alinewaites

SEX CRIME **** 

BY ALEX GREGORY 

AT THE SOHO THEATRE 

The Soho version of Alex Gregory’s comedy thriller is an absolute knock out – even more emotionally disturbing than before. You can be helpless with laugher at his witty script and the next minute you are holding your breath in terror as the action between these two men intensifies. 

B (Alex Gregory) a muscular young man dressed in a vest, jogging trousers and trainers arrives at the plastic covered attic room. He has paid out all his money to be hurt. In love with murder, he wants to experience the physical feelings of the victims of serial killers. He is expecting to be killed.  

The online advertisement by A (Jonny Woo) has convinced him that here is the man who can serve him, fulfil the final humiliation.  A is dressed as a business man, he considers himself the true master of professional cruelty as an art form. Believes that one day Hollywood will make a movie of his life. “Not some shitty low budget British movie, a big American movie with a Macdonald’s Tie in. Figurines of me with Happy Meals.”  

There is violence in the play, but nothing is shown. Sometimes, the men are far apart, the lights go to total blackout and there are noises of kicking and screaming. When the lights come on, the two men are back in the same positions as before. It is as if the whole thing is happening in their imagination, but it is no less frightening for that. 

It is a strange subject for a comedy. It could be off putting for audiences, but during the almost musical exchanges between the protagonists no violence is seen. Much of the comedy and fun is the author making fun of the two guys.  The over active, gay young man and the dignified but conceited demeanour of the torturer. The acting is superb, the precise direction by Robert Chevara is brilliant and sensitive. 

This is a stunning production using a dark subject to make the audience laugh helplessly.  The quality of the script, acting and direction takes you in their hands and makes you scream with laughter and gasp with terror.  

The extraordinary setting and design are by Rocco Venna. It sets out the limitations of the stage area and the back -wall is covered with plastic as well as the sofa – obviously there is an obsession with cleanliness. The lighting by Mike Robertson is cleverly worked with spotlights and fairy lights and of course the necessary blackouts. 

 The play cannot end when you leave the theatre. There is so much hidden content that you need to return to see it again or get a copy of the play text which is published by Oberon Books and is on sale at the theatre box office. 

Sex Crime is funded by the Arts Counci. 

Good News
The Broadway veteran of shows like ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ and TV comedies like ‘Friends’ returns to the Coqs for a whole week with his “jaw dropping , critically acclaimed” special brand of improvised solo performances and introducing special guests each night, including an appearance from Ruth Bratt, actress and singer from ‘Show Stoppers’, the improvisation company. With him are his cheery, intrepid and totally unshakeable musicians:- namely John Thorn on keyboards, Jonny Gee on Bass and the Sophie Alloway on drums all ready to up and take off any way he decides to go.
Jason has great humour, is witty of speech, and an irrepressible sense of fun. He creates a warm relationship with an audience, has a voice that rivals any in musical theatre and jazz, and a very special something that only an artist with his unusual talent could achieve.
The audience are each given a form to fill in. No, not like the ones you have to do several tiems a day on your phone or computer. These are questions like. ‘name Three nice words’ ‘what you love to eat’ ‘your favourite town’ etc. My answer to the nice words was ‘Health, Beauty and Love’ and was amazed to hear him turn these words into a song.
The guest artist last evening was Ruth Bratt who came on first, along with the orchestra, announced herself, and talked to the audience asking people their names, where they came from etc. began by asking people for names and places Last night it was Matthew, Delivery and Tulsa… So she announced the appearance of that famous cabaret performer ‘Matthew Delivery’ all the way from Tulsa, Later on the two of them worked beautifully on some sublime duets in improvised songs.
Using the answers given by the audience last night Matthew Delivery was working at a Wetsock factory in Tulsa, went on a journey by Lifeboat to the Taj Mahal and finished up in his favourite town…Grimsby. A whole life story is conjured up in perfect song style and all ‘off the top’ of his head.
The Crazy Coqs elegant room in the heart of Piccadilly is the perfect cabaret venue for witty comedy, good natured idiocy and terrific singing. Jason Kravits is the master of all.

BY Thomas Hughes

At the Union Theatre.

Tom Brown’s Schooldays is a book by lawyer, Thomas Hughes published in the early nineteenth century. It was somewhat autobiographical taken from his own experiences of how the way upper class scholboys were brought up at Rugby School.
Phil Wilmott at the Union in his 2020 series of plays called “Essential Classics” begins the season with this early book but has adapted it into a later period in order to highlight the British response to the first world war.
To create the musical background he has used the work of musical director Ralph Warman to reproduce the harmonies, hymns and wartime popular songs to be sung by the music teacher and the boys in the show. Warman is a specialist in harmony and the barber shop business, so he handles the singers extremely well and himself plays the music teacher at Rugby School.
So this is the kind of place where our Tory government boys were brought up. The place is more or less run by the hateful bully Flashman – the sixth former, who roasts children on the fire and throws them out of windows. The Headmaster is Dr Arnold who has come out of retirement in order to release some of the other teachers. Dr Arnold knew Tom’s father in WW1 when he won medals for bravery. He has one strict rule. Always tell the truth. Unfortunately the boys have also a rule ‘Never tell on each other.” This means that Flashman can get away with murder and the Headmaster never knows about it but beats poor Tom for not revealing where he gets his injuries. It seems at Public Schools you are taught to keep secrets – and lie – at a very early age.
However it will be no secret to say that the young boys turned out well, defeated Flashman and all joined the Airforce in time for the Battle of Britain to the chorus of ‘I vow to Thee my Country’ etc.
I cannot pretend it works as a piece of literature, but the audience – mostly young girls of course – seem to enjoy the production and give screams of delight about the singing.
The boys all do their parts well including Hudson Brown as the innocent Brown, Alex McKeon perfectly cast as the evil but charismatic Flashman and Toby Wynn-Davies plays the severe, grumpy master Grimstead
I also very much liked Mikko Juan as Brook, the sixth former who stood up for the boys and had to deliver the final speech which he did with passion and clarity.
Well choreographed fight scene by Stephen Louis, set design by Reuben Speed and costume design by Penn OCara all do their job. .
Under Phil Wilmott’s direction the actors all work well with a very special performance by Ursula Mohan as the Eccentric housekeeper Sally. The only female in the cast.
An interesting evening in which the underdogs do rather better here than in the recent election.
Production is by Sasha Regan of the Union Theatre.

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.