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 ...

I first saw Killed by the Looking Glass Theatre in its first incarnation by the company in July 2014. Last weekend I had the pleasure of seeing it in its third version at their new home of St Peters Church. Also new were the cast and unlike that first version, I was familiar with each one of them as all five were the University Of Northampton BA Acting graduates of 2015. Both a masterstroke of casting and a huge extension of kindness of the theatre to give them all these roles. It was also visionary of them as unlike that first version (with all due respect), these actors were at the very point of their lives to play these roles like no other. All maybe within a year perhaps of the actual characters featured and with the world ahead of them. However sadly these characters portrayed lived in a more terrifying world (although many troubles still remain) and some had no lives ahead of them. Leading the cast as Billy Dean is Dale Endacott, a recruit who finds himself through a terrible...

Dystopia from Pinch Theatre presents a funny, sad and disturbingly realistic tale of modern life and its reliance on technology and more importantly social media. Throughout this busy piece all the suspect areas of the online world are generally attacked. We have a humourous argument between Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We also have the sad tale of a woman effectively addicted to online dating and most importantly the one of choice Tinder. It is all very realistic and believable, and generally attacking of the online world. A place I have actually always defended myself simply because to take the old adage, you cannot blame the tools, just the idiots that use them. There is some lovely hope offered though with the developing tale of the lady (touchingly played by Rachel Sherborn) who is only brave enough to communicate via online and the final delightful payoff. However the opposite payoff comes with, who in my notes for the review I simply called "Sinister Skinner". ...

From all the many highlights I had during my R&D 2014, the University of Northampton's Animal Farm and Love & Information were well up there. The main showcase for all the third year students to strut their considerable skills upon the Royal stage before those Flash Festival dissertations. This year two shows had become three, with my first The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot. As has been common in my crash course theatre year, I knew absolutely nothing of Judas and not being a religious person, I was also wary of whether it would be for me. That was my unknowing form thinking this was all going to be serious. However written by Stephen Adly Guirgis this was not serious business most of the time, in fact it was actually incredibly funny stuff. Occasionally deliberately offensive (especially in the language department), it tells the story of an imagined court case of Judas Iscariot and the calling of a rather interesting collection of witnesses to the stand. As of The Odys...

Its safe to say and needs saying from the outset that I am not one of Mr Shakespeare's greatest fans and watching two three hour odd productions in two days would not always fill me with a warm glow. However over the last couple of months, the Northampton University (of all current three years) have shown talent in abundance and I was never going to let my petty opinion deprive me of seeing them again. This year I had seen both Troilus and Cressida (by the Masque Theatre) and King Lear (via NTLive) and its safe to say that I enjoyed Macbeth and Richard III more than both of these (yes even with Mr Shakespeare, Simon Russell Beale in action). The acting was of course not better than Lear (it was Russell Beale, that would be impossible), but the productions for me were both much more enjoyable to watch. The Shakespeare purist would no doubt cry that there was too much gimmickry with these productions, but for me this made them more modern and more acceptable. I listen to Shakespe...