Wilton’s Music Hall – until 20th April 2024
Reviewed by Alec Legge
4****
To Wilton’s Music Hall for the first time at this venue. Wow,
it was like stepping into the past as instead of being refurbished it has been preserved in a condition reflecting it’s age with areas of brick showing bereft of plaster, wooden floors and in the bar remnants of décor on the ceiling, the bar serving many beers etc and good choices of food at reasonable prices. The auditoreum was similarly preserved and would be recognised by clients of old.
As we took our seats the members of the Flabbergast company were on stage and also amid the audience, appearing to be having an impromptu rehearsal wearing their costumes. A prime example of immersive theatre. This gave a big clue that this would not be a classic performance of a Shakespeare play!
Soon the play started and immediately the action was fast and furious the performers using there bodies in various dance like movements to enhance the dialogue. What a spectacle!
The set consisted of a haywain in the centre of the stage which the cast used both as a mini stage, a bower for Titania and Bottom and a means of disappearing from sight. The haywain also gave the nod to how in times past travelling players dragged a cart loaded with all their scenery and costumes from place to place.
The play kept in the main to the plot penned by the Bard but the performing was so lively and comic as to be far removed from the way it is normally performed. The inclusion of dance, clowning, masks and puppetry all enhanced the performance tremendously.
In all this was a fine performance enjoyed by the audience. The only negative was that occasionally the dialogue was hard to hear . There were plenty of laughs from the audience who also gave a rousing round of applause as the cast took their bow.