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Strangers on a Train

Theatre Royal, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 15 August 2006 Strangers on a Train There’s something about trains. Something about a good murder. Something about surprises. This play has the lot. That old master of suspense Alfted Hitchcock always recognised a good yarn with complex twists and turns and that’s why he made it into a film. Patricia Highsmith’s 1950’s psychological tale of murder translates well to the stage and has stood the test of time. A cast including familiar faces – 60’s singer Anita Harris, former Dr Who Colin Baker, Emmerdale’s Leah Bracknell and Alex Fearns, formerly of EastEnders – all gel well and keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Two strangers meet on a train. One dreams of the perfect murder in which each kills the other’s obstacle to … Read entire article »

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Animal Farm

Newfangled Theatre Company at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 8 June 2006 Animal Farm Shocking brutality, culling the unwanted and dissenting, betrayal, deceit and fear should come as no surprise in the modern world. George Orwell offered us his novelised fable of the destruction of a heaven on earth from within. Sir Peter Hall dramatised it. Adrian Mitchell added satirical lyrics and this still new company have turned it into a successful display of how humankind focuses on its own wellbeing, regardless of cost. Chris Whiting as Napoleon was superbly sinister with a bent frame that chilled. He was ably supported by Tom Bailey as the alleged traitor Snowball, and the slimy sidekick Squealer (Joel Curtis) and they led a strong cast that strutted, hopped, slid, clucked and pawed … Read entire article »

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Low Life

Blind Summit Theatre at the Norwich Puppet Theatre Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 8 May 2006 Low Life Four actor-puppeteers and puppets in a sleazy downtown bar hold sway, drawing us in to their bar stories with elegant choreography and the comedy of fringe-of-life-depression. The alcoholic businessman, mistaking his wife for a dog, cannot bear to go home. The tiny Action Man mission-impossible plumber drowns. A wrinkled Chinese cleaner, so drawn into the book he is reading, murders it. They mix the boundaries between the manipulator and the manipulated. And it’s all touchingly beautiful. A bar of identical ordinary little guys who parody paperback detective fiction, flow in and out of their reality. Theses characters are puppets, yet they’re also the puppeteer/satirists, ever in sight, as one voice with their puppets. Equally, these puppets … Read entire article »

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La Cuchina dell’Arte

Chapelfield Gardens, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 4 May 2006 La Cuchina dell’Arte If you love circus in all its forms, ancient and modern, this one is for your collection. It’s unique. Comedy without a safety net. The food-service industry without the hygiene. Set in a kitchen-cum-restaurant, a straight-man chef and his hapless sidekick in big shoes invite two members of the audience on stage and make them pizza. Inevitably it turns out to be a burnt offering. Directly inspired by vaudeville coming out of commedia dell’Arte, film makers and mimers, they cavort in magical physical nonsense. It takes real skill to clown, drop plates and spin plates while taking audience orders and spin dough till it flies through the air. But it takes a special skill to make it look easy. From the … Read entire article »

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The Mona Lisas

Theatre Melange at the Playhouse, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 7 October 2006 The Mona Lisas Mona Lisa – the smile that launched a thousand spin-offs. Forgive me mixing my metaphors, but in a surreal performance artpiece, eclecticism comes as normal. It was a tour round the history of art from Da Vinci to Impressionism, then Cubism and Dada to Andy Warhol. Loosely hung round this frame, six performers in search of something mixed unmatcheable images and sounds to create not a sense of wonder at the fusion of art and theatre, but bewilderment. The Anglo-Romanian company is an international collaboration of cultures and history using the Italian painting stolen from France in 1911. Surrealism is a perfectly acceptable stage form. This had giant props, distorted dances, strangely sexual costumes and enough … Read entire article »

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Marcus Brigstocke

The Playhouse, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 2 October 2006 Marcus Brigstocke Tall, lanky, the liberal in corduroy, Marcus Brigstocke treated us to a comic style that was a cross between a chat in your own front room and a loopy, clowning schoolboy winding up the teacher but impressing his mates. His targets were mainly predictable – Labour and Blair, George Bush, terrorism, air travel, transport, the French, Jamie Oliver, Daily Mail readers, the Scots and the EU. Material on the Olympic Games, children and TV adverts was more unexpected, but some of the religious and/or racial gags fell flat. While parts were hilariously funny, others were puzzling – why not sing the song that was threatened throughout? The audience question and answer session that passed for an encore added little. People posed … Read entire article »

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Dangerous Corner (1)

Bruce James Productions at the Marina Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 7 September 2006 Dangerous Corner Another offering by Bruce James Productions in the Marina Theatre’s long-term project to bring quality drama to the stage, sees this JB Priestly classic given a successful outing. One of his renowned ‘time plays’, it’s an absorbing tale based on the notion that if one simple thing had distracted somebody – a piece of dance music played instead of an inquiry into the link of a music box to a suicide – then subsequent history would have been different. Nobody would be any wiser about the lies and deceit everyone covered up. It is not such a new idea these days, but must have been almost revolutionary when it was written. This rendition keeps much of … Read entire article »

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Thalidomide, the Musical

The Playhouse, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 23 September 2006 Thalidomide, the Musical In a time when musicals are made from almost anything from Jerry Springer, Nixon and Thatcher to the NHS and Ofsted, it should be no surprise that Thalidomide gets a showbiz treatment. That this is written by and co-stars Mat Fraser, a well-known disabled actor, gives it an added edge. A man with very short arms looking for love in a long-armed world is the basis for a story that’s as politically incorrect as it can be. Through songs and docudrama, the narrative of the passing years, the horror of the Thalidomide tragedy is made flesh. Throughout, he is totally enabled by Anna Winslet as they ride a rollercoaster of musical genres, puppets and emotions. Some incredibly funny moments at first … Read entire article »

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Caligula on Ice

Norwich Arts Centre Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 13 October 2006 Caligula on Ice If you are not much into poetry performance, it may sound like a hippy happening shrouded in substance fumes. But this was bang up to date. There were three sets, like a well-rounded play with long intervals. The opener was from Martin Figura, a stand-up poet of nostalgia and our first Christmas poem – “Every year we gather round the tree, opening old wounds”. Tim Turnbull recited a philosophical puzzle about God living with teenagers. His work is a narrative of assorted tales, littered with props, voices, mimes and acting. Turnbull’s final set is the main piece – Caligula on Ice. It’s a parody of a spiel for backers of a show that is comedy, circus and topical observation. After it was … Read entire article »

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To Kill a Mocking Bird

Theatre Royal, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 18 October 2006 To Kill a Mockingbird You never really understand a person till you climb into his skin. This is the story of two mockingbirds. The one, a gentle simple recluse who saves the lives of the two children who, efectively, tell the story. The other is a black man, falsely accused of raping a white woman and found guilty in prejudiced small-town America, who dies escaping jail. It’s also about putting a popular school set text on the stage with a cast of actors who shine without exception and a set that deserves applause, moving from outside porches to a hot steamy courthouse. Equally it is about reminding us with a jolt that assumption of guilt and skin colour can still go together. It’s a chance … Read entire article »

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