A Small Mind At The Theatre

Ahead of seeing Arcadia in this University of Northampton production by the Third Year BA Actors, I had been warned that it wasn't a play for everyone. It makes sense in retrospect, it's a bit clever, making you always feel as if you are not as intelligent as you hope you are (in my case, probably a fair point). However, despite this, the young cast in this production make Tom Stoppard's ever so clever play entertaining from beginning to end. Arcadia follows two timelines, modern day as oddball poetry professor Bernard comes visiting Sidley Park looking for a Lord Byron trail, while 200 years before, young Thomasina Coverly is being taught by horny tutor Septimus. Intermixed with these timelines are a further assortment of odd characters. It's all a little weird, but oddly still fun. Thomas Van Langenberg has tremendous fun as Septimus, teaching and flirting with his pupil Thomasina, played to playful perfection by Abi Cameron, demonstrating perfection in playin...

There is a piece of audio played during Still Night Theatre's Trapped Under Class that is of current Prime Minister Mrs May (as of 3rd April 2019), describing the controversial Universal Credit scheme, a slightly central theme to this play. It's interesting to an audience of this time perhaps to hear our Prime Minister actually talking about something other than a certain ongoing theme (as of 3rd April 2019, and indeterminant and possibly endless time into the future). The residents of a council block in this stark drama feel of a much different opinion I suspect though. Following the death of their mother, siblings Sophie, Molly and Aiden, along with Aiden's girlfriend Charlotte and their friend Emma, find themselves dealing with low incomes, spiralling costs, and the stark reality of living hand to mouth under the constraints of this. Running for a period of one year following the initial vodka shot celebrations of the new year being devastated by their mother...

Five years ago, I hadn't seen a panto since I was the proper kiddie age to appreciate them, and they hadn't been something missing in my life really. Even the first few I saw as a grown-up left me mostly cold, and teeth gritted at the whole experience. However, I have now seen rather a lot of them, supporting the many groups and collections of actors that I follow, and have started to acknowledge their importance in the theatre world for both actor and first theatre contact for many a person and more importantly, child. Last year, the University of Northampton BA Actors course also got in on the act, introducing Christmas shows to the mix, one of which was a pantomime, of variable quality, as the course itself got to grips with the situation. This year, they return to take up the challenge once again, and clearly having learnt much from last year's first attempt, bring a much more solid and smoother show to the stage, with Suzan Holder's version of Aladin direc...