Skip to main content

Review of UoN Fringe 2019: Godspeed by Far From Home at The Platform Club, Northampton

I have always been a fan of a little science fiction. Not those sprawling space operas, or complicated detailed tales though, that you feel the need for a science degree to battle through. I am more about a simple tale, well told, not packed with scientific lingo, just well told. With Godspeed from performer Fox Neal and his Far From Home company, he ticks all the boxes on the good tale, well told, checklist.

Ishmael Constant is humanity's last hope and following a comprehensive training, and having survived a troubling childhood, he is ready to embark on a twelve-year journey to a hole in spacetime to see if beyond it there is any hope for the people of Earth.

Godspeed is an extremely well-written tale, told through Ismael's initial agreement and through his journey and told in chapters, and most impressively interspersed with some brilliant flashbacks, indicated via the screen in brilliantly realised video flashing between Space/War/Home, it's an incredibly good idea and forms just one part of what is a technically brilliant beast.

As well as this video, Neal performs expertly with rafts of pre-recorded audio sequences, perfectly timed, brilliantly edited, including muffled conversation and ill-fainted messages. It is a sublimely technically perfect piece and kudos to the tech team running the show as well, as timing and accuracy are key.

However, this is, of course, Neal's show, and as Ishmael he is superb, capturing the full life history of his creation, from an innocently confused youngster to one in love and then finally the journeyman of space, seeking humanities saviour, and perhaps more importantly for him, answers of his own. It's a brilliant performance, and his interaction with all the other invisible characters are immensely believable from Shay and to the HAL 2000 style ship computer "Virgil".

Godspeed is a classy show, clear, concise, effortlessly entertaining, and perhaps the very best show from this year's Fringe to take to the big proper Fringe up there in Scotland. Brilliantly written and perfectly performed.

Performance viewed: Sunday 5th May 2019

The Fringe Festival 2019 ran from Monday 29th April to Sunday 5th May 2019 at The Platform Club Northampton, and one show at Hazelrigg House.

Details here: Fringe Festival 2019
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Review of The Wizard Of Oz by the Northampton Musical Theatre Company at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

The last couple of shows from the award-winning Northampton Musical Theatre Company has been a slightly mixed bag, with their last show at Derngate the rather difficult to get a grip on thrills of Grease , a woefully inferior stage version of the classic film despite being very well performed. Their best show recently was ironically Summer Holiday , hidden at the much smaller Cripps venue. Therefore still in the wake of the exceptional Sister Act , does The Wizard of Oz create the Derngate magic once again? The answer for me, is both yes and no, it is as always an exceptional production filled from top to tail with talent, as NMTC is so renowned for, and packing the audience in and thrilling them like perhaps nothing like Oz can in the musical department, you cannot question its selection really. However, like Grease , and to readjust a requote, "it's just Oz". This time I use it in the way that Oz is just a little over-familiar, I am desperate for the buzz that I go...
Read more

Review of Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

The Rambert Dance Company is the oldest such company in Britain having first performed in 1926. However, despite this, this was my first encounter with the group in my ten years of theatre-going. Coupled with this, it was also my first encounter with Peaky Blinders , having never seen the show, and only knowing a few vague things about it. My companion for the evening however was very familiar with the show, allowing some background behind the show. It turns out though,  Rambert Dance in Peaky Blinders - The Redemption of Thomas Shelby needs a little more than a good bit of knowledge of the show, as despite this production having incredible style, there struggles to be a cohesive structure to the show and the storytelling. Much more than other dance shows as well. The first act does a whistle-stop tour of the first five seasons and while it is a feast on the eye, and on the ear, it gets extremely confusing at times. The second act is freestyle and drifts away from the stories tol...
Read more

Review of Mamma Mia! at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Ahead of my trip to see Mamma Mia! in Northampton, I had enough conversations about the show to discover that there appears to be no in-between with people over their love or hate of the work of ABBA (music and lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus). For your information, patient reader, I fall firmly in the love department and an audience member of Mamma Mia! like myself is always going to ride on a tidal wave of joy as this jukebox churns out an incredible selection of their numbers (and truly reveals a substantially great back catalogue, that even a hater could not deny), however, is the show they are weaved around actually any good? The answer is mostly, yes. It is though, a typical popcorn musical where you are just required to switch your brain off for two hours or so and ride that tidal wave to Kalokairi, and observe the bright colours and frivolous nature of the plot. The plot, such as it is, involves 20-year-old Sophie, who is heading towards marria...
Read more