year-old, why are you such a goat?
I'm fourteen years old, that is the reason,
I giggle and dote in season.

The Conventionalist.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

Arpana at Shakespeare's Globe

06.05.2014

One of the hits of the 2012 Globe to Globe season, this unfussy feel-good adaptation returns for a brief run on the bloodied boards of Shakespeare's Globe.

Performed in Gujarati, it shifts the action from Renaissance France to India, 1905, using a popular theatre idiom to tell the basic tale, with plenty of music, song and dance.

Much of the subtlety and the irony is jettisoned with the language, but the salient plot points survive, in a broadly comedic production by Sunil Shanbag. Bertram becomes Bharatram, keen to succeed in business in Bombay – his production number evocation of the big city [with Parbat – Parolles – his chum] is one of many musical highlights. Heli [Shakespeare's Helen] persistently pursues him, curing an amusingly ailing King of France [now Gokuldas] on the way.

All very enjoyable, whether or not you're able to laugh along with the many jokes; a colourful celebration of Shakespeare on the subcontinent.

TITUS ANDRONICUS

TITUS ANDRONICUS

Shakespeare's Globe

06.05.2014

Lucy Bailey's darkly violent production of this early revenge tragedy was a huge success in 2006. Now it's back, in a slightly more light-hearted version, bringing the gory tale to vibrant life, daring the groundlings to stay the blood-stained course from rape to incestuous cannibalism.

It's a staging that involves the audience, with mobile towers careering around the yard, processions and chases. William Dudley's radical design swathes the Globe's colourful columns and frons scaenae in black; there's smoke and incense for atmosphere, and Django Bates' brutal music.

A strong cast – all new to this most challenging of spaces – is headed by William Houston's Titus, powerful, disturbing, but oddly touching in his mad desire for vengeance. Indira Varma is a sardonic Tamora; Obi Abili a strikingly dignified Aaron. Flora Spencer-Longhurst is the tragically mutilated Lavinia, and amongst the viscerally violent villains, a standout performance from Matthew Needham as an instinctively savage Saturninus.

Academics are often unsure of how to approach this, Shakespeare's only stab at the genre. Directors too. And audiences – giggling, texting, drinking wine, eating burgers, fainting. But impossible not to react in some way to all this blood, confusion and casual butchery.

JACK THE RIPPER

JACK THE RIPPER

WAOS at the Public Hall, Witham

03.05.2014

Jack the Ripper a musical ? Why not, when grand opera, and Sweeney Todd happily spin tunes around the most horrific atrocities. And Oliver, that most family-friendly of shows, has its share of true crime and 'orrible murder. In fact Denis de Marne and Ron Pember's piece from the 1970s has many points of similarity with Bart's greatest hit, not least, in Witham's production, the backdrop of St Paul's, not normally visible from Whitechapel.

But the ingenious concept, which works really well here, alternates those mean streets with the escapist warmth of the Steam Packet. A Music Hall, complete with singalongs, melodramas and Master of Ceremonies, though, alas, without his gavel.

The swift transition between the two is one of the strong points of Kerry King's production – dustbins become tables, a violent confrontation morphs into melodrama.

A large cast fills the stage, singing the choruses very impressively. And there are plenty of talented principals to carry the drama and the catchy numbers of Pember's score. David Slater is our Chairman, a strong personality commanding the stage with a fine singing voice. Marie Kelly – a real character, like most of those portrayed here – is beautifully interpreted by Keiley Hall [another fine vocalist], bringing bravado and pathos to the role of the streetwalker and soubrette. Emma Loring confidently takes on the unlikely combination of Queen Victoria and Lizzie. Montague Druitt, a fascinating if enigmatic figure, is strongly done by Stuart Adkins, and amongst the many colourful characters on display I was especially taken with Tom Whelan's Bluenose, doubled with the Duke of Clarence, one of the many names associated with the Ripper over the years.

Various suspects appear briefly in a kind of Gang Show number [I was disappointed that they didn't reprise their ditties in ensemble], one of many delightful touches, the rainy funeral and the graveside monologue another. The coppers in drag – though loved by the audience – could have done with some more ambitious choreography, true of many of the numbers. We longed for a few Consider Yourself moments from the chorus, for example. And not all of the dialogue was as lively and colourful as the music.

But the pastiche score is well served by this enthusiastic company, and by MD James Tovey and his evocative little pit band. This unusual treatment of a popular penny dreadful is very entertainingly revived forty years after its première.

BUILDING BLOCKS

BUILDING BLOCKS

Little Baddow Drama at the Memorial Hall

30.04.2014

Bob Larbey's soft-core sitcom tells a familiar tale of broken promises, missed deadlines and endless tea-breaks – awakening painful memories for anyone who has ever had the builders in.

Ken Rolf's assured production has a splendidly solid set, complete with scaffolding and a cement mixer, as well as a very convincing cast of characters.

Little Baddow veteran John Peregrine plays David, glib boss of the local construction company, erecting a baroque edifice of excuses and placating his frustrated customers with gamebirds, rabbits and oysters. His men – boasting builders' bellies and boots – were excellently done by James Oakley as Mark, the wryly comic John Mabey as Piper, and Mike Gordon as the elusive chippie Brian, using his newly sharpened tools to construct a ham sandwich.

The young couple – who want an extension to welcome their new baby – were Martin Lucas as the wimpish, spineless schoolteacher Jim, and Sara Thompson as his long-suffering wife Mary; the look on her face as she returned triumphant from her pregnancy test was a touching, memorable moment in a piece not long on subtlety.

And I liked the three lads on the garden bench, gently mocking their guvnor, as well as the thoughtful epilogue on the same bench, with the builders gone, the extension complete, and a calmer future as a family to look forward to.

production photograph by Barry Weight