A Small Mind At The Theatre

The challenging and socially relevant Blue/Orange by Joe Penhall was published in 2000 and back then, this caustic exploration of mental health, and more specifically black mental health issues, was a tremendously relevant play. When it debuted on stage in London, the cast of just three was played by Bill Nighy, Andrew Lincoln and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Director James Dacre doesn't have those names to play with so much in his cast, however here, he has worked with the writer himself to rework the play for a more modern audience. Does it still shock, and is the relevance still there today? Sadly, perhaps, the answer is yes, as doctors Bruce Flaherty and Robert Smith come to verbal blows over the health of patient Christopher, at times, you feel 21 years shed little light on how mental health is approached. Many references in the script, still sit unquestionably in the year 2000, however, with this reworking, one thing has changed dramatically. In the original version of the play, the two...

The comedy-thriller Theft by Eric Chappell tells the story of an anniversary celebrating couple returning to the devastation of their home being ransacked in a burglary. However, this ransacking pales in comparison to the ransacking of their lives that then occurs as home truths are revealed. Anyone old enough to remember the works of Theft writer Chappell ( Rising Damp and Only When I Laugh ), could be forgiven for thinking that this 1996 play might feel a little dated for a 2021 audience. However, bar a few references much of their time now (the weaker sex and female priests for instance), Theft still feels comfortable in the 2021 world, where many of us just want both a good evening of theatre and a good bit of fun. With Theft from the highly regarded Wellingborough Technical Players, they get just that. The action starts as we find the man of the house John Miles played by Graham Breeze returning, very angry, to his home. He is a rightfully boisterous character, channelling all th...

Three and a half years ago, in a land far far away, in a world very different to the one we are now in, I saw the touring professional production of Shrek The Musical , it was a mixed bag of quality, tilted extremely heavily in favour of one particular character (not the one you might expect) and not firing on all cylinders much of the time. One and a half years after my last visit to the Derngate theatre, I return to see the homegrown Northampton Musical Theatre Company's own take on the very same show. Would they be able to breathe more life into the show than the professionals did in that distant land? It is a bit of a yes and no really. Pretty much all of this is done to the best possible standard, and at times, with being an amateur show you could easily forget, they all have normal day jobs. The show oozes professional quality at times. The set looks magnificent, the costumes (from Molly Limpet's Theatrical Emporium) are superb, and as ever with NMTC, the backstage team c...

Just over seventeen months after my last visit to a theatre and following not only a pandemic, but a personal period of prolonged ill-health as a result, there was obvious trepidation in taking my seat in a theatre again. Maybe what I needed was an uplifting gem of a show to truly get me back into the theatre fever. Step forward the bawdy and cursing joys of Gin Craze! This new musical from Royal & Derngate and China Plate is a co-production with English Touring Theatre that provides perhaps the perfect antidote to a dry period of theatre as the sloshing of gin and the tales of these ladies of gin lane thrills throughout. Leading our tale are gin entrepreneurs Mary (Aruhan Galieva) and Lydia (Paksie Vernon), both down on their luck for a mixture of reasons, but they club together to form an alliance in the burgeoning new world of gin, and battle the constant law changes that try to kerb the business. History says that at the time this musical is set, in the 18th century, the averag...

The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel is perhaps the perfect antidote to the troubled times we are in, harking back to when things were perhaps simpler and mass media and the press were less in your face. Not to say that bigshot Charlie Chaplin didn't make a name for himself in more than just the movies he made. This though is a warm show, filled with love. This show is based on the very real tale of the 1910 ship heading course for New York, which aboard were Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, unknown, but part of Fred Karno’s music hall troupe, and destined for different, but very major futures. Told by an Idiot's production with Theatre Royal Plymouth (and Royal & Derngate and Unity Theatre) breaks down the tale of the voyage of the SS Cairnrona with intriguingly created flashbacks of the life, generally of Charlie Chaplin. Therefore along the course of the voyage, we see Laurel's moment as understudy to Chaplin, the birth of Chaplin (brilliantly...

Everybody's Talking About Jamie apparently, so this new musical leads us to believe, as it continues its first UK tour launched just a month ago. The musical written by local boy done very good Tom Macrae alongside Dan Gillespie Sells and Jonathan Butterell has been playing to packed audiences and rave reviews since launching in 2017, first in Sheffield and then in London, so we need to talk about Kevin's (aka A Small Mind) thoughts. Jamie New has a dream, a dream not many 16-year-olds harbour. He dreams to be a drag queen. However, while his mother Margaret and her best friend supports the idea and encourages him to live the life he wants, others including his father and school "bigshot" Dean think other things. However, when Jamie meets shop propriety Hugo, he finds his dreams may well become reality. Everybody's Talking About Jamie is proper theatre, feelgood, sharp writing and clinically but also nicely nuanced direction and choreography from Kate P...

After what seemed an age, it was a delight to finally have a play to see at Milton Keynes Theatre, following an abundance, of admittedly very good musicals. So, was this turn towards straight play with Band of Gol d, a sparkling gem, or something you might have picked up in Ratners? Gina is down on her luck, short of money, recently split up from her husband and trying to look after her child while dealing with the loan shark she has fallen into a trap with. When she meets Carol and Anita through the course of her new job as a cosmetics seller, perhaps a very dark but profitable world may open up to her. Back in 1995, Kay Mellor's Band of Gold became a huge success on television offering groundbreaking roles for the likes of Cathy Tyson and Samantha Morton, and this play, written by Mellor herself follows the storyline in condensed form, of the first series. Unfortunately, any regard for the quality of this original series is lost in the wake of this broken and poorly create...