Skip to main content

Review of Titus Andronicus performed by University Of Northampton BA Actors at Delapre Abbey, Northampton

While I found the production excellent, I had found the sheer existence of a history play in Richard II the day before a bind to watch, even in its shortened form. However, Titus Andronicus was to be very different in every way. I hadn't seen Titus before, however, I knew enough to know that it was a bit of a bloodbath and a strange little play. As it turned out this production not only was superb but also it is possible my favourite Shakespeare play to date.

Unlike Richard II the day earlier, there is a little more traditional casting and in the lead we had Alexander Forester Coles, who brings about a commanding and controlling portrayal in the first half and deftly developing the performance after the interval into a tremendously well timed and batty character as revenge and certain madness of his character unfold.

Alexandra Pienaru as Tamora gives a wickedly minxy portrayal of Tamora, Queen of the Goths, exuding all the allure and hostile intent of the character and she truly looks the part as well. I also really enjoyed Mo Samuels as Aaron, a playful, but also a vicious performance with a glint of the eye. His clever scene with a "willing" audience member becoming a tree was confidently performed, a real skill in itself.

Happily for me also was seeing the confidence of Liza Swart continue, having been impressed by her performance during the first year performances of this group. As Lavinia, she gives an entrancing and yet sorrowful disturbing performance. For me, Liza is a true one to watch, a performer with a real individuality which will allow her to stand out in the highly swamped industry.

Director Tobias Deacon brings this mad as a box of frogs play together beautifully in the Delapre Abbey courtyard, creating clever use of the environment. I loved the use of incongruous balloons during the messenger scene and the performers were cleverly dressed in modern attire, but with a rough and distinctive old style edge at times as well. It's a funny thing to be fine with baseball caps in Shakespeare, but not with hi-vis in Steinbeck, however it is all a matter of balance and expectation. It takes a skill to get things correctly so.

There are some tremendous fight scenes brilliantly performed by the cast from Ian McCracken's work. While also the blood and gore is nicely realised and brutally performed at times, it's also with more than a hint of humour as the heads and hands are placed within Waitrose resealable food bags.

The whole show beneffited from being presented outside and thankfully on this occassion the British weather behaved, leaving a hugely entertaining performance for the sold out audience to be thrilled by. One of the best Bard shows that I have seen.

Performance viewed: Sunday 21st May, 2017 (matinee) at Delapre Abbey, Northampton

Titus Andronicus ran until Sunday 21st May 2017.
Twitter feed for the University actors is @BA_Actors

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Hacktivists by Ben Ockrent performed by R&D Youth Theatre at Royal & Derngate (Underground), Northampton

The National Theatres Connections series of plays had been one of my highlights of my trips to R&D during 2014. Their short and snappy single act style kept them all interesting and never overstaying their welcome. So I was more than ready for my first encounter with one of this years Connections plays ahead of the main week of performances at R&D later in the year. Hacktivists is written by Ben Ockrent, whose slightly wacky but socially relevant play Breeders I had seen at St James Theatre last year. Hacktivists is less surreal, but does have a fair selection of what some people would call odd. Myself of the other hand would very much be home with them. So we are presented with thirteen nerdy "friends" who meet to hack, very much in what is termed the white hat variety. This being for good, as we join them they appear to have done very little more than hacked and created some LED light device. Crashing in to spoil the party however comes Beth (Emma-Ann Cranston)...

Review of Bat Out of Hell - The Musical at Milton Keynes Theatre

This tour of Bat Out of Hell - The Musical has become sadly a double-tribute as it tours throughout the UK into 2023 and the love of its creator Jim Steinman, and the man who made his work world-famous, Meat Loaf, both lost in the last year, runs through the cast in this impressive version of the show. The storyline of Bat Out of Hell takes the Peter Pan idea and warps it into a dystopian world of a group of youth known as The Lost trapped forever at 18 years of age. The centre of this group is Strat, who, after a chance encounter, becomes under the spell of Raven. Of course, into this mix must come a megalomaniac, as all dystopian worlds really need. This is the father of Raven, Falco, who, with his wife Sloane, battle The Lost, Raven’s relationship with Strat, and indeed their own very bizarre relationship, to the backdrop of Steinman’s music. Bat Out of Hell doesn’t start particularly well, be it the performance or a show issue, for the first twenty minutes there is a lack of clarit...

Review of It's A Wonderful Life by Masque Theatre at the Holy Sepulchre, Northampton

Remarkably I only saw the classic film It's A Wonderful Life last Christmas, this was thanks to spotting it lurking on my subscription of Netflix. A glorious heartwarming film perfect for Christmas? That must be why I was a blubbering mess at the end of it then. There was hope that in public, The Masque Theatre's performance of the radio version of the story didn't leave me in the same situation. As it happened it did a little as that final scene in the Bailey household played out again, but it didn't matter as there were members of the cast in the same broken state as many of us audience members. Left to right: Jo Molyneux, John Myhill, Lisa Wright, Michael Street, Lisa Shepherd and Jof Davies This was the first radio play that I had seen performed and on the evidence of this, I sure would like to see some more. While not having the drama of standard plays in their creation of moment and places, they do have a rather striking drive towards character creation. The ...