Review of Flash Festival 2019: The Way by Cosmos Theatre Company at Looking Glass Theatre, Northampton

Solo pieces at Flash have quite a checkered history, one of the very best Flash shows I have seen was a solo one, however, many of the worst also were. They have the balance of either a performer getting everything right, for both the audience and themselves or as sometimes happens, a single person running wild with limited reasoning and it ending in a crash. The Way from Louise Akroyd and her Cosmos Theatre Company gets, fortunately, everything pretty much right.

We meet her character Vicky strewn across her bed, after a very heavy night. Her makeup still on, mostly in the right place. After a distraught and comical search for her phone, she discovers news from her mother that her childhood friend has cancer. A rift has been between them for years, but is now the time right to seal it?

The Way is simple in every way, but that is how it works so well. This is about whether you deal with something that probably wasn't anything in the first place to rebuild bridges before it is too late. It's a gently emotional tale, performed with an incredibly soulful performance by Akroyd. There is no glamour in her initial appearance, and her total belief in the material makes us believe every moment.

I was unsure to the very end whether Vicky was just talking to herself or addressing us directly, but, it mattered not. This story was something we could all understand, we all have someone, or maybe more, who we have drifted away from, most likely for very petty reasons, so The Way is something that works on all levels, and it is just a gloriously little piece of theatre as a result.

Performance viewed: Thursday 4th April 2019

The Flash Festival 2019 ran until Sunday 7th April 2019 at venues across the town.
Details here: Flash Festival 2019

Review of Top Gs Like Me at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Long before this brand new play by local playwright Samson Hawkins opened at Royal & Derngate Northampton, Top Gs Like Me had garnered a vast amount of media attention, especially regarding the staging within the Derngate theatre on a remarkable conversion into a skatepark, a theatre version of real-life Radlands skatepark in Northampton. So, delving deep below the remarkable site within the theatre, does Hawkins' play of seething toxic masculinity, misogyny and questions around consent strike all the right marks for a perfect landing? Top Gs Like Me follows the life, as he feels it is, of Aiden. Lost in the modern world, his best mate is heading to Uni, his mum is permanently in bed, and Aiden himself is drifting into some nefarious activities. His world is really often little more than stacking shelves in the supermarket, his scooter at his side and his mobile phone and all that entails for a youth of today. Into this world comes the mysterious Hugo Bang, who leads him some...

Review of Horrible Histories - The Concert at Milton Keynes Theatre

The first Horrible Histories book, written by Terry Deary, first hit the shelves a remarkable 33 years ago and has since become a historic event in its own right, with the franchise growing and growing. There have now been 23 books, several TV series, a game show and a film. Also, of course, it is now a stage show, with both Terrible Tudors and Awful Egyptians on a current tour around the country. However, here, now briefly at Milton Keynes Theatre, as part of its own tour, is Horrible Histories - The Concert . So, given the franchise's past success, what is this concert version adding to the franchise? The quick answer is bundles of fun with lashings of subliminal education, as Horrible Histories is very much known for. The cast, created from a collection of mainstays of the original series or tours and a few extras, are as enthusiastic as possible for a production, very much initially aimed at an audience of children. Bold, big in character and overplaying everything, you canno...

Review of The Battle at Birmingham Rep

The Battle is a brand-new play by John Niven, set firmly in the nineties, that focuses on the Britpop fight between chart rivals Blur and Oasis. Opening at Birmingham Rep before transferring to the spiritual Oasis home of Manchester, the question is: is this worth donning your bucket hat, heading to the theatre, and enjoying the show to the end, or will you look back in anger when you leave? It is London, 1995. The infamous Britpop battle begins when both Blur and Oasis release singles on the same day. On one side, clean-cut, art-school intellectuals from the South. On the other hand, raw and unapologetic lads from the North. Let battle commence! The Battle is John Niven's first stage play, and he doesn't take the easy route. Deciding to bring both known people, detailed and multiple scenes and ambitious storytelling to proceedings. And for the most part, it all comes together to create a coherent whole. The casting director Claire Bleasdale has assembled a talented group of ...

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