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David Porter » Entries tagged with "Seagull Theatre"

See How They Run

See How They Run is a farce by Open Space Theatre company, performed at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft, April 2017. Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 24 April 2017 To stage a classic, traditional, fast-paced, highly energetic romping farce well is a challenge for any theatre company. Open Space proved themselves more than up to it when they brought ‘See How They Run’ to Lowestoft’s Seagull Theatre on their latest regional tour. The company has created a richly varied back catalogue of productions from Chekhov and Ibsen to Alan Bennett and now this old Philip King favourite from wartime Britain, gently mocking and reminding us of changed times and long-gone social mores. Director David Green has a knack for capturing the absurdities of mistaken identities, ludicrous vicars, alcohol, doors and entrances and frantic, mad-cap … Read entire article »

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A Doll’s House

A Dolls’ House performed by Open Space Theatre group at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 21 November 2016 and The Lowestoft Journal, 25 November 2016 A Doll’s House, Ibsen’s dark classic drama, is less about a woman’s rights than her need to discover who she is without reference to men’s control and approval. The central character played by Cathy Gill in a performance that should be shown to acting students, leaves her husband, his ‘dolls’’ house and their children in what was in the 1870s, deeply shocking. She does this after the consequences of her own lies to cover up an intended good act begin to emerge with devastating effect and more potently, her own husband’s (excellently unlikeable Darren France) blatant hypocrisy and double standards stun her. Peter Sowerbutts, … Read entire article »

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Dracula

Dracula presented by the Old Time Radio Club at the Seagull Theatre,  Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 1 November 2016 and The Lowestoft Journal, 4 November 2016 Dracula was an ideal spooky yarn to mark both the Hallowe’en season and the Old Time Radio Club’s return to the Seagull Theatre. Bram Stoker’s enduring Dracula was presented as in an old time classic radio studio style with live musical accompaniment from the show’s producer, Richard Ainslie. The set was an interesting studio layout by Lilla Read and Harry Cooke. David Higgins made all the sound effects live and Richard Melchior wrote and took part in the compelling story. The other performers were Chris Whiting, Lee Jackson, Becca Martin, Erin Girling, Thom Bailey and David Emerson who shared the characters with cleverly articulated voices. The … Read entire article »

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Hay Fever

Hay Fever performed by Yakety Yak Theatre, at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 31 October 2016 and The Lowestoft Journal, 4 November 2016 Hay Fever is the Noel Coward play he himself described as difficult to act with no plot and remarkably little action. However, Yakety Yak successfully transform heavy stylised comedy that is rooted in the 1920s into a timeless gem. Set in the bohemian house of the Bliss family, each has invited a guest for the weekend without telling the others. They proceed to humiliate and generally confuse their visitors while playing startling mind games. Agnes Lillis is the magnificent mother, a retired actress who has yet to give up over-acting and histrionics. Geir Madland is her masterfully understated husband. Tom Scannell plays the son of the house who … Read entire article »

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Forgotten

Forgotten by Stuff of Dreams Theatre Company at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 23 April 2016 and The Lowestoft Journal, 29 April 2016 Forgotten is a play about Suffolk poet and ‘self-improver’ George Crabbe, who told tales of the East Anglian coast and its people but who’s been neglected by history. His major poem Peter Grimes which runs through Crabbe’s creative mind and the play was reworked by Benjamin Britten in his more famous opera, yet it stands as his legacy of fine story-in-verse of the turbulent 1750s to early 1800s in England and beyond. Stuff of Dreams are a Norfolk-Suffolk based ensemble who offer platforms for new stage writing. Ray Rumsby’s study is a complex, tightly drawn reflection of Crabbe’s style of keenly observing poor people, capturing … Read entire article »

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Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop of Horrors by the Seagull Rep at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 7 April 2016 The spoof, B-movie musical Little Shop of Horrors is a joyfully ridiculous tale set in a Skid Row flower shop where a rare flesh-eating plant is nourished. The Seagull Rep excelled themselves with their take on it. Director John Hales and the Seagull team worked talented, top-notch performers from principals to company round the clever set with a first class band rocking above the action. Michelle Long, the romantic-at-heart Audrey, was an outstanding singer and actress, with John Jones playing her nerdy love interest. Jimmy Atkin as the flower shop owner was spot on and the three chorus/do-wap girls (Amanda Wisher, Claire Welham and Alisha Giles) captivating. The evil dentist Daniel Hughes … Read entire article »

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Betrayal (Foolhardy Theatre)

Betrayal by Foolhardy Theatre at Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft This review of Betrayal was commissioned by the Eastern Daily Press, but not used by them for an unexplained reason, February 2016 To experience Pinter’s mini-masterpiece Betrayal in the intimacy of the Seagull Theatre is to relish the sharpness of his writing, the acute observation and interlocking of his characters and universal yet comic truths about people. Inspired by his own affair with Joan Bakewell, the play starts at the finale of a couple’s long term adulterous relationship and travels back through snapshot scenes to the exciting beginning – a powerful device that reveals subtleties in the characters. The high-class actors are a tight team. Abi Watson as the wife balances her life, love and career in a mature way that is written across her face throughout. … Read entire article »

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Blitzed

Blitzed at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 8 August 2015 and The Lowestoft Journal, 14 August 2015 Katie Smith’s writing and directorial debut was brought to life at the Seagull, in an all-age study of life’s choices and what ‘just happens.’ From the drugs and free-love hippie times of the 1960s it moved across selected years to the present. We followed the trials and youthful indiscretions of three friends, the excellent Sharni Macdonald, Abigail Watson and Nina Woodcock to their what-has-life-all-been-about phase. Attention to detail with slides and music snippets enhanced scenes as fashions and attitudes evolved. The immense youthful enthusiasm and talent was infectious as they worked as an ensemble and as individuals in cameos of honesty, anger, humour and regret. Avoiding over-reliance on stereotypes, characters drew the … Read entire article »

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Separate Tables

Open Space Theatre’s Separate Tables at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 20 November 2014 Open Space Theatre’s annual autumn tour arrived at Lowestoft’s Seagull Theatre with a fine example of stage writing, surefire acting and direction. Separate Tables is a pair of interconnected plays set in a 1950s’ south coast hotel, a rather sad place peopled by lost characters, past their prime or inadequate in some way. April Secrett and Roy Goodwin were the once-married couple facing their shared past as it cleverly unfolded. Eileen Ryan’s hotel manager showed skill and empathy, Tim Hall embodied the hapless, pretend retired major and Geoff Cadman the former schoolmaster. Yves Green was outstanding as the superior, resident matriarch with the excellent Emma Martin as her downtrodden daughter who found her own voice. Other guests … Read entire article »

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Rope

Rope by Stuff of Dreams Theatre Company Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 2 November 2013   Growing in stature, Stuff of Dreams have embraced another challenge for their latest tour with the 1929 Patrick Hamilton play, Rope, adapted by Hitchcock for his film of the same name. On the surface a classic thriller with a very dark story, it’s also a psychological drama exploring the mind of a killer (Tom Moran) who is both disturbed/unstable and compelling/charming aided by a weaker sidekick (Eliot Ruocco-Trenouth). Two young men strangle a friend for little more motive than that they could, the ‘perfect crime.’ His body lies in a chest that serves as a table from which guests including the deceased’s father eat a meal. One guest (Elliott Hughes) is suspicious, detective-like and probes away … Read entire article »

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