A Small Mind At The Theatre

If victory and success at Fringe came from the atmosphere alone, Samuel Gellard and his show Paris La Nuit from his Nostalgia Theatre Company would have probably won the week before the show began. Deep in the cellars of Hazelrigg House, the very oozing essence of a wartime bar in Paris drips from the walls and festers around. We sit cabaret style, around tables strewn with traditional paraphernalia, photos, notes and coinage, and another sits at a stall propping up the bar, ready for an impromptu game of cards with our host. Never has that cellar been better dressed for a play before, and it might be cramped, and you might have hit your head getting down there, but boy was it worth it. Jean Clement is our host, happy to entertain, get us inebriated and plays us cool jazz while he does so. It's a masterful performance from Gellard, just becoming the man, cooly leaning smoking his cigarette as we assemble in our chairs and never dropping the role from then on it. Upon war b...

The Nubian Sky starring Shemelia Lewis was one of only two solo performances at this year's Flash Festival, and this exploration of what it is like to be a black woman now generally was a success, but in need of just a little more tightening up, and indeed exploration. There are some strong moments here, from a youngster watching a quite remarkable cartoon from 1941 (Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat), onto a schoolgirl in trouble for her hairstyle being distracting, and then the most bizarre TV show centring around whether a domestically abused housewife should get justice or not, we of course say yes, the show says no. It's a surreal and quite stunning collection of observations which are tough viewing of course. Unfortunately, The Nubian Sky doesn't really take anything anywhere, there is, no exploration, it's just generally a basic collection of anecdotes of shocking occurrences, with no depth given. Despite this, and most vitally though, Lewis is an excellen...

Solo pieces at Flash have quite a checkered history, one of the very best Flash shows I have seen was a solo one, however, many of the worst also were. They have the balance of either a performer getting everything right, for both the audience and themselves or as sometimes happens, a single person running wild with limited reasoning and it ending in a crash. The Way from Louise Akroyd and her Cosmos Theatre Company gets, fortunately, everything pretty much right. We meet her character Vicky strewn across her bed, after a very heavy night. Her makeup still on, mostly in the right place. After a distraught and comical search for her phone, she discovers news from her mother that her childhood friend has cancer. A rift has been between them for years, but is now the time right to seal it? The Way is simple in every way, but that is how it works so well. This is about whether you deal with something that probably wasn't anything in the first place to rebuild bridges before it...

Making their Mark is created and performed by Hannah Bacon and Amy Jane Baker, otherwise here known as Face To Face Theatre Company . The "making their mark" reference in the title, here isn't about a woman becoming more relevant to society specifically, but here with the case of Baker's character, the need to bring a baby into the world. The feel that this is what a woman's role might be for some, and with her character, the inability to do so. It's a surprising approach to a female-led show, and fascinating mostly in its creation. At only thirty minutes, it isn't particularly long, but in that time, Baker exudes great emotion from the audience, while Bacon, as a collection of other characters, helps to move the story. Both perform the piece excellently, with Bacon as a rather overplayed (in a good way) Made in Chelsea like work colleague, and onto a rather clinical doctor, and also as the slightly annoying, has it all (in the child sense), sister. ...

At some point, a regular audience member of Flash Festival needs a show that lightens the mood completely, as the trauma of themed issue shows can take its toll no matter how good they are. So, step forward Oh Arthur , a combination of some of the best moments of comedy and setpieces perhaps yet seen on the Flash Festival. I might have to hark back to the exceptional Sell-By-Date in 2014 to find a more consistently funny offering. Arthur is a layabout, a generally useless creature, bringing nothing to the world. In his wake are the victims of his inability to even attempt life in a good way, so, here is his mother, his girlfriend, his best mate, and others, dealing with him and his horrible behaviour. So, what's to like about a show with a person with no endearing features. Oddly enough, the superb performance of Simon Roseman and the intricate scripting make him likeable, sort of, in a way we like David Brent, well a little. It makes the unlikeable likeable in a devilish way...

It's perhaps a shame that the major talking point after United-Force Theatre Company's production of Persecuted is its final scene, and more so over the sheer realism of it, rather than anything directly related to the acting and writing of it. The shame is that it overshadows what is quite a brilliant piece of theatre in its own right, well constructed and superbly acted by the trio in the group, Alexander Forrester-Coles, Chris Tyler and Radostin Radev. The date is 11th May 2005 and the Iraq War is no longer having the initial success that it had after destroying Sadam Hussain's regime. In a camp in Basra, Mohammed bin Osama bin Laden (Radostin Radev) is captured and under interrogation by commander James Farrell (Alexander Forrester-Coles), the good cop of the story, and Dan (Chris Tyler),  a Lieutenant, very much of the bad cop variety. It's an ugly, but also a very vivid tale, claustrophobic and always intimidating. When the actors are not churning through t...

At the centre of Carousel Theatre's An Error in the Melody is an intriguing character, performed by the groups solo performer, Amelia Renard. She plays, with some skill, Leonie Owens, a composer of immense skill herself, well, in her head in any case. With shades of Glorious! The true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, which I have also seen this year, Owens just wants to perform and absorb the love of an audience, despite the fact that her skills mostly just lie within her head. Owens perhaps isn't anywhere near as nice a character as Foster Jenkins though, and when the tide turns against her, she really is quite nasty, and definitely very cold. The dislike of the character though isn't the biggest problem with An Error in the Melody, it's more that it is a very insubstantial piece. Two very long scenes in this play are just so lightweight, the opening where she tidies her shelves, mostly with her back to the audience, and then later another scene similar in style...

Back in 2015 when I was attending my second year at the Flash Festival, I had the pleasure of seeing a show called I Forget What I’ve Forgotten , a solo show performed by the superb Catherine Garlick, it was very much based on personal experiences, and it was one of very few Flash shows that I have made time to see a second time. That second time, it became the only Flash that I stood at the end of (to date), and it was the first that emotionally hit me hard. While I didn't stand at the end of Open Eye Theatre's Drained (I was incredibly close), it left me a spent force of emotion. My fellow blogger and companion of the week The Real Chrisparkle , witnessed my tears, and I was actually perhaps as emotional as I have ever been at the end of any theatre show. Drained was a slow burner of emotion, which I guess just gently took hold like no other before. Our three characters, Laura (Bryony Ditchburn) and her two brothers, Will (Robert Charles) and Jamie (Jake Wyatt) gathe...

Eight Pounds Sixty from TaBoo Productions is over almost before you get the chance to settle. At 20 minutes roughly, it is the shortest Flash that I have ever seen, however, during that time, it makes a tremendous impact, and perhaps more would have been too much to take. Solo performer Naomi Ell presents two people, both, it turns out, with a common health link, mental illness. As is sadly often the case, both first present as being well hidden by the individual. The first Annie, in her twenties, is full of success, her own flat and a job that she mostly appears to like, but has pleasure in relaying the quirks of her colleagues as she clears up her "floordrobe". It quickly becomes clear that there are issues there, she is seeing a counsellor, and although she presents to us the fact that she likes doing so, we all know deep down, seeing a counsellor isn't really a leisure pursuit. She is taking drugs to help her problem and has to mine through a ridiculous NHS sys...

Following the sexual abuse led Screw You , my second Flash of the week was Athena Theatre's domestic abuse-themed Lay Me Bare . They were clearly not going to break us in gently this year at Flash. However, if there is one thing that Flash does brilliantly, it's tough subjects. The students in the group are clearly passionate about the themes they choose, and nearly always, this translates into a quality, if often tough, watch. Lay Me Bare depicts the very different characters of Monica Brown (Xara Chisano), Fola Balogun (Maddy Ogedengbe) and Elsie Smith (Farrah Dark), all who though share one despair in their lives, they are victims of domestic violence from their partners. We first meet them all, nursing black eyes, and in a stark opening sequence, they all attempt to hide the visual appearance of this with make-up. It's a powerful opening, and what follows is a tough exploration of these three peoples lives, one a partner to a guy who uses the prison door like a ...

So, I return once again for the annual Flash Festival, the moment where the graduating BA Actors get their moment to show in their dissertation piece, what they have learnt over their three years at the University of Northampton. Opening my fifth year of shows was Sonder Ensemble's topical offering, and interestingly titled, Screw You, This group of three performers created a snappy (just 25 minutes) piece influenced by Harvey Weinstein and the fallout from those revelations. Delving into a mixture of stories based upon real cases (some more obvious, about who they refer, than others) to create a brief piece exploring what has been one of the biggest stories of the last year. The three performers in this show are Ceara Coveney, Gemma Leigh and Katie Lawson, and the first two already have already proven themselves to be extremely talented from past shows, and here they perhaps show themselves at their best. Lawson though had lurked a little more in the background in the main ...

Dispensible from March Theatre Company concluded my packed five-day charge through this year's Flash Festival and if I was at all jaded by the sheer amount, this fifteenth one-man show would have revitalised me back to life with its intensity. Ruark Gould presents us with three soldiers through time, like Dickens' ghosts, the past, the present and yet to come. Via this sharp neatly performed show we see that no matter when the traumas of warfare are the same. Sure the future is imaginary, but it is believable in every way, and to quote a game franchise, it's true that "war never changes". This was the only Flash this year in the vault space of Hazelrigg House with its compact 10-15 seating space, and perhaps it truly is perfect for this play. Allowing us to experience the claustrophobic nature of encampments and dugouts like those the character lives through. We are absolutely in the environment of this play and with its clever use of lighting and indeed abs...

Sample Theatre's Flash shows bravery straight away when you enter the performance room as they have broken many of the conventions of a piece of theatre. Set up with several tables banquet style, we sit around them. There are broken sight lines in abundance and occasionally you can't even see the performer at all. On paper, this is a disaster of a piece of staging, however, its relaxed style actually is beneficial to the show as you duck back and forth observing each of the three performers, like an observer at a restaurant or other social event. The room is also cleverly given a long mirror on either side that when you don't catch your unexpected reflection, offers an alternative take to view the performers. Florence Waite The three performers are Samuel Littlewood, April Lissimore and Florence Waite and create fun and interesting characters. Florence was my favourite, often in the corner in hopeful control of her lighting/sound deck in this neat format of a play bef...

Despite being a long term blogger, the alternative vlogging has mostly passed me by and I have rarely sat and watched many and certainly am not an avid subscriber of one, however the social revolution of them has not passed me by as I am very aware that many people make an awful lot of money nowadays as vlogging stars. In this Flash show Olly Manning plays one such vlogger and in Push & Shove , he has something very special for his subscribers. To be perfectly frank, that something special is really quite simple to guess. I realised very early the contents of the ominous box that Olly's character Jared Howell presents to his audience at the start of the vlog, and it is clear very early on who is going to be on the end of the said contents as Jared goes through his pretty bleak piece to camera. However guessing does not change the impact of this cleverly put together play. At the basis of this Flash is another issue play, this time mental illness, one which thankfull...

Being a Man is an exceptionally well performed one man show and possibly one of the very best I have seen at Flash. Performed in the cramped and uncomfortable surroundings of Hazelrigg House's basement it vividly tells the story of those victims of male rape. Still often shunned by many as something that does not exist, through a series of individual stories, Javier Melhado stunningly recreates the trauma of such happenings. It is perfect in all but one way that this production is in the basement, and lighting issues are the only reason for disappoint as the screen with some powerfully recorded video is slightly washed out. However this is about Javier's live performance though and it is one to savour as he lays everything on the line and either slightly hidden behind a gauze or right within touching distance of the audience, you are dragged totally into the pieces. Clarity of voice, cleanness of performance, and a quite incredible grasp of spatial awareness as he perform...

LiKE ToY SOLDiERS starring Kundai Kanyama tells the story of one young girl in Africa and her very different experiences to ours of growing up in that country. This relatively short solo show has great impact over that brief time, telling the everyday issues of a child and her forgetting to do a job for her mother and the wide-eyed panic on the face of that child because of this, then the progression of that same child wielding a gun and doing the bidding of an unseen commander. This play clearly depicts that in war, everyone suffers and in Africa perhaps, even more, the children as ruthless leaders blatantly target them to continue to fuel their armies. Kundai gives a confident and clearly defined performance as this child, and over the course of the thirty minutes, we clearly see the lively youngster move from the worry of upsetting her mummy onto the gunning down of people. There is a very distressing scene where Kundai physically acts out a rape perpetrated on her...

There are many reasons why I wanted The Time Travel Tour to be so much better than sadly it turned out. As a life-long fan of sci-fi myself, the premise and idea of this show from Just This Guy and its performer Jay Andrews, sounded absolutely perfect. To a certain extent, it still remains that, it's just that the premise currently (but perhaps hopefully not in the future) exceeds the production. Jay Andrews plays our time travel guide, who takes us back in his time machine, called TARDIS, but for fans, cleverly not standing for what you might expect, to moments of history. Sadly these moments are a little where the show slightly begins to disappoint. With so much in our history to choose from, the selection chosen is quite frankly rather dull, so much so that I have little recognition of them now. Perhaps this for me is like Jay admits in his programme (bonus point for this), that I also find history often dull. However, if this show is to work, you need to make it not dull, le...

In this two-actor group and their play entitled A Matter of Race , Jessica Bichard and Karr Kennedy play two young girls who are in theirs and our eyes the same. Both find themselves travelling to England, one from Scotland, one from Africa, both finding themselves in the same interview, and both ending up at the same party. However, as each part of the story develops, we learn that life has its variants based on the colour of their skin. Jessica Bichard This is the first of a few message plays at this year's Flash and it tells its story with a lyrical and simple style, full of almost poetic prose and sometimes balletic movement. I also really liked the staging, with coloured rectangles gently delineating the two people. Karr Kennedy Jessica Bichard is once again superb, and ever since her brilliant turn as Juliet has been on my one to watch list. Her delivery and timing are crisp and clean (and she gets to use that perfect accent), and her work here forms a sym...

My second show of the 2017 Flash Festival was Afterlight Theatre's near future based Erased . The year is 2020 and a Priory-esque institution is with the help of a "dot" removing unsavoury memories from its inmates. Helena Fenton Following a high energy physical routine, all bouncing action and repeated movements, we are introduced to the trio of patients, they are a young girl played by Helena Fenton, the dull, matter of fact one played by Joseph Callaghan, and the self-assured one by Luke Mortimore. Of these three patients, Lukes is by far the most interesting, cocky and verbally bold, with a badge of honour of attendance on his arm. He is so much more than the other characters that it can be tricky to relate or enjoy the others despite confident performances from the pair. Luke Mortimore Before this introduction, an opening corporate video has already introduced us to the set-up of this establishment and it allows a nicely comical creation to be born...

George Marlow from Barefleet Films has taken a gamble with his solo Flash production and gone on the path of using other peoples material and speeches far more than any other show. In fact I got the impression that pretty much most of the show is available elsewhere and this is very much highlighted by the final scene that sees George holding in darkness his laptop, a montage of footage featuring much of what we have already heard. What we do get that you won't get elsewhere, is George's performance of all these pieces. As they have come from various other sources, George is required to become those people, be they performers or more starkly and disturbing a victim of rape. To wind back to the start, The Anti-Social Network takes as its subject the fact that all these social networks that now millions of us inhabit, actually create a non-social world. We all live on Facebook or Twitter and just stare observing are likes, friends and favourites tally increasing and hardly ev...