David Porter » Archive
Echoes and Reflections
Thalia Theatre at Norwich Playhouse Review published in Eastern Daily Press, 26 November 2010 Echoes and Reflections Thalia Theatre’s annual showcase is an opportunity to share an artistic exploration with friends and families of a team of committed and focussed people. Developed over the past year to stimulate learning, excite creativity in thought-provoking work and challenging negative perceptions of disability, ‘Echoes and Reflections’ was inspired by a visit to St Peter Mancroft Church. Following a gardener as central character, the narrative unfolded through his garden at first lovingly tended and then neglected as he grew older, and a journey he had to make to reach a heavenly destination, an echo of his past. Each section was cleverly composed to reflect its own location, timeframe and emotional charge. The large group of participants moved well to tell … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
Death of a Salesman
Open Space Theatre Company at Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in Eastern Daily Press and East Anglian Daily Times, 15 November 2010 Death of a Salesman As the years advance, appreciation of Arthur Miller’s masterpiece deepens. That a man at 63 is too old and tired to be effective in business is at odds with today’s 60 being the new 40, but an older person losing his grip resonates still. Paul Baker presents Willie Lomax, a once highly successful travelling salesman, staunch believer in the American Dream and hard work, liked and respected, with a well judged mix of anger, frustration, confusion, with sparks of the younger worker, husband and father. The ever-impressive Yves Green is his wife, handling memories with joy and his decline, their quarrelsome sons and the fractured father/son relationship with stoic … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
The Origin of Species
The Origin of Species Tangram Theatre at Norwich Arts Centre Review published in Eastern Daily Press, 23 October, 2010 The evolution of the one-man show artform is overdue an academic study. Add in acoustic guitar, original songs, physical comedy, awful puns and some challenging ideas, and The Origin of Species is a hybrid gem of the genre. John Hinton wrote and presented the piece, narrated around parts of Charles Darwin’s life in the form of a running monologue interspersed with effective, unembarrassing audience participation and stand-up repartee delivered in a style reminiscent of Michael McIntyre. It was billed as being ‘by means of Natural Selection or the Survival of (R)Evolutionary Theories in the Face of Scientific and Ecclesiastical Objections, a Musical Comedy.’ It largely delivered that. There was a sense of the scientist’s delight in discoveries and connections … Read entire article »
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The Box
You can communicate effectively…! David Porter Communications with the Human Touch The Box where experience counts Human Communication is the Name of my Game A service to business and individuals in need of confidence building, trouble shooting, problem solving, public speaking, report/letter writing, quality written web content, editing, event enabling, voice-overs, third way and lateral thinking. I work with others rich in life’s experiences: We think outside the box. But we don’t neglect what’s already inside the box, too Whatever your problem, we can help We can do it for you, or work with you We can talk to people for or with you We facilitate We teach you or your staff the know-how from writing English to speaking it We organise, arrange, plan, question We come up with blue sky thinking We brain storm for or with you. What’s in the Box? I lead a team of older, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
Flhip-Flhop
Rannel Theatre Company Norwich Playhouse Review published in Eastern Daily Press, 1st October 2010 Flhip-Flhop Hip-hop, street dance, rap, sampling and comedy theatre are acquired tastes. Rannel Theatre Company brought them to Norwich and a mixed-aged audience lapped them up and wanted more. They rocked. They brought a refreshingly new and energetic take on a classic sketch that was unique and modern, yet also just good old-fashioned fun. Two madcap decorators, young, very contemporary, painting walls but interfering with equipment and things they chanced upon in the apartment, mixing music, dance routines and comedy gags, in a gleeful romp across the absurd, at times surreal edges of life today. The beatbox sounds and rhythms, the MC-rapping from both real music and from inside their crazy heads was the driving undercurrent. The superb timing and hilarious content of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
The Soldier’s Tale
Chamber Orchestra Anglia Playhouse Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 25 September 2010 The Soldiers Tale A concert in aid of Help for Heroes was a perfect vehicle for Chamber Orchestra Anglia to show their skills in an entertaining and richly varied way, under the firm but sensitive baton of Sharon Choa. A suite compiled from an original radio score by Benjamin Britten, Sword in the Stone, started the loosely-militaristic themed evening. This early work of some parody and musical directness demonstrated perfectly Britten’s emerging but unique voice. Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale is set to a text from an old Russian folk tale. With repeated militaristic imagery and rhythms of jazz, ragtime, tango, waltz and marching, it demands the highest virtuosity and dexterity from the instrumentalists. They gave it in full measure. The libretto was … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
Snake in the Grass
Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 18 September 2010 Snake in the Grass Alan Ayckbourn writes brilliant comedy with a dark side, an under belly of thoughtful, uncomfortable truth that makes for a fascinating evening, as if we are being mesmerised by a literal snake. Director Judi Daykin takes hold of this less well-known four-hander and produces rivetting drama. Rhett Davies’ set, cunningly built into the small stage, is a delight, a deceptively peaceful, ramshackle old English garden, hiding all sorts of menace. Two sisters are reunited after the death of their father. The apparently capable older one is played with perfectly balanced strength and vulnerability by Dawn Brindle. Her sibling, a masterful Etta Geras, is not quite as broken and crazy as she first appears. Alexandra Berridge is the nurse/companion to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews
The Price
Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich The Price Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 24 July 2010 Life is full of choices that come with a price. This is the thread of Arthur Miller’s rarely performed study of two brothers attempting to settle the chattels of their late father’s life and their own troubled relationship. *A gifted writer but controversial man, with his outward humanitarian enthusiasm, his three marriages, including to Marilyn Monroe and his institutionalising/neglecting his Down’s syndrome son till just before he died,* Miller wrote this play as a powerful and emotional journey through how people react, what they know and how they deal with others. The brothers – one, almost-retired cop, short of cash and indecisive (handled sensitively by Richard Mann); second, older, successful yet flawed, (a masterful interpretation by the always worth watching, … Read entire article »
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The Voice Project
The Voice Project Norwich Cathedral, part of Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2010 Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 24 May 2010 The Festival curtain fell with another world premiere and a bang, the brilliant DJ sampler Jan Bang. Blending found-sounds and created, musical and unearthly, he mixed technology with sublime massed human voices of the Voice Project Choir and the musical brilliance of trumpeter, conductor, singer Arve Henriksen. In the first half, scripture, 16th century poetry and contemporary verse were given the Voice Project interpretation. After the break, Recording Angel was the new work that will sit in the canon of 21st century repertoire. To describe it is to delve deep into the lexicon of praise. Simultaneously experimental, traditional, a fusion of genres from choral chant and Biblical text, to poignant, touching-heaven emotions, it … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reviews