LOVE BITES – NOV 2011 (Waterloo East Theatre)

 “everything I love about the London fringe scene”

This was my first encounter with Love Bites. Thanks to Ideastap and a cheeky twitter add I found myself in my first ever possession of a press ticket; and an introduction to a new writing venture that personally ticked all the boxes for me.

Funny, poignant, brilliantly acted and full of the promise of emerging talent; Love Bites showcased some of the freshest, exuberantly enthusiastic work about love from all angles. Five short plays based at the same cocktail party provided snapshots of the lives of nine young Londoners as they manoeuvred their way through the joy, excitement, pain and loss of love in its various guises; with performances and situations we could all relate to. I don’t think there was a single character or situation that I didn’t recognise that night, in fact, wasn’t I at that cocktail party?

Love – it’s hard to avoid cliché and so many songs, films, plays, poems and books have obsessed over it that it’s difficult to find an original take on it – what I liked about Love Bites was they didn’t try to avoid these clichés. The awkward attempts to ask someone out in Down in One, attempts to escape reality when losing a loved one in both Charity Begins at Home and Sarah and Sarah, the heartbreak of a failed relationship in Everybody Happy, and the hilarious ex-boyfriend who continues to talk about his ex long after the fact in Land of Dragons, all five situations had us laughing, cringing, crying (it doesn’t take much) and remembering.

Charity Begins at Home I’m afraid to say is the play that fell slightly short of the mark for me, packing the least emotional punch; but Joshua Miles’s sweet and considerate portrayal of James provided an endearing performance that kicked the night off to a promising start. Edward Franklin’s Everybody Happy brought genuine tears to my eyes (embarrassing) as we watched Greg’s world crumble before our eyes; and spontaneous laughter burst forth at Ziella Bryar’s excruciatingly awkward Down in One, dealing with the horrors of asking someone out.  Craig Donaghy’s Sarah and Sarah was a funny and poignant piece about the pain involved when watching a loved one fade away; and whilst Elizabeth Crarer’s try-hard Sarah could have benefited, in my opinion, from being less convincingly posh, she delivered a great performance when describing her dying mother. Rounding it all off was Daniel Frankenburg’s Land of Dragons – a quirky and witty take on the spurned lover, determined not to let anyone forget about his significant influence on his ex’s life.

I find it hard to settle on a stand out performance of the night – Donal Coonan had the audience eating out of his hand during the only monologue of the night (in Land of Dragons), with exceptional comic timing and dry wit. Hannah James as the disillusioned self-dubbed ‘unsuccessful’ thirty something, Elle, in Down in One skilfully portrayed the melancholia of life in your early thirties; when all the world seems to be getting younger – or married. And Alton Letto convincingly played the broken and recently jilted Greg in Everybody Happy.  But it was Julia Goulding’s Sarah, the unshakeably loyal bookie from Bradford, who really shone on the night. Manoeuvring between comedy and pathos in a touching scene about loss, friendship, and how you might take the girl out of Bradford but you can’t take Bradford out of the girl, in Sarah and Sarah.

The evening embodied everything I love about the London fringe scene – the possibilities, the opportunities, the wealth of talent, and the diligent efforts of young emerging talent to have their voices heard and recognised. Love Bites was an evening of fresh, young, relevant and relatable new writing which had me leaving feeling excited about what I’d just seen and what I hope to see from them in the future.

Image from http://www.thelovebitesplays.com

 

Small thoughts…

On critics…

“what creative spirit wants their work to be met with silence?…what we all crave is a reaction to our work.” Michael Billington, writing for The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2011/nov/23/who-needs-critics-sondheim

 

 

 

A View from the Bridge (Arcola Tent) – “worth the numb bum?”

With rickety wooden benches overlooking a misty stage, the Arcola Tent provided a brilliantly atmospheric venue for Mountview Academy’s production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge.

 This fantastically crafted play has been a favourite of mine for a long time now, and I had until now not seen it on stage. Delicately balancing themes of illegal immigration, marital breakdown and the inappropriate affections of longshoreman Eddie Carbone for his niece; the play follows Eddie and his wife Beatrice as they welcome their Italian cousins, Marco and Rodolfo, into their home. Seeking work in America to feed their families in Italy the two illegal workers make themselves at home both on the docks and in Eddie’s apartment, leading to uncomfortable tensions and the questionable affections of Rodolfo for Catherine, Eddie’s niece. Torn between his morality and changing feelings for his now grown-up niece, Eddie finds himself becoming more and more withdrawn from his wife.  Tortured by his jealousy and unable to admit his feelings Eddie grows increasingly resentful of Catherine’s affections for Rodolfo, which leads to him soiling his name and destroying his reputation in the small community of Red Hook, Brooklyn.

 A prolonged introduction to the show, where the actors mingled on stage as the audience filtered in, got the production off to a dubious and awkward start. However, the minute the play-actual started I felt the audience become aware that they were in for a treat. The tensions in the text were heightened by a stark set suggesting a dockside pier in Brooklyn; with wooden crates rearranging themselves to bring us into Eddie and Beatrice’s apartment (credit is due to Jess Banting for this simple, yet highly effective device); and the simple costumes and 1950s music worked well to set the scene, where the unnecessary pre-show mise-en-scene failed.

 Whilst the leads, Luke Spencer (as Eddie Carbone) and Lily de-la-Haye Earl (as Beatrice), had the mammoth task of playing characters twice their age, for me they gave the standout performances on the night. And although there were elements of their portrayals which failed to ring true due to this age gap, the tension, anger and regret which characterised their on stage relationship was portrayed skilfully, as a heartbroken and defeated Beatrice clung desperately to her marriage to Spencer’s distracted and fraught Eddie. Credit is also due to Alistair Higgins who played the cheeky Italian Casanova, Rodolfo, somewhat outshining Josh Haberfield’s tepid performance as Marco.

 A slow-building first half set the scene for the dramatic dénouement in the second half. However, I felt it was the second half which sadly missed the mark, with elements of overacting jilting me out of the moment – and my discomfort on the wooden bench mirroring my unwilling winces as Eddie Carbone beat his chest and roared his name before suffering the fatal blow from Marco on the edge of his own knife.   Unfortunately for me, the dying moments of the play and Eddie Carbone left me feeling slightly disappointed.

 Yet I feel I do the production a disservice by dwelling on these weaker elements, in a show which provided a great showcase of the potential and talent both of those on stage and those behind the scenes. A largely promising piece of work from Mountview’s young actors, the production’s chilly portrayal of lust and betrayal owed much to Arthur Miller’s intensely intriguing story.

Apologies for the dodgy grainy picture below…courtesy of smart phone technology…

 

Little Pieces of Reviews (Part 1)

To kick-start my reviews, which I hope will be a predominant feature of my blog, I shall bombard you with some “brief” snapshots of my reactions to some of the plays that have stuck in my mind over the last little while…

 PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD (Old Vic) – “it’s like watching a play in 3D”

Complete with an all-singing, all-dancing Irish cottage, the Old Vic’s latest offering had us giggling in the aisles, caught up in the girlish excitement of J M Synge’s brilliant comic piece, The Playboy of the Western World.

Mistaken identity, mischievous strangers, tall tales, a bucket load of Irish charm and a pretty impressive rotating cottage reminded me of the joy of a good story, and a good spectacle. Whilst at first the thick accents (being nirish myself, I didn’t reckon on that being a problem) had me straining to grasp a few of the finer points, I enjoyed the ridiculousness of this charming farce very much. It reminded me that theatre doesn’t always have to be heavy-handed, politically challenging and thought provoking – sometimes it’s just good fun.

 The Faith Machine (Royal Court) – “there will be two intervals in this production”

With a stand out performance from Hayley Atwell as the (at times) anally ethical Sophie, the Faith Machine dealt with issues ranging from corrupt pharmaceutical practices, Christian prejudice against homosexuality and the cancerous effect Capitalism can have on an innocent young idealist to rocky relationships, old age and incontinence.

It dealt with a lot of issues, yet for a play so long it demanded two intervals I found myself surprisingly hooked throughout. Carried along by the weighty arguments I felt myself batting for both teams (metaphorically speaking) on many occasions as the characters battled out their moral opinions before us. And whilst at times I found some of the feigned accents by the cast slightly annoying (a pet peeve of mine, and of little critical importance), I enjoyed riding with Sophie on her high horse in this politically beguiling play by Alexi Kaye Campbell.

 Chicken Soup with Barley (Royal Court) – “You’ll have to wait so we can sneak you in between scenes Miss”

It’s never a good start to turn up late to a show, especially when one wishes to be taken seriously, nevertheless, let that be a lesson to me. Whilst it took me a minute to adjust, and I was a tad slower on the uptake than usual– I found myself swiftly swept up by the communist dream championed by Sarah Kahn (played by Samantha Spiro) and her family.

A brilliantly moving play owing much not only to Arnold Wesker’s flawless writing, but to the outstanding cast, and in particular, Danny Webb, as Sarah’s stubbornly workshy husband, who disintegrates before our eyes, worn down by life and his wife’s demanding ideals.

I have to agree wholeheartedly with Michael Billington’s (Guardian theatre critic) views that this moving production encourages a new generation to discover the much neglected works of Wesker – so politically shaken up was I that I marched myself straight to the Royal Court book shop to bag myself a copy of this brilliantly written theatrical treat (and then marched myself right back out again to find it on Amazon’s ‘used and new’ lists…)

 Thus ends part 1, stay tuned for more inexperienced ramblings in ‘Little Pieces of Reviews (Part 2)’…its nail biting stuff

Pics from tntmagazine.com and royalcourttheatre.com

The first aspiring breaths of a theatre company…

In May 2010, with bucket loads of thanks to the Artistic Director (Sarah Lewis) at Queens Park Arts Centre in Aylesbury, Under the Floorboards Theatre Company took its first tentative steps.

Polly Stenham’s That Face was the play of choice. A darkly humorous text dealing with the effects of dysfunctional parenting; Polly Stenham’s writing grabbed me from the get go. Deliciously complicated characters set amongst the rubble of a badly broken family dynamic, complete with fantastically witty dialogue couldn’t help but fascinate me.

With a minimalist set (due to a minimalist budget) of a bed, white flats and an assorted mess of pills, drawings and books, That Face took to the Limelight Theatre stage at Queens Park Arts Centre.

Six great local actors crept out of the woodwork to help me along the way – Robert Price, Teresa Selfe, Isabel Patterson, Steve Davies and sisters Anastasia and Xandria Levy. The partnership between Rob and Teresa (who played Henry and Martha) on stage still gives me tingles; portraying a frighteningly close mother and son relationship, their characters were so disturbingly interdependent and intertwined that it left a queasily unsettling feeling in your stomach. Great support from young actress Isabel Patterson as Mia, the confused teenage rebel, and Steve Davies as the absent father, Hugh, completed this tragic on stage family; with the darkly indulgent Izzy, played by Anastasia Levy adding elements of both horror and humour when cruelly victimizing young Alice (played by her sister Xandria).

Whilst I had directed a couple of shows with the University of Aberdeen drama society (Translations by Brian Friel in 2006, and Some Girls by Neil LaBute in 2008), this was the first time I had created a play in my own right, standing on my own two feet. The effusive feeling of achievement when the cast took their final bow cemented in my mind that directing was what I wanted to spend my life doing, in whatever capacity I could.

Proof by David Auburn came next, and with it two female actresses who blew me away in their auditions, Lyvia Nabarro and Lauren Garnham. They both captured the awkwardness of a strained sisterly relationship perfectly, playing Cathering and Claire respectively. The one heartbroken, sarcastic and introspective, the other exhuberant, imposing and open. Support from Jamie Hughes, as the over-eager Hal, and Steve Davies as the loving father and failing genius, Robert, gave me one of the strongest casts I have had the privelege to work with to date. The text not only gave the actors involved emotionally well-rounded characters to sink their teeth into, but its themes of love, loss, loyalty, family and the question of authenticity and proof really resonated with their audiences.

What I got from Proof, which I would not otherwise have, was reviews. One from the local paper, The Bucks Herald, and the other from a theatre critic currently working for The Stage, Scott Matthewman. The incredibly positive reaction to Proof, by both reviewers and our audiences, has fueled my deisre to keep pursuing directing opportunities, and with another two night run in the Limelight Theatre scheduled for March 2012, as well as a potential scratch night in the pipeline, I’m hoping I can continue to improve on my experiences and move forward with my intentions as an aspiring theatre director.

Whilst I am frantically trying to find a play that can help me do this, I will keep on keeping on – watching great shows; and trying to make contact with the people who can help me take the next step…my fingers are tightly crossed!

Snippets from the reviews for Proof:

“What this production [provides] is a thought-provoking, immersive piece of drama…and leaves us enthralled from start to finish” Scott Matthewman, matthewman.net

“Under the Floorboards Theatre are busy putting the final touches to their production of Proof…And having been privy to a rehearsal I can testify that it is shaping up to be a fantastic show” David Moth, The Bucks Herald

To blog or not to blog

So…to blog or not to blog…that was the question.
And here I am.

Terrible theatre puns aside, I intend to post pics, reviews and interesting theatre chat (hopefully), plus any updates about my very own Under the Floorboards Theatre Company which will be creeping up in the future.

Here’s to my first follower, and many future blog posts 🙂