Review of Out Of Focus at Hardingstone Village Hall, Hardingstone

A bit over five years stalking the theatre world of Northampton and a little beyond has never oddly enough led me to the door of The Hardingstone Players. Last Friday though I finally rectified that as I saw the final performance of their production of Peter Gordon's farce Out of Focus. Never also having seen a Peter Gordon play, left me with an interesting evening ahead.

When an unfortunate over-booking at the Church Hall happens, a gathering of badminton players, brownies, pantomime actors and an odd exhibitor of slides collides into a chaotic and rather eclectic cast for this years pantomime, Super Cinders.

Presented upon an excellently created set by Alison Roberts and Iain Hodge, the evening is set for introduction to a feast of odd characters, and this beyond everything is where the strength of this production lies. The performers had clearly gone to great lengths to make their characters as big and bold as the colours upon Cinderella's oddly shaped carriage. We have the brilliant Rachel Dobb as the nervy, "super" Evonne Duckworth, distraught at pretty much everything going on, and feeling responsible for it all.

Then there is the officious, annoying and bossy brownie leader Helen Beever played with a delightful relish by Rhiannon George. A character adopted into the mind of the audience so much, that there was an audible cry of delight from the audience when she finally got her comeuppance.

Simon Wolfenden puts in his usual solid performance as the weird and socially awkward slide guy Leonard Trotter, happily stealing most of the scenes he appears in, making full use of one of Gordon's strongest characters in the play.

The larger than life characters are balanced well by a couple more normal ones (normal in the context of this play that is), who help balance out the farcical chaos around. These are played by Rebecca Mackenzie as Sue Dixon, and Richard Graham as David Wright, and they provide the perfect straight folk. Mackenzie especially has a particularly brilliant collection of startled and quizzical faces in response to whatever anarchy is befalling.

It is a crisp version of what is a very funny play. Director Alison Roberts keeps the piece pacy and even allowing for just a couple of prompts in the second act, the flow doesn't suffer. If I am to have one minor quibble with the direction, I perhaps could have done without the downstage positioning of the table for Leonard's computer. I was in the unfortunate position of the opened laptop blocking quite a bit of activity near the centre doorway. This positioned by one wall, would have had the same effect, but without the blocking.

I really enjoyed my first visit to see The Hardingstone Players, the group had clearly gone to great pains to make this funny farce a nicely polished production. While not perfect, this was an extremely entertaining evening out. Extremely well done.

Performance reviewed: Friday 26th October 2018

Out Of Focus ran at the Hardingstone Village Hall between Wednesday 24th and Fruday 26th October 2018.

Review of Friends - The Musical Parody at Milton Keynes Theatre

The One Where 2026 starts in a world of confusion. And so, 2026 is upon us and for my first trip to the theatre this year, one of my most significant reviewing challenges was to occur. Touring to Milton Keynes Theatre is Friends - The Musical Parody , based, unsurprisingly, on that little American show that ran to a few audience members for ten years. However, I confess that I was not, and have never been in that audience, never having seen a single episode of the show. However, always up for a review challenge and doing my due diligence by having a Friends superfan as my plus one, I headed to Milton Keynes with anticipation. For those unfamiliar with the show, I could say I can’t help; however, a quick review of some of the information you might need (thanks, Google and my plus one). Running for ten years between 1994 and 2004 with 236 episodes (quiz question, you are welcome), the main characters consisted of Phoebe (ditzy, writer of sad songs), Monica (in possession of an unfeasibly...

Review of Matthew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Despite now having seen a few dance shows encompassing many different styles, I had yet to see one developed by Sir Matthew Bourne, a controversial player in his time, but as the relatively recent knighthood suggests, now very much embraced by the establishment. So, does Romeo + Juliet live up to his name, that is the question? So, first, this might normally be where I give you a brief outline of the story, but, for one, most have a general understanding of the love disaster of William Shakespeare's play already, and two, as it turns out from the Bourne production, a huge amount of what you might be familiar with has gone or been dramatically changed anyway. There is shocking complicity in murders, there are different moments of murder and gone are the warring factions of the Montagues and Capulets. Characters themselves feel very different at times also, to such an extent that even knowing the play doesn't always make it clear who is who at times. So, if all that sounds...

Review of 2:22 A Ghost Story at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

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