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Books, books, books

Drama Games for Actors

These are just some of the interesting performing arts books which have winged their way to my desk in recent weeks.

A study of Nick Hytner’s Shakespeare work is timely, for example in the week that the opening programme – to include a promenade version of Julius Caesar – is announced for his and Nick Starr’s Tower Theatre for later this year. Shakespeare in the Theatre: Nicholas Hytner by Abigail Rokison-Woodall is published by Bloomsbury in its Arden Shakespeare series.

Then still on Shakespeare (and partly on Hytner who writes the foreword) comes, from Nick Hern Books, a volume comprising twelve in depth interviews with leading actors about specific roles. Julian Curry’s Shakespeare on Stage Vol 2 gives us Zoe Wanamaker on Beatrice, Michael Pennington on Timon, Eileen Atkins on Viola – and nine others, all of them illuminating.

And before we leave England’s greatest playwright I also enjoyed Stanley Wells A Very Short Introduction to Shakespeare’s Tragedies (Oxford). Like all the other titles in this extensive series it manages to say a great deal in 120 uncompromisingly informative pages. As always “very short” certainly doesn’t mean “dumbed down”.

I have a couple of useful how-to books for actors too. First there’s The Process: the secret of successful acting by James Bowden  co-founder principal of Dorset School of Acting who has an impressive record for getting his foundation course graduates into top vocational schools so he’s well worth heeding.  And actors, ever in search of ways of honing their craft, developing useful rehearsal techniques and so on  are likely to appreciate the latest in Nick Hern Books’s Drama Games series. This one is Drama Games for Actors by Thomasina Unsworth who teaches at Rose Bruford.

Play texts are always interesting. (We should all read more plays). Current crop of new ones includes Leopoldville by Jaki McCarrick (Samuel French)  which Papatango premiered at Tristan Bates Theatre in 2010. Mike Bartlett’s very funny and provocative Cock which opened at Royal Court in 2009 is published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama in its Drama and Performance Studies series. Also new from Bloomsbury is a useful volume consisting of three monologue plays for women all commissioned and produced by Fishamble. They are The Wheelchair on my Face by Sonya Kelly. Charolais by Noni Stapleton and The Humours of Bandon by Margaret McAuliffe.

Happy reading!

Shakespeare on Stage

OliverWatermans

I am fascinated by signing. When I watch BSL in action I love the balletic fluidity of it. I find it arrestingly theatrical too.

Imagine my excitement, then, at seeing not one, but two, shows last week in which signing played an integral role. First there was My First Ballet: Cinderella presented by English National Ballet and English National Ballet School. I caught it at Orchard Theatre, Dartford but the production is touring quite widely.

Now ballet, of course, is itself a sign language of sorts. Every movement connotes something specific. Real ballet buffs understand every nuance of the choreographic narrative. But this Cinderella is meant for children as young as three so accessibility is its main thrust. As well as having an on stage verbal narrator in the form of actor Sarah Goddard, BSL vocabulary is tucked into the movement where possible. It segues so well into the language of ballet that you hardly notice it happening but it’s jolly effective. Rarely have I seen a story danced with such clarity.

Then came Krazy Kats Theatre Company with Oliver in the Overworld. I saw it at Watermans in Brentford – the start of a substantial tour. Well, it can’t be easy to sign as you sing (or sing as you sign?) but that’s what the accomplished three hander (plus musician) cast led by brilliant mime specialist Kinny Gardner do in this imaginatively fresh show about a clock which goes in search of its memory.  Again, it’s meant for very young children so the signing supports meaning and story telling even when hearing impairment is not an issue. It’s integral to the action and grafted in so neatly that someone, somewhere on stage keeps the signed narrative flowing seamlessly. The end product is utterly delightful.

Signing should be part of everyday life. Not only is it beautiful to “listen” to but it invites in audience members of all ages who might otherwise be excluded. But it needs to be more widely known and used.

BSL is clearly being taught on some vocational performing arts courses at least in a small way. It should, surely, be available at least as on option on every course? I realise there probably wouldn’t be time to take it to the highest level but I’m pretty sure that in three years you could programme in enough to get the rudiments taught and to encourage students to take it further in their own time. At the very least some awareness raising is certainly called for because, if you’re an actor or performer, this is a skill which could get you a job. But I don’t ever remember seeing it on a graduating student’s showcase CV and I’ve read thousands of those in my time.

cinderella

As for the rest of us well perhaps we should all make the effort to learn some signing too. I understand that some nursery classes teach a bit of it. What a good idea. I do hope it catches on. Then trainee performers would at least have a base to build on.

Established pub names are worth fighting for. In fact there should be some sort of preservation order on them. We have to stop self-styled trendy landlords from throwing away time honoured declarations of local history and, sometimes, centuries of tradition

The Jolly Caulkers in Rotherhithe, for example, was close to the docks. Caulkers were the chaps who resealed joints on boats –  it’s all there in the name. The Travellers’ Rest at Hollingbourne in Kent is on the Pilgrim’s Way and it – or buildings on the same site which preceded it – has done what it said on the sign since Chaucer’s time. It should never have been renamed The Dirty Habit.

Sometimes sense prevails. The Black Horse and Harrow in Catford  had a long stint with a silly modern name despite the “proper” name being engraved in the Victorian coping above. It is now, praise be, back to being called The Black Horse and Harrow and we can all happily recall that when my grandfather was a London child in the 1890s, Catford was a rural place visied by poor East End children on Sunday School Trips.  The Hoops in Great Eversden, Cambridgeshire dates from at least the 1830s, presumably, named for local barrel makers. Today it is The Hoops Tandoori restaurant and three cheers for the enlightened person who decided to retain the old name.

At some point in the last twenty years, someone in the department of transport  quietly decided that every roundabout and major junction should have an official name, often confirming the one already in use by the locals. Good idea and quite often – unintended consequences – that helps to preserve an old pub name. The A249/A2 junction at Sittingbourne in Kent is called Key Street after a long demolished pub. The big intersection on Bromley Common is called The Fantail although the eponymous hostelry has long since been called something else.

Pub names offer all sorts of quirky insights into history and we should not be casually throwing them away in the interests of minimalist modernisation. Yes, pubs are closing rapidly because the need for, and popularity of,  the traditional pub has dramatically declined but we shouldn’t let the names slide away too. The Green Man at Bellingham in South London has gone but there’s a community centre on the site. It’s named the Green Man Community Hub and they have the old pub sign outside the café. Even the bus stop has Green Man in its name. It’s a good example of what should happen but usually doesn’t.

And there is no excuse whatever for changing the historic old Railway Tavern into The Tart’s Knickers or renaming The Carpenters’ Arms  Fred’s Fries.  OK, I made those up but you get my drift and it’s happening all over the country all the time.

 

 

 

This spin off from the popular CBeebies show Sarah and Duck walks a fine line between being appropriately gentle and just plain dull.

Sarah and her aquatic friend – life-size two-hander puppets alternating with tiny stick puppets on Laura McEwen’s colourful set – want to stage a circus birthday party for their friend the Scarf Lady (played by an actor inside a much larger puppet). So they spend the first half rehearsing it and the second half performing it for her. The structure is hardly original and there’s a lot of clumsy fumbling by the four performers ….

Read the rest of this review at https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2017/sarah-ducks-big-top-birthday-review-polka-theatre-london/

Integrated signing ensures that every child present understands every word and nuance of Oliver in the Overworld.

Krazy Kat’s show takes the form of an imaginative and original quest story. The narrative is passed fluidly among the characters as is the puppet Freddie, the character at the centre of the piece ….

Read the rest of this review at: https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2017/oliver-overworld-review-watermans-london/

King’s Head Theatre

This frisky, oddly old-fashioned show (music by Wayne Moore; book and lyrics by Chandler Warren), did very well at Edinburgh last year and it’s easy to see why.

A five-hander with jolly songs ( it wittily explores gay experience through the template of the Adam and Eve story. The jokes are hilariously disrespectful of history and chronology. There’s even a half-hearted Donald Trump joke …

Read the rest of this review at http://musicaltheatrereview.com/adam-eve-and-steve-kings-head-theatre/

Upstairs at The Gatehouse.

The real joy of 1960s music – and the secret of its lasting popularity – is that the melody almost always sits at the top of the texture, unlike so much of the bass-driven stuff which has come since. The lyrics were clearly articulated too. Add to the mix those wonderful full circle skirts supported by layers of stiff gauzy petticoats and you’ve created a crowd-pleaser, if nothing else.

Neil Sedaka was an astonishingly prolific songwriter in the early 60s and this vehicle for his music provides plenty of those early songs, along with some later numbers. And the presence of a fine four-piece band (led by MD Oliver Hance on keyboards) ensures that every one of them comes off with chirpy panache ….

Read the rest of this review at: http://musicaltheatrereview.com/breaking-up-is-hard-to-do-upstairs-at-the-gatehouse/

cinderella

This miniature production presents Prokofiev’s ballet in an hour long version intended for children of three and over. The story is told in pictograms in the programme, ballet movements are reinforced with borrowings from British Sign Language and there’s a narrator to translate verbally. You couldn’t do more to make the story clearer to children of all abilities and levels – including those with special needs.

This is the fifth such show English National Ballet School – with choreography by 2010 alumnus, George Williamson – has mounted in collaboration with English National Ballet since 2012. It works at several levels. The production provides invaluable on-the-road and on-the-boards experience for second year ENBS students.  At the same time it has all the advantages of ENB’s production values including its costumes and sets – stunning outfits in muted dark blue for the eight-strong corps de ballet at the ball, for example. It’s a pity about the pre-recorded music (Moscow Film and TV Symphony Orchestra) which inevitably leads to occasional choreographic imprecision but it’s hard to see how they could get this show affordably on the road in any other way.

Sarah Goddard narrates the story as an older Cinderella, dressed as a princess recalling her past. She uses a rather odd (faintly irritating) lispy voice although there’s a warmly wistful smile in it too. The words are well paced against the music although, inclusivity issues apart, the show would work perfectly well without commentary as its original creators intended.

Each episode is very short and even the youngest most fidgety audience (and the one I was part of was actually very quiet and engaged) doesn’t need a 15 minute interval after only 25 minutes. High spots include two entertaining duets by Cinderella’s step sisters dancing “badly” in heavy 3/4 with the Prince and a lovely dance full of youthful energy and good leaps by the Prince’s four (male) friends. The final love pas-de-deux is very pleasing too.

It’s the graphic colour and beauty of Prokofiev’s evocative score which really carries the show, though. It may be less well known than his Romeo and Juliet but it is every bit as fine. The production is on tour until 27 May.

First published in Lark Reviews http://www.larkreviews.co.uk/?cat=3