A Small Mind At The Theatre

Watching the BA Actors perform Alan Ayckbourn's Christmas play Season's Greetings had quite a tinge of the very different about it. It all felt very traditional, and dare I say, safe, for the performers of the University of Northampton BA Actors to be offering. Over six years, I have got used to them bringing cutting, sharp, taxing, dynamic, brutal and controversial stuff to the stage, so to see James Bryan as Bernard performing a puppet show in the cosy world of Ayckbourn (admittedly with his trademark modern strife thrown in), it all seemed a little weird. However, over the last couple of years, this cosy, more traditional theatre has become the staple of the Christmas time offering, with the group also tackling pantomimes as well. It all makes a huge amount of sense, as so much of their potential future earnings may well come from this area. Here we have classic Ayckbourn, filled with diverse characters, and varied aged ones, performed by the staple early twenties per...

While one half of the University of Northampton Second Year BA Actors tackle the fun and mostly frivolous The Taming of the Shrew , the others dig deep into the unpleasant happenings of Othello , and curiously manage to plunder a little more comedy than you might expect from it. Othello revolves around its two central characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army, and Iago, ensign to the general, and ultimately tragically untrustworthy. It's an extremely dark play, that toys with themes of racism, love, jealousy, betrayal, revenge and repentance. It is weird it is as fun as this production manages to make it become. Othello is played by Alena Crawford but played totally male, and as the brilliant Kate Jones did two years ago as Richard II , Crawford plays it totally convincingly, making the audience gender blind to the performer like many females actors are doing at this time. It's neat casting, and against Leonor Leite De Castro's totally tender portray...