Skip to main content

Review of The Syndicate at Milton Keynes Theatre

Kay Mellor's The Syndicate has been a huge success on television having reached four series across the last ten years or so. Each following a different group of characters who find themselves the lucky winners of a lottery jackpot, it has managed to snare impressive cast members as well across the series. Due to the success, it isn't a surprise that this play, based purely on series one, has reached the stage. However, does television make good theatre, that is the question.

It seems, as a result of this production, it creates maybe what could best be described as average theatre, as across its short two-hour running time (which includes the interval) there are a few thrills and a good number of laughs, but few moments in the way of ground-breaking theatre. Directed (and starring) Kay Mellor's daughter Gaynor Faye, and a collection of relatively familiar faces from TV, the production is a standard offering. Directed with little flair, and a large number of scene changes, mostly in blackout, bar a couple of occasional entertainingly created ones. It all is just rather safe theatre.

The cast is a mixture of success from the excellent, such as Oliver Anthony as the rough and eager-for-trouble Jamie who hides a past and is ready for more trouble. Anthony makes the best impact in this mixed cast with his stage debut. The reliable William Ilkey brings the likeable Bob to the stage with a nice touch, while Samantha Giles plays Denise purely for laughs and most of the time this is fine, but does irritate at times.

Elsewhere, it is quite a mixture of performances, with Brooke Vincent simply a one-tone, and annoying chavvy Amy with little to like. Benedict Shaw provides, for such an important role as Stuart, little to get thrilled about, while Jerome Ngonadi plays the walk-on role of Newall with very little spark.

Rosa Coduri-Fulford's Leanne is played totally flat which is a huge disappointment for a character that clearly has one of the best backstories lurking, but in the end, as an audience, you end up not really caring. Completing the main cast is Gaynor Faye who plays lottery representative Kay full-on and pretty much for comedy and for what little the character has to do, it's fine, if underwhelming.

Ultimately, this production directed by Faye has an uninventive touch and fails to do enough to warrant a stage show and grasp the power of theatre and its techniques. It is very much just the TV series on stage and if that is what you want, head off to a theatre near you when it passes. However, you might really be best served by staying home and watching the series again and choosing the theatre for something with more grit and style.

Very much television on stage with not enough theatre drama to be found.


Performance reviewed: Tuesday 28th May 2024 at the Milton Keynes Theatre.

The Syndicate runs at Milton Keynes Theatre until Saturday 1st June 2024.

For further details about Milton Keynes see their website at http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/milton-keynes-theatre/

Production photos: Craig Sugden



Popular posts from this blog

Review of The Rocky Horror Show at Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes

Seeing the 46-year-old Rocky Horror Show at the theatre for the first time is quite an experience on many levels. First and foremost as a regular theatregoer, the audience, even on a relatively demure evening of a Monday, is something you would never really experience at a theatre beyond this show. Many are dressed up (even on that demure Monday), and so many are so in tune with the show, that these regular fans have become entwined within it. They know every word of the script, they contribute to it, they enhance it, often they make Richard O'Brien's already adult content into something much more adult. It's a revelation of experience, much before a newbie such as myself even considers the show. Laura Harrison's beautifully clear rendition of Science Fiction/Double Feature sets the scene for some generally excellent performances of O'Brien's classic tunes, in a musical which is clearly audible, sadly not something that always happens with many productio...

Review of Cinderella, performed by University Of Northampton BA Actors at Maidwell Hall (Avenue Campus), Northampton

So, this is a bit different, the third year actors (my fifth group of them!) do panto, Cinderella to be precise. Pantomime is my perennial favourite bit of theatre. Oh no, it isn't! However, I have long acknowledged that for an actor, the form is both incredibly important, because if you can entertain kids, you can probably do anything, it also provides a large opening for a regular gig each year as they are so abundant. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the intelligent bods teaching these students have come to the decision to create a little panto action of their own. This first of three (and the other two are very different beasts, as you will learn from the next reviews) is the ever so traditional one. Formed partly from the work of Looking Glass Theatre and director James Smith, I first saw much of this piece in January 2015, and although I didn't remember a great deal of it after this time, the cheese song managed to flash back to me, perhaps, sadly. So, ...

Review of Breaking the Code at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Breaking The Code , the opening play in the new Made in Northampton season at Royal & Derngate, is a surprisingly old and rarely seen play. Written in 1986 by Hugh Whitemore, it tells the story of legendary codebreaker Alan Turing, a man who, in the 1980s, when this play first appeared, was relatively unknown. The years since the origin of this play have been good for Turing, with his life's work finally getting the recognition it deserves, and also, very much what this play centres on, a recognition of the horrific life and end that Turing had as a result of dealing with the laws of the day. Breaking the Code has seen life before on the stage of the Royal, as back in 2003, Philip Franks took to the role of Turing in a very well-received production. So, what of this brand new version directed by the Royal & Derngate's artistic director Jesse Jones? Does it live up to Turing's legend? That is an unquestionable yes with no machines needed to crack the class behind thi...