Review of Flash Festival 2019: The Way by Cosmos Theatre Company at Looking Glass Theatre, Northampton

Solo pieces at Flash have quite a checkered history, one of the very best Flash shows I have seen was a solo one, however, many of the worst also were. They have the balance of either a performer getting everything right, for both the audience and themselves or as sometimes happens, a single person running wild with limited reasoning and it ending in a crash. The Way from Louise Akroyd and her Cosmos Theatre Company gets, fortunately, everything pretty much right.

We meet her character Vicky strewn across her bed, after a very heavy night. Her makeup still on, mostly in the right place. After a distraught and comical search for her phone, she discovers news from her mother that her childhood friend has cancer. A rift has been between them for years, but is now the time right to seal it?

The Way is simple in every way, but that is how it works so well. This is about whether you deal with something that probably wasn't anything in the first place to rebuild bridges before it is too late. It's a gently emotional tale, performed with an incredibly soulful performance by Akroyd. There is no glamour in her initial appearance, and her total belief in the material makes us believe every moment.

I was unsure to the very end whether Vicky was just talking to herself or addressing us directly, but, it mattered not. This story was something we could all understand, we all have someone, or maybe more, who we have drifted away from, most likely for very petty reasons, so The Way is something that works on all levels, and it is just a gloriously little piece of theatre as a result.

Performance viewed: Thursday 4th April 2019

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

Review of Frankenstein at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Over 200 years since its first publication it is remarkable to think that what is, in essence, a scientific novel such as Frankenstein is still so relevant in content today. However, as science evolves endlessly, and now with AI becoming so dominant and controversial, the difference between right and wrong, good and evil in science, and what is too inhuman is as current as ever. Tilted Wig's production, now at the end of its UK tour at Royal & Derngate and written and directed by Sean Aydon takes the original story and sets it about halfway between the first publication and modern day, around the time leading up to the Second World War. Aydon's adaptation works really well in placing the story within this degenerating world, a place where true horror is around the corner, and veiled ideas of their (Germany's) interest in Frankenstein's work are gently developed. However, while Aydon clearly had this idea in his head and his pen when scripting this version, the polit

Review of Hacktivists by Ben Ockrent performed by R&D Youth Theatre at Royal & Derngate (Underground), Northampton

The National Theatres Connections series of plays had been one of my highlights of my trips to R&D during 2014. Their short and snappy single act style kept them all interesting and never overstaying their welcome. So I was more than ready for my first encounter with one of this years Connections plays ahead of the main week of performances at R&D later in the year. Hacktivists is written by Ben Ockrent, whose slightly wacky but socially relevant play Breeders I had seen at St James Theatre last year. Hacktivists is less surreal, but does have a fair selection of what some people would call odd. Myself of the other hand would very much be home with them. So we are presented with thirteen nerdy "friends" who meet to hack, very much in what is termed the white hat variety. This being for good, as we join them they appear to have done very little more than hacked and created some LED light device. Crashing in to spoil the party however comes Beth (Emma-Ann Cranston)

Review of Flashdance - The Musical at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes

For the second week running, the Milton Keynes Theatre is overrun by a wave of eighties nostalgia as Selladoor's production of Flashdance The Musical follows hot on the heels of An Officer and a Gentlemen. However, is it nice to have more of that classic decade upon the stage? The answer mostly is yes, despite the fact that the story driving Flashdance is that light and flimsy at times, you just have to sit back and watch the dancing and the bright colours to get you through. Welding genius, Alex Owens, has her sights set for a bigger thing beyond this tired and struggling factory in Pittsburgh. Hoping to take her dancing beyond Harry's bar, she plans to make big, via Shipley Dance Academy. Then, also drifting into her life comes Nick Hurley, who initially unknown to her, happens to be the factory bosses son, the scene is set for romance. Flashdance has a generally excellent cast led with a tremendously good performance from Joanne Clifton as Alex Owens. Those famili

A Small Mind At The Theatre

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