A Midsummer Night's Dream - Liverpool Everyman - 21/03/2015

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve;

Lovers, to bed; ’tis almost fairy time.

When the Everyman does Shakespeare we expect it to have an edge, especially when the play is one with a supernatural element to it. In his new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Director Nick Bagnall casts a dark spell over his characters and audience alike and, along with the mischievous humour, he excavates some of the shadowy imaginings that haunt our dream time.

For his first production in his new role as Associate Director at the Everyman and Playhouse, Nick Bagnall has chosen to work with a former collaborator, designer Ashley Martin-Davis. They shared a vision of Shakespeare’s Dream in which there would be none of the obvious visual cues such as trees, moon and fairy wings, preferring to work in a more abstract setting whereby the audience could invoke their own imaginings.

The Athenian court of the opening is alluded to by the plinths of columns with the rest of the stage relatively unadorned. Peter Mumford’s lighting sets the tone for the production, and while the colours of light and costume shift dramatically from scene to scene, it remains in a variety of striking monochromes until a blaze of colour announces the final act.

I would hesitate to say that this is a ‘modern dress’ rendering, as many of the costumes are evocative of other times and places, but the school uniforms of the young lovers in the early scenes contribute strongly to our belief in them as teenagers. The mechanicals too, in their hi-vis work gear, bring us firmly down to familiar earth. It is the trip to fairy-land that flies into fancy, even without its fairy wings, with a dramatic and transformative scene change that takes us into a bewildering wasteland and seems to double the size of the Everyman’s open stage. From this point the action shifts a gear and the entrances and exits become even more imaginative.

Garry Cooper and Sharon Duncan-Brewster are our Theseus/Oberon and Hippolyta/Titania, while Puck has shifted gender and is played by a spritely Cynthia Erivo, who floats about the stage wielding her cane like some spectral ringmaster. The former pair have great poise as the Athenian Duke and his mistress. Cooper presents a malevolent form when he reappears as a troubled King of the Fairies and Duncan-Brewster’s Fairy Queen shimmers with light and passion.

Andrew Schofield appears as a spry site foreman as Peter Quince, assembling his motley crew of overalled players to rehearse their theatricals. Michael Hawkins is a sharp Robin Starveling /Moonshine, who seems a little confused by his dog, and Ozzie Yue plays Snug, his Lion putting me in mind of Bert Lahr’s creation in the Wizard of Oz. Alan Stocks (also a suitably enraged Egeus) is Tom Snout, who bears a witty wall. Lewis Bray (late of Cartoonopolis) is Flute, the bellows mender, whose turn as Thisbe is a sight to behold. And of he who plays Pyramus? Let’s just say that Dean Nolan’s Bottom has to be seen to be believed. It is a larger than life rendering in which there are moments when he could almost be channelling Brian Blessed.

Hermia and Helena are played by Charlotte Hope and Emma Curtis. They bring a naivety and schoolgirlish coyness to the parts but are equally able to find real venom when roused. Matt Whitchurch and Tom Varey are their confused lovers Demetrius and Lysander, and both have great charm and energy in their performances. The speed of delivery in the exchanges of this quartet is breathless in places, but even from the back row of the stalls I didn’t miss a syllable.

James Fortune’s music is a mixture of recorded sound and onstage performance, including recording work from Members of the Young Everyman Playhouse, and as well as creating the soundscape for the play the music occasionally finds humour of its own.

I have remarked in an earlier posting that I saw performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the old Everyman in January 1983, which broke the mould of theatre for me and made me fall in love with the Everyman space. This play is as open to reinvention as the theatre itself and invites directors to do something bold and new with it.

Nick Bagnall’s production finds aspects of light and shade that bring the work to the stage with renewed freshness and excitement. As well as exploring dusty corners of the text he also reaches out into the new Everyman space making maximum use of its openness, and we see more of the building’s capacity to surprise.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream lasts for approximately 3 hours, including one interval set between acts 3 and 4. It runs at Liverpool Everyman until Saturday 18th April. There is an age recommendation of 14+ due to one very brief scene with sexual innuendo and partial nudity.

Production photography (c) Gary Carlton:

 

Tom Varey and Charlotte Hope in rehearsal - image (c) Brian Roberts

Cartoonopolis - Liverpool Playhouse Studio - 13/02/2015

The gestation of a play is something that usually happens behind the closed doors of workshops and rehearsal rooms, but Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse's first Ignition Artist Lewis Bray has offered us tantalising glimpses of the growth of his play Cartoonopolis over the past year, from a short scene early in the process, through a scratch performance and to the full length piece that has played to sold out audiences this week in the Studio.

I have written about this work before, and I don't intend to repeat myself - take a look back to the entries for 22nd May and 22nd October 2014 in my blog.

This week, the one-man show has become a two act piece, still presented on a very bare stage with only a chair, a screen and some clever lighting, so there is nothing to distract us from the multi-faceted performance of Lewis. Not even a faint rustle of sweet wrappers from the audience, as they were all mesmerised.

I've heard it argued that the material may have been expanded a little too far and someone has suggested cuts, but I have to say that what has been added is essential new material, and if Lewis and his co-creatives do decide to cut anything I do hope that this additional writing survives. The version we saw last autumn came right from the heart and explored some important subject matter, but now he has dug even deeper into the characters - especially the real life ones - to find some really hard-hitting stuff. Not only do we get a telling perspective of autism from within Lewis's brother Jack, but now we also get a real feel for the impact, both positive and negative, on the whole family and the dynamic of their lives.

Cartoonopolis holds its audience through its sheer honesty and openness, as well as the drive and detail in the performance and the wit and wisdom of the writing.

LEP invite someone to be an Ignition Artist when they see "an extraordinary talent [that] should not be ignored" and there is a reason that Lewis Bray has become the first artist recognised in this scheme.

I was very fortunate to get a seat on the only night I had free this week. If you want to see this show you'll have to queue for a return today, but if you do and you're lucky, it will be worth it.

 

 

Lewis Bray - (c) Brian Roberts Images

Cartoonopolis - Lewis Bray - Liverpool Playhouse Studio - 22/10/2014

Lewis Bray presented us with a short extract of Cartoonopolis earlier in the year and since then I have been looking forward to the appearance of the longer work…  I was not disappointed.

Lewis has a teenage brother Jack, who has autism and although like the rest of his family he is from the Wirral, Jack speaks with an American accent learned through his love of cartoons. He has built his own world inhabited with these characters, some familiar to us and some created through his own rich imagination.

In Cartoonopolis Jack is Mayor Bray, and he calls the tune. The central section of the play sees a battle between the forces of good and evil in his realm. Surrounding this we see the back story, experiencing Jack’s world through the experience of Lewis and the rest of the family.

What Lewis does is give his brother a voice and has us understand him the way his family do. In doing so he has created a work filled with astonishing frankness and tremendously affectionate humour. He manages to expose many of their difficulties and frustrations, often caused by the misunderstanding of others or lack of cooperation or support, but he never allows it to become protest or posturing.

We are left wanting to cross the border into Cartoonopolis with Jack, and to experience his world the way that Lewis seems to be able to do.

Lewis Bray is a tremendously talented improviser with a terrific ability to flip back and forth between numerous characters, both real and imaginary. Early on, as he first depicts his mother, he throws us an aside to the effect that she’ll kill him when she sees this, but I strongly suspect that she will find the characterisation as affectionately humorous as we do.

Cartoonopolis is written and performed by Lewis Bray, directed by Matt Rutter and Chris Tomlinson and was lit by Christina Eddowes. If, as Matt Rutter tells us, this was a scratch performance then audiences are really in for a treat when it returns in February.

Scene Change – Liverpool Playhouse Studio – 22/05/2014

Scene Change is a recent innovation from Young Everyman Playhouse Producers, in which the Studio offers a bi-monthly showcase for, in the words of the group’s web page, “...the very best of Liverpool’s freshest creative talent. From writers to artists, magicians to musicians - we’ve got every scene covered. Scene Change aims to raise awareness of Liverpool’s newest arts contributors, providing a platform for those just starting out and those developing an existing reputation”.

On this occasion an hour or so was filled by four segments; a piece for four actors followed by three solo performances.

Introduced as an acting masterclass, the Greg Bike Show brought us a comedy in which a father and son (Liam Hale and Dom Davies), sparring with each other in their championing of different acting techniques and abetted by two colleagues, demonstrate the principle with “Dead Dog on the Pavement”. Sharply witty and played with great timing, this was both well written and presented. Follow @GregBikeShow on twitter for details of them heading to Edinburgh Fringe. 

Second was a segment from stand-up comedian Mike Osbourne, who has a keen ear for word-play and irony. Comedy is a particularly subjective thing, but this brand of humour went down well with the audience and it certainly worked for me.

Next up was Lewis Bray. He is working on a full length play called Cartoonopolis that will be presented later in the year at the Studio. Here he gave us an scene from the piece, in which he plays various members of his family including himself. The play tells the true, touching and often funny story of his own brother and the cartoon world he inhabits within his imagination. Based on this extract, here will be one for the diary when it appears in full.

Finally came a dark, almost sinister short work by past YEP writer Sarah Tarbit, in which a wheelchair-bound man reflected on his life. It is sadly true that, faced with a person in a wheelchair, we often see a disability rather than an individual. Despite how far we have come, taboos still remain and many people fail to consider that someone with a physical disability has the same capacity for desires and frustrations as everyone else. This piece challenged that misconception head on and raised some uncomfortable but important questions. Daniel Murphy gave a poweful delivery and was directed by YEP young director Rio Matchet.

Scene Change is not widely publicised and its audience is largely made up of members of Young Everyman Playhouse, but tickets are available at a bargain price and a follow for @YoungEveryPlay on Twitter will keep you posted on upcoming dates.

Many thanks to the YEP members who kindly supplied me with the names of the artists involved!