Miracle on 34th Street
Marina Theatre, Lowestoft
Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 6 December 2013
As an appetiser for the Christmas and pantomime season and an example of how almost anything can be turned into a musical, Franklin Productions brought a staged version of the 1947 movie to Lowestoft before visiting Norwich next week.
It’s a simple, heart-warming tale. An old gentleman working in Macy’s famous toy store claims to be the real Santa Claus. He is put in an insane asylum and a lawyer takes up his case in court to prove he is the real deal.
Sitting alongside The Snowman and It’s a Wonderful Life the film has become a perennial family favourite, originally entitled The Big Heart in Britain. The show could follow.
With singing, dancing, some jokes, fast-moving scenery changes and lashings of vivid colour the professional performers gel together, reaching out to an all-age audience.
They avoid over-sentimentalising it and although some of the individual songs do not long linger in the mind, the whole evening achieves a sense of passion for the season, a child-like belief in goodness and goodwill.
An enjoyable family present night out.
Filed under: Reviews
Educating Rita (2)
Marina Theatre, Lowestoft
Review commissioned by Eastern Daily Press, November 2013, not published by them
Willy Russell has written successful dramas capturing life’s bitter-sweet shades – Shirley Valentine, Blood Brothers and Educating Rita.
This two-hander about a young hairdresser (Jennifer Daley) who crashes into the study of the professor (Brian Capron) for Open University tutorials follows the academic year. Her street-wise, working-class Scouser, hard life exterior is pushed aside by a thirst for knowledge and betterment that he first finds appealing in a faintly patronising way.
He is a middle-aged, world-weary, seen-it-all, read-it-all superior academic with a severe alcohol problem. Rita gradually gets under his skin and into his heart. He becomes besotted with her; she doesn’t realise.
His tragedy is that she outgrows her need for his teaching and moves on, stronger, more fulfilled. It’s unlikely he’ll escape his demons in Australia but he has learned truths about himself from her.
They handled pace and timing perfectly, peeling away the layers as she gains self confidence and understanding, while he is bewildered by his own life’s attitudes. A joy to see professional drama on the Marina stage.
Filed under: Reviews
Rope
Rope by Stuff of Dreams Theatre Company
Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft
Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 2 November 2013
Growing in stature, Stuff of Dreams have embraced another challenge for their latest tour with the 1929 Patrick Hamilton play, Rope, adapted by Hitchcock for his film of the same name.
On the surface a classic thriller with a very dark story, it’s also a psychological drama exploring the mind of a killer (Tom Moran) who is both disturbed/unstable and compelling/charming aided by a weaker sidekick (Eliot Ruocco-Trenouth).
Two young men strangle a friend for little more motive than that they could, the ‘perfect crime.’ His body lies in a chest that serves as a table from which guests including the deceased’s father eat a meal.
One guest (Elliott Hughes) is suspicious, detective-like and probes away at the mystery of the chest until he breaks the criminals and the Law is imminent. It is a satisfying conclusion for a pair of wasteful, unlovely youths.
Cordelia Spence directs her young cast superbly, achieving a fine balance between well-drawn caricatures in a mannered piece of its era and a tale to grip a contemporary audience.
Filed under: Reviews
Calendar Girls
Lowestoft Players, at The Bethel
Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 25 September and Lowestoft Journal 4 October 2013
The well-known story from the film about the real Yorkshire Women’s Institute branch who made a calendar to raise funds for the cancer unit of Skipton hospital, is wonderfully, poignantly told by the Lowestoft Players.
Exploiting the intimacy of their own theatre, director Stephen Wilson skilfully puts his lively and very funny women through the well-written script and brings the village community atmosphere truly alive.
When the gentle John (Andrew Liddon) dies and the tiny WI branch embraces the risks of posing discretely and tastefully nude for their calendar, we see friendships exposed, often with hurtful truths as well as jovial banter.
Judi Mars, Jill Emmerson, Lorna Tucker, Jean Kinkaid, Julia Rymer and Toni Penson are the magnificent, glorious bunch and their posing for the photos is utterly hilarious. Suzie Kingston as the branch chairperson masks a vulnerability behind her efficient exterior.
The smaller characters played by Gerald Wilson, Emily Simpson, Anne Chambers, Craig Loxston and Daniel Hughes contribute to the heart-warming, life-affirming night out that excites laughter and a lump in the throat. Not to be missed!
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An Inspector Calls
Open Space Theatre at the Fisher Theatre, Bungay
Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 16 September 2013
JB Priestley’s masterfully crafted tale of lies, self-delusion and guilt is touring our region by the respected Open Space group.
It’s a dance round suspicions and characters with things to hide, lives turned upside down, reputations destroyed and generational perspectives. Director David Green cleverly balances moods, tensions and undercurrents.
Peter Sowerbutts plays the pompous head of the family with his business under threat; Yves Green his equally insufferable wife. Cathy Gill is their daughter, a young woman with a conscience, engaged to an unlikeable, shifty younger version of her father, played by Darren France.
Warwick Manning portrays the hapless, ne’er-do-well younger son and Tim Hall presents the mysterious Inspector who mercilessly peels away their outer coats of self-satisfaction. They are a formidable ensemble.
Themes of money, big business, exploitation, prosperity, hypocrisy and responsibility for others are universal and as relevant today as the 1940s when it was written. The political and moralising messages are not overdone.
It’s a stimulating evening for all ages, including young people who study the text for GCSE.
Filed under: Reviews
Raymond Froggatt
Raymond Froggatt at Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich
Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 7 September 2013
Froggie welcomed back by adoring fans
Feeling like a party crasher, I arrived at the Maddermarket with dozens of avid ‘Froggies’.
These are his followers who take ‘fanatic’ to extremes, following him around Britain for gigs. He is on first name terms with half his audience, almost embracing them in mutual admiration if not sheer love.
This review is as much about the phenomenon as his concert. Froggart is a singer-songwriter who’s been part of the music scene for decades. He reprised many hits he wrote for stars such as Cliff Richard, Dave Clark Five, Gladys Knight and Daniel O’Donnell.
Other songs from his extensive and original catalogue ranged from extended ballads to upbeat clap-alongs. His unique voice, humour and emotion were complimented by his relaxed, polished, mature band.
His themes encompass life’s ups and downs, love, time, success, teaching children and above all, growing old. Froggatt is a consummate performer playing the nostalgia cards, a tribute band to himself, but speaking to today on how we who are older have survived.
Even cramped in the gallery on the last available seat, I was converted. Can’t wait for his return.
Filed under: Reviews
The Vicar of Dibley
The Vicar of Dibley
Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft
Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 3 September 2013
No, no, no, yes!, TV’s Dibley works on stage
It’s a challenge to put the bunch of well-loved, well-known characters who people the TV village of Dibley on the stage with inevitable comparisons with the originals.
Director John Hales excels in a masterful showcase of comic madnesses personified by deliciously loopy Alice Tinker (Sharn McDonald), irascible David Horton (Ian Hart), gently eccentric Hugo (Will Isgrove), stuttering sex-obsessed Jim Trott (Bob Vivian), strangely dark Frank Pickle (Roger Lee), earthy farmer Owen Hewitt (Nick Murray-Brown) and culinary experimenter Letty Cropley (Marion Small).
The Vicar, Geraldine Granger, is played by Agnes Lillis who captures the essence of Dawn French’s version but brings a self-knowing amusement that makes the part all her own.
Laughs come thick and fast from the familiar clever script and from good comic timing. Letty’s demise is a contrasting, poignant moment.
This motley but talented crew are ably supported by Ivan Whomes and Abi Watson in minor roles and a group of wonderful villagers. Scene changing is a work of art in its own right.
This show will deservedly be remembered as a Seagull Rep classic.
Filed under: Reviews
Finding Joy
Vamos Theatre, at the Maddermarket, Norwich
Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 15 July 2013
A timely tale – Finding Joy – of an old lady, daughter and grandson was turned into an original, moving piece of theatre that ‘looked beyond the dementia to the person’.
Directed by Rachael Savage, four superb actors in masks by Russell Dean played eight slightly exaggerated stereotypical but absorbing and believable characters.
We laughed at their actions, cried at the sadness of the hospital ward and gulped as we realised the truths they’d observed and portrayed about aging and caring.
There was age-confusion and generational differences. She was not as daft as people thought she was, never parted from her handbag but used toothpaste as hand cream.
The youth gently putting his grandmother to bed was touching; the mother’s irritation at them both was understandable and fragments of flashback to long-lost wartime days and later romance were juxtaposed with contemporary youth culture.
All that, and not a word said, yet it spoke volumes.
Full mask theatre is an acquired taste. It’s a shame more theatre lovers, students of drama and mime didn’t try it. But they’ll be back next year. Make a note.
Filed under: Reviews
Tubular Bells For Two
Norwich Playhouse
Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 8 July 2013
To every generation, there is given a classic album which becomes iconic, a voice for its age. And in 1973 there was Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells.
A pair of highly talented Australian musicians, Aidan Roberts and Daniel Holdsworth, recreate the 30 musical elements that Oldfield originally recorded one at a time and overdubbed.
Remastered, developed and used in films and the Olympic ceremony last year, this multi-layered, polyphonic masterpiece more than stands the test of time.
With the benefits of state-of-the-art keyboards and surrounded by carefully placed instruments, the nimble, barefoot players leaped around a stage choreography picking up one for a sequence, then another, singing, editing as they went.
The acoustic, bass, electric, Spanish and fuzz guitars were there, with multi-timbral synthesiser, Lowry organs, flageolet, glockenspiel, honky tonk piano, mandolin, percussion, timpani, kazoos, vocals and massive tubular bells.
They even added the Nasal Choir and Master of Ceremonies vocals supplied originally by Viv Stanshall.
Reluctant to be described as an Oldfield tribute band, they nonetheless played homage to a great musician’s clever variations on a theme.
Filed under: Reviews
100 Acts of Minor Dissent
Mark Thomas at the Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft
Review published in Eastern Daily Press, 15 June 2013
Political activist and comedian Mark Thomas’ one man stand-up show, 100 Acts of Minor Dissent is touring before the Edinburgh Festival.
It’s timely, sharp, keenly observed and sends the thrill of the possible down the spines of people becoming numbed by the way life is.
He makes his dissent sound reasonable. The little acts of rebellion against authority are frequently subversive, anarchic, mainly legal and invariably cleverly funny.
He labels himself ‘normal’, married with children and 50 years old. His self-imposed task is 100 actions to highlight stupidities, loss of individualism and corporatism in a year.
His targets are tax-light companies like Amazon, shops like Harrods and Selfridges, misleading brands, bankers, pornography and politicians.
Rapid-fire one-liners are followed by a tale about arms dealers and being arrested that calls into question the law and what is ‘acceptable’.
He shares ‘policies’ that towns have come up with as he travels around Britain, all hilarious, some a tad self-righteous.
People can join his fightback against loss of freedom of choice, or they can just admire his entertaining skills.
Filed under: Reviews