Review of Flash Festival 2019: Oh Arthur by Framed Ensemble at Looking Glass Theatre, Northampton

At some point, a regular audience member of Flash Festival needs a show that lightens the mood completely, as the trauma of themed issue shows can take its toll no matter how good they are. So, step forward Oh Arthur, a combination of some of the best moments of comedy and setpieces perhaps yet seen on the Flash Festival. I might have to hark back to the exceptional Sell-By-Date in 2014 to find a more consistently funny offering.

Arthur is a layabout, a generally useless creature, bringing nothing to the world. In his wake are the victims of his inability to even attempt life in a good way, so, here is his mother, his girlfriend, his best mate, and others, dealing with him and his horrible behaviour.

So, what's to like about a show with a person with no endearing features. Oddly enough, the superb performance of Simon Roseman and the intricate scripting make him likeable, sort of, in a way we like David Brent, well a little. It makes the unlikeable likeable in a devilish way. Roseman truly is amazing as Arthur, on stage for virtually the whole play, he makes the character his own in every deadpan moment and knowing look to the audience, as this show plays with the audience in a carefully calculated way for ultimate effect.

While Roseman is Arthur, his co-star Tyler Reece is everyone else. Quick changing into everyone from his socially awkward mate, his mother in a crazy giant wig and the red-dressed girlfriend Daisy, Reece perhaps performs the best single comedy performance of my six years at Flash. With exceptional timing, vocals, and mannerisms, you believe every larger than life character. There is almost the most perfect moment of theatre as well when a reveal creates a show-stopping moment, made only possible by the talent of Reece to create such a dramatically different collection of characters.

Oh Arthur at its core does have a serious heart, but it is not really what the show is about. We all know people like Arthur, and while the concept of Therapy with a Push is an interesting one, it is less important than the comedy plundered here, it lets you think a little, but mostly it just makes you laugh. Endlessly.

The team of Roseman and Reece are a force to be reckoned with, perfect working together, creating one of the ultimate Flash shows, and they should most definitely work together again beyond this. Huge performance talent, exemptional writing skills, and they know just what their audience wants. In the top five shows at Flash for me, and I have had the pleasure to see nearly 70 of them now, so, yes, this is very, very good.

Performance viewed: Tuesday 2nd April 2019

The Flash Festival 2019 runs 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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