Bill Kenwright presents Alan Ayckbourn’s

Bedroom  Farce

Directed by Peter Hall

At Milton Keynes Theatre

 

As I had anticipated from its name this play was very amusing. It features four couples at different stages of their relationships. The set consisted of three different bedrooms side by side. Each had a different bed and decor. Lighting was used to illuminate the bedroom(s) where the action was taking place and to plunge it into darkness when the focus was on a different room.

The first couple we saw were the mature Delia (Juliet Mills) and Ernest (Bruce Montague). They were getting ready to go out for an anniversary meal and   were chattering about different things; Delia was concerned about their son Trevor’s marriage whilst Ernest was more interested in their leaking roof and damp patches.  Juliet Mills was excellent in the role and although Bruce Montague was amusing, at times he seemed to mumble and I found it difficult to hear what he said.

In another bedroom Maxwell Caulfield’s character Nick was confined to bed with an injured back, and was complaining to his wife Jan (Clare Wilkie) that he was bored. Jan’s patience was clearly being tested but her decision to attend Kate and Malcolm’s party gave her some respite.

We then see Kate (Julia Mallam) and Malcolm (Ayden Callaghan) in their bedroom preparing for their party. They appear to be the happiest couple we have seen so far and are engaged in horseplay. The first guest arrives early before Kate has had time to get dressed after her bath. It’s Trevor, (Oliver Boot) and he’s come to leave his coat in the bedroom. Other guests arrive and the coats are piling up. Trevor’s wife Susannah, (Natasha Alderslade) arrives and it is soon clear that the rumours about their marriage problems are true. Having disrupted the party, Trevor and Susannah individually impose themselves on the other couples, causing more friction and discord. They seem unaware their behaviour is self centred and inconsiderate.

The first half of this play was a little slow in places but the pace improved in the second half. It got funnier as the play progressed, the characters were plausible and the timing was excellent. I found Malcolm’s attempt at assembling a flat pack and the end result particularly hilarious. Another favourite was when Nick had fallen asleep in an awkward position.  I also liked the way Nick refused to be drawn into lengthy discussions with Trevor. Jan’s attempts at getting Nick back into bed after he had fallen on the floor were hilarious. I also found the neurotic Susannah’s nightmares very amusing. In fact her character was quite comical generally, but I don’t think you’d want to live with her. I found this production very enjoyable and amusing and well worth seeing.

Bedroom Farce plays Milton Keynes Theatre from Monday 12^th July to Saturday 17^th July 2010. Milton Keynes Theatre Box Office 0844 871 7652 (bkg fee).

The tour then continues playing Everyman Theatre Cheltenham from Monday 19^th July to Saturday 24^th July 2010.

www.miltonkeynestheatre.com www.kenwright.com

Reviewed by Sue Marks at Milton Keynes Theatre on Monday 12^th July 2010.

 

 

 

Eyes Front!

Darlington Arts Centre

Singer and broadcaster Isla St Clair has collaborated with film-maker Patrick King in an exciting combination of live performance and archive footage about the effect of music in wartime, Eyes Front!

Isla performed a selection of songs, some instantly recognisable and others which were less familiar, ranging from Napoleonic times through to the popular hits that were born out of two World Wars. The quality of her voice - which combined clarity and purity - not only did justice to each of the songs but also made the ballads, in particular, hauntingly beautiful. Her renditions of ‘The Scottish Soldier’ and ‘When The Pipers Play’ were two notable highlights.

In addition to performing the songs, with only her guitar for accompaniment, Isla also told the fascinating stories behind them. Tales of heartache and separation lay behind many, others were used to make political points and some clung to the promise of peace in the future.

Patrick King used film clips to illustrate the importance of songs and music during wartime, and explain their effect upon the everyday lives of both soldiers and civilians. His encyclopaedic knowledge of the methods employed in filming warfare through the ages provided a multitude of fascinating insights.

  Eyes Front! is a deeply affecting show that evokes feelings of pride and patriotism. Indeed, it is impossible not to feel humbled by the sacrifices made by all those who have fought in defence of the freedom and liberty of our green and pleasant land.

Steve Burbridge.

A  summers eve, an innovative setting and first-class singing - the scene is set for Stephen Barlow's production of Don Giovanni at Opera Holland Park.

Mozart's cautionary tale of a lothario that gets his just desserts never fails to entertain, and provides the operatic challenges for the sopranos through to the glossier tones of the Bass Baritones.

There are the distinctive string flourishes, lovely harpsichord interludes and beautiful arias that are as fresh under the conducting hands of Robert Dean as they must have been on first performance in 1787.

Nicholas Garrett as Don Giovanni performs a wily and obsessed character. He is driven by the notches on his bedpost. The action is focussed on a seduction that goes horribly wrong. Don Giovanni, dressed for masquerade in his attempt to seduce Donna Anna (Ana James), ends up killing her father, and a subplot of vengenance ensues. Meanwhile, Giovanni brushing off his crime tries to spirit away Zerlina  on her wedding day ( Claire Wild), but fails as his former conquest Donna Elvira ( Laura Mitchell) catches him out.

Yannis Thavoris has put together a production style all 1870s. The women wear bustles, silks and diamonds, the men velvet smoking coats and dressing gowns.  Using dark panelled benches, he is able to transport us from a public house, to a stately home within seconds.

The ultimate damnation scene for Don Giovanni has an innovative twist which to avoid spoilers encourages an interesting entry point for the ghost to test Giovanni's character. The happy ending sung with great gusto,  Garrett mock booed as a pantomine villian at his curtain call, all cast greeted with hearty applause-  yes, a definite crowd pleaser.

Don Giovanni

June 28, 30, July 2, 4 (matinee), 6, 8, 10, 12, 14

Don’t worry, pre-schoolers don’t remember anything.

 

Everyday we read about child abuse. Every other day the police secures pornographic photos of children and hopefully arrests the perpetrator. But are we really aware of what this entails? These are photos of children being raped, assaulted, battered, tortured and killed. Many of the children are abused by their families or carers, many are sold by their own parents to paedophiles.  

 

Raven Kaliana, herself a victim of extreme child abuse, wrote this autobiographical play to make people aware of what is happening to these children. She uses puppets to portray the children because it would not be possible for child actors to play these horrible scenes. Most of the adults are shown only from the waist down. Each of the adult characters is played by two actors – one is physically on stage, the other provides the voice.  

 

Sylvia, a little girl, is playing with her toy rabbit when her mother (Sue) interrupts her game to take her to a photographer. Sue is having lunch with her friend Jill while the photographer shoots pornographic pictures of Sylvia and Jill’s litte boy named Martin. Jill is somewhat concerned about the effect those photo sessions might have on the children but Sue tells her not to worry: "Pre-schoolers don't remember anything." After a few years Sylvia’s parents decide that they could earn a lot more money by going to Hollywood where Sylvia would make it big in the movies. But Sylvia is growing up.  

 

Raven Kaliana’s story is very powerful and deeply disturbing. The two children Sylvia and Martin are touchingly played by the puppeteers Sara Kirkpatrick and Kat Damvoglou. Neither of them has any text but a melancholy violin – played by the wonderful violinist Susanna Ferrar - sets the mood and translates the children’s emotions into music. I found the scene changes a bit too long but Raven explained that several video clips had been missing which should be included in future shows.

 

There will be a post-show talk.

 

Adult audiences only.

 

29 June – 11 July, Tue – Sat 7.30 pm, Sun 6.30 pm

Tickets: £ 10 / £8 (concessions)

BOX OFFICE: 020 7704 6665

The Rosemary Branch, 2 Shepperton Road, London N1 3DT

 

If a picture is worth a thousand words then the accompanying production shot should tell you a great deal about Brandon Thomas’s 1892 farce Charley’s Aunt, which has just opened at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.  If you examine the photograph carefully you will notice that Oliver Gomm, who might be said to share the title role, is not playing a conventional Victorian widow.  But then, Donna Lucia D’Alvadorez is, in her own words, “no ordinary woman”.

Dating from the same period as The Importance of Being Earnest and the Savoy operas, Charley’s Aunt is every bit their equal for verbal dexterity, ridiculous situations and favourite stock characters - the silly-ass lord, the tyrannical uncle and the gauche lover are all present and correct.

The simple premise - two Oxford students invite their prospective fiancées to lunch and require a chaperone at short notice - is complicated by (among other accidentals) a jealous guardian, an impoverished (but titled) father, and the imminent arrival of a millionaire aunt who has never met her orphaned nephew because she’s been living in Brazil - “where the nuts come from”.  And in the best tradition of English farce there’s plenty of elaborate business, clowning about and slap-stick. 

Oliver Gomm is lovably daft as Lord Fancourt Babberley, and his virtuosic comedy cadenza with the piano in Act 3 earned him a round of applause on press night.  Stephen Hudson as the put-upon valet Brassett acts as a kind of world-weary Chorus, Malcolm Rennie is terrifyingly pop-eyed as the apoplectic Uncle Spettigue, and Briony McRoberts is charming and mischievous as the relative from the New World.

Director Braham Murray has slightly updated the setting to the 1920s for no discernable reason, although it is to the detriment of the plot device: the extremities of Victorian propriety might necessitate a cross-dressing chaperone, but the Bright Young Things of Brideshead-era Oxford could happily have managed without.  And if the intention was to give a Wodehousian flavour to the proceedings it doesn’t work because the most of the playing is far too naturalistic.  But at least the business is performed with flair and fluency, and all the physical comedy is first-rate.

Designer Johanna Bryant gives us three delightful sets, and the ladies’ flapper costumes are ravishing.  Truly, if the Royal Exchange were ever to go up in flames it would be the wardrobe department that I would rush in and save.

Those who have seen Charley’s Aunt before know it’s one of the English stage’s most copper-bottomed comedy classics, a treat never to be missed, and will already have booked their seats.  If you haven’t seen it before then you should make arrangements to remedy this situation as soon as possible. 

 

Charley’s Aunt is on until Saturday 7 August 2010

Prices: £8.50-£29.50

Evenings: Mon-Fri @ 7.30, Sat @ 8pm [no performance Tues 6 July]

Matinees: Wed @ 2.30pm, Sat @ 4pm and Tues 6 July @ 2.30pm

Box Office: 0161 833 9833

www.royalexchange.co.uk

THE ARDEN OF FAVERSHAM, Rose Theatre, Park Street SE1, until July 7 2010

A trip to the theatre besides the river is always a treat, especially on a balmy Summer's evening and to meander round the small back streets to seek out England's oldest tragic comedy in London's oldest theatre promised to be a special event - and indeed it was.

Currently under archaelogical excavation, the Rose was the first Elizabethan theatre to be built on Bankside in 1587 and seeing the show here lends a palpable atmospheric backdrop that would be quite impossible to recreate elsewhere. The play itself, still author unknown, is a historical gem with all the ingrediants for a good night of theatre going; domestic unbliss, a murder plot, buffoon comedy potential assassins, star-crossed lovers and a host of other supporting players.

At the centre is the 'Lady Macbeth - like' character of Alice of Faversham, played by Rachel Dale. An outstanding performance, Dale brings so much to the plate - her Alice is a living, breathing, manipulative, loving, animal-like creature who vividly fills the space she inhabits for the duration of the unfolding drama. Alice wants her husband Arden (Mark Carlisle) dead - simple, so she can be with the object of her desire, her flighty lover Mosby, (Jonathan Woolf), whose affections for her are based on what his material gain would be once Arden is disposed of. Alice knows not this truth and goes full throttle to do what she can to have Arden ousted and thus the plot unravels.
Around this, employed to do the deed, are the stooge - like characters of Black Will (the excellent Dan Gingell) & Shakebag (good support by Simon Pennicott) , whose attempts to fulfill the contract are continually thwarted - their entertaining comedy duo providing a successful counterbalance to the increasing emotional intensity of the lovers and the domestic wranglings. The inevitable, when it does happen, is excellently done with graphic, visceral realism.

The two hour play moves swiftly on without an interval, never once losing your attention - a tribute to the strong ensemble work of the cast, sharp direction and good storytelling. This is a little gem and most certainly worth seeking out down amongst the bowels of Shakespeare's Southwark heartland. See it before it ends on July 7.

For information on the Rose Theatre Campaign: www.rosetheatre.org

Em-Lou Productions Present...

The Most Lamentable And True Tragedie of Mr. Arden Of Faversham

Anon. (1592).
Directed by Peter Darney

Bookings

Buy tickets online

 

 

Tickets £10.00 / £8.00 concessions
Box office: 020 7261 9565
Email: boxoffice@rosetheatre.org.uk

Tuesday 8th June - Wednesday 7th July
All performance at 7:30pm (no performances on Monday 14th, 21st and 28th June)

Mr. Arden of Faversham is in trouble. His wife Alice wants him dead. His wife’s lover Mosby wants him dead, so do Michael, Greene, Clarke, Black Will and Shakebag. Come and see which, if any, succeeds...

A darkly comic tale based on a true story, full of the lust, greed and ambition of real people, showing what this makes them capable of. Argued by many to be Shakespeare’s earliest surviving work, Arden of Faversham is the first English domestic tragedy.
There will be a Q and A with cast and team on 16th and 30th June.

I’m on a whisky diet. I’ve just lost four days.

The Sands hotel was the very height of Las Vegas sophistication. It was there in 1960, during the filming of Ocean's Eleven, when for the first time Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford performed together on stage. From then on, they were forever known as the Rat Pack, a name coined by Humphrey Bogart’s wife Lauren Bacall. Las Vegas was their playground and everywhere else was known, in Rat Pack vocabulary, as 'Dullsville, Ohio'.

This production celebrates the talent of three of the finest entertainers and performers of the 20^th century – Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis jr and Dean Martin. The audience experiences a typical show at the Sands in Las Vegas with its party spirit and all the hilarious bantering and rivalry between the three great singers. There is smoking and drinking on stage and a complete lack of political correctness. Accompanied by a very fine 15-piece orchestra Frank Sinatra sings some of his most popular songs such as The Lady is a Tramp, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, and Fly Me to the Moon. Sammy Davis jr delights with a brilliant delivery of Mr. Bojangles What Kind of Fool Am I, and Once In A Lifetime. Dino starts out with That’s Amore and Everybody Loves Somebody - and there is a lot more to enjoy. In the extremely funny number You’ve Got Style, the rivalry between the three performers becomes very imminent indeed with Sammy Davis jr appearing in the most outrageous costumes but eventually turning out to be the most elegantly dressed of the three.

There are excellent performances by Mark Adams as Dean Martin and Giles Terera as Sammy Davis jr. They capture the personalities of the two stars completely. When I closed my eyes I actually thought Dean Martin had risen from the dead and was back on stage. However, although Tam Ward is a good performer he does not quite convince as the Chairman of the Board. His New York (New Jersey?) accent is a bit over the top and he does not dominate the stage as he should. The Burelli Sisters look right but their dancing and singing is not quite up to the standard of this show.    

Nevertheless, The Rat Pack Live from Las Vegas is a must for everybody who loves these three great entertainers.

The show runs until 3 July 2010 at the Richmond Theatre.

Richmond Theatre,The Green, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1QJ
http://www.ambassadortickets.com/4/659/Richmond/Richmond-Theatre/The-Rat-Pack

The Cock Tavern theatre’s production of A Stretch Of The Imagination, based around the popular stereotype of the Australian male, makes interesting viewing.

Monk O’ Neill lives very much alone in an old iron shack on One Tree Hill, in the bush. He is facing the physical deteriorations of old age, and is haunted by memories of his past relationships. Monk kills the time with obsessive daily routines, and by telling tales that are often hard to determine as the truth, or a stretch of his imagination. He introduces us to a bunch of lively characters such as biker Mort Lazarus, who died outside his shack from frost bite, to ex-lover Dora-Bella and her angry husband Merve. He’s persistently belligerent, and O’Neil seems to have alienated most of the people in his life and turned an angry back on society. He faces his loneliness and inevitable death with acceptance, but not before rewriting his tattered will and leaving it to the dispossessed of the land.

Despite being slightly too young to the play the character, Mark Little gives an interpretation of this anti-hero which has depth, and is often as moving and as it is funny. Monk is essentially not a likeable character, but nevertheless it is hard not to give empathy when he is dumped by this girlfriend Muriel, or even when he shoots his own dog because it is an extra mouth to feed. In contrast, Little is hilarious with his affectations at a posh dinner party, and his satire of the French during his visit to Paris.

Written in 1972 by Jack Hibberd, one of Australia’s most famous writers, A Stretch of the Imagination, is one of the classics of Aussie theatre. Culturally it is so important that in 2009, it was studied as a set text on the drama syllabus in Australia. However as a newcomer to his writing, the incoherent ramblings of this monodrama were in parts quite difficult to follow. The text which is often thematically clichéd, is partly a throw-back stylistically to absurdist writers like Becket, and is a mish-mash of prose and poetry. It hasn’t aged well and offers few surprises.

Mark Little has ably directed himself as Monk, and also created a rather nifty set representing his character’s lonely, ramshackle life. The Cock Tavern also provides the perfect venue for the intimacy of Monk’s revelations. 

A Stretch Of The Imagination runs until 17^th July. For more information call the box office on 08444 771 000 or visit www.cocktaverntheatre.com

OLIVER VALENTINE   

            

 

 

The Birmingham Stage Company’s newly adapted version of ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ by David Wood at Richmond Theatre on Tuesday 22^nd June 2010

 

Published by: Tremayne

 

 

Roald Dahl, original writer of George’s Marvellous Medicine, was born in Llandaff, Wales on September 13, 1916 and is my own personal favourite children’s writer.  As a result, I am always very sceptical over any adaptations  of his work, whether it be in film or in theatre.

Dahl went to Repton School in Derbyshire and is appreciated most for his children’s writing. Here he is never afraid to show us just how despicable his characters really are, often relishing  leaving us with a level of discomfort, twisting plots in such a way that we have absolutely no inkling as to how things might turn out but fearing a really nasty ending.

 

Immediate participation is needed from the audience when George (Clark Devlin) asks us to be his friend, thus creating a bond between himself and us. This is soon broken up by the screams from his mother (Alison Fitzjohn) as she learns the news that her sick mother (Erika Poole) will be coming to stay, uninvited.

 

Clark Devlin imitates a child’s accent for the character of George. I was not initially convinced by it, as it was hard for me to come to terms with the fact that an adult actor was playing a child. But, as the story unfolded, the age factor ceased to exist.

Erika Poole, the nasty grandmother, had the task of displaying different character traits during George’s daydreams.  These ranged from idyllic grandmother (who quite frankly, was not as much fun!) to an evil witch, who was a lot truer to her character.

The moment where George conjures up various ways inside his head of how to scare his grandmother could be considered unsuitable for a very young age group.  It could have the potential of causing them nightmares, especially when George puts on the Scream mask.

 

An interesting question is raised before the lights black out for the interval. We can make a clear comparison between George’s father (Thomas Woodman) and seeing the advantages in using his son’s ‘marvellous’ medicine to make the farm animals larger, and the whole argument of GM crops. It is obviously more thought-provoking to the adults in the audience than to younger members. The farm animals themselves were manoeuvred by the actors who showed good skills in puppetry.  This seems to be quite the thing in theatre these days.

 

The actor who gave the most convincing and natural performance for me though was Alison Fitzjohn, who played the mother, whose bubbliness outshone the rest and reminded me of Dawn French.

You are without a doubt sent away from the theatre with a warm feeling inside you but I still remain a stickler for Rik Mayall’s Jackanory version of George’s Marvellous Medicine.  I have yet to see something that tops it!