Skip to main content

Flash Festival 2018: Beneath It All by Balance Theatre at St Peter's Church, Northampton

There is a brilliant scene relatively early in Beneath It All which perfectly portrays the awkwardness and discomfort of the character of Charlie played by Oliver Franks, with so-called normal life. In a crowded corridor, he shifts uncomfortably out of the way of invisible people, even crashing into one at one point. It's an extremely clever way to quickly build the character and extremely nicely performed.

Beneath It All from Balance Theatre tells us of the early life of three young people and their burgeoning relationships, and hormones, and winding back to the start, we find that Charlie has not had an easy life. The play opens with him in a wheelchair, we learn very little about why he is in this, but that doesn't matter, the thread of troubled times is enough for us to understand the story Beneath It All is telling us.

There are a number of immensely tender scenes in Beneath It All, and they all build up our understanding of these troubled, but very endearing characters. There is no hostility here from any of the characters, and the most aggressive scene between the three only really comes from a flippant comment by Cecily over Charlie's sexy dream, and "it's not as if you raped me is it?" comment. It's a powerful moment, expertly reacted to by Franks. However, that is almost it in conflict. It's unusual to find a play where you like all the characters in it, yet still has enough impact to keep the piece intriguing, and for that Balance Theatre have to be applauded.

Very occasionally though, the low impact emotional scenes fall victim of the vast church theatre space, and dialogue can be lost in the lower volume scenes. However, these are few and far between, and I appreciated the tenderness of the scenes more than anything that I might not have heard.

As already alluded to, Franks is excellent as Charlie, conveying his almost terror like reactions to life in general, and the concern in his head that he had been really bad just having a sexy dream. It's a commanding performance that glues the whole show together.

As Cecily, Elizabeth Ferreira is once again immense on stage, a captivating presence even. As part of a physical representation of Charlie's dream, they create a wonderfully lyrical movement piece, full of amazing tenderness, and she also shows some amazing strength within this performance. Her character is also growing in this world of love, but with a much more relaxed style. Ferreira has been a strong performer from the first time I saw her in her brief moment in the first year performance two years ago, and it's great to see the momentum has not ceased. Wonderful work.

Completing the trio is Alexandra Pienaru as Charlie's sister Natalie. She is the grown-up of the trio, but also with some serious issues of her own, and Pienaru gives her great depth through her scenes. It has to be said, it is a curious relationship that she has with her brother, and I did wonder whether we were meant to detect something a little "different" going on. Perhaps that is the idea hidden, or just something that I felt was happening but wasn't there. Either way, Pienaru completes an incredibly strong trio.

I really enjoyed Beneath It All, it's a tremendously emotional play which creates some brilliant ideas to tell its story. Highly effective physical theatre, well written and full of lovely tender performances.

Performance viewed: Wednesday 25th April 2018

The Flash Festival 2018 ran between Monday 23rd and Friday 27th April 2018 at three venues across the town.

Popular posts from this blog

Camden Fringe Review: FEET by Emma And Lawrence Wrote A Play at Etcetera Theatre, London

While some issue plays tend to miss the point of providing fun and entertainment as well as making their point on a relevant issue, FEET is certainly not one of them. Written, produced, directed and performed by the two-person team of Emma And Lawrence Wrote A Play, this is clearly a labour of love of the two, full names Emma Brown and Lawrence Smith, it is fun and engaging throughout. It's "issue" is loosely about selling your body for money or art and how far you might be willing to push it. Lucy Winwood (Emma Brown) is your typical young actress, struggling hard to get those money making roles, or roles in general, and in need of money she stumbles upon the world of feet fetishism (as you, of course, would) and slowly from just images of her feet sold online, it becomes feet in jelly and then finally personal meetings with clients for full on feet interaction. The path that FEET takes is that is this denigration of your body in selling your feet actually worse than...

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...

Review of Blood Brothers at Milton Keynes Theatre

Willy Russell's Blood Brothers is a remarkable show that, to any respectable theatre-goer, needs little introduction; however, a little introduction is still in order. First produced in 1983 in Liverpool, Russell had adapted the musical from a high school play he had written, introducing his own music and lyrics into the tale of the twins Mickey and Eddie, and their mother, Mrs Johnstone. From its very first run on stage at the Liverpool Playhouse, the sign was there that Blood Brothers was a very special show, and as a result, it now tours almost constantly in the UK, packing audiences wherever it goes. So, what can be said now that hasn't already been said? Very little, really; however, I must try. This latest production, opening a new tour at Milton Keynes Theatre, continues the format of old and brings the story still vibrantly to life. Also, this new tour still includes someone who is now as much a part of the show as Russell himself. Sean Jones has now played Mickey, th...