JB Shorts 5
Wednesday 23 March 2011

The opportunity to see some of the north’s best TV writers stretching their theatrical muscles in a range of short, sharp 10-minute plays is yet again packing out the cellars below Joshua Brooks bar in Manchester.  The cream of local acting and directing talent is also on parade - both on stage and in the audience.  JB Shorts is becoming a kind of biannual smoking concert for Manchester’s thespian community, only the club’s doors are open to everyone.

As usual the programme contains an eclectic mix of styles and subjects: a comedy about a malfunctioning Sky box leads to an emotional crisis and a philosophical discourse on the transience of digital media; the quick buck promised by a clinical trial isn’t as consequence-free as it seems; a man’s desperate trip to a psychiatrist has shades of Blithe Spirit about it.

The most surprising piece is Peter Kerry’s My Poor Fool is Hang’d, which bucks the trend for contemporary realism with a fully rigged-out costume drama.  This sequel to King Lear featuring Kent (Russell Richardson), The Fool (John Catterall) and Cordelia (Annamarie Bayley) shows how indigestible the absolute truth can be, albeit in a rather obscure manner.

For a truly successful combination of comedy and drama you have to turn to Diane Whitley’s Snapshots.  Bill and Sally are the victims of a surprise 40th wedding celebration hosted by their doting granddaughter Zoë and her new beau Greg.  Zoë has compiled a slideshow of photographs which mark the major landmarks in a long and apparently happy marriage.  Using an ingenious device, which director Chris Wright handles with slick assurance, the pictures are brought to life by the two younger actors while the older Bill and Sally comment on the action.  Glenn Cunningham and Tom Tyler-Shaw are utterly convincing as the old and young Bill, a carefree rocker trapped by an unwanted pregnancy who grows into a sympathetic and likeable character.  Ruth Evans and Rachael McGuinness have a harder job to make the shallow Sally into someone the audience can care about, but they do forge believable partnerships with their respective Bills.  This script is one of the best things I’ve seen at JB Shorts and demonstrates how much can be achieved in just 15 minutes on stage.

The equally assured finale is by Dave Simpson, who also employs a flash-back device for We’re All In This Together.  Rookie comedian Jack (James Quinn) has taken to the stage in an open mic comedy night and is lambasting the coalition government with a series of pitiful gags.  Only a performer as assured and funny as James Quinn could make Jack’s deliberately amateurish act come across as hilarious.  Every time the stand-up pillories some new government policy the action flashes back to show the impact it’s had on Jack’s own life and how thoroughly he’s been betrayed.  Peter Slater is also good value as his nerdy friend turned Lib Dem councillor.  We’re All In This Together is very much a topical comedy, and arguably pure agitprop.  But on the day Manchester University announced maximum student tuition fees of £9K, and mere hours after George Osborne’s second budget, the response from the crowd was vocal and enthusiastic. 

Small wonder even successful TV writers whose audiences are usually counted in the millions still get a kick from having their work performed live on stage.

On until Sat 2 April (NOT Sunday 27)
7pm (doors 6.40pm)
JOSHUA BROOKS, 106 Princess Street, MANCHESTER M1 6NG
(The junction of Charles St and Princess St, at the side of the BBC)
All Tickets : £5 (Pay on the Door)

SUBS                                                    COCK TAVERN THEATRE, KILBURN

You don’t need to be a sub-editor to enjoy Subs, the latest offering from the Cock Tavern Theatre, Kilburn.
Set in the gloomy, generic office of Gentlemen Prefer…, 3 subs face repetitive days of spell checking, headline writing and colleague in-fighting..
Chief sub Derek, is hoping to be promoted and get rid of his moaning Minnie of a co-worker Finch, by sacking him. The ambitious office junior James, brown-noses Derek while ruthlessly having his own agenda to get ahead. Finch has fallen into addictive whinging and internet porn to get through the day, and given up all hope of ever moving on. However the unthinkable happens and Anna a young woman joins the team, signalling that the time has come for things to change both career wise and personally for the subs.
R.J.Purdey’s observant and often hilarious script is rife with catty and condescending remarks, and shows that men can be the biggest bitches in the office if provoked. The funniest lines are given to the semi-tragic and acerbic Finch, and are delivered with immaculate timing by the superbly cast Michael Cusick. Euan Macnaughton is convincing as Derek, the older man who has missed the career boat, and Naomi Waring is very likable as Anna. The play is tightly directed by Hamish Macdougall.
For fine acting, thought provoking drama and a hearty laugh, Subs is the play to see right now.

OLIVER VALENTINE  
                                                                                        Subs plays until 12th August
                                                                                                                 08444771000                                     

PAY AS YOU GO                              COCK TAVERN THEATRE

 

The Cock Tavern Theatre boldly continues with it’s policy of showcasing new writing talent with Steven Hevey’s play Pay As You Go.

Set in modern day Southend-on-Sea, Mark and his colleagues work in a mobile phone shop where scripted-selling, blokish banter, and sexual competitiveness dominates. With the exception of Tom a teenage employee, the other male workers are heading towards middle-age but persist with their laddish behaviour. Mark is tiring of this, has problems at home and is heading towards an emotional meltdown.

Hevey’s dialogue is strong and naturalistic, and the play ably takes on the theme of mis-communication - despite technology being designed to improve this. Face to face conversations are often blocked with constant text and call interruptions, and the mobile phone takes on a menacing persona through happy-slapping.

It is only towards the end of the drama that it seems to lose it’s way and feels more like a work in progress. There are lots of little scenes that that add little to the plot, and key themes are not fully developed. These however are small shortcomings to what is essentially a good piece.

Structurally the play could also have done with an interval. And this is not just because after an hour and a half in the hot and airless space of the auditorium, it became decidedly uncomfortable.

Samuel Miller’s direction is focused, and there are strong performances by Marc Geoffrey, Daniel Jennings and Richard Aloi, as the key players running the shop.

It is good to see Good Night Out Productions supporting new writers and directors, and as result maintaining it’s lead in producing some of the best innovative quality work on the London fringe.

 

OLIVER VALENTINE   

                                                        Pay As You runs until 14^th August.

                                                                    Box Office: 08444771000

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   

            

 

 

It’s been a long time since I saw a play at Taurus, and in the interim it has either been brilliantly revamped to make the tiny, cramped downstairs bar into a viable performance space with decent viewing lines, or emerging theatre company Organised Chaos have worked wonders to create an almost site-specific production which cleverly evokes the genteel and refined pleasures of an upmarket tearoom. 

We come down the basement stairs to find two couples tête-à-tête at neighbouring tables which are decked out with all the accoutrements of a leisurely and indulgent afternoon tea.  The white linen tablecloths, fine china, teapots and cafetières, not to mention the laden cake stands and mouth-watering array of pastries, made me want to summon a waitress and look at a menu at once - designer Alice Allen’s attention to detail is spot on.

What playwright Lindsay Kernahan and director Emma France then set up is a Siamese-twin of a comedy, with styles of writing and acting almost diametrically opposed, as the couples chat over their refreshments and intriguing stories come to separate but equally dramatic climaxes.

Jean (Celia Carron) and Poppy (Dianne Rimmer) are nicely turned-out ladies who lunch - or in this case, take tea.  Being of a certain age their conversations range across all the problems that can beset a woman in her middle years - ex-husbands, new partners, grown-up children, antisocial cats, transgender internet dating - that kind of thing.  With just a hint of the Cheshire Set about them (though that set is perhaps more Hollyoaks than Wilmslow) their bantering northern humour is reminiscent of Alan Bennett and Victoria Wood, and the characterisations are broad without being over-the-top.  I don’t know whether first-night nerves caused these scenes to played at a snail’s pace with Pinteresque pauses, but the snappy comic dialogue seemed to demand something a great deal less languid.

At the next table William (Laurence Pickford) and Abigail (Julie Burrow) are in a more modern and downbeat style of comedy.  William is divorcing his wife to be with his much younger girlfriend, but their long weekend away in the country is not turning out to be as romantic as anticipated, partly due to the age gap, and partly due to Abigail’s jealousy and William’s wandering eye.  The two actors establish a convincing relationship, conveying genuine emotion and even arousing our sympathy.  The humour comes less from the dialogue than the playing - small but true moments, such as when the slightly vain and self-absorbed William includes the whole audience in his lascivious stare, or glimpses his own smile in the wall mirror and stops to admire it.

Tonight’s performance really tweaked the audience’s funnybone.  If you miss the company’s work this time around there’s a further opportunity to catch one of their previous Taurus shows at the Buxton Fringe Festival this summer.

 

Evenings: 22nd to 24th April @ 7.30pm

Matinee: Sat 24^th @ 5pm

Tickets: £7 (£5 conc) from Quaytickets: 0843 208 0500 or www.quaytickets.com

 

Taurus Bar

1 Canal Street
Manchester

M1 3HE

 

www.organisedchaosproductions.co.uk

www.taurus-bar.co.uk

A BIG DAY FOR THE GOLDBERGS        NEW END THEATRE

 

A Big Day For The Goldbergs is a delightful new play that continues to maintain the high standard of work at Hampstead’s New End Theatre, and provides a family night out suitable for most ages.

The drama takes place in an ordinary semi-detached house in Leeds, where 2 teenage sisters are hiding secrets from their mother. Lucille is pregnant and Michelle is planning to run off to the circus. With a series of monologues that mimic their relations, the sisters cleverly bring the Goldberg home to life.

The one hour drama written by the New End’s artistic director Brian Daniels, is a witty observation of three Goldberg generations as seen through the two teenagers eyes. The characters endearingly and convincing played by Emma Gordon and Elisa Boyd, make this new work highly watchable.

The play is smoothly directed by Olivia Rowe, who also designed the nifty set for the production. Although playing to the generally older audience of the New End, the drama could just as easily work with teenage audiences, as its revelations also touch upon the interests of a younger market.

This charming play runs until 21^st March.                      

Box Office: 0870 033 2733

 

Oliver Valentine                                                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE GREAT AMERICAN SEASONAL SONGBOOK                      

                                                              NEW END, HAMPSTEAD

 

 

The Great American Seasonal Songbook, the second contribution from Toby Cruse productions, proves to be a another winner for the New End Theatre. This joyful musical romp is a tribute to the music that dominated the States from 1920-1960.

Written by the classic composers of the time such as Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Rogers and Hammerstein, it was period that saw an new style of music grounded in the structures of  Tin Pan Alley, and relying heavily on jazz.  Much of it was originally written for Broadway musicals or Hollywood movies, and became the pop of the time as the songs were picked up by legendary singers such as Ella Fitzerald, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra.

With the four seasons being the theme of the production there are nicely selected numbers that explore the emotions though out the year, and inevitably end up at the Christmas period.

There is outstanding musicianship from Andy Rumble on piano and Dave Olney on bass. They compliment each other perfectly, and despite their only being two of them they produce a sumptuously beautiful sound. With focused direction from Heather Simpkin the show happily bounces along. There are consummate performances by Louisa Parry and David Martin. Parry seems most at home with songs that have a  dramatic edge, and there are moving interpretations of Spring Will be a Little Late This Year, Stormy Weather and You’ll Never Walk Alone. Martin clearly has fun with the frothy numbers but is equally at home with more heartfelt songs like April in Paris and Autumn Leaves. Martin fully embraces the sprit of the show, is constantly mischievous and as gloriously camp as Christmas.

The Xmas section visits the classic holiday songs that have touched listeners from one to 92, and is a fitting way to end the evening.

The Great American Seasonal Songbook is a treat for anyone who appreciates wonderful vocal performances and great musical craftsmanship. This is the perfect Christmas gift for a loved one.

 

OLIVER VALENTINE                                                 

                                                                Box Office: 0870 033 2733