Review of Arcadia by University of Northampton BA Actors at Jacksons Lane Theatre, Highgate, London

Ahead of seeing Arcadia in this University of Northampton production by the Third Year BA Actors, I had been warned that it wasn't a play for everyone. It makes sense in retrospect, it's a bit clever, making you always feel as if you are not as intelligent as you hope you are (in my case, probably a fair point). However, despite this, the young cast in this production make Tom Stoppard's ever so clever play entertaining from beginning to end.

Arcadia follows two timelines, modern day as oddball poetry professor Bernard comes visiting Sidley Park looking for a Lord Byron trail, while 200 years before, young Thomasina Coverly is being taught by horny tutor Septimus. Intermixed with these timelines are a further assortment of odd characters. It's all a little weird, but oddly still fun.

Thomas Van Langenberg has tremendous fun as Septimus, teaching and flirting with his pupil Thomasina, played to playful perfection by Abi Cameron, demonstrating perfection in playing below your age. Their scenes together are never anything less than hugely entertaining.

Modern day, and Daniel Hubery slots into the role of Bernard perfectly, sparring with his compatriots and being more than a bit creepy at times. Almost typecast again, Hubery has the niche, and I think it will take him far in the future. Kit Wiles is equally excellent as the forthright novelist Hannah Jarvis, while Chris Cutler is suitably impulsive and more than a little wild as mathematician Valentine.

It's actually as ever a brilliant cast, even beyond the main players, and the dynamics that all of the performers get with one another really are excellent, and perhaps maybe makes this play a little bit better and more entertaining as a whole. Taking a little of the perhaps poncy, knowing nature out of it, and making it more fun.

Visually it looks superb, with sharp detail to the set from Meryl Couper, columns quickly becoming creepers, and as well as this, its superbly dressed from costumes through to some fascinating and very nice props.

I really enjoyed some of the bold direction from Tobias Deacon, allowing actors to perform naturally, often in profile centre stage for some time. It's not for everybody like that, but I like it, it's better to have something look more natural at times.

Arcadia is an interesting play, and that's being nice. I can't say I didn't enjoy it, as that would be a lie. I've seen better, but I've seen a lot worse, and here, the main thing is that the cast in their final group performance together did themselves proud, and that's the important thing here.

Performance reviewed: Sunday 2nd June 2019 at Jacksons Lane Theatre, Highgate, London

Red Velvet was one of three shows performed at Jacksons Lane Theatre by the University Of Northampton BA (Hons) Actors from Friday 31st May to Sunday 2nd June 2019.

Details of Jacksons Lane can be found by visiting their website at https://www.jacksonslane.org.uk/

Review of Here & Now at Milton Keynes Theatre

During the late 90s and early 2000s, the dance-pop group Steps was a mighty presence in the British charts. They accumulated two number-one albums in the UK and 14 consecutive UK top-5 singles, including two number ones. They were juggernauts of lightweight pop. It is perhaps a surprise that it took until 2024 for a musical to be based on their hits. Now, writer Shaun Kitchener brings enough campness to keep Alan Carr and Julian Clary in work for decades. Here & Now , the show everyone was waiting for, is at Milton Keynes Theatre as part of a UK tour. So, the question is: has it been worth the wait? Here & Now is, fundamentally, a ridiculous concept that should not work. Set in a supermarket, yes, a supermarket, our eclectic cast of characters go through the typical dramas of many a musical as love and drama unfold against a backdrop of jukebox music. It should never work, but it does, extremely well in fact. A huge amount of the success here has to go to writer Shaun Kitchene...

Review of Blood Brothers at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

A theatre in the east midlands, a thousand people stand applauding and cheering towards a stage where fourteen people stand. There on the stage, they bow, and bow, an inordinate number of times. They depart after a time and the lights come up over the capacity audience. So did you hear the story of the Blood Brothers show, how people flocked and came to see them play? Did you never hear about how we came to be, standing applauding the brightly lit stage this November day? Come judge for yourselves how this night did come to be. Blood Brothers was a significant show for me back in 2014, being the first musical that I saw live. Hiding up in the upper circle of the Derngate back then, not really sure what to expect, it was it turned out perhaps the perfect show to graduate me from play to musical that I could choose as Willy Russell's gritty and solid story is as confident as a straight play that perhaps any musical is. So strong is the story of the Johnstone's twins, tha...

Review of Sunny Afternoon at Milton Keynes Theatre

Sunny Afternoon , the Kinks-inspired jukebox musical, debuted on stage in 2014. Featuring Ray Davies' music and a book by Joe Penhall, it first found success in London before a UK tour in 2016/17. Now arriving at Milton Keynes Theatre with a new 2025/6 tour, the question remains: with some songs now over 60 years old, is Sunny Afternoon still relevant to today's audiences? While this is a jukebox musical, this show follows, via this system, the story of the formation and eventual success of The Kinks rather than creating a random story from the songs. Opening with the band The Ravens, the group is safe and sophisticated, with their prim-and-proper lead singer. However, the true band of the future, Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Mick Avory and Pete Quaife, are itching for freedom, to break away, especially writer Ray, who wants to create songs that mean something to people. Enter the suits of management, and the rocky creation of The Kinks begins. I had the pleasure of seeing Sunny A...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog