A Small Mind At The Theatre

Dance shows have not exactly been at the top of my theatre going despite the fact that when I have gone, I have generally enjoyed them (we shall not mention that ballet). The first dance performance I actually saw was a few years ago when I was invited to Isham Dark at the University of Northampton by Mary O'Brien to see the then students there. It was a little out of my usual interest, however, the skill during the show was quite something. So a call out of whether I could fit this show into my schedule from Mary was difficult to ignore, and it was on my one free night that week, I took a little trip to Wonderland . Wonderland was created through the students of Spotlight Dance School and if plays are described as herding cats, this was very much of the herding kiddies flavour as 93 performers took to the stage from 3-21 and quite frankly with incredible success. Even when something sort of went wrong (a young diva refusing to go on stage for instance), it was all received with ...

The University of Northampton BA Actors devised shows are never, ever, a disappointment. Many of them like the incredibly splendid Orientation from last year, I could happily watch more than once. She Echos easily falls into that category and I shall return tomorrow to watch it once again. Taking the concept of alternative possibilities made famous in popular by Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding Doors , She Echoes creates a multiple splitting world of Emily and her success in work, family, driving and most importantly love. We awake each morning with Emily either early, late, or with time to read the paper or not, and a meeting with her sister who may be back on the bottle or sipping coffee. Emily may walk to work, she may drive, she may get the tube. She might go to the Red Ruby club or not. Each of these scenarios is created in two ways, first through repetition of scenes where charges occur on route through alternating incidents; some simple, some startlingly dramatic. The second way...

I had heard great things of The Shakespeare Revue, presented here by White Cobra Productions. So much so, that even the fact that "Shakespeare" was in the title, had not activated that involuntary twitch that that name sometimes generates. I am generally one of those Shakespeare viewers that prefers my Bard spruced (brushed?) up a tad, giving the contents a stir after 400 plus years of simmering. Thankfully The Shakespeare Revue, originally compiled by Christopher Luscombe and Malcolm McKee in 1993 (but added to since) for the Bard's birthday celebrations, is very much on the lighthearted side of Mr Shakespeare. Over an incredibly varied 37 sketches and musical routines, he is revered, poked fun at, honoured and slightly modified, to create a quite brilliant evening of entertainment, for the Bard or not to Bard fan alike. Standout sketches include a quite brilliant take on The Importance of Being Earnest titled Othello in Earnest. Written by Perry Pontac it sees Othel...

The two companion pieces of Another Fine Mess and Housebound from White Cobra Productions provided a diverting and entertaining couple of hours of entertainment at the Playhouse Theatre. The feature piece is Another Fine Mess from Gillian Plowman, however the pre-interval short Housebound from Simon Mawdesley is an equally captivating play, if not quite such a socially conscience one. Both plays star White Cobra founders Richard Jordan and Kate Billingham, with Another Fine Mess also starring Paul Fowler (who also directs Housebound). Housebound is dark in concept but high in comic pleasure as the very briefly masked Bone (Richard Jordan) takes the posh Fiona (Kate Billingham) captive in her home of fine furniture, splendid carpets and resident wasps. Without doubt Housebound suffers in these early stages of being a little under rehearsed with a little hesitation obvious at times from the performers. I think also there was still some development needed to strengthen the characters. I...

There is something quite magical about youth theatre other grown-up productions don't exhibit. A vibrant energy exudes from the actors, be it because they either have something to prove (to themselves or others), or perhaps more simply just a feeling of youthful ambition. I think it is almost certain that they are free to enjoy the situation more, as at this time this is for the fun of it with no monetary reward. This doesn't detract from the quality of the situation as this group appears to work tirelessly well together, with no obvious frictions that their musician characters depict in this play). The Musicians by Patrick Marber ( Closer and Dealer's Choice ) is like all Connections plays a relatively short forty to fifty minute play specifically written for youth groups to perform. Originally written in 2004, this is part of the 2016 celebration of past material written for the yearly festival. It tells the story of a group of young musicians who find themselves at a c...