Theatre

Royal Vauxhall

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06/08/16

Underbelly, Med Quad, Edinburgh

Did you hear the one about Freddie Mercury, Kenny Everett and Princess Diana? The one where the two closet gay stars dressed the unhappy Princess in drag and took her out for the night to the infamous Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London? No, me neither. And, if it sounds like the unlikeliest story you’ve ever heard, then just take a moment to consider that it actually happened. And now it’s a musical. Not only that, but it might just be the best thing we’ve seen at The Edinburgh Fringe so far this year.

Desmond O‘Connor (not that Des O’ Connor!) has written a collection of witty and irreverent songs for the piece and this production is blessed with three stellar performances from a trio of gifted actors. As Everett, Matthew Jones (of Fringe stalwarts Frisky and Mannish) gets the voice and mannerisms just right. Tom Giles’ Freddie is also very accomplished, while Sarah Louise Young manages to portray Diana, Maggie Thatcher and (at one point) an Irish priest with aplomb. The events portrayed here are fast, funny and occasionally extremely rude (you’ll find it very hard to unsee Maggie Thatcher with a strap-on penis doing something very rude to Everett whilst quoting his infamous ‘Let’s bomb Russia’ remark).

I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really expected to rate this. The premise seemed too off-the-wall for comfort, too far-fetched by half. Discovering that it has some basis in fact was a revelation and the realisation that I was enjoying every minute of the show was the icing on the cake. The songs range from full on rock bombast to poignant ballads. You’ll be howling with laughter one moment and on the verge of tears, the next. There’s even an Everett dream sequence that features a delightful appearance by a puppet David Bowie.

Those who like their musicals quirky and irreverent should investigate this at their earliest opportunity. It’s a cracker.

4.8 stars

Philip Caveney

The Raunch

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06/08/16

Circus Hub, Underbelly, Edinburgh

The clue is in the name. The Raunch is an unabashed celebration of all things physical – an uneasy mixture of old-fashioned circus skills, burlesque dancing and hapless clowning. Housed in the gorgeous circus hub on Edinburgh’s Meadows and lavishly costumed and presented, there’s evidently been a lot of time and money spent getting this ready for the public. I have to say that it’s a show that isn’t really aimed at people like us (for us, a strong narrative thread is always key) but there’s no doubting the skill and talent of the performers, who give it their all.

The event is tricked out in a cartoonish cowboy style – there are lots of Stetsons, pistols and whips on display, all accompanied by energetic hoe-downs to pounding western music. I find myself alternately thrilled by the balancing and fire-eating elements and vaguely embarrassed by all the frantic tassel-twirling and twerking that’s going on. Those hoping for some kind of cogent storyline will inevitably be disappointed. There is a story thread (a villainous woman attempting to pass off urine as gold dust) but it’s basically hokum, an excuse to bring out the next act. You want to see tap dancing knife throwers? You got it! And there’s a fabulous trapeze act in there – but was it really necessary to have a laser light shooting out of her bum?

The good thing about a fast paced show like this is that if you aren’t really enjoying a particular element it’ll soon be gone and replaced by something completely different – and it’s evident that the crowd packed into tonight’s performance are loving every minute, whooping and applauding fit to raise the roof. So, if the this kind of thing that floats your boat – and I’m willing to bet that there are plenty of festival goers who enjoy a circus – then head down to The Meadows and grab a seat.

3.8 stars

Philip Caveney

Gratiano

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04/08/16

Spotlites, Edinburgh

There’s a fascinating idea behind Gratiano.

Take one of the minor players from The Merchant of Venice, (the comedy sidekick who no-one quite remembers), transport him forward in time to 1940s Italy during the rise of Mussolini, and have him re-examine his role in the events of one of Shakespeare’s most enduring plays. A monologue, written and performed by Ross Ericson, this opening night show is somewhat marred by the fact that only a few people have actually turned out to see it – but it’s early days at the Fringe and there’s plenty of time for this to find the right audience. The play is beautifully scripted and gamely performed – and it offers views about fascism and racism that seem powerfully prescient given what’s happening in the world right now.

Ericson’s tale imagines the consequences of the original play’s events: something terrible has happened to Gratiano’s old friend, Bassanio. He’s been found murdered and the police are wondering if his former best friend might have been involved. Gratiano, of course, is quick to dispel such notions. After all, he and Bassanio parted ways years ago. So where’s the motive?

Spoken in contemporary language, this is compelling stuff and some passages – particularly the observations about the concentration camps spill over from prose into sheer poetry. Those who are looking to find a new approach to a time-honoured classic could do a lot worse than investigate this.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution, I’m Not Coming

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04/08/16

Summerhall, Edinburgh

Julia Croft’s ‘performance collage’ is an unconventional piece of theatre, laying bare  -quite literally – the representation of women’s bodies in contemporary popular (western) culture. Swathed in an extraordinary number of layers, Croft’s exploration evokes the shedding of skins, as she sloughs off costume after costume to reveal yet another unpalatable image of womanhood. Finally, she stands before us, naked and silent. The preposterous outfits are now heaped on her head, disguising her face, but exposing the truth: this is a female body.

It’s a serious, disturbing and thought-provoking production, but there is laughter here too: Croft is an engaging performer, interacting with the audience, prolonging eye contact and forcing us from our comfort zones. But the apparent simplicity is deceptive; our expectations are subverted here. The familiar is exposed as absurd; what we have come to accept is clearly unacceptable. The juxtaposition of The Ying Yang Twins’ The Whisper Song with Taylor Swift’s Love Story makes for a particularly discomfiting vignette, as does a mirroring of a scene from horror movie House of Wax: while Paris Hilton, clad improbably in underwear, flees a serial killer on screen, Croft, similarly dressed, crawls around the small performance space, climbing over and under the audience, bringing the horror far too close for comfort, showing how brutal the scene really is.

This is an important piece, I think, that a lot of people should see. Be one of them. You won’t regret it.

4.2 stars

Susan Singfield

HMS Pinafore

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14/07/16

I had better come clean here and admit that my knowledge of the works of Gilbert and Sullivan is scant to say the very least, extending to viewings of Mike Leigh’s Topsy Turvy (1999) and The Pirate Movie (1982), both of which I enjoyed. So the opportunity to review this visiting production at the Lowry theatre left me feeling slightly apprehensive, aware as I was that fans of the Victorian composers are a devoted crew who would instantly sense if I don’t really know what I’m talking about. To add to the potential pitfalls, Sasha Regan’s adaptation of the musical is not exactly a straightforward one. No petticoats and bonnets here. The gimmick – and I think it’s fair to call it that – is that every role is portrayed by a male performer. Yes, even Buttercup!

The setting is that of a World War II battleship and the action takes place almost entirely below decks, with rows of metal bunk beds as a backdrop. The intimation here is of the crewmen putting on an impromptu performance to keep themselves amused on a long voyage. Costume changes are achieved merely by ‘tweaking’ the sailor’s uniforms, by the actor’s body language and by the pitch of the voices. Ben Irish (Josephine) affects a startling soprano, while David McKechnie is totally convincing in the pivotal role of Buttercup. By contrast, Neil Moors as Captain Corcoran is blusteringly macho (the physical exercise routine he leads as he croons I Am The Captain of the Pinafore is a particular highlight while in the second half, a mostly acapella rendition of A Many Years Ago is actually breathtakingly lovely.

There’s no orchestra here, just a highly skilled piano player, who must qualify as the hardest working member of the cast. If not every word of every song is audible that’s more a problem of the venue’s acoustics and the fact that as far as I can see, nobody is wearing a microphone. The elderly lady sitting next to me, who introduces herself as a G & S fanatic, tells me it helps to know all the songs by heart, but she thinks the idea of an all-male cast is ‘a delightful concept.’ I tend to agree with her. Clearly, the audience loves what they hear and applauds heartily at the conclusion. Admirers of Mr Gilbert and Mr Sullivan will need to get themselves along to the Lowry pretty smartly if they wish to enjoy this as HMS Pinafore is only there until the 16th of July after which it sets sail in the direction of Salisbury.

All aboard!

4 stars

Philip Caveney

The Mighty Walzer

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05/06/16

Royal Exchange Manchester

It’s entirely unplanned but bumping into Howard Jacobson minutes before the press show of The Mighty Walzer, proves fortuitous. I can’t resist asking him how he feels right now. Excited? Elated? Nervous? He confesses that he doesn’t really know how he feels. Apart from an early read-through by the cast, this is the first time he will be seeing this adaptation of his 1999 novel, a World Premiere at the Royal Exchange. But he tells me, this isn’t really his baby, all credit must go to his collaborator Simon Bent. When I tell him I’m there to review the show, he says he hopes I’ll ‘go easy on it.’

He needn’t have worried. This is a sprightly, occasionally very funny play, set against the austere backdrop of Manchester in the 1950s and as the posters proudly proclaim, it’s ‘a riotous tale of growing up, sex and ping-pong.’ Semi-autobiographical in tone (Jacobson really was a table-tennis aficionado in his youth) it relates how the teenage Oliver Walzer (Elliot Levy) escapes the clutches of his over protective mother, Sadie (Tracey-Ann Oberman) and his market-trader father, Joel (Jonathan Tafler), by joining a local ping-pong team. It turns out that he has a natural flair for the game, one that brings him success in the local leagues and into the orbit of the widely-admired Lorna Peachly (Lily Sacofsky) with whom he embarks on a doomed romance.

If the story is whimsical, it nevertheless delivers an evening of assured entertainment. There are some very funny moments here and the device of having the adult Walzer looking back on events and commenting on them, works an absolute treat (I particularly liked a recurring motif which has him arguing with Sheeny Waxman (Joe Coen) as to whether he was actually present for some of the events in which he repeatedly appears). If there’s a slight criticism of the story, it’s that there doesn’t seem to be an awful lot of progression in there – the second half relates pretty much the same events as the first – but luckily, it’s all done with such sure-footedness, it hardly matters.

Fans of ping pong should make sure they arrive early for the show, because there’s a table set up around the back of the theatre where interested parties can actually play a few games while they’re waiting. There’s even a couple of resident experts on hand to offer tips and advice. I managed to get in a few shots myself and was summarily slaughtered.

The Mighty Walzer is at the Royal Exchange until the 30th of July. It’s well worth a visit.

4.2 stars

Philip Caveney

The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps 2016 tour - Olivia Greene as Pamela & Richard Ede as Hannay (c) Dan Tsantilis

21/06/16

Lyric Theatre, The Lowry

Poor Richard Hannay – framed for the murder of a mysterious young woman  he’s only recently met, he’s had to go on the run to a remote corner of the Scottish Highlands in order to prove his innocence. But danger lies in wait for him at every step…

Hannay is of course the great British hero of The 39 Steps. John Buchan’s classic novel was first published in 1915 and famously filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935. This touring production, originally adapted by Patrick Barlow in 2006 comes direct from the West End and it’s easy to see the qualities that have pulled in packed audiences ever since. With a cast of just four actors, this is played primarily for laughs and conducted at breakneck pace with plenty of lightning-fast costume changes and a repeated motif of effects that go slightly wrong. It’s clear too that this is much more Hitchcock’s version of the story than Buchan’s – film fans will spot plenty of references to Hitch’s best known movies thrown into the mix. (In a shadow puppet sequence depicting a chase across the hills, keep an eye out for one particularly recognisable silhouette.)

Richard Ede makes an appealing pipe-smoking, Harris tweed-wearing  hero, while his three fellow actors virtually run themselves into the ground providing a whole wealth of supporting characters for him to interact with. In the cavernous setting of the Lyric theatre, it was sometimes a struggle to make out every line of dialogue (I would have loved to see this in the more intimate setting of the studio theatre, but you can’t fault the producers for wanting to pitch this to the biggest possible audiences) and there’s no doubting the consummate professionalism on show here, nor the wit of Barlow’s script. It’s probably also true to say that when this production first aired many of the staging techniques on show would have seemed ground-breaking – now, they are part of the everyday language of contemporary theatre.

That said, this offers a fun and entertaining night out for lovers of adventure and comedy alike. It’s on untilSaturday 25th June.

4 stars

Philip Caveney

Bird

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10/06/16

Studio Theatre, Royal Exchange

While The Night Watch continues to enthral audiences in the Royal Exchange’s main theatre, down in the more intimate setting of The Studio, you’ll find Bird by Katherine Chandler, the winner of a judge’s award in the 2013 Bruntwood Prize Competition. Chandler is playwright in residence at Sherman Cymru Theatre and her play is a bleak examination of families and friendship.

Ava (Georgia Henshaw) has grown up in care, after being thrown out by her mother, Claire (Siwan Morris), mostly because she’s accused Claire’s partner of abuse. Now Ava lives in a children’s home somewhere in the backside of South Wales. Soon, she will be sixteen and sent out to fend for herself – but where is she supposed to go?

Essentially this is a series of short, punchy duologues – Ava confronting her mother, who has moved on and now has a two-year-old daughter to lavish all her attention on – Ava confiding in her best friend, the mysterious Tash (Rosie Sheehy); and there are some telling exchanges with two very different men – naïve teenager, Dan (Connor Allen), who confides that he might just be looking for something more than casual sex; and the older Lee (Guy Rhys), who is quite clearly grooming Ava, plying her with alcohol at every opportunity, in order to get her to bend to his will. Lee is always seen from Ava’s point of view – a scene where he cuts himself in order to get her to go along with him is particularly disturbing – which means that his manipulation is all the more sinister: he offers the care and attention so lacking elsewhere in her life, and his ulterior motives are opaque and shadowy.

The performances by the five strong cast are uniformly good and Henshaw is particularly adept at conveying her character’s inner conflict through her coiled, unresponsive body language. The edgy duologues are interspersed with more exuberant moments, such as the scene where Ava and Tash throw themselves around the stage, dancing in Northern Soul style. Parallels with birds constantly emerge though the writing – a caged bird occasionally let out to fly around a tiny room, the peregrine falcons nesting in the abandoned tenements nearby. They seem to represent the freedom that Ava yearns for but repeatedly fails to attain.

If there’s a criticism of this play, it’s that the signposting of issues is occasionally rather heavy-handed; it all feels a bit like we’re being hit over the head with them – and it’s clear early in the proceedings that anyone who was hoping for a happy ending is going to be disappointed. Still, it’s a hard-hitting piece that deserves your attention.  Bird is at the Studio Theatre until June 25th.

3.6 stars

Philip Caveney & Susan Singfield

Thon Man Molière

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01/06/16

Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

Thon Man Molière is Liz Lochhead’s witty, irreverent imagining of a particularly awkward period in the infamous French playwright’s life. Fêted by the King, and finally achieving recognition for his work, Molière seems determined to self-sabotage, persisting with his play, Tartuffe, despite warnings that its depiction of a corrupt clergyman might not sit well with the highly religious monarch on whose patronage he depends. And that’s not all: he compounds the precariousness of his position by falling in love with and marrying a young woman who, it appears, may very well be his daughter.

It’s a subject ripe for comedy, and Lochhead’s script fizzes with quips and drollery. It’s laugh-out-loud funny at times, not least when contemporary Scottish dialect is employed in response to seventeenth century mores. The performances are uniformly strong, with Jimmy Chisholm managing to tread the fine line between vulnerable and repulsive in his depiction of the egotistical Molière, so that we do actually care what happens to him, even when his misfortunes are richly deserved. Siobhan Redmond is fantastic too, imbuing Madeleine Béjart, Molière’s sometime lover, with a dignity and credibility beyond the ‘tart with a heart’ archetype.

The set, mostly backstage at a theatre, is all muted monochrome, with the unpainted backs of flats on view. The costumes, glorious peacock-confections in the main, stand out in contrast to this, conveying perfectly the tawdry glamour of the theatre, and how it shines against the pall of ordinary life.

If there’a a quibble, it’s with the dialogue. Most of the time, it’s superb: funny and acerbic and nicely paced. But, now and again, we are fed great lumps of exposition, clumsily forced into a conversation, most of which we just don’t need. There’s no real benefit, for example, in giving the audience a detailed plot summary of one of Molière’s plays; it’s unnecessary and just slows things down.

But all in all, this is a lovely play: a uniquely Scottish take on a slice of French comedy.

4 stars

Susan Singfield

The Night Watch

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24/05/16

Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester

Based on Sarah Waters Booker-nominated novel, Hattie Naylor’s intriguing adaptation of The Night Watch relates a series of interwoven stories, pitched against the setting of the Second World War and its aftermath. The play’s ingenious set comprises two large turning circles, the outer rim moving anti clockwise, the inner in the opposite direction. The two circles are constantly in motion and they effectively mirror the unfolding story, which, as in the novel, is told in reverse chronological order – the play’s first half is set in 1947; in the second, events skip back to 1944, to London’s ‘little blitz’, before finally arriving in the carnage of 1941. It’s a brilliant piece of staging and of course, this being the Royal Exchange, it has one final trick up its sleeve – happily, not the water feature that has been rather overused in recent productions, but a simple and effective device that it would be a crime to reveal.

The central protagonist, Kay  (Jodie McNee) is gay at a time when lesbianism is still considered an aberration. During the war years she works as an ambulance woman and afterwards finds it hard to recover her sense of purpose. Her former partner, Helen (Kelly Hotten) is now living with Julia (Lucy Briggs-Owen) herself once a girlfriend of Kay’s. Meanwhile, Duncan (Joe Jameson), who was jailed as a conscientious objector during the war, reconnects with Robert (Ben Addis), now a journalist, who is shocked to discover that his old friend is lodging with their former gaoler, retired prison officer, Mr Mundy (Christopher Ettridge). This first half throws out a lot of questions about the various characters and how their stories relate to each other, and many of those questions remain unanswered until the second half, when the pace accelerates, until we finally hurtle  into the single momentous event that kicked everything into motion.

The performances here are exemplary and there’s something quite mesmerising in the way the actors seem to float constantly around the stage on the rotating circles, allowing us to see them from every possible angle as they reveal more and more about what makes them tick. The evocations of different settings with the use of a few simple props are masterfully done, while sound designer, Dan Jones has done a great job of bringing the soundscape of the Blitz to vivid life.

This is an assured and satisfying production that succeeds on many levels. Enjoy.

4 stars

Philip Caveney