A Small Mind At The Theatre

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...

While one half of the University of Northampton Second Year BA Actors tackle the fun and mostly frivolous The Taming of the Shrew , the others dig deep into the unpleasant happenings of Othello , and curiously manage to plunder a little more comedy than you might expect from it. Othello revolves around its two central characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army, and Iago, ensign to the general, and ultimately tragically untrustworthy. It's an extremely dark play, that toys with themes of racism, love, jealousy, betrayal, revenge and repentance. It is weird it is as fun as this production manages to make it become. Othello is played by Alena Crawford but played totally male, and as the brilliant Kate Jones did two years ago as Richard II , Crawford plays it totally convincingly, making the audience gender blind to the performer like many females actors are doing at this time. It's neat casting, and against Leonor Leite De Castro's totally tender portray...

For modern audiences, The Taming of the Shrew has quite a sting in its tale that in this day and age is somewhat off-putting. However, the journey to that famous final speech is funny and never short of entertaining, so, allowing for the time the play was constructed, let's try to ignore how uncomfortable Katherine's final moment is and look elsewhere. The Taming of the Shrew is one of the most famous plays within a play, and after Sly, later Petruchio is tricked into thinking he is a lord, the play within takes hold and becomes the bulk of what it is to become. A mixture of disguises and comic antics, take us slowly towards "a happy ending". This production of The Taming of the Shrew was performed open space on the brand new Waterside Campus of the University of Northampton by the current Second Year BA Actors, and the space near the river and bridge offers a superb space with loads of opportunity for director Vanessa-Faye Stanley to use, and no question does...

Aficionados of Shakespeare would probably recoil at "The Story" on the back of the programme for the BA Acting & Creative Practice second-year students production of the Bard's comedy Much Ado About Nothing . In short, it refers to Don Pedro returning with his regiment from the Falklands, and stopping off at Leonato's hotel in Greenland on the way. Elsewhere Don Pedro's brother Don Jon is on the lookout for juicy stories for the tabloid newspaper he edits. Claudia has fallen in love with Hero, Benedict says he never will fall in love. Meanwhile, the Sirius Arctic Dog Patrol keeps things in line and Balthasar with her trusty guitar keeps the music rolling. Yes, this is 1982, and we are in a world of a very different Much Ado About Nothing , and oddly it mostly seems to work. As expected there are some great performances, even at this second-year stage. There is great style and much more period feel to the ladies in the play than the gents, so Beatrice (Li...

The musical version of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables has been thrilling audiences for over 30 years, and in London is has run continuously since October 1985, so, it is safe to say that it comes to Milton Keynes Theatre on it's UK and Ireland tour will some pedigree. I don't need to sell the name to you, and I didn't need to sell it to myself, because despite never having seen the full version, it is still one of my favourite musicals, thanks to seeing two different School Edition productions and the 2012 film. However, how does this version, the 2009 reimagining of the original stage show stand up on this tour production? After 19 years as a prisoner, Jean Valjean, imprisoned for stealing bread, is freed by Javert, the officer in charge of the prison workforce. After Valjean promptly breaks parole, he uses the profit from stolen silver to reinvent himself as a mayor and factory owner, but Javert vows to recapture Valjean and is on his trail across the ye...

While I would never consider myself anywhere knowledgable about the good old Bard, I did believe I had enough knowledge to know that Richard III was not one of his comedies. However, this totally striking and visually amazing version from Headlong (and co-production with Alexandra Palace and Bristol Old Vic, with Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Oxford Playhouse) ploughs so much dark and brilliant comedy from the situations of Richard dispatching his enemies that you could easily be mistaken. Richard III is without doubt about Richard, maybe that is unsurprising, however, unlike any other named play perhaps, with this one, others rarely matter. There are no side plots, we have no fool for instance, in fact, nothing much other than Richard and his devilish plotting to power. Perhaps here in this cut version (still 150 minutes including the interval), Richard is, even more, the centre of attention. We don't generally get to know many of his victims much before he is dispatc...

When looking at the prospect of the Fringe performance Working For The Man , it is slightly difficult to work out who is the bravest person involved in this remarkable one performer, one audience member show set totally within or around the edges of a car. I guess I would in my case, say myself, but it takes some daring for performer Ellie Lomas of Naked Truth Theatre to also create a piece that offers the boldness that it does. Working for the Man is perhaps unsurprisingly about the sex trade, and explores exploitation and how, or if, prostitution is taken as a serious profession. It involves no live audio dialogue from performer Ellie Lomas, instead, she inhabits a purely physical performance, that is progressed by the use of a pair of headphones which you are given at the start. Across this audio are instructions of what to do. "Get in the car", "sit in the middle seat in the back", "open the glove compartment" etc, as you move to different areas ...

It is safe to say I think that reviewer and show maker alike never set out to deliberately write a bad review or create a bad show. There is simply no logic in it really for the latter, I mean why would you? However when the latter occurs and the former is there in the audience, things will end badly, and for me, it gives me no enjoyment. For my penultimate show, Unveiled , at this year's University of Northampton Fringe Festival, Myriad Theatre performer Isabella Hunt explores what marriage means to her in what ends up being just 18 minutes of a show that sadly goes nowhere. Marriage to Hunt it seems involves intermittently putting on and taking off a succession of dresses, amongst a collection of anguished thoughts mostly that mainly involves an outrageously over repeated physical piece. There is some very brief interaction with the audience among the lines of "how many of you are married?" and other light thoughts, where the answers are written onto a dress, the ...

I have always been a fan of a little science fiction. Not those sprawling space operas, or complicated detailed tales though, that you feel the need for a science degree to battle through. I am more about a simple tale, well told, not packed with scientific lingo, just well told. With Godspeed from performer Fox Neal and his Far From Home company, he ticks all the boxes on the good tale, well told, checklist. Ishmael Constant is humanity's last hope and following a comprehensive training, and having survived a troubling childhood, he is ready to embark on a twelve-year journey to a hole in spacetime to see if beyond it there is any hope for the people of Earth. Godspeed is an extremely well-written tale, told through Ismael's initial agreement and through his journey and told in chapters, and most impressively interspersed with some brilliant flashbacks, indicated via the screen in brilliantly realised video flashing between Space/War/Home, it's an incredibly good id...

One of my favourite films is the 2014 Whiplash , it revolves around drums (one of my favourite and often disregarded instruments) and jazz (one of my guilty pleasures, the Marmite of music indeed). Can't Quite Hit It takes drums as it's theme, and at times has a little of that film about it as well. Maybe it is therefore not a total surprise that it ended up being my favourite show of the Fringe week, and one of the top University shows I have seen over six years. Bias doesn't come into it though, as performer Rosemarie Sheach has created a top-notch show from her Rumble Theatre Company, superbly and endearingly performed, that non-drum fans I am sure would enjoy as well. It's more a chasing your dream story as Leah, an aspiring drummer, seeks out fame and more importantly the ability to do for a career what you love, and not have to be a team leader at KFC instead. You could replace drummer for any number of things to make everyone in the audience feel the passion...

Musicals are becoming quite an interesting breed to review as they always end up via the audience, who are just out to enjoy themselves, a slightly difficult show to judge. How could you possibly criticise something that at least 90% of the audience are apparently enjoying and that at the end everyone is standing for, even yourself (so you can see the stage though for the dissenters)? Maybe you could look around and see how many people have left during the interval? Poor Audrey! More on Audrey later though. Maybe with Rock of Ages , you could simply just comment on how poor it truly is in places? That is tricky because the show actually knows that it is more than a little bit *bleeping* *bleep*. Rock of Ages follows Sherrie heading to Hollywood to make it big. After being robbed just after stepping off the bus, friendly Drew helps her and gets her a way into working the Bourbon Room. That is before a misunderstanding with Stacie Jaxx leaves her on the streets. Add some German pr...

Performer Jessica Harding opens her Unseen Truths production Exposing Inequality with a direct monologue to the audience where she explains that this is a show about, unsurprising, inequality, much centring around that vital turning point, the Suffragette movement. In this opening piece, she says something along the lines of this isn't just another boring show about this subject, and her intention is to make it all the more different. It is a dangerous thing to promise something like this, as it sets out all sorts of hopes for an excellent show. Sadly this genuinely entertaining opening, spirited and enthusiastic delivery from Harding, is pretty much the best part of the show. Although, Exposing Inequality is far from no merits at all, as there are some excellent ideas here which just needed a little more refining to make them work. The bulk of this show centres around Leicester Suffragette Alice Hawkins and takes her job in a shoe factory as another idea for the play. Throug...

42 Church Lane from Battered Lemon Theatre Company was the sharpest written story of the week at the Fringe, a brightly clever tale of three groups occupants of the titular address. It's also lovingly performed, and despite the longest show of the week, never boring or outstaying it's welcome. We meet our first occupants of the address in 1941, as the resident family welcome home Arthur from the war, returning due to injury. Flash forward to 2016, and Megan and Jamie have moved into their first house together. Finally, 2027 sees its occupant Doctor Mia opening a clinic to administer the MMR vaccine in the face of the newly privatised NHS. Each of these three worlds is, in theory, unconnected, but as storylines develope through a strong and totally coherent scene-switching way, it becomes clear that the underlying theme is very much that of trust, and in the end, the betrayal of it. Each of the performers has multiple characters and they often switch briskly, but there ...

If victory and success at Fringe came from the atmosphere alone, Samuel Gellard and his show Paris La Nuit from his Nostalgia Theatre Company would have probably won the week before the show began. Deep in the cellars of Hazelrigg House, the very oozing essence of a wartime bar in Paris drips from the walls and festers around. We sit cabaret style, around tables strewn with traditional paraphernalia, photos, notes and coinage, and another sits at a stall propping up the bar, ready for an impromptu game of cards with our host. Never has that cellar been better dressed for a play before, and it might be cramped, and you might have hit your head getting down there, but boy was it worth it. Jean Clement is our host, happy to entertain, get us inebriated and plays us cool jazz while he does so. It's a masterful performance from Gellard, just becoming the man, cooly leaning smoking his cigarette as we assemble in our chairs and never dropping the role from then on it. Upon war b...