Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall
By Steve Burbridge
Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall
Darlington Civic Theatre
Adapted from six volumes of his wartime memoirs, by Ben Power and Tim Carroll, Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall chronicles his experiences between September 1939 and March 1944. Rather than being performed as a play, it adopts the format of an ENSA-type revue with whimsical sketches, monologues, and musical numbers.
This is effective to the extent that the audience is treated to gems from the era including ‘Lily Marlène’, ‘I’ve Got A Gal In Kalamazoo’, ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’ and ‘Pennies From Heaven’.
The cast of five – Sholto Morgan (Spike), Dominic Gerrard (Edgington) William Findley (Goldsmith), David Morley Hale (Kidgell) and Matthew Devereaux (MC) - are certainly a talented bunch and they perform with vigour and enthusiasm. Indeed, Sholto Morgan in his first professional role demonstrates a great deal of future promise.
The humour, as you might guess, veers towards the surreal and, often, downright zany - having said that, much of it passed me by. I should probably have known it would. After all, Milligan is the comedy hero of a twit who talks to his plants and prefers a woman who looks like Audrey Roberts from Coronation Street to the beauty of the late Diana, Princess of Wales. I fear for the future of the monarchy!
The transitions between sketches are anything but slick and there is much moving of props by very visible stage hands, which tends to detract from one’s possible engagement with the piece. A further annoyance and distraction came from four people in the row in front of me whose sole purpose was to rustle and crinkle sweet wrappers continually and disturb everyone else in the vicinity, rather than to watch the show.
Not even the exaggerated promise of bad language, themes of an adult nature and nudity were enough to get me through this dismal production.
Steve Burbridge.
Night Fright: The Nightmare of Your Life
By Steve Burbridge
Night Fright: The Nightmare of Your Life
The Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage
Ian Dickens and Chris Moreno have joined forces, gathered together a talented cast, and produced a spine-tingling thriller that takes you down more blind alleys and dead ends than a dysfunctional sat-nav.
Night Fright, by Roger S. Moss, tells the story of newly-married Frank and Jenny Gilman. Having found the home of their dreams in an idyllic country village, they look forward to their future together. However, all is not as it seems and their dream soon becomes a nightmare.
Returning from their exotic honeymoon a day earlier than expected, they are thrust into the middle of a macabre secret enterprise that is going on all around them. As they attempt to discover what is happening, they are attacked by intruders, lied to by locals and forced to fight for their very lives.
Paul Opacic and Helen George play Frank and Jenny to perfection. The sexual chemistry between them is palpable and they are a convincing couple. Ben Roberts is brilliant as the evasive and slightly untrustworthy estate agent, Mr Watson, but it is Louise English, as the Lesley Joseph-esque Jacqui Henderson, who absolutely steals the show as she prowls around in black knee-length stiletto boots and a black leather mini.
The script is tight and the direction is slick as the tension builds to its nerve-jangling crescendo. Several ingenious red herrings and plot devices throw you off the scent, and the revelation of what has been happening under the Gilman’s noses drew gasps of breath from the audience.
Night Fright is a top-notch thriller that has been beautifully staged and is superbly performed.
Steve Burbridge.
Dancing in the Streets (15 – 20 Feb 2010, Kings Theatre, Glasgow)
By Cameron Lowe
The sound of Motown is transported to Glasgow this week as the stars of the 60s take to the stage in this first class tribute concert.
There are a number of ways to bring the hits of the past to a stage show. The success of the ABBA based hit, Mamma Mia!, has seen a resurgence of productions with a fresh story to tell weaving old songs around the drama. But this is difficult to do well and easy to do badly. Dancing in the Streets takes the simpler route by delivering a straight forward tribute concert (similar to Rat Pack – Live from Las Vegas) … and delivering it with some style.
The first thing to consider when conceiving a production like this has to be the theme. In “Motown”, Director and Musical Supervisor, Keith Strachan, has tapped possibly the richest vein of musical hits in history! With artists from Gladys Knight and the Pips to Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, The Temptations, (the list goes on) … the hardest decisions must have been what to leave out of the show! But you can be sure that the numbers in the show will be hits that everyone has a specific memory of.
And that’s what the audience pay their money for … memories. They want to be transported to the time and place that each song meant the most to them. Time travel isn’t just for Doctor Who, you know. It was certainly a reality for the majority of the audience in Glasgow last night! The reason the “Dancing in the Streets” time machine works so effectively is in the delivery of those Motown hits. The first class cast sounded (and often looked) like the original artists. Dance moves were faithfully reproduced, backup singers swayed and clicked and clapped and ‘shooped’ just like their 60s counterparts and the band faithfully reproduced the Motown sound on every track. Overall production values were excellent, too, with a classically styled static set incorporating the live band, excellent lighting effects (probably far superior to the 60s originals but effective and atmospheric nonetheless) and more costume changes than London Fashion Week!
Transport yourself to Hitsville, USA in the 60s for £25.50 (or less) - bargain!
Listings Info:
King's Theatre Glasgow: Mon 15 Feb – Sat 20 Feb
Mon – Sat at 7.30pm
Sat mat – 2.30pm
Tickets: £12 - £25.50
Box Office 08448 717 648 (Bkg fee)
www.ambassadortickets.com/glasgow (bkg fee)
I Ought to be in Pictures by Neil Simon at Manchester Library Theatre
By Caroline May![I_Ought_To_Be_In_Pictures_-_press_pic_05[1].JPG](http://static.socialgo.com/cache/10668/image/1115.jpg "I_Ought_To_Be_In_Pictures_-_press_pic_05[1].JPG")
I Ought to be in Pictures isn’t one of Neil Simon’s better-known plays, but it follows the scientifically proven formula of classics like The Sunshine Boys and The Odd Couple: when apparently incompatible individuals live in close proximity they generate friction, which creates sparks of comedy gold.
Herb (Stuart Fox) is a typical Simon character in the Walter Matthau mould, a quarrelsome curmudgeon with a tender heart buried somewhere beneath his grizzly exterior. He has long escaped the claustrophobic atmosphere of New York to live the dream in the Californian sunshine as a Hollywood screenwriter. Unfortunately a bad case of writer’s block is causing trouble in his professional life, and commitment-phobia is hacking off his no-strings girlfriend Steffy.
Then a 19-year-old back-packer called Libby turns up on Herb’s doorstep with ambitions of her own to make it big in the film business - with or without her father’s help.
Stuart Fox as Herb initially delivers a first-rate impression of a grumpy, self-obsessed has-been, but visibly melts with the gradual rediscovery of his paternal feelings.
Elizabeth Carling as Steffy brings real warmth to the witty and wise divorcée who tries to encourage the father-daughter relationship without herself turning into a jealous step-mother. And no one has carried off white flared trousers with such aplomb since Charley’s Angels.
The real find of the evening is Kirsty Osmon, making a striking professional debut in the role of Libby. All tomboyish charm and coltish bare legs, Ms Osmon is absolutely convincing as a free spirit who can hike across a continent or tune a car engine, yet who is still clearly very young and vulnerable. The impromptu midnight rehearsal of her audition speech with only an angle-poise lamp for a spotlight shows how naïve this seemingly streetwise New Yorker remains.
Paul Wills’ design, a loving homage to the 1970s, shows us Herb’s chaotic life embodied in his scruffy open-plan apartment, with a glimpse of the symbolic citrus trees through a sunny window.
Director Paul Jepson has concentrated on the play’s dramatic implications - in the hands of such an excellent cast the smart one-liners can take care of themselves.
I Ought to be in Pictures is on until Saturday 27 February 2009
Prices: £8.00-£18.00 (concessions available)
Eves: Mon-Thurs @ 7.30pm; Fri & Sat @ 8pm
Matinees: Thurs & Sat @ 3pm
Box Office: 0161 236 7110
Theatre Royal Bath Productions presents ‘Pride and Prejudice’
By TREMAYNE MillerTheatre Royal Bath Productions presents ‘Pride and Prejudice’,
Richmond TheatrePublished by: Tremayne (Potter)
An impressive opening displaying a raised stage which character Mary Bennett, played by Victoria Hamnett, approaches plucking on her violin as she does so. The music builds up as each member of the cast, alternating between male and female comes onto the stage. After they have taken up their positions there is a steady build-up of stamping feet, almost replicating Riverdance.
When we are introduced to The Bennett Family and Kitty (Leah Whitaker) I felt her coughing in the scene a little overacted.
The scene where Jane (Violet Ryder) has taken to her bed with a cold it is creatively put together through imaginative stagecraft. The actress stands on top of a chair holding a white sheet up against her as a blanket, whilst another actor holds a pillow in place.
Elizabeth (Katie Lightfoot) comes to join her beloved sister Jane, scampering across the countryside, shown through a use of abrupt violin sounds and sudden, jerky running movements across the expanse of the stage.
I particularly liked Kitty’s sudden shrieks of laughter when she visits Mr Bingley’s (Alex Felton) abode with her mother (Susan Hampshire).
As Mr Collins (Tom Mothersdale) arrives, he is introduced standing on top of a chair, reading a letter aloud, the spotlight shining down on him. As he greets Lizzie the second eldest Bennett daughter, and Jane, he bows right down to the floor.
When the dining table is brought in we can see that the food is quite literally stuck to it, along with the plates and cutlery, and wine glasses. Very comical!
To denote the time passing, a male member of the cast crouches underneath and behind the various pieces of furniture and intermittently rises up and down as the big hand strikes.
Tom Mothersdale plays Mr Collins in a Mr Bean/Lee Evans style, particularly when Elizabeth Bennett opts to dance at The Ball with Mr Darcy (Nicholas Taylor), escaping his clutches.
One of my two favourite scenes in ‘Pride & Prejudice’ is where Lizzie declines Mr Darcy’s initial proposal of marriage, quite clearly in love with him but is, at this point in the story, wanting to ascertain what, if any, are his exact motives.
In Act II, The Bennett Family contemplate a holiday in Brighton when two soldiers ride past them, waving as they go. These men each ride on another person’s shoulders, that person sporting a horse’s head. The audience found this very amusing.
With the mention of Derbyshire, Chatsworth and Dovedale fond memories are conjured up inside my head of where I grew up.
Mr Darcy’s abode is visited. The family portraits are admired by all and are cleverly depicted by cast members holding up chairs and peering through their empty backs, creating the appearance of picture frames.
Slight disappointment came when the production managed to leave out the ‘wet shirt’ scene made famous by the BBC interpretation, when all of womankind then hankered after Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy!
A line that rests in my mind is one spoken by Mr Darcy to Elizabeth right at the end of the play when he says to her, having realized just how much they mean
to one another: “..by you, I was properly humbled.” It is then brought to a cleverly thought out finale through a series of letters, thus allowing for a strip in scene changes. I found this production extremely imaginative, well produced and highly entertaining.
UK Theatre Network - Happy Valentine's Day
By Douglas McFarlane
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Have you heard the story of the Johnstone twins? If not, you have missed what has become a classic of British musical theatre and now is your chance to hear the tale! Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers is on tour - follow a trail of tears and snotty handkerchiefs all the way to the King’s Theatre, Glasgow until 13 February 2010.
11 and 12 Peter Brook - C.I.C.T/Theatre des Bouffes du Nord, Barbican Theatre until 27 February
By Nicola Hollinshead
The air of reverential expectation was almost palpable amongst the audience at the Barbican on Wednesday night for the opening of Peter Brook's latest offering 11 AND 12. In keeping with his tradition of simple staging, the vast canvas was spread out before us - colourful cloths and a few African objects effectively placing us within the setting for the story based on the novel by Malian writer Amandou Hampate Ba, adapted by Marie-Helene. Set in Mali during the French occupation it tells the true tale of the feud that developed over whether an Islamic prayer should be repeated 11 or 12 times and how the reprecussions of this tiny incident develop into bloodshed and controversy.
However, 90 minutes later, the audience are not even aware of it having ended and there is a prolonged delay before one brave soul breaks the silence and applauds and the rest of us as if woken from a trance, join in. There is a reason - the energy of the piece is sermon-like and deadening, the action is almost non-existent and the exploration of the central theme being largely narrated adds a further distancing. The performances are competent but somewhat stiff, the accents of the multicultural cast are heavy and there is no shape or change of pace to the storytelling.
It has a meditative feel, which in some respects is comforting and safe, like the folds of the cloths around the distinguished sages, but watching it as a piece of theatre ultimately makes you feel you are slowly being drugged into a state of catatonic amnesia.
Brook, it seems, is a great admirer of the writer Amandou Hampate Ba and has been wanting to create this piece for 50 years and this feels like his personal homage to him. At its centre is the absurdity of religion and religioius fundamentalism but the piece is full of truisms that take us nowhere new. What we are longing for is a learning or a realising of something new and profound and this offers us neither.
There are moments however, such as the final meeting between the two main spiritual leaders Tierno Bokar and Cherif Hamallal, where the two walk slowly together at the back of the stage in the way of deeply spiritual and actualised beings who are not of this world, that you really do feel you are in the presence of two such leaders. The tempo and feeling is one you would find on a spiritual retreat.
Whether or not this works as a piece of theatre is another matter; or maybe that is the 'experience' that Brook wants us to undergo with this production. It doesn't take us anywhere new or offers new insights, but is a slice of storytelling that does capture at times a true feeling of the essence of spirituality. It is both disappointing yet curious. Sometimes compelling in the beauty of its simplicity of staging and interestingly punctuated by the emotional music of Toshi Tsuchitori and yet at the end you are left wondering if you have missed something or if you have just been expecting too much.
Traces
By Sue MarksFlying Music, Robert Jolley and Michael Boersma present The Les 7 Doigts de la Main production of
Traces
Reviewed by Sue Marks at Milton Keynes Theatre on Monday 8th February 2010.
The show features five young people occupying a makeshift shelter from an unspecified impending disaster that lurks outside. In the belief that creativity is the antidote to destruction, the characters aim to make the most of what little time is left by using various means of expression to leave behind some traces of themselves. They tell their stories through a variety of genres which includes speech, music, dancing and breath taking acrobatics. As their stories unfold the audience gains an insight into the performers’ real lives.
The performers are five young French-Canadian artistes; Antoine Auger, Antoine Carabinier-Lepine, Genevieve Morin, Philip Rosenberg and Jonathan Causaubon, who were all students of Montreal’s National Circus School. They have a wide range of performing experience and skills honed in circus schools and companies worldwide.
Featuring a pulsating soundtrack throughout, which ranges from rock ‘n’ roll to blues to hip hop, this production mixes acrobatics with theatre, urban and contemporary dance styles, skateboarding and basketball.
The acrobatics are amazing, they balance on each other’s heads, leap up high poles without using their hands and fly through hoops. I particularly enjoyed the incredible performance of the acrobat using the large metal hoop.
Early in the show they introduce themselves individually by name, using a suspended microphone, together with three keywords which define them. This is followed by an amusing sketch where they swing the microphone calling out a name or keyword as it passes. Later in the first half of the show they take turns playing a piano which sounds remarkably good, particularly since it has been given the appearance of having been made from scraps of wood roughly cobbled together. An old box serves as a piano stool. One of the group also plays guitar and performs a song. There is some basketball and skateboarding.
After the interval the pace of the show speeds up with the exhilarating acrobatics. Whilst I enjoyed the show I think the first half could be improved by being a little sharper in places. There were times I found myself more interested in the soundtrack than what was happening on stage. However the second half was brilliant. This is an innovative show that is worth seeing.
It is perhaps a sign of the times that world class acrobatics does not constitute a show in its own right. This show has clearly taken circus skills and made something more out of them but what really excites me is the show this is going to be in a few more years’ time because I believe it is still evolving.
Traces plays Milton Keynes Theatre from Monday 8th February to Wednesday 10th February 2010. Milton Keynes Theatre Box Office 0844 871 7652 (bkg fee).
The tour then continues playing Alhambra Theatre Bradford from Thursday 11th February to Saturday 13th February.
www.miltonkeynestheatre.com www.flyingmusic.com
Reviewed by Sue Marks at Milton Keynes Theatre on Monday 8th February 2010 on behalf of Catherine Brian.
Waxing Lyrical - The Story of Madame Tussaud
By Carolin Kopplin
The Rosemary Branch Theatre in Islington - winner of „Best Theatre“ in the 2010 Fringe Report Awards - presents a solo performance by Judith Paris about the life of Madame Tussaud. Although her name graces one of the main tourist attractions in London little is known about the life of Marie Tussaud.
Aptly directed by Ninon Jerome, Judith Paris recounts the story of this remarkable woman who was arrested as a royalist during the horrors of the French revolution and barely escaped the guillotine. Marie Tussaud tells her younger son the story of her life before the opening of her new show. Now aged 72 she has been working hard since she was a child to become a gifted artist as well as a successful business woman. She describes how she was taught the art of waxwork by her uncle Philippe Curtius against the explicit wishes of her mother who saw her daughter in a more traditional role. Marie eventually married but left her husband and her younger son to tour the towns of Britain with her wax cabinet, fighting off competition against a background of fire, riot, shipwreck, and betrayal. Madame Tussaud became one of the greatest showpeople along with P.T. Barnum - which makes one wonder: How much of her story is really true?
Judith Paris, who has also written the play, gives a beautiful performance as the admirable Marie Tussaud.
9 – 14 February 2010, Tue – Sat 7.30 pm, Sun 3 pm
Tickets: £ 12 / £ 10 (concessions)
BOX OFFICE: 020 7704 6665
The Rosemary Branch, 2 Shepperton Road, London N1 3DT
Travels with my Aunt.
By kelly potter
THE QUEEN'S THEATRE. HORNCHURCH
Travels with my Aunt
By Giles Havergal
Adapted from the novel by
Graham Greene
Directed by Liz Marsh
Designer: Rodney Ford
Lighting Designer: Chris Howcroft
This production of Havergal's adaptation of Graham Greene's novel was fast moving, fast speaking, action packed, but simply staged. All elements that I found made it a success.
As an audience member taking your seats, you were mildly aware of a character, sweeping and setting up a minimalistic stage, lined with high cupboards and drawers. Once the audience were seated, this stage manager, played by Simon Jessop, introduced us to Henry Pulling. Three characters identically dressed in plain grey suits entered the stage, all introducing themselves as Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager with hardly any interests apart from growing dahlias who, at his mother's funeral, was reunited after many years with his mother's sister, Aunt Augusta. Each Henry (Elliott Harper, Sam Pay and Marcus Webb) took turns addressing the audience. Full attention was needed in order not to miss anything from this story, narrated by the character of Henry. Each character and scenario was played out by him, with the help of the stage hand who ran around the stage opening draws to reveal beds, graves, hotels suites, taxis and trains. Henry relays the story of his dreary life until meeting his aunt after many years at his mother's funeral. He forges a new friendship with this relative and follows her in her desire to revisit her younger, more colourful years of travelling the world surrounded by smugglers, war criminals and con men. Each actor plays numerous characters on a journey that takes us from Brighton to Paris, the Orient Express to Istanbul and a final trip to Panama. Each time a new character was introduced, one of the three Henries would simply put on a hat or different coloured shirt or hold a prop. The mannerisms were enough to be able to visualise each character and was powerful and effective. I could actually empathise with each character. One member of the audience let out a gasp when the gruesome fate of one of the characters was revealed, we'd become that close to them, there were almost tears at the end.
The pure wordiness of the play and the faultless performances of the cast, switching characters with ease while keeping the pace constant, made this a thoroughly engaging production. Witty, fast, timed to perfection, especially Simon Jessop's background antics as the stage manager messing up his sound effects and costume preparations, this was something I'd see again.
Showing 5 -27 February
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