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Macbeth (Susan Elkin reviews)

Alex Pearson Productions and Unfolds Theatre

Rose Playhouse

The real star of this engaging, 80-minute, six-hander Macbeth is the extraordinarily atmospheric venue. The Rose Playhouse dates from the 1590s and is now an archeological site beneath an office block. Volunteers and supporters are working hard to save and restore it. It’s been open to the public since the late 1990s and in recent years it has staged productions – so the spirit of theatre is alive and well there.

Imagine a vast, dark cave – the circular space of the original theatre. Its centre is covered by a few inches of water (to stop the foundations cracking) so with lights glinting and sweeping it looks like a vast spooky lake. Around the perimeter is a viewing gallery and a sort of “beach area”. The audience is seated on a wider gallery which is where most of the action takes place but the assassination of Banquo and the assembling of the English army takes place far away in the near darkness of the other side the “lake” with the sound echoing horrifyingly through the lofty space. Wow! I have rarely felt so immersed in, and convinced by, a play whose text I know almost by heart.

It’s quite a feat to bring it off with only six actors too but it works well with a lot of doubling and sharing the laughing (drunk? drugged?) witch’s roles – they wear androgynous hoodies so their identities are not an issue in this modern dress production which hints (mobile phones flashing etc) that social media play a part in Macbeth’s tragedy. And I smiled at Lady Macbeth (Esther Shanson) reading her husband’s letter as an email on her i-Pad.

Jesse Ayertey plays Macbeth in a broad West Indian accent – warm and decent at the very beginning, his voice sharpening as he descends into tyranny and madness. The whites of his eyes are powerfully evocative in the half darkness. Shanson glitters as Lady Macbeth – clearly deranged from the outset – and their scenes together are compelling. There’s fine work too from very versatile Ailis Duff as Banquo and other roles too.

All in all I’m impressed with Unfold’s Theatre and Alex Pearson’s imaginative direction. I might go back to see Love’s Labours Lost next month – it’s a very different sort of play and I’m intrigued as to what they’ll do with it in that space which seems “made” for murky tragedy.
 First published by Sardines: http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-West%20End%20&%20Fringe-Macbeth&reviewsID=3109

Girls and Boys by Dennis Kelly, Royal Court, Jerwood Theatre Downstairs.

This excoriatingly powerful 90-minute monologue is bravura 5-star show by any standards. Carey Mulligan is an extraordinary actor and Dennis Kelly’s new play is hideously topical, apposite and accurate. And director Lyndsey Turner has moulded it into a piece of highly dynamic theatre which explores why some people do evil, ugly irrevocable things and how those affected might, just might, come to terms with the aftermath.

For the first 40 minutes or so you could be fooled into thinking this is a comedy. Describing how she met her husband in an airport queue and reliving scenes with her young children, Mulligan’s unnamed character is sardonic, delivering rapier like punch-lines to her anecdotes. Speaking in an estuary accent she has a way of licking her kips and twinkling her eyes. Both she, and Kelly’s script are very funny. Then, about 40 minutes in she drops in one devastating, shocking word – so casually that if you weren’t listening properly you’d miss it – and suddenly you realise where this is going and you stop laughing.

Eventually we get the truth, in blunt, devastating detail, Jaws clenched, Mulligan stops grinning and flashing her eyes. She ages ten years as we watch. And the audience stills in horror. Her performance is a masterclass in naturalistic acting.

Es Devlin’s ice blue set supports the action and the protagonist’s reliving of her memories. Most of the time Mulligan is standing down stage in an empty blue/white space. From time to time the screen behind her lifts and she moves back into the ground floor of her marital home with kitchen, dining and sitting area and high shelves stacked with the clutter of family life – all strangely, starkly white and unreal as she revisits edited memories. At one point the same space morphs into a shopping centre.

For sheer stamina and energy Girls & Boys is remarkable. It’s also one of the most dramatic emotional roller coasters I’ve seen in quite a while.
 First published by Sardines http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-West%20End%20&%20Fringe-Girls%20&%20Boys&reviewsID=3104
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Shakespeare4Kidz has developed a fine formula over the years. Although they also do other shows these days, their core business remains musical versions of Shakespeare plays adapted by Julian Chenery, who also directs, with music by Matt Gimblett. Their Macbeth has been around for a while but this was the first performance of this revival and, golly, how it has developed, matured and improved since I first saw it. Of course, given that this was the first preview, there were a few technical problems and hitches which it would be inappropriate to dwell on. Suffice it to say they will be sorted.

The witch’s chants might have been written for song and dance (and perhaps they were?). Here Clare Reilly, Megan Ashley and Chloe Adele Edwards sweep big brown semi-circular cloaks, cackling out incantations with sinister clarity and arresting stage presence. And Chenery is the only director I know who includes Hecate. Her scene is usually cut because it is thought that it was a later inclusion simply to feed 17th century audience appetite for witchcraft. And that’s exactly what Chenery, with Marcelo Cervone on guitar as Hecate, does with it – to good effect.

Dark lighting, lumps of stony scenery, a projected backdrop and atmospheric sound including shrieks, bumps and birds all create the mood which Macbeth needs if it is to work. There are a number of good actor musicians in this cast of thirteen and Chenery, and musical director Michael Webborn, use them at the edge of the stage to support centre stage action.

Nathan Turner is a truly convincing Macbeth – and they’re rare. This is a very difficult play to bring off and many a famous title role has failed to convince me over the years. Turner, who has a magnificent speaking voice, resonant singing voice and a habit of expressive sniffing which could do with curbing, gets the right blend of bravery and moderate ambition at the beginning followed by indecision at the first murder. Then he heads into a pretty graphic form of PTSD at the banquet and then to full blown manic tyranny. And yet, he moved me so much at the “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” speech after hearing of his wife’s death that I had to reach for a tissue. Quite an achievement.

Rebecca Gilliland is a powerful Lady Macbeth too. She brings poise and resolution to the role and makes her character seem very charismatic and attractive. Her descent into murder and, eventually, madness is therefore all the more horrifying. She sings like a nightingale and congratulations to whoever chose/made/designed that fabulous green velvet dress.

The music hall style-song – all hung on traditional dominant seven chords, with a slow narrative followed by a fast repeated verse – Gimblett gives the Porter (Joshua Considine) is spot on. So are the Porter’s witty knock knock jokes. Terry Ashe gives us a plausible Duncan (among other roles), Craig Anderson is a strong curly-haired Banquo and Blair Robertson finds plenty of angry warmth and might in McDuff. This is, however, very much an ensemble piece and almost everyone is busy almost continually.

What I like very much about Chenery’s script and song words is that, although a lot of it is modern-ish English for clarity of story telling, he uses Shakespeare’s words wherever he can. That means that young audiences, most of whom won’t be aware of who wrote which, really are exposed to a taste of Britian’s greatest ever writer. It’s accessibility without dumbing down.

Immediately after its short run in Sevenoaks, this impressive show is heading for a Middle East tour where, in places such as Bahrain and Dubai, it will play in both public and school theatres.

First published by Sardines: http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Shakespeare%204%20Kidz%20(professional)-Macbeth&reviewsID=3102

Close

By Kit Brookman

Landor Space

Six teenagers are, in very different ways, horrified, fascinated, excited and frightened because a classmate has disappeared. She is never named but simply referred to as “The New Girl”. Kit Brookman’s 75-minute play explores their reactions and interrelations mostly though scenes set in the near-derelict lavatory block they use as a meeting place. Here we see these youngsters talking in twos and threes. Not until the end of the play do all six of them come together.

Most of the young company are East 15 trained so there’s a strong sense of a well bonded cast – only Madison Clare who makes a good fist of playing Hellie, a thoughtful, intelligent rather attractive character, comes from a different background (LAMDA). The acting is generally pretty strong, as it needs to be given the rather unforgiving televisual focus and size of the Landor Space. Faces and bodies are very close to the audience.

William Shackleton (who is still in training at East 15 on the BA Acting Course) is outstanding. His character, Olive, is quiet and “weird” as several other characters comment. Shackleton does a lot of intent listening, his eyes darting. Tiny movements indicate his silent reaction. It’s an impressive performance.

Carissa Wagner makes a good fist of the manic, monstrous Lauren glittering with excitement at the thought that something nasty has probably happened to the missing girl. There’s nice work from Gabriella Leon as the smaller, often troubled Maddie.

George Lock’s Wes is repeatedly lost in sexual fantasy and it’s pretty believable. And Jack Ayres is pleasing as the more cerebral Robin who really did have something going with the missing girl unlike several of the others who would like to have done or pretend that they did.

Adeptly directed by Melissa Chambers, Close presents an evergreen situation – teenagers do disappear – made original by fresh thoughts and ideas. And despite the seriousness of the subject, in places it’s laugh-aloud funny. The ending, however, is a bit flat and tentative almost as if the playwright couldn’t quite decide how best to conclude.

First published by Sardines: http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-West%20End%20&%20Fringe-Close&reviewsID=3100

Last week we – My Loved One, Ms Alzheimer’s and me –  went to Chickenshed (“theatre changing lives”) in North London to see Monolog directed by Lou Stein. To do that we have to travel from London’s “Deep South” to Cockfosters at the northern end of the Piccadilly Line and it’s a bit of a hike involving car, two trains and two walks each way – although the show was very interesting and well worth travelling for. And I have long been an admirer and supporter of Chickenshed’s diverse inclusivity.

Anyway, on this occasion I decided it would be a good outing for MLO. It’s a welcoming venue and I thought it would be a nice change for him  – and it was.  It made me realise, though, that travel is getting ever more difficult. I now have to allow at least an extra half an hour for loo stops (at the garage next to Cockfosters underground, for example and at Charing Cross station both ways as well as several times at the theatre and in the restaurant we got a bite in before the show). Then there’s the trudging gait. I can stride from Charing Cross to Leciester Square tube in 5 minutes. With MLO it takes quarter of an hour.

He had to ask me several times during the journey where we were going and why, too. And rather poignantly I can often see him not knowing but not asking (I do know him rather well after all) in case I tell him off or snap at him. When we saw Of Mice and Men at Marlowe Theatre Canterbury recently, MLO actually grinned at me because he recognised that the dynamic between George and Lenny has so much in common with our life together has become. Theatre, empathy and all that.

At Chickenshed I was touched to find him chatting to Susan Jamson, Press and PR manager, whom I’ve known for a long time, when I came back from the loo before the show. Susan had been chatting to both of us and was now very gently trying to get MLO to talk – he’s become very reticent because he’s afraid of looking silly. At the point at which I returned to the table and stood away because I didn’t want to interrupt he was stumbling through a garbled account of having heard Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s first performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto at Maidstone the week before. He couldn’t remember Sheku’s name but somehow there was communication and it is excellent for him to have something resembling a normal conversation with someone he doesn’t know very well.

Shows are always tricky. I go to several, of various sorts, every week but more often than not I now go alone. For a start – as last Thursday – I sometimes see two in a day without coming home in between and I know that would now be far too tiring for MLO. Ms A ensures that he flags very quickly. In the past he would have travelled to join me for the second one but that’s no longer on. I’d be afraid he’d forget where to go or how to get there. He isn’t reliable at locking the house securely behind him either. So it’s a case of his coming out with me or staying at home.

At the weekend I reviewed a classical music concert in Hastings on Saturday night and another in Brighton on Sunday afternoon. We stayed overnight with our younger son, Felix, and his family on Saturday and made a Sussex weekend of it. But my word, MLO got confused. Drinking tea in a Hastings teashop before the concert he had no idea why we were there or what we were doing. “Is Felix joining us here?” he asked, vaguely And an hour or two later the tiredness caught up with him and he nodded off during Winterreise.

 Then on Sunday morning he started packing his things until I told him to stop because he might want some of them later. “Aren’t we going home in a minute?” he asked. At that point I flipped (no, I don’t have the patience of a saint and never did) and told him that I wasn’t going to give him any more information. “I’ll just tell you when the time comes and you need to know” I snapped crossly.

I later discovered that he then went to Felix and asked him what the plans were for the day. “You’re going to a concert at the Dome. Then I’m cooking you dinner” said kind Felix, very patiently.

In short Ms Alzheimer’s clutches are gradually tightening. It’s only 10 months since diagnosis but I don’t have to look far for evidence of the inexorable downward tug.

So how do I stop her destroying me too? Well I try to keep a sense of humour. It was quite funny, I suppose, in a grim sort of way, when I asked MLO to bring the concertina clothes airer downstairs and he got the cleaning lady to help him carry it erected because he didn’t know how to collapse it. I’m not sure, incidentally, whether she didn’t know either or was being tactful. Either way it was a nice bit of sit com when they arrived in the dining room carrying it between them.

And a bit of respite is good occasionally. At the beginning of last week I handed all my responsibilities to our elder son and escaped to Yorkshire for three days. There, a dear and lovely friend spoiled me rotten with tea in bed and gin by the fireside before delicious dinners in her beautiful home. And I came home feeling very refreshed. Being in sole charge of another human being – ie a baby or two – is one thing when you’re in your twenties as I was. It’s a bit different a few decades later.

 

 

 

When school groups go to the theatre to watch dramatised versions of the novels on the curriculum, there is a problem: English teachers can’t expect actors to do their job for them.

Plays are not novels and novels are not plays. It’s about time teachers and examiners grasped that.

As it is, groups of children are brought to the theatre to see dramatisations of set novels, expecting actors to teach them more than reading it …

Read the rest of this article at The Stage: https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2018/susan-elkin-teachers-must-stop-expecting-theatre-to-do-their-job-for-them/

Susan Elkin chats to JUSTIN COOKE, CEO of Digital Theatre. Digital Theatre offers access to films of live theatre, ballet, opera and classical concerts to individual subscribers and educational institutions.

“Well of course what we do is different from live theatre but we believe we’re creating a new complementary art form,” says Justin Cooke. “We’d never try to compete with live theatre. We can’t create the buzz, for a start. Rather, we’re providing a new way of watching performed arts.”

Big Clever Learning, Cooke’s company, acquired Digital Theatre two years ago. At that point, as Digital Theatre Plus, it had been going for seven years, mainly as a means of getting filmed live theatre into schools and colleges …

Read the rest of this interview at Musical Theatre Review: http://musicaltheatrereview.com/were-providing-a-new-way-of-watching-performed-arts-interview-with-digital-theatre-ceo-justin-cooke/

Marcio da Silva is a warmly arresting baritone and, for a first stab at Winterreise this was a commendable performance. Twenty four songs in Schubert’s cycle, with only a short interval after number 12, takes a lot of stamina. Only occasionally – in some of the bottom notes in Irrlicht for example – was there any sense of strain. High spots includedFruhlingstraum in which he and pianist Francis Rayner – an excellent accompanist –  emphasised the contrast of the major key passage (most of these songs are in minor keys, of course) and rippling 6/8 rhythm alternating with the stormy passages and wistful ones as the singer dreams of spring.

Die Post was fun too with Francis Rayner ensuring that we could all hear the smiling post horn references in the accompaniment, before the sadness well evoked by Marcio da Silva. They gave  a delightful rendering of Die Nebensonnen bringing out all the folksy nursery rhyme qualities of the piece.

Overall, they ensured that this plotless cycle evoked the singer’s journey as, jilted in love, he sets out, through the winter, to work out his own complex feelings. As always, one is left marvelling at Schubert’s extraordinary ingenuity and at the versatility this cycle demands of its performers.  Marcio da Silva’s was singing the cycle from memory – a feat in itself.

Before Winterreise we were treated to Aysen Ulucan playing, also with Francis Rayner, Beethoven’s violin sonata Opus 30 number 2. It was a workmanlike performance delivered with poise and nice negotiation of rhythmic contrasts, particularly in the C major section. Aysen Ulucan also gave us some very beautiful cantabile playing in the adagio. At other times the tone was a bit thin and the sound sometimes swallowed by the rather dry acoustic created by the spacious, lofty beauty of Christ Church. Occasionally there was harshness created by possibly misjudged bowing pressure too, but these are fairly minor gripes.

This concert took place on a bitterly cold, wet and windy evening. It is a credit to Hastings Philharmonic that so many people turned out for what, in the event, was a musically demanding concert for all concerned.

First published by Lark Reviews: http://www.larkreviews.co.uk/?p=4103