Review of Song of the Summer at The Picturedrome, Northampton

Song of the Summer, a co-production between Cherwell Theatre Company and Northampton’s Royal & Derngate, is something a little different, and there is no problem with that. Part gig, part theatre, this creation has been a labour of love for several years of the writer and director Tristan Jackson-Pate. So, was it worth all those years in creation?

Set in Northampton in 2006 and featuring a group of teens going through a mixture of highs and lows and set to the music of its time, this uplifting tale offers some poignant moments as Alex as his friends follow the age-old and challenging coming-of-age tale, via the medium of trying to create their own The Libertines beating music act.

It is a curious piece to review, sometimes stunning and beautiful, sometimes chaotic and confusing.
This is both a heroic failure and a heroic success of a show. However, with all of its strength in a blistering second act, this ends in triumph and much of the early issues forgotten.

Much of the success is due to some excellent performances by the wonderful young cast. Charles Sloboda-Bolton plays the delightful and eager-to-please Alex with grungy style, needy for success and willing to be used as a result. That user is the poetic and overconfident Leo, played with supreme loftiness by Matt Leaman. There is much to hate from the character, but the eventual charm gets through and, by the end, maybe you love him a bit for his superiorness.

I absolutely loved the brilliant awkwardness of Olivia Bennett as drummer Max, perhaps written as an obviously caricatured drummer, but she provides a great amount of humour in the show. Bennett’s drumming skills also are, like all of this cast's music ability, top-notch. Robert Elliott especially shows much of those excellent skills in his role as Owen.

Finally, from the main cast is a hugely passionate performance by Roberta Carraro as Rachel. Her scene in the second act with Alex is the most dramatic moment of the production and is immensely well played by Carraro.

The rest of the cast consists of local performers, and they in turn act as a gig crowd and a rather curious Greek chorus for events, including some nicely created movement pieces by Hlamalani Georgina Graaff Makhubele. The Greek Chorus-style pieces could have been excellent if they had been easier to hear. We lost much of their dialogue within the venue, and I feel we all missed out as a result.

The venue itself of The Picturedrome brings both failure and success to the production. It is perfect for the show, this really would not work in a more stale theatre space, but as a result, it can get messy as scenes change. I have to say, however, that even despite the many issues with the space, the director and his crew have worked to get the show into the space extremely well. Technically, it went reasonably well, but sadly there were a few issues with mics and other sound issues, but the good outweighed the bad.

Song of the Summer is a love letter to both Northampton and the music world of the 2000s, which has some superb music clearly inspired by the era, one song, in particular, is an absolute cracker, and while it has its issues, it comes highly recommended as providing something very different.

Uplifting and heartwarming, filled with excellent music and performances.
⭐⭐⭐½

Performance reviewed: Wednesday 17th August 2022 at The Picturedrome, Northampton.

Song of the Summer runs at The Picturedrome until Sunday 21st August 2022.

Tickets can be purchased via Royal & Derngate at their website at http://www.royalandderngate.co.uk

Production photos: Rosy Addison

Review of Of Mice And Men at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Other than, randomly, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The War of the Worlds , John Steinbeck's classic Of Mice and Men is perhaps one of the most familiar of stories to me. I have seen it several times before, and while at school, we studied it, and dissected it like the work of Mr Shakespeare, but with Steinbeck, I got out the other side still liking it. This brand new version from Selladoor Productions, which opened in Canterbury last week, brings a by-the-book presentation of the trials of George and his slow, but incredibly strong friend, Lennie, to the stage. Perhaps, this is its first issue blocking a huge success from this production, in that it rarely does anything brave or different. It's clearly been expertly cast visually, with the hulking form of Matthew Wynn as Lennie, and the diminutive (in comparison) Richard Keightley and Kamran Darabi-Ford as George and Curley respectively. Darabi-Ford especially perfect in his tremendously awkward scenes wit...

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 Flash Festival 2016: Red Inquisition by Memoir Theatre at Castle Hill URC

Red Inquisition from Memoir Theatre evolves from a theatre groups creation of a play based on the 1947 Hollywood blacklist and McCarthyism So that I can get it out the way early on and take this review in a more upbeat direction that Red Inquisition deserves, I am going to get a real bugbear done first. There was a huge negative for me from this production and one that I ended up getting negative vibes from. For me there was far too much video and audio footage in this production. Much of it was while excellently researched, surplus to requirements. The were a couple of occasions especially where we saw material repeated on screen that had already been performed. The show did not need this and for me theatre is not about watching a screen in any case, its about seeing performances. This however does need to be taken as a positive as what I am simply saying is that I wanted more acting from the trio of Daniel Hadjivarnava, Ciara Goldsberry and Jaryd Headley as they work excellently ...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog