WITTENBERG

Read not Dead at Shakespeare's Globe

12.02.11

This season of staged readings normally showcases Shakespeare's neglected contemporaries, so a refreshing change to have a British premiere by a playwright not only living but with us in the studio space.

David Davalos imagines those three Wittenberg alumni, Doctors Faustus and Luther, and freshman Hamlet, interacting in tutorial, lecture theatre and tavern; it's a witty piece, very clever [not always in a good way], with plenty of laughs amongst the theology and philosophy, not to mention knowing jokes and jibes about academia.

This performance – co-ordinated by Clive Brill – boasted the excellent Kerry Shale as a wise-cracking New Yorker Faustus, with Nicholas Murchie as a sober Luther. The Prince of Denmark was stylishly done by Alan Cox; he made the most of the often tricky poetry he was given to speak. The devil [aka Faustus] has all the best tunes here, and he led us in a rousing Che Sera finale, as Hamlet and Luther fast forward to their greatest hits. Ross Hughes provided mood music on bass clarinet and Cavaquinho, and the four women were all played by a very versatile Adjoa Andoh.

You do need to know your Hamlet and your Marlowe, and, as the piece prepares for its off-Broadway opening, there's already one study guide out there.

But it is a very enjoyable 90 minutes on all kinds of levels, and deserves to have a wider audience. Radio springs to mind, which still finds air-space for the quirky and the intellectual ...

SINFONIA VIVA

M&G Concert at the Civic Theatre

13.02.11

A predominantly sunny Pastoral Symphony from Sinfonia ViVA and their youthful maestro André de Ridder. Beethoven's familiar sound pictures came up fresh as paint in this very enjoyable performance, starting with a light-footed Allegro, then leading through the gentle, easy rhythms of the brook and an athletic country dance to the sudden storm and the shepherd's song.

Written just a generation later, and clearly influenced by Beethoven, Schumann's early, incomplete Zwickau Symphony had a welcome airing to start the evening. A clean string sound , with crisp brass behind. I liked the energy at the end of the first movement, and the good-humoured Scherzo. I did feel, though, that this young man's symphony merited a lighter touch at times.

Between these two German masters, an amusingly astringent sorbet: Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite, from the ballet he wrote for Diaghilev just after the Great War [stage designs by Pablo Picasso!]. Soloists and sections are often give their own voice, as in the Serenata [violin – leader Benedict Holland - and oboe] and the showy Toccata. The Vivo just before the Finale was great fun, with the lower voices to the fore – double bass and trombone.

The last of this very successful M&G Concert Series is on March 29, with the City of London Sinfonia.

OUT IN THE GARDEN

Chelmsford Theatre Workshop at the Old Court

01.02.11

“Families – who'd have one?”

“You can't escape your destiny!”


What do you do if you're about to break your duck, and then suddenly realise you'd be happier batting for the other side ?

Carolyn Scott-Jeffs' loud and proud comedy was a hit in Edinburgh a few years back, with minor soap stars in the cast.

But it follows a much older tradition: the comedy of mistaken identities and misunderstandings. It even has its own Little Miss Malaprop. A coarser successor to Ayckbourn and Cooney.

A strong, well-bonded cast got laughs galore on the opening night, from the minute the stag night survivors crash into the garden in various states of undress and inebriation. First up is Liam, the bridegroom's camp new friend, picked up in The Jester in a drunken Damascene moment. He's the fly in the ointment, the spanner in the wedding works, and the last man confused young Stuart wants to see in his Mum's gnome-infested Birmingham backyard. Ian Eagleton was a very watchable Liam – a born farceur, his screaming queen, writhing, squirming in embarrassment was a joy, and he used his rare moments of quiet stillness effectively, too. As the groom who discovers he's gay, Danny Segeth had a very convincing hangover; his desperation in the face of his dilemma was palpable, too.

These two excellent comic actors were joined by Sarah Bell, ballsy fiancée of Stu's London-based brother [Philip Hart]. Inspired comedy turns from Rebecca Errington, the dozy bride to be in her lacy optimistic knickers, and Debbie Miles as Mum, Dusty Springfield re-drawn by Beryl Cook, and a formidable comic presence.

This is an outrageous piece, and the quality of the acting made us temporarily oblivious to the weaknesses in the plot, especially after the interval. But there are many pages of beautifully written dialogue, some welcome subtlety, and a tender moment of truth to give us some food for thought amidst the hysteria. And this production, directed with wit and style by Lynne Foster with Tonio Ellis, was a welcome revival of a splendid romp.

NO SEX, PLEASE, WE'RE BRITISH !

Early Doors Productions at the Brentwood Theatre

05.02.11

How daring the title seemed back then, and how quaint it sounds now, when every Hotmail household can taste forbidden fruit …

A sell-out run for this shiny new production company, boasting some of the best talent around, tackling an iconic 70s stage hit. Very much a period piece now, with its limp double entendres, on the watershed between Whitehall farce and the Permissive Society.

The omens were good – nice programme with spoof ads, a lovely set with six doors, period wallpaper samples and a serving hatch with a mind of its own. Vintage radio on the soundtrack.

But the show itself didn't quite cut it. No bad performances, several good ones, but not quite slick, pacy and polished enough to be hilarious.

Martin Harris got closest to the period style with his fussy little Mr Runnicles, a constant delight. And Julie Salter managed a nicely elegant battle-axe as mother-in-law to the lovely Frances [Rachel Lane]. Gary Ball, though competent with the mechanics of farce, was hard to credit as a sub branch- manager in the 70s, or her son, or her husband. Ray Johnson was a suave Bromhead, and Justin Cartledge relished the trio of Inspector, vanman and Needham. Though it has to be said that he was behind most of the self-indulgent corpsing we saw on Saturday night.

Two scrubbers sent round by the Scandinavian Import Company were Amy Clayton, who also directed and designed, and Sarah Miles.

Lots of good ideas – the sofa trios, the doors – and a salutary reminder of those innocent days before video, when Dubonnet and stuffed olives were sophisticated, and we sniggered at “orgy” and “virginity”, “cucumber” and “Tupperware”.

Next on Early Doors' hitlist, The 39 Steps, with the legendary Lionel Bishop added to the roster. At the Cramphorn Chelmsford in September.

84 CHARING CROSS ROAD

Theatre at Baddow at the Parish Hall

27.01.11

In the days before Amazon, books were a valued commodity, fine editions especially precious.

Helene Hanff's story tells of her twenty-year transatlantic love affair with a London bookshop. TAB's enjoyable production, directed with a keen eye for detail and a strong sense of period by Helen Quigley, sets the author's dowdy brownstone apartment against the dusty bookshelves of Marks & Co. I liked the way the stacks seemed to disappear into the darkness off left, and almost all the volumes looked authentic.

Roger Saddington was Frank Doel, the “solitary soul” who signs the firm's letters. He skilfully suggested the desk-bound, buttoned-up individual who gradually warms to Helene's playful raillery. Beth Crozier's spinster wordsmith looked absolutely right, every inch the writer, and she gave an impressive performance in this huge role. The moments when she learns she is to be evicted, when she asks anxiously after the “other girls” and when she hears of Doel's death were particularly moving, but this was a colourful patchwork of moods and emotions, her letters brought to vibrant life.

Impeccable support from a strong cast, including Alan Ireland as Old Mr Martin, Diane Johnston as the glamorous actress friend, Patrick Willis as Bill Humphries, Claire Lloyd as Welsh shop-girl Megan, and Eleanor March as a very 1950s Miss Cecily.

Occasionally the pace flagged, the narrative threatened to lose its way, but the overall effect was wonderfully warm, a faithful picture of an unlikely infatuation in a world we have lost for ever. I treasure the tableau – pure Norman Rockwell – when the staff gathered to unwrap the first of many Christmas parcels from New York …

I just hope someone caught it on camera !

production photos by Helen Quigley