Golden Bough
Under the Greenwood Tree
by Paul Carr, libretto by Euan Tait, after Thomas Hardy
Dorset Opera at the Coade Theatre, Bryanston, Blandford Forum until 27th July
Review by Claire Alexander
From its earliest days under the personal ambition and inspiration of the late Patrick Shelley (then Director of Music at Sherborne School), Dorset Opera Festival (now under the equally inspirational artistic directorship of Roderick Kennedy since 2003) has grown and flourished into one of the UKs most successful summer opera festivals and always supporting young and emerging artists. Somewhat further out of London than more well-known names, and now in the beautiful expansive grounds of Bryanston School near Blandford, for a week every year it brings equally stunning top class opera to Dorset and surrounding counties. This year it proudly celebrates fifty illustrious years – how proud would those earliest musicians be!
Under The Greenwood Tree (from the Thomas Hardy novel of the same title) by Paul Carr has been especially commissioned for this occasion and could not have been better chosen. There was palpable anticipation in the audience as it assembled for this, the World Premiere.
Read more…Bulk Bye
Falstaff
by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Arrigo Boito
West Green House Opera, Theatre on the Lawn, Hartley Wintney, until 21st July
Review by Mark Aspen
What makes a rogue a lovable rogue? If Sir John Falstaff is the epitome of the loveable rogue, maybe we should ask those Elizabethan play-goers who wanted Shakespeare to resurrect him from the dead after Henry IV. Or perhaps we should ask Signor Verdi, who, although not speaking English, loved Shakespeare and is said to have always kept an Italian translation of The Merry Wives of Windsor at his bedside.
Verdi was in his eightieth year when he wrote Falstaff. His first attempt at a comic opera, Un giorno di regno, was when he was in his twenties. Its poor reception disheartened him and tragic opera became his forte for the next six decades. It was his librettist, Arrigo Boito who re-kindled the dormant Shakespeare comedy idea, when he dropped an outline for Falstaff on his desk. Boito knew of Verdi’s bardolatry; there had already been a Macbeth and an Otello, plus Verdi had long toyed with the notion of a King Lear. That would have been quite something.
Read more…In at the Deep End
Red Speedo
by Lucas Hnath
David Adkin and OT Productions, at The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond until 10th August
Review by Harry Zimmerman
Ray lives to swim. He is within touching distance of Olympic glory and a life-changing sponsorship deal. But everything changes when performance-enhancing drugs are discovered in the club’s refrigerator. As tensions run high, Ray’s brother wants them destroyed, his coach wants to call the authorities, his ex-girlfriend doesn’t want to know, and Ray wants the drugs back.
Written by Lucas Hnath, directed by Matthew Dunster and receiving its’ UK premiere at The Orange Tree Theatre, Red Speedo is a taut construct of power, political manoeuvring and moral ambiguities played at the breakneck pace of an Olympic sprint. At its heart, the play tackles the unforgiving weight of success in a world where the only crime is getting caught.
Read more…Sublime Balm for a Hot Evening
Opera Gala Concert
West Green House Opera, at the Theatre on the Lawn, Hartley Wintney, 19th July
Review by Mark Aspen
Gleaming white decorated canvas of the dining pavilions by the glittering lake and Marylyn Abbott’s gardens, swollen with blooms in all their glory, form the setting for the opening event of West Green House Opera’s new season. It is the hottest day of the year (“so far”, add the meteorologists) and there is quite a party atmosphere as the champagne corks pop. And pop they do, as ice-pack sleeves don’t stay frozen long at 32°C. Bacchus smiles out, appropriately, from the programme cover.
It is that same Bacchus that smiles out from the central rondel of the façade of West Green House, which forms the backdrop in the Theatre on the Lawn, itself a generously proportioned pavilion, sans upstage wall, affording a view across the sheltered greensward towards the handsome house.
Read more…What’s the Buzz?
Humble Boy
by Charlotte Jones
Barnes Community Players, at the OSO Arts Centre, Barnes until 21st July
Review by Claire Alexander
Humble Boy, written by Charlotte Jones in 2001, falls into a genre of contemporary plays confronting unspoken long held family misunderstandings and secrets, exposed by grief and loss. Apologia (Alexi Kaye Campbell) and Albion (Mike Bartlett) spring to mind. Like Albion, Humble Boy is set in a garden, replete with glorious flowers as if to emphasise the lack of life and nourishment for the family that inhabits it. And throughout there is the allusion and parallel to the bees – beloved of Flora Humble’s recently dead husband, Jim. The now empty hive, a prominent part of the set, is a constant reminder to us, as the audience, of how bees’ behaviour can sometimes reflect our own. This makes for a clever and absorbing mosaic of a play that works on many different levels.
Read more…The Best? Who Nose?
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand, adapted by Glyn Maxwell
Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Fountain Gardens, York House, Twickenham until 20th July
Review by Salieri
Cyrano de Bergerac, presented by the Richmond Shakespeare Society for its annual Open-Air Production is one of the most fascinating theatrical evenings I have spent. Probably the best of its previous such productions to date, it reduced the large area of the Fountain Gardens to a Theatre in the Round with the audience around its perimeter. This undoubted created an atmosphere of intimacy and led to a brilliant display by the actors, who inexhaustibly portrayed a number of different characters as the First Act proceeded. The pace was excellent and the energy of the cast was well up to the demands made upon them. One carp I had was the use of microphones, which I feel was unnecessary in such a small acting area and was not always kind to some of the female members of the cast.
Read more…Secs and the City
London Wall
by John William Van Druten
Questors Production at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 20th July
Review by Andrew Lawston
The problem with plays based in offices is that they are very often written by people who have never, or rarely, worked in an office. John Van Druten’s play London Wall, focusing on the staff of a City law firm, benefits from the playwright having practised law for a number of years. The offices of Walker, Windermere & Co feel from the outset like a real business, and in many respects one which could still be running today with only a few upgrades to the office technology.
Throughout this lengthy play, the law firm’s business runs alongside the play’s narrative, as the cast of secretaries dash around Charles Dixon’s lavish recreation of a 1930s legal firm, with all its huge sturdy desks, paintings lining the walls, shelves stuffed with reference books, electric buzzers, and a single telephone.
Read more…Bedroom Farce
Dressing Gown
by Andrew Cartmel
Take Note Theatre and Thursday Theatre at the Theatre at the Tabard, Chiswick until 27th July
Review by Andrew Lawston
It’s the sound that everyone dreads in the morning – the doorbell ringing before we’re quite ready to face the new day. And so it is for Ash, the somewhat put-upon young theatre director who leads Andrew Cartmel’s new play at the Tabard Theatre, Dressing Gown.
Misunderstandings, innuendo, paranoia, and a parade of awkward but witty conversations ensue after producer Sheridan, or Dan, walks in on Ash in his dressing gown one morning and, eventually, accuses him of having an affair with the leading lady in the play they are working on, The Bearded Vulture. The leading lady in question being Dan’s own girlfriend.
Read more…The Boundless Bound
The Unicorn in Captivity
by Angelika May
in collaboration with Vertebra Theatre at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre, Kentish Town until 13th July, then at Theatro Technis, King’s Cross until 31st July
Review by Heather Moulson
With an effective introduction of lit-up objects being brought on stage during a blackout, and surrounding props covered by sheets, the lights go up on F, a fine art student in her final year. We also meet M, an acclaimed artist, his work driven by his mother’s death. The couple, who are on the cusp of a relationship, make the duvet and pillows at centre stage a significant focal point. With the surrounding pinned-up photos, the atmosphere is dark and interesting.
Under the consistent direction of Mayra Stergiou, and using the small performing space to its full potential on a set was designed by Eliza Podesta, the action is enhanced by Jack Hoban’s disturbing soundtrack and the sensitive lighting designed by Inigo Townsend.
Read more…Sins Sear
Accolade
by Emlyn Williams
Bill Kenwright Productions at Richmond Theatre, until 13th July
Review by Eleanor Lewis
A ‘beam me up Scotty’ moment isn’t quite what you expect to see opening Emlyn Williams’ 1950 play Accolade, but it does focus the attention and almost creates the idea of time moving on, or not.
Writer Will Trenting (Ayden Callaghan) lives comfortably in London with his wife Rona (Honeysuckle Weeks). As the wireless rings in the new year of 1950, he tells Rona he has been offered a knighthood. General jubilation and celebrations ensue, but this is not going to be as straightforward as might be hoped. Trenting has a predilection for orgies which he enjoys as and when he wants to, and with the knowledge and consent of Rona who has been aware of his habits from the day she met him. She finds him exciting without sharing that particular passion.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 