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Boeing Boeing (Susan Elkin reviews)

Farce is probably the hardest theatrical form to bring off. It requires speed, precision and impeccable timing. Amateurs beware. Congratulations, then, to the Lindley Players who, after a flat few minutes at the beginning create some pretty creditable comedy by grabbling Marc Comoletti’s 1960 classic and running with it full tilt.

Bernard (Kevin Monk – a nice mix of ruefulness and amorality) has three fiancées. He gets them from a friend in the fairly new mass flying industry at a time when air hostesses were hand picked for looks and charm. He keeps them apart, obviously, except – of course that he doesn’t. A six hander with six doors on stage (neat, colourful set by Tim Hinchliffe) means a great deal of dashing in and out just missing each other in true farce style.

Lucie Nash has fun – and is hilarious as the Germanically orgasmic, humourless Gretchen. Francesca Monk’s Gabriella is loud, angry and very Italian. The gentler clean-living but hard-eating American, Gloria (Gemma Conway) contrasts well with the other two just as Larry Dobin as Robert is a good foil for Monk’s character. Stereotyping it may be but that’s part of the joke.

Best of all is Cheryl Mumford as the French servant, Berthe who is anything but subservient. Mumford really captures her character’s outrageous gallic forthrightness and she times her lines, many of them triggering gales of spontaneous laugher, with enjoyable panache. She has a knack of commenting with her body too so that a shrug or a twitch often says it all and gets yet more laughs.

The costumes are good in this show (Pat Bressingham and Caroline Jordan). The girls work for three different airlines so we get Nash smart in yellow, Monk in red and Conway in turquoise. And, although, no voice coach is credited it is clear that this cast has worked hard on its accents – six different ones. Their efforts have paid off. Only very occasionally does the timbre of an accent adversely affect audibility and clarity.

Once again I am impressed by the versatility of The Lindley Players. The range of what they produce would put many a professional company to shame.

First published by Sardines http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Lindley%20Players%20Limited,%20The-Boeing%20Boeing&reviewsID=2861

This glitzy jukebox musical works only if there’s a huge costume budget and WWOS have certainly bitten the bullet and provided a whole evening of shimmering, witty, outrageous visual spectacle. We ricochet, as we must, from frocks made of cupcakes, a silly scene with paint brushes, bikinis, thongs, huge shiny hats and much more. What courage it must take for these men, most of whom are probably office workers, accountants, taxi drivers and so on by day, to wear such extravagances. Bravo.

You have to run with the music and let the audience feel as if it’s at a huge noisy party too because nearly everyone present knows numbers such as I Will Survive so well that singing along comes naturally. The night I saw it the house was full and there was palpable, whooping excitement from every corner, especially from women ogling men in scanty drag. It felt rather like being at a Chippendales evening spliced with Kinky Boots and seasoned with pantomime.

The thin plot (always the case in shows which work only by hooking songs into a narrative) gives us three drag queens crossing the desert from Sydney to Alice Springs in an unreliable camper bus so that one of them can meet and build a relationship with his young son. There’s a fine, charismatic performance from Adrian Smith as the lanky, classy rather moving (and funny) Bernadette. Adrian Morrissey adeptly catches Tick’s nervous ambivalence about what awaits him in Alice and Thomas Fitzgerald’s camper-than-camp Adam is nicely nuanced and often hilarious. As the three divas, Amanda Farrant, Tracy Prizeman and Larrissa Webb, who hover over the action (yes, real flying) are suitably over the top in every sense.

The large, intelligently directed (by Kevin Gauntlett) and imaginatively choreographed (Jacqui Morris) cast does sound work in the ensemble scenes. The Churchill playing space is large and this show makes confident use of it.

It’s a pity then, that given a show which is inherently very funny, that so many of the jokes and witty lines were thrown away or mistimed – almost as if director and cast felt apologetic about some of it and wanted to rush on to the next bit. Moreover there’s a lovely sound coming from Colin Warnock’s nine-piece band in the pit but some of the tempi are pedestrian (I suspect the drummer was dragging) especially in the first half. Some of the singing was strained in the first half too but the show really finds its feet in the gloriously excessive set pieces after the interval.

First published by Sardines http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-WWOS%20(West%20Wickham%20Operatic%20Society)-PRISCILLA%20Queen%20of%20the%20Desert&reviewsID=2854

 

Well, it may have been deliciously familiar to an enthusiastic Canterbury audience of aficionados of the film starring Pauline Collins, but I came to this show as a Shirley Valentine virgin. Willy Russell’s immaculately, tenderly observed portrait of a frustrated (in every sense) 1970s Liverpool housewife is as moving as it is hilarious. And the observation of women’s experience is so acutely observed that it’s hard to believe that this is the work of a male playwright. Moreover, although the film (I gather) broadened out the concept it’s a real joy to see a beautifully written one person show which takes an idea, runs with it and develops it for two full hours.

Jodie Prenger creates a totally believable Shirley, making egg and chips for her husband’s tea, chatting hilariously to the audience and, literally, talking to the kitchen wall as she works. Her Scouse accent somehow adds to the humour and ambience perhaps because it subconsciously whizzes us southerners back to the era of the Beatles and Cilla Black. Prenger is a gifted actor amusingly creating other characters with different accents as she goes. Director Glen Walford ensures imaginative use of the stage space especially in the second half when Shirley travels, against all the odds, to Greece and discovers things about herself she either never knew or had long since forgotten after years of tired marriage and grown up children who take her for granted.

Most memorable of all is the way in which the talented Prenger makes her homely, buxom character light up (a fling with a Greek waiter who knows more about female anatomy than her husband or Sigmund Freud helps) and blossom into a flushed, happy, relaxed, confident woman. This is feel-good theatre at its best.

First published by Sardineshttp://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Marlowe%20Theatre%20(professional)-Shirley%20Valentine&reviewsID=2849
 

Think The Help spliced with Gone With the Wind, seasoned with the tragic pain of Porgy and Bess. However it’s billed, this glitteringly good show is not musical theatre in the trivialising sense of the term, either. It’s opera!

It’s November 1963 and we’re in Louisiana. Caroline (Sharon D Clarke) is the maid in a Jewish household. She does all the chores but her inner life lies in the basement where she does the laundry (ambidextrous ironing!) The washing machine (talented M’Sha Bryan, in a wonderfully surreal silver and white bubble dress) becomes the argumentative voice in her head. The radio – a chirpy, well choreographed, stunningly costumed trio reminiscent of the three ladies in The Magic Flute – dominates her thoughts too.

But of course the show – which has a large cast for a small space – belongs to Clarke. She is outwardly impassive, most of the time, which makes her astonishing wine-rich voice seem even more eloquent. She dominates the stage (and is rarely off it in two hours 40 minutes – it’s a huge role) and the angry anguish she finds for her second act solo hits you right between the eyes. It’s a remarkable performance.

There’s also delightful work from Albiona Omonua as Caroline’s feisty angry daughter who doesn’t mind standing up for her rights. The tension between her and her mother is beautifully managed. And on press night Charlie Gallacher did well as Noah, the child of the household who leaves money in his pockets for Caroline to find – another large role. On the whole though, it’s less than fair to comment too much on individuals given the overall strength and impact of this show in which every single actor does a fine and integrated job.

Musically it impresses too. Composer Jeanine Tesori gives us a great deal of intricately nuanced contrapuntal singing – and very little of this show is spoken – which stresses the inner complexity of each character’s thoughts. It works exactly as Mozart or Rossinni does. And the accelerando Klezmer style music when the Jewish family celebrate by dancing round the table is masterly as well as fun. The sound balance is excellent and there’s sterling work coming from the nine piece orchestra under MD Nigel Lilley.

I don’t know how this show was staged in 2003 when it premiered on Broadway but it sits very successfully indeed in the fairly intimate space of the Minerva with its circular thrust stage and director Michael Longhurst at the helm. Will this powerful, poignant and ultimately positive show be Chichester’s next London transfer? It certainly deserves to be.

First published by Sardines http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Chichester%20Festival%20Theatre%20(professional)-Caroline,%20Or%20Change&reviewsID=2844

 

I am frequently astonished by the imaginative range of performing arts titles which continue to flow from specialist publishers.

Take learning how to read play scripts imaginatively and intelligently. Robert Knopf’s Script Analysis for Theatre (Bloomsbury) has masses of advice for theatre students and professionals in the early stages of their careers. With exemplar focus on plays such as Twelfth Night, The Importance of Being Earnest and Hedda Gabler  the advice is detailed, practical and readily transferrable.

Making successful immersive theatre is another aspect of performing arts which takes specialist skills as companies such as Punchdrunk, OneOhOne and Hobo Theatre ably demonstrate by putting the audience at the centre of their work. Creating Worlds: How To Make Immersive Theatre by Jason Warren (NHB) offers a  thorough step-by-step guide from working out what sort of show you want to make all the way through to tips and strategies for marketing it.

Then there are play texts – and anyone remotely interested in theatre and drama should be reading more plays. An interviewee, who told me last week that he abandoned a drama degree at Warwick after seven weeks because it was so dull, recalls just one good aspect – the weekly class which required students to read ten plays before each session. Contemporary Plays From Iraq translated and edited by A. Al-Azraki and James Al-Shamma (Bloomsbury) consists of nine plays, reading which will teach you a lot about life in Iraq and allows you to see war and occupation from a point of view which is probably different from your usual position.

Samuel French have recently sent me a pile of their latest published play scripts of which two of the most interesting are Treasure Island by Bryony Lavery and Hedda Gabler; This is not a love story in a new version by Anne and Karin Bamborough. The former manages to be both (a bit) swashbuckling and imaginatively sensitive. It would work well for amateurs because it needs seven women and sixteen men so there’s plenty for a large cast to do. The latter, which was co-produced by A Northern Stage and Greyscale in Newcastle earlier this year is an appealingly spare, incisive take on Ibsen’s play.

Hats off to amateur theatre and all who take part in it. There’s so much good work out there and it rarely gets the recognition it deserves – and I can only suppose that people who sneer at it are a) professionals who see it as a threat (in itself a compliment of sorts) or b) people who would never dare get up and have a go so they try to belittle those who do.

Last week I saw West Wickham Operatic Society’s Priscilla Queen of the Desert at Churchill Theatre, Bromley. And there’s a lot of it about. I’m due to review Cambridge Theatre Company’s take on the same show in July. What struck me about the WWOS show – in many ways, from the reaction of some of the more excitable women in the audience, a cross between The Chippendales and panto – was the enormous courage it takes for non professionals to mount a show like that in which many of the glitzy, skimpy male costumes leave little to the imagination. And the action is pretty demanding too. Director, Kevin Gauntlett is clearly very talented to be able to draw such commitment and panache from (mostly) non professionals.

Did I say “mostly”? Well, that’s the other thing about amateur theatre. The edges between it and professional theatre are pretty blurred these days. Trained actors want to tread the boards and get experience even if they haven’t (yet) been offered the coveted West End role. You frequently find actors with professional training working alongside the ones who did a history degree and now work in a museum or are NHS administrators. Adrian Morrissey, for example, who played Tick in the WWOS Priscilla graduated from Mountview in 2010. Larissa Webb, one of the Divas, is another Mountview graduate and Emma Brack, who was Shirley, has a BA in Performing Arts from London Met. Thus the trained and the untrained form a cohesive company and it’s a real joy to see them all working together.

Of course I review more professional shows than non-professional ones but I am increasingly unaware of the shrinking distinction. I’ve seen fine work in Central London from, among others, SEDOS and Geoids. All Gillingham Dramatic Society’s recent productions have been on my itinerary and I’m a bit of a groupie in Cambridge.

Coming up soon I have, among other things, the Lindley Players (another fine amateur company) with Boeing Boeing in Whitstable and  Pericles, courtesy of Shakespeare at The George, Huntingdon. What’s not to like?

TranShakespeare workshop 2015, produced by Amy Clare Tasker. Photo by Greg Veit Photography.

LONDON DEVISED THEATRE INTENSIVE
 October 15th – 27th 2017
Applications open May 15th 2017

The London Devised Theatre Intensive is a new two-week workshop for theatre makers to share and expand their practice of devising theatre. With masterclasses from guest artists including Bryony Kimmings, Kristine Landon-Smith (L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier; Tamasha Theatre), Tom Mansfield (Upstart Theatre), Nir Paldi (Theatre Ad Infinitum), and Lee Simpson (artistic director of Improbable), peer-to-peer practice exchange sessions, and creating performance, the Intensive aims to inspire theatre makers, raise the profile of devised theatre, and foster international connections.

The Intensive is created by Amy Clare Tasker Performance Lab (artistic director Amy Clare Tasker, executive director Susie Italiano), in partnership with Blue Panther Productions (executive producer Laura Lundy). With a diverse and cross-platform background, the creators want to use their experience of similar events in the US to bring the excitement, energy and enthusiasm of a 2 week intensive course in devising theatre to London.

They welcome applications from theatre makers in any discipline: directors, writers, performers, choreographers, composers, and designers. Each attending theatre maker will have the opportunity to share their favourite devising techniques, and add new ones to their creative toolbox. Over the course of two weeks, small groups will devise short pieces to be shared in an informal setting at the end of the programme.

The London Devised Theatre Intensive will run using Open Space Technology. A radical alternative to the traditional theatre model, Open Space creates an anti-hierarchical environment for rapid generation of ideas and shared ownership of the work. Amy Clare Tasker Performance Lab uses Open Space as a practical way to match their method to their values: equality, inclusivity, presence, surprise, and possibility.
Application form: http://www.devisedtheatre.com/.

2844_1494589132

Think The Help spliced with Gone With the Wind, seasoned with the tragic pain of Porgy and Bess. However it’s billed, this glitteringly good show is not musical theatre in the trivialising sense of the term, either. It’s opera!

It’s November 1963 and we’re in Louisiana. Caroline (Sharon D Clarke) is the maid in a Jewish household. She does all the chores but her inner life lies in the basement where she does the laundry (ambidextrous ironing!) The washing machine (talented M’Sha Bryan, in a wonderfully surreal silver and white bubble dress) becomes the argumentative voice in her head. The radio – a chirpy, well choreographed, stunningly costumed trio reminiscent of the three ladies in The Magic Flute – dominates her thoughts too.

But of course the show – which has a large cast for a small space – belongs to Clarke. She is outwardly impassive, most of the time, which makes her astonishing wine-rich voice seem even more eloquent. She dominates the stage (and is rarely off it in two hours 40 minutes – it’s a huge role) and the angry anguish she finds for her second act solo hits you right between the eyes. It’s a remarkable performance.

There’s also delightful work from Albiona Omonua as Caroline’s feisty angry daughter who doesn’t mind standing up for her rights. The tension between her and her mother is beautifully managed. And on press night Charlie Gallacher did well as Noah, the child of the household who leaves money in his pockets for Caroline to find – another large role. On the whole though, it’s less than fair to comment too much on individuals given the overall strength and impact of this show in which every single actor does a fine and integrated job.

Musically it impresses too. Composer Jeanine Tesori gives us a great deal of intricately nuanced contrapuntal singing – and very little of this show is spoken – which stresses the inner complexity of each character’s thoughts. It works exactly as Mozart or Rossinni does. And the accelerando Klezmer style music when the Jewish family celebrate by dancing round the table is masterly as well as fun. The sound balance is excellent and there’s sterling work coming from the nine piece orchestra under MD Nigel Lilley.

I don’t know how this show was staged in 2003 when it premiered on Broadway but it sits very successfully indeed in the fairly intimate space of the Minerva with its circular thrust stage and director Michael Longhurst at the helm. Will this powerful, poignant and ultimately positive show be Chichester’s next London transfer? It certainly deserves to be.

First published by Sardines http://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/reviews/review.php?REVIEW-Chichester%20Festival%20Theatre%20(professional)-Caroline,%20Or%20Change&reviewsID=2844