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Mother Goose (Susan Elkin reviews)

Mother Goose
Written by Paul Hendy. Produced by Evolution Pantomimes and The Marlowe Theatre
society/company: Marlowe Theatre
performance date: 03 Dec 2019
venue: Marlowe Theatre, The Friars, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2A

Photos: Pamela Raith Photography

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Over the years the Marlowe Theatre pantomime, usually the first I see in the season, has become the gold standard against which I measure the rest of the season’s offerings. This time director/writer Paul Hendy and Evolution Pantomimes, with this fine account of Mother Goose (braver choice than some, perhaps) have surpassed even their own habitual excellence. Platinum standard?

So what makes it stand out? For a start there’s the wonderful music director Chris Wong who this year makes a proper, glitzy onstage appearance. Crikey, can that man can play the guitar and what an inspiration to focus so much of the music on Beatles tunes.

Then there’s the gloriously fresh script full of local, topical references and some magnificent puns. “How many eggs should you eat in France? One egg is un oeuf, thanks.” And Hendy knows exactly how to manage his Canterbury family audience: there’s an existentialism joke but smutty, lavatorial gags are gloriously conspicuous by their absence. And if you’re going to feature three make-you-gasp stunt motorcyclists defying gravity in a giant hamster ball then don’t present it as weary bolt-on – knit it into the script as Hendy does with verve.

The top-notch cast at the heart of this, however, are what really makes this panto purr along. Ben Roddy is celebrating ten years as the Marlowe dame since, he took it over from the late, much missed Dave Lee. The script makes great play with this anniversary but underneath the humour it’s a treat to see how Roddy has developed and now has a delightful dame personality all of his own. And the advantage of having a core local cast is that he and the rubber bodied, hilarious Lloyd Hollett work together like a pair of scissor blades – complimenting and slicing against each other to create splendid comedy.

Marc Pickering is a deliciously camp, excessive but very funny baddie in the form of Demon Vanity, preening with mirrors, pulling extraordinary faces and demonstrating just how to time words and action for maximum effect. Jenna Russell is an enjoyably assertive Fairy Goodfeather and Dr Ranj (a media medic in his first panto) is fun as Charlie Goose.

It is unusual – but very welcome – to have a serious message in a pantomime. Presumably as a thoughtful response to current concerns about mental health, body image obsession and so on, Roddy’s Mother Goose chooses, once wealth arrives in the form of the golden eggs, to go for radical makeover. Result? She starts to be nasty to people. It’s all ultimately resolved but not before every child and adult in the audience has been made to think about bullying, unkindness and what really matters. A panto with depth? Hurrah. Let’s have more of this in the mix.

The lighting (designed by Peter Harrison) and special effects in this panto are lovely too. The proscenium is framed in a series of trellis rectangles which light up in different colours and I loved the way he lit the motorcyclists. Helga Wood’s costumes are another triumph They’re better than ever – especially the scene in which the ensemble wear lots of dramatic white feathers. “Three years at Italia Conti and they dress you up as a chicken!” quips Roddy’s Mother Goose.

This really is one not to be missed. And I’m already looking forward to next year’s Jack in the Beanstalk at the Marlowe.
 
 First published by Sardines: http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Marlowe%20Theatre%20(professional)-Mother%20Goose&reviewsID=3804
 
 
 
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë. Adapted for the Stage by Nick Lane
society/company: Blackeyed Theatre Ltd.
performance date: 26 Nov 2019
venue: Luton Library Theatre, Luton Central Library, St George’s Square, Luton LU1 2NG
 

Photos: Alex Harvey-Brown

⭐⭐⭐⭐

One of the most compelling, intelligent adaptations of Jane Eyre I’ve ever seen, Nick Lane’s five-hander version for the ever reliable Blackeyed Theatre stays remarkably true to Charlotte Bronte’s iconic novel. It retains the essence of the radical feminist philosophy which underpins the novel but which is often sidelined by sentimentalist adaptors. Yes, of course the plot is simplified by leaving out or conflating minor characters but it cuts adeptly and smoothly to the chase.

I liked the way Lane has used a certain amount of narration to audience by Kelsey Short as Jane to connote the novel’s autobiographical format. And the sensitive integration of very accomplished actor musicianship with atmospheric folksy Yorkshire song, drawing room numbers and a lot more (music by George Jennings) works nicely. The sinister col legno cello to suggest the creepy, gothic invasion of Jane’s bedroom is an exceptionally good moment.

All five cast members are strong with Camilla Simson’s versatility as a homely Mrs Fairfax, disdainful Mrs Ingram and gibbering pitiful Bertha (among other roles) being a striking showcase of acting talent.

Short’s Jane has delightful resolute control, tempered with passion. Her silences are as good as anything she says too because this Jane thinks visibly. It’s a near perfect interpretation.

Ben Warwick is suitably gruff but ultimately warmly attractive as Rochester. He ensures that the audience feels huge compassion for this man as his predicament unrolls and he loses, or nearly loses, everything.

Eleanor Toms as Blanche, Adele, Mary Rivers and Oliver Hamilton (excellent violin playing) as St John, Richard Mason and John Reed both convince completely each time they switch persona.

This elegant, rather beautiful production is another triumph for Blackeyed Theatre and a real tribute to director Adrian McDougal. What a pity, therefore that it clearly hadn’t been well publicised in Luton. I was one of an audience of just 18 people at the matinee I attended.
First published by Sardines: http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Blackeyed%20Theatre%20Ltd.%20(professional)-Jane%20Eyre&reviewsID=3786

Maxwell Quartet Coffee Concert at the Attenborough Centre

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University of Sussex, 8 December 2019

A concert programme as full as this is certainly good value for money and a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday morning: “A belter of a programme as we say in Scotland” cellist, Duncan Strachan told the audience cheerfully at this third concert in the Strings Attached Coffee Concert series. It was, moreover my first visit to the Attenborough Arts Centre at University of Sussex and it certainly won’t be the last. It’s an attractive small concert hall with lots of blond wood and a fine acoustic fronted by a rather good, spacious café wherein to buy the titular coffee first if you wish. And on a Sunday morning there’s plenty of free parking nearby.

We began with Haydn op 74 no 1. The four members of the Maxwell Quartet found plenty of playfulness in the first movement and I liked the understated elegance with which they played the andantino. Haydn tends to write showy first violin parts and of course, Colin Scobie rose ably to the challenge but it is also good to watch the palpable, visible rapport between the other three which enables the whole thing to cohere with such (deceptively?) insouciant energy.

Then for something completely different, Scobie changed places with second violin George Smith for some Scottish Folk Music – first a song and then two dance tunes arranged for quartet. Classical musicians don’t always make such music sound authentic but the “danceability” and sense of fun was faultless here. It was a nice way of reminding the audience that this quartet comes from Scotland and for a bit that’s where we were too.

With Scobie back in first violin seat we were then treated to Visions at Sea, a 2011 work by Dutch composer, Joey Roukens – a very dramatic contrast for the players to snap into which can’t be easy. With mutes on, the piece starts with a melange of harmonics and ethereal glissandi. From time to time we hear snippets of sea shanties and seventeenth century music as the piece rises to a dramatic storm and ends more or less where it began. In the hands of the Maxwell Quartet it’s an interesting musical exploration of the Dutch maritime past. It isn’t easy listening at first hearing and I assume it’s pretty difficult to play but this performance was intriguing enough to make me think I must find this work and listen to it again.

And so to the climax: Schubert D810 (Death and the Maiden) the performance of which was very arresting. I have rarely heard it played with so much colour and feeling and, again, the bonding between Harris, Elliott Perks on viola and Strachan while Scobie was playing the plaintive top line in the andante was very clear. I also admired particularly the nicely judged tutti moments when all four players come together, as if to breathe as one for a few bars, in the busy presto.

First published by Lark Reviews: https://www.larkreviews.co.uk/?cat=3

Brighton Philharmonic

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The Dome, Brighton, 1 December 2019

Interesting programming for this concert brought us five shortish works instead of the standard overture/concerto/symphony. It also showcased (again) a select group of BPO string players with five wind players in a chamber-sized  orchestra. This presumably helps to keep costs down for an orchestra which, sadly, seems to have problems although on this occasion nine hundred of the Dome’ 1700 seats were sold and there were a pleasing number of families with children in the audience.

Natalie Murray-Beale is an authoritative conductor whose incisive fluidity of movement is fetchingly charismatic to watch. She worked without baton for the three eighteenth century works but used one for both Vaughan Williams pieces.

We began with Hadyn’s Symphony No 49 which provided plenty of languorous F minor in the opening Adagio. Although I admired the lushness of the string playing I found the Allegro a bit heavy and there was little sense of dance in the rather turgid Minuet. It picked up, however, when we reached the lively Presto of the fourth movement.

Five Variants of “Dives and Lazarus” is one of Vaughan William’s loveliest short works and I’m always at a loss to understand why it isn’t performed more often. Does the Biblical title put people off? BPO’s wistful account of it, with beautiful harp work, was one of the high spots of this concert.

The harmonics are the great strength of Lark Ascending and violinist Thomas Gould made them sound effortlessly, mysteriously melodious. The orchestral accompaniment was sensitively managed and the performance felt like a real conversation between soloist and ensemble.

After the interval we had Eine Kline Nachtmusik which rarely fails and certainly didn’t on this occasion because Murray-Beale brought out all its joyful elegance. And although it was the best known work on the programme it seemed young and fresh.

Then it was back to more minor key Haydn – Symphony No 45 in F# Minor. I suspect it was slightly under rehearsed (The downside of doing five stylistically different works in a single concert?) because each of the four movements opened raggedly, settling only after a few bars. Nonetheless it was great fun to see the Farewell Symphony acting out the story of its first performance when each player left the stage after finishing his bit as a hint to Prince Esterhazy that they wanted some time off. BPO players solemnly gathered up glasses and instruments and walked off stage, one by one, the focus of the lights narrowing until it was eventually resting on the two remaining violinists.

A pleasant afternoon’s music on the whole with plenty to enjoy.

First published by Lark Reviews: https://www.larkreviews.co.uk/?p=5738

Creating Carmen

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St George’s Church, Kemp Town, Brighton

One of those shows which you can’t pigeonhole neatly, Clare Norburn’s thoughtful, intelligent Creating Carmen is part play, part concert and part discursive essay. And it makes for a pretty riveting evening.

Bizet’s famous 1875 masterpiece was based on a novella by Prosper Merimee published thirty years earlier. Norburn presents the author (Robin Soans) in his study neurotically trying to retain control of his creation, a sexily exotic gypsy named Carmen (in the form of Suzanne Ahmet)  as she  taunts, haunts, cajoles and controls him.  He is variously rueful, irascible, annoyed and troubled because the book is not going as he wants it to. We are led to reflect on the process of a writer’s art and to ask who is creating whom. The wittiest moment – in a piece which is full of cleverness and ingenuity – comes near the end when Merimee has decided she must die and stabs her. It doesn’t work and when she moves we see that he has been trying to stab her in the back with his pen.

The underlying dramatic irony is that the play assumes that everyone in the room knows about Bizet’s opera but, of course, Merimee doesn’t. His creation tells him it will happen but he refuses to believe her. “Someone beginning with B” she tells him at one point. “Not that dreadful friend of Delacroix, Berlioz?” he replies. In the end she mentions Bizet but tells Merimee not to worry about it because at the moment the composer is still only a child of seven.

And then of course there’s the music which is, effectively, the leading character in the drama. The piece, which is touring, was commissioned by CarmenCo, a trio consisting of husband and wife Emily Andrews (flute and mezzo soprano) guitarist Francesco Correa with guitarist David Massey. The quality of the playing – which ranges from Carmen itself to arrangements of  de Falla, Roderigo, Ravel, Roderigo and more is exquisite. Massey’s solo work is show-stopping and I loved the arrangement for two guitars and flute of de Falla’s La Vida Breve.

Emily Andrews sings several Carmen numbers in role as the musical Carmen of the future. Clearly a multi-talented performer, as well as being a fine flautist she has a rich mezzo voice and a great deal of dramatic presence – along with a rare gift of blankness when she is simply sitting aside the action holding her flute. She’s no slouch on castanets either.

All the music is played off-book so there’s an unusual sense of cohesion as these three players communicate continuously with each other with eyes and bodies. The result is a delightfully warm, intimate sound.

Directed by Nicholas Renton and lit by Natalie Roland this interesting production sat neatly in front of the altar in the

Georgian elegance of St George’s Church, Kemp Town in Brighton. The chancel step provided a quasi-natural raised area and the use of candles felt absolutely right. That and  the warm acoustic made the music as atmospheric – a Frenchman dreaming of Spain –  as it could possibly be.

First published by Lark Reviews: https://www.larkreviews.co.uk/?p=5722

Last week I called in on the National Theatre’s Creative Careers day – of which more in The Stage very soon. Suffice it to say here for the moment that it was most encouraging to see well over a hundred 11-14 year olds from London state secondary schools so engaged in learning about what makes theatre work behind the scenes.

While I was there I also had a good chat with two former apprentices in their twenties and they had a lot to say about training for backstage careers. I shan’t name them now because I plan to use much of what they said in a later article elsewhere.

One – now a very busy, well paid freelance scenic carpenter – had done a scenic carpentry apprenticeship at the National Theatre. Why didn’t she train on a technical theatre course at a drama school, I asked her, and it was like opening floodgates.

She pointed out that most of these courses are only two years for a foundation degree. Typically the first year is a series of short modules so that every student gets a taste, and that’s all it is, of every aspect of technical theatre. That leaves just a single year (nine months, in practice, given the usual academic calendar) to specialise. Three years learning on the job as an apprentice and being assessed on real, live projects must be better, she concluded. And she was quick to point out that two years in drama school leaves you about £40,000 in debt given tuition fees and subsistence. Apprentices don’t get paid much but it’s a great deal better than having to pay to train. “No brainer really!” she concluded adding that her apprenticeship included day release to college for NVQs etc.

Another key point about apprenticeships is that because you’re working with professionals every day you build up a useful network of contacts. The two former apprentices I was talking to (the other did her apprenticeship in metalwork at Royal Opera House)  have worked since they “graduated” at, for example, The Young Vic, National Theatre, Opera Holland Park, Arts Ed Schools and Hampstead Theatre among others.

It’s highly regrettable  that there aren’t more of these opportunities but they cost money and need support from government to make them viable. Big venues and companies such as National Theatre, Royal Opera House and RSC have now got well established, quite far reaching schemes. Across the country many other companies are doing the same thing typically with smaller numbers and very often targeting young people for whom drama school is beyond reach anyway. Overall, though, the numbers are small. Yet the industry is still warning of serious skills shortages.

University/higher education is simply not suitable for everyone (or even for the much vaunted 50% of the age group) for all sorts of reasons.

In the performing arts industries we need two things to change.

First we have to find ways of penetrating the insular ignorance of many teachers and careers advisers. School students are entitled to be told about every possible opportunity and way forward. There are many more options than  the bleakness of either go to drama school or forget theatre altogether. Big performing arts companies employ almost every skill. If you want to do engineering but love theatre there’s a niche for you in scenic design and/or construction. Determined to be an accountant? Well performing arts companies have finance departments too. Keen on textiles and costume design? Well every show has to be “dressed”.

Second, we need many more learn-on-the-job opportunities so that young enthusiasts are not lost at the first hurdle because they don’t have the A levels for a university controlled course or are daunted (precluded, even) by the cost.

Well I don’t really “do” politics but there’s an election coming up. We all know that election promises are paper thin. At the last election the Conservatives promised 3 million apprenticeships (not just in performing arts, obviously) by 2020. It didn’t happen. Labour is now committing itself to 320,000 “climate apprenticeships” across all industries during its first term in office. Could they? Maybe, but I wouldn’t bank on it.

Actually I’m not convinced that the outcome on 12 December will change anything much on the apprenticeship front. And that’s a great pity both for the creative industries and for the many young people who simply don’t get the opportunity to make the best of their talents and make a decent living.

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My book about backstage careers, So You Want to Work in Theatre? is published by Nick Hern Books. https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/so-you-want-to-work-in-theatre

 

 

Mary Poppins continues at the Prince Edward Theatre, London.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

If you accept this techni-colorful, tuneful show on its own terms – rather than wanting it to be something it isn’t – it’s jolly enjoyable.

If you don’t, then you’ll be disappointed because the “magic” is pretty transparent and it sometimes feels like a variety show with many spectacular set pieces but not enough narrative focus.

So swallow that spoonful of sugar with Mary (Zizi Strallen) rather than treacle and brimstone with Miss Andrew (Claire Moore) and marvel at the panache of an imaginative production.

You won’t forget, for example, cheerful chappie, rubber legged Charlie Stemp – for whom the part of Bert might have been written – tap dancing on the ceiling.

And the dance (choreography by Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear) with the chimney sweeps leaves you amazed that human arms and legs can move so energetically and still …

Read the rest of this review at Musical Theatre Review:https://musicaltheatrereview.com/mary-poppins-prince-edward-theatre/

Beloved Clara
Scripted by Lucy Parham.
society/company: Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Student Productions)
performance date: 17 Nov 2019
venue: Milton Court Concert Hall, 1 Milton Street, London EC2Y 9BH

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Before I saw this show I was doubtful that it would justify being reviewed as theatre. I was completely wrong. Lucy Parham’s take on the story of Clara Schumann, her husband Robert and their friend Johannes Brahms in their own words and music is simply another form of musical theatre: a very engaging one at that with strong, powerful poignant story telling. And for me – a regular reviewer of both theatre and classical music events – it was a dream gig: my two worlds happily slotting together like jigsaw pieces.

Clara Schumann was a child prodigy and an extraordinarily talented virtuoso pianist and 2019 marks the 200th anniversary of her birth. At 21, she married composer Robert Schumann against the wishes of her dictatorial father. They were very happy and seven children arrived within the next twelve years. The young Brahms, whose phenomenal talent they both recognised, became a close friend. Gradually Robert’s fragile medical health failed and he died in an asylum. After an initial estrangement for which no one knows the reason (did he propose and was refused?) Brahms and Clara remained close friends until her death in 1895.

Pianist and broadcaster, Lucy Parham (also a Guildhall alumna and professor of piano there) has used letters and diaries written by the Schumanns, their daughter Eugenie and Brahms to share the intricacies of these relationships. And the spoken words are interspersed with piano music mostly by the Schumanns and Brahms which she plays as part of the piece.

This show has been around since 2002 and Parham has done it with many well known actors. This time it was Simon Russell Beale (a Guildhall alumnus) and Harriet Walter and you can’t get much more theatrically upmarket than that. He has a knighthood and she’s a DBE for a start.

Sometimes they read words in role slipping occasionally into third person narration. Russell Beale is Robert Schumann and Brahms and Walter is Clara and Eugenie but there is never any confusion about who is speaking. Russell Beale finds the occasional moment of irony or humour and it profoundly moving as the elderly Brahms at Clara’s funeral. Walter is delightful as the girlish, newly wedded Clara, later in despair because she is not allowed to visit Robert in the asylum – and then ageing gracefully.

And underpinning all this is a magnificent piano recital by Lucy Parham ranging from Mendelssohn’s Spring Song (following an account of his dining with the young Schumanns) to Brahms’s Piano Sonata No 5 in F minor Op 5, an early work which he dedicated to Clara. Eventually we reach  Liszt’s gradiloquent piano transcription of Schumann’s song Widmung which brings the show to a resolute end.

It’s a real treat to see three performers at the top of their game in a show as unusual as this. And I’ll attribute the small number of minor hesitancies and stumbles to short rehearsal time. I suspect they flew this show on a quick run through earlier in the day – as people at that level can.

First published by Sardines: http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Guildhall%20School%20of%20Music%20and%20Drama%20(Student%20Productions)-Beloved%20Clara&reviewsID=3779