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...

Sometimes in theatre, whether you are in a big London venue, watching a big name star, or just watching a group of perfectly cast individuals, everything just feels right. Magic is happening. Without shooting the bolt of this review in the first paragraph, Red Velvet is that. Maybe the greatest moment of University of Northampton BA Acting history to date (that I have seen, and it's been quite a lot now). It all feels just right. First and foremost, Lolita Chakrabarti's play is a classy piece of theatre, starting out with more than a hint of Ronald Harwood's The Dresser , before spiralling out into a period piece of racism and acceptance. It is just simply brilliant. At virtually two hours without an interval, it also never drags at any point. I said after that I had seen hour parts that had felt much longer, and it's true. When the lights fade at the end of the play, you don't feel you have been seated for that length of time. So, much enthusing about the ...

Bryony Lavery's More Light , presented here in London as the final group performance by the 2019 BA Actors of the University of Northampton, is one of the more stranger plays that you might have the opportunity to see. Also despite is strangeness, it is also alarmingly entertaining as well. Although even now, I'm not entirely sure why. Their Emporer is dead, and these ladies who served him have found themselves confined against their will with his body. However, these ladies do not wish to die, but how to survive? They must eat of course, and sealed in a tomb to the great Emporer, what is the only thing that they can eat? One guess. It was as I came to write this review that I discovered that actually More Light was originally commissioned as a National Theatre Connections play, and on this revelation, all suddenly made sense. It's an accessible piece, ridiculously odd, but totally accessible, even though you might not understand it all. It also has a very large ense...

The third and final of the three plays presented by the third year University of Northampton BA Actors was wacky with a capital W interpretation of the already crazy Carlo Goldoni play A Servant to Two Masters . This play is very much more familiar to modern audiences in the guise of Richard Bean's extremely successful reworking One Man, Two Guvnors' , but here Lee Hall's slightly more traditional set version is given a box of frogs working over by director Frank Wurzinger. I have to be honest, this entire setup should have been so good, many of the cast had worked so well in other roles of similar style, outrageous comedy, playing to the audience, many were clearly so adept at this from their previous shows. So, why did A Servant To Masters fall down so badly? I think, for me, one word sums it up, control. The craziness is not controlled, the cast appears to be often just having too much fun themselves, which doesn't translate the audience (well this one anyway)...

There is no denying that Arthur Miller's The Crucible is a classic and well-regarded play and that in the hands of the always brilliant University of Northampton BA Actors, it should have been a thrill of innovation and epic theatre. So, why, when there was so much talent, did it become just an uninspired, by the numbers production? I had only seen the play, formed around the 1690s Salem Witch Trials, once before in a vibrant school production that, while clearly long and drawn out (it's a heck of a long play in this, it's pure form), always remained entertaining, especially being performed by that young and enthusiastic cast. Here in this version directed by Nadia Papachronopoulou, it should have been so, so good, with the actor's talent, the potential for a dramatic stage version crackling with inspired moments was so overwhelming. So why did with end up with just a static, curiously soulless affair? In principle it does nothing wrong, performances are strong,...

The final year performances of BA Actors this year upped sticks and headed away from their Northampton Royal territory and gathered to show their skills in London. The first of the three shows being performed was Dennis Kelly's DNA, a play which I saw performed on the Royal stage itself four years ago. I enjoyed it for its dark mysterious nature and was looking forward to seeing a different interpretation of the show. It tells the tale of a group of youngsters who do something really bad, and proceed to attempt to cover it up, resulting in the real bad, well, getting more bad. It's dark yes, but also, very funny at times. It opens with a looming movement piece of theatre, which I always love and this was no different for me, brooding and sinister. It's quite a long opening, which perhaps, in the end, becomes too long, but it's a fabulous piece of theatre for me. It set's the scene very well for Kelly's dark piece to unfold and in the hands of these, about ...