alinewaites

reat Expectations ****
adapted by Lydia Vie from the novel by Charles Dickens
at the Playground Theatre

I have rarely seen anything more classically picturesque than the tableau we see as we enter the theatre. Eirini Kariori , the designer has presented us with three raised platforms. The highest of these is in the middle and there sits the magnificent figure of Miss Havisham, looking like the statue of a divine goddess in her Victorian wedding dress. On the floor in front of her is the pretty child Estella apparently playing with a toy pony. On each side are the other two platforms, one with a cosy scene of the blacksmith, Joe Gargery’s house, complete with glowing fire and Joe and Mrs Gargery preparing supper. On the other side we are in the gloomy churchyard, with Gravestones and the hungry Magwitch crouching in fear. Between the platforms there are two trellis screens covered in flowers. The effect is stunning and give a wonderful atmospheric start to the favourite Dickens story.
We are let in to the theatre about ten minutes before the play stats and they are all already in place and totally motionless.
As the music starts the tableaux come to life and Miss Havisham begins to speak.
This adaptation is very cleverly based on the David Lean movie. with the boy Pip being terrified by the Convict and Miss Havisham reciting her story of hate. Estella is the most enchanting child and no wonder Pip is startled into silence when he sees her.
Helen Bang is powerfully elegant as Miss Havisham and Estelle, the girl with a heart of ice is the stunning Denise Moreno.
No wonder young Pip longs to be a gentleman in order to join this group. He is an apprentice blacksmith, definitely a lower class boy. The actor, Samuel Lawrence has the task of being a young rough kid growing up into an aristocratic gentleman. It does not matter that he always remains the same, except for a growth of pomposity when he becomes rich and puts on the stovepipe hat;. He still remains the blacksmith boy at heart, especially when he finds out the origin of his money. His friend Herbert Pocket, helps him into his posh gear. This is a delightfully funny performance by Shaun Amos, especially in the earlier scene when he is the ‘pale young man’ who enters into a scrap with Pip and is defeated by the blacksmiths superior strength.
This is a beautifully presented show with some first class actors. Peter Rae is the sinister Magwitch, David Furlong is the lawyer Jaggers. The lovely and loving Joe is played with great sympathy by Matthew Wade and Fanny Dulin is just the opposite as Mrs Joe. She also plays Molly in the later scenes.
The adaptation by Lydia Vie is perhaps a little wordy – a problem with Mr Dickens,- and the final denouement seems to come in at a bit of a rush. There is just too much happening and too many complications to dwell on anything.
Anastasia Revi has directed with a keen knowledge and love of the material.
Congratulations to the Theatre Lab Company and to Anthony Biggs of the Playground Theatre.

by Winsome Pinnock

at the Arcola Theatre

A man has thrown himself under a train. A cleaner and the driver of the train discuss the experience, trying to imagine how it feels. If you are lucky and fall into the gaps, the worst part must be climbing back out. The embarrassment in front of all the people !

Cyrus, the driver needs to find out why the man has jumped. He gets in touch with Nell, the lady who has adopted Sonny and his sister Zoe. Nell and Cyrus become acquainted, Zoe is suspicious of him.

We cut to Sonny and his relationship with a girl in the launderette. He presents her with flowers, he pays for her to stay in an expensive hotel. He obviously has money. Why did he jump?

We go back and forth between the Cyrus/ Nell conversation and the Sonny/Christine. We are taken from one world to another without ever finding out anything about any of them. Along with the characters we feel emotionally involved in the mystery of Sonny but are destined never to find out.

Shenagh Gavan is an actress experienced in heavy drama and never disappoints . She plays the bereaved foster mother with intelligence and a kind of careful reticence – relying on Cyrus for comfort . For Zoe, (Evelyne Oyedekun) who has lost a beloved brother this is far from comfortable as she believes Nell is replacing her love for Sonny with her affection for the stranger. We discover, just as she does, the fact that she has always been jealous of the love her foster mother has given to the young man.

Stanley J Browne plays Cyrus who becomes obsessed with the man he has inadvertently killed, and seems lost in a kind of bewilderment at what has caused the tragedy.

The second pair are Sonny, himself played by Reece Panfry and Christine is Clare Louise English. This part of the play, which is played out in small sections is more confusing to us the audience, and there seems to no reason for him to take such a dramatic action. We never find out much about him, what is in his mind, where his money comes from. Is he a gambler or a drug dealer? What went so wrong for him that he wanted to lose his life?

It is a play of emotion, drama and confusion. But the mystery is always fascinating. The setting by Amelia Jane Hankin is all made of slats of wood or bamboo and is as ambiguous as the play itself.

Direction is by Armit Sharma for Graeae and Theatre Royal Plymouth productions. There are surtitles above the action with the dialogue written and easy to read.

It is a human mystery play with no simple ending.

ONE MILLION TINY PLAYS ABOUT BRITAIN ****
A million plays in one evening! Sounds like a gag, doesn’t it?
It turns out to be fascinating once you get used to the speed, the quick changes and the commanding voice over, telling the actors where to go next.
Just two actors play out small scenes inspired by overheard conversations.
The first is a amusing start to the evening. a couple of theatre ushers disicussing the contents of their customers’ overcoat pockets. Usually half-used packets of mints which they enjoy and share between them discussing the flavour values of each kind . Mint imperials seem to be the favourites. They judge the distinguished visitors according to their taste in mints, apart from Amdrew Lloyd Webber, who apparently had in his pocket a half eaten hobnob “and him a Lord, too!”
I am afraid this was a spoiler for the first few minutes of the show, but there is so much more to come, the actors play many roles, a curious variety of parts; men, women, young and old, children, boys and girls with little reference to gender on the part of the actors. There are wigs in profusion , worn by both Emma Barclay (female) and Alec Nicholls male) actors. I found Emma’s old ladies and the separate ages of the children so beautifully observed. Alec Nicholls is hilarious as the long haired brunette in a trench coat chatting to her Mum on the tube.
Each conversation lasts a short time and is interrupted by the voice coming over the sound system telling them where to go next. It could be ‘A resturant in Stoke Poges’ they immediately tear off the top layer of clothes they are wearing, set a small table and are suddenly a couple having dinner.
They are quite plump as the ushers at the beginning of Act one but they shed their garments for each scene until the end, they are left with tee shirts – when they become cleaners with huge laundry bags getting rid of the discarded garments, tidying up the stage before the interval.
It is not only a feat for the actors changing their characters at a voice message, it is also a feat for the costumer designer Ceci Calf, who also designed the curious setting. It is like a stage upon a stage with a Bingo card dominating the back wall. It seems to have no relevance in the proceedings until the beginning of Act two.
It is seldom we see actors at their most versatile. But also unusual is the Canadian writer who picks up nuances of phrases from Brits wherever he goes. obviously they are not all overheard – excpet in his imagination, but they are inspired by his love of colloquial language and are amusing, touching or sometimes heart rending. But all are interesting.
This is one of the most unusual plays ever, produced originally at the Watmill in 2016 and brought to Jermyn Street by the Artistic Director Tom Littler. A brave move, but, I think, worth it.

aline at AWtheatricals

WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND *** 

AT THE UNION THEATRE 

Adapted by Russell Labey and Richard Taylor  

From the Screenplay by Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse 

Aaah!  This is quite definitely an Aaah! show.  It is not the one penned by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which I saw in 1996 -and felt did not do credit to the Mary Hayley Bell’s Book or the very popular film by Richard Attenborough and Brian Forbes. This show follows the story well, using children from the Union Youth Theatre to swell the numbers on stage. 

I’m sure everybody knows what it is about. A man who has murdered his wife and has been injured finds refuge in a barn where he is discovered by Cathy who is impressed by his appearance and believes he is Jesus. She and her siblings Charles (George Hankers) and Nan (Tara Lucas) believe he is the son of God and take care of him, bringing him food, toothpaste and buckets of water etc.  

Of course, the townsfolk are in a terrible state because there is a murderer at large and nobody can find him.  The search led by the policeman, the vicar and the children’s Dad and aunt Dolly including the policeman and the vicar who know that somewhere he is hiding but all the village children who find out about him believe that he is Jesus and are bound to secrecy. The local bully Raymond is determined to find out what is going on and beats them up, but they still keep the secret. 

The Man (Jesus) is played by Juan Miralles, who spends much of the play in the barn being tended by Cathy, but who comes into his own at the end, when he meets the crowds of children and realises that he is adding to his crimes by accepting the false identity attributed to him by them. Here he is given a dramatic song and we are able to appreciate his versatile vocal quality. Sadie Levett is enchanting and heart breaking as Cathy and her love for her Jesus is most appealing.  

There is a lot of good work by the townspeople led by the vicar (Eoin McKenna). They are a very individual group of characters who do some pretty decent choral singing of the songs by Richard Taylor, which are tuneful though not terribly memorable, but his lyrics fit the story really well.  

There are some sweet pieces in the show. The nativity play performed by the school children is as hilarious as these things always are.   The children appear to enjoy the experience as they belt out their tunes with great vivacity. 

Production values are good. Justin Williams has imagined an atmospheric set, with the straw of the Barn at one end and a household scene at the other when Dad, Aunt Dolly and the three children argue amongst themselves and tell their secrets at the breakfast/dinner table.   

 Sasha Regans production of this musical was at the Union Theatre in 2015 and starred Harry Wright who, sadly died recently of a brain tumour at the early age of twenty-nine. This production is dedicated to his memory and a collection is taken at every performance during the run for the Brain Tumour Charity. 

aline at AWtheatricals

AN ACT OF GOD ****

AT THE vAULTS

My friend John Heawood used to say.
“I know nothing about God except that She’s black”
At the Vaults she isn’t black but is quite definitely female. A woman of wit. A kind of Heavenly Dorothy Parker. Fed up of the ten commandments, she has decided to make new ones more appropriate to today’s politics. The result is ninety minutes of hilarity.
Zoe Lyons in white silken pyjamas is God, flanked by her two senior angels Michael played by Matt Telford, blonde and very sensitive and the rather more authoritative and practically naked figure of Gabriel is personised by Tom Bowen.
Gabriel’s task is to read out God’s reconstructed commandments and put remarks and his reactions (mainly Fuck Off) on the two massive blackboards that flank the luxuriously draped bed on the stage.
God, in this production speaks mainly in witty one liners ‘The people who call out My name on Sunday morning aren’t as fun as the ones who call it out on Saturday night’ and ‘I just don’t seem to like Arsenal’
Some of them perfectly topical
‘In an ideal scenario the President of the United States and the worst human being in the World would be two different people’
But as she knows, because she is all knowing and all creating, there seems to be nothing anyone can do about it, except write comedies.
.The cunning words come frippingly to her tongue as she casually turns water into wine and creates other feats of magic.
The author is David Javerbaum of The Late Show and directed by “the naughty boy of musical theatre” Benji Sperring – so much hiS kind of thing.

If you are in a blasphemic frame of mind – or even if you aren’t but do;’t mind making fun of the facts of life, this is a play for you.

This is my positive favourite “Church of England Formally approves Female Bishops” Congratulations, British woman you can now move diagonally.