Review of Flash Festival 2019: Making Their Mark by Face To Face Theatre Company at Looking Glass Theatre, Northampton

Making their Mark is created and performed by Hannah Bacon and Amy Jane Baker, otherwise here known as Face To Face Theatre Company. The "making their mark" reference in the title, here isn't about a woman becoming more relevant to society specifically, but here with the case of Baker's character, the need to bring a baby into the world. The feel that this is what a woman's role might be for some, and with her character, the inability to do so. It's a surprising approach to a female-led show, and fascinating mostly in its creation.

At only thirty minutes, it isn't particularly long, but in that time, Baker exudes great emotion from the audience, while Bacon, as a collection of other characters, helps to move the story. Both perform the piece excellently, with Bacon as a rather overplayed (in a good way) Made in Chelsea like work colleague, and onto a rather clinical doctor, and also as the slightly annoying, has it all (in the child sense), sister. They are all clear and very separate characters, nicely played.

Baker, however, other than the rather curious housewife segments from the 50s, which I don't feel add much to proceedings and feel out of place here, remains as the rather desperate and distraught Abigail. It is a very good performance, leaping from the potential joy to come and the stark realisation of losing, in an extremely convincing way. Together with Bacon, they have created a nice, concise piece of theatre.

Making their Mark ends with a collection of stark bits of information, tough hearing at times, reminding us that things still have a long way to go. There is also at the very final moment a video of some talking heads, and while it's good to hear them, personally I am not a fan of seeing a play end on recorded pieces, this moment should be the performers in my opinion.

It's a good show though, a well-performed two-hander, which teaches a little more about a different spin on the life of a female in today's society, and if we all learn something from a show, it's generally a show well done.

Performance viewed: Wednesday 3rd April 2019

The Flash Festival 2019 ran until Sunday 7th April 2019 at venues across the town.
Details here: Flash Festival 2019

Review of & Juliet at Milton Keynes Theatre

First performed in 2019, & Juliet has become quite a global success, and now, as part of a UK Tour, it has arrived at Milton Keynes Theatre for a two-week run. Featuring a book by David West Read, it tells the what-if story of the survival of Juliet at the end of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet . Primarily a jukebox musical, it more specifically features the works of Swedish songwriter Max Martin (and friends, as the credits describe). The question is, does & Juliet provide more than the standard of many a jukebox musical before it, and does it honour the tragic tale from which it has sprung? Our story opens with William Shakespeare presenting his latest work, Romeo & Juliet , for the first time. However, when his wife, Anne Hathaway, learns how he intends the tale to end, she is away with his quill and planning on her reworking of the story. At the core of this touring production's success is Geraldine Sacdalan's powerhouse performance as Juliet. Her Juliet ...

Review of Northern Ballet - The Great Gatsby at Milton Keynes Theatre

This production of The Great Gatsby performed by Northern Ballet was my fifth encounter at the theatre of a full ballet production and as before, I happily share my review of the show with nearly zero knowledge of-the-art form and more of a casual theatre-goer. You could say that this is a poor direction to come in on a review, but I would say that casual audience are the ones to review this for. Over the years, Northern Ballet has set quite a high benchmark for ballet productions, and any audience member who is worth their salt as a ballet fan would no doubt have tickets for this new touring version of the 2013 version of The Great Gatsby , lovingly created by David Nixon OBE. So much is Nixon part of the very fabric of this show, that he not only provides the choreography and direction but also the initial scenario and costume design (assisted by Julie Anderson). So, discounting those ballet fans already sitting in the audience, what does this offer for the more casual theatre-goer ...

Review of The Rocky Horror Show at Milton Keynes Theatre

Richard O’Brien’s anarchic, surreal, and often incomprehensible musical, The Rocky Horror Show , has captivated audiences for over fifty years now. With this new tour, it feels as fresh and unpredictable as if it had just emerged from O’Brien's vivid imagination yesterday. While another review might seem unnecessary given the countless dressed-up fans who fill every theatre it visits, let’s go ahead and write one anyway. The Rocky Horror Show follows the adventures of Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple. On a dark and stormy November evening, they run into car trouble and seek refuge at a mysterious castle reminiscent of Frankenstein’s. There, they encounter the eccentric handyman Riff-Raff, the outrageous scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter, and a host of other bizarre characters. What unfolds is a science fiction B-movie narrative that is at times coherent and at other times bewildering — yet somehow, that doesn’t seem to matter. I first saw The Rocky Horror Show in 2019 and exper...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

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