The Playhouse, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 23 June 2007 Think Floyd Forty years ago this month, Pink Floyd gigged our region. Now one of their most respected tribute bands came to show their music has more than stood the test of time. No talking or explaining till the end. Straight in, back to back classics. They rocked a first half concert presentation of the legendary Wall concept, with a light show and sounds to match, when back then massive bricks separated band from audience during the show. This audience may have been surprised that there was no wall, just quality music. A children and young people chorus from Stagecoach Theatre School at the Theatre Royal acted and sang Another Brick in the Wall and others, adding a delightful local dimension. Second half saw a … Read entire article »

Eastern Angles Theatre at Archbishop Sancroft High School, Harleston Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 8 May 2008 Cuckoo Teapot Finding some previously unknown nugget of old England is always a joy. Eastern Angles applied their unique style and bring the history, the times (1880-1930) and the people truly alive. Indeed, they are part of our local cultural fabric. Tim Bell is a convincing callow youth in this story that goes beyond our region. He is a “Norkie”, one of many labourers who went to Burtion on Trent to malt at the breweries – hence the expression, “gone for a Burton”. The clash of accents and life views are both the humor and the grist of this tale. Kate Griffin’s play is somewhat convoluted, but the cast handle it well in Ivan Cutting’s fast-paced … Read entire article »

Sewell Barn Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 12 July 2008 Scapino Comedy well done on stage seems deceptively easy to pull off. In fact it requires special skills in timing, directing and performing. A rollicking script helps too. This romp from the pen of Frank Dunlop and Jim Dale from the Sixties, rewrites the old Moliere classic and gives Sewell Barn a winner to close their season. It’s a piece from the top drawer of commedia dell’Arte, the art form that is the father of circus clowning, British panto and Punch and Judy. It also has a hand in slapstick, farce and stand-up. Scapino is a scamp, a likeable rogue, adept at clever ideas, inspired cunning, deceits and tricks. He’s a forerunner of Baldrick and John Levantis captures him well, even taking … Read entire article »

Wonderful Beast at The Cut, Halesworth Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 30 June 2008 The Dead Moon Smugglers romantically risking lives hauling untaxed tea, tobacco, gin, brandy and silk. Local history on our coast. Great theatre. Where Suffolk-based Wonderful Beast are different is adding folklore, myths and legends in a powerful tale of tradition and belonging in a community. There is a couple (Sasha Mitchell and John Neville) anxious about their baby, yet needing to bring in the contraband, faced with Captain of the Preventivemen (Matt Prendergast) billeted in their home, determined to catch smugglers. Annie Firbank plays an old harridan, or wise chorus, commenting on the action and stiffening the backbones of the locals, with the crunch of feet on shingle in her voice and moon shadows across marshes in her eyes. Directed by … Read entire article »

Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 21 June 2008 Top Girls Caryl Churchill’s feminist postmodern classic drama about Eighties Britain is bravely given an airing at the Maddermarket. It asks if it is possible for women to combine a successful career with family life, among other things. But don’t let that put you off. The production by Michelle Montague is intriguing, with many stylistic features enhanced such as overlapping dialogue and multi-layering of times and peoples. The play is famous for its dreamlike opening scene in which Marlene (Jenny Dewsbury), highflying at the Top Girls employment agency, dines with famous women from history and fiction: Pope Joan, Dull Gret from a Brueghel painting, Lady Nijo, a Japanese mistress of an emperor, and Patient Griselda from The Canterbury Tales! It explores issues like Marlene getting … Read entire article »

RoughCast Theatre at The Cut, Halesworth Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 26 May 2008 Alarms and Excursions You know that impotent feeling you get when the tyranny of gadgets takes over? When life’s absurdities, embarrassments and unbelievably stupid annoyances engulf you? Well, gthat’s the observational comedy running through Alarms and Excursions, a series of miniplays/sketches that sent local group RoughCast into new comedic territory. Old friends round for a meal – the new-fangled bottle opener fails, the smoke alarm has a life of its own and a drawer overflows with instructions of every appliance they’ve owned. Order descends into anarchy with the speed of farce. Three people listen to a fatuous, pompous speech trying to balance files, diaries and wine glasses, while trying to clap and raise a toast simultaneously. A pair fail to comunicate … Read entire article »

Seagull Theatre Club at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 5 September 2008 Two Pinter Plays It’s good to see the Seagull enjoy a pair of less famous Pinter plays. Good to experience his comedy of menace. Matthew Elliott makes his directorial debut with a young cast who meet the Pinter awkwardness, repetition and exposure of fractured relationships with maturity. In Party Time, upper-class people cocktail away while an unspecified revolution strangles the streets around. Subtly pilitical, it flows between the unspoken horror of a thriller and soime hilarious writing. Richard Boakes is directed to let a sinister edge flow from within. Matthew Thomas is one of their number they have done away with – a ghost with the chill of the grave about him. It’s an appetiser for the main course … Read entire article »

Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 23 August 2008 Wait Until Dark All the best suspense thrillers play out in the darkness both of the area around you and in your mind. This masterfully crafted thriller is an electrifying example. Centred round a mysterious doll (which is hidimg some heroin) it features a sinister conman, two ex-convicts, a rather naive man and his blind wife. Murders and a deadly cat-and-mouse game build to a terrific climax. That is the plot and it demands strong acting and powerful direction. The Maddermarket do just that; the brilliantly intriguing plot and realistic characters develop with compelling tension. Richard Mann sustains Kray-like menace and his two side-kicks, Russell Turner and Max Rudd, play it with just the right amount of conman plausibility. Jo Sessions as the blind woman is … Read entire article »

Reduced Shakespeare Company at The Playhouse, Norwich Review published 20 October 2008 The Reduced Bible The Reduced Shakespeare Company built a formidable reputation paraphrasing all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays into comic lunacy lasting 90 minutes. They are at it again. This time taking the entire Bible! Three American guys keep the gags coming, a never-ending surreal angle on the key stories, all well rehearsed but riven through with adlibs and current affairs. The basic comic technique is one idiot and two straight men. One moment they are reminiscent of a sixth form sketch, the next they are making a serious lecture. It is powerfully funny. The selection of stories to send up is as varied as the treatment each receives. Eve is a puppet emerging from Adam’s front. Abraham is Old Abe Lincoln. The second half is … Read entire article »