ROMANCING MISS BLISS

ROMANCING MISS BLISS

Jubilant Productions
at the Headgate Theatre, Colchester
10.02.16


Romantic fiction – top selling literary genre, staple of the mobile library – what does it mean to you ? Rose-tinted Barbara Cartland and her team of amanuenses ? A cottage industry of prolific hacks, many of them pseudonymous men ?
These tropes, and much more, in Anne Pearson's gently amusing satire, full of word-play [dentistry puns, Austen titles] and lovely pastiche: “the heart is a strange organ”, in novels like The Heart Surgeon's Secret, The Dentist's Dilemma and To The Moon And Back. The scenes in the dentist's chair are particularly cherishable: “I'll be gentle with you,” he promises. “Open wide … you seem much more relaxed this time.”
Fliss Bliss – her real name – is persuaded to enter a competition run by Pomme d'Amour Press. Her prize: mentoring support by best-selling author Olivia de la Fontaine – not his real name. Using the indispensable manual for aspiring romantic writers, The Pathway to Passion.
Along the way there are dramatized extracts from work in progress, and guest appearances by Miss Austen in drag and assorted denizens of the local library. It's fast-moving and great fun, though the writing could sometimes be a little tighter. As Mike says to Felicity: “interesting characters and witty dialogue.”
Needless to say, romance blossoms between neophyte and old pro, and a quirky finale has them jump up from Remington and Apple in a triumphant dance routine.
This is a lovely two-hander – even the gushing compère [Helen Watson] could easily be a voice-over like publisher Veronica [Patricia Byford] – and Christine Absalom and Ben Livingstone relish every moment, with perfect comic timing and tongues just far enough into the cheek …
This rehearsed reading, directed by Ignatius Anthony and produced by Jules Easlea, is, one hopes, the last stage of development before the long-awaited tour to small venues in the region.

PHILHARMONIA BRASS

PHILHARMONIA BRASS

at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford

06.02.16

Trumpet legend John Wallace brought the Philharmonia Brass to the Civic for a revelatory evening of arrangements.
“You'll never see so many brass players on one stage,” he assures us in his entertaining pre-concert conversation. And I can believe him, since here, sitting alongside the Phil's brass players for Brian Lynn's Fanfare for Essex, are young musicians from the Essex Youth Brass Ensemble. A great idea – and they came back after the interval under their director Steve Drury, playing a cue from the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
Two Eric Crees arrangements from the professionals, with Wallace conducting: Bach's familiar Toccata and Fugue, with a splendid palette of colours as the tune was tossed around. Though maybe a little more reverberation in the acoustic would have blended them better. And sounding like “a pit band on heat” [Wallace], the Suite from West Side Story.
To end, an astonishing arrangement by Elgar Howarth of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Amazing feats of versatility, and otherworldly sounds, from the band ranged in a wide-screen arc across the Civic stage. An off-stage trumpet for Il Vecchio Castello, rumbling drums for the ox-cart, xylophone and some unbelievable trumpet effects for the Unhatched Chicks.

Brilliant playing, from virtuosi at the top of their game. Let's hope they can be persuaded back to Chelmsford soon. When perhaps we could have a better programme booklet – this time £2 bought us two whole pages on the Philharmonia [mother-ship to this ensemble] but nothing at all on Wallace or the pieces played.

HAMLET

HAMLET

at the Rose Playhouse Bankside

04.01.16

for Remote Goat

Hamlet at the Rose Theatre, the Bankside playhouse built in the 1580s by Philip Henslowe, where Shakespeare, Marlowe, Johnson and Kyd were staged until the early 17th century.

When the sweet prince last trod these boards, just three years ago, we were assured that Hamlet was staged here in 1594. Whether that's true or not, there is a definite sense of historical continuity here, even in this radical re-working of Shakespeare's longest drama.

“This bodes some strange eruption in our state,” warns Horatio, the first words spoken after an ominous soundscape. This is a wilfully disjointed, oneiric vision of Hamlet's world - “In that sleep of death, what dreams may come,” he muses, in his big soliloquy.

Chris Clynes is the black-clad Prince; he speaks the speeches with clarity, and occasional passion - “my mind's eye” - but never seems to have much mirth to lose; we're too used to lighter, more jocular Hamlets, perhaps. Messing with his mind in this claustrophobic space are Suzanne Marie's hysteric Ophelia, Louise Templeton's unfeeling Gertrude, and Nigel Fyfe's Claudius – an imposing presence, though not especially regal. Ross McNamara's Laertes, great-coat and rifle, brings a controlled passion to his role, and Luke Jasztal makes an engaging Horatio, especially in his closing speech, where he borrows some of Fortinbras's valediction.

Dermot Dolan's Polonius is dressed like a comic, and bears a banjo, but is singularly unamusing.

Yorick's skull makes an early, unlooked-for appearance – the Gravedigger a victim of the cuts – and returns as Ophelia's remembrances. Much of the poetry, and some of the soliloquies, are lost in this nightmare world.

The echoing excavation area is used for the ghost-watchers and much more – Hamlet's return, for instance – and there are some telling visual moments, like Ophelia's funeral procession. And Hamlet's little marionettes for the Murder of Gonzago.

The playlist is nothing if not eclectic: Goodnight Sweetheart, Mad About the Boy, Send in the Clowns, Leonard Cohen, Lonely Goatherd [for the Mousetrap], Lili Marlene [for Ophelia and Laertes sharing a bag of chips].

Director Diana Vucane's 90-minute tragedy seeks to see the play afresh through Hamlet's eyes, “focusing on the perspective of a disturbed mind, thus defying the reality-based structure of time and space, recognizing solely the inconceivable logic of a dream.” It comes across, though, as an earnest but unedifying student concept, offering only occasional insights into Shakespeare's play or Hamlet's troubled mind.

production photograph by Jana Andrejeva-Andersone

THINGS TO COME – ROMANCING MISS BLISS

THINGS TO COME – ROMANCING MISS BLISS

Jubilant Productions at the Headgate Theatre, Colchester

Since the success of Merry It Was To Laugh There back in 2014, we've eagerly awaited a new chamber work from Jubilant.
After a few hiccups and false starts, Miss Bliss is getting a rehearsed reading at the Headgate next month.
Romancing Miss Bliss or ‘The Dentist’s Dilemma’ is a new original and comic look at the secret lives of those who write romance fiction, the best selling literary genre in the world.
Dentist Felicity Bliss thinks writing a romance is as easy as falling out of bed. For a bet, she enters Pomme d’Amour Press’s competition to write such a book, and wins. Her prize is to be mentored in the art of romantic fantasy fiction by a seasoned scribe and soon she discovers it’s not all satin sheets and Chardonnay. Can she write another book? Is there romance in dentistry? Will she learn to love her readers and will her mentor find some new vocabulary?

Written by playwright Anne Pearson especially for Jubilant, the play features an original ‘book-within-a-play’ style as the scenes from Felicity’s book are dramatised.

This reading features Colchester favourites Christine Absalom and Ben Livingstone, and is directed by Ignatius Anthony.

8pm on Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 February, tickets £8 [£6 concessions]
Headgate Theatre
14 Chapel Street North
Colchester
Essex
CO2 7AT

01206 366000

tickets@headgatetheatre.co.uk

BLAKE

BLAKE

at the Civic Theatre Chelmsford

31.01.16

A trio since Jules Knight left for Holby City, this “operatic” crossover man-band continues to tour the world with their close harmonies and key changes, making U2 sound like Puccini and vice versa.
Classically trained, these singers, though their education does not seem to have included filling a modest auditorium without mega-watt amplification. Not that there's much classical music on offer here: their set started with Simon and Garfunkel [Bridge Over Treacle] and included Snow Patrol, Elvis, Sting and that other crossover charlatan Andrea Bocelli.
There was gentle banter – Adele, Saga Cruises, Il Divo and Terry Wogan in the frame – and a welcome appearance by Sandra Colston's Funky Voices, backing You Raise Me Up and Jerusalem. One man band at the keys was Martin Riley.

Simple staging – mics, monitors and a little mist- with video projections behind. Raindrops and waterfalls – maybe not the best choice for this audience demographic - the Union Flag and wild horses. They wouldn't drag me back, but the sell-out crowd waved, cheered and leapt to their feet at the end.