This brilliant new English version of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore is a joint production from the King’s Head and Opera’r Ddraig, set on sunny Barry Island in 1982. Way before today’s ubiquitous coffee chains, most Welsh valleys villages had an Italian Bracchi (or three) serving fabulous ice creams and frothy coffee. Adina (Alys Roberts) runs her Bracchis on the island, helped by Gina (Caroline Taylor). Lovesick Nicky (David Powton) can’t find the words or the courage to tell Adina how he feels, so is fair game for the travelling quack Dulcamara (Matthew Kellett) who sells him a love elixir that he claims will make him irresistible to Adina. Nicky’s plans are scuppered by the return of Captain Brandon (Themba Mvula), Barry’s resident Casanova, who also has his eye on Adina.
The plot is gloriously silly, and Chris Harris and David Eaton’s lyrics are hilarious. The details in the Bracchi set got the Welsh people in the audience very nostalgic and some hilarious colloquialisms are included, along with lots of swearing. It’s Barry, and nobody there is going to sing “oh Dear”, so hearing the men calling each other twat and dick with voices soaring to the beautiful melodies feels gleefully anarchic, authentic and very, very funny. The cast all have incredible voices, but Matthew Kellett steals the show as Dulcamara – he has all the best lyrics and channels Groucho Marx and Delboy Trotter in his comic delivery.
This is perfect entertainment for opera buffs and newbies alike – stunning performances and charming, joyful, and daft – just lush.
Jane Austen’s unfinished novel is the starting point for Laura wade’s smart and witty play. In The Watsons, Austen had written a plucky heroine, Emma, who has no prospect of finding a suitor but longs to return to the financial comfort she has become used to while living with her aunt. Her two unmarried sisters are polar opposites, one dutifully caring for their dying father, and the other desperate to marry any available man. The three eligible men in town – the parson, the handsome cad and the lord of the manor – are all instantly recognisable Austen characters, and Wade introduces Emma’s world with a delightfully light touch before pulling a theatrical handbrake turn and introducing a mysterious maid, Laura. Laura reveals herself to Emma as the writer of the play, who wrote herself into it to stop Emma making a huge mistake. Emma, being an Austen heroine, doesn’t take the news that she is merely a character meekly, and very soon all the characters have notes for Laura.
The debate between Laura and her characters is twisty and gleefully clever, without ever becoming smug. Whether the characters are voicing their own ideas or Laura’s is unclear at first, and there are lots of familiar Brexit tropes about democracy and taking back power alongside ideas from Rousseau and Hobbes. Wade both mocks and lauds writers and the creative process in her engaging and freewheeling script, and Emma’s reactions are exactly what you’d hope for if Austen had written her entire story.
Director Samuel West handles the action with a light touch, and the stellar cast are all on fine form, with Grace Molony as Emma and Louise Ford as Laura shining as their verbal sparring escalates. Joe Bannister is a hoot as the awkward Osborne, who is much more comfortable talking to his dogs and horses than to human beings, and Laurence Ubong Williams oozes charm and arrogance as the ridiculously caddish Tom Musgrave. Jane Booker and Sophie Duval are lots of fun as the type of awful older women that inhabit Austen’s stories.
Bursting with intelligence and impish wit, The Watsons is crying out for a West End transfer.
Mayflower Theatre, Southampton – until 12 October 2019
Reviewed by Jo Gordon
4****
Based on Berry Gordy’s book about the ups and downs of setting up and maintaining his Motown label, Motown the Musical is proving to be popular with theatre goers. Starting right at the very beginning when an ambitious young Berry (Edward Baruwa) convinces his family to give him $800 to fund the birth of his record company we see how through hard-work and his nurturing of rising stars such as Smokey Robinson (Nathan Lewis), Marvin Gaye (Reece Richard) and the great Diana Ross (Karis Anderson), Motown Records becomes the biggest company of its time producing hit after hit. It was however, not just about the hits, it was bringing black artists to the forefront in a time where Martin Luther King was fighting for the rights of black people, the anti Vietnam war rallies were happening and JFK had been assassinated. As bigger record companies began offering Berry’s artists more money to jump ship would his established musical institution be no more?
Put simply, the whole cast are an amazingly talented bunch and each costume change, dance move and characteristic bring the glamour and soul that is Motown to life. Sixty-three huge tunes are used in the show and most probably you will know most if not all of them and there is plenty of opportunity for audience participation!
Clever use of projection on set shows news stories, film, TV and photographs of the time which all help add to the magic of placing us in the right decades and providing backdrops to the performers as they rise through the billings.
Not just a show for fans of the record label as the younger generation will recognise the music as even now Motown influences can be heard in many modern artists music. Alongside the story at the very heart of Berry’s empire it makes an absolute hit of a show. I left with not only a better knowledge of that story but also a warm fuzzy glow as I recollected memories of many an 80’s family wedding where my Mother and Aunties, possibly fuelled by one to many a Babycham would congregate on the dance floor like the West Midlands answer to Diana and her Supremes …..and long may they continue!
The Lowry, Salford – until Saturday 5 October 2019
Reviewed by Joseph Everton
4****
What is it about blonde men, or just men for that matter, in positions of power that makes them so corruptible? Gregory Doran’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure felt a bit like watching the 10 o’ clock news when young nun, Isabella (Lucy Phelps) pleaded to Angelo (Sandy Grierson) for her brother’s life, only for him to abandon his principles and proposition her for sex. Isabella’s decision, her chastity for her brother’s life, made for a gripping watch, full of emotion.
To watch Isabella writhe as she was groped by Angelo was particularly difficult and for many women, probably all too relatable. The juxtaposition of comedy and desperately sad moments was striking, with the story moving at pace, as much as the Shakespearean script allowed. Lively scenes involving the effervescent and highly watchable Joseph Arkley as Lucio faded into the sombre ones where Isabella begged for mercy.
A mirrored set created interest as, even with few cast members on stage, movement was reflected all around. Chains aplenty, actors were dragged and prams loaded with illegitimate babies were wheeled this way and that, bringing life to the stage regularly to keep the audience interested. Sound came from a gallery above, the illegitimate babies cried and prison bars crashed down from during scenes in the cells. Convicts, with their crimes hung around their necks, were paraded through streets and sex workers strutted around in stockings in a Vienna that was short on morality and long on sin.
Although bleak, Measure for Measure was an enjoyable watch, featuring some entertaining individual performances.
“I have been a campaigner for the environment for years, and I want to support Rising Tides as they are dedicating all their efforts towards the Climate Emergency. The arts have a huge role to play in helping society weather the changes ahead.”
On Friday, 20th September, Rising Tides, announced that Oscar-winner and theatre star, Mark Rylance, has become its Patron.
Rising Tides, a theatrical collective, formed of experienced and emerging artists, was founded in 2014 and aims to advance the understanding of climate change through the delivery of new theatre productions, educational and corporate workshops.
Artistic Director and Creative Producer Neil Sheppeck, said: “We are delighted to announce Mark Rylance as Rising Tides’ new Patron. Mark is considered to be one of the greatest actors of his generation, receiving an Academy Award, two Olivier Awards and three Tony Awards for his work.”
“In 1995 Mark was also the first artistic director of Globe Theatre, until 2006. Mark’s long- standing concern about the issue of climate change and his actions to promote these issues are shared by Rising Tides and we are hugely honoured to call him our Patron.”
Rising Tides first project was a takeover at HighTide Festival with four exciting pieces of new writing (Two Fish, and Fracture by Steve Casey, Limpets by Jonnie Bayfield, Fridge! by Polly Churchill) and an immersive multi-media experience (Think Tank, devised by Chris Lawson & Paul Webster).
Rising Tides was subsequently awarded Arts Council funding to research and develop Two Fish, Fridge! and Think Tank in partnership with the Arcola Theatre.
Rising Tides held a rehearsed reading of Mu’assel by Riad Ismat (previous Syrian Minister of Culture) at Diorama Arts Centre, with donations going towards the The Red Crescent.
Most recently, they hosted Letters to The Earth with The Space, Isle of Dogs, performing and discussing letters contributed by poets, citizens, playwrights and politicians, from all over the globe, connecting to the Climate Emergency.
Rising Tides next productions will be Gasping by Ben Elton and Between Two Waves by Ian Meadows 22 October – 24 October 2019, The Space, Isle of Dogs, London, E14 3RS.
“You are unjust to women in England. And till you count what is a a shame in a woman to be an infamy in a man, you will always be unjust, and Right, that pillar of fire, and Wrong, that pillar of cloud, will be made dim to your eyes, or be not seen at all, or if seen, not regarded.”
Oscar Wilde’s suitably scathing social comedy comes to the King’s this week, and in the time of Time’s Up and #MeToo, it couldn’t feel more relevant.
At a party at Lady Hunstanton’s estate, the upper classes arrive for a typical afternoon and evening of wining, dining and witty remarks. The young Gerald Arbuthnot (Tim Gibson) has been offered a job as secretary to the witty, daring and amoral Lord Illingworth (Mark Meadows), a position that would grant him high status in ‘society’. However, when his mother, Mrs Arbuthnot (Katy Stephens) arrives later, scandalous secrets are revealed – Gerald is actually Lord Illingworth’s illegitimate son. Illingworth had courted Mrs Arbuthnot in their youth, and after conceiving a child, refused to marry her. And so, the tensions rise and battle lines are drawn – how does Mrs Arbuthnot keep her son, whom she has had to raise alone in a world that would shun her if the truth came out, but keep the man who wronged her as far away as possible.
It is clear whose side the audience should be on. It is clear whose side Oscar Wilde was on. The play shows the hypocrisy and double standards enacted by the upper classes and lays bare Mrs Arbuthnot’s pain. In the Victorian era, scandals such as hers could easily destroy her life and her son’s. Wilde usually has a stand-in for himself in his plays, the lackadaisical figure who pokes and prods at the conventions of society, the lounging rogue who punctures arguments with effortless wit, and here, the stand-in is Illingworth. But here, instead of being admirable, Illingworth gradually turns into a vile man, his character laid bare by Mrs Arbuthnot. His attempted kiss on Hester Worsley (Georgia Landers), his outrageous flirting with the equally amoral Mrs Allonby (Emma Amos) reveal a man who in this day and age would be named in the same sentence as Weinstein, Affleck and the rest of them. Thankfully, Mrs Arbuthnot does get the last word here, just as you think Illingworth is getting too many of them.
Katy Stephens and Mark Meadows’ scenes together are electric, firing shots at each other laced with undisguised loathing. Wilde’s acerbic wit is on fine form here, even if at other times his words are delivered with less finesse – more than a few of his more famous lines were delivered with a pointed ‘look, this is one is REALLY clever’ almost-fourth-wall-break, rendering it more pantomime than pointed jab at society’s failings.
The pace of the play is swift, each act a breezy 55 minutes, the huge set changes covered ably by Roy Hudd’s Reverend Daubney and other members of the cast performing classic music hall a la post-dinner entertainment.
A highly relevant look at the treatment of women both then and now, ‘A Woman of No Importance’ remains topical and enjoyable.
Following a successful twelve year run at London’s Dominion Theatre, where it was performed an astonishing 4,600 times, jukebox musical “We Will Rock You” is back for a “re-imagined” production – although having never seen the original I have nothing to compare it to. It features twenty-four of Queen’s biggest, a witty (yet often stale) script by Ben Elton, and for die hard Queen fans it recreates some of the scale and spectacle that marked the bands legendary live performances.
The storyline, if you can call it that, is mediocre – set in futuristic “the planet formally known as Earth” where people are programmed to look, think and dress the same, at Ga Ga University which, like the rest of the planet, is controlled by corporate giant Global Soft. Musical instruments are banned and all that consists in terms of music are computer simulated boy and girl bands which all look and sound the same (the Stock, Aitken and Waterman of the future!). A bohemian who goes by the name of Galileo (Ian McIntosh – “Beautiful” and “The Commitments”) rebel’s against Global Soft leaders Killer Queen (Jenny O’Leary – “Heathers”) and Khashoggi (Adam Strong) and flees to find a group of like-minded Bohemians who struggle to restore freedom of thought, music and fashion.
Whilst the storyline is a one-way ticket to snooze-ville, Queen fans won’t be disappointed by hearing the bands hits performed live, but for regular theatre fans there’s not much else there apart from the music. It failed to move me in the slightest, let alone “Rock” me, however the futuristic stage set and video animations and graphics were surprisingly stunning and at times hypnotic. Killer Queen and Khashoggi as characters are nothing more than novelty pantomime villains, simply there for the entertainment factor. At times it was painful to watch, especially all of Act Two where the weak plot ended with little or no explanation. Had I have been alone and bought the tickets, I’d have left at the interval. The songs crop up at random moments, often without any logical explanation or reliance to the “plot”.
The audience was mainly filled with diehard Queen fans sporting faded t-shirts from the bands glory days, paired with some 1970s/1980s baggy leather jackets – not the average theatregoers – who stated how “fantastic” the show was during the interval. The sparse regular theatregoers and critics in the audience tonight however, shared the same views as myself – that as a musical it is cringeworthy and merely nothing more than a glorified tribute to the late Freddy Mercury and Queen.
If you have all the albums and are still totally Ga Ga for Queens music, this show is for you. If you’ve moved onto the 21st Century but don’t mind the odd Queen song, I recommend staying at home and watching Bohemian Rhapsody instead, at least that has an actual story line.
“It’s a Hard Knock Life” for Annie (Ava Smith), the title character in this story. Annie is a child who lives in an orphanage. Her attempts to run away are foiled and she is forced to stay in the orphanage with the other girls and the alcoholic care giver Miss Hannigan (Lesley Joseph). She is then taken in by Oliver Warbucks (Alex Bourne) for 2 weeks over Christmas. He attempts to give her experiences “In N.Y.C.” that she has not had the chance to enjoy. He then tries to help her find her birth parents whose “One regret was giving up me [Annie]”. The greed of the New Yorkers comes to light when Oliver and Annie make an appeal on the Radio during Burt Healey’s (Susannah Van Den Ber) show, with a reward for information. Miss Hannigan’s shifty brother Rooster (Richard Meek) attempts to get the reward for being Annie’s Father as a short cut to get to “Easy Street”.
From the moment I sat down, “I Know I’m Going to Like it Here”. The stage is set up for the opening scene in the orphanage. “Some Women are dripping with Diamonds” but the Theatre is “Dripping with little Girls” and some not so little girls keen to see this classic (and my personal favourite) stage show. From the moment the Orphan Girls – Molly (Honey-Rose Quinn), Duffy (Tilly Appiah), Tessie (Lois Dennison), Pepper (Charlotte Pourret Wythe), July (Amber Sawyer) and Kate (Olivia Rose Haywood) alongside Annie – step on to the stage your attention is grasped. The dance skills and booming voices that come out of these “little girls” is incredible. It’s not just the youngsters that amaze with their pop and locking but the incredulous Lesley Joseph in her 70s still commanding the stage be it hoping on and off the table so lightly to spinning and strutting up and down the stage – she hasn’t lost anything that she learned in the well-known TV Dance show. What makes it even more astounding is that she is in the same age bracket as my grandmother who struggles to stand up off the sofa!
No matter how many times I see Annie on stage it never fails to impress – they say never work with children or animals in showbiz but this show has both and appeared to go off without a hitch. “It’s what you wear from ear to ear, and not from head to toe that matters” and not one person left the show without a “S.M.I.L.E. Smile” on their face. “And I think I’m the luckiest kid” getting the privilege to see this great show again and you would be a fool to not get along and check out this astounding performance.
FULL CAST ANNOUNCED FOR WORLD PREMIÈRE OF SAMUEL BAILEY’S SHOOK
Papatango presents the world première of
Shook
by Samuel Bailey
Director George Turvey; Set and Costume Designer Jasmine Swan; Lighting Designer Johanna Town; Sound Designer Richard Hammarton
Papatango today announces the full cast for the world première of Samuel Bailey’s Shook – this year’s winner of the annual Papatango New Writing Prize. The company’s Artistic Director George Turvey directs Josef Davies (Jonjo), Josh Finan (Cain), Andrea Hall (Grace), and Ivan Oyik (Riyad).
The production opens on 1 November at Southwark Playhouse, with previews from 30 October, and runs until 23 November 2019. Following the run at Southwark Playhouse, the production tours to Hope Street Theatre, Liverpool (26 November), Theatr Clwyd (27 – 28 November), Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough (30 November) and Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury (4 – 7 December).
“He’ll look different. My little boy. When I get out. Like… to the picture I’ve got in my head. Be like meeting him all over again. Be a whole new start.”
Instead of GCSEs, Cain, Riyad and Jonjo got sentences. Locked up in a young offenders’ institution, they trade sweets, chat shit, kill time – and await fatherhood.
Grace’s job is to turn these teenagers into parents, ready to take charge of their futures. But can they grow up quickly enough to escape the system?
Winner of the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize from a record 1,406 entries, Samuel Bailey’s debut full production tenderly and honestly examines the young men society shuts away.
Samuel Bailey was born in London and raised in the West Midlands. He began writing plays in Bristol and developed work with Bristol Old Vic, Tobacco Factory Theatres and Theatre West before moving back to London. He is an alumnus of the Old Vic 12 and Orange Tree Writers’ Collective. Shook was originally supported by the MGCfutures bursary programme, and will be his debut full production.
Josef Davies plays Jonjo. His previous theatre credits include Hangmen (Royal Court Theatre, Wyndham’s Theatre), The 306 (National Theatre of Scotland), and Junkyard (Headlong). For television, his credits include Chernobyl, World on Fire, Silent Witness, Shakespeare and Hathaway, The Bisexual, Curfew, Call The Midwife, and Uncle. For film, 1917, The King, Dumbo, Undercliffe, and The Limehouse Golem.
Josh Finan plays Cain. His previous theatre credits include Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC), The Nutcracker (Theatr Clwyd), Champ (Tobacco Factory Theatres), E15 (Lung Theatre, Northern Stage), The Barricade (Theatre503), Takeover – Pancake Day (Bunker Theatre), and Dolly Wants to Die (Lung Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Underbelly Theatre). For television, his credits include Guerrilla; and for film, Surge, Hellboy, and The Current War.
Andrea Hall plays Grace. Her previous theatre credits include Ares (Vaults Festival), The Wild Duck (Almeida Theatre), The Notebook of Trigorin (Finborough Theatre), Hyacinth Blue (Clean Break), Talkin’ Loud (Theatre503), Abena’s Stupidest Mistake (The Drill Hall), Parting Shots (Bootleg Theatre), Large Tales (Nottingham Playhouse), The Palace of Fear (Leicester Haymarket), and Johnny Dollar (Bloomsbury Theatre). For television, her credits include Unforgotten, The Child in Time, Broadchurch, Flack, Humans, Joe All Alone, Apple Tree House, Trauma and Thirteen.
Ivan Oyik plays Riyad. He graduated from Guildford School of Acting in 2019. His previous theatre credits include Blue Orange (Birmingham Rep – for which he was nominated for The Stage Debut Award for Best Actor in a Play) and Red Pitch (Ovalhouse).
George Turvey co-founded Papatango in 2007 and became the sole Artistic Director in January 2013. Credits as director include Hanna (Papatango, UK tour), The Annihilation of Jessie Leadbeater (Papatango at ALRA), AfterIndependence (Papatango at Arcola Theatre, 2016 Alfred Fagon Audience Award, and on BBC Radio 4),Leopoldville (Papatango at Tristan Bates Theatre), and Angel (Papatango at Pleasance London and Tristan Bates Theatre).
Turvey trained as an actor at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) and has appeared on stage and screen throughout the UK and internationally, including the lead roles in the world première of Arthur Miller’sNo Villain (Old Red Lion Theatre and Trafalgar Studios) and Batman Live World Arena Tour. As a dramaturg, he has led the development of all of Papatango’s productions. He is the co-author of Being A Playwright: A Career Guide For Writers, published by Nick Hern Books.
About Papatango
Papatango is a charity who discover and champion new playwrights by running free, open-application opportunities.
The Papatango New Writing Prize is free to enter and open to any resident of the UK or Ireland. It is assessed anonymously by a reading team which identifies as at least 50% female and is at least 25% BAME. All entrants receive personal feedback on their scripts, an unmatched commitment to supporting aspiring playwrights. The 2019 Prize assessed and gave personal feedback to 1,406 plays. The winner is guaranteed a full production, publication, royalties and commission. The Prize was the first UK award to make such a commitment, changing the landscape for new writing. Writers discovered through the Prize have won BAFTAs, OffWestEnd and Royal National Theatre Foundation awards, premiered in over 20 countries, and worked with the RSC, National Theatre, BBC and HBO.
As well as the Prize, Papatango offers a yearly Resident Playwright scheme, taking an emerging playwright through commissioning, development and production of a new play. Previous Residents have won an Alfred Fagon Audience Award, adapted their play for BBC Radio Four, been commissioned by Headlong, the Tricycle Theatre, and the North Wall Arts Centre, and seen their work tour nationwide with Papatango.
Papatango also run GoWrite, an extensive programme of free playwriting workshops, performances and publication for children and adults across the country. Each year it provides free face-to-face training or productions for over 4000 budding writers at state schools, regional venues and community centres, launching plays that have gone on to be staged at Hampstead Theatre, the Vaults Festival, Old Red Lion Theatre, Arcola Theatre, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Luton Hat Factory and the Quarry Theatre, Bedford. GoWrite also provides £5000 in bursaries to enable in-need writers nationwide to access opportunities.
This year Papatango launched WriteWest, a playwriting programme across south-west England which provides free training, performances and seed funding for grassroots writers and producers.
Papatango’s first book, Being A Playwright: A Career Guide for Writers, was published in autumn 2018 by Nick Hern Books. It topped Amazon’s best-seller list in the playwriting category, and has been described as a “phenomenon for playwriting good…a bible for playwrights” by Steve Waters and “enlightening…an excellent tool for playwrights” by Indhu Rubasingham.
Last night Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show hit Hull New Theatre with a joyous, triumphant bang! It is hard to believe that the Rocky Horror Show is in its 45th year, but it is still going strong and there is no wonder as it can be relied on to lift the spirits and work the laughter muscles with its naughtiness. This production feels fresh but don’t worry it is still gloriously camp, full of the old favourites and with a cracking cast.
The audience was buzzing before the show even started (many dressed in costume), and the minute the band struck up the atmosphere in the theatre cranked up several notches. We were ready to be entertained and the cast didn’t let us down. Rocky Horror is the tale of Brad and Janet, an all American 1950s college couple, who break down one rainy night and find themselves seeking refuge in Frank N Furter’s house, and this is where the mayhem begins and innocence is lost. It should be quite a dark tale but instead its diverse cross dressing characters and the catchy songs make it a delight and audience interaction is a given. Rocky Horror is naughty but this is a risqué humour, a slightly darker pantomime or “Carry On” film.
What to say about Duncan James as Frank N Furter the “sweet transvestite”? Stunning, triumphant, outrageous, naughty, keep thinking along those lines – he rocked it! He owned the stage from his first entrance and what a stunning voice. The audience loved him and he clearly loved camping it up. His interaction with the other cast members was great, this wasn’t a one man show.
Joanne Clifton plays Janet to a tee, naïve and innocent, giggling and coquettish, such a “sweet girl” and more than happy to have been led astray (as my mother would have put it!). Her singing voice is fabulous and it goes without saying that she moves beautifully.
James Darch was the perfect Brad, making a wonderful college nerd, as his world collapsed around him or did it expand?
Philip Franks was a wonderful narrator, he had such gravitas and a wicked line in put downs for the hecklers in the audience, absolutely superb.
Callum Evans was the perfect chiseled Rocky and his gymnastic moves were fabulous.
This is very much an ensemble piece and the harmonies were superb, as was the dancing. The band led by George Carter was absolutely superb. Sue Blaine’s costumes were perfect and Hugh Durrant’s set design spot on, with its nod to the movies.
On the surface Rocky Horror could be dismissed as light and frothy fun, but even after 45 years it has an important message about the importance of being who you are and of tolerance. As Frank N Furter sings in Sweet Transvestite “don’t judge a book by a cover” and more importantly later on “Don’t dream it, be it”.
Back to last night, the Monday night audience shot to their feet to give the cast a well-deserved standing ovation and we left the theatre happy and smiling – I can’t have been the only one walking to the car not noticing the awful weather but feeling like the sun was shining.
The Rocky Horror Show is the perfect antidote to this dismal autumn weather, treat yourself to the theatre instead of buying an umbrella!
