Ridiculusmus at the Playhouse Theatre, Norwich

Review published by the Eastern Daily Press, 23 February 2004

Ideas Men

Comedy has many parents and the one night offering at the Playhouse nodded in the direction of everything from stand-up to the Theatre of the Absurd.

After the success of the Ricky Gervais’ school of office management, the merciless satire on contemporary office life might seem already a full house. However, Ideas Men, written by Jon Hough and David Woods, adds a fierce surrealism to the genre that was occasionally painful.

They came with high expectations and humour hype from the Barbican, but they didn’t quite bring tears to the eyes for more than short sequences in their 80-minute work.

The intentional laid-back, understated and under-rehearsed effect contrasted well with the inspired madnesses like smashing a keyboard and office chair chasing with clowning consequences under the desk.

The two men slipped in  and out of role easily and created the two protagonists in the ideas factory alongside a paraplegic secretary and a boss.

Only when fighting with themselves as dummies did they reach real absurdism, while eating a sandwich and a pair of eclairs brought the house down.

One character summed up their dilemma – “everything has been said before, and that’s the problem”. The 101 Great Ideas book was a neat gimmick.

Clothes on backwards, farcical trouser droppings, sexual innuendo, fountains of spittle and an ending that combined bathos with real sadness – all mean this group will be welcomed back again.

Norwich School at the Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 6 February 2004

The Beggar’s Opera

Anyone arriving at the Norwich School annual senior play expecting John Gay’s 1728 classic concoction of 69 street songs, parodies and arias would be surprised.

The story is still peopled by thieves, whores, beggars, jailers and low-life, but has a keener political edge.

Even those thinking former Czech president Vaclav Havel’s 1970’s play is a direct descendent of Brecht’s Threepenny Opera with its haunting Mac the Knife song, would also be surprised.

The noose hanging over the central Macheath (Justin Beardsell) is less threatening than expected. However, none of the surprises is a bad experience. The programme note by director Michael James tells us that everyone except the pickpocket lies.

Even criminal business has to co-operate with the police – traffic with the enemy – it’s an added irony as we remember the Communist repression under which Havel wrote.

The central theme is the same as the original, characters covering their backs, but with more twists.

Slimy Bill Lockitt (Fraser Mashiter) summed up his power – “they serve best who know not that they serve”.

George Crowley and Oscar Merry played the gangsters as modern lads and Sam Hinton was strong as Peachum. The girls added powerful performances, particularly Katy Astley as the enthusiastic brothel madam.

The only disappointment was the lack of a full house.

Norwich and Norfolk Operatic Society at the Theatre Royal, Norwich

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 27 January 2004

Kiss Me Kate

A sizzling heart-warmer is filling the stage of the Theatre Royal this week – a perfect antidote to the winter chill outside.

The plot is cleverly interwoven with The Taming of the Shrew, but it isn’t necessary – as the song says – to Brush Up Your Shakespeare.

This is no ordinary backstage-onstage romance. It is what many regard as Cole Porter’s finest work. Songs such as Another Op’ning Another Show, Why Can’t You Behave, Wunderbar, So In Love and I Hate Men stick in the mind and come back afterwards very agreeably.

The show is a treat. It looks good, sounds good. Costumes and lighting, singing and full orchestra, actors and dancers – all in harmony, working together with the added topping of fun and humour at every turn.

Peter Howell as Fred Graham, and Sarah Pryde playing Katharine, merit a mention for quality renditions. Amanda Howell gives us a non-irritating air-head, while the two gangsters (Ian Chisholm and Andy Boesen) with their sure comic touches, would steal the show if it wasn’t such a strong cast.

For me, the best number is Too Darn Hot which opens the second half. It really is hot, but it’s a tough call with such a tight, well-directed ensemble and solo performances.

Once again, the Norfolk and Norwich Operatic Society has added to its reputation, and its admirers left the theatre tapping their feet and humming the songs which were reprised in the grand finale.

A great night out!

Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 18 February 2005

Sleuth

It is no big mystery why this thriller has stood the test of time. It has some of the best twisted plots in the business.

Parallels with earlier productions since its first outing in 1970, or with Michael Caine/Laurence Olivier are beside the point.

This production in the intimacy of the Maddermarket, its stage converted to a country house, is a joy to watch – a parody of the Agatha Christie genre yet utilising many of its tricks.

Built around the classic rivalry of a younger and an older man over a woman, the twists and turns are both pleasing and ingenious. What marks this thriller is the humour that crackles throughout – “never speak ill of the deadly”.

Noel Jones as the woman’s husband is a writer who enjoys the repartee and upper hand over his wife’s lover (John Mangan). Both men carry the weight of plot, counter-plot, sleight of hand and comic punctuation with distinction.

Nothing in psychological drama is what it seems, and the second half is full of denouements and gags, for example: “Sex is the game, marriage is the penalty”.

It is all gamemanship and reality versus a fictional detective world that are finally revealed as the real rivals.

Rob Morris has directed a mini masterpiece which should appeal to lovers of all ages, all genres and of sophisticated writing.

Hull Truck Company at the Cut, Halesworth

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 3 April 2006

I Want That Hair

John Godber, now one of our most performed living playwrights, directed this bittersweet piece by Jane Thornton.

A cracking good job he made of it too. That they are married to each other is entirely coincidental I am sure.

Set in a hairdressing salon, it is a lively slice of life in crackling Hull Truck’s fast-paced comic style.

Two well matched staff – Bex and Heidi – fortysomethings, one older and brighter than the other, engage in daily banter and old jokes until, suddenly, the laughter dries up. The relationship fractures.

Talking, an occupational hazard in a hairdressers – is “more like psychiatry sometimes” and gradually we are drawn in. We care.

Yet the sting in the tail is life itself. We change. We grow old. We are disappointed, let down by people.

Even the running gag of phone calls in always being for the fancy new salon across the road palls.

It is a rivetting evening, with that vital ingredient – comedy with an edge, levity with the truth and characters who are all too familiar.

The Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 20 October 2007

The Tempest

A brave new world that hath such creatures in it. This production is a brave experiment indeed.

Director Peter Sowerbutts steps out with a mainly female cast. And why not? In Shakespeare’s day all parts were played by men.

Susan Seddon holds sway as Prospero, gradually growing into the wordy role of rightful duke.

On one level it is a story about justice restored, and the feminine touch lends a fresh perspective.

Lucy Stevens is Ariel, the airy spirit, and, if not ethereal, brings a quirky presence.

Caliban the ragged and deformed slave (Barnaby Matley) finds the humour along with the jester and drunken butler. Billy Dickens as Miranda, the innocent girl raised, knowing so few other faces, had the most difficult part but carries it off with conviction.

The experiment involves a range of styles. Full of surprises that give delight but hurt not. The fantasy spirit scene employs larger-than-life puppets.

The set is magnificent with a rotating ship hull. A mark of the spellbinding quality on the opening night is how a large group of young people were held enchanted throughout.

Perhaps it could have borne the risk of an entirely female cast but they are to be congratulated for going this far.

Open Space Theatre Company at the Fisher Theatre, Bungay

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 27 November 2008

One Glass Wall

A new local theatre company in the rural areas is welcome. Open Space Theatre Company’s debut play by Danusia Iwaszko is intriguing, so it makes for a compelling evening.

Clearly drawing on her own childhood with a Polish father and Irish mother, the playwright explores a comic surface rippling with dark undercurrents.

Direction comes from the accomplished David Green, the driving force behind the company and he interprets the comic yet complex family relationships while allowing the deeper moods to bubble up periodically.

First the family goes on a drive in their Morris Minor – mum, dad and eight year old daughter.

Amusing references to the 1970s are strangely comforting but finally dad can take no more and simply walks off, leaving them. Later we see the women living by the road, unable to move. The girl is growing up and, while family life has taken on a kind of normality, it is never natural.

Meryl Keeble is the child who captures the juvenile mood perfectly. Mum is Yves Green who plays her tragic situation with a fragile grip on sanity. Alan Bolton is the dad who leaves and returns in a Mercedes still misreading his women and still pedantic.

Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 18 October 2008

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Hamlet is a tragedy of failure, dramatic irony, characters’ true actions revealed and the play within a play.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is the brilliant offshoot, developing two minor characters into a study of life and death, the waiting in between, the searching for meaning.

They have been sent for. “Is this it, then?” is the frequent cry.

Notoriously difficult to play, it’s a masterpiece of clever manipulation of our language, and the often gallows humour is just hilarious.

It’s an ambitious choice for the Maddermarket, but under the imaginative direction of Peter Sowerbutts with Jenny Dewsbury, it works on many levels.

Audiences have to listen hard and some knowledge of Hamlet helps, but is not essential.

The play also deals with the nature of acting and the art of the performer, especially in demonstrating death in its myriad guises.

The director himslef stars as the players’ leader and he is spot on with timing, comic gesture and facial contortion.

The central protagonists are played by David Blood and Trevor Burton who clearly relish the verbal sparring they sustain to the tragic end. “There is an art in the building of suspense” – and they carry it off well. Wit, sarcasm, despair, wisecracks and profound observations – they’re all there.

It’s a fair-length evening, but the reward is a stimulating study into the purposes of our lives. Lots to think about.

Norwich Theatre Royal Actors’ Company at the Playhouse Theatre, Norwich

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 17 September 2008

Pool (No Water)

The idea for this play sounds innocuous  enough. A famous artist invites old friends to her house, but suffers a terrible accident when she  jumps into  the drained pool.

As she lies in a coma, they make her suffering their own artwork. They film her, over and over. Then she wakes. Then it gets interesting as the fragility of friendship and jealousy of others’ success is exposed.

Mark Ravenhill, contemporary writer of savage social drama, is not afraid of shocking audiences.

The Actors’ Company – Norwich Theatre Royal’s own professional repertory group – is equally open to edgy work. Drawing heavily on physical theatre techniques, it is a stream consciousness that tells a compelling tale.

The cast of four – David Alderman, Viss Elliot Safavi, Joseph Wicks and UEA graduate Romy Tennant – sustain the huge energy needed to relive almost literally some shocking memories.

The woman that we never see manipulates from her hospital bed, even though the friends think they have the upper hand and are getting revenge on her broken body.

It is clever writing interpreted and performed with precision.

Images, changes of pace, violence, tenderness, moments of humour and the knife edge of chaotic madness come along in waves. They pack a lot into 70 minutes. It will stay in the mind for a very long time.