UK Theatre Network

Let's do it - let's fall in love!

^{Ruth Pickett, Ruth Lass, Kenneth Price, and Miles Mitchell
-- Photo by Hermione Hardwick}

Angela Lonsdale, Amita Dhiri, Denise Black and Sarah Smart - 
Photo by Richard Davenport

We’re none of us safe. We’re our worst enemy, aren’t we?

In November the Finborough Theatre presented thirteen new plays as part of “Vibrant 2012 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights”. December is also devoted to new writing - the “Papatango New Writing Festival” (in partnership with the Finborough Theatre). This year’s competition saw 700 entries from all over the world and one of the two winners is Pack by Louise Monaghan. 

A play tackling issues of class as a dividing factor, cultural differences and the rise of the BNP, Pack tells the story of four women in Leeds who meet up once a week for Bridge lessons. As the three women are taking their first steps, guided by their patient instructor Dianna, they talk about their families and backgrounds. Deb and Stephie are working class girls; Nasreen is a doctor and Dianna the teacher of Stephie’s boy Jack. As they slowly get to know each other, their budding friendship is jeopardised when Stephie's fourteen year old son, Jack, is implicated in a brutal racist attack – doubtlessly inspired by the hate speeches of the BNP - that lands an eleven year old Pakistani boy in hospital. 

 

Amita Dhiri and Sarah Smart - Photo by Richard Davenport

This play is about bigotry versus tolerance. Stephie’s husband Simon, a taxi driver, is involved in the BNP and Dianna thinks she has him figured out as a hateful racist. But Simon donates money to help children in an African country. Nasreen is a Muslim, married to a Hindu who makes a living by selling wine – something Nasreen cannot condone. Although they have frequent arguments Nasreen is loyal to her husband, and therefore understands Stephie who refuses to leave Simon although she does no share his radical views. Deb is a single mother who struggles with raising her teenage son Paul. Touchy and somewhat abrasive, she tries to hide the fact that Paul has learning difficulties. Nasreen’s 7-year old son Sanjay is so gifted that he will take his GCSEs in a few months and Jack has won contests in maths which brings Nasreen and Stephie even closer together and isolates Deb. When Jack is accused of clubbing a boy half to death with a cricket bat, Nasreen turns away from Stephie.   

Director Louise Hill created an intense production of this poignant drama with an outstanding cast. Sarah Smart is excellent as the good-natured Stephie who tries very hard to do the right thing. Amita Dhiri plays Nasreen with quiet intensity and dignity. Denise Black convinces as the well-meaning, somewhat self-righteous teacher who tries to guide her students to the right path. Angela Lonsdale conveys Deb’s vulnerability and helplessness as the single mother of a teenage boy. 

Do not miss this extraordinary new play!

By Carolin Kopplin

Until 22 December 2012 

Finborough Theatre
118 Finborough Road
London
SW10 9ED

http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/productions/2012/papatangonewwritingfestival-pack.php 

I’ve never been prejudiced, and you know it. 

Almost everybody has seen the award-winning film Driving Miss Daisy with Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, based on Alfred Uhry’s 1987 play. This heart-warming story about an elderly southern lady and her kind-hearted chauffeur, whose working relationship eventually grows into friendship, spans 25 years - from 1948 to 1973, a time when major societal and political changes were taking place in the United States, most of all in the South. This story reflects those changes, yet on a more personal level as the two characters learn to overcome their differences and to rely on each other. Originally cast with Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones in the leading roles when it opened in the West End, the show now features Gwen Taylor and Don Warrington for the UK tour.

Daisy Werthan, a 72-year old matriarch, has just had another accident with her car. Therefore, her son Boolie decides that it is about time she stops driving and suggests getting a chauffeur. Miss Daisy is strongly opposed to the idea because she considers a chauffeur too expensive and completely unnecessary. Boolie interviews suitable candidates anyway and eventually hires Hoke Coleburn, who is getting on a bit himself. Miss Daisy won’t let Hoke drive her at first but after about a week of Hoke waiting around doing nothing she decides that he may as well drive her to the Piggly Wiggly. In the beginning, their conversation is somewhat one-sided as Miss Daisy thinks they have nothing in common: “Why do I talk to you? You won’t understand me.” As they get to know each other Miss Daisy, a former teacher, helps Hoke learn how to read and write, giving him a study book for Christmas. It is not a real gift though as Miss Daisy points out: “Jews don’t give Christmas presents.” When the Temple in Atlanta goes up in flames in 1958 due to the Jewish support for the civil rights movement, Miss Daisy realizes that she and Hoke have more in common than she had expected.  

Gwen Taylor is excellent as the sharp-witted and stubborn Miss Daisy as she battles with her increasing age and the limitations that come with it. Don Warrington is superb as Hoke Coleburn, a patient and good-humoured man who is trying to lead a decent life in a hostile and racist society. Ian Porter gives splendid support as Boolie Werthan who tries to do his best for his ageing mother while running a stressful business.

If you are looking for a nice evening out, go and see this show.

By Carolin Kopplin

The show runs until 27 October 2012 at the Richmond Theatre.

Richmond Theatre, The Green, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1QJ

http://uktheatrenet.ambassadortickets.com/whatson.aspx

National Tour:

Theatre Royal Bath, 29 October - 3 November

Malvern Theatre, 5 - 10 November

Theatre Royal Brighton, 12 - 17 November

Derby Theatre, 19 - 24 November

Lumenis Theatre in association with Southwark Playhouse presents

There’s Only One Wayne Lee and Magical Chairs by Roy Williams and Mary Mazzilli, a  Double Bill of intercultural theatre as part of London- Beijing Connections. These two plays were double billed because Lumenis Theatre felt that there was a strong need to represent and give a voice to ethnic minority communities in a context that reflects our everyday lives. This double bill brings together the London African-Caribbean and Chinese communities in intertwined stories.

Magical Chairs by Mary Mazzilli

You don’t want to play with me, do you?

Magical Chairs is an allegorical experimental piece, an absurd play loosely based on Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs. Two trapped Magicians are trying to escape a room filled with chairs whilst a radio announcer describes the plight of abandoned and homeless chairs as if they were children.  After all the smoke from the dry ice has cleared we see two young people grappling with growing up and adverse social attitudes to youth.  Mazzilli means to achieve that the audience is brought to look at universal truths foreshadowing the consequences of our preconceptions and choices on the youth of today by storytelling. She sees the play as a dystopian scenario where young people live at bay, with no boundaries and little control over their environment and themselves.  

The incompetent Magician (Chris Chan) considers himself the Greatest Magician of Chairs. Alexandre is only his assistant but thinks of himself as a far better magician: “I just don’t want to embarrass you in front of your chairs.” Director Jonathan Man introduces a veritable chair choreography as the two actors move through an atmosphere of Endgame struggling to escape.

Playing football is the way to go.

 Willams’ play is based on There’s Only One Wayne Matthews, a story of friendship between two Black British teens. Jonathan Man originally directed this as a work-in-progress performance at Contact Theatre showing the experience of growing up in modern Britain. This production re-imagined the piece as a unique coming of age tale, where Wayne, a bookish British Chinese teen unexpectedly befriends Carl, the British African Caribbean school football captain.  Set in 1970s Britain, where racism and intolerance were brazen and rife, this production shows what it means to try to fit in contemporary Britain, and the hitherto unexplored parallels and divergences between the different diasporas.

 Carl Wilkins and Wayne Lee –“the Irish Pelé” - both dream of becoming great footballers with Carl being somewhat closer to his goal than Wayne as Chelsea is interested in the talented boy whereas Wayne usually “falls on his arse” when he tries to kick the ball. Wayne simply idolises Carl, he strives to be like him. The play shows the life of those two boys at school and at home. Wayne’s brother Dennis runs the household since their mother died which left their father devastated and weak and Wayne without any respect for him. Carl lives with his mother and his irritating sister Chantelle. Carl’s girlfriend is white, her family doesn’t know of his existence. This play is very funny without shirking the more serious questions. The relationship between Wayne and Carl and Wayne’s learning process are the heart of the story. Alexandre Ross and Chris Chan play all the roles with sometimes outrageously funny results.

Alexandre Ross and Chris Chan  are truly exceptional in both productions.

Until 3 SEPTEMBER 2011

Show starts 7.45pm Tue-Sat Matinee Starts 3.15pm Sat
Running Time 110 minutes with an interval Price £10

Vivienne Franzmann was a joint winner of the 2009 Bruntwood playwriting competition, and her winning script Mogadishu is now being premiered in the Royal Exchange’s main house.

In contrast with the exotic title (a fleeting reference to middle-class teenage gap years) the setting is a present-day inner-city school where a black schoolboy’s assault on a white female teacher becomes bizarrely twisted into an allegation of violence and racism by her on him.  

Mogadishu is part examination of the downside of political correctness (cf David Edgar’s 2008 Testing the Echo, coincidentally also directed by Matthew Dunster), and part illustration of the devastating consequences when a lie gets out of control (also themes in The Children’s Hour and The Crucible).  However because the playwright’s intentions are entirely invested in exonerating the teacher there is never any ambiguity in the drama (the events are clearly laid out in the first scene), and while the tragic back-stories flesh out the characters and provide some moments of tension they don’t raise the overall stakes.  

I might have felt more emotionally involved if Vivienne Franzmann’s central character, the supposedly experienced, dedicated and savvy teacher Amanda, hadn’t been the least believable character on stage.  Even when played with as much conviction as an excellent actor like Julia Ford can muster, Amanda’s naivety, credulity and apparent unfamiliarity with school, local authority and child protection procedures beggar belief.

However I have nothing but praise for Matthew Dunster’s fast-paced and spirited production, and the acting is universally brilliant.  The versatile Ian Bartholomew excels yet again as a harassed, crumpled, spiritually beige head-teacher, while Fraser James and Christian Dixon are sympathetic as parents of difficult adolescents.

However the evening is stolen by the school children, a group of diverse, recognisable and memorable characters that would do credit to Shakespeare.  Malachi Kirby is mesmerising as Jason, the confused, vulnerable and seemingly amoral man-child, easily switching between chilling school bully and browbeaten son.  The comically nerdy Firat (Michael Karim) and passionate goth Becky (Shannon Tarbet) are also fine, contrasting well with Jason’s streetwise and cynical gang (Farshid Rokey, Tendayi Jembere, Tara Hodge, Savannah Gordon-Liburd and Hammed Animashaun).

Tom Scutt’s design of a revolving stage encircled by a high mesh cage is a massive sight-line problem if you’re not watching from the gods, and the whole-scale switching of sets between scenes (something of a Dunster trademark) is a distraction, but while Mogadishu is not an especially thought-provoking or revealing play it is still a thoroughly enjoyable evening at the theatre.

Mogadishu is on until Saturday 19 February 2011

Prices: £9-£30

Evenings: Mon-Fri @ 7.30pm; Sats @ 8pm

Matinees: Weds @ 2.30pm; Sats @ 4pm

Box Office: 0161 833 9833

www.royalexchange.co.uk

I’m one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Why should I be responsible if you refuse to see me?

Based on Ralph Ellison’s first novel (published in 1952) Shining Myriad Theatre Company tells the story of a man who is invisible simply because people refuse to see him – a condition shared by African Americans and other individuals in the twentieth century and beyond.

Performed by the charismatic actor Vinta Morgan as a monologue this play distills the essence of the novel and brings it to a horrifying conclusion. Surrounded by lights, wires and cables the Invisible Man lives in his warm home in Harlem listening to Louis Armstrong who made „poetry of being invisible“, smoking, and taking the occasional swig from a bottle of Tequila. He does not pay any rent, one of the advantages of being invisible. The Invisible Man craves light because „Light confirms reality, gives birth to my form.“ In a captivating performance Morgan talks about his experiences as the Invisible Man and discusses important sociological and philosophical questions.

This is an important and a wise play.

25 November at 9.00 pm (performed by Claire Davina Johnson) 

Tickets: £5

BOX OFFICE: 020 7704 6665

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