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David Porter » Entries tagged with "Maddermarket Theatre"

Neighbourhood Watch

  Neighbourhood Watch at the Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 23 May 2015 Alan Ayckbourn’s 75th play is a gem, which he described as one of his ‘darker pieces’. Apprehension in society is the theme and the Maddermarket team, ably directed by Jude Wyatt, handle escalating madness with consummate skill. It’s understandable that the small community wish to protect their little world from the perceived threats of the common estate a short distance away. But soon, the Neighbourhood Watch has taken on a life of its own with ID cards, razor wire fences and even stocks to punish ‘wrong-doers’. Neighbourhood Watch is classic Ayckbourne. Out of the ordinary comes dark comedy and he spotlights undercurrents of insanity that run under calm surfaces. Zanna Foley-Davies and Ian Shephard play the joyfully bizarre … Read entire article »

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The Borrowers

  The Borrowers at the Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 22 December 2014 Mary Norton’s Borrowers stories are ideal family entertainment. The Maddermarket brings them to glorious stage life for their heartwarming, fun-filled and comic Christmas show. Peter Sowerbutts’ direction is inspired with clever use of levels for upstairs and under the floorboards, large props, video as the ‘human beans’ discover the world beneath them and puppets when the Borrowers interact directly with big people. It’s a coming-of-age story as Arrietty (the superb Fionna Monk) enters the real, dangerous world outside and her parents (the well-matched Robin Watson as Pod and Harriet Waterhouse as Homily) have to accept dramatic life changes. Tim Seely is the not-so-daft gardener while Dawn Brindle is the perfect baddie with a nose for other people’s business. … Read entire article »

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The Addams Family

The Addams Family Norfolk Youth Music Theatre, Maddermarket, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 7 November 2014 You don’t have to remember the TV or film series about the ‘creepy and kooky’ family from the dark side created by cartoonist Charles Addams about his nearest and dearest to enjoy this comical musical, a fun journey into the macabre. Daughter Wednesday (Megan Artherton) falls in love with ‘normal’ Lucas (Felix Revel) who  arrives with his respectable parents (Tom Coath and Nicola Myers) at Addams’ bizarre mansion. Father Gomez (Aidan Parsons) and his wife Morticia (the outstanding Molly Cutter) fall out over it. Delightfully created family members appear with madnesses and neuroses – Uncle Fester (Archie Brown) is in love with the moon; crazy Grandma (Lauren Bryant) wheels a drug trolley like a demented nurse. Austin … Read entire article »

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The Importance of Being Earnest

Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in Eastern Daily Press, 25 October 2014 It is always something of a challenge to present a well known and much loved play in a way that is familiar yet fresh. This classic of mannered comedy is embraced by the Maddermarket cast with energy and good timing, allowing the comedy of Wilde’s witty, often-barbed one-liners and situational humour full rein. The young would-be Earnests, Algernon (Alexander Cowley) and John/Jack (Rob Tiffin) are well matched and suitably preposterous. The young women who must each have an Earnest, Gwendolen (Camilla Webster) and Cecily (Ellie Kidd) are excellent, especially in their speedy shallow ‘friendship’ in the tea scene. Watching over it all with her fearfully splendid matronly glare is the notorious Lady Bracknell (Clare Howard) with Miss Prism (Jane Dickerson) and Canon Chasuble (John … Read entire article »

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Green Forms

Green Forms Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in Eastern Daily Press, 14 October 2014 Play about bureaucracy is funny and bitter-sweet Special lunchtime performances at the Maddermarket are a great idea. Green Forms is a clever, funny, bitter-sweet hour’s comedy from the mighty pen and sharp wit of Alan Bennett. Add in the combined acting talents of Dawn Brindle, Judi Daykin and John Mangan and there is all we need for a wonderful piece of fun to enliven a wet day in the city. It is a satire on offices, managements, bureaucracies, redundancies and mindsets of the 1980s, before computers took over the world and manual typewriters became history. The verbal sparring between the two perfectly matched women was masterful, the pace relentless. He is the one-armed caretaker-cum factotum with a possibly unintentional cruelty in his flippancy. The … Read entire article »

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Hitchcock Blonde

Hitchcock Blonde at the Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 22 February 2014.   Playwright Terry Johnson doesn’t write about famous people so much as use them in his own intricate fixation dramas. This intriguing work runs two parallel obsession stories. The superbly loathsome Alfred Hitchcock (John Mangan) and his nameless, underestimated blonde (Gemma Johnston) play dangerous games with cameras, a knife and her darkly silent man (Dave Myers). On a Greek island, working through the chance discovery of rotting reels of early Hitchcock celluloid in rusty cans, middle-aged university lecturer Alex (Edward Wallis) tries it on with his not so naive blonde student (Libby Waite) so that she becomes more infatuated with him than the film. It’s Educating Rita taken to a different level. It’s obsession with consequences while unpicking human frailties … Read entire article »

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Raymond Froggatt

Raymond Froggatt at Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 7 September 2013   Froggie welcomed back by adoring fans Feeling like a party crasher, I arrived at the Maddermarket with dozens of avid ‘Froggies’. These are his followers who take ‘fanatic’ to extremes, following him around Britain for gigs. He is on first name terms with half his audience, almost embracing them in mutual admiration if not sheer love. This review is as much about the phenomenon as his concert. Froggart is a singer-songwriter who’s been part of the music scene for decades. He reprised many hits he wrote for stars such as Cliff Richard, Dave Clark Five, Gladys Knight and Daniel O’Donnell. Other songs from his extensive and original catalogue ranged from extended ballads to upbeat clap-alongs. His unique voice, humour and … Read entire article »

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Finding Joy

Vamos Theatre, at the Maddermarket, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 15 July 2013 A timely tale – Finding Joy – of an old lady, daughter and grandson was turned into an original, moving piece of theatre that ‘looked beyond the dementia to the person’. Directed by Rachael Savage, four superb actors in masks by Russell Dean played eight slightly exaggerated stereotypical but absorbing and believable characters. We laughed at their actions, cried at the sadness of the hospital ward and gulped as we realised the truths they’d observed and portrayed about aging and caring. There was age-confusion and generational differences. She was not as daft as people thought she was, never parted from her handbag but used toothpaste as hand cream. The youth gently putting his grandmother to bed was touching; the mother’s … Read entire article »

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Whistle Down the Wind

Norfolk Youth Music Theatre at Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Reviewed published in the Eastern Daily Press, 3 November 2012 From the opening with the full cast on stage, this show both moves and gladdens the heart, stirs emotions and leaves room for plenty to think about. There is an escaped convict on the loose just before Christmas. Village children think the stranger in the barn is Jesus. On that story hangs a variation of the Nativity and parables and events from the Bible, including a Judas character in the boy (George Hunt) who betrays the Man, sympathetically played by John Chitty. Rough, rural family life is captured perfectly with props and effects handled well. The acting and singing in the children’s chorus/disciples’ commentary is priceless; their parents wonderfully odd. The church nativity scene is hilarious. The orchestra … Read entire article »

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When We Are Married

Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 21 July 2012   This little-performed comic gem offers penetrating insight into England a hundred years ago. It’s a study in social mores, class, male/female relationships, the north/south divide, the West Riding of Yorkshire of JB Priestley’s youth and, above all, respectability. Lines like ‘trouble at mill’, ‘the little woman’ and ‘she picked well from the lucky bag in marrying me’ are funny but attitudes sound shocking to today’s minds. Three couples celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of their marriages at the same chapel on the same day. They discover the parson was unqualified, so they’re not actually married, which sets the cat among the pigeons, unleashing comic mayhem. Robin Dauncy, James McGarry and Matthew Pinkerton play the pompous, useless and henpecked husbands. Their wives Cassie Tillett, … Read entire article »

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