Liz – Page 160 – Theatre Things

Review: Footloose at the Orchard Theatre

Published on February 10, 2016February 11, 2016 by LizLeave a comment

Footloose, as most people above a certain age will know, was the 1984 movie starring a young Kevin Bacon as teenager Ren McCormack. Forced to leave Chicago and move to the small town of Bomont, Ren discovers that dancing’s been banned by the town council, and immediately sets about trying to change their minds. It’s based on a true story about Elmore City, Oklahoma, and touches on issues of religion, loss, prejudice and gender roles.

Now adapted for the stage by the movie’s original creator Dean Pitchford, and directed by Racky Plews, Footloose is a toe-tapping triumph of a show in which the multi-talented cast are also the band; they may not always be allowed to dance but they can still express themselves through music, playing everything from the electric guitar to the oboe. This gives the show a very collaborative feel, reminiscent of the brilliant Once (although in every other respect the two couldn’t be more different).

Luke Baker as Ren and the cast of Footloose. Photo Credit Matt Martin — Photo credit: Matt Martin

It might surprise some people to learn that the show’s big name star, Gareth Gates, doesn’t play the central role of Ren. That honour goes to Luke Baker, who gives an impressive, layered performance as the tortured teen. Gates, meanwhile, plays Ren’s friend Willard, in what turns out to be a perfect piece of casting. He’s a bit awkward, nervous around girls and far too attached to his mama, but with a twinkly charm and impeccable comic timing that’s guaranteed to win over anyone who still thinks of him as just that guy from Pop Idol. And his performance is memorable for another reason… but I won’t ruin the surprise.

Maureen Nolan – no stranger to emotional roles after recently reprising her role as Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers – plays Vi Moore, the preacher’s wife torn between loyalty to her husband (Nigel Lister) and concern about the rebellious behaviour of their daughter, Ariel (Hannah Price, who makes her professional debut in style). But it would be wrong to single out any one cast member; this is very much a team effort, and a fantastic one at that.

Choreographer Matthew Cole has captured the freedom of dance that’s so key to the story; though it may not all be particularly elegant, it’s full of energy and an irresistible joy to watch. The cast also make the line dancing routines look very easy, which I know from brutal experience they really aren’t. (I went to a line dancing class the other day. Let’s move on.)

And finally there’s the music, some of which was written specially for the musical by Tom Snow – but the tunes that really get the audience bopping in their seats are the classic hits from the movie, which include I Need A Hero, Let’s Hear It For The Boy and, of course, the title track. It’s a perfect piece of 80s nostalgia, for those of us old enough to remember that far back; for everyone else it’s just great fun.

Footloose is at the Orchard Theatre, Dartford, until Saturday 13th February.

Interview: Toby Peach, The Eulogy of Toby Peach

Published on February 8, 2016 by LizLeave a comment

Toby Peach has fought cancer twice – once at age 19 and again at 21. Now he’s taking his one-man show, The Eulogy of Toby Peach, on a UK tour, starting at London’s VAULT Festival and running from 17th-21st February.

The show, which won the IdeasTap Underbelly Award in 2015 and proved a five-star hit in Edinburgh, is a brave and humorous exploration of what cancer’s all about, through Toby’s own story. It’s also a really important show, given that 1 in 2 of us will experience cancer in our lifetime, and I’m grateful to Toby for taking the time to tell me a little more about it.

What prompted you to share your story?

I developed a short story for BAC’s London Stories back at the end of 2013, it dipped into my journey with cancer and it was the first time I had decided to speak about it. The response was fantastic and I decided I wanted to delve deeper into that world, as I realised I had no idea what had happened. I’d been through this life-changing event and I had no idea what had happened – it was all a blur. I realised that I didn’t know what cancer was. This thing that nearly took my life and I had no idea.

If, hauntingly, it is now 1 in 2 of us who will experience what cancer is, shouldn’t we know what it is? As it became apparent that cancer was just me, then how am I still here? This question prompted a deeper exploration and with it came a discovery that I wanted to share.

How long has the show taken to develop?

After BAC and with the help of Old Vic New Voices I developed the show so I could scratch it and then the unbelievable happened and I won the IdeasTap Underbelly Award. I was blown away as it meant I had to make the whole bloody show!

After assembling a cracking team I headed out to Plymouth Fringe Festival to scratch the show further and experience solo performance – I had never performed a solo show before so it was very daunting. Then came Edinburgh; we had a fantastic month getting it out there for the first time and were overwhelmed by the positive feedback to the show from audiences, press and industry alike, as well as being inspired by the learnings and ideas taken away from the experience.

So after all of that we come to VAULT festival, and as we’ve just received Arts Council, National Lottery and Wellcome Trust funding, we can’t wait to get started and develop this show further to reach more audiences in the future.

Has it taken any unexpected directions?

This has been my first experience of writing, and also solo work, so the whole experience has been quite unexpected. I have strange moments when I’m performing when I realise ‘Oh yer, this happened!’ or a version of it. I mean I never did have an affair with an IV Stand but that relationship was present – so sometimes I’ll be dancing away with IVY (my IV Stand girlfriend) and then it’ll hit me again. It’s an odd experience.

What’s been the highlight so far?

Since Edinburgh I’ve been off to perform the show a number of times and had the honour of taking it to Teenage Cancer Trust’s conference, Find Your Sense of Tumour, for 300 young people who have or have had cancer and their support teams; this was an incredible experience and extremely rewarding.

I was very nervous about performing for them, as I knew they related so much with the subject matter, but they were laughing at lines that people don’t normally get and they loved it. People expect you can’t laugh at cancer but especially when you’re young and you’ve been through it, they understand there are things that if you look at it again are fairly amusing. I spoke to so many afterwards about what it meant to them and that meant the world to me.

Can you sum up the show in one sentence?

From diagnosis to remission, relapse and treatment, experience a young man’s journey with cancer in this honest, fascinating and inspiring exploration of modern science and the wonders of the human body.

What are you hoping audiences will take away from it?

I hope they take away the hardest word to say with cancer… Hope. The show doesn’t say we’ve been lucky and we should be thankful for that, it says we are here because of certain reasons and we have a hell of a way to go – but we are trying. Chemotherapy was only trialled 69 years ago… look how far we’ve come.

Finally, what would be your advice to someone currently living with cancer?

That is a very tricky question to answer, as everyone has his or her own unique experience with cancer. I can’t say there is a right way or wrong way to live with cancer. For me, it took a long time but I wanted to explore what had happened so I didn’t hide from it. I have scars, everyone gets them throughout life, but I realised it isn’t about how we get our scars; for me it’s about how we wear them in the here and now that matters.

See The Eulogy of Toby Peach from 17th-21st February at the VAULT Festival, London.

Toby will also be running a free workshop called Creativity Saving Lives, exploring the background to the show, on 21st February at 2pm.

Review: Red Velvet at the Garrick

Published on February 7, 2016January 6, 2018 by LizLeave a comment

The latest offering from Kenneth Branagh’s season at the Garrick is Tricycle Theatre’s award-winning production of Red Velvet, starring Adrian Lester as renowned Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge – and it’s safe to say Sir Ken has another hit on his hands.

Written by Lolita Chakrabarti, the play imagines the events of 1833, as Aldridge is brought in to replace Edmund Kean, who’s collapsed on stage whilst playing Othello. The young actor brings with him an unorthodox acting style, which goes for realism as opposed to the posturing ‘teapot school of acting’ – but what bothers his fellow cast members – and the critics – even more is the idea of a black actor playing (gasp) a black character.

The play may be set 200 years ago, and of course nobody bats an eye any more at the thought of a black man playing Othello (in fact, it would probably be much weirder if they didn’t). But that doesn’t mean the issues at the heart of Red Velvet have gone away, and all too often the colour of an actor’s skin is still of more interest than whether they’re any good at their job – as we saw only too clearly in the recent reaction to Noma Dumezweni’s casting in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. And so, while we might have moved on from the days of actors ‘blacking up’, not to mention the kind of casual racism that draws audible gasps from the audience at the Garrick, this is still an incredibly relevant piece of work.

Adrian Lester gives a spell-binding performance as both the young and old Ira Aldridge, ageing 30 years in an instant, into a sad, sick old man. He’s not always entirely likeable – there are hints about his various extramarital dalliances, one of them possibly with Ellen Tree (Charlotte Lucas), who plays Desdemona in the production. And alongside his appealing passion for his art is the arrogant belief that the experienced cast must do things his way, whether they like it or not. But these flaws only make the man more real, and the fact that he can still break our hearts as he begs his friend Pierre Laporte (Emun Elliott) to save his reputation, is testament to Lester’s layered and compelling performance.

Despite the heavy subject matter, the play is also surprisingly funny, with many of the laughs supplied by Simon Chandler as nonplussed actor Bernard Warde, and Alexander Cobb as the idealistic Henry Forrester. Mark Edel-Hunt indulges in a fabulously childish tantrum (giving a couple of audience members a bit of a start), but becomes an altogether more serious figure the following morning, when he takes a little too much pleasure in reading aloud the negative reviews. And Charlotte Lucas shines as Ellen Tree; she has her own battles to fight as a woman in the arts, and does so with great spirit and humour.

Indhu Rubasingham’s direction sees the cast rarely leaving the stage, instead quietly observing and reacting to scenes in which they don’t appear from the wings, and the set changes are beautifully choreographed by Imogen Knight, so the action flows seamlessly. Act 1 takes a little while to hit its stride, with a conversation between the elderly actor and a Polish journalist leading into a lengthy acting lesson from the younger Aldridge. But it ends on a high with Lester/Aldridge’s intense performance as Othello, carrying us through into the passionate and gripping scenes of Act 2.

Red Velvet is a fascinating insight into the life of a man whose name and achievements have faded into relative obscurity. But it’s also highlighting an issue that should have faded with him – or rather, instead of him. The powerful final scene, in which a frail and elderly Aldridge prepares to play King Lear, is shocking but perfect, summing up the heart of the story in a single, haunting image. I’ve no idea how historically accurate the play is, but it certainly makes its point.

Can’t see the map on iPhone? Try turning your phone to landscape and that should sort it. I don’t know why but I’m working on it… 😉

Review: Weald at Finborough Theatre

Published on February 6, 2016January 6, 2018 by LizLeave a comment

It’s a stereotype based – sadly – in fact that men aren’t very good at talking about their feelings. Inspired by statistics on male suicide compiled by the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), playwright Daniel Foxsmith has created a short but incredibly powerful piece of work in Weald, presented by Snuff Box Theatre at the Finborough.

The story’s set in rural England, and opens as Jim returns home after six years in London, begging his late father’s friend, Sam, for a job at his livery yard. The older man grudgingly agrees, and the two throw themselves into their work, not only refusing to deal with their past problems but also avoiding the uncomfortable truths they’re now hiding from each other. But neither can run forever, and reality ultimately catches up with them as the play reaches a gripping and emotional climax.

Weald at Finborough Theatre — Photo credit: Alex Brenner

One of the biggest strengths of Weald is its casting of two actors who have genuine chemistry. David Crellin is the world weary Sam, a man so obsessed with history that he can’t look ahead to the future, while Dan Parr is a twitchy bundle of energy as Jim, putting on a show of bravado to hide his deep insecurities and fear of what lies ahead. It’s clear that Sam is a father figure to his young friend, but the relationship between the two ends up working both ways, and ultimately turning completely on its head as the story unfolds and the characters develop.

Bryony Shanahan’s direction allows these two fine performances to take centre stage, with no distractions. The actors use every inch of the intimate space, often springing from the stage and almost landing in the audience as they go about their work. And while we’re offered a glimpse into their world, nobody else is: other characters are alluded to but never actually enter the yard, and the horses are only ever present in the audience’s imagination. This heightens the sense that these two damaged souls are completely isolated from the rest of their community, and have no-one but each other to rely on for support.

Weald is an important play, beautifully written and performed, that really highlights the struggle faced by many men to own up to their emotions. It’s clear from the start that something’s not right – Jim’s sudden reappearance, Sam’s refusal to answer the phone – and the play’s heartbreaking climax is a direct consequence of their inability to address their problems, just as the emotional conclusion offers a faint glimmer of hope. It’s not an easy play to watch, but it is one that deserves to be seen, leaving us as it does with a feeling of responsibility for the world we live in and the people we share it with.

Can’t see the map on iPhone? Try turning your phone to landscape and that should sort it. I don’t know why but I’m working on it… 😉

Review: Annie at the Orchard Theatre

Published on January 26, 2016February 7, 2016 by LizLeave a comment

We all need a little ray of sunshine from time to time, particularly on a dreary winter Monday. And they don’t come much sunnier than Annie, the orphan who refuses to look anywhere but the bright side, no matter how rubbish her life gets.

Annie’s a classic, a musical we all know at least bits of; there can’t be too many people who haven’t sung along to Tomorrow at some point in their lives (come on, be honest). But there’s a lot more to this story than just a relentlessly perky redhead and a few catchy tunes, which is why director Nikolai Foster originally chose to revive the show back in 2011. It’s set during a particularly turbulent time in U.S. history, when many people – including children – were living in poverty as a result of the Great Depression, and the show doesn’t hold back when it comes to placing blame. And though the more political bits might go over the heads of younger audience members, they give the story a depth that often gets forgotten.

Annie the Musical — Photo credit: Matt Crockett

The children in this touring production are phenomenal, particularly Madeleine Haynes as Annie. It’s not just the singing and dancing, both of which are spot on; she’s also got brilliant comic timing, and is able to convey both Annie’s sunny disposition and her vulnerability, reminding us that when she’s not teaching grown men valuable life lessons, she is after all just an eleven-year-old girl who wants to be loved.

Olivier Award nominee Alex Bourne is a charming and instantly likeable Daddy Warbucks, the man who sees his world transformed by Annie’s arrival, and Lesley Joseph puts in a great comedy turn as the gin-loving, child-hating Miss Hannigan (although it’s a bit of a stretch to believe she and the much younger Jonny Fines are brother and sister, despite her energetic dance moves). And then there’s Amber the dog, whose appearances as Sandy are brief but memorable, and who almost steals the show from her human co-stars.

Designer Colin Richmond has created an adaptable set that encompasses the dingy orphanage, the dangerous city streets, and – in complete contrast – the shiny luxury of Warbucks’ home. The jigsaw puzzle design, enhanced by Ben Cracknell’s colourful lighting, provides the backdrop for the production and is a nod to Annie’s desire to piece together her own personal history.

And of course there’s the music, written by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin, a lot of which I confess I’d forgotten. Besides the toe-tapping classics like Tomorrow, Easy Street and Hard Knock Life, there are some quieter numbers like the wistful Maybe, which recurs throughout the show, and others that I don’t remember at all, like N.Y.C., a glittering, joyous celebration of the city, which contrasts with the misery of previous scenes.

All in all, Annie is a feel-good show for all ages, with a fantastic cast, catchy songs and an infectious cheerfulness that will definitely have you feeling better about tomorrow – which is, after all, only a day away.

Annie is at the Orchard Theatre until Saturday 30th January.