ENSEMBLE

ENSEMBLE

Essex Dance Theatre Brentwood at Brentwood Theatre

10.07.15

So much imaginative choreography and brilliant dancing packed into just two hours – including time out for ice cream.

All the performing groups were able to showcase their varied talents in two dozen numbers. And all the dancers were disciplined, focused and committed.

Among the most impressive offerings: the gold and silver Roxie duo, Pirates from the Easter Juniors with their cute little cutlasses, a sophisticated Stepping Out with black lace and canes, Take Me To Church twice, once from the Easter Seniors, once from a very talented quartet of young choreographers. Pointe work in Tarantella, tap shoes for Stuck in the Middle and the stunning Stomp with found percussion – jangling keys, a bag of sweets and a dustbin.

The finale – a big showy divertissement to that number from Hairspray – gave all the dancers a chance to take a richly deserved bow.

photograph: Clare Rowden Photography

KEGS DRAMA

KEGS DRAMA

A Night at the Musicals and The Machine Gunners

08/09.07.15

James French ended his first year as Director of Drama at King Edward VI School with not one but two summer shows.

The Machine Gunners, a new adaptation of the Robert Westall classic book, was performed with tremendous energy and enthusiasm by students from Year Nine, on an impressively designed cruciform staging which set the audience in amongst the Boys' Own action and gave an intimate insight into the motivations and moral dilemmas of the lads [and one lass] who set up their own machine gun post to defend the North East from the Hun. Smoke, sound effects and some excellent physical acting made for a gripping couple of hours. 

The Music Theatre Society ended their year in style with a rich mix of numbers – some masterpieces, some meretricious – from the musicals, directed and choreographed by Elizabeth Hutchinson. Some superb work: Roxy from Chicago, chorus boys from The Producers, a hilarious trio from Cabaret. Plus the Bad Guys from Bugsy, KEGS' last musical, and generous tasters from next year's offering, Les Misérables. Musically, some of the best things were the simplest – unplugged with just the accomplished piano of Will Foster. But the loudest cheers greeted a contribution by a chorus of unruly teachers in Revolting Children from Matilda, finally called to order by Headmaster Tom “Trunchbull” Carter.

"Richard Broadway" joined the enthusiastic audience on each night ...

A NIGHT AT THE MUSICALS

That old stand-by, songs from the shows, made a pleasant end-of-year treat for KEGS Drama Department. It has a venerable history of musical theatre, and for some performers this was a “last hurrah” before the world of gap year/drama school/university beckons.

No pit orchestra, no auto-tune, no fancy costumes. But this unplugged approach was just what the evening needed, in the lofty but intimate performing space of the Music School. Some of the most successful offerings were the simplest, with Will Foster's piano the only accompaniment. Roxy's Funny Honey – from Chicago – nicely characterized, just one example.

The range was wide, from Oliver to Matilda, from Parade to High School Musical. Mr Broadway reckons to have a pretty good knowledge of the genre [though his name is much older than the Great White Way], but the Tony-awarded, Pulitzer-prized bipolar rock musical Next to Normal was new to me – Gabe's powerfully felt I'm Alive a striking contrast with the campery of the Keep It Gay chorus boys from The Producers or the knees-up production number Consider Yourself from Oliver!.

The amazingly talented young people were joined, briefly but to huge acclaim, by an ad hoc company of KEGS staff members, in a lively, if rough-and-ready Revolting Children.

There was a nod to last year's splurgy, slippery Bugsy Malone with a reprise of Bad Guys, and a look forward to January's production of Les Misérables, with a heart-rending Bring Him Home, a measured I Dreamed A Dream [with lovely piano and chorus accompaniment], and to end, a stirring Red and Black, with Marius flying the flag of freedom,

A Night at the Musicals was directed and choreographed by Elizabeth Hutchinson, who was joined on stage by Matthew Wadey, Joseph Folley, Nikhil Shah, Amy Wang, Benjamin Russell, Dionne O'Brien, Freya Von-Claire, Harry Clark, Hazel Ellender, Isabella George, Molly Sun-Wai, Rebecca Olson, Thomas Mitty, Mark Ellis, Dominic Short and Benjamin Southern-Thomas.

THE MACHINE GUNNERS

Sitting between the arms of a cross, the audience can see children cowering under the stage, slowly crawling out of the shelters to find the world above reduced to a rubble-strewn bomb-site.

Inspired staging for Robert Westall's classic story of bravery and bonding, in which war games become real for the Caporetto gang.

This is the new adaptation done by Ali Taylor for the Imperial War Museum.

Smoke and sound adds atmosphere to the story, and the physical approach gives some stunning stage pictures – the Heinkel gunned down and its pilot thrown clear, his capture with the weapon projected on screen. James French's vision enables the aircraft, the playground, the secret base at the bottom of the garden to be created in the boys' imagination and ours, in a powerful piece of theatre. The staging of the fights, and the panic and chaos of the climactic bombing raid, are especially effective.

Music and projected images help establish the period; rubble and a china tea-cup among the few actual props. Costumes evoke the period well, but perhaps the next fund-raiser might provide some stage chairs – seeing auditorium seats in the spotlight is one of Mr Broadway's pet hates.

Stirling performances from an excellent ensemble, though the nature of the staging means that not all the dialogue is easily audible.

Max Clifford holds the stage brilliantly as Chas McGill, leader of the pack and proud possessor of the second-best collection of war souvenirs in Garmouth. No mere token girl in the lads' gang, Harry Walton's Audrey is a subtly drawn character, wanting a fair fight, showing common sense and moving sympathy for the German pilot. Nicky is something of an outsider, with his posh house and musical mother – an outstanding performance from Kristoff Ahlner, whose moment in the pets' cemetery, and scenes with Joseph Penny's convincing Rudi are amongst the most moving of the evening.

Director James French was assisted by Saqib Ahmad, Nikhil Shah and Henry Sainsbury, and the performers were Max Clifford, Max Bawtree, Harry Walton. Eliott Bunch, Kristoff Ahlner, Dharma-Dev Morzaria, Ben Metzger, Jasper Tatum, Edward Robb, Jonathan Marshak, Joseph Penny, Adam Heath, Robert Perone, Conor Hemingway, Ryan Seal and Rohan Odedra.

images by Aaron Crowe

WILLIAM BYRD ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

WILLIAM BYRD ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Stondon Singers at Stondon Massey

07.07.15

Imogen Holst's lovely Mass setting of 1927, rarely heard since she composed it while still a student, was the centrepiece of this year's Byrd concert.

Performed with immaculate styling by the Stondons under Christopher Tinker – the graphic setting of “Jesu Christe” in the Gloria and the final “pacem” of the Agnus Dei were beautifully realised – it betrays the influence of her teachers Howells, Dyson and especially Vaughan Williams, as well as the Renaissance masters whose work made up the programme.

Tallis – an assured O Sacrum Convivium – and of course William Byrd, his heartfelt setting of Savonarola's Infelix Ego, dramatically progressing from a tentative “non audeo” to the climactic redemptive “misericordiam”. Plus four motets from the second book of Gradualia, dedicated to his fellow Catholic the First Baron Petre and described in the dedication as “blooms collected in your own garden”. And to end, a light-footed Madrigal, Though Amaryllis Dance in Green.

Always a pleasure to celebrate Byrd in the church by his Stondon Massey house; to sit in the nave he seldom frequented, to listen to a selection of his life's work, and to drink wine in the churchyard where he was “grudgingly” interred in 1623 and still lies in the tranquillity of an unmarked grave.

NORTHANGER ABBEY

NORTHANGER ABBEY

DOT Productions at Brentwood Theatre

04.07.15

Some discussion among the party in row F as to whether this was to be a murder mystery or a love story. Comedy of manners, it turned out, with the accent on the comedy.

Bryan Johnston's light-hearted, ingenious re-working of Jane Austen's first novel is given a lively outing – first date of a six week tour.

An energetic young company of six actors take on ten roles, against a simple set in which the Regency windows of Bath are replaced by the stained glass of the Abbey.  

Anya Hamilton plays our heroine, the pale bookworm whose innocence is tested by the social minefields of Bath society and by the imagined Gothic terrors of the Tilney's family seat.

Two suitors vie for her hand – Andrew Lindfield's hearty Thorpe, bragging about his horse, and Adam Elliott's witty Tilney, mercilessly teasing Miss Morland about the Gothic novel. Elliott also steals a scene or two as Tarquin, Thorpe's long-suffering horse, and even momentarily portrays Dorothy, the ancient retainer, in the literary parody.

Victoria Tyrrell is Tilney's sister, the reluctant chatelaine of Northanger, as well as Catherine's mother and a vivacious Isabella Thorpe.

The Allens, country folk of Fullerton, are played by Roslyn Ure, resplendent in a galleon of a dress and a quiz of a hat, and Leigh Stevenson, who also makes the most of Mrs Thorpe, long lost friend of Mr Allen's wife.

Craig Gilbert's production is finely paced, colourfully if eccentrically costumed, with many inventive touches: the Rank gong at the start, the deception and disappointment from Chapter 11 neatly done in two seconds, and the cast not only arranging their own minimal furniture between scenes – excellently done – but also accompanying their manoeuvres with lively a cappella music.

ALL THE ANGELS

ALL THE ANGELS

Shakespeare's Globe at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

28.06.2015

Mr Haendel, naturalised Brit and national treasure, is no stranger to the capital's stages. A prolific writer of smash-hit operas, he's also appeared more recently as himself, notably in the National Theatre's Coram Boy in 2005.

Here, though, he takes centre stage in a beautifully written play with music which looks at the first ever performance of Messiah, in Dublin, in 1742. In a chiaroscuro candlelight that George Frederick would certainly recognise, a small chorus and an even smaller period instrument ensemble provide wonderful extracts from the magnum opus, while three actors bring the trials and tribulations of that difficult premiere to life.

Sean Campion plays not only Crazy Crow, a kind of 18^th century roadie moonlighting as a “resurrectionist”, but also Jennen the librettist and Lord Cavendish who encourages Handel to open in the Fishambles Music Hall.

Susannah Cibber, the singing actress who sang second soprano in that first performance, was played by a modern singing actress, Kelly Price, who brought a feisty spark to the part, as well as real pathos in her big number – He Was Despised. She was also a very young Charles Burney, bringing Handel his coffee in Chester

The composer was done as a curmudgeonly perfectionist by David Horovitch, battling with illness, fondly recalling the Water Music, bullying and cajoling his prima donna, and reassuring the chorus that their role is key – they are “all the angels”.

All three performances are brilliantly polished; the piece is a perfect fit for this space, as well as a fascinating, if conjectural, exploration of that first triumphant Messiah and the people who created it.