Skip to main content

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
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Review of The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband at The Playhouse Theatre, Northampton

During the interval of The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband , last weeks production at The Playhouse Theatre Northampton, I got involved in a conversation between a couple sitting next to me. The lady was very much of the opinion that the play was a comedy, while the gentleman, had formed one that it was a tragedy. They were joking of course in the conversation, but it did highlight the differences that Debbie Isitt's dark comedy might have between the sexes. And also now perhaps the passing of time. When this was written in the nineties, Isitt's play was a forthright feminist play, heralding the championing over of the ladies over the man. One the ex-wife plotting to cook him, the other, the new lover, potentially already very tired of him after just three years. The husband, Kenneth (Jem Clack) elopes initially in pursuit of sex with Laura (Diane Wyman), after his nineteen years of marriage with Hilary (Corinna Leeder) has become tired and passionless. Then later, he elopes ...
Read more

Review of Mary Poppins at Milton Keynes Theatre

The 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins is one of the most fondly remembered family films and has been a staple of many children's childhoods ever since its release. Adapted from P. L. Travers's book series featuring the famous nanny, it took until 2004 for the show to reach the stage, with this musical adaptation featuring a book by Julian Fellowes. The stage musical used the familiar songs from the film by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman and added new ones by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe, all under the watchful eye of co-creator Cameron Mackintosh. It is safe to say that many people were involved in bringing this show to the stage. The story, of course, tells of the family Banks—father George, mother Winifred, and the tricky-to-handle children Michael and Jane. Following a job advertisement thrown into the fireplace, a nanny named Mary Poppins arrives at their home, and the Banks' family experiences a very different world than they have ever before. Touring to sele...
Read more

Review of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Milton Keynes Theatre

There have been numerous productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's groundbreaking musical since it first appeared in 1968 and opened in the West End in 1973. One might wonder if there is still room for another tour. However, judging by the packed audience in Milton Keynes Theatre for the opening night of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , much interest remains for this show. Also, with this production first seen at The London Palladium in June 2019, and with a few production elements altered, Joseph still has, after all those years, the room to change and evolve. However, the question is, does this change help or hinder the show's history? For those unfamiliar with Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, it tells the story of Joseph, Jacob's favourite son, in a lighthearted and musical style that jumps between various genres. Joseph's brothers are somewhat envious of him, leading to them selling him into slavery to an Egyptian nobleman. As for ...
Read more