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The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre 17 March – 2 April.  Reviewed by Claire Roderick

I must admit that I have never made it all the way through Anna Karenina, on page or screen. I know the plot, and I know that it is a brilliantly written novel, but I just don’t want to read about the socio-political idiosyncrasies of the Russian peasantry and farming methods, while most film adaptations make Anna unlikeable and annoying.

You can always count on Arrows & Traps to breathe new and exciting life into a classic, and this version of Anna Karenina doesn’t disappoint. Helen Edmundson’s adaptation manages to condense the hefty tome into 2 hours and 25 minutes of emotional and intense storytelling. The throngs of aristocrats and peasants are trimmed down to 15 characters, played by a cast of 8.

Anna Karenina, married to a respectable government official, begins an affair with dashing Vronsky. She falls pregnant and their struggle to be together, Russian society’s double standards about married men and women having affairs, and Anna’s own choices and demons mean their romance will end in tragedy.

Levin is a shy landed gentleman, whose proposal to Kitty has been rebuffed as she is smitten with Vronsky. He withdraws to his estate and throws himself into new farming methods and study of the peasants, trying to find peace after his previous youthful debauchery. He finally realise that Kitty is the only woman he loves and returns to Moscow to propose again. They marry but find that living together is not the idyll they had imagined.

Edmundson intertwines the two stories sensitively, using Levin and Anna as narrators and co-conspirators in their choices. They constantly ask each other “Where are you now?” to explain plot and location shifts, and watch helplessly as they each make dubious choices, often berating each other between scenes and discussing hypocrisy, faith and mortality. This gives Anna’s motivation and mental disintegration much more focus, even in the short running time, and allows Ellie Jacob to make Anna more rounded and sympathetic; her increasing tenderness towards Death (creeping on stage at every opportunity) as her morphine addiction builds is beautifully played. David Paisley’s Levin is sweet and frustrating in his adoration of Kitty and his often patronising talk of his peasant workers. Together, they grip the audience’s attention with their chemistry and bring a sense of continuity to the episodic plot.

The set is bare, relying on Beth Gibbs fantastic lighting design and cast movement to provide a sense of place and memory. This works brilliantly – the railway and the horse race scenes being the standouts, although the writing in the horse race, with the cast describing Vronsky’s equine mount as he is mounting Anna, may have had a lot to do with my loving that scene! Director Ross McGregor has managed to create an intimate play that still has a sense of the sweeping scale of Tolstoy’s novel.

The entire cast give wonderful performances, Adam Elliott’s Karenin is a very English Russian aristocrat, with wonderfully correct and measured lines, delivered with a delightful comic touch. Spencer Lee Osborne plays each of his characters with a twinkle in his eye. His priest had the audience in fits of laughter with just facial expressions and hand gestures. Will Mytum’s Vronsky is every inch the shallow arrogant aristocrat, and his scenes as Nikolai were literally breath-taking – I thought he was about to lose a lung. Cornelia Baumann, Pippa Caddick and Hannah Wilder almost stole the show with a few minutes of hysterical eye and fan fluttering.

This production has completely changed my mind about Anna Karenina, and I may just be tempted to have another crack at the novel. This is a wonderful full blooded production that is simply unmissable.

IT’S MURDER AT THE CIVIC

Talking Scarlet presents Frederick Knott’s classic thriller Dial ‘M’ For Murder at Darlington Civic Theatre from Tuesday 29 March to Saturday 2 April.

Tony, a former professional tennis player, has grown accustomed to the lavish lifestyle made possible by his heiress wife, Margot. Convinced Margot is having an affair, Tony, rather than play victim to her waning affections, begins to plot her demise.

Tony plans the perfect murder, but the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. Between cocktails, a game of cat and mouse, laced with blackmail and intrigue, begins. When Tony’s precise plans go awry he must improvise an equally deadly plan and stay one step ahead of the police.

As tension vigorously mounts alongside Tony’s tenacity to get away with murder, he maintains a façade of great charm and charisma. The continuous and sinister game Tony plays with his wife and the seemingly disinterested Scotland Yard detective, keeps audiences spellbound. Claustrophobic and frightening, this new production reclaims this brilliant tale of betrayal, passion and, ultimately, murder.

Famously filmed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Ray Milland and Grace Kelly, this intense and darkly gripping stage production stars Oliver Mellor (Coronation Street), Terri Dwyer (Hollyoaks) and Marcus Hutton (Brookside).

There is a free post show talk on Wednesday 30 March.

Dial ‘M’ For Murder is at Darlington Civic Theatre from Tuesday 29 March to Saturday 2 April.

Tickets* are priced £12.60 to £20. To book contact the Box Office on 01325 486 555 or visit www.darlingtoncivic.co.uk

*Includes a £1 restoration levy

New children’s play to explore Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Following on from their acclaimed 2014 production of Monday’s Child which explored Alzheimer’s disease, the much-admired Leeds theatre company tutti frutti are set to premiere WILd!, a new play written by award-winning writer Evan Placey (Girls Like That, Unicorn Theatre), that unravels the story of a boy with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Aimed at children aged 8 years upwards, WiLd!, which is supported by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award, will premiere at The Carriageworks in Leeds on the 30^th April before embarking on a UK and Ireland tour until 9 July including various dates as part of the Yorkshire Festival 2016.

WiLd! is a one person show with a live musician that explores the fragility of a misunderstood boy who lives within his wild imagination, in a sensitive, empathetic, but fun and accessible way. The play tells the central protagonist’s story, as he navigates his real and his imagined world which will be underpinned by the emotions, behaviours and perceptions in relation to ADHD. WiLd! will be informed by current biomedical science and will interrogate the use of medication and behavioural intervention.

With the funding from the Wellcome Trust, tutti frutti’s creative team have been working in partnership with Professor David Daley of CANDAL (the Centre for ADHD and Neurodevelopmental Disorders across the Lifespan at the Institute of Mental Health) and his team at University of Nottingham on researching with ADHD patient groups. The CANDAL centre engages in world leading research into the causes, recognition and treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders across the lifespan.

In 2014, tutti frutti worked in collaboration with a neuroscientist and a psychologist from Sussex University and the Alzheimer’s Society for Brendan Murray’s play Monday’s Child, which explored memory and Alzheimer’s.

WILd! will be directed by tutti frutti’s artistic director Wendy Harris and feature music by Dominic Sales, movement from Jo Bernard and designs by Kate Bunce. The cast will feature Rhys Warrington (Great Expectations, Vaudeville Theatre) and musician Molly Lopresti.

Director Wendy Harris said about the new production:

“WiLd! is one of the most thrilling projects tutti frutti has embarked on for some time. This play will tell a really important, but uplifting, story which is underpinned by research in the area of ADHD in children. We are also delighted to be making this play for children aged 8+, a development from our usual age band of 3-7 years. Following the huge success we had with Monday’s Child, a show based in scientific research about ‘memory’, we can’t wait to get started on this new, brilliant project.”

 

Playwright Evan Placey who recently won the Writers’ Guild Award for Best Play for Young Audiences for Girls Like That added:

‘I am really excited about finding theatrical and innovative performance-based ways to express the brain of a child with ADHD. Having spent my early years as a writer working with young people with ADHD, I am aware of the stigma and misunderstanding that surrounds these young people; I am eager to create a piece in which the audience see everything through his eyes and through engaging with his creative imagination and the journey of his mind, can begin to understand him.”

tutti frutti are a national touring company creating high quality work for children and their families to enjoy. Based in Leeds, tutti frutti has been delighting children aged 3, and over, for more than 20 years and tour nationally and internationally to schools, venues, arts centres and village halls through the rural touring schemes. Previous tutti frutti productions have included The Princess and the Pea, Rapunzel, Monday’s Child and Snow Child. In 2014, the company’s work was showcased at the prestigious 18th ASSITEJ World Congress in Warsaw.

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to improving health by supporting bright minds in science, the humanities and social sciences, and public engagement.

 

The production is funded by The Arts Council of England, The Wellcome Trust and Leeds City Council. It is also supported by CANDAL, The University of Nottingham, The Golsoncott Foundation, Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation and Wades Charity.

WiLd! will feature at Yorkshire Festival 2016, which runs from 16 June to 3 July 2016 and features 100 events, which have been selected to be officially part of the Festival, as well as hundreds of fringe events.

WiLd! is suitable for children aged 8+ and their families and will tour nationally from 30 April – 9 July 2016.

THE DOCTOR IN SPITE OF HIMSELF
June 21st – July 13th 2016, Drayton Arms Theatre

Critically acclaimed French theatre company Exchange Theatre return to the Drayton Arms this summer with a new adaptation of Moliere’s rarely-performed French farce The Doctor In Spite of Himself, playing in both English and French as part of the Bastille Festival 2016, which also includes workshops and other French productions.

“mega-multicultural Exchange Theatre have done the unimaginable”  (Londonist on The Flies)

In this classic Moliere affair, nothing is quite what it seems. Sganarelle is a drunk and beats his wife, who in return spreads the word that he is actually a brilliant doctor who can only work when he is beaten. Cue a stream of patients and beatings – and in spite of himself, it seems Sganarelle can perform miracles after all!

This farce marked Moliere’s return to the genre after a couple of years in the wilderness trying to take himself more seriously, and as such forms the basis for much of his later, more famous work. Unjustly overlooked, The Doctor In Spite of Himself offers a protean look into Moliere’s trademark wit, and a rare treat for French theatre lovers.

“Exchange have done a service making those plays available in English” (Reviewsgate)

Exchange Theatre is an international company established in 2006 in London in order to translate and produce unknown or rare French-speaking plays in English. Led by David Furlong and Fanny Dulin, the company translates plays from major French playwrights for the first time in London and off Broadway before being resident at the French Institute from 2010 to 2012.

“Everything here is perfectly spick and span, well organised and genuinely enjoyable” (One Stop Arts on A Family Affair)

GOLDEN TICKET WINNERS GET ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY ON HIT WEST END MUSICAL CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Five aspiring stage managers have won their big break into the theatre industry after receiving a Golden Ticket to a week-long paid work placement on Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the record-breaking West End musical, directed by Sam Mendes.

The five lucky winners were Lizzie Alderson, 25, from Maidstone, Kent, Jyothi Giles, 22, from Oxford, Joeleen Green, 29, from Albany, Australia,  Patrick Mullan, 27, from County Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and Katie Williams, 27, from Murwillumbah, Australia. They were shortlisted from hundreds of applicants, following a demanding assessment day at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, to be named this year’s recipients of the Golden Ticket.

At the end of the week-long placement earlier this month, Katie Williams was named the most promising candidate and receives a two-month paid placement as a production intern on the show, one of the largest productions in the West End.

On her win, Williams said:

‘As a Golden Ticket winner I was given an all access pass to the inner workings of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. My week was spent exploring and observing all of the backstage departments that come together to create this mammoth show, from learning how to secure a wig on a performer, to testing microphones, to discovering how they really make Willy Wonka’s coat disappear. Every day I discovered something new about the show. I’m thrilled to have been chosen to stay and work on the show for the next two months. I’m very much looking forward to continuing to work with and learn from some of the best professionals in the theatre industry.’

It marks a third year for the scheme which invests in emerging talent in the UK, awarding successful candidates the opportunity to gain experience working with the production’s highly-experienced backstage team in the lighting, sound, automation, wardrobe, wigs, make-up and stage management departments.

The Golden Ticket placements are part of Warner Bros. Creative Talent, a programme of investment in skills and training for the UK creative industries.

Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has quickly become one of the West End’s most popular and successful stage musicals. It has broken multiple records at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where it has been seen by over 1.8 million people since it opened in June 2013. It is currently taking bookings until 7 January 2017.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is produced by Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, Neal Street Productions and Langley Park Productions.

• Casting announced for new production co-directed by Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson

• Production will play at Bristol Old Vic as part of Mayfest in addition to previously announced dates at Northern Stage and West Yorkshire Playhouse

• Opening Skinner’s Box is a landmark production in the year that marks Improbable’s 20th anniversary year

• Based on the fascinating psychology book by Lauren Slater 

Storyknowing Festival and Symposium at York Theatre Royal

Two-day event exploring storytelling with young people showcases new models of collaboration between theatres and universities

Cath Heinemeyer, Storyknowing coordinator, leads a storytelling workshop at York Theatre Royal

 

After a £6m redevelopment project lasting over a year, York Theatre Royal will host an innovative ‘Storyknowing’ Festival and Symposium as part of its reopening weekend on 22–23 April 2016. The project will explore the relationship between storytelling and adolescence, and will feature contributions by researchers from York St John University and other institutions, as well as storytellers, theatre practitioners and young people.

The interdisciplinary project has been organised by the International Centre for Arts and Narrative (ICAN), a practice-based research collaboration between the theatre and York St John University. ‘Storyknowing’ aims to showcase new and productive ways in which theatres and research institutions can work together to develop participative arts practice.

The symposium, the first of its kind at the theatre and University, will benefit from the input of professionals and young people from a wide variety of backgrounds, ranging from researchers in theatre, education and psychology to mental health professionals, teachers, arts practitioners and young people.

Storyknowing will feature presentations and performances which demonstrate how telling and listening to stories can make a difference to young people’s lives. Two Friday morning panels, ‘Storytelling In and Out of Education’ and ‘Storytelling for Resistance and Resilience’, will be followed by an evening of storytelling performances by and for young people, including a story told through Indian dance and a retelling of the classical myth Dido and Aeneas, set amid the current refugee crisis.

Keynote performances by acclaimed storytellers Roger Hill and Jo Blake Cave will also feature, as well as workshops exploring the use of stories in schools, in mental health settings, or with profoundly disabled young people.

The Storyknowing project is coordinated by ICAN PhD student Cath Heinemeyer, whose research into storytelling with adolescents is funded by a collaborative doctoral award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Cath said:

“Storyknowing is about bringing together the best research and storytelling practice with young people – but it is also going to be an innovative research activity in itself. To generate new perspectives on how young people use story, we need a dialogue which includes the expertise of researchers, teachers, arts practitioners, mental health professionals and teenagers themselves. And that dialogue cannot just be conducted through research talks – performance and practice workshops will allow us to find out ‘what story knows’ about this interface.”

The ICAN partnership was established in 2012 to investigate the role of narrative across art forms in community settings. The Centre is jointly run by Matthew Reason, Professor of Theatre and Performance at York St John University, and Juliet Forster, Associate Director at York Theatre Royal. It has worked with almost 1,000 workshop participants of all ages and backgrounds since its launch.

Juliet Forster said:

“York Theatre Royal’s mission is ‘to cultivate the potential of the community through the creative arts’ and this goes to the heart of what ICAN and Storyknowing are about. We know that young people are facing unprecedented challenges – in a competitive educational world, and increasingly in the area of mental health – and we want to support all those working with them to harness the power of narrative and the arts.”

Matthew Reason said:

“Storyknowing is that quality of understanding we have while within a narrative, when we intuitively ‘get’ what is at stake in terms of relationships or consequences or emotions. Yet the moment we exit the story and try and say what it is we know, we are oddly lost for words.

 

“We are interested in developing storytelling as a participatory practice – one that really embraces the notion that we are all storytellers – through working with groups and individuals from across the community. It is a space where a theatre and a university operate within their wider community and context, making art together, asking questions together, telling stories together.”

 

The Storyknowing Festival and Symposium runs all day on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 April, with events taking place at York Theatre Royal and York St John University. Parallel workshops for young people let teachers bring interested students, at a minimal contribution to cost, to provide them with a vivid and creative experience of the research environment.

Civic Theatre, Darlington – 15 March 2016

Touring Consortium Theatre Company mark their 20th anniversary with a revival of John Steinbeck’s searing tale of migrant farm workers in America’s Great Depression. As we found out later the first show TCTC ever brought to Darlington was Of Mice and Men, so it was a nice circle that this was the last show for them to bring before the theatre closes for refurbishment.  

Dudley Sutton may be the “star” in this emotionally devastating revival of John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.” But the other star of the show is Director Roxanna Silbert, who in conjuction with Birmingham Rep,  turns in an impeccably mounted production without a single blemish. The ensemble acting is flawless. The design work is breathtaking. And Steinbeck’s Depression-based views on the human connections that are our only hope of survival in desperate times are just as relevant — even imperative — for living through our own cruel times

The relationship between migrant ranch workers Lennie (Kristian Phillips) and George (William Rodell) is the bruised heart of Steinbeck’s vivid portrait-in-miniature of a parched 1930s California, where money has drained away and kindness is a luxury. It’s a fragile constant in a world where dreams are as easily crushed as the mice Lennie accidentally kills with clumsy affection.  The intensity of the drama and its focus on human relationships is perfect for stage, inspiring powerful performances all round. As a story which is embedded in the American conscious there is also a peculiar authenticity about the production, a feeling that nothing has been held back. It is a sort of anthropological case study in the origin of American culture as it functions today.

There’s no way to overpraise this ensemble who bring Steinbeck’s characters to life. They’re a motley crew, one and all, and most are truly memorable. Sutton is heart-wrenching as Candy, the pathetic old ranch hand who can read his fate on the bunkhouse walls, as well as Neil McKinven’s burly Carlson, the bunkhouse bully who intimidates Candy into letting him shoot his old dog. And Jonah Russell’s Slim, the sober peacemaker, along with Ben Stott’s sadistic Curley, who does everything a man can to destroy that peace. Not to mention Dave Fishley’s blazingly intelligent Crooks, the black guy the white guys won’t allow inside the bunkhouse.

Every last one of these men on this farm is given human dignity as well as character dimension by members of this extraordinary company. Which is more than the real-life models for these men got back in Steinbeck’s day.

As the never named Curley’s wife, Saoirse-Monica Jackson lights up the stage with every appearance, displaying the nuance and complexity necessary to make the character more than just the catalyst for the play’s tragic ending. Jackson and Phillips play off each other very well in a key scene when Curley’s wife shows the troubled man some kindness right before her sad end.

This is a truly stunning production, the staging is magnificent.  Every aspect of the show’s design is first-rate, including Liz Ashcroft’s set designs, which help root the play in time; Simon Bond’s eloquent lighting; and Nick Powell’s understated sound design.

This was a book that I read for my O Levels far too many years ago for me to mention, but a tale that as stood the test of time and is still on the syllabus today.  The theatre was filled with students who were reading this as set text and hopefully seeing this production will give them even more of an insight into this remarkable story.

In Darlington until Saturday 19 March and on tour around the UK

Grand Opera House, York – 14th to 19th March.  Reviewed by Marcus Richardson

The 39 Steps a great British classic, a farcical-comedy came to the Grand Opera House York on the 14th March 2016.

With the cast compiled of only four actors; Richard Ede who played the dashing Richard Hannay, Olivia Green as the main delicate Pamela, whist also taking a good spy and a oppressed scots-woman.  But, where the true talent of multi-roling takes place, is between Andrew Hodges and Rob Witcomb taking on more roles than I can count.

The witty style of comedy that all us Brit’s live for, was shown in many a scene, but the scene that shone like a flashlight is the hotel scene where Witcomb played an eccentric landlady where he is switching between characters in a matter of seconds. Along with his counterpart Hodges they gained a great roar of laughter for the whole audience.

The staging was minimalistic which added to the farcical elements, with Ede climbing through a window (photo frame). The scene changes were quick and effective and at times the use of props to create a funny moment such as a lamppost was used very well with the dynamic duo bring a streetlight every time our daring hero opened the blind of a window. The play was full of Hitchcock related jokes with the shower scene being implied and mention of vertigo, these were very cheesy and did make a few audience members laugh. However some Hitchcock jokes did last just a tad bit too long.

I would encourage anyone looking for a good laugh; with exciting chases, a melodramatic love connection and a ton of humour thrown in to see the wonder that is The 39 Steps.

LAZARUS THEATRE COMPANY

Lazarus’ Season of Rebellion;

 Season of Rebellion continues with a brand new adaptation of Euripides’ sexual and liberating, The Bacchae.

 Lazarus returns to The Tristan Bates as part of The Camden Fringe for John Ford’s daring and revolutionary, Tis Pity She’s a Whore.

The Bacchae

After Euripides

Lazarus’ season of Rebellion and Revolution continues with Euripides’ final play The Bacchae in a new production Directed by Gavin Harrington-Odedra and sees us transform The Blue Elephant Theatre into the stadium of Dionysus.

A wanderer returns, driving the people of the city into a ferocious and liberating sexual frenzy. His actions excite, his message thrills, but his mission is revenge.

Euripides’ hedonistic and uncompromising final play comes to the stage in an all-new, devised, ensemble production. Through the use of spoken word, movement and music, this electrifying new production examines belief, sexuality and liberation.

The Bacchae plays from the 19th April through to 7th May at The Blue Elephant Theatre, Tuesday – Saturday at 8pm.

Tis Pity She’s a Whore

John Ford

Continuing our season of Rebellion and Revolution, one of the most provocative and daring plays of the period, John Ford’s shocking and taboo, Tis Pity She’s a Whore. Returning to The Tristan Bates Theatre and running as part of The Camden Fringe, Tis Pity is Directed by Lazarus Artistic Director Ricky Dukes.

Ferocious, murderous and bloody. Love will not conquer all. Love will destroy all.

John Ford’s Jacobian masterpiece follows two young lovers, Anabella and Giovani, caught in the grip of sexual adventure and discovery. But their love is damned and their sex is a sin; they are Brother and Sister. When the siblings’ love is discovered – their world is changed forever.

Tis Pity She’s a Whore plays from the 23rd August through to 10th September at The Tristan Bates Theatre, Monday – Saturday at 8pm.

“This is a fantastic re-interpretation of a classic. Venice in all its dark splendour unfolds before you; the cast deliver outstanding performances… Magnificent work… Do not

miss this production” ★★★★

Everything Theatre on The Merchant of Venice