UK Theatre Network

Dick Whittington

The Tyne Theatre & Opera House

‘Three things are required at Christmas time; Plum Pudding, Beef and Pantomime; Folks could resist the former two; Without the latter none could do.’

Times may have changed since the above rhyme appeared on an old pantomime handbill, but sentiments haven’t and pantomime remains an integral and essential part of Christmas for many families and theatres across the country. Indeed, for many theatres, the panto is their lifeblood – it is what keeps them afloat financially for the rest of the year. For me, personally, a trip to see ‘the Geordie pantomime’ at the resplendent Tyne Theatre & Opera House, a Grade 1 listed theatre, situated in the heart of Newcastle, is as much a part of Christmas as turkey and all the trimmings.

The Newcastle Panto Company have brought their traditional brand of pantomime to the venue, annually, for a number of years now and audiences return in their droves, each festive season, to see stalwarts including ‘Maxie & Mitch’, Kevin O’Keefe, Charlie Richmond and Catherine McCabe do what they do best – make people laugh.

This year’s production of Dick Whittington brings together the familiar faces and introduces a couple of new ones. As usual, writer and director Brendan Healy has ensured that the show ticks all the right boxes: beautifully detailed sets and scenery; colourful costumes; comedy capers; Geordie dialects and references; boy meets girl; romance and adventure; good triumphing over evil, etc, etc. However, the winning formula has been somewhat changed and, as a result, the show suffers slightly because of it.

As usual, Billy Mitchell (Long John Slavver) and Max Peters (Captain Scuttle) are the comedy double-act that audiences know and love. Yet, without Kevin O’Keefe’s Dame to bounce off, they seem slightly disconcerted. Instead, we have Terry Joyce (making his pantomime debut as Bessie the Cook) serving up more irksome impressions than culinary cuisine and demonstrating a total unsuitability for the part, whilst Kevin O’Keefe is relegated to the dual role of Alderman Fitzwarren and The Sultan of Morocco – both of which are thankless parts, limiting him considerably.

Charlie Richmond retains the role of the simple sidekick, this year playing Idle Jack to Catherine McCabe’s principal boy, and he displays a great rapport with the children who are brought on stage towards the end of the show. Samantha Phyllis Morris, as Alice Fitzwarren, plays principal girl for a second consecutive year and does exactly what the role requires of her – looks attractive, sings sweetly and swoons over Dick Whittington.

Jayne Mackenzie (who was last with the company in Aladdin, two years ago) returns as a campy-vampy Queen Rat and, despite being the strongest singer in the cast, tends to deliver her dialogue with such volume that one might think she intended it to be heard in the auditorium of the Theatre Royal. Resident choreographer Emily Swan also plays possibly the most rewarding of all ‘skin’ parts, Moggie the Cat.

There’s no doubt that this particular version of Dick Whittington has all the hallmarks of a great pantomime, provided that some attention is given to certain scenes. With a bit of tightening here and a spot of trimming there, I’m sure that the Newcastle Panto Company will be back on top form faster than you can say ‘Ship Ahoy!’

Steve Burbridge.

Dick Whittington runs until 2 January 2012.

The Glass Slipper

Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne

It was with optimistic anticipation that I took my seat at Northern Stage to watch their Christmas production, The Glass Slipper. The venue has a reputation for taking well-known folk/fairy tales and giving them a strong local twist through the use of North East settings, dialect and music, which worked to especially great effect in their 2008/09 production of Hansel and Gretel.

This season Stephen Sharkey (writer) and Erica Whyman (director) once again collaborate to re-tell the tale of Cinderella. Again they demonstrate inventive creativity by placing the story in 18^th century Newcastle. Set in the 1780’s, when Newcastle was the largest glass-producing centre in the world, Ella Humbleton (Laura Riseborough) lives in fashionable Summerhill Square, tucked away behind Westgate Road. Her widowed father, Sir Henry (Ian McLaughlin), a glass-maker, is often abroad on business trips and Ella occupies herself as a music teacher to the precocious children of wealthy families to pass the time. However, Ella’s life is to change significantly, for the worse, when Sir Henry corresponds to inform her that he has re-married and she now has a step-mother and two step-sisters, who will arrive from Richmond, Surrey, imminently.

The promising opening scene, which takes place in 1860, is beautifully staged. Ella’s mother, Isabella (Ann Marcuson), has just given birth and, in doing so, has lost a lot of blood. She realises that death approaches and spends her last moments comforting her newly-born daughter, reassuring her that, in times of trouble, she will never be far away. Such a poignant scene raised my expectations, only for them to be dashed as the narrative progressed.

The problem with The Glass Slipper is easily identifiable – it doesn’t know what it wants to be. It is neither a play nor a pantomime and this lack of a distinct identity relegates it to what can only be described as a theatrical ‘no man’s land’. There are scenes in which the production takes itself far too seriously, rendering them contrived and conceited, and others in which references to modern popular culture (including the ‘macarena’ dance) undermine the painstaking attention to historical accuracy that is abundantly evident in everything from Angela Simpson’s sumptuous costume design to Sam Kenyon’s musical compositions, which perfectly reflect the period. The result is something of a messy mish-mash of past and present.

Sharkey’s script gives the performers little to work with and I was uncertain as to why so much was made of Prince Hubert’s (Will Featherstone) obsession with hot air ballooning. It did nothing to facilitate the narrative progression and could easily have been omitted entirely. The only positive consequence of this superfluous sub-plot was Ella’s arrival at the Alnwick Castle ball in an impressive hot air balloon, rather than the traditional pumpkin coach. Whyman’s direction, too, is cumbersome and there are a number of longueurs, during which my attention began to wander.

As might be expected, the pretentions of the writer and director had an unfortunate effect upon performances. Bev Fox (as wicked step-mother, Augusta Snifflewick) and Ian McLaughlin (doubling-up as Sir Henry Humbleton and King George III) are the only locally-known ‘names’ and they appeared distinctly ill-at-ease away from their comfort zone of The Suggestibles, the improvisation-based comedy group of which they are both members. I was disappointed, too, by Laura Riseborough’s portrayal of Ella. The characterisation, which was haughty and aloof, had her mocking the students under her tutelage, feigning illness to avoid teaching them and displaying an unwarranted and unappealing, objectionable attitude towards the Prince. Nor did I feel she was visually-suited to the role. Only Ann Marcuson, in her portrayal of the guardian spirit of Isabella, Ella’s mother (who entered, at times of turmoil, through a gilt portrait frame) demonstrated herself worthy of singular praise.

Whether it was due to uninspired writing or technical laziness, the transformation scene was totally devoid of any magic whatsoever. No waving of a magic wand, no flashes of light or puffs of smoke – in fact no real ‘transformation’ as such. Simply, a case of Isabella’s spirit asking Ella if she liked the ball-gown, Ella replying that she did and Isabella telling her to go and put it on then! The children in the audience must have felt robbed and cheated – I know I did! The fact that they remained so impeccably quiet throughout the show can, perhaps, be attributed to the probability that they’d fallen asleep from boredom rather than the possibility that they were enthralled by the production.

Often, during the Christmas season, I am tempted to make a return visit and see certain productions or pantomimes for a second time. Would I consider watching The Glass Slipper again? Suffice to say that the thought of gouging my own eyes out with a soup spoon seems infinitely more appealing!

Steve Burbridge.

The Glass Slipper runs until Saturday 7 January 2012

Real art belongs to everyone.

 Produced by Newcastle's acclaimed Live Theatre and following sell-out seasons at the National Theatre and on Broadway, The Pitmen Painters is now touring the UK prior to opening in the West End. Written by Lee Hall of Billy Elliot fame and directed by Max Roberts The Pitmen Painters has won the Evening Standard award for Best New Play. 

In 1934, a group of Ashington miners hire a tutor, Robert Lyon, to teach an art appreciation class.  Lyon quickly realises that an academic survey of Renaissance art is unlikely to hold his pupils’ interest as most of them had to leave school at the age of 11 and have never been to an art gallery. Once he has changed his course plan from having his students merely looking at art to actively creating it, the pitmen eagerly enter dialectical debate about the meaning of art. Their work first attracts the attention of Helen Sutherland, a local shipping heiress, who collects modern art and confronts the miners with paintings by Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson. Within a few years the most avant-garde artists become their friends and their work is exhibited in major art galleries.

  

 Lee Hall has written a social document that can be considered an attack on the injustice and absurdity of the recent cuts in arts funding and education. Although Hall clearly states that art cannot change society, only political action can, his play makes it quite clear that the arts are for everyone and should not be restricted to the middle and upper classes. Hall’s play is funny, touching and poignant. The debates about the truthfulness and meaning of art do not obscure the harsh reality of the  miners’ lives. Yet there are very comical scenes as well such as the scene when the budding artists find themselves face to face with a female life model.

The outstanding cast includes Trevor Fox as Oliver Kilbourn, the most talented of the Ashington miners, who has to choose between loyalty to his group and private patronage, Deka Walmsley as the meticulous local official, Michael Hodgson as the Marxist dental mechanic who would rather do a course in economics but sees the merit of political art, and David Leonard as the inspirational tutor who will abandon the group that launched his career in academia.

Until 16 July 2011

Richmond Theatre
The Green
Richmond
Surrey
TW9 1QJ

Box Office
0844 871 7651

http://www.atgtickets.com/1070/659/Richmond/Richmond-Theatre/The-Pitmen-Painters-Tickets

It’s just another day in down-town Newcastle as under-employed architect Phil sits in his high-rise office, brooding over the post-industrial cityscape and waiting for the hands on the clock to strike “elevensies”.  But his caffeine cravings are interrupted when a sultry saxophone solo announces the arrival of a mysterious blonde.  Ella has sashayed into his life in search of a rare recording by one of the early jazz greats, Buddy Bolden.  There are just two flaws in her plan: she’s in the wrong office (the private dick’s downstairs); and Buddy Bolden never cut a record.

Phil’s intrigue is further piqued by hot information from his caffeine-dealer, Frank-from-the-coffee-shop, who gives him the low-down on a dodgy-sounding city regeneration scheme being proposed by a bunch of southerners (boo, hiss).  This leads our accidental PI to infiltrate Fat Jack’s jazz club, and later crash an invitation-only urban planning presentation under cover of a tray of award-winning panninis.  The consequences are unexpectedly rewarding for Phil, until the world-wide recession throws in a wild card.

If you enjoyed Alan Plater’s classic 1985 TV comedy-drama The Beiderbecke Affair, then you’ll love his new work Looking for Buddy, which contains many of the same eclectic ingredients – the spoof film noir style, a critique of capitalism filtered through the prism of local government, and the quest for a rare jazz record.  But fittingly Looking for Buddy isn’t merely a comedy-drama, but also a musical, so we also get the huge bonus of brand new songs composed by band leader Alan Barnes, and a live jazz quartet led by musical director Howard Gray (nicely integrated with the action).

Tim Healy (Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Billy Elliot) takes centre-stage as a convincingly ramshackle Phil, soliloquising in the best hard-bitten, semi-confessional Chandleresque manner.  Plater’s dry northern humour is delivered by the whole cast in a clever hybrid of broad Geordie and Philip Marlowe, which at first takes a little adjustment for Bolton-based ears.  And although some of the local references will make more sense when the production transfers to Newcastle, the enthusiasm and warmth of the multi-talented cast needs no gloss or translation.

Joe Stathers-Tracey has designed a continuous multi-media backdrop to flesh out the locations, but frankly the script, music and acting evoke the sense of time and place so well that it seems almost superfluous.  Director Mark Babych has come up with yet another production which is a credit to the Octagon – it’s fantastic that a whole new audience on the other side of the country will have the opportunity to experience it too.

Looking For Buddy is on at Bolton Octagon until Saturday 25 April 2009

Tickets: from £9.00

Evenings: Mon-Sat at 7.30pm

Matinees: Wednesday 15 April and Saturday 25 April @ 2pm

Box Office: 01204 520661

www.octagonbolton.co.uk