A Small Mind At The Theatre

Last Sunday I spent the afternoon in the Royal watching four pieces of theatre, all inspired by a celebration of 100 years of women's suffrage. It proved an emotional afternoon, with some widely contrasting pieces of theatre work. Opening the afternoon, was a piece devised by the collaboration of Zoo Co, Stantonbury Theatre and Stantonbury International School. Titled Suffrajitsu , it turned out to be one of the more remarkable pieces of theatre that I have seen in a long time. Seeping vast emotion from me, not just from the story of the struggle it was telling, but also the sheer brilliance of some of the incredibly well-constructed scenes that this young cast handled to perfection. From its opening, of the cast simply coming onstage in their modern clothes and dressing into a traditional dress of the time, right through to the spectacular Keystone Cops inspired finale, this was a perfectly constructed piece of theatre. Finely balanced, never boring, always entertaining, alway...

I first saw the film of A Bunch of Amateurs  a couple of years ago back when I was purely a watcher of amateurs productions, rather than my now, slightly more involved persona. Therefore watching this production by Etc Theatre of this curious tale of country folk, adapted for the stage by two of the original writers Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, and their amateur dramatics world, offers a little more intrigue than that film first did. It also helped that I was seated with a bevy of knowing amateur dramatics folks as well. Stratford Players are in trouble, their venue is under threat from developers, so, in a last-ditch attempt to save their group, they send appeals out to the big names of the acting world to help generate lifesaving interest. Answering their appeal is the also in trouble, Hollywood actor Jefferson Steel (Bart Gamber). His flagging career sees him accept the opportunity to perform King Lear , in the home of the Bard itself, Stratford. Sadly it turns out to be a ba...

By some distance my favourite play never seen performed live before is Abigail's Party by Mike Leigh. It also very possibly might be "my favourite play" altogether. It is to me a perfectly judged and written piece which sublimely creates five vivid characters who generally hate each other (even those married to one another) and liberally tosses them into a melting pot of hostility, class struggle and sadness. Across its path we get simmering rivalries, high comedy and also at one point cleverly removing the males of the piece to have a perfectly placed woman's chitchat. It is to me, just perfect. This opinion of course comes from just one version of the show, the 1977 (a good year) BBC TV production of the original Hampstead play, which included a career defining performance from Alison Steadman as Beverly and all but one of the original theatre productions cast. They all make the roles their own and indeed working with Mike Leigh at the time, they very much created...