UK Theatre Network

St Clements Wind Ensemble presents

Airy Delights

The St Clements Wind Ensemble (SCWE) return for their eighth consecutive year to bring an element of classical music to this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe with their enthralling concert AIRY DELIGHTS which will perform at Canongate Kirk for a limited run between Monday, 15 and Tuesday, 16 August at 5pm.

Described by press as a ‘classical gem’ that will ‘delight auditory senses’, AIRY DELIGHTS is a classical concert of four parts; conductor, Michael Round will lead 25 accomplished musicians who come to Edinburgh from across the UK and Europe, as they perform an eclectic repertoire that spans the late-Romantic and modern periods in four distinctly individual recitals featuring works from Gulda, Mahler, Liszt and Debussy. 

Previously unheard and unseen on the Scottish stage, the quirky and exuberant ‘Cello concerto’ by the late Austrian classical pianist cum Jazz composer, Friedrich Gulda will receive its Scottish Premiere as part of the performance, featuring Johannes Oesterlee of the acclaimed Frankfurt Museumsorchester as soloist. SCWE also honour the anniversaries of composers Franz Liszt and Gustav Mahler by premiering a new arrangement by Jonathan West of the ‘Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2’ as well as extracts from 'Das Lied von der Erde' (The Song of the Earth) in the arrangement by Schoenberg/Riehn sung by up-coming, young, lyric Tenor, Edward Hughes whose latest performance at the Berliner Philharmonie was described by critics as ‘formidable’.

Presented once a year by SCWE, AIRY DELIGHTS is an annual celebration of rare and unique music, paying particular attention to wood-wind arrangements and unusual instrumental combinations. Speaking about this year’s performance, SCWE founder Maren Heidemann comments: “We are delighted to be presenting such a varied repertoire with a wide-array of fine musicians at the helm and are thoroughly excited by the opportunity to present the Scottish premiere of the truly exceptional, Cello concerto by Gulda”.

AIRY DELIGHTS is a must for lovers of classical music and an easy introduction for casual listeners.  The concerts also provide those who wish to take time out from the fast-pace and hectic atmosphere of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with a moment to enjoy some calming relaxation.

Tickets can be purchased by contacting tel. +44 (0) 131 226 0000 or visit www.edfringe.com              

Show:                           AIRY DELIGHTS

Venue:                         Canongate Kirk, 153 Canongate, Edinburgh

Venue No:                    60

Dates:                          Monday, 15 - Tuesday, 16 August 11

Performance Starts:     17:00 daily

Running Times:            min 90mins (with interval)

Tickets:                        £10 / £7

Box Office:                   +44 (0) 131 226 0000 / www.edfringe.com

Keep It Simple – Midland Hotel

The Keep It Simple team all hail from the Newcastle area if their CVs are anything to judge by. And yet Dick Curran’s play seems to have more in common with a town approximately 100 miles south of the Tyne Bridge – Scarborough.

Alan Ayckbourn would have been proud of this classic English comedy of manners set at a family wedding. Sabena and Gawain are aiming for a relaxed and low-key affair in a calming Lakeland setting, but Sabina’s uptight mum Kate and insecure step-dad Doug are far from laid back at the prospect of Kate’s bohemian ex-husband Ted attending the nuptials.

There were times when I almost thought I was at the late lamented Library Theatre watching one of their Ayckbourn summer specials: even the flower-covered trellis and cast-iron garden furniture were like a flash-back to the set of Relatively Speaking in 2009. The cast deliver their lines with inimitable Ayckbourn-esque inflections, clearly aided by the very particular writing style of author Dick Curran.

The older actors are especially successful with their 360^o comic characterisations. John Sumner playing unimaginative chiropodist Doug, a man born to wear a checked shirt and beige slacks, peers over his specs in outrage and bemusement as his world reels. Shelley O’Brien as frazzled agony aunt Kate definitely needs a good dose of her own advice, but is essentially motherly and sympathetic. And Dennis Jobling as the feckless poet Ted, all trendy jeans, black satin shirt and well-groomed beard, is irrepressible. I suppose it’s inevitable that a poet should get all the best lines, but he has a run of stingers in the second act which steal the show.

Despite the Lake District setting there is something unutterably Home Counties about the entire enterprise. With one exception there’s no sign of a regional accent, the characters are all blamelessly middle-class, and the dramatic situation is one of social niceties rather than social upheaval. In short, all the ingredients for an evening of pure entertainment.

No Place Like Home - New Century House

Writer Rebekah Harrison deals with the painful and difficult subject of domestic abuse in this drama set in a women’s refuge. The writing feels really truthful as the characters deal with their disturbing pasts, the frustration of sharing space with complete strangers, the never-ending bureaucracy of the social services system, and the dreary mundanity of everyday existence.

Director Janys Chambers breaks away from the naturalistic nature of the script by deploying the cast of eight act as a chorus at the beginning of each scene, and talented young Trystan Chambers expresses his character’s inner turmoil via sequences of dance and movement.

No Place Like Home is not easy to watch, but the issues it addresses are very important.

www.247theatrefestival.co.uk has all the show information including video trailers

Sherica – Sachas Hotel

The word for several days has been that Sherica is well worth catching.  It’s written by Studio Salford regular Ian Winterton, so we kind of know what to expect: gritty, contemporary, near-the-knuckle and northern.  Studio Salford is establishing a reputation for itself as the brand name for a certain type of theatre in the way that Annie Horniman’s Manchester School of Playwrights did a hundred years ago. 

The story is set in a former fee-paying grammar school that has recently become an Academy.  So now rich, posh boys like Douglas (William Hutchby) are being educated alongside troubled students from deprived backgrounds like Natalie (Nicola Stebbings).  And a dinosaur like Mr Pope (David Slack), who wants to run the school the way he runs the Officers’ Training Corps, has to work with touchy-feely modern teachers like Mr and Mrs Feather (Oliver Devoti and Katy Slater).

So far, so Punk Rock - or Mogadishu, or Monster, or all those other issue-led right-on plays about Young People that the Royal Exchange insists on programming.  And sure, we get all the usual bad language and challenges to authority and home/school conflicts and bullying and so on.  But we also get a fruity parallel plot about a prostitute (Katie/Sherica – played by Ruth Middleton) and her unusual clientele.

Ian Winterton’s three teachers embody different educational approaches, beautifully demonstrated in a scene where they have to disarm a knife-wielding pupil.  (Alan Bennett tries the same thing in The History Boys, but it takes him an entire play to do it.)  Then in the second half he cleverly subverts our preconceptions about several of the characters with a sequence of very funny and dramatic twists where the stakes are high for all concerned. 

Katy Slater makes sensible art teacher Mrs Feather into a warm and vulnerable human being, and 24:7’s very own David Slack clearly enjoys the transformation from straight-as-a-die regimental sergeant major Mr Pope into a sneaky black ops expert.  William Hutchby also gives a fine account of the horrible snobby Douglas, a single-handed argument for the revival of corporal punishment in schools, if not capital punishment.

This is a fast-moving play with funky scene changes, though I was less keen on the shortness of the scenes themselves.  However Ian Winterton has mastered the technique of leaving gaps in the dialogue where the silence tells the story and the actors can really stretch themselves (good direction by Trevor MacFarlane).

Sherica is going to be at the Edinburgh Fringe next month if you can’t get to Manchester this week.

The Rainbow Connection - New Century House

Joanne Sherryden’s modern comedy of manners is a two-hander featuring TV favourites Anthony Crank and Danielle Henry.

Joe hasn’t been out of his luxurious penthouse flat for months because of the physical and mental damage caused by a bad car crash.  Shelly, who recently moved into the flat below, is trapped in a relationship that is never going to go anywhere.

As the mismatched pair share their problems and give each other confidence a contemporary kind of love springs up between them.

Joanne Sherryden knows how to craft, pace and develop a scene, and her play is very satisfying to watch, as well as being poignant and funny with some killer one-liners.

Anthony Crank and Danielle Henry’s characters constantly spar, bicker, fight and make up, with the audience always rooting for the happy ending.

Adam Zane’s production is slick and truthful.  A real audience-pleaser.

www.247theatrefestival.co.uk  has all the show information including video trailers

Tickets
£8/£6 (conc): book online from the 247 website (or turn up at the venues)

Venues
New Century House, Mayes Street entrance M60 4ES (200 metres from The Printworks, a stone’s throw from Victoria Station and Shudehill interchange)
Midland Hotel, Peter Street, M60 2DS (opposite St Peter’s Square tram stop)
Sachas Hotel, Tib Street, M4 1SH (just off Piccadilly Gardens)

On a fabulous summer’s day the centre of Manchester was buzzing with music from the International Jazz Festival, while in the bowels of various landmark buildings the 24:7 Theatre Festival continued with its mission to champion new writing.

The Shadow of Your Hand – Sachas Hotel

Sachas Hotel on the fringes of Manchester’s Trendy Northern Quarter™ proved even more quirky than I could have anticipated, as the Washington Suite sprung a leak resulting in last-minute shifts and technical compromises for some of the shows.

I was lucky to see Michael Stewart’s psychological drama The Shadow of Your Hand in its original, if slightly damp, venue. The script is intense in its own right, but it would have been a shame to miss out on the claustrophobic atmosphere created by an excellent lighting scheme.

The story focuses on the developing relationship between a lonely, middle-aged advertising exec (Stephen) and the homeless girl he’s brought back to his city-centre apartment.

Without much tweaking this two-hander could have been a monologue, as the character of Stephen completely runs away with the play. Gauche, shy and unintentionally hilarious, actor Steven Pindar seizes all the role’s wide-ranging scope for comedy, tragedy, pathos, braggadocio, craven cowardice and cruelty. Michael Stewart never loses an opportunity to give colour to the character through action or speech, creating an in-depth portrait of a flawed but sympathetic human being.

Although billed as The Servant meets Reservoir Dogs, the dynamic between Stephen and the girl fails to develop satisfactorily, and poor Rosie Fleeshman struggles to flesh out an almost entirely monosyllabic and unfathomable character. Such writing could work on film where lingering camera shots and extreme close ups would register the merest flicker of emotion and hint at layers of hidden meanings, but even the most intimate theatre venue can’t turn the audience into mind readers.

However the play is well worth catching for the star turn of Steven Pindar, and although the dominance of his character is to the ultimate detriment of the drama, the piece is still highly entertaining.

Peggy and the Spaceman – Sachas Hotel

This charming story for audiences aged 6+ is about the visit of Yuri Gagarin to Manchester in 1961, only a few months after his historical space flight. Peggy is being bullied at school, but an encounter with the Russian cosmonaut helps her to face her demons.

Peggy is sweetly played by Saira Choudhry, while Luke Roberts is great value as the spaceman, Peggy’s dad and an inspirational teacher. Eve Robertson is extremely versatile as the school bully, Peggy’s dog, and a cantankerous old lady.

Joyce Branagh directs her own script and uses an amazing box-of-tricks-on-wheels to move scenes seamlessly from classroom to kitchen to spaceship, while Janet Weston’s stunning costumes capture the pre-Beetles era. The production is so robust and focussed on character and story that even being deprived of its lighting design couldn’t spoil the show.

Flag - New Century House

Brian Marchbank’s Flag strongly reminded me of Trevor Griffiths’ classic play Comedians: not because Flag is also about stand-up comics, but because of its incredible power and dark drama.

Jimmy Earl (Darren Scott) is an old-school comedian for an old-school audience, touring the last of the working men’s clubs with his mildly un-PC act. Mark Poste (Matthew Stead) is a thrusting young writer more accustomed to student unions and the comedy club circuit.

Mark creates a monstrous character, retired squaddie Corporal Flag, who attacks every aspect of today’s tolerant and multicultural society – and recruits Jimmy to bring Flag to life in front of the kind of young, hip (and large) audiences the old pro has never enjoyed before.

Even though you think you know where the story is going, the writer adds more and more layers to the plot, and constantly redefines the characters before your eyes. The power dynamic between Mark and Jimmy shifts as their act becomes increasingly successful and controversial, until Jimmy can only regain control by momentarily channelling Flag and turning on his own creator.

Matthew Stead has the shallow and ingratiating manner of the young writer down to a tee, and his transformation into a ruthless and humourless powerhouse is totally convincing. Darren Scott is blessed with the classic lugubrious visage of the English comic through the ages – you could easily imagine him as one of the minor members of the Crazy Gang. But when he dons the regimental beret of Corporal Flag and dives into the audience to trade insults, he’s genuinely scary - don‘t sit on the front row if you like your theatrical fourth-wall unbroken!

Brian Marchbank has written a superb and subtle play that resonates in the mind long after the lights come up.

Future Shock - New Century House

Sci-fi so often seems to be about creating exciting new worlds, albeit worlds which have uncanny parallels with our own and which are inexplicably inhabited by two-dimensional characters.

Alas I found this to be the case with Richard Stockwell’s Future Shock, where a banking crisis, an ecological disaster, and the ethics around reproductive technology are still causing problems 1000 years in the future for a trio of off-the-peg archetypes.

The script goes to great pains to imagine the future for earth’s inhabitants and to create a back-story for the bemused Laura, who has been cryogenically frozen for the last 800 years, but in the end the play does little except gradually reveal these details; nothing actually happens.

Christine Clare, unrecognisable as the happy-go-lucky girl of 2009’s Freshers, gives a committed performance as an emotion-free Nazi-like clone. Alice Brockway’s Laura has a lot of shouty arguments with Nicoletta, and Phil Minns’ Stampfer, although sympathetic, is only a cypher.

However the production is beautifully designed and lit with that authentic sci-fi glow, and the costumes and props are worthy of Star Trek.

　www.247theatrefestival.co.uk has all the show information including video trailers

24:7 Theatre Festival, Manchester
21-29 July 2011




The International Festival has barely finished debuting an eclectic assortment of artistic commissions around the city, when Manchester’s original festival of new writing returns for its eighth consecutive year. 

The 24:7 Theatre Festival has selected 13 pieces from several hundred submissions for its annual showcase of freshly minted plays performed in unconventional spaces.  The 2011 season, extended to nine days this year, also encompasses rehearsed readings, skills workshops, 24 hour plays, after-hours music sessions, a comedy film night and a sketch show (all details on the website).

Activities have expanded over three venues.  As well as the extensive facilities of New Century House, and a welcome return to the plush surroundings of the Midland Hotel, there’s a new outpost at quirky Sachas Hotel on the fringes of Manchester’s Trendy Northern Quarter™.


Friday 22 July

The Crimson Retribution - New Century House

This is writer Steve Pearce’s third outing at 24:7, and also his most ambitious.  The Crimson Retribution is a mixture of live theatre and animated graphic novel that appears to be the bastard love-child of Sin City and Coronation Street. 

The arresting opening scene of a young woman being assaulted on the mean streets of Manchester plays against a projection of the city as imagined by artist and illustrator Hammo, and the dance-like fight sequence is choreographed by Laura Asbury in the same cartoony style.

In that context it seems only natural that our heroine (Amy – Emily Fleeshman) should be saved by a super-hero in a red face mask – though it’s slightly more unusual for said masked hero to take up residence in the flat she shares with her boyfriend Sean.

In fairness, Amy’s domestic arrangements are already pretty dysfunctional – the rent on the flat is being paid for by petty gangster Kyle, Sean’s half-brother, who in the best Pinter tradition is muscling in on Sean’s territory, namely, Amy. 

Steve Pearce’s script exploits all the comic possibilities of this wacky scenario, in addition to ramping up the drama with the sado-masochistic sibling relationship and the constantly shifting sexual tension.

Paul Sockett’s hilarious turn as the Crimson Retribution is absolutely in keeping with the classic square-jawed, all-American action hero, albeit one who makes a nice cup of tea.

David Degiorgio is delightfully creepy as the cruel and manipulative Kyle, and Alex Rogerson makes Sean both weak and sympathetic. 

Director Clare Howdon has clearly worked hard with her creative team to fashion a technically impressive and highly imaginative production.  It’s only budgetary and spatial considerations that stop this show from being as slick and flash as something staged by the National Theatre.

www.247theatrefestival.co.uk has all the show information including video trailers

Tickets
£8/£6 (conc): book online from the 247 website (or turn up at the venues)

Venues

New Century House, Mayes Street entrance M60 4ES (200 metres from The Printworks, a stone’s throw from Victoria Station and Shudehill interchange)

Midland Hotel, Peter Street, M60 2DS (opposite St Peter’s Square tram stop)

Sachas Hotel, Tib Street, M4 1SH (just off Piccadilly Gardens)

Blink Again!...Turn on the lights, The Stag Theatre’s third revue of songs from failed musicals has deservedly gained a popular following among musical theatre lovers.

Each song is given a back- story, and projections are aligned with posters from each production to keep the audience on track. 

Some numbers are parodied and this is most effective with Disney’s Part of Your World and Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid. The Umbrella’s Of Cherbourg is deservedly mocked, and a running gag based on the accident prone, - just about to open after a record number of months of previewing -Spiderman The Musical, was hilarious. Lord Of The Ring’s only memorable number Cat And The Moon, is also superbly satirised and choreographed by Tim McArthur.

The seven strong cast are put through their paces as they tackle a wide variety of song and dance styles. Jamie Lee gives a heart felt interpretation of China Doll (from Maguerite), and is equally effective with the brassy I Want To Go To Hollywood from Grand Hotel. Peter Navickas stops the show with a stunning rendition of If It’s Only Love from Metropolis, and Paul Brangan is moving with Grief Never Grow’s Old from the musical Oscar. Together Brangan and Navickas deliver a gorgeous duet with Lilly’s Eyes. The only thing that let the show down was the consistently poor delivery of the spoken links by some of the younger cast who seemed to be dazzled at having to speak directly to the audience

Blink Again! is a must for any musical theatre lover who might have missed a hidden gem of a song because a show’s commercial success was short lived.  By picking some of the best songs from the worst musicals and giving them the ‘McArthur’ make-over , the Blink sequels  ensure that their future is a winning one.

Blink Again! runs until July 2^nd.

OLIVER VALENTINE

                                                                                                                               

ABOVE THE STAG THEATRE

15 Bressenden Place
London SW1E 5DD
(directly behind the Victoria Palace Theatre,
100 metres from Victoria station)

Above The Stag Theatre is air-conditioned

http://www.abovethestag.com/

The Strange History Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde at the New End Theatre is one of the best one man shows to be seen in London this year, and is not to be missed.

Performed just a stone’s throw from the home where R.L. Stevenson originally created his 1886 novella, it seems fitting that this spine-chilling story is staged at Hampstead’s former mortuary.

Dr Jekyll is an ordinary and gentle man who explores his darker side by creating a home-made drug that releases an uncontrollable monster who terrorises London.  It shows the psychological struggle of a man who, having once liberated his sensuality, then struggles to control it.

The script by Iain Macfarlane and directed by his alter ego Iain Ormsby-Knox, has been edited down to great effect. It is essentially an actor’s piece, and although only 40 minutes long, the precise adaptation gives Norwegian-born performer Jorn-Bjorn Fuller-Gee, a dream opportunity to show off his considerable talents. Oozing charisma, he is totally memorising as he uses physical acting and vocal skills to transform himself from the cultured Doctor Jekyll to the hairy, claw-handed monster Mr Hyde.

In this low budget, minimalist set production there are no special effects, and clever use of lighting and sound create atmosphere.  It is a nice reminder that back to basics theatre still exits.

The Strange History Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde has deservedly won multiple awards in Canada and Europe.  The normally reserved audience of the New End gave it thunderous applause. Catch this theatrical treat while you can as it only plays until 8^th May.

OLIVER VALENTNE                             Bookings: 08700332733

 

Cleveland Street -The Musical, a colourful homage to Victorian melodrama and music hall, tells the tale of prostitution, hypocrisy and cover-up, in a time when moral values were claimed to be at their highest.

Set in 1889 four years after homosexuality was made illegal, the musical is based on the true story of the recruitment of Post Office Telegraph boys for a male brothel at 19 Cleveland Street. It became a source of popular scandal when it was alleged that one of it’s clients was Queen Victoria’s grandson Prince Eddy, the son of the Prince of Wales, who was second in line to the throne. Further investigations suggested that some of the most influential members of London society were regular visitors to the male whore house, including the Earl of Euston. Using influence and cash to cover up his indiscretion, he successfully sued the North London Press for libel after the paper published a story naming him as a punter. The owners of the brothel escaped punishment by fleeing abroad, and unjustly it was one of the telegraph boys who bore the brunt of the new laws against gay sex. Moral condemnation of homosexuality was further cemented in 1895, with Oscar Wilde’s imprisonment in Reading gaol.

The script by Glenn Chandler (of Taggart fame), often goes for the lowest common denominator, and unimaginatively relies too much on double entendres and thigh slapping humour that wears quickly. It is only in the second half when Chandler explores legal corruption, social double-standards and tabloid scandal, that the writing convincingly comes into it’s own. The music by Matt Devereaux, does its best with Chandler’s overly clichéd  lyrics, and has some pleasant but generally unremarkable numbers. However Climbing The Ladder, Passing The Buck, with its clever take on the legal system, (carried by a fine performance by Joe Shefer), was a surprise diversion to this, and One House, Two People, Three Canaries, along with the moving reprise of I Was There, offered the few opportunities to musically allow the vulnerability of the characters to shine through.

The cast work well together as an ensemble. Josh Boyd Rochford and Fanni Compton, are wonderful as the ruthless madams of the piece, and Paul Brangan is impressive as the ageing rent boy John Saul. Tim McArthur’s precise direction and choreography holds the piece together, and Fiona Russell’s set which includes a delightful representation of a Victorian stage, is flatteringlylit by Chris Withers.

Despite some flaws, Cleveland Street is undeniably very entertaining, and this was reflected by the loud applause of an appreciative audience who seemed engaged from beginning to the end.

OLIVER VALENTINE                                                                       Runs until 29^th May.

Playwright Nicola Schofield was one of the earliest talents to emerge from the Royal Exchange/Bruntwood new writing competition with her script, Maybe Tomorrow.  Now award-winning theatre company Organised Chaos Productions has seized the opportunity to stage her latest piece, a tense drama called Peacefully at Home.

A lingering and painful deathbed is the classic situation which has brought together a sundered family, leading to scenes of conflict as long-buried secrets come to the surface.  Bridget, the seemingly devoted wife of the dying man, is joined by her old friend Una; and practical, stay-at-home son Chris meets up with his very different brother, James, who in spite of being the dreamer was the one who escaped from the country to the big city.

Nicola Schofield skilfully sets up an apparently close and devoted family which then falls apart before our eyes; the shocks keep coming right up to the very last moment.

In their brief scenes together Lee Joseph as Chris and Chris Brett as James create a genuine mood of long-standing intimacy and brotherly affection.  The most impressive performance comes from Laura Littlewood as James’s smug yummy-mummy wife Sarah.  There is real truth in the writing of this character, and Laura Littlewood plays her with conviction and confidence. 
 
Set designer Jonathan Ingham creates an economical yet suggestive staging for the comfortable and attractive family garden.  Director Emma Hatcher is faithful to the drama’s ebbs and flows, letting the characters develop at a leisurely pace - however the play could do with some judicious trimming because there isn’t enough story to justify its current length. 

While not quite as successful as last winter’s production of Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell, Organised Chaos should be congratulated for continuing to champion new writing and local acting talent.

Peacefully at Home
Presented by Organised Chaos Productions
Taurus Bar, Canal Street, Manchester
Wed 6 - Sat 9 April 2011 @ 8pm (7pm on Thurs 7)
£7.50/£5.50 (conc)
www.organisedchaosproductions.co.uk