Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759-1824), roughly contemporary with Beethoven, was an Austrian musician. Highly acclaimed in her day as a pianist and composer, almost all her music is now lost  She was blind and, at the behest of her parents, underwent several appalling surgical attempts to restore her sight. She may have had affairs with both Mozart and Salieri – there are hints in letters.  This is the story told by Errollyn Wallen’s new one-act opera with libretto by Nicola Werenowska.

But there’s much more to it than that. This is a Graeae production so the emphasis in on the cultivation and championing of the best in deaf, disabled and neurodivergent talent. The Paradis Files is Graeae’s first opera and is the most inclusive show I’ve ever seen.

It starts with cast and band members introducing themselves or each other orally. Everything they say is signed integrally by someone on stage. They wittily describe their clothes, body size and the set.  Each band member plays a demo flourish or a couple of bars on his or her instrument before melting into the upstage band area. Conductor, Andrea Brown says a few words too. Her podium is downstage right so that both band and cast can see her – or one of the on-stand monitor screens at the side of the stage. Once the show starts there’s an over-stage screen for captions which are artistically presented in a timely font, getting larger to stress, for instance, incredulity.

A cast of six works with two performance interpreters whose presence brings another dimension. Max Marchewicz, for example, who identifies in a programme biography as “a queer, disabled, chronically ill and disabled person” signs with moving, balletic sensitivity and I loved the blue hair.  Meanwhile Chandrika Gopalakrishnan lithely makes every nuance clear, sometimes climbing inside the upstage piano which is part of the set. Both are fine actors whose reactions to what is going on help to drive the narrative forward.

Every inch an opera – there is no spoken dialogue – The Paradis Files,  exploits lots of styles. In England Paradis was known as “The Blind Enchantress” and there’s a lovely Mozartian riff on those words. And we end in Rossini-esque mode because it’s an upbeat story

Bethan Langford, who cheerfully tells the audience at the beginning “I’m visually impaired” brings warmth and depth to Paradis. Other actors lead her unobtrusively round the rather busy set and she sits at the piano stool in several scenes. Langford has a rich mezzo voice with some beautiful navy blue notes in the lower register. It blends particularly well with Maureen Braithwaite’s soprano. Braithwaite plays Paradis’s difficult, determined, troubled mother – a complex character. Ella Taylor finds lots of saucy kindness in Gerda the kind, gritty, feisty, trans maid who has an attractive soprano voice.

Wallen’s score makes a great play with the “gossips”. In any other art form we’d call them the “ensemble” with minor characters emerging from their ranks. Here they come somewhere between an operatic and a Greek chorus – commenting on the action and furthering the narrative. And, of course, this isn’t really an eighteenth century opera  so Wallen has  occasional fun with cross rhythms, jazz and rock borrowings so that sometimes the gossips dance incongruously as they sing. It’s great fun.

The Paradis Files is directed by Jenny Sealey, Graeae’s artistic director and she knows, really knows, how to create stunning theatre. This piece is stonkingly good: intelligent, funny, moving, beautifully sung and skilfully staged.

The Paradis Files opened at Curve Leciester before coming to the South Bank. It now tours until 12 May to Milton Keynes, Colchester, Hull, Perth, Cardiff and Sheffield. All details at www.graeae.org.

First published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/the-paradis-files/

All photos: Miles Elliott:

This is a play which links choral singing, Alzheimer’s and hedge funds. So you can’t fault its originality. As someone who sang in a choral society for thirty years and nursed a spouse through Alzheimer’s I recognised and identified with the truth much of it although it’s clumsily didactic when it gets to the hedge funds. I don’t go to the theatre for lengthy lectures about share dealing.

Nancy (Janet Behan) and Adam (Peter Saracen) have been married for a long time. Their hobby and social life is the local choral society. It’s an interesting idea to have a small choir present with their accompanist. They stand, dressed in black on stage as if at a concert, and sing fragments of Messiah. It would have been easy to do this with recordings (and there’s some of that in the production too) and it’s interesting decision to do it live. They’re not always in tune or on time but that may be deliberate – they are meant to be an amateur group, after all.

Grandson Simon (James Fletcher) comes to one of their concerts and meets Jack (Dan Wolff) a tenor in the choir with whom he goes on to have a relationship. There’s a very beautiful scene in which they make love to the sound of Zadok the Priest (recorded not sung live). Meanwhile Gerald (Jonathan Hansler) rarely supports his son or parents because he’s too busy making money out of hedge funds and getting through serial marriages – until it all goes wrong.

The catalyst is Adam developing Alzheimer’s – at first losing his way in sentences but, of course, remembering every word and note of “Messiah”. Gradually he develops the all too familiar vacant look which Saracen gets very well. And I was warmly aware that Roques really does understand what Alzheimer’s involves and that’s rare. We see, for example Saracen get shaky on his feet and at one point Simon has to help him in the lavatory because there’s been an “accident” and they’re at a concert so Nancy can’t go into the gents to sort him out. Very accurately portrayed – as I know all too well.

Janet Behan gives a fine performance as a loving wife initially in denial – shouting Simon and Jack down when they try to get her to admit something is wrong. Then she morphs (the action of the play covers six years) into a stoical coper – another position I indentify with, especially when she breaks down in exhaustion and, crying, tells Simon and Jack that she can’t manage alone except that she does – determined to keep her husband at home.

Underneath all this is a plot twist involving Gerald and something his mother tells him which changes everything but no spoilers here.

It’s an enjoyable and moving play with much to admire but it should be 15 minutes shorter with all the attempts to explain the mechanics of hedge funds to Nancy cut back substantially. And why does the choir keep singing the same few bars of Worthy is the Lamb? Is it to suggest the repetitiveness of what’s happening in Adam’s head? If so it’s over subtle.

First published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/short-memory/

I had never heard of Enchanted April so I arrived at Tower Theatre completely free of expectation. And it turned out to be one of those  quite rare  occasions when I was charmed – enchanted, even – almost from the first word. How has it taken me so long to discover this play?

Based on Elizabeth Von Arnim’s 1922 novel, this adaptation by Matthew Barber presents two troubled women who decide to strike out independent of their husbands by taking a month’s holiday in an Italian “holiday let” castle. The first act shows their relationships with their husbands and the process of recruiting two other women to join them. The second act is set in Italy – all sun and Wisteria in contrast with the greyness and relentless rain they have left behind. Max Batty’s set really highlights the difference and the underlying metaphor.

So, in a sense, it’s a feminist piece with a whiff of, say, Cosi fan Tutte or Princess Ida once as they install themselves in feminine seclusion which, of course, doesn’t last long. These four women are all very different and this production (director John McSpadyen) has a lot of fun with exploiting the dynamic between them. Often taken for war widows, they are finding ways of being themselves against the grain of their social class prejudices a century ago. And if, you want to categorise, in Polonius mode, I suppose it’s a comedy. It’s certainly very funny but as in all the best comedy, it’s nuanced with real issues underneath.

Katherine Kennet hops up and down as Lotty Wilton shining with childlike enthusiasm but gradually grows up and sees that she can make something of her marriage. Ryan Williams gives a splendid performance as her hilariously overbearing husband, Mellersh Wilton. And his Brian Rix moment when the shower explodes and he fulminates on stage in a towel which keeps slipping is one of the funniest scenes I’ve seen on stage for quite a while.

Alisa Dann is excellent as Rose, the buttoned up restrained woman Lotty meets in her Ladies’ Club and eventually persuades to join her in her break for temporary freedom. Rose relaxes eventually and, literally, lets her hair down, agreeing to be painted by the landlord (Anthony Wilding – good). Paul Isaacs plays Frederick, Rose’s husband, who writes risqué books and, it transpires, also lives a risqué life although the coincidence of its detail is rather unsatisfying underplayed.

Also strong are Emily Carmichael as the hard drinking, brittly unhappy Lady Caroline and Rosanna Preston as the Katisha-like Mrs Graves with her outrageous intolerance and put downs. And Anna Didmore as the Italian housekeeper, Costanza, makes the most of, some wonderful sit com moments. As servants always did in pre-1950 plays, she sees everything that goes on and her reactions get lots of well deserved laughs. Her use of Italian is pretty convincing too.

It’s a play – and a production – with warmth and heart. It’s also uplifting to chuckle continuously for two and a half hours.

First published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/enchanted-april/

All photos: Geraint Lewis

Floella Benjamin’s truthful but generally update account of arriving in England from Trinidad is effectively Small Island from a child’s point of view and it’s interesting to have seen both shows within a month. David Wood has created a pacey stage piece by flipping the story on its head and adding some good songs.

Benjamin’s story is linear but Wood begins with her elevation to the House of Lords and then doubles back to the bullying and racism she encountered as a child newly arrived in grey London. Thereafter we’re in Trinidad until the last four children finally board ship and set sail for the Motherland.

Of course Benjamin’s memories of her Trinidadian childhood are romanticised with a huge contrast between the colours, smells, flora and fauna of the Caribbean compared with 1960s England. Director and choreographer, Omar F Okai and designer Bretta Gerecke focus very effectively on those contrasts with the giant flowers being an especial high spot along with Floella and her five siblings enjoying a lively carnival. Ian Oakley’s musical arrangements provide joyously evocative music.

Congratulations to casting director Annelie Powell for finding an actor – Paula Kay – who has Floella Benjamin (present on press night, of course) perfectly and looks very much like her.  Many people in the audience will have warm memories of her on Play School and other TV programmes and Kay has the same distinctive way of dancing and singing. Also neat and appropriate is her use of a Trinidadian accent for all the childhood scenes and RP as an adult looking back. It highlights the way the young Benjamin adapted and gets round the potential problem of adults playing children. It’s a fine performance.

The energetic ensemble is  fabulously strong and I loved Kojo Kamara’s jazz number as Floella’s father who so desperately wanted to come to England because he thought there would be more musical opportunities here §A. Bree Smith is a very versatile actor too – warm and loving as Mamie, the children’s mother, fierce as their teacher in Trinidad and hateful as their foster mother as they wait to be summoned to England.

All in all this is a warm, uplifting show which also addresses all the issues which haven’t gone away – witness George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. I loved it.

First published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/coming-to-england/

All photos: Marc Brenner

When a novel is as well loved and known as Harper Lee’s 1960 groundbreaker, the dramatiser has a difficult job because he or she will never please everyone and the Lee estate sued over this version so it took several years to make it to the stage. You cannot follow any novel slavishly and we’re used to the Christopher Sergel adaptation, approved by Lee, which uses child actors and stresses the piece’s literary origins.

Aaron Sorkin does something quite different. He flips the plot so that we start at the trial of Tom Robinson for rape, uses it as the glue that the piece keeps coming back to and unravels most of the plot in flashbacks narrated by Scout (Gwyneth Keyworth). He also does his level best to update the piece. After all, the issues of racism and assumed white privilege are still very much with us. Most of the gratingly, shockingly anti-black lines Sorkin gives to Bob Newell (Patrick O’Kane) are, for example, actually quotes from things said recently in opposition to Black Lives Matter. As a way of pointing up the ongoing topicality of this profoundly shocking story it works reasonably well, although it’s difficult for anyone who knows Harper Lee’s novel well. You have to keep sternly reminding yourself that this play is an original work in its own right.

I’m generally doubtful about casting adults in child roles but, of course, it’s much cheaper because you don’t have to spend hours rehearsing three rotating teams. And I have to say that Keyworth is pretty convincing as Scout. She has a way with mutinous looks and body language through which smiles often break like the sun coming out. She also commands the stage whenever she’s downstage narrating – addressing the audience – and manages to blend childishness with maturing insights. Apart from anything else the piece is about Scout’s development. It might, less memorably but accurately, have been titled “What Scout Learns” and Keyworth makes that growth very clear.

Also strong, among others, are Jude Owusu whose Tom Robinson is quietly dignified and David Moorst as the vulnerable, wordy but funny Dil.

The beating heart of this show though is Rafe Spall as Atticus – the lawyer who defends a black man accused of rape – whose glittering performance is what most people will remember about this production. He finds all the warmth, passion and intelligence that the character needs. And there are some good scenes, way beyond anything Harper Lee wrote, with the family ‘maid’, Calpurnia (Pamela Nomvete). His closing speech at the trial is a master-class in acting. Spall also gives Atticus a sardonic ruefulness which is all his own. I’m sure he will be up for awards very soon.

There’s a large and business-like ensemble (with musical director Candida Caldicot on stage throughout as organist in frock and cloche hat) behind all this action and a lot of small roles which are understated so it isn’t always clear who they are or why they matter. Some of these tiny scenes could arguably be trimmed. As it is the show runs for three hours.

A tick, though, for Miriam Buether’s set. The show began life on Broadway (2018) and adapting to a smaller stage has not, I gather been easy. I like the way most of the Gielgud’s Victorian proscenium is encased in hot, atmospheric clapper board. Thereafter there’s nifty work with switches from court room to the porch of Atticus’s house. It’s neatly done.

First published by Sardines: https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/review/to-kill-a-mockingbird/

All photos: Ellie Kurttz

I’ve seen many of National Theatre’s Shakespeare for a young audiences over the years, sometimes on school premises and sometimes back at base on the South Bank. This pared down Hamlet (65 mins – who needs Horatio or Gravediggers?) has some of the clearest story telling I’ve ever seen. Sticking closely to Shakespeare’s play and using a fair bit of his language, this version ensures that every child in the audience is fully involved but none is patronised: quite an achievement for director Tinuke Craig and her cast.

This take on Hamlet is very much an intimate family drama rather than a big political play although it is witty to paraphrase one of Hamlet’s soliloquies with comments about lying leaders who party on while the rest of us cannot. Even the children chuckled knowingly. I liked the opening at the old king’s funeral – one big tribute spells KING and another reads DAD and there’s singing. Then Claudius (Vedi Roy) proposes to Gertrude (Claire Redcliffe) literally on top of his brother’s grave and we’re into a noisy party with dancing. We also get a splendid ghost scene with a scary§§§§ echoey voice. The  imposing tall ghost, like every character who dies, is covered in a gauzy veil so the status is obvious. And what a good idea to get the audience to provide sound effects for the play within a play which Hamlet directs getting his family to take parts.

The scene when Polonius (David Ahmad) gives his famous advice to Laertes (Chanel Waddock – deliciously sparky) is very funny with both Laertes and Ophelia (Jessica Olade) making it plain that they’ve heard every word of it many times before.

Karen Kebaily-Dwyer is warm and convincing as Hamlet although he is inclined to chop the lines into two or three-word sound bites – presumably in the interests of accessibility but to anyone used to feeling the rhythm it’s an irritant.

It’s a colourful production with Gertrude and Claudius in bright green and Rosencrantz (Efe Agwele) and Guildenstern in scarlet. The set (Frankie Bradshaw) is simple – mostly a single screen because it also has to work in primary school halls.

First published by Sardines.