Skip to main content

Review of Ten at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

It would frankly be strange to mention the curtain call for a show at the very beginning of a review, however for Ten, a celebration of ten years of work from the Youth Theatre, Young Company and The Actors, is epitomises perhaps everything to say of the show. A near work of art in itself to shepherd 188 performers onto the stage as quickly, but as respectfully as possible to each individual, is a mind boggling proposition. A curtain call should never be underappreciated, as it is how you leave your audience, and Ten got it perfect.

Those 188 performers created during this 90 minute show a collection of original pieces and selected extracts from plays performed in the past. From the original pieces, Gathering Dust by Georgia Tillery was my favourite, offering a fabulous response from the audience as well as the really young youth theatre group portrayed a collection of old folk attempting to make a break for freedom. It was a really funny piece, which the youngsters clearly had great fun with themselves.

It was wonderful to see little snippets of pieces that I have seen in my time watching the shows, including the very first show I saw the groups perform, Elements of War by The Paper Birds. Like a few of the pieces selected, I am not totally sure how this worked for people unfamiliar with them. However none outstayed their welcome, if anyone was getting confused by what was going on.

An extract from Aftermath by Daniel Bye offered a timely reminder of how amazingly powerful that particular play was, while Hacktivists was re-imagined with a very different cast, boding well for the future of the young company. It was also lovely to hear once again the words of Helen Gibb in her respond piece Hi Mum, It's Me.

New piece highlights for myself were Words, Words, Words by David Ives with all the foolish chimp antics, and an incredibly well received extract from Ayckbourn's The Revenger's Comedies. Hilarious stuff!

The style of the mysterious girl in the attic to bridge the piece worked extremely well with the magic of clothes (mostly shoes) offering windows of a sort into each part of the play. The finish also was a lovely way to conclude it as well, which could happily allude to our future pieces of clothing to be put on to bring forth the next shows. I myself have my leg warmers ready and waiting.

However, this was not really about the material for me, but more a recognition of the achievements of the companies themselves. I may have only been a part of the audience for less than three years, but I pride myself that I have been there for every show the companies have produced since March 2014 (some more than once) and I sincerely hope that I get the chance to continue to be a viewer of everything they bring to the stage for many years to come.

A massive congratulations to:

Performance reviewed: Sunday 6th November, 2016 at the Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton.

Ten was performed at the Royal & Derngate on 
Sunday 6th November, 2016 only.

For further details visit the Royal & Derngate website at http://www.royalandderngate.co.uk/

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Calamity Jane at Milton Keynes Theatre

Should you never have seen Calamity Jane before, as I hadn't before catching it on its UK tour's arrival at Milton Keynes Theatre this week, you may still very well know a little about it by its name alone. However, barring a couple of well-known tunes, I knew far less than I thought, and it was an excellent experience of discovery. The story of Calamity Jane recounts the town of Deadwood and, specifically, the tomboy Calamity Jane, full of tales and daring deeds that may or, more likely, did not happen. When the local theatre owner fails to bring the American star promised to the stage, Calam sets it upon herself to get the biggest star of the country to grace that darn stage. Calamity Jane is, at its core, just a jolly old-fashioned musical, filled to the brim with disturbingly simple but very catchy numbers from Sammy Fain and lyrics from Paul Francis Webster. Some you will no doubt recognise, such as Deadwood Stage , Just Blew in from the Windy City , and Secret Love . ...

Review of Lord Of The Dance at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

The stage show Lord of the Dance possibly needs little introduction to most people, as it has become a legend and now, in this touring version, subtitled rather immodestly, 25 Years of Standing Ovations, it reaches a landmark anniversary. Those that do not know of the show would probably well know its spiritual fathers Michael Flatley, and even more likely Riverdance , from which Lord of the Dance sprung with a proper spring in its step. During the interval of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, Riverdance hit the world by storm as Michael Flatley and his troop of dancers possibly presented the most famous part of Eurovision ever, certainly of the non-singing variety at least. Here, this touring show brings that same style Flatley created from traditional Irish dancing across the country once again and it is truly something special to see. The concept of the show is simply a battle between good and evil told through dance, and some captivating and stunning songs performed by Celyn Cartw...

Review of Murder She Didn't Write at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Murder She Didn't Write , stopping off for a four-day run at Royal & Derngate on a lengthy UK tour, treads the now well-worn path of an improvisational evening of theatre entertainment. Unsurprisingly, from the title, this show from Degrees of Error's takes a murder mystery as its inspiration, with the story influenced by ideas from the audience each evening. Due to this, Murder She Didn't Write and a review are very much an individual affair. What I saw in my evening at the theatre will differ significantly from what the audience will see the following evening; however, the fine performers will remain. The touring cast, in no particular order, is Lizzy Skrzypiec, Rachael Procter-Lane, Peter Baker, Caitlin Campbell, Stephen Clements, Douglas Walker, Harry Allmark, Rosalind Beeson, Sylvia Bishop, Emily Brady, Alice Lamb, Sara Garrard, Peta Maurice and Matthew Whittle. For my performance, Skrzypiec, Procter-Lane, Baker, Walker, Bishop, and Clements were on stage alongsid...