Opera on the Cutting Edge
Macbeth
by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Francesco Maria Piave after William Shakespeare
The Grange Festival, The Grange, Northington until 5th July
Review by Mark Aspen
The Grange is a dramatic location, with its air of distressed grandeur yet majestic pride. It is hard to think of a better venue to stage the most dramatic of Verdi’s operas. Macbeth is a melodrama, but a melodrama with shocking power and crucially with great psychological depth. As The Grange Festival’s first back-to-normal production, freed of the strictures of the pandemic regulations, it certainly packs some punch.
Verdi was a rising star, 34 years old, when he penned Macbeth. It would be another forty years before he was to write another opera based on a work of William Shakespeare. Maybe this is surprising, since Shakespeare was always a literary hero of Verdi’s. It is said that Verdi kept a copy of Carlo Rusconi’s Italian translation of Shakespeare’s works constantly at his bedside. However the then quite youthful Verdi wanted to make an impression with Macbeth with inventive approaches to the music and the drama, in fact to the whole feel of the work. He wrote to Francesco Piave, his librettist, “If we can’t do something great, let us at least try to do something out of the ordinary”. Verdi did create something both great and extraordinary, and The Grange Festival’s production undoubtedly fulfils Verdi’s wishes.
Read more…Pull a Pint and Tighten the Noose
Hangmen
by Martin McDonagh
The Questors Theatre at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 11th June
Review by Poppy Rose Jervis
Academy Award winner Martin McDonagh’s play Hangmen, his first for more than ten years, is dark, dangerous and deep, and The Questors Theatre has not shied from going for the jugular with this intense, hard-hitting production.
‘There is a bit more life in the air at the local Hangman’s family pub – and it’s not down to the quirky cronies at the bar. Today, hanging has been abolished. For good.
With Harry’s face plastered across the front pages, his status as second-best hangman and local celebrity continues to thrive. But when a menacing young Londoner strolls up to the bar, something says he’s after more than a pint and a bag of peanuts…
Read more…Back Story
Merrily We Roll Along
by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth, based on a play by George Kaufman and Moss Hart
BROS Theatre Company at the Hampton Hill Theatre until 11th June
Review by Mark Aspen
“How did you get to be here?” We could all probably ask ourselves that, as we look back on our lives. Maybe we are not where we thought we could be.
This is exactly the presupposition of Sondheim’s 1981 musical, Merrily We Roll Along, which looks back on the lives of three friends over two decades, from the mid-seventies back to the mid-fifties, and examines what went wrong over that time. The reverse chronology emphases the poignancy of how ambition spoilt the life of one of their number, Franklin Shepard, a successful composer song-writer who is seduced away from his true talent, and along the way from his true friends, to become a Hollywood film producer. “How did you get to be here?” asks the opening chorus number, and hints at the answer, by “practising dreams”.
Read more…Toadonomics
Money-Go-Round
by Roger McGough, after Kenneth Grahame, music by Steve Halliwell
OSO at the OSO Arts Centre, Barnes until 5th June
Review by Heather Moulson
I was curious about this Children’s piece, a new musical written by Roger McGough, based on The Wind in the Willows. I really liked the warm greeting of a bold and colourful set and that the plot was exactly what the title said, concerning a gold piece coin that was handed around a wealth of characters, a morality tale of economics with the mischievous Toad being the catalyst of this full circle plot.
If the story doesn’t appeal, then the simple yet vibrant set design will. Designer Emma Turner brings the rustic charm of her native Cumbria to create incredible bold sets and props, crafted solely from recycled materials. Scene changing was geared to, and efficiently handled by, the cast. Simplicity was the key, with actors only having small indications of their animal traits; and that was more than enough. Their strong performances conveyed clearly which iconic animal they were.
Read more…‘Ealth and Safety
Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em
by Guy Unsworth, based on the TV series by Raymond Allen
Limelight Productions at Richmond Theatre until 4th June, then tour continues until 13th August
Review by Gill Martin
It could have been called Some Grannies Do ‘Ave ‘Em !
This revival of the hugely successful TV show Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em mines ancient comedy history. It was all of forty years ago that audiences peaked at 25 million who tuned in to the misfortunes of Frank Spencer, played by Michael Crawford.
Now it is the turn of Joe Pasquale to introduce the hapless Frank to a new theatre audience – the grandchildren and children of the original fans. And make them laugh with rather than at dear Frank, he of the distinctive black beret, Fairisle sweater and beige raincoat
It’s perfect casting for a role that demands a physical comedy actor who can deliver rapid fire monologues, fall down stairs, command empathy and unashamedly take centre stage as the rest of the cast gift him most of the limelight.
Read more…Slain by Daring Passion
Carmen
by Didy Veldman, music by Dave Price after Georges Bizet
Bird and Carrot Productions at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Southbank Centre until 29th May
Review by Suzanne Frost
Fearless. Passionate. Dramatic. Daring. All the characteristics that are traditionally attributed to Carmen could just as well be true about Natalia Osipova, who has reached a point in her career where she seems to be much more than simply one of the legendary ballerinas of our time. Her personality and star power is so large these days, it transcends any role she might interpret on stage. So it feels almost inevitable that when looking for a new full length dance piece to create, her eyes lit up, according to the programme notes, at the thought of playing Carmen, and thanks to her celebrity and standing within the dance world, she was not only able to fill the Southbank Centre but also pull together an impressive collective of artistic collaborators, first and foremost the beautiful Dutch contemporary choreographer Didy Veldman.
Read more…Pitfalls of Parenthood
God of Carnage
by Yasmina Reza, translation by Christopher Hampton
Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Mary Wallace Theatre until 4th June
Review by Celia Bard
The play God of Carnage, a farcical comedy, runs for about ninety mins without any breaks or change of scenes. Throughout the play, characters hurl a barrage of insults at each other, many concealed by a thin veneer of civilised behaviour. The two sets of parents have met to discuss the behaviour of two boys, one of whom has attacked the other with a stick, resulting in the breaking of two incisors and damage to a ‘half a nerve’ in a tooth.
Theatrically, these types of argument make for interesting theatre, as they often succeed in revealing multidimensional levels of character when emotional buttons are pressed. The play is funny and presents the kind of humour that makes you laugh aloud either through verbal wit or farcical comedy.
Read more…A Diptych Hinged on Poison
Mozart and Salieri
by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, libretto after Alexander Pushkin
and
Suor Angelica
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
Rose Opera at Normansfield Theatre, Teddington until 29th May
Review by Eugene Broad
Poisonous motivations and, well, actual death by poisoning, links this double-bill put up by the Rose Opera. Featuring two one-act operas, the first was Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri, based on a short drama by Pushkin.
Featuring the eponymous composers, the opera Mozart and Salieri served as the direct inspiration for the masterful and charming but (almost certainly) historically inaccurate 1984 film, Amadeus. Salieri (Ian Helm) broods in his atmospheric Viennese bachelor pad, resplendent with harpsichord, draped velvets, and candelabra, lamenting to himself how despite decades of disciplined labour of his mastering all elements of music, fate smiled on Mozart instead, giving him a “holy gift” (or innate talent) despite having an “idlers mind”. Unannounced, Mozart (William Smith), full of child-like innocence and inanity, drops by. He confides in Salieri with respect and admiration, almost as if Salieri were an elder sibling or father figure, sharing his compositional self-doubt in crystal tenor (“at night / insomnia tormented me / and two or three ideas came to mind / today I’ve put them down. And I wanted / to hear your opinion, but I see / you don’t have time for me”).
Read more…Social Climbing Seventies Style
Abigail’s Party
by Mike Leigh
Teddington Theatre Club at The Coward Studio, Hampton Hill until 28th May
Review by David Marks
Abigail’s Party is one of those plays that is so well known it has become the stuff of legend. Its famous lines, background music and artwork are so familiar that they’ve become part of the national consciousness. So it was with no little trepidation that I entered the Coward Studio at Hampton Hill Theatre to see TTC’s production of this modern classic.
I need not have worried. Set designers Wesley Henderson Roe and Fiona Auty, together with props mistress Jacqui Grebot had conspired to transport their audience back to the 1970’s with excellent attention to detail – from “leather look” sofa to wine bottle candle stick. The space was configured in the traverse, which worked well to bring the audience into the action. Because of this configuration, however only half the audience were able to see Beverly and Laurence’s “kitchen” – the most ingenious use of a fire escape I’ve ever seen. Gary Stevenson’s lighting design was the icing on the design cake; as well as “stage” lighting, ceiling light fittings and the obligatory lava lamp all added to the general ambience. As did the soundscape from Charles Halford, who must have had lots of fun researching the “sound of the 70s” for the pre-show music. Demis Roussos and Jose Feliciano made their obligatory performances, too.
Read more…Naughty Trisexual Megalomania
The Rocky Horror Show
by Richard O’Brien
Trafalgar Theatre Productions and associates at Richmond Theatre until 28th May, then on tour until January 2023
Review by Mark Aspen
Tonight I lost my virginity. Yes, it came as a surprise to me too, especially as I have three children and three grandchildren. But it seems that if you have not seen The Rocky Horror Show before, then you are a virgin. At least that’s what the lady in the seat next to me said. She was wearing stockings, suspenders and a basque. The gentleman with her was not wearing trousers, but he did look quite, er … fetching, in fishnet tights.
There are lots of conventions to trap the unwary audience member in this cult musical, although there is a useful virgin’s guide. Moreover, the audience need to know their lines, or have ready ripostes when cued by a character’s half-beat pause. It’s a bit like the pantomime, but a hundred times naughtier.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 