A Small Mind At The Theatre

I am going to be honest here and state that I had a touch of a Shakespeare relapse while watching The Tempest and was back at my, not fully understanding much of this, position. This however didn't detract from my absolute enjoyment of this brilliant piece of theatre. Channeling everything that I have loved over the years from the University performances, this National Youth Theatre production (part of the Made In Northampton season) brings vibrancy, energy and invention to Shakespeare's tale. Rebecca Lenkiewicz's adaption and Caroline Steinbeis help make this as much a gem as the strong cast. While I have never seen The Tempest before, it is clear that at just two hours ten minutes with the interval, this is an abbreviated version of the play. While some purists might bulk at this, it makes it much more accessible for the passing audience, while retaining the story. Those purists might also take some offence at some of the changes made to the characters and situations ...

For two previous years the Flash Festival had been a highlight of my theatre year. Full of energy, invention and talent, the University Of Northampton BA Actors students had created many a magic moment. So once again I was back at the brand new locations for 2016 for six days and thirteen shows of entertainment in the company of fellow "independent reviewers" Mudbeast76 and new recruit The Real Chrisparkle . The first thing that must be said about this years Flash was that of the three I have attended, it was significantly the best organised. Our five event organisers, Vicky Cooper, Aisha Ruth-Francis, Lucy Taylor, Daniel Gardner and James Broomfield were without doubt more organised and enthusiastic than any previous ones, and more importantly they had the stamina for the whole week. This coupled with a much improved schedule over the previous year, a better website design, more busy hub space and the impressive videos that were recorded made this without doubt the best y...

Altered from Faux Pas Theatre takes memory as its theme and the possibility that you could be tricked and coerced into a false memory. Its case study comes from the true story of Beth Rutherford and her battle with what she remembers of her past is actually true. Altered is classic Flash fodder, take a very serious subject, treat with care and delicacy in exploration scenes of quietness. Then all of a sudden throw in some classic and over the top buffoonery. I have seen it done before in Flash many times and for most of the time Faux Pas' quintuple of ladies hit the nail on the head with the balance. There are quite a few brilliant individual scenes of entertainment, with my favourite the hypnosis one as we switch with perfect timing between the character of Beth (Sophie Rose-Darby) and her taped off council room and the three other actors completing and adding words to sentences in increasingly comic ways. Often including singing in these parts also highlights some very good u...