Review of UoN Fringe 2019: Eve by Veto Ensemble at The Platform Club, Northampton

The Fringe Festival programme informed me that Veto Ensemble's Eve is based upon the biblical tale The Legend of Lilith. However, as someone who has only touched a bible since RE at school to move it in a drawer of a hotel, I'm afraid the reference is lost on me. However, a quick Google tells that Lilith is a wilderness demon and/or the first wife of Adam. So, taking the title Eve into account, I'll accept the latter reference as relevant here, because even a heathen like me recognises the relation between Eve and Adam.

However, actually, none of this matters really to enjoy Eve, as this is basically a tale of friendship told in 90s flashback and modern times and its theme of dealing with both broken friendship, misogynistic society and rape.

Eve therefore clearly tackles the tough subject matter, however, it has a lightness of touch to never be uncomfortable, but making its theme clear. It helps that it has two special performers, and at times very different ones as well. Amber Winger as Evie has a wonderful wide-eyed personality, sweet-natured and innocent to the world around her. In the night out scenes, we experience through both her facial and uncontrolled physical movement the breakthrough into a world new to her.

Rosalie Evans, however, plays what is almost the straight person in the piece, harder-edged, the controlling factor of this friendship and cruel enough to dump her friend in it, but a nicely played realisation when events truly become clear.

Eve is an excellent physical performance, with an excellent amount of clear and controlled physical movement, and despite the fact that their lightness of movement is carefully done, my weak ankles could be felt to be cringing through the performer's commitment at times.

In a nice collection of scenes that form this story, perhaps the best happens early on, when a lip-synching scene has the two performing various classroom members from the girls, boys and the teacher, with the boys expressing their vulgar thoughts and both Winger and Evans nailing both the physical characteristics and timing in style.

Eve offers food for thought, it is a familiar tale that has been tackled often before through the University shows, but here it is given a freshness of ideas to make it once again through-provoking, and is both written extremely well and has two classy performances. Excellent stuff!

Performance viewed: Tuesday 30th 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

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...

Review of Dial M For Mayhem! at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Middle Ground Theatre has been creating unique and intrepid adventures for the stage since the late eighties, and with Dial M For Mayhem! , they take those experiences and bring to the stage a brand new play within a play now arriving for a week run at Royal & Derngate. Written by Margaret May Hobbs and directed by Michael Lunney, Dial M For Mayhem! has much to admire. Still, sadly, for every good joke, amusing set piece and chaotic moment, there are too many periods of flatness, stilted sequences and, especially during the first act, too many slow scenes which either tread the same old ground or bring nothing new to the proceedings and then fail to flow into the next leaving it often disjointed. The cast does their very best, though, and the characters they bring to the stage are entertaining and perfect for this farcical play, but they lack depth despite the script trying desperately at times to give them one. The attempt to create character also comes at the expense of the farc...

Review of Horrible Histories: Terrible Tudors at Milton Keynes Theatre

It is now a remarkable 32 years since the first Horrible Histories book reached the shelves, and since that first Terry Deary book, suitably for this show, The Terrible Tudors , the children's entertainment franchise has become a historic event of its own. Since 1993, there have been 23 books, several TV series, a game show and a film. During those years, the Horrible Histories franchise has also graced the stage for several past shows, and here, now at Milton Keynes Theatre, comes a joint pairing of Terrible Tudors and Awful Egyptians on alternating performances. The question though, is it a deserving part of the famous franchise? A categoric yes is an answer to this neat, fast-paced show, written by original writer Terry Deary and directed by Neal Foster, who also co-wrote the show. Performed by a cast of three, it entertains and thrills throughout. The level of comedy scares, and, most importantly, education is pitched perfectly, as the series has become famous for. The cast...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog