Fresh Pot of Mad Party Tea
Alice Bounces Back
Putney Theatre Company at Putney Arts Theatre, until 8th January
Thomas Forsythe investigates
“You mean you can’t take less. It’s very easy to take more than nothing.” So says The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland.
Putney Theatre Company has almost taken this as its motto for the company of its own Alice in Wonderland, a musical version of Lewis Carroll’s much loved enigmatic story, written by the PTC Writing Team.
By mid-December, excitement was at its peak as the Putney Arts Theatre’s resident company, Putney Theatre Company, was ready to journey with Alice and with everyone’s favourite wacky, weird and wondrous characters, on a rumbustious, rousing and rowdy ride through Wonderland.
Read more…Heart-Warming Joy
Matilda the Musical Jr.
by Denis Kelly, based on the story by Roald Dahl, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin
Dramacube, Hampton Hill Yellow Cast at Hampton Hill Theatre until 20th December
Review by Millie Stephens
Millie Stephens is one of our younger reviewers, this review being written the day after
her sixteen birthday. Millie trained with the Rose Theatre, Kingston.
Dramacube’s production of Matilda the Musical Jr, was impressive and lived up to their high standard, particularly with the young age of the casts this year, as young as seven years old. I reviewed Sunday afternoon’s Hampton Hill Yellow Cast.
I thought that the set and costumes by Hannah Calarco and the production team were amazing. The opening set with a backdrop of book cases and flying books was wonderfully designed, with ABC blocks to give stage props to stand and sit on. I especially thought Miss Trunchball’s costume and makeup was convincing and comedic, adding an extra layer of professionalism to the production.
Read more…Impressive, Authentic and Magical
Matilda the Musical Jr.
by Denis Kelly, based on the story by Roald Dahl, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin
Dramacube, Twickenham Blue Cast at Hampton Hill Theatre until 20th December
Review by Eleanor Lewis
There are challenges to putting on any children’s show, but to stage a production of Matilda, with five separate casts, during a global pandemic with all the restrictions that involves and the possibility of another national lockdown at any moment, really deserves Respect with a capital R.
One of the most endearing things about Dramacube’s young actors is that they don’t make their audience nervous. Matilda is a great show but not the easiest to do, there are some relatively sophisticated themes running through it and it takes some skill to present Tim Minchin’s outstanding lyrics as effectively as possible. None of this is beyond Dramacube’s students: they make their exits and entrances professionally, they know their lines (and have probably been trained in what they might do if they forget them). Their characters talk to each other, not into the air, and what they sing and speak is clearly heard. Put simply: they know what they’re doing.
Read more…Christmas Post
Ellie and Starlight’s Christmas Adventure
by Kenneth Mason, originated by Sarah Watson.
Silvercube Media Group in association with Dramacube Productions at Hampton Hill Theatre until 24th December
Review by Celia Bard
Ellie and Starlight’s Christmas Adventure marks another quest for a little Yupik girl called Ellie and her imaginary friend, Starlight, the polar bear. Ellie, her family and village have moved higher into the mountains in order to escape the rising sea level caused by global warming. However, there is a problem. It’s Christmas, and Ellie is afraid that Father Christmas won’t know that the village has moved and that when he arrives to deliver presents to the children, all he will see is water and no sign of the village in evidence. Ellie and Starlight, after a lot of thought, decide that they must travel to the North Pole to let him know of their new address and to give him the Christmas list of presents that Ellie has written. The journey is treacherous, and the pair must overcome a number of dangerous obstacles before they arrive at their destination.
Read more…West End Re-Packaged
Matilda the Musical Jr.
by Denis Kelly, based on the story by Roald Dahl, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin
Dramacube, Twickenham Green Cast at Hampton Hill Theatre until 18th December
Review by David Stephens
Having seen the RSC’s spectacular production of Matilda the Musical twice now (once was not enough for my, ahem, children), it was with great excitement that I attended Dramacube’s version at Hampton Hill Theatre on Saturday evening. Upon arrival, I was informed that tonight’s show would be performed by the Twickenham ‘Green’ cast and that the main roles of Matilda, Bruce, Mrs Wormwood, Miss Honey and Ms Trunchball, would all be played by the ‘B’ stream. Flicking through the programme, one immediately realised the magnitude of Dramacube’s undertaking, with no fewer than five different casts set to perform the production over a four day period and with many of the main roles being interchanged between different performers on a nightly basis.
Read more…Feats of Acting
Matilda the Musical Jr.
by Denis Kelly, based on the story by Roald Dahl, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin
Dramacube, Twickenham Purple Cast at Hampton Hill Theatre until 18th December
Review by Evie Schaapveld
Evie Schaapveld is one of our younger reviewers. Eleven years old, she acts with a number of local stage companies.
In the Purple Cast of Matilda I saw many feats of acting and great stage direction. Some of the most notable things were the astonishing choreography and how all the children performed so energetically, and so well keeping their moves in time.
Notably, the background was incredible, elaborate yet so simple, changing from the library bookshelf setting to a blackboard and then to a field. But one of the most impressive things in my opinion was the feat of how they told the story of the Escapologist and the Acrobat, with one of the scenes being told by animation in the background. It was a very creative way of presenting it, as that scene would have been very difficult to do by acting it out.
Read more…Music, Magic and Multifarious Malarkey
Beauty and the Beast
by Eric Potts
Imagine Theatre at The Ashcroft Theatre, Fairfield Halls, Croydon until 2nd January
Review by Mark Aspen
Now, here’s something! I just heard someone on the radio describe panto as “a post-Freudian discourse on the transformative nature of inclusion and on societal barriers to equality issues”. Er, umm … Oh no it’s not! Panto is a great bit of knock-about family fun with a nice happy-ever-after story thrown in; and the usually silent audience get a chance to join in. All together … Oh yes it is! The audience at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls, children of all ages from 3 to 111, would without a doubt agree. Their socially distanced, flow-tested voices were loud and clear … well perhaps just loud from behind their masks. (By-the-way, the age range is from the Shout-out, but it turned out that the upper limit was a granny who was Ill.)
There is in fact plenty for the audience to shout about in Imagine Theatre’s Beauty and the Beast. For a start, they get two comic characters for the price of one, in the comedy duo, Dick & Dom; or as the rest of cast are prone to address them, “Ant-‘n’-Dec”. If that is a wind-up, these two don’t need winding up. They are electric. Maybe it is to compensate for the lack of a dame. (There seems to have been a national shortage of Dames this season. Maybe they are keeping the poor old dears away from the dreaded Omi-Khron.)
Read more…Light as Soufflé
Hay Fever
by Noël Coward
Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Mary Wallace Theatre, Twickenham until 18th December
Review by Gill Martin
To party or not to party. To gather or not to gather. The festive dilemma hangs heavy as plum pudding in the run up to Christmas. What better than a light-as-soufflé diversion? A trip to a Covid compliant theatre where Noël Coward, master of comedy, is back on stage with Hay Fever at the Mary Wallace Theatre in Twickenham, less than a mile from his Teddington birthplace.
This Richmond Shakespeare Society’s production of the 1920s drama has drama aplenty: histrionics, chest thumping, arm flailing, sobbing and swooning, anguish and ecstasy. Talk about playing to the gallery.
Director John Gilbert is known for his eye for style and period costume. And he doesn’t disappoint with this stylish satire that teeters between farce and a comedy of manners.
Read more…Magical Morality Tale
Beauty and the Beast
by Ciaran McConville, after the story by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve
Rose Original, Rose Theatre Kingston until 3rd January 2022
Review by Mark Aspen
Wild and desolate places, like high mountains, can be places of dread, apprehension and fear. Such a place is the setting of Kingston’s Rose Theatre’s retelling of a much retold fairytale. Set in the high Savoy Alps between France and Italy, Beauty and the Beast represents an inaccessible place, and by metaphorical extension, inaccessible places in the human nature. As an allegory, this would have great impact 250 years ago, but would it in the self-congratulatory cynical world of the twenty-first Century?
Before this all sounds too heavy and analytical, you can be reassured that this is a show that all members of the family will enjoy. Younger schoolchildren will find it exciting, once they have gritted their teeth or the scary bits, and it is indeed a gripping and enthralling show or all. The Rose is following its tradition of eschewing pantos for its Christmas offering and instead presenting an experience embodying magic and mystery … whilst gently spilling in meaning (the thing critics are supposed to look for).
Read more…Strictly Panto
Cinderella
by Alan McHugh
Crossroads Pantomimes at Richmond Theatre until 2nd January 2022
Review by Mark Aspen
What have Cinderella and Strictly Come Dancing in common? Well, there’s dancing of course, lots at Prince Charming’s palace. There are glittery high heeled shoes, lots of, one with half the pair missing. Then there’s Anton du Beke, lots of, in Richmond Theatre’s glittering zinging panto.
The glittering Fairy Godmother tells us, yes, we are in Richmond, more precisely “historic Richmond”, although the opening backdrop of the Palace has gained a few more turrets since the Tudor home-from-home on the other side of Richmond Green was downsized in the Civil War. Indeed, the sets and scenery get more magnificent as the show goes on. The climactic gold and silver ballroom set seems to have enough rare precious metals to solve the microchip shortage.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 