A Small Mind At The Theatre

A few professional critics have had quite a bit of a downer on the new play Soul by Roy Williams exploring the hidden story behind the death of great Marvin Gaye. Their bugbear, the lack of his original music within the play. One even resorted to giving Soul a two star rating. However with all due respect to their opinion, as that is what a critic at the end is doing every time, they are clearly wrong to take this single omission and use it to beat this singularly brilliant play with it. There was enough explanation of lack of music ahead of debut and any professional critic would have seen it. Soul is not about Gaye's music, it is about his life, and his eventual tragic death. I have had one experience with Roy Williams' work before, Days Of Significance, and I freely admit it was one of the most vicious and hideously repellent plays I have seen. Oh how different Soul is, a gorgeously worked piece, filled with heart and love of the story it is depicting. Told through the eye...

Following the emotional trauma of Blue Stockings, for my second play from the University of Northampton's third years, it would have been nice to have a gentle cool down. Days Of Significance telling the story of love lives and their own fears for a future on the front line in Iraq was not to provide it. Never in my experience so far have I been welcomed to a play with such aggressive and upfront material as this from Roy Williams. A barrage of F words, a minor mortar of a prosthetic penis hanging limply from an actors trousers and then an artillery shell of C words to make sure the enemy/audience is totally wiped out. I am quite frankly not surprised that an elderly couple did leave the show relatively early in the first half as despite our understanding that this was a war themed play, we were little prepared for the "Battle Of Bridge Street" opening, to give it a local theme. Fortunately myself, while not likely to partake in verbals to this extreme, rarely, maybe ne...