A Small Mind At The Theatre

And so the next generation of the Looking Glass Theatre begins, lifted gracefully from its former home and planted into the arms of Hazelrigg House and its performance space the glorious St Peters Church. The move is complete and there is perhaps nothing better than a light, fluffy and fun reinterpretation of oft told Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tale The Hound Of The Baskervilles to begin. Created as some sort of chaotic amateur dramatic performance with a feel of Sherlock Holmes does Pantomime, this is indeed a silly entertaining feast. A cast of just three coping, mostly, with all the roles of the play adds frequently more chaos. Our cast are in no particular order Marvin Freeman, Alex Rex and Katy Corrie. I was sure when I saw the original cast that Freeman would absolutely be Holmes, however this throws a curve ball with Rex as the famous sleuth. It is appropriate though as anyone aware of the story will know that Sherlock is actually quite absent for much of the story of the Baskerv...

I had sadly missed the dressed rehearsal for my debut as theatre mover extra and therefore arrived for the opening performance on Thursday 30th July lacking in both knowledge of where to stand or what my lines were. It was fortunate however that, while boxes had been packed and clothes rails had been filled, there was to be much improv involved with the performance. Upon my arrival to the stage the performance had begun, with director James Smith marshaling his company of Jasper and Sam. The show itself began with little originality as I fell into my role with the rest of the performers of moving box to van, box to van, box to van. You get my gist? The main bit of excitement of the first act came from these chaps: Never could you have possibly dreamed of finding more clothes. Also never could you have imagined how troublesome at times the innocent rails could be become. Be it their too small wheels, falling apart frames or simply being too tall for the world they surrounded...

A few months ago I got myself embroiled in a little verbal fracas (no cold meat involved) on Twitter with those that I now call my Irish friends. It concerned their production of Jesus Christ Superstar ( details here ) and in my opinion being slightly below par. They got quite uppity about my criticism and even suggested the likes of me could effect its success. The tour continues merrily despite me and its actually at Milton Keynes Theatre next week. I suggest you save your money. Oops naughty me. However this convoluted intro brings me to the glorious stage school production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor [ sic ] Dreamcoat at Looking Glass Theatre. In the absence of knowing whether this is a musical or a rock opera (sorry another in joke), I shall just call it an "absolute joy" instead. What this lacked in production values and budget over JCS it made up in on in earnest joy, enthusiasm and a sheer thrill of performance over making money. I mentioned to local the...

Its safe to say that I was probably missing the target audience for The Jungle Book  by thirty odd years and going was more a plan of returning to the lovely little Looking Glass Theatre as much as attending a puppet come pantomine come kiddies entertainment show. Having said that, The Jungle Book  was one of my favourite stories when I was little (under five foot) and it was going to be interesting to see another spin on the classic Kipling tale. This performance was a sort of interactive Jackanory and the juniors certainly interacted. Especially once the puppets had arrived that's for certain, hanging from the poor puppets limbs on more than a few occasions. It was great to see them getting involved so much. Our storytellers came in the form of purveyor of corny jokes and pirate fan David Heathcote and bespectacled librarian Leigh Souter-Smith. Until this production Leigh Souter-Smith for me had been provider of tea, marshmallow filled chocolate and when required co...