The Hudsucker Proxy Liverpool Playhouse 5th June 2015

Is Norville Barnes really gonna jelly-up the sidewalk?

You could spot audience members who knew Joel & Ethan Coen's film because they were the ones chortling to themselves a split second ahead of the delivery of the gags. Other than a neat theatrical framing using the prologue, Simon Dormandy has remained reverently faithful to much of the screen text and narrative in his adaptation for the stage, making a very theatrical piece of cinema into a very cinematic piece of theatre.

However, taking it as theatre in its own right, this new adaptation co-produced by Liverpool Everyman Playhouse and Nuffield Southampton (where it premiered last month) stands as legitimately on the stage as though it has been born there, and those who have not seen the original neednt feel they have to revise beforehand.

In a nutshell, and with as few spoilers as possible, when company president Waring Hudsucker takes a dive from the 44th floor of the Hudsucker building (45th if you count the mezzanine) the board replace him with the seemingly witless mailroom assistant Norville Barnes in order to depress the stock. When he comes up with a stroke of genius that foils their plans, they have to resort to desperate measures to achieve their goal.

Not only has Simon Dormandy written the adaptation and co-directed with Toby Sedgewick, but he has also had to step into the shoes of Clive Wood, who was to have played Vice President Sidney Mussberger before having to step down following an incident in rehearsals. If the play gets the continued life it deserves beyond its current run we may yet get to find out what Clive Wood made of the role but, as it is, its hard to imagine a better fit for the part than Dormandy. For the same reason Tim Lewis, whose lead character is the lift-operator Buzz, adeptly takes a role originally rehearsed by Liverpool's own Nathan McMullen.

There are some excellent characterisations from a cast who all play multiple parts, and its hard to pick highlights, but watch out for Rob Castell's astonishingly malleable face, Tamsin Griffin's platinum blonde, Nick Cavaliere's swagger, David Webber's all knowing clock man Moses, and Sinead Matthews' wily but affecting Amy Archer.

Holding it all together is a magnetic central performance by Joseph Timms as Norville Barnes, whose fortunes rise and fall faster than the elevator. He is brilliantly cast in the part and fills the role with naive optimism and tremendous energy.

The production is made in association with Complicite, whose trademark physicality is visible in so many scenes, and the inventiveness of movement and the deft use of props and performance space keeps the piece rattling along with as much precision and clockwork as the great timepiece at the top of the Hudsucker building.

The look of the play is every bit as stylish as the acting is slick with Dick Bird's complex set, in which physical scenery blends with mapped video projection from Tim Bird. This allows for some brilliant cinematic touches, such as the rolling of the presses as a news item hits the front page. It also means that scene changes are as seamless as if they were on the screen. The whole look and feel captures the era perfectly.

Apply the final gloss of lighting and sound design from Paul Keogan and Gareth Fry and what you get is almost 2 hours of fast-paced theatre that delivers a morality tale with its tongue firmly in its cheek and is a joy to watch.

The Hudsucker Proxy continues at Liverpool Playhouse until 27th June.

Joseph Timms - Photo © Clare Park

Death of a Salesman - RSC at the Noel Coward Theatre - 2/6/2015

You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit! 

Death of a salesman is often considered Arthur Miller's finest achievement and, a piece inspired so very heavily by experience of the issues of his own family, it stands as a work of incisive realism. When Gregory Doran chose to commemorate Miller's centenary in the new RSC season, he could hardly have chosen a more appropriately personal work.

An actor recently said that there is an age at which one should play Lear, and I’d be inclined to suggest that the same could be said of the character of Willy Loman. Antony Sher appears to be at that age. He has announced his forthcoming appearance as Lear in 2016, also under Gregory Doran’s direction, and in juxtaposing it with his performance as Loman in this production he and Doran assert the significance and stature of Miller’s work.

Arthur Miller is famously explicit in his stage directions and, while some productions kick against this, Gregory Doran and his designer Stephen Brimson Lewis have remained faithful to the author. What is on the page comes vividly to life in their multi-level set, on which past and present can coexist and blend seamlessly from scene to scene.

Antony Sher exudes world-weariness from every pore in the opening scenes, drawling out the lines as though every word were an effort and when stepping back to earlier times, sparring with his sons, we see the toll that time and circumstance have taken on him. Harriet Walter is spectacular as his long-suffering wife Linda, the burden of watching the disintegration and shame of the love of her life almost visible in her carriage, and palpable in every line. Alex Hassell and Sam Marks give strong performances as brothers Biff and Happy, as do Joshua Richards and Guy Paul as Charley and the spectral Uncle Ben.

Gregory Doran’s  thoughtful and well paced production seems to focus on Miller's idea that the play has “more pity and less judgement”, and it leaves us feeling for Willy Loman in his desperate search for where everything went wrong.

Death of a Salesman has a performance time of 2½ hours including one interval and it continues at the Noel Coward Theatre until 18th July.

Alex Hassell, Harriet Walter, Antony Sher and Sam Marks - photo (c) Ellie Kurttz

Arnold Ridley’s The Ghost Train – Royal Exchange Manchester – 16th May2015

Theatrical wizardry meets slapstick humour when Arnold Ridley’s 1923 comedy thriller receives the Told by an Idiot treatment.

Told by an Idiot have chosen to celebrate their 25th anniversary with what must be the best known of Arnold Ridley’s substantial output for the stage. Ridley himself is best remembered for his role of Godfrey in TV’s Dad’s Army, and many devotees of the series might be surprised to find he was also an accomplished and popular playwright.

Since first appearing in 1923, The Ghost Train has been played for melodrama and it’s been played for laughs (notably in Walter Forde’s 1941 film, which was a vehicle for Arthur Askey and “Stinker” Murdoch) but Paul Hunter’s new staging for the Royal Exchange treads a line between, with laughs and surprises and even a witty nod, early in the first act, to its adaptations for Radio.

Playing the piece in the round in this very exposed and intimate performance space is a bold move that suits Told by an Idiot’s off the wall style perfectly, and affords boundless opportunities for tremendously theatrical moments, near slapstick scenes and witty asides to the audience.

The ensemble cast, some of whom are doubling roles, work with impeccable timing and, while all are excellent, there are some conspicuously memorable individual performances. Javier Marzan brings his inimitable physical style to the gloriously dotty Miss Bourne, the clown in him coming out in particular after she downs a bottle of brandy. Calum Finlay is the annoying but lovable Teddie, whose hat gets the party of travellers marooned at the ghostly station. Exchange audiences may remember him from Too Clever by Half, and here he’s a perfect fit in the plus-fours and flat cap. Marzan is not the only role reversal, with Amanda Hadingue donning a Captain Birdseye beard as the mysterious stationmaster Saul Hodgkin, while Joanna Holden takes a crowd-pleasing flight of fancy in one of her doubling roles.

The ingenuity with which trains come and go at the beginning and end are genuine theatrical magic, matched by some brilliant set pieces. The telling of the ghostly tale of the train crash is enacted with a madcap mixture of dramatic staging and humour, and the passing through of the eponymous apparition is brilliantly done.

The ghost train will make you laugh out loud and hold you on the edge of your seats, waiting not just for the inevitable twist in the tale but also to see what parlour trick they’ll pull out of their hats next.

The Ghost Train plays at Manchester’s Royal Exchange until 20th June 2015. Follow this link for details and tickets:

http://www.royalexchange.co.uk/whats-on-and-tickets/the-ghost-train

The Ghost Train - photo (c) Jonathan Keenan

King Lear – Northern Broadsides – Liverpool Playhouse 01/05/2015

Jonathan Miller finds an introspective and understated Lear in Barrie Rutter.

Both Northern Broadsides and their Artistic Director Barrie Rutter have played against type to great effect in this new touring production. Broadsides often fill their stage with a riot of detailed sets and movement but for their new Lear, designer Isabella Bywater has pared everything back to a square raised acting area on an empty black stage, throwing the performers into sharp relief.

Not only does this have the effect of deepening the darkness of what must be one of Shakespeare’s most doom-laden tragedies, but it also heightens the senses of the audience to the action.

Here is a very strong cast. Helen Sheals and Nicola Sanderson’s Goneril and Regan have their scheming thinly veiled, while Catherine Kinsella’s Cordelia finds a balance that leaves us unsure how far we can trust her. Al Bollands has side-stepped into the role of Edmund part way through the tour but his command of the Machiavellian bastard son is truly disturbing. Jack Wilkinson is a sympathetic Edgar, and his loinclothed, mud-daubed transformation to Poor Tom is delicately done. Andrew Vincent and John Branwell are also well cast as Kent and Gloucester, and Vincent effects his disguise as Caius convincingly.

The true revelation of the production, though, is Barrie Rutter’s Lear. Not noted for underplaying roles (remember Rutherford and Son, also under Miller’s direction) here he is astonishing in his restraint. There is all the necessary bluster in the early scenes, but as Lear descends into madness, Rutter appears to shrink back within himself and the effect is both painful and deeply moving. The storm scene too, whilst suitably terrifying, is staged for drama rather than, as is often the case, for histrionic effect, and the blinding of Gloucester is discreetly dealt with in a shroud of mist.

Both Fine Time Fontayne’s shabby Pierrot of a Fool and Jos Vantyler’s scheming, foppish Oswald manage to get the laughs whilst never losing the darkness of their characters.

There are good supporting performances from the remaining cast, notably Ben Burman who has stepped in to play France, a Knight and a Soldier, parts previously occupied by Al Bollands before his mid-tour role change.

Northern Broadsides can always be relied upon to fill houses, but they also have the capacity to surprise, and this production stands out as a prime example of their versatility as a company.

King Lear continues its tour via The Lowry Salford, York University, Rose Theatre Kingston and Newcastle New Vic until 13th June.

Barrie Rutter as King Lear - Photo (c) Nobby Clark

Birdsong (on tour) – Liverpool Playhouse – 14&17/4/2015

A show that left me somewhat shell-shocked but strangely unmoved.

Here is a powerful story with elegant staging and some fine performances that somehow felt like less than the sum of its parts.

Based on the hugely popular novel by Sebastian Faulks, Rachel Wagstaffe’s stage adaptation was originally presented in London by Trevor Nunn in 2010/11. This revival is directed by Alastair Whatley and Liverpool was the 9th stop on a 17 venue tour, which ends in Richmond on 4th July.

Adapting a 500+ page novel for the stage is never going to be an easy task, and Wagstaffe has made a good fist of it, but the requirement to depict scenes across a very wide timespan does lead to frequent and often disconcerting leaps back and forth. You’d think that this would keep us on our toes, but for some reason the 1hr and 40 minutes of the first act seemed to drag its heels terribly, and even the much shorter second act felt as though it needed much more pace.

Victoria Spearing has created a spectacular single set that with clever shifts of lighting from Alex Wardle moves us from the barracks to the trenches and into the claustrophobic subterranean tunnels of the Somme with considerable élan. It’s when we need to find the more genteel surroundings of the Azaire family household that the relentless toing and froing of furniture on and off the stage becomes wearing.

What does work is the sense of impending horror in the scenes at the front and while some of the sudden explosions in Dominic Bilkey’s soundtrack seem an almost gratuitous shock-tactic (one woman in a seat near me nearly died of fright) the atmosphere is captured well.

There are committed and powerful central performances from Edmund Wiseman as Stephen Wraysford and Peter Duncan as Jack Firebrace, but the accents of the French characters were dodgy and uneven and I somehow felt unable to believe any of the amorous liaisons in the story.

I was so utterly surprised at how disappointing I found the play on Tuesday that I returned to see it again on Friday, this time after a relaxed day off work, but even in my more refreshed frame of mind and with a determined attitude I still couldn’t bring myself to care enough about the fate of the characters.

Nonetheless, the play had sold out every house for the entire week and the best part of half the capacity Friday audience were on their feet at the end.

Birdsong continues to tour until July 4th.

50 reaches 100

This posting is the hundredth since I began this blog just over 2 years ago, and it seems an opportunity to reflect back on what I’ve written about and why I do it.

I have had a few comments from friends and from people I have met in theatres (audience, cast, creative and theatre staff) remarking that I do seem to like everything, because almost all the reviews I write have a positive stance. One theatre marketing manager did actually suggest that I should write about stuff that I didn’t like too.

The fact is, I write here for the pleasure of sharing my enthusiasm for performances I have enjoyed watching. For the most part I go to the theatre on my own – it’s usually easy to get great seats at short notice when you’re only looking for one, and I often go on a sudden whim. I used to enthuse with friends about things I’d seen and try to persuade them to go, and someone once suggested that I should be writing about it. Out of that conversation came the idea for this blog.

I’m passionate about performance (including theatre, music, opera, ballet and film) and occasionally get frustrated that some outstanding shows are playing to houses that have lots of empty space. If I love something then I like the idea that by effusing about it in a public way I might encourage others to go and fill those empty seats.

I also recognise that if I don’t like a performance it is probably not an indication that there's something bad about it - it’s more likely that it simply wasn’t to my taste, or I was in the wrong frame of mind at the time. I don’t see why I need to be publicly dismissive about a play or a concert just because it didn’t work for me. It's not the purpose of this blog to discourage people from seeing things.

A few months ago, I went to a play on a Tuesday and really didn’t enjoy it. However, I’d been tired at the time and found I could get a good seat for the Friday and see it again, so I did, and the second time I really enjoyed it. This said, I went through a similar scenario last week and sadly disliked the play even more the second time around. Now if someone actually asks me whether I liked it I will be honest with them (and I have) but is it really fair of me to shout it from the rooftops? However, my next review is to be about that very piece that I really disliked, by way of experiment. I still hope I'll be able to reach a balanced view.

My purpose in writing this blog is to enthuse, and in this context I can indulge myself in mostly writing about things I've loved watching.

I realise there’s a danger in saying this: If I now don’t write about something I have seen then this could be taken to imply that I didn’t enjoy it. This isn’t necessarily true. What with working full time and spending so many nights in the theatre or concert hall I don’t always get round to writing about everything I’d like to, and sometimes I end up adding reviews retrospectively. So, if there is anyone out there following this endless rambling, please don’t feel offended if I haven’t written about something that you were involved with or loved seeing, it’s highly likely I spent so many nights seeing it again that I ended up with no time left to review it!

My biggest hope is that, somewhere along the line, a few people may have been to see performances that they might otherwise have missed, because what I have said has caught their interest.

Thank you to everyone who has read, remarked, retweeted or favourited, and please do keep on reading and spreading the word, because word of mouth is one of the best ways to get venues putting out the “HOUSE FULL” signs.

Plastic Figurines – Liverpool Playhouse Studio – 08/04/2015

I’m going to stick my neck out here and suggest that Ella Carmen Greenhill’s new play, which premiered in Liverpool last night, is not a play about autism – it’s a play about people. More specifically it’s about that way that a brother and sister, each facing their own individual challenges, deal with the impact of the loss of their mother. It’s a play about grief and bereavement; love, pain and hope.

And it is beautiful.

We keep fixing back on a thoughtful Rose in “the present” in the inauspicious surroundings of a hospital waiting area, and her memories trigger successive scenes in flashback. We are then introduced to her brother Mikey on his 18th birthday. I’m not going to destroy anyone’s enjoyment by telling you too much detail, but it’s important to note that the narrative pulls back and forth through time.

The evolution of the work from a 15 minute short to this full length one-act play, commissioned by Box of Tricks Theatre, has clearly involved a tremendous amount of research and character development, as well as the construction of the fractured timeline.

The result is a pair of finely drawn characters who have been brought vividly to life in two astonishing performances from Remmie Milner and Jamie Samuel.

Mikey has autism but, refreshingly, this is played as one (albeit very significant) aspect of his personality, and it is his personality that is key. Great care has been taken to ensure that what we see on stage is a young man, not a condition. It’s clear that in his background work Jamie Samuel has assembled a host of possible mannerisms and has then thrown most of them away, so that he uses the subtlest ways of delivering Mikey’s difficulties. This subtlety enables the more emotionally charged scenes to become all the more impactful. A good example is where what begins as a very funny scene with a chocolate bar quickly evolves into something of terrifying power.

Jamie Samuels’ performance is so mesmerising that you do sometimes have to make a conscious effort to turn attention to Remmie Milner’s Rose, the level headed and mature big sister who has given up her new life to look after her little brother. This too is a beautifully crafted performance, and again the gentle delivery of most of her part throws some of the pivotal moments into sharp contrast.

As the piece reaches its dramatic climax we are left with an open ended future for Mikey and Rose. Writer, director and cast remain tight-lipped over their personal ideas of their ultimate fate, but I left the theatre with a tentative optimism. More importantly, they are characters that I found myself really caring about.

Ella Greenhill’s moving text feels completely natural and the flow of the narrative, while fragmented, is clear and concise and Adam Quayle’s direction has a wonderful lightness of touch. The set by Katie Scott has an elegant simplicity that enables it to carry us back and forth in time and place with the aid of clever lighting from Richard Owen, while Chris James’ splendidly subtle sound design  provides clarity to the settings.

I last saw Remmie Milner in the main house here in Melody Loses Her Mojo and Jamie Samuel in Jumpers for Goalposts at the Bush (see my earlier postings) and I have also seen some of Ella Greenhill’s previous writing, so I had high expectations for this piece. So much so that I bought seats for two consecutive performances and am returning again this evening. I wasn’t disappointed and may well need to buy another …

Adam Quayle told me that half a director’s job is done if they can find a great writer and great actors, and based on this principle he was on to a winner with this. The writing is insightful, delicate and real, and Remmie Milner and Jamie Samuel give flawless performances that are impossible not to be drawn into.

And the Plastic Figurines? – Buy a ticket and find out…

Plastic Figurines plays at the Playhouse Studio until Saturday, after which it embarks on a national tour visiting 14 additional venues until 16th May, and if there’s justice in the world it will have a life beyond this. For venues and dates, see Box of Tricks’ website:

http://boxoftrickstheatre.co.uk/production/plastic-figurines/

View the rehearsal video diary on YouTube Here

Remmie Milner and Jamie Samuel "It'd be like I was flying".

Remmie Milner and Jamie Samuel in rehearsal - Photo (c) Lucas Smith