UK Theatre Network

James Burton
Lainey Shaw and Emma Fenney

When they move to Devon their caring, gossipy Aunt Jennings cannot wait to marry them off to eligible husbands. She has already selected Colonel Brandon for Marianne, seeing them as a perfect match: “He’s rich and she is handsome.” Marianne is not so inclined, especially when the Colonel begins complaining about his rheumatism. Instead she loses her heart to the wildly romantic Willoughby. Although Aunt Jennings feels sorry for Colonel Brandon she gets very excited about the prospect of Marianne marrying John Willoughby. Meanwhile Elinor is anxiously waiting to see Edward Ferrars when Lucy Steele comes to visit her and tells her a heart wrenching secret about Edward. When Willoughby suddenly leaves for London, Elinor tries to console her distressed sister, never mentioning her own situation. Aunt Jennings persuades them to travel to London with her where they have the chance of meeting Edward Ferrars and John Willoughby again.   

Bobbi O'Callaghan and Jason Eddy
Writers Roger Parsons and Andy Graham cut minor characters and subplots in their adaptation but the essence of the novel is very much present in the play. The props are used in the most imaginative ways – such as creating a coach for the move to Devon. In pivotal scenes, frames are held in front of the actors to emulate the family portraits that were so popular in the eighteenth century. The costumes are lavish (Design: Ellan Parry) and Aunt Jennings’ outfits are particularly stunning at times, complimenting her eavesdropping, meddling character.  One of the highlights of this production is undoubtedly a dance devised by director Helen Tennision that reflects the mental distress of the two heroines, accompanied by Benedict Davies’ dreamlike music.

The cast is excellent throughout. Emma Fenney is outstanding as the sensibly restrained Elinor Dashwood.  Bobbi O’Callaghan convinces as the incurably romantic and unrestrained Marianne Dashwood. The wonderful James Burton plays the wooden, seemingly dull Colonel Brandon who turns out to be quite different as well as the awkwardly charming Edward Ferrars. Jason Eddy is cruelly convincing as the seductive John Willoughby. Lainey Shaw is absolutely delightful as the constantly meddling but good-hearted Aunt Jennings. Francesca Wilding is the calculating Lucy Steele who hides her coldness behind a smile and the slightly mischievous Maid.

By Carolin Kopplin 

Until 19^th February

Tickets: £12 / £10 (conc.), Tuesdays £10 / £8 (conc.), Feb. 17^th, 18^th, 19^th : £12 / £10 (conc.)

Box Office: 020 7704 6665

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

Event Venues & Times
11/03/12 only	Norden Farm Centre for The Arts | Altwood Road, Maidenhead, SL6 4PF
21/03/12 only	Old Town Hall | High Street, Hemel Hempstead, HP1 3AE
Showing until 19/02/12	Rosemary Branch | 2 Shepperton Road, London, N1 3DT
22/04/12 only	Hawth | Hawth Avenue, Crawley, RH10 6YZ
09/05/12 only	Trinity Theatre | Church Road, Tunbridge Wells, TN1 1JP
23/03/12 only	Vera Fletcher Hall | 4 Ember Court Road, Thames Ditton, KT7 0LQ
Showing until 03/03/12	Yvonne Arnaud | Millbrook, Guildford, GU1 3UX
Showing until 20/04/12	Chelmsford Civic and Cramphorn Theatres | Fairfield Rd, Chelmsford, CM1 1JG
Showing until 12/05/12	Theatre Royal | Jewry Street, Winchester, SO23 8SB
Showing until 30/03/12	Royal Inn on the Park | 111, Lauriston Rd, London, E9 7HJ
Showing until 28/04/12	Devonshire Park Theatre | Compton Street, Eastbourne, BN21 4LP
16/03/12 only	The Firestation | St Leonards Road, Windsor, Sl4 3BL
Showing until 14/04/12	Ashcroft Theatre | Park Lane, Croydon, CR9 1DG
17/04/12 only	Theatre Severn | Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury, SY3 8FT

Corrie!

Darlington Civic Theatre

In 1960, the genius and passion of Tony Warren gave birth to a national treasure. Fifty years later, Jonathan Harvey should be tried for attempted murder.

As the familiar Coronation Street theme tune, composed by the late Eric Spear, filled the auditorium I was looking forward to Corrie! being an affectionate pastiche of Britain’s longest-running and, arguably, best-loved soap. Instead, what followed was a preposterous parody.

A mish-mash of montages were ‘cobbled’ together to give a cringe-worthy potted history of many of the most significant events to have taken place in Weatherfield during the past half a century. Although I never expected this ‘brand new play’, which has been ‘specially commissioned by ITV’ to feed the culture-vulture within me, even Jack Duckworth’s pigeons would have been hard-pushed to find a tasty morsel in this contrived concoction of crass caricatures and sensational scene send-ups.

If, as the programme notes claim, ‘Coronation Street was also part of the great wave of ‘kitchen sink drama’ of the 1950s’ then Corrie! has slid down the drain and come to rest in the gutter where it belongs.

Although I do not dispute the fact that the six actors on stage, Leanne Best, Simon Chadwick, Daniel Crowder, Jo Mousley, Peter Temple and Lucy Thackeray, work extremely hard playing a total of 55 characters between them – often in very quick succession – my gripe is that the mannerisms of each character were so exaggerated that they became less recognisable as a result. Thus, the performances contained enough ham to keep Alf’s Mini Market stocked for the next fifty years!

 

I also took umbrage with iconic characters such as Bet, Blanche, Audrey, Emily, Martha and Minnie being played by blokes. Despite the fact that there was an element of drag queen/panto dame to Bet, Julie Goodyear’s television performance, combined with some brilliant scripts, always ensured that behind the beehive, leopard-skin and dangly earrings we knew there was a real woman. This did not come across on stage.

Furthermore, Corrie! is described as ‘a new play’ but, in essence, it is not. Most of the scenes are performed as they were originally written, using the same dialogue that the original scriptwriters penned. Only the words of the narrator, who is played by a genuine Coronation Street actor at each performance (in this case it was Ken Morley, aka Reg Holdsworth), are original – and my guess is that even they were scribbled down on the back of a Newton & Ridley beer mat during a ten-minute tea break from Baldwin’s Casuals.

I am not sure who Jonathan Harvey has pitched Corrie! at, to be honest. After all, those who hate the soap wouldn’t pay to go to the theatre to see a stage play based upon it and those who love it will surely consider this offering as sacrilege. Indeed, I suspect the show would make their hair curl faster than a last-minute cancellation at Audrey’s salon.

Whereas Coronation Street could be best described as a quality soap that is able to produce a frothy lather, Corrie! is a cheap imitation that leaves a scummy residue ingrained in your mind.

Steve Burbridge.

Runs at Darlington until Saturday 7 May 2011, then tours to Ipswich, Northampton, Bradford, Southampton, Stoke, Brighton, Hull and Malvern.

 

     

Sex, drugs and... Trolls. Such is the life of “Peer Gynt”, probably Ibsen’s most surreal play which has now been updated in a brilliant Scottish adaptation by Colin Teevan.

The play is about young Peer, who despite his poor background has dreams of becoming rich and famous. After trying to leave the town where he has grown up, fleeing from his ex-girlfriend’s wedding with the bride. He then comes across the kingdom of the Trolls and is forced into marrying the Troll princess, although luckily managing to escape again. When we meet him later he is now much older and is selling arms in Africa, whilst trying to reinvent himself as the leader of a new cult.

This could easily become a very confusing play, but thanks to Teevan’s adaptation he keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. Dominic Hill also makes good use of the large stage, keeping it quite bare and allowing the scenes to be filled by the actors instead and giving the piece the feel of epic theatre.

Keith Fleming and Gerry Mulgrew both give fantastic performances as young and old Peer, showing great subtlety and engagement with the piece. Cliff Burnett is also superb as The Button Man, who helps to guide the audience through the maze of Peer’s life.

A very different, but very entertaining piece of theatre!

 

Listings:

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

17 to 20 June

Wed – Sat eves 7:00pm

Matinee, Sat 2pm

Tickets: £7.50 - £20

Box Office: 0131 248 4848

www.lyceum.org.uk

 

Then touring until 27 June

Birmingham Rep and the West Yorkshire Playhouse are presenting the first tour of Nicholas Wright’s adaptation of Philip Pullman’s internationally successful trilogy of books “His Dark Materials” (consisting of “Northern Lights”, “The Subtle Knife” and “The Amber Spyglass”). The books have often been compared to “Harry Potter”, but in fact go much deeper. They challenge our perceptions of religion and examine the importance of family and friends. In fact the books have caused a lot of controversy amongst Christian groups, as they believe the books champion atheism.

Despite this the story and the books themselves are beautifully written and Nicholas Wright has done a brilliant job of adapting the epic story into a six hour piece of theatre. Due to its length, the play has been split into two parts.

The story is set in a world similar to our own, except everyone has a daemon. A daemon is an animal, a companion that is part of us and stays with us throughout our lives. In this world Lyra, a young girl abandoned by her parents must discover the truth behind where she came from. She must rescue her friend Roger, who along with the other children is having his daemon cut away from him. And with the help of her friend Will she must fight to protect the future of the world and all other worlds.

It’s a superb story that is well told by the ensemble of actors. All of them play many different parts, except Amy McAllister who puts in a superb performance as the headstrong yet brave Lyra. The daemons are also brought to life by fantastic puppets by the Blind Summit company. The cast work well together in creating a fantastic adventure that not only entertains, but challenges and stimulates as well. They also make great use of Ruari Murchison’s simple and effective set in telling the story.

An epic, yet enthralling piece of theatre!

 

Listings:

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

21 to 24 May

Thu 7:00pm – Part One

Fri 2:00pm – Part One / 7:00pm – Part Two

Sat 2:00pm – Part One / 7:00pm – Part Two

Sun 1:00pm – Part One / 6:00pm – Part Two

 

Tickets: £15.50 - £23.00

Box Office: 0131 529 6000

www.eft.co.uk

 

Then touring until 20 June

“Be Near Me” is based on the Booker Prize nominated novel by Andrew O'Hagan and is a co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland and the Donmar Warehouse.

The play is about Father David Anderton, an English priest who is moved to the town of Dalgarnock on the Ayrshire coast. Dalgarnock is filled with sectarian hate and Father David soon finds refuge in the company of two local teenagers, Mark and Lisa. Father David’s relationship with Mark grows, until one fateful night he makes a decision that destroys his life and the lives of his closest friends forever.

John Tiffany makes good use of the ten actors to create a beautiful piece of theatre. Most of the actors play two or three different characters, which works well in conveying the many different types of people Father David comes across. Also his decision to use the cast as a choir, singing sectarian songs from both sides, helps to make you realize the pointlessness of religious hate when there is so little we don’t have in common with each other. This is ably helped by Davey Anderson’s music, which underscores a lot of the show.

The actors themselves are wonderful, working together as a true ensemble. It is hard to pick out any one performance, but due should go to Ian McDiarmid who plays the central role with such superb subtlety and makes us feel great sympathy for a character it could be easy to hate. McDiarmid also adapted the novel into the play and has successfully created a piece so powerful that you’d never know had been adapted from anything. Blythe Duff also gives a superb performance as Mrs Poole, Father David’s housekeeper, whose confession leads to his downfall.

An excellent piece of theatre. Well directed and filled with impeccably strong performances. Buy a ticket!

 

 

Listings:

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

15 to 18 April

Wed – Sat eves 8:00pm

Tickets: £5 - £16

Box Office: 0131 228 1404

www.traverse.co.uk

 

Then touring until 16 May.