SMOKEY JOE IN REHEARSAL

Young Gen preview piece

27.03.08

“This is not just a cabaret ...”

Chelmsford Young Generation's Dance Captain explained that the show is often done as a concert piece, showcasing those unforgettable Leiber and Stoller hits from the 50s and 60s.

Watching the kids rehearse, I could see what she meant. The numbers were there in all their innocent glory – Poison Ivy, On Broadway, Searchin', Kansas City, and Dance With Me, played wickedly for laughs. But, although there's no complex storyline, there is drama, and there are real, developed characters.

[photograph by Barrie White-Miller]

With two weeks still to go, the cast, aged from 12 to 18, is sharp and stylish. The energy is palpable, and it's obvious that these talented young people are enjoying the show.

You will too, if you can get a ticket for their week in the Cramphorn beginning on April 14. Civic Box office – 01245 606505.

“People said it was too difficult for the kids. Eight part harmony, it's a tough sing.” All their hard work has clearly paid off - the show is in great shape. Impeccable singing, toe-tapping dance routines – not to mention the roller skates ...

TALKING HEADS
Colchester Theatre Group
Headgate Theatre
29 March 2008



They were never meant to take to the stage. They were certainly never meant to be seen back-to-back on the same day.
So full marks to CTG for their superb Talking Heads - the entire first series on a single Saturday.

James Potter was the token man - though his monologue is as much about his mother - slightly too young, slightly too hasty, and prone to nudging and winking, but nevertheless a funny, touching performance as a mother's boy haunted by mental illness.
Teresa Sales was affecting as Doris, with a cream cracker under her settee. The nuances were sometimes lost, and Tong Road was a distant memory, but an honest, down-to-earth performance, bringing out the frailty and the feistiness of this old lady.
Lesley, the jobbing actress, was given a bubbly, nervy edge by Louisa McDonald. Vicar's wife Susan was excellently played by Maggie Bush in Bed Among the Lentils: character and delivery just right, though occasionally she struggled with the words, and the set was over-fussy, I felt.
Sara Green was Miss Ruddock in Lady of Letters - a tour-de-force, managing to be moving and amusing, often in the same breath. Can't imagine this piece being better done; the same goes for my favourite Talking Head, Soldiering On, brilliantly performed at the Headgate by Giovanna Austin, tragic as the upper-middle-class wife whose life unravels after her husband dies - the heart-breaking sadness was all the more touching for being concealed behind a twinset and pearls and a resolutely brave face.

Colchester Theatre Group have a reputation for Alan Bennett plays - their Lady in the Van was wonderful - and I look forward to the second set of Talking Heads ...

JANE PARKER

Cramphorn Lunchtime Concert

26.03.08

Soprano Jane Parker sang a varied programme to a packed and appreciative Cramphorn audience last week.

Her recital began with baroque arias, including Handel's Verdi Prati, sung with affecting simplicity, and ended with a wistful number from Meredith Wilson's The Music Man.

In between, we heard opera from Mozart and Puccini; Parker's vivacity and versatility often reminiscent of mezzo Cecilia Bartoli. From the Arno to the Tyne, with a folksong arrangement from Cantamus, and Britten's tender treatment of a French song.

Her own settings of the liturgy, including a hypnotic version of the Agnus Dei, were followed by three contrasting songs from the shows: the saccharine Sound of Music and the moving Losing My Mind, from Sondheim's Follies.

Our enjoyment was enhanced by Jane's infectiously enthusiastic introductions. Her accompanists were Sue Williams and the producer of these concerts, Jeffery Wilson. Both of them gave her sensitive and musicianly support - very impressive.

COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE [ABRIDGED]

Civic Theatre

It's twenty years now since a trio of fresh-faced Americans brought scaled-down Shakespeare to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Since then the condensed Bard has become a global brand, and three more actors, not quite so fresh-faced, but just as American [despite Simon's Kazakhstan teeshirt] brought their hilariously frantic filleted Folio to the Civic.

Though not, interestingly, under the Reduced Shakespeare Company banner ...

Ryan Ellsworth was superb as the evangleical academic in the cleverly scripted Prologue, and Glenn Conroy was brilliant as Polonius and the panicking actor at the end of part one. Simon Cole had the only snatch of straight Shakespeare, What a piece of work is a man, the applause proving he could be a real actor if the clowning gets too much.

Any resemblance between this stateside thesp and the Simon Cole who was brought up British in Broomfield and trained at the Guildhall has to be one of those Shakespearean coincidences ... Or did the reference to KEGS carry a deeper resonance ?

We had a rap Othello, combined comedies in masks, Troilus upstaged by a clockwork Godzilla, several volunteers all called Bob, and of course the big finish, Helmet Prince of Denmark.

This last play was done to death as a classroom participation exercise, then reduced to two seconds, and finally rewound. All done in the trademark energetic pantomime style audiences find so endearing. This major tour is coming to the Queens and the Mercury on its way to the Grand at Blackpool.

THE DEEP BLUE SEA

Chelmsford Theatre Workshop at the Old Court

21.03.08

Rattigan's well-made play is very much of its time, and Nick Gulvin wisely went for period feel in the set and the costumes.

The genteel poverty of Hester's flat was caught exactly; the corridor and the bedroom narrowed the stage to a claustrophobic prison. The dresses, even the lingerie, were authentic; Ruth Cramphorn, as Ann, looked absolutely Fifties – frock, make-up, deportment all spot on.

The play is dated now, but the central role still provides a marvellous opportunity for the actor, eagerly seized by Sara Nower in a memorable, almost definitive performance. Her descent into incoherence, and her duologues at the end, were masterly. The object of her affections was played by Ben Fraser, too young for the ex-pilot, but he suggested the heartless cad effectively, yet we could still understand what she saw in him.

Mike Gordon was outstanding as the enigmatic Miller, and Mike Nower made a sympathetic husband, the quietly-spoken, buttoned-up judge who wants to do what is right. Solid support from Dean Hempstead as Freddie's friend and confidant, David Chilvers as the young civil servant. Christine Davidson was the landlady, a nicely observed character, also absolutely in period.