TRINITY CHRISTMAS CONCERT

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Trinity Methodist Church, Chelmsford

08.12.13

This year's Advent offering from Trinity Methodist's choir included another accessible cantata by Roger Jones, this time based on the story of Simeon, from Luke's Gospel. Linked by narration, the music features a lovely duet in O Little Town of Bethlehem, and solos for Mary and the Prophetess Anna, strongly backed by a repeated “Wait” from the choir.

A generous selection of seasonal sacred music of many genres began with the medieval-influenced Now Is The Time Of Christemas, and ended in the 16^th century with “Bethlehem” from Martin Guerre. In between, a couple of Rutters, the exquisite Christ Child's Lullaby, sung by alto Emma Byatt, and Margaret Rolf's setting of Rossetti's Before The Paling Of The Stars.

Time too for the audience to join in favourite carols, and to try to master a traditional round, Natus Est Immanuel, encouraged by the choir's ever-optimistic director Felicity Wright. Two readings from Ken Rolf: a jobsworth standing up for downtrodden Little Donkey, and Charles Causley's haunting Ballad of the Bread Man.

Back by popular demand this year, the choir of the Cathedral Primary School, with songs from Niki Davies's Whoops A Daisy Angel, and a very impressive quartet rendition of the much-loved Born In The Night, by Essex-born composer [and Methodist minister] Geoffrey Ainger.

Before the paling of the stars,
Before the winter morn,
Before the earliest cock crow,
Jesus Christ was born:
Born in a stable,
Cradled in a manger,
In the world his hands had made
Born a stranger.

Priest and king lay fast asleep
In Jerusalem;
Young and old lay fast asleep
In crowded Bethlehem;
Saint and angel, ox and ass,
Kept a watch together
Before the Christmas daybreak
In the winter weather.

Jesus on his mother's breast
In the stable cold,
Spotless lamb of God was he,
Shepherd of the fold:
Let us kneel with Mary maid,
With Joseph bent and hoary,
With saint and angel, ox and ass,
To hail the King of Glory.

DICK WHITTINGTON

DICK WHITTINGTON

Cut to the Chase at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch

02.12.13

for The Public Reviews

The Queen's have been busy celebrating their diamond jubilee this year. They remain, at heart, a traditional repertory house, with familiar faces pulling together in the make-or-break end-of-year panto.

So Simon Jessop is Dame again in Dick Whittington; since he last glammed up he's been Ray Say and Jaques, as well as appearing in a thriller and a farce.

His Sarah the Cook relishes the innuendo and the familiar routines, though, as he reminds us, we only have to hear this stuff once, the company will still be delivering these deathless lines in six weeks' time.

Elliot Harper makes a likeable Idle Jack, prone to narcolepsy and boom-boom jokes, Sarah Scowen is the lovely Alice, with Alison Thea-Skot slapping that thigh again as Dick. Sam Pay is an excellent Fitzwarren, fruity and pompous, his every entrance heralded, for some reason, by Tony Hancock's tuba tune.

The non-humans are Samuel Ward-Smith's elegant King Rat, Lauren Brown's beautifully enunciated Bow Bells, and a sinuously feline Tommy from Sam Kordbacheh.

As usual, there's a juvenile chorus, who get some smart routines, and a classical Greek number on the Isle of Mythaca.

Nicholas Pegg's book is a sometimes lumpy mixture of sophisticated wit, with nice patter lists, old, and I mean ancient, favourites, [“Avast Behind!”, Greek Urn] and schoolboy smut. Unexpected delights include Watsup Dock, Incriminate! and Ah, Bestow, not to mention the fool's errands advertised all over Fitzwarren's shop.

There's a sing-along with Bow Bell Bongs, a 3D sequence for the shipwreck, cash-register name-checks for our sponsors, and even a Tinkerbell moment when the noisy audience is coaxed down to a whisper for “Please Tommy, Live ...”

Carol Sloman's serviceable songs include a knees-up You're Very Very Welcome, a couple of nice duets, and the big turn-again number at the end of Act One, as Dick relives his dream and climbs the pop-up-book staircase to Old London Town. MD, in the depths of the bi-partite pit, is Greg Last, who provides some excellent incidental music – Trenet and Jaws for the sea, a lovely little tune for the superglue routine.

Mark Walters' sets are a constant treat – the street, the ship, the shop interior, the huge and hungry basilisk, the remote control rats and the glittering arches of bells. He designs the frocks too; the Dame's dresses this year [by Jean Roberts] include a onesie, a pink muffin, yellow oilskins and a sparkling patriotic outfit for the walk-down.

As in the best reps, everything is done in house – the costumes, the music, the scene building. No doubt they're already planning the forest of thorns for next year's panto.

production photograph: Nobby Clark

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES

EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES

National Theatre in the Olivier

29.11.13

Kastner's novel is not a period piece; it was written in 1929, about children living in between-the-wars Berlin.

It has remained popular ever since, with several film versions.

And now it follows His Dark Materials, War Horse, Nation and Coram Boy onto the Olivier Christmastime stage, adapted by Carl Miller, with music by Carl Englishby.

Two factors in particular make it the stunning success it is. One is the performances that director Bijan Sheibani gets from the huge troupe of children involved. They carry the bulk of the drama, setting the pace and the mood, drawing the audience in, advancing the plot. Three teams are involved [Drew, Marple and Sherlock – who could have dreamt that up ?]. Emil, a serious, determined young man from Neustadt, arrives, robbed and penniless, in the big city, where he meets his cousin, Pony the Hat, and the artful-dodgerish Toots, who help him track down the mysterious Mr Snow [Stuart McQuarrie], the man on the train who drugs him with chocolate and steals the money he's meant to be taking to his grandmother. These three principal children [not sure which team] all give confident, endearing performances, and there's support in depth from the rest of the detectives, too.

The other factor is the stunning design, faintly futurist, vaguely vorticist, by Bunny Christie. The huge stage is effectively used, with back projection often recalling the black and white adventure film of Emil's imagination. The Hotel Eldorado, a distant airship, the Kommerz Bank, all conjure up a wonderfully authentic atmosphere. Design aside, the staging is often very simple: the car chase, the tube train, and the sewers, where Emil's slow descent is one of the cleverest ideas I've seen this year.

There is a great six-piece band [Kevin Amos in charge], but this is not a musical. The direction, though, is often operatic in style – the apples, the final confrontation.

“Is this a happy ending, Mrs Tischbein ?” Emil earnestly enquires of his mother. “I think it is,” she replies.

And a gloriously fulfilling theatrical experience for audiences of all ages, I would add. There's even a chase through the stalls …

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.

THE FLINT STREET NATIVITY

THE FLINT STREET NATIVITY

Writtle Cards at the Village Hall

28.11.13

We've all been there. Watching the little angels [and the little devils] as innkeeper, shepherds, kings and the Holy Family.

So Tim Firth's cutting comedy is onto a winner straightaway, as the plentiful laughs proved on opening night.

It's not a perfect stage play [it began life on television], and the adult epilogue struggled to relight the fire, but some fine comedy performances got under the skin of the reception-class thespians, with their rivalries, insecurities and chaotic home lives. Often sung to those familiar carol tunes, replacing the words they didn't quite manage to learn.

Impossible to credit every child [all played, Five-Go-Mad style, by grown-ups], but Daniel Curley stood out as the malevolent innkeeper, Jean Speller as the lisping Andrea, Frankincense her shibboleth, Laura Bennett as bossy Virgin 1, with five stars on the “Who's Been Good?” chart, Jodee Goodwin as her catty rival, playing Gabriel – the Annunciation was superbly done – Liz Curley as a down-to-earth shepherd with brilliant comedy timing. Not to mention Dirty Pedro, and the special needs donkey, hilariously done by Chris Rogerson.

The set, with its cereal packets and its giant chair to suggest the scale, was convincing, as were the varied costumes. Class teacher Mrs Horrocks never appears, but her tambourine spoke volumes …

The Flint Street Nativity was produced for Writtle Cards by Clare Williams, and directed by Sharon Goodwin.