Skip to main content

Review of UoN Fringe 2019: Escape Route by Kyla Kares at The Platform Club, Northampton

The third show of this year's Fringe increased the really good quality of the shows so far to properly superb as solo performer Kyla Williams presented Escape Route, a quite remarkable piece of theatre from a clearly multi-talented performer.

Taking similar themes of mental health from the previous show, Escape Route centred more on suicide in both it's successful attempts, failures and what it means to be left behind. Using others and her own personal recollections, Williams creates a desperately sad at times depiction of life, yet, but makes it at resolution a most remarkably uplifting one with a truly inspired ending as well.

Williams is unquestionably an amazing performer, able to deliver the stories in clear and distinctive ways. Each of the characters from young Caitlin, to the runner escaping life by running around, the very familiar to me Racecourse, and onto the cabaret singer asking "is that all there is?", are brilliantly realised. This is such a sharp performance from Williams, and a brilliantly put together piece, it might already be the best show of the week.

While this is intelligently constructed as a piece of theatre, it could still be stale and wordy in anyone else's hands. Williams though can sing superbly, performs a beautiful contemporary dance, and creates a brilliant physical movement scene bringing about the pain of one person's life history to life thought sharp, stilted moves. Also, included is one of the most brilliant lip synced pieces I have seen, perfect in timing and mannerisms, so much so, you truly can't believe that this is being vocalised live.

It is rare that I am so impressed by a piece of theatre such as this, maybe my own personal situation helped me understand it more and appreciate it, however also this is clearly stunning work and one of the best solo pieces I have seen, and to leave uplifted from a play about a subject such as this is a tremendous achievement. Simply stunning.

Performance viewed: Monday 29th April 2019

The Fringe Festival 2019 runs until Sunday 5th May 2019 at The Platform Club Northampton, and one show at Hazelrigg House.

Details here: Fringe Festival 2019

Popular posts from this blog

Review of Bat Out Of Hell - The Musical at Milton Keynes Theatre

Bat Out of Hell - The Musical was first realised as a stage musical back in 2017, opening at the Manchester Opera House. Since then, it has achieved significant international success. Now, as part of a new UK tour, it has returned to Milton Keynes Theatre, which it previously visited in 2022 during its global tour. The storyline of Bat Out of Hell , written by Jim Steinman, draws on the story of Peter Pan as a basis and evolves it within a dystopian world, where a group of teenagers known as The Lost live forever at the age of 18. This plot is both flimsy and initially confusing; however, within the music of Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman, it finds a rough-around-the-edges polish that allows this weakness to shine through and succeed. At the centre of this group of teenagers is Strat, who, following an unexpected encounter, falls under the spell of Raven. Within this, a megalomaniac lurks, as all dystopian worlds require. This maniac is Falco, the father of Raven and Sloane's husband....

Review of Murder She Didn't Write at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Murder She Didn't Write , stopping off for a four-day run at Royal & Derngate on a lengthy UK tour, treads the now well-worn path of an improvisational evening of theatre entertainment. Unsurprisingly, from the title, this show from Degrees of Error's takes a murder mystery as its inspiration, with the story influenced by ideas from the audience each evening. Due to this, Murder She Didn't Write and a review are very much an individual affair. What I saw in my evening at the theatre will differ significantly from what the audience will see the following evening; however, the fine performers will remain. The touring cast, in no particular order, is Lizzy Skrzypiec, Rachael Procter-Lane, Peter Baker, Caitlin Campbell, Stephen Clements, Douglas Walker, Harry Allmark, Rosalind Beeson, Sylvia Bishop, Emily Brady, Alice Lamb, Sara Garrard, Peta Maurice and Matthew Whittle. For my performance, Skrzypiec, Procter-Lane, Baker, Walker, Bishop, and Clements were on stage alongsid...

Review of The Blue Road by R&D Young Company at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

I have a 100% strike record with the wonderful Youth Theatre group at Royal & Derngate, they have never let me down with a show and sometimes with those of Sweeney Todd and Kontact , have provided me with some of the very optimum theatre points of each year. The Blue Road, their very latest production for me is slightly less successful. However, it thankfully and perhaps not surprisingly, is nothing to do with the constantly talented bunch of actors that gather in this group. My problem lies in two places, of play selection and the way it is told. The Blue Road chronicles the story of a group of young people on the backend of a not totally described crisis, and this, unfortunately, is where we were more or less just two years ago with the Young Company and their show Immune . I have always been interested in these post apocalyptic stories and often love them, however for the same group to do two so close together feels a shame. They challenge certainly, but I am sure there ar...