David Porter

Seagull Theatre Club at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 5 September 2008 Two Pinter Plays It’s good to see the Seagull enjoy a pair of less famous Pinter plays. Good to experience his comedy of menace. Matthew Elliott makes his directorial debut with a young cast who meet the Pinter awkwardness, repetition and exposure of fractured relationships with maturity. In Party Time, upper-class people cocktail away while an unspecified revolution strangles the streets around. Subtly pilitical, it flows between the unspoken horror of a thriller and soime hilarious writing. Richard Boakes is directed to let a sinister edge flow from within. Matthew Thomas is one of their number they have done away with – a ghost with the chill of the grave about him. It’s an appetiser for the main course … Read entire article »

Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 23 August 2008 Wait Until Dark All the best suspense thrillers play out in the darkness both of the area around you and in your mind. This masterfully crafted thriller is an electrifying example. Centred round a mysterious doll (which is hidimg some heroin) it features a sinister conman, two ex-convicts, a rather naive man and his blind wife. Murders and a deadly cat-and-mouse game build to a terrific climax. That is the plot and it demands strong acting and powerful direction. The Maddermarket do just that; the brilliantly intriguing plot and realistic characters develop with compelling tension. Richard Mann sustains Kray-like menace and his two side-kicks, Russell Turner and Max Rudd, play it with just the right amount of conman plausibility. Jo Sessions as the blind woman is … Read entire article »

Reduced Shakespeare Company at The Playhouse, Norwich Review published 20 October 2008 The Reduced Bible The Reduced Shakespeare Company built a formidable reputation paraphrasing all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays into comic lunacy lasting 90 minutes. They are at it again. This time taking the entire Bible! Three American guys keep the gags coming, a never-ending surreal angle on the key stories, all well rehearsed but riven through with adlibs and current affairs. The basic comic technique is one idiot and two straight men. One moment they are reminiscent of a sixth form sketch, the next they are making a serious lecture. It is powerfully funny. The selection of stories to send up is as varied as the treatment each receives. Eve is a puppet emerging from Adam’s front. Abraham is Old Abe Lincoln. The second half is … Read entire article »

The Playhouse, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 22 December 2008 Axis of Evil Take three students – a pair of Brits (Tom Butterworth and Andy Bennett) and a Yank (Will Averill), plus hours dossing about in student squalor watching films and TV, together with a bunch of willing friends and a host of whacky, anarchic comedy ideas and we have Axis of Evil Productions. The Coalition – Tales of the Uninvited was their latest instalment of a couple of episodes of a continuous staged soap opera. Episode 9: Attack of the Yank’s Kid Sister and Episode 10: Horsemen of the Multipocolypse were served up, drawing freely on – and making fun of – Star Wars. Other influences, ranging from The Goodies, Benny Hill, The Young Ones to Punk’d, were clearly visible as some … Read entire article »

George Piper Dancers at Theatre Royal, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 19 July 2004 The George Piper Dancers/Ballet Boyz Traditional ballet, it wasn’t. But with all the classical precision, technically demanding moves, came a range of boundary-pushing dance discoveries that made for a stunning evening. A unique feature of this company is that they do not have to appeal to an established dance audience. They convince general performance enthusiasts that modern dance is accessible, intelligent and huge fun. The Ballet Boyz, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, recently gave us a documentary series on Channel 4 demystifying the creative dance process. But it’s the rehearsal and tour footage that accompanies the dances on stage which is particularly novel. Indeed, some video links were applauded. The talented team gave us a feast of challenging spectacle and … Read entire article »

Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 20 August 2004 Black Coffee This Agatha Christie tale is an acquired tatste. So is the elegant Hercule Poirot, solving the mystery with his little grey cells, his deliciously old-fashioned sidekick Hastings and hapless Inspector Japp. However, in the confident hands of the Maddermarket company under Tim Seely’s deft direction the familiar came alive The intimacy of the theatre draws us into the country house library and the plot – albeit dated, resting on dinner jackets, poison, blackmail, a stolen formula for a new weapon and copious red herrings – was strangely comforting. The denouement is vintage Christie, bringing the strands and twists together in a satisfying way. Humour in both script and direction plays to the full, ranging from the stylish self-deprecation of the characters to … Read entire article »

Saltmine Theatre Company at the Playhouse, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 23 June 2004 The Screwtape Letters The power of love, the love of God, is the heart of this very triumphant Christian message through pure theatre. CS Lewis was one of the most powerful Christian voices writing in the 20th century. The letters – epistolary – between  experienced devil Screwtape and his novices Wormwood and Flubgob are classics of popular theology. They have been assigned to secure the damnation of a new young Christian. To portray this dialogue as a piece of gripping theatre is a challenge well met by Saltmine Theatre Company on its 18th anniversary tour. A mainly Christian audience responded warmly to a wake up call on the human weaknesses of us all laid bare and to the humour … Read entire article »

Theatre Royal, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 15 June 2004 My Boy Jack Expecting nostalgia about first world war sons and daughters, I was touched deeply by Rudyard Kipling’s confused emotions in putting his obligation ahead of family and breaking rules to send his myopic teenage son to the trenches in the name of King, country and empire. The pointlessness of the boy’s sacrifice (half of the 250,000 under-age soldiers died) at Loos after a few months resonates in a broken Kipling’s subsequent writing and his own death as the second world war looms, inevitable after The War to End All Wars didn’t. The dilemma of a devastated patriot questioning his fundamental beliefs is the tragedy mirrored in the lives of millions, echoed in the strain on wife and marriage and made … Read entire article »