Trauma and Humour
The Two Sides of Martin Figura
Poetry Performance at The Adelaide, Teddington, 4th September
Review by Greg Freeman
There is a serious side to the poet Martin Figura. Quite serious. It was revealed during the first half of his set at Poetry Performance in Teddington on Sunday night, when he read the title poem, My Name is Mercy from a pamphlet based on his observations at Salisbury District Hospital during Covid. A former soldier himself, a poem called Bear was based on talking to soldiers with physical injuries and PTSD who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. His poem Vineyard Boys is about his time in a children’s home in Wellington, Shropshire, in the 1960s. You can find out the reasons that he ended up there in his remarkable collection Whistle.
Read more…Go to Hell
La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers
by Marc-Antoine Charpentier
The Vache Baroque Festival, Chalfont St. Giles until 4th September
Review by Mark Aspen
If you are going to hell there can be no more charming route than via Chalfont’s beautiful historic estate at The Vache, the summer home of The Vache Baroque Festival. The Vache estate’s association with regicides, explorers and soldiers imbues it with a sense of adventure … and what could be more adventurous than descending into Hades.
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice as recounted by Ovid in the Metamorphoses has fired the imagination of artists, poets and composers. The vividly emotional story of the bard Orpheus braving the fires of hell to rescue his bride Eurydice cries out to be an opera. Countless composers has rallied to this call (Grove counts over eighty well-known composers who have written operas to the Orpheus theme). Some of the first operatic treatments of the theme included Monteverdi’s in the early 1600’s, some eighty years before Charpentier, while Birtwistle’s second crack at it, The Corridor, premièred just over decade ago. In 2019 The English National Opera gave over its autumn season to Orphic operas (by Christoph Gluck, Jacques Offenbach, Harrison Birtwistle and Philip Glass and range 1762 to 1993).
Read more…What-Ho!
Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense
by P.G. Wodehouse, adapted by David and Robert Goodale
Progress Company at Progress Theatre, Reading until 10th September
Review by Sam Martin
Having not seen any Wodehouse before (forgive me!) I was intrigued, but also a little apprehensive as I approached Progress Theatre to watch Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense. Consulting with my admittedly more cultured friends, I knew a slither of what to expect; anticipating that a show with ‘nonsense’ in the title and a promise of layered and excessive multi-roleing would serve for a fun (but chaotic) evening of entertainment.
The production started well with Dan Clarke confidently in the role of Wooster and guiding us through the plot with skilled narration. At times his portrayal of Bertie Wooster’s amazement at the make-shift scenery was a little overcooked and gave the character perhaps too much simplicity, yet Clarke eased into the show and became a stable narrator figure playing well on the farcical moments, bringing the audience in on the façade with ease. Clarke remained the anchor of the piece, holding the plot together dexterously – even when clearly struggling to change costume quickly just off stage!
Read more…Let’s Make an Opera Sustainably
Duke Bluebeard’s Castle
music by Béla Bartók, libretto by Béla Balázs
Green Opera at the Arcola Theatre until 3rd September and then at the Asylum Chapel Theatre, Peckham until 18th September
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, with its intense focus on a destructive male-female relationship, is ideal for a small space like the Arcola Theatre. Thomas Ang’s reduced arrangement for Green Opera’s small band retains the glitter and exposes the barbed wire in this score. John Paul Jennings, while letting the music breathe, exercises a good firm grip as musical director, even if there is potential for screwing up the tension a bit more.
This story of a man who hands over keys to seven locked rooms for the woman who loves him to unlock, until she finds his previous wives in the last room, is fraught with possibilities. Nowadays, it feels less like a sexist cautionary tale about the dangers of female curiosity than an examination of toxic masculinity. Bartók’s version does some unusual things with the story. He names his heroine Judith, which makes me think of her namesake in the Apocrypha and of her beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes This is not a passive victim of patriarchy. She asks for the keys and opens the doors in Bluebeard’s presence rather than unlocking the rooms behind his back. Her motivation is love and a desire to know her husband to the full. April Fredrick (unusually a soprano in this mezzo part) is a splendidly confident Judith.
Read more…Casanova Was a Librarian
Larkin With Women
by Ben Brown
Strut and Fret at the Old Red Lion, Islington until 17th September
Review by Louis Mazzini
The poet Philip Arthur Larkin was born in 1922 and to celebrate his centenary the Old Red Lion presents a revival of Ben Brown’s Larkin with Women, first seen in 1999 when it won the Theatrical Management Association’s Award for Best New Play.
Covering the last thirty years of his life, this sublime and very funny play begins as Larkin becomes the Librarian at Hull University. Larkin was a nexus of contradictions. In his thirties, he maintained an addiction for “top shelf” magazines and he was still swapping self-penned fiction about corporal punishment at girls’ schools with his Oxford friends. Yet, and perhaps more effectively than any of the other modern poets, Larkin wrote insightfully about the truth of love. And while he could be self-obsessed and fearful of commitment, he remained committed – in his way – for decades to those who loved him and whom in return he loved.
Read more…Whisked Away
Cooking With Microphones
by Deborah Whitmarsh-Boyce
Sensible Footwear at The Canal Café, Paddington until 28th August, then at the Bread and Roses Theatre, Clapham until 9th October
Review by Heather Moulson
Sally is a strong presence in this one woman show. The smartly attired Sally is highly watchable. Sally is a woman of a certain age in Cooking with Microphones. However, leave your cookbooks at home.
At the earliest opportunity Sally presents a milk whisk as her personal microphone. It is not only empowering, but it shares a common bond with women to use their voices. Black and white films are shown intermittently of women singing with similar cooking utensils, with an emphasis on the friends that made her stronger on those special Friday nights. Friday nights really belong to them, after a hardworking week putting everyone else first. Solace and comfort can be taken from those nights, against the tangible disappointment that the potential for the life of a working woman to get easier has still not materialised.
Read more…Illuminated Hope
The Apartments and At Least I Can Dance
by Verity Rowsell and by Michelle Hanks
Bird Mouth Collective at the Etcetera Theatre, Camden until 27th August. Double Bill as Part of the Camden Fringe
Review by Heather Moulson
Well, what can I say about such an ambitious presentation? With a strong cast and well written texts it is a satirical double bill of confrontation, human situations, mental illness – and dancing, by the new East London based Bird Mouth Collective.
Read more…Wit, Compassion and Hope
Three
by Christie Peto
Dangerosity at the Canal Café until 21st August
Review by Heather Moulson
Walking into the Canal Theatre Café was akin to walking into the Kit Kat club in pre-war Berlin, but without Sally Bowles. An opulent setting with round tables, an air of splendour, and an enticing proscenium arch stage met the eye.
The two hander ninety minute drama, Three was well-crafted, the central figure being played by the writer, Christie Peto alongside Patch, played by Hannah Harquart. The latter role represents an alter-ego, mentor or possibly guardian angel. Harquart covered all three of these persona with energy and gusto with her strong stage presence, while Peto gave an honest and sincere account of breakdown and other mental health issues. The writing was relevant and identifiable, with wit and understanding.
Read more…Identity Confronted
It’s Only Funny with Stage Directions
by Laila Sajir
Two Thousand and One Theatre Company at the Etcetera Theatre until 18th August
Review by Heather Moulson
Set in the morning after the night before, a scene uncomfortably familiar, this one woman play looked promising. The self-loathing and overthinking cloud hung over Manal as we opened up to an interesting and scattered set. She shared her thoughts with a lover from a directionless relationship, while preparing Iftar for her strict Muslim family who were due to visit. Torn between getting her lover out the flat while listing his negative points, and preparing the evening meal to end the Ramadan fast for the day, her frustration was palpable.
A one woman play by performed by the author Laila Sajir, It’s Only Funny with Stage Directions moved along at a good pace. An optimistic start as Manal, played with conviction by Sajir, made good use of every prop, including slicing an onion. (Uncomfortable viewing!) Strong writing and genuine poignancy was in abundance, but significant and humorous points went from subdued to inaudible. Projection was badly needed.
Read more…Unleashed
Tulu
Circus Abyssinia at The Layfette, Underbelly Circus Hub, the Meadows, Edinburgh Fringe until 27th August
Review by Eleanor Marsh
Tulu Derartu is the first African woman to win an Olympic gold medal (10,000 metres). She went on to win the World Cross-Country Championships twice and, at the age of 37 won the New York Marathon. She is currently President of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation. That level of achievement deserves to be celebrated and Circus Abyssinia celebrate her in style!
There is little narrative to this piece, excepting the opening of the show, which depicts a female athlete on a track running remarkably quickly around the big top to the accompaniment of what appears to be the actual commentary of the 1992 Olympic final. Of course, she’s not completing her circuit as quickly as it appears. It is sleight of hand on a grand scale: there are actually three “Tulus”, who all come into their own later in the piece. The audience is then taken to Africa, where the real Tulu tended cattle as she was growing up and reputedly ran at night-time – dodging the hyenas! This part of the show contains some truly incredible contortions – and the first of many audible gasps from the audience.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 