Making Waves
HMS Pinafore
by Sir Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W. S. Gilbert
English National Opera, at the London Coliseum until 11th December
Review by Heather Moulson
Yo-ho! “We sail the ocean blue” … and we had better have a fair wind behind us. This is the first time ENO has presented HMS Pinafore, so who wouldn’t rush to get there?!
There is an extraordinary air of warm trepidation in the Coli’, London’s most splendid theatre, about Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera, and we were not to be disappointed. Even before the curtain comes up, the marvellous John Savournin, a versatile British bass-baritone, addresses the audience in character as Captain Corcoran with interaction from Les Dennis as himself. This worked extremely well, and we all admired the latter for poking fun at himself.
After the electrifying overture conducted by Chris Hopkins, the stage was opened up to a stunning ship set, designed by Takis, a prolific stage and costume designer. Sharply detailed, we enjoyed the timeless We shall sail the ocean blue, before the plot really unwound with the bumboat woman, Little Buttercup, an earthy and enticing woman, coming on board. While she pedalled her wares, Buttercup hinted at a dark secret …
Read more…Spooky, Creepy and Zinging
Cinderella Meets the Monsters
by Loz Keal
Teddington Theatre Club, Hampton Hill Theatre, until 31st October
Review by Gill Martin
Hallowe’en hit Hampton Hill early as Cinderella and the Monsters marched into town.
Witches in pointy hats, scary kids in chains and a mummified girl with her face and head completely wrapped in bandages made this a fright night not to forget. And that was just the audience.
The auditorium of Hampton Hill Theatre was festooned with cobwebs, bats and spiders. Drifting dry ice and an open coffin set the scene at Dracula’s castle. I was in character with a glass of blood, masquerading as reasonable red wine, a black eye and five stitches in a head gash (the latter from a pavement fight rather than stage make-up).
Teddington Theatre Club presented a drama-starved audience – an almost full house on the second night – with a panto to remind us of what we’ve so missed: high energy fun, song, dance, dodgy gags, crazy characters, ridiculous costumes with enough sequins for a Strictly series.
Read more…Speak Well of Me
The Dresser
by Ronald Harwood
Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Everyman Theatre at Richmond Theatre until 30th October, then tour continues until February 2022
Review by Eleanor Lewis
The relationship between actors and crew in a theatrical production used to be (and probably still is in some companies) delicate, there was an Upstairs Downstairs vibe to it. Actors created a performance and soaked up the applause, but it couldn’t happen without set builders, props, lighting, sound, dressers, and numerous others none of whom were ever visible. Like servants they were ‘below stairs’.
Ronald Harwood was dresser to the famous actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit for some years after WWII, at a time when social dynamics were shifting on a grand scale. Men and women who had fought for their country came home wanting a life of their own rather than one ‘in service’ to another family.
Similar changes were taking place in the world of touring theatre. Donald Wolfit, who took the leading role in all the Shakespeare works his company played around Britain in the 50s, also managed the company. Thus he wielded enormous power, his actors and crew totally dependent on him, but he was drained emotionally and physically because of it. The more democratic theatre companies, like Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop, were just beginning to appear and Wolfit’s era was coming to an end.
Read more…Wagner Without the Va-Va-Vroom
Der Fliegende Holländer
by Richard Wagner
Rose Opera at the Normansfield Theatre, Teddington until 24th October
Review by Suzanne Frost
Wagner by a fringe opera company? Ambitious would be the first word to come to mind. Wagner is known for a lot of “wumms”, as we would say in Germany, which might be broadly translated into va-va-vroom. It has to be loud. Rich. Epic. As much as he was a romantic – and there is inevitably a moment in every Wagner opera of such sweeping aching beauty it could make you cry – it won’t be a proper Wagnerian experience without those moments of such intense dramatic sound, it takes over your whole body and vibrates in your belly and just feels … epic.
So you wonder, once you enter the tiny bijoux Normansfield Theatre in Teddington, how? How they are going to produce The Flying Dutchman, a work that apart from a whole lot of va-va-vroom also demands a lot of lights, mood and theatricality. Wagner, who, if he had had the means back then, would have probably worked in movies rather than the theatre, famously dreamed up the most outrageous special effects in his stage directions that directors now have to find feasible solutions for. Shakespeare’s famous “exit pursuit by bear” has nothing on Wagner, who basically envisioned spectacles of such magnitude even the likes of Steven Spielberg or Roland Emmerich would need a lot of CGI for.
Read more…Foul Melancholy Ennobled
The Duchess of Malfi
by John Webster
Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Mary Wallace Theatre until 30th October
Review by Celia Bard
Prior to attending this production of The Duchess of Malfi, I learnt that the audience was to be transported to the 21st century and that we were about to watch the machinations of a powerful celebrity family. The revised performing version would be shorter in length and the cast would be reduced from fifteen to seven with some doubling up. I must admit to feeling a level of curiosity as to how Webster’s Jacobean revenge drama would play out. With this loss of text I wonder whether I would I recognise the characters? Would the Duchess’ brother, the Cardinal be as corrosive a force? Would that Iago-like character, Bosola, be as chameleon a figure as represented in the text, and how would Webster’s text come across to a 21st century audience? What would the set look like and of course costumes? Some two hours and forty minutes later, I was able to answer many of these questions.
Read more…Dogged Horror
Birdwatching
by Miranda Barrett
Anarchy Division at The Space Theatre, Isle of Dogs, London until 24th October
Part of the London Horror Festival
Review by Heather Moulson
Halloween is truly in sight, getting us just in the right mood for the London Horror Festival.
The Space, with its gothic splendour in the heart of Millwall, down on the Isle of Dogs is an ideal setting. Formerly St Paul’s Church, its high ceilings, and grand windows, surrounded by a charming cobbled courtyard is fitting for this unique festival, one that I previously enjoyed in 2019 at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington; another atmospheric and inspiring theatre.
I wanted to be receptive and supportive, as I think the horror genre is so much more difficult to convey onstage as opposed to film. The tension and build-up is given such limited freedom, which rests heavily on the player’s shoulders. However, integrity and strong writing make up for this.
Set in the depth of winter and of isolation, three people set out to make a horror film.
Read more…Drawn out
Van Gogh
Synaestheatre, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes, until 24 October
Review by Matthew Grierson
If you go to see the Starry Night, the Bedroom in Arles or one of the Sunflowers, I suspect that even now there would be quite a crowd in front of you, vying to view Van Gogh’s best-known works. If you go to see Jonny Danciger’s Van Gogh, this experience is recreated by having the works projected on to the backdrop and then bundling musicians, singers, conductor and actor in front. At least, I think we were supposed to see the paintings: from my (disad)vantage point in the stalls, the sightlines were even less clear, so they may simply have been screensavers from the 1990s.
The show works from Vincent’s letters, which are variously set to music, declaimed by Louis Pieris, or screened on the glass-fronted chalkboards that half-mask the musicians. There may also be a moment when Pieris is directly scrawling correspondence on the boards, but the chalk is illegible. At other times, he jives spikily to discordant, post-punk guitar, presumably to convey the painter’s mental troubles. He ends the show with his head in bandages, per the self-portrait, that are drawn out to bind him into the screens.
Read more…When Are We Going to Learn About Acting?
Circle Mirror Transformation
by Annie Baker
OHADS at the Jane Ross Theatre, Hampton until 23rd October
Review by Celia Bard
Whether or not you are familiar with creative drama classes and their improvisation exercises, “silly” games and acting techniques, this is a play that will delight all who value subtle performances in which frozen smiles and long pauses will keep you spell-bound.
The play’s setting is in a small town in New England and the location is a community centre for a six-week drama class for adults. The people who sign up for the class are Schulz, recently divorced; Lauren, an enthusiastic high school junior who wants to become an actress; Teresa, a former actress, emotional and theatrical; James, Marty’s husband and Marty, the drama teacher who leads the class, taking the students through a series of acting and drama exercise in which they reveal much about their lives.
Read more…More Than You Can Chew
The Shark is Broken
by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon
Sonia Friedman Productions at the Ambassadors Theatre, London until 15th January 2022
Review by Heather Moulson
Being desperate to see The Shark is Broken for nearly two years, due to a sell-out in Edinburgh, followed by the lockdown, I couldn’t get to the Ambassadors Theatre quick enough.
Greeted by a clever set, extraordinary lighting and amazing tableaux, I knew it was worth the wait. What followed was ninety minutes of impressive pacing, revelations, and acrimonious yet warm exchanges. The script, acutely written by Ian Shaw, has text taken from his father Robert Shaw’s diaries about the making of the iconic film, Jaws. With this consistent and thoughtfully studied script, it captured a significant piece of film history.
Read more…From Gloom To Boom, Bursting With Vitality
Tonight Belongs to Us
TOPS Musical Theatre Company at the Hampton Hill Theatre until 16th October
Review by Patrick Adams
TOPS hit the ground running with its musical extravaganza Tonight Belongs To Us at the Hampton Hill Theatre. They burst out of the gloom and doom of Covid with a production pulsating with vitality and energy saying, ‘look at us, we are back and we’re great’. And they were.
The setting was minimal, but effective. The excellent five-piece ensemble with Musical Director, John Davies, was upstage, but as if in an orchestra pit, next to steps leading to a large platform enabling some variation of height for the performers.
Imagine you are at a performance and come to the showstopper number for that particular show. This is then followed by a showstopper from another production, followed by yet another showstopper, and yet another. This was TOPS recipe for a splendid musical evening.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 