EQUUS

EQUUS

London Classic Theatre at the Civic Theatre

10.11.11

Almost forty years since this powerful play was premi鑽ed, and to the students who packed the Civic, taking notes and making design sketches, Shaffer must seem as remote, and as wordy, as Shaw.

LCT's touring revival of this 70s classic was superbly staged, with the beaten bronze of the horse heads glowing in the gloom of the stables. The amphitheatre, and the ever-present actors, echoed Ancient Greece, a theme running through the musings of troubled shrink Martin Dysart, played with gravitas and total sincerity by an excellent Malcolm James. His patient was Matthew Pattimore, who captured the desperate bewilderment of the teenager whose life is blighted by religion and his passionate worship of the horse. A fine performance, too, from Anna Kirke as his neurotic, helpless mother.

The climax of Act One, in which Alan rides his favourite horse at dead of night, was effectively staged Aidan Downing played Nugget. I liked the straw emblem hanging ominously over the arena, and the muted suggestion of the crucial act of blinding.

Michael Cabot's carefully crafted production makes a worthy revival of this important piece; though it's very much of its time, it can still speak to us today of the delicate balance between the normal and the sublime. The ambitious tour reaches Lowestoft, via Lincoln, at the end of the month.

JEKYLL AND HYDE

JEKYLL AND HYDE

Chelmsford Theatre Workshop at the Old Court

14.11.11

Leonard H Caddy's wordy version of this familiar tale is rather as J B Priestley might have penned it – theology, morality, psychology discussed in a middle-class parlour, with occasional flashes of high drama. Fortunately, CTW have the confidence, and the accomplished cast, to bring it off.   

“Deep inside each of us is the person we really are ,"...and it is Jekyll's ambition to explore that reality, experimenting on himself in a tiny laboratory just off his "man's room" a typical parlour nicely realised in this set design.

Jim Crozier was masterly as the doctor, and the devil buried within. His struggle to change, and change back, was chilling. His mien, demeanour, gait all altered before our eyes, so I felt that the mask, and the fumbling behind the table, were superfluous.

Many fine performances in support, including Richard Baylis as Lanyon and Roger Johnson as Jekyll's gentleman's gentleman. Caddy's play, like many other adaptations, introduces new female characters, perhaps to underline the Freudian subtext. Anna Jeary was excellent as naive Little Lottie, and Catherine Kenton gave an elegant, poised performance as the doctor's intended – a nice cameo too from Ruth Cramphorn as her opposite number, Hyde's doxy from the wrong side of the tracks.

The final moments, with Barry Taylor's Utterson off to burn the evidence, and Jekyll dead on the parlour floor, were movingly staged, leaving us to ponder what lies beneath, deep within us all.

POULENC GLORIA & STABAT MATER

POULENC GLORIA & STABAT MATER

Waltham Singers in Chelmsford Cathedral

12.11.11

Two Poulenc choral masterpieces at the core of this well programmed concert.

The Gloria, from 1959, is a work of contrasts tempi, harmonies, dynamics all keep the listeners [and I imagine the performers] on their toes. The effect is vivacious, iconoclastic and wonderfully moving. The singers, under the direction of Andrew Fardell, gave an intense, dramatic reading of the work: the lusciously phrased Suscipe, the lively Domine Fili, the powerful Amen all impressively crafted. The large band the work demands was the Salomon Orchestra, excellently extrovert, though at times there were balance problems with the singers ranged behind, and some loss of clarity.

The solo soprano effortlessly filling the Cathedral and marvellously expressive in the Dominus Deus was Stefanie Kemball-Read.

The same forces are used in the Stabat Mater, performed with controlled energy by the choir, with some lovely sustained effects the word Filius, for instance and a beautiful texture and sheen to the choral sound. And, again, a thrilling Amen.

The carefully chosen instrumental fillers provided a meaningful context for the Poulenc Stravinsky, Ravel, and late Debussy, his nostalgic Berceuse Heroique, written for the war effort in 1914, a resonant lullaby for the fallen on this Armistice weekend.

BAD GIRLS

BAD GIRLS

Springers at the Cramphorn Theatre

09.11.11

Of course it's perfectly possible to write a memorable musical, witty and hard-hitting, about life in a women's jail. But Bad Girls isn't it. It only managed a couple of months in the West End, on the back of the popular television series from which it took its title, its character [and several actors] and many of its plot developments.

Springers latest outrageous musical offering featured many strong performances from a cast mingling youth and experience, Ian Myers' great pit band [perched high over the action] and an evocative set which made the best possible use of the limited space. Sharon Scott's in-your-face direction was full of effective ideas the sounds in the dark, the riot quelled at the end of Act One, the ingenious exposure of the villain.

The chief weakness was the songs. Kath Gotts, determined to shoe-horn as many numbers as possible into the improbable book, threw in an uneasy mix of styles, slowing the action or contradicting the characters. The fantasies worked best an unlikely Astaire routine for the sexual predator Fenner [Ian Pavelin], or the Life of Grime duet [lovely double act from Deborah Anderson and Sharon Gardner as the two Julies]. One successful marriage of music and drama was the ironic Guardian Angel duet for the two dealers [Amy Jones and Tamara Anderson]. But Julie S's touching phone call to her young son was not much enhanced by the forgettable song which followed.

Great work from all these actors, and many more, including Wendy Barber's Compo Noreen, Nikki Myers as the token shop-lifting Evangelist, Beth Neame's nave new broom with Natalie Petto as her love interest, Mae Pettigrew's vulnerable Rachel, Maz Clarke's Bodybag and Catherine Gregory's wonderfully brassy Yvonne.

And a special mention for Kieran Young, enjoying his Blonde Bombshell moment on G wing.

Although it seemed bizarre to be expected to laugh and applaud in the face of girl-on-girl violence, corruption and deceit, the audience certainly responded warmly to this tale of life inside Larkhall.

RECOLLECTIONS Writtle Singers

RECOLLECTIONS

Writtle Singers in All Saints Church

06.11.11

“The Fantasticks” now largely forgotten, save for the opening number, Try to Remember.

And this was the nostalgic curtain-raiser, in a gorgeous a cappella setting, for an evening of “Recollection” from the Writtle Singers, conducted by Christine Gwynn with Ed Wellman at the piano and the organ. Their sound has a remarkable clarity, with carefully shaped phrasing and dynamics.

It wasn't the only piece of light music – we also had Autumn Leaves, Lloyd Webber's Memory, the Berkeley Square Nightingale [with a nice period solo from Peter Quintrell], and to end a cheeky, Swinglish Lullaby of Birdland.

Two Renaissance versions of Jesu, Dulci Memoria, followed by a contemporary six-part setting, simple and accessible, by Paul Drayton. Stanford, Vaughan Williams and Elgar represented the late Romantic era, Peter Aston the present day [well, 1976].

Jenny Haxell was soloist in Cole Porter, and also in the glorious Dido's Lament, of Purcell, preceded by Peter Stickland's imagined account of the genesis of Nahum Tate's “Remember Me” text.

Martyn Richards' other readings included Laurie Lee's earliest memory, George Orwell's penniless time in Paris, and Marcel Proust's miraculous madeleine.