Tag: revival

REVIEW: Pippin

Published on by sophieelizabethmorrisonLeave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.

“Whimsical, immersive, bohemian. This highly talented cast, team of creatives and crew excellently capture the mystical world of Hirson and Schwartz’s Pippin. “

Hirson and Schwartz’s Pippin follows a young prince in search of passion and adventure in his life. To prove that he is a valuable player in his father’s jumbled chess set (King Charles), he goes to war. However, when the Leading Player convinces him to strike back against tyranny, Pippin kills his father and takes over the throne. He soon realises being a great ruler is not as easy as he had thought, so continues his quest where he meets widow Catherine and her son Theo along the way. Pippin must make a difficult choice of whether to settle down or to keep making magic with the symphony of players who promised him success in finding a purpose. 

Amanda Nor’s revival magically captured the world of the players through a mystical lens, immediately immersing audience members with the selection of Pippin from amongst the spectator seating, alluding to the message that he is one of us from the start and allowing further empathy towards his character. The entire piece was well directed from the get-go, with not a creative choice out of place, allowing each member of the cast to shine with their individual talents.

We are left in the capable hands of Emily Friberg (Leading Player), who effortlessly shone with her powerhouse voice and captivating storytelling and expression. Emily demonstrated the puppeteer role of the Leading Player, manipulating Pippin throughout the piece and showing an impressive range of emotion and musicality, a triple threat indeed. Our protagonist, Lewis Edgar as Pippin, demonstrated his incredible tenor voice and huge range of acting skills as he unpicks Pippin’s character as if living the role. Lewis continued to portray a truth and humbleness to the character, married with a powerful belt in songs reflecting Pippin’s struggle and triumph. Mia Quimpo as the wonderful Catherine also elegantly showed her talents in her beautiful, powerful voice and inviting narration, with great comedic timing as she breaks the narrative and releases new life into the performance much to the Leading Player’s chagrin. 

Clare Brice (Berthe) had a warm, wonderful stage presence with brilliant comedic elements, fluid and flexible dancing with noticeable musicality and offered a safe space for audience interaction during her big number. Oliver Wood (Charles) gave an impressive offering of skill during a patter song with his great diction and comedy skills whilst also showing vulnerability in his final moments after his tyrannical reign. Helena Caldas (Fastrada) had such wonderful technique in her dancing and beautiful singing voice as she exudes a charming yet commanding role using the band to her advantage to have Charles (and the audience) in the palm of her hand. 

Daniel North (Louis) gave a wonderful range of character and fluidity in movements. I wish I had more opportunities to hear him sing since I heard some powerful notes towards the finale, such a strong voice. Similarly with Imogen Amos and George Kipa, however the two showcase their individualism with Imogen’s excellent Dance Captain abilities with Fosse influences and George’s great strength and dance technique with captivating facial expressions. 

Musical choices were excellently carried out by Harry Style and Manuel Gageiro alongside Martin T. Hart as Magic Consultant to really sell the travelling magic show. Set and costume by Hannah Danson also added to the whimsical aesthetic with contemporary influences and astrological ones – so much detail! Simon Jackson’s lighting design further personified the Leading Player’s actions in particular.

Overall this revival demonstrated how our great purpose in life is just to love and allow yourself to be loved through a wonderfully talented team of cast, creatives and crew.

REVIEW: Krapp’s Last Tape

Published on by Ke MengLeave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.

“Authentically Beckettian” 

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Landmark’s Krapp’s Last Tape feels like an act of time travel. Featuring Stephen Rea as Krapp under the direction of Vicky Featherstone, former artistic director of the Court, their reunion is authentically Beckettian in every sense. It is imbued with endurance, pain, fear, and ruthless self-criticism while never losing Beckett’s signature dark humour through his mastery of language. Notably, Krapp’s Last Tape is one of the few plays Beckett conceived and wrote directly in English after the war, carrying the play’s crisp, ironic tension throughout.

The Barbican stage might seem almost too vast for this production with the expanse of empty space threatening the play’s immensity. However, once Rea steps onto the stage, carrying his boxes of tapes and the reel-to-reel recorder, such very vastness all of a sudden makes great sense. Unlit and uninhabited, this forgotten, discarded void even devours the banana peel into endless blackness, let alone Krapp’s age, time, memory, and feelings. 

It is remarkable that Rea recorded these earlier tapes twelve years ago without any certainty of playing Krapp in the future. What it matters, Rea said, is to mark the distinctive differences between the vocal qualities and textures, marking the passing of time and making Krapp all the more tangible. While realism is seldom the word used to describe Beckett’s work, in this production, absurdity and realism uncannily merge together. While the ridiculously overlong drawer certainly conveys its absurd nature, Krapp’s banana-eating, though originally a tribute to slapstick comedy, feels strangely sentimental and real through Rea’s struggling, weary physicality – Krapp’s getting old.  

Paul Keogan’s lighting captures and enhances such old man’s existential crisis together with Jamie Vartan’s minimalist design. While the grand barbican theatre is shrouded in darkness (except for the bit distracting, but definitely necessary fire exit sign), the sheer light in this space we have is the spotlight illuminating Rea to the desk, as if caught in a void of his own mind, and a faint backlighting through the doorway. 

Sometimes, the stage is empty, with Krapp offstage making bizarrely loud noises (sound designed by Kevin Gleeson) behind that doorway. Other times, the stage feels even much emptier with Krapp onstage, sitting at the table and busy listening his birthday tapes, including the most famous “Farewell to love” tape – a too weighty love memory for the current Krapp to carry. According to director Featherstone, it is extremely romantic, while Rea’s rendition also adds a layer of fatigued, weary relief. Krapp also records a new one, which might be the funniest moment in the play. But the devouring emptiness is always there, lingering and hanging. 

Minimal. Silent. Absolute darkness, with just the faintest illusion of existential liveliness. This Landmark’s production renders Beckett’s theatrical asceticism to its fullest through expanded silence and an unyieldingly emptied space, where Krapp’s mutterings and sluggish gestures appear almost like vignettes from a dream, dissolving into the bustling Barbican crowds after the curtain calls.

REVIEW: Calamity Jane

Published on by Megan FourieLeave a comment

Rating: 5 out of 5.

A joyous classic that is a must-see for any true musical fans.

Calamity Jane is a musical based on a real woman who was among other things a nurse, stagecoach driver, and gunslinger. She earned her name because she is credited with getting herself and those around her tangled up in many problems. However, she somehow always ends up working things out, never quite getting the credit she deserves for her clumsy genius. Calamity is constantly being overlooked or dismissed until her makeover from Chicago lady Katie Brown allows her femininity to shine through to the outside. Songs such as Deadwood Stage, and Just Blew in From the Windy City were made famous by Doris Day in the 1953 film version. As a fan of the iconic movie musical for years, I was not going into the production blind – I had high expectations of Carrie Hope Fletcher who I have always wanted to see on stage.

The red and gold of the Festival Theatre surroundings perfectly matched the colour scheme used to promote the production. The audience is welcomed by a lone banjo, spotlighted as a reminder that the musicians are front and centre in this production. It was the only musical I have experienced that encouraged audience participation and the well-loved songs were regularly echoed by audience members during the performance. It was a show full of stomping and clapping, leaping onto chairs sort of choreography that was guaranteed to brighten your spirits. The ending felt like an extra unexpected treat as the actors broke out into a hoedown complete with steps akin to line dancing.
 
The costumes are instantly recognisable with no odd surprises thrown in. After all, Calamity’s look is brought up a lot in contrast to the other women around her. Far from trying to be fashionable, she nevertheless stands out when she is not being mistaken for a man. The costumes and set were mostly unchanging, but that didn’t stop the innovative use of props that provided the perfect backdrop to each scene. There was a lot achieved by lighting cues, sound effects, and umbrellas.
 
The production skilfully integrated actor-musicians which seemed perfectly fitting for the stage. Everyone managed to give detailed performances, almost being onstage the whole time and whilst carrying an instrument! The only time when the instrument felt a bit forced or out of place was during the boyband stool rendition of Higher Than A Hawk. The songs are overall short and cheerful, but Carrie Hope Fletcher grasped her moment to shine during Secret Love and got me to shed a tear at her beautiful and powerful voice. She completely deserves to walk in Doris Day’s brown boots. Vinny Coyle shared great chemistry with Fletcher as Calamity’s perfect match, Bill Hickock. I could go on about everyone, but Samuel Holmes deserves a special mention for every little gesture that made Francis Fryer impossible to look away from.
 
Calamity Jane contains the moral of making the best of situations. Maintaining inclusivity to the underdogs and giving everyone a second chance- a sentiment that holds value today. 

REVIEW: The Maids

Published on by Lucy HolzLeave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.

True-crime meets farcical fancy  

Tucked away in the West End, Jermyn Street is an intimate 70-seat studio theatre,  perfect for staging daring and exciting pieces of work. This fresh take on the  scandalous 1947 play by Jean Genet was translated into English by Martin Crimp and  debuted in 1999. Revived in co-production with Reading Rep by director Annie  Kershaw, The Maids is an exploration of class warfare with a fanciful twist. Annie Kershaw is amongst a new generation of directors and has come through Jermyn Street Theatre’s Carne Deputy Director Scheme in addition to winning the The Young Vic’s Genesis Future Directors Award – definitely one to watch and that I’ll be looking out for in future programmes.

Loosely based on a 1933 case of two maids brutally murdering their violent mistress  and her daughter, The Maids follows an evening in the life of two live-in servants,  Solange and Claire. These sisters are played beautifully by Anna Popplewell and  Charlie Oscar, capturing the souls of working class characters never given the chance  to live life outside the walls of the aristocratic apartment where they serve.  

Beginning with a fantasy, the sisters act out their visceral dreams to be both be and  murder their cruel mistress. Oscar stuns with her powerful presence as Claire,  impressively transforming from the Mistress back into a bedraggled servant. We see  Claire’s internal struggles unfolding before us, she is brave enough to secure secret  information from the household that will send the Master to jail, but becomes easily  and instantly overwhelmed by the hopelessness of her situation.  

Carla Harrison-Hodge injects some much-needed humour into the piece, stealing the  show with her excellent portrayal of the manipulative Mistress. Dipping into  perfectly timed farce, Harrison-Hodge is both charming and sickening, the ideal third  player in this fantasy scene.  

Stagecraft is sublime with lighting by Catja Hamilton illuminating some fabulous  jump scares and subtle score by Joe Dines creating an ominous atmosphere. The  padded walls of Cat Fuller’s stark white dressing room set evoke the feel of a psych  ward cell, perhaps foreshadowing the future of our murderous maids and certainly  representing how trapped they feel in the present.  

Running at 90-minutes straight through, this play feels like it’s over before it’s begun.  Kershaw has directed the two and three-hander scenes at a perfect pace, keeping us  totally enthralled for the first 3/4’s of the play. However, the inclusion of some  lengthy monologues that stray into the realms of heightened magical realism bring  the pacing to a screeching halt, giving the play a disappointingly anti-climactic finale.  Despite this, the production is mesmerisingly slick, with an onstage kitchen timer  keeping everyone on edge as the clock ticks away. A thrilling revival with a stellar cast, Kershaw has directed a truly exciting production.

REVIEW: A False Servant

Published on by Natalie GoringLeave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.

A gloriously funny romp; witty, quick paced with sexual tension galore. Lizzy Watts is a sensation.

Firstly can I say what a gorgeous space Orange Tree Theatre is, the in the round space in lovely Richmond is the perfect setting for this translated revival.

The set design is unobtrusively simple, the floor patterned with an intricate maze (perhaps symbolising the complicated plot) and an incredible ceiling piece. There’s also in the corner a striking sculpture which unfortunately isn’t used/acknowledged and seems almost irrelevant to the piece, I’d be interested to understand its inspiration as I was distracted by its unexplored presence. What this simple design allows is the actors to use the whole space uninhibited, which they do.

Crimps’ translation of the comedia dell arte script is skilfully done, bringing a modernity and clarity to a ‘Twelfth Nightesque’ story which could easily become convoluted. The handling of infusing popular language without it feeling obtuse is refreshing.

The story itself leans heavily on gender play and deception with all the fun and frolics which can be derided from this. The Chevalier played by the mesmerising Lizzy Watts is a young lady who, disguised as a man, has befriended the cad, Leilio (Julian Moore-Cook), in order to scupper his plans to marry her.

Watts is a powerhouse, from the subtlety of her physicality as she shifts between gender norms to the biting passion of the love scenes it is almost impossible to take your eyes off her. The remaining cast are strong throughout each managing the wordy text and complicated dynamics.

Where the cast sometimes struggle are in the many, many, many asides to the audience, often the throwaways are buried in the text and the impact of letting the audience in on the secret is lost. The opening scene could also benefit from the listening, spontaneity and connection shown throughout the rest of the show, in comparison the start reads as slightly over egged exposition.

One of the stand out scenes is a carefully choreographed manipulation by Trivelin (Will Brown) – the movement by Christin Fulcher is slick and perfectly compliments and feeds into the tension and comedy of the piece.

Paul Miller’s direction allows the characters and writing to thrive though intense connection and build. I do wish there’d been even more creative use of the space – being braver in intimate moments to not use the diagonal blocking which becomes a little repetitive. There is a brief shock to this staging when Trivelin (Watts) joins the audience to hide, which was refreshing and left me wanting more.

Overall the production is slick, gorgeously acted, laugh out loud funny and this reviewer can think of a lot worse ways to spend an evening.