UBU ROI

Artisans Drama Society at the Brentwood Theatre

03.04.09

Jarry's ground-breaking play began life as a schoolboy jape. Something of that naïve, out-to-shock brashness survived in Nicola Stacey's colourful production.

The backdrop, also primitive and childlike, was based on the author's own ideas, and the gleefully scatological script was tackled with some enthusiasm, particularly by Vernon Keeble-Watson as old man Ubu, and Wendi Shead as his wife.

A predominantly young cast doubled as puppeteers – like the unconvincing padding, the papier-mâché feast and the grotesque masks, the fluffy puppets – so many refugees from Avenue Q – were reminders of the ancient traditions to which this piece is heir.

There was a lovely mock battle between the mighty armies of Alice Stacey and Georgina Hayworth.

Jarry set his piece in a mythical Poland. How could he know that in the hundred years between then and now this land would be ravaged by the warfare he so savagely satirised, see communism and its overthrow, not to mention the birth of a pope …

“It's just like the silent movies !” commented one of the chatty ladies in the third row. She was referring, I think, to the lugubrious and slightly sinister Sign Changer [Graham Poulteney] always accompanied by Matt the organ grinder, whom I like to imagine as the schoolboy Alfred, smiling cynically at his creation.

DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN

National Theatre at the Olivier

02.04.09

An epic tale of death, duty and desecration.

Death and the King’s Horseman shows two cultures clashing in mutual incomprehension.

Soyinka’s drama was first seen, in Africa, in 1976. This is its first professional production in London.

Director Rufus Norris fills the stage with lively action – drums, dance, red sand, fire, and a brilliantly conceived flying market-place [designer Katrina Lindsay] – “the teeming market of the world”.

There was obvious delight in the telling of the tale – energy helped to make up for the plodding pace of much of the early dialogue, and the hesitant delivery of some of Soyinka’s best poetry. I liked the “animist” furniture in the colonial villa, especially the scurrying standard lamp.

Nanso Anozie was a powerful presence as Elesin, the horseman of the title, who, like the King’s dog, and his horse, must follow his late master through the narrow passage to the world of the Ancestors. Claire Benedict was the “Mother of the Market”, rallying the women in energetic protest, and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith was the British-educated son and heir.

Most of the fun was had by the actors who whited up [during the prologue] to play the Brits – pure caricature at first [did Soyinka write them that way, I wonder ?] with Jenny Jules brilliant as a Celia Johnson D.O.’s wife, but gradually becoming more rounded as the conflict deepened.

The closing moments – a genuinely tragic dénouement – were very fine, and the preview audience gave the huge company a warm ovation.

UNDER MILK WOOD
Guy Masterson at the Cramphorn
01.04.09

The stage is empty, save for a simple wooden chair; would not look out of place in Bethesda Chapel, or beside an old Welsh dresser.

To begin at the beginning, a man in pyjamas, from the drawer marked pyjamas, stands on the chair, and for the next two hours he conjures the sights and sounds of the small Welsh town, Llareggub, in Dylan Thomas’s classic play for voices, directed for the stage by Tony Boncza.

This is pure theatre gold. Guy Masterson, never missing a beat of the richly rhythmic verse, becomes a mole, a cat, a baby, a sea-bed wreck, a flock of gulls, as well as the sixty-nine characters whose lives unfold before us.

He is a 50s travelogue, Lily Smalls in the mirror, the Cherry Owens [ the only contented couple, though he reels home drunk as a deacon and snores the night through ], PC Attila Rees, Sinbad Sailors pulling his Guinness, and Polly Garter singing as she scrubs the floor. The draper and the kissing games are priceless, too.

The lighting and the music/effects track [Matt Clifford] play their part, but it is the sheer force of Masterson’s performance that makes the show, now in its 15th year, such a triumph.

It must be exhausting for the jet-lagged actor – he needs two pints just to replace the fluid lost to the sweat of his brow – but he emerges, showered and fresh, to meet his fans and sign CDs.

"To begin at the beginning ..." from the CD

A FUNNY VALENTINE

Chet Baker and Mike Maran at the Civic Theatre

28.03.09

“It seemed much darker on the page,” Mike Maran told me after this gripping and revealing portrait of a fallen angel.

Indeed. Blood-spattered bathrooms, an Italian gaol, back streets of Amsterdam, an abusive father. All part of the story of trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker. The only stage dressing: photos and outfits strung out on a washing line like notes on a stave.

But Maran's engaging lightness of touch, together with the magical music-making of Robert Pettigrew on piano and the excellent Colin Steele on trumpet, made this much less grim than it might have been. A key moment, for instance, is the picnic passegiata, with the citizens of Lucca listening as Chet plays Someone to Watch Over Me in his prison cell. Never the same way twice.

Quirky little details help keep the darkness and depression at bay: Chet the cat burglar, the Carnegie Hall, Chet the garage attendant, the awful novelty numbers, the dentures, the biscotti from Waitrose ...

Maran's narrator, crumpled white suit, red socks and shoes, is a key player, too. Always there for Chet, in the hotel rooms, in the gaol. A constant companion, guardian angel, buddy. Helping him to get in touch with the beautiful inner world of his own creativity. And of course bringing the supporting cast to life. Charlie Parker, Chet's father in jazz, Gerry Mulligan, cool jazz saxophonist in that first quartet, and pianist Dick Twardzick, who also died from drug abuse in a European hotel.

Music to die for. And music too, was a constant presence, underscoring the story, and giving its own, often ironic, gloss on the scene: A Small Hotel, Long Ago and Far Away, My Funny Valentine ...

photograph Sawood Pearce

ANYTHING GOES !
King Edward VI School Chelmsford

Jim Hutchon [Chelmsford Weekly News] was at the first night:

Cole Porter’s evergreen Anything Goes was given a new lease of life by producer/ choreographer Maria French leading an energetic and disciplined cast for KEGS Spring production. Within minutes it was easy to forget this was a school production because of the professionalism and commitment of the cast and band.
Key star in the production was the lead girl, Reno (Hannah Phillips), who belted out all the traditional standards – I get a kick out of you, You’re the top and Friendship etc. - with a great voice and personality like the professional chanteuse she was playing. Helping her was her hapless boyfriend, Billy (Matthew Lecznar) who has impeccable timing and also a fine voice which he used to good effect in a series of complicated plot turnabouts.
Excellent character playing came from Tom Childs and Katie Gormley as stowaway gangster and moll on the good ship SS American, backed by Alice Macfarlane and Hayley Camis as the mother and daughter hoping to marry into the aristocracy via Bart Lambert, who played the slightly unhinged English aristocrat with great aplomb.
The massive cast created spectacular chorus numbers – especially for the closing of the first act when the more than 50 cast were on the impressive set. In the midst of this they staged a truly awesome tap dance routine which brought the house down.
And from the smallest to the tallest, they all played their part in making this challenging production something special. Especial plaudits go to Tom Crowe, as a ‘camper than camp’ purser with some outrageous pouting and flouting, and magnetic stage presence, and to the lively and musically secure band led by Musical Director Tim Worrall.

JR was at the last night ...

A most enjoyable evening. Good cast with Reno and Billy particularly
outstanding .. Evangeline took my eye too. The band was EXCELLENT !
I was impressed with the lad's [Jamie Dent's] tap dancing, and in fact it would have been good to see him included in the middle of the girls' line-up at the end of Act One .. he was equally impressive in his later solo, if a little serious.

The purser [Tom Crowe] played with enthusiasm .. his face when he looked through the porthole was perfect .. and the moment where he pecked the Captain on the cheek priceless from both !

With his cut glass accent (eksent ?) Bart Lambert was the epitome of the silly twit and could have escaped from one of the Ben Travers farces - an impeccable portrayal.



The KEGS Newsletter review
by 'Richard Broadway'

How to follow “Oliver!” ? How do you top “Joseph” ?

Maria French and her team went back to musical comedy roots for “Anything Goes”, Cole Porter's feelgood show born in the recession, and still one of the most popular school productions in the US.

The result was a colourful, tuneful extravaganza, featuring some of the best performances you could hope to see on a school stage. James Russell, the Stage Director, was very much thrown in at the deep end, but proved an inspirational force for these enthusiastic actors.

Hannah Phillips was a diminutive, dynamite Reno Sweeney, selling all her numbers and lighting up the stage, ably partnered by Matthew Lecznar as Billy Crocker, relaxed, with an easy presence and real star quality. His last show with KEGS, alas; other swan songs from Robin Carroll, Maxwell Spence as the myopic buffoon Eli Whitney, Sam Booth as a strong Captain, Alex Duval as the real man of the cloth, and Tom Childs a great comedic discovery as Public Enemy #13. Alice McFarlane made a sweet Hope Harcourt, her Goodbye Little Dream moving in its simplicity, while Hayley Camis made a great character of her frantic mother. Bonnie Letour was another smouldering performance from the inimitable Katie Gormley. Chris Malton, an indefatigable techie, also signs off with this show.

We hope to see more of Bart Lambert, an upper-crust Lord Evelyn, and Thomas Crowe, the effete Purser. Not to mention the accomplished Sailor Quartet, and some very promising younger cameos.

Tim Worrall, MD, and the 16-piece band made the most of the familiar show-stoppers. But this was really all about the hoofers. Not just the polished principals, or the augmented Angels [Dance Captain Sian Cripps], but every one of the forty students, from year 7 to year 13, who pounded the decks of the SS American, tapping and stomping through the title number at the close of each act.

Congratulations to everyone involved on a five-star production. As Wodehouse wrote for the 1935 West End première: You're the grace of a Brontosaurus, you're the pace of a Cochran chorus, you're the green and gold and the mauve of the old school tie, you're the top !