Flash Festival 2018: Static by EVE Ensemble at St Peter's Church, Northampton

I was just short of the right age to witness raving first hand in 1990, and my sheltered life would probably have resulted in my missing it anyway. However, perhaps based on Static from the quintuple of lady performers in EVE Ensemble, it was perhaps a lucky escape.

While they are clearly having immense fun in their raving, brilliantly recreated in two scenes in this production, things turn quickly into a mess, as Dani (Kate Morgan-Jones) decides that a bit of dealing will help the bank balance. So recruiting her mates, including the new girl, the posh and very innocent Emma (Ellen Tritton), they set about distributing the merchandise. This sequence includes trying to sell the gear to us the audience in a nicely worked scene, and also with the performers dealing with different replies, one of which included Tritton smoothly dealing with, brilliantly in character, with a specific request from one audience member. Neat work!

Static is a bit like an all-girl Trainspotting, fun and entertaining, but clearly mostly heading for disaster, so you have to be prepared for the consequences of witnessing Cat (Tiffany Mae Rivers) injecting, over-dosing, and nearly dying in the aisle of the church. The power of scenes is where Static is at it's best with those like this, and brilliant confrontation ones between characters and of course the rave ones.

There are some amazing performances going on as well. The always strong Kate Morgan-Jones is again incredible as the domineering Dani, leading iron-fisted over her friends and controlling what they do and when they do it. It switches though nicely in performance though when she discovers Cat, and the consequences of what she does tells on her friends as the story develops.

Ellen Tritton is wonderful as Emma, all brilliantly awkward, and oh so believable, keeping it just the right side of being just that little bit too silly. Her dancing during the rave scenes was a thing of comic genius as well. It's also a nicely developing character of building toughness as well, which Tritton creates superbly. Megan Leask-Walters meanwhile is tough as nails as Lou from the start, but also cold as ice and very much not a team player. Events spiral terribly for her character, as for all in this tough play, and Leask-Walters depicts the emotion of this with an impressive intensity.

Georgi McKie's Smush is perhaps the intelligent, sensible one of the original four and you can't help but root for her, and hope that she runs. Finally, though, I really enjoyed Tiffany Mae Rivers' performance of Cat, she is probably the strongest written of the five characters, and the story arc the most troubled, amongst a troubled lot, and she performs the role brilliantly.

Staging is clever, and as long as you could see developments in the aisle, perfectly fine, although I am sure that there would have been a few audience members missing some of the action. One criticism though would be the overuse of the smoke machine, absolutely fine during the rave scenes, but often far too much of a distraction during scenes it simply wasn't needed for.

For me, Static is more about the performances, than the actual depth of the story. The story is mostly very simple but allows the characters to be the important factor, which shows the quality of the actors within it. Tough, challenging theatre, and thoroughly entertaining.

Performance viewed: Thursday 26th April 2018

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

Photos: Looking Glass Theatre

Review of Friends - The Musical Parody at Milton Keynes Theatre

The One Where 2026 starts in a world of confusion. And so, 2026 is upon us and for my first trip to the theatre this year, one of my most significant reviewing challenges was to occur. Touring to Milton Keynes Theatre is Friends - The Musical Parody , based, unsurprisingly, on that little American show that ran to a few audience members for ten years. However, I confess that I was not, and have never been in that audience, never having seen a single episode of the show. However, always up for a review challenge and doing my due diligence by having a Friends superfan as my plus one, I headed to Milton Keynes with anticipation. For those unfamiliar with the show, I could say I can’t help; however, a quick review of some of the information you might need (thanks, Google and my plus one). Running for ten years between 1994 and 2004 with 236 episodes (quiz question, you are welcome), the main characters consisted of Phoebe (ditzy, writer of sad songs), Monica (in possession of an unfeasibly...

Review of 2:22 A Ghost Story at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

2:22 A Ghost Story continues an endless rise and run of success on the stage. This play by Danny Robins was first staged as recently as August 2021 at the Noel Coward Theatre and since then the show continued to run in London for two years, moving to four further London theatres, before eventually closing in the city to embark on this tour, which began in September last year. During these runs, the cast has constantly been updated with often populist actors, and some, which are not even associated with acting. As this reaches Royal & Derngate, now even the touring cast has been swept clean and four further performers take on the incredible success of a show. This is the second time I have seen 2:22 A Ghost Story , and it is safe to say that on that first viewing, with the previous tour cast, I was not as blown away by the play as the success seemed to warrant. The aforementioned populist casting seemed to have driven a so-so ghostly tale into success beyond its quality, and with th...

Review of Matthew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet at Royal & Derngate (Derngate), Northampton

Despite now having seen a few dance shows encompassing many different styles, I had yet to see one developed by Sir Matthew Bourne, a controversial player in his time, but as the relatively recent knighthood suggests, now very much embraced by the establishment. So, does Romeo + Juliet live up to his name, that is the question? So, first, this might normally be where I give you a brief outline of the story, but, for one, most have a general understanding of the love disaster of William Shakespeare's play already, and two, as it turns out from the Bourne production, a huge amount of what you might be familiar with has gone or been dramatically changed anyway. There is shocking complicity in murders, there are different moments of murder and gone are the warring factions of the Montagues and Capulets. Characters themselves feel very different at times also, to such an extent that even knowing the play doesn't always make it clear who is who at times. So, if all that sounds...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog