Skip to main content

Flash Festival 2017: G.M.H. by Stalagmite Theatre Company at St Peter's Church, Northampton

G.M.H. stands for Genetically Modified Human in Stalagmite Theatre's involving, if a little slowly building the tale of a potential future. We are introduced from the opening to two scavengers who appear to be far from those in the title and are indeed survivors of the pure species. These two are played with a nicely realistic tone by Daniel Ambrose-Jones (Kamari) and Jamal Franklin (Iblis). They happily appear to have a love/hate relationship with each other, yet in this harsh environment also clearly need to respect and need one another to survive.

Thrown into this pairing upon arrival at an underground base (featuring a huge, nicely decorated structure with artwork from former Flash performer Zoe Davey), is a G.M.H. of the title, Atara. She is played by Jessica Bridge with an icily chilling style, cold and obviously calculating but not letting on her true motives perhaps.

The play itself is a curious one and as mentioned is a little slow to build considering its length, however, it is a great idea and nicely balanced in content with humour and drama. There is some nice video usage including a well directed corporate piece (although I would have tried to avoid this repeating so much and made it a proper part of the plays start).

The audience leaves on a high from this production though as despite any slowness early on, there is a brilliantly well-judged and played out twist at the end, which happily makes any possible early disappointments unimportant. I think definitely a potential for an expansion of the duration and life in the future, as there is much to be mined from this scenario.

Performance viewed: Monday 22nd May 2017

The Flash Festival 2017 ran between Monday 22nd and Saturday 27th May 2017 at three venues across the town.

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Lord of the Dance at Milton Keynes Theatre

On what was so far the hottest day of the year, and the highest in many a record book, it feels a tad evil to watch as a group of extremely talented performers bring to the stage one of the most famous and most energetic dance shows to tour. However, arriving now at Milton Keynes Theatre, as part of what is now the still rather immodestly titled 30 Years of Standing Ovations tour, Lord of the Dance remains full of energy even on the hottest of evenings in Milton Keynes. I last and first saw Lord of the Dance as part of the 25 Years of Standing Ovations tour, four years ago (yes, the sums don’t quite work), and it was every bit as spectacular as you could imagine this world-famous dance show is. Born into the world from Michael Flatley and the Riverdance spectacular that preceded it, Lord of the Dance is a simple but effective battle between good and evil and the resolution of it through dance rather than fighting. The dancing here is, as expected, exceptional, led by the Lord of the...

Review of making second Kontakt with the R&D Youth Theatre at Royal & Derngate (Underground), Northampton

As I said in my first Kontakt review, I wasn't really sure that I wanted to see this show. However come Sunday and a second opportunity to see it, I was genuinely looking forward to it. With the show now having departed, for my second review I will elaborate a touch more on happenings, which initially I shied away from as spoilers. My actor for my second encounter was 15 year old Michael. He had the enviable task unlike Michael before him of dealing with someone who knew quite a bit of what was coming. As those surgical gloves went on I this time was certain that the R&D were not going to overstep the boundary and do a full medical. I had also learnt that a crisp sandwich was something that should be left in the memory, so cheese was a much more sensible option. I was able to complete the calculation generally unaided and managed to express an exaggerated shock at the latter outcome. The game of Jenga managed to stay stable once again and rather amazingly managed to bring t...

Review of Annie at Milton Keynes Theatre

Annie was first performed now a remarkable fifty years ago at Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, and since then, the tale based on a 1920s comic strip and adapted for the stage by Thomas Meehan on book, with music by Charles Strouse, and lyrics provided by Martin Charnin, has become a perennial favourite across the world. Indeed, this version, directed by Nikolai Foster, last appeared at Milton Keynes Theatre in 2023. So, after all these years, does Annie still have that appeal? Set in  1930s New York during the Great Depression,  Annie  follows the life of an orphan abandoned to the care  of its evil matron, Miss Hannigan. Annie seeks escape, and after one failed attempt, she finds herself the chosen Christmas guest of billionaire Oliver Warbucks, and things slowly, hopefully begin to improve for the little but fiercely strong Annie. Leading the adult cast for this tour now as the cruel Miss Hannigan is Claire Sweeney. Sweeney clearly revels in the chance to embr...