An August Bank Holiday Lark – Northern Broadsides at LiverpoolPlayhouse – 29/04/2014

Barrie Rutter’s company live up to their name by firing a Broadside of Northernness from the stage in Deborah McAndrew’s new play, specially commissioned to coincide with this year’s WW1 centenary commemorations.

In building a tale that speaks of the loss of youth and innocence, McAndrew chooses to show us a slice of life in more idyllic times, as a rural community prepare for their annual village festival before seeing their sons off to the front.

The rush bearing ceremonies, that in times past took place in the August Wakes Weeks, bring the community together in the balmy summer air with the mounting celebrations, preparation of costumes and the building of the rushcart. This year, however, the atmosphere is also tainted with the smell of war as young men from the village are called up.

Whereas in Broadsides’ last visiting production the musical interludes seemed incongruous, here they grow organically out of the story. There is a great deal of Morris dancing accompanied by an onstage band and both music and footwork are impressively authentic. Conrad Nelson worked with the Saddleworth Morris Men to get this right.

As we’ve come to expect from Northern Broadsides, stage designs (here by Lis Evans) are inventive and substantial, and complemented by deft, warm lighting from Mark Howland.

Amidst the preparations for the Rushcart Festival we learn that the Squire’s daughter Mary has the affection of Frank Armitage, but her father doesn’t see him as a fit match. In an effort to show himself worthy of her hand, Frank resolves to join up in the forces along with Mary’s two brothers Edward and William. They’re barely married before Frank has to go back to the barracks.

By the closing pages we have seen the ravages with which war punishes those who are left behind, as they wait to discover whether what will come home is a loved one or a telegram. The story’s destination has a big emotional payoff, while the drama takes the scenic route in getting there. It is the pastoral slowness of the earlier parts of the play that make the ending all the more poignant.

The cast all give spirited performances but most notable among them are charming central roles by Darren Kuppan and Emily Butterfield as Frank and Mary and by Jack Quarton and Ben Burman as Edward and William.

Broadsides founder and Artistic Director Barrie Rutter is a true old school actor-manager and whenever he takes to the boards he is always a commanding figure. Here, both directing and playing the part of the overbearing Squire John Farrar, he is larger than life and a force to be reckoned with.

An August Bank Holiday Lark has been co-produced by Northern Broadsides and The New Vic Newcastle-under-Lyme, where it received its premiere in February. It runs at Liverpool Playhouse until Saturday 3rd May, after which it continues touring via Watford Palace, Oxford Playhouse, Derby Theatre, Cheltenham Everyman, Rose Theatre Kingston and to Oldham Coliseum where it closes on 14th June. The full tour schedule is available at www.northern-broadsides.co.uk

A Winter’s Tale – Royal Ballet – 28/04/2014

Following on from their hugely successful collaboration on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, composer Joby Talbot and designer Bob Crowley have joined forces once again to create a new three act ballet based on Shakespeare’s play.

Keen to tell the entire story without resorting to a series of tableaux, Wheeldon has created principal dance roles for six of the leading characters to enable him to express the complex range of emotions involved in the plot.

Edward Watson has the daunting task of showing Leontes to be consumed by jealousy, and he achieves this during act 1 using movements that become more contorted and angular as the story unfolds. As Lauren Cuthbertson’s Hermione slowly grows more heavily and visibly pregnant and Polixenes (Federico Bonelli) makes himself at home, Watson’s rage and rejection is clearer than any words could depict. Zenaida Yanowski as Paulina, along with Bonelli, occupy large swathes of the 1st and 3rd acts beside Watson.

One of the most remarkable parts of the work for me was the huge duet for Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae that occupies most of the act 2nd act. Their Perdita and Florizel are absolutely captivating. Alongside them, we also find Gary Avis in a great character role as the Father Shepherd.

Special mention must go to Joe Parker who gave a great performance as the young Mamillius.

Both Joby Talbot’s eclectic score and Christopher Wheeldon’s inventive choreography manage to encompass both traditional classical styles and a more contemporary approach in a seamless way that gives the piece a sense of occupying a central place in the repertoire, and the work seems set for frequent revival on this basis alone. The orchestra is large and heavy on colour, with a big complement of percussion, and it was possible to hear nods toward Prokofiev and Stravinsky as well as a good deal of Glass and even, in the bohemian scenes, Smetana and possibly Kodaly. During parts of the 2nd act, with the onstage band, it was also impossible not to be reminded at times of Riverdance. The orchestra, who were arranged in an odd layout in the pit, were conducted by David Briskin.

Designer Bob Crowley has worked with Daniel Brodie and Basil Twist who have created projections and silk effects that complement his solid architectural and sculptural sets, which float elegantly about the stage. Almost all the scene transformations are in view and the projections onto massive billowing silks create some magical effects, including the appearance of two sailing ships and a tremendously imaginative realisation of Shakespeare’s famous stage direction that Antigonus should exit pursued by a bear. If I saw that creature looming behind me I’d be making a swift exit myself. Shortly before this exit, Bennett Gartside’s Antigonus leaves an ever so slightly creepy looking animatronic baby Perdita behind him in a basket hidden in the reeds.

This new work has a scale and sweep to satisfy the traditionalist and, more than anything, manages to tell Shakespeare’s convoluted tale with a lucid simplicity. The three acts each have a different sense of style and colour to match the moods of the three segments of the drama, taking us from the jealous rage of the first act to the redemption of the finale, via a brightly coloured and refreshing central act in which the love of Perdita and Florizel blossoms beneath the canopy of a huge tree.

A Winter’s Tale is in repertory at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden until 8th May 2014 and all remaining performances are more or less sold out except for day tickets and returns.

The Grid – Young Everyman Playhouse –Liverpool Everyman – 22/04/2014

Are we really better connected?

We already spend vast amounts of our time looking at screens and interacting with electronic devices, and the technology is evolving fast and creeping deeper into every aspect of our lives. First it was computers, then mobile communications, then the internet; what comes next? Anyone whose nerves are set on edge seeing a group of people staring at their smart phones in a restaurant will be deeply unnerved by The Grid.

Last night some 50+ performers from Young Everyman and Playhouse exploded onto the stage of the New Everyman for their first full scale play in the new building. Alumni of the YEP Alex Joynes and Laura Kate Barrow have co-written and Katie Scott and Christina Eddowes have worked with YEP young technicians to design and light the production, all under the direction of Chris Tomlinson and Matt Rutter.

After a prologue that looks like an Apple product launch, the stage comes vividly to life, transporting us to a future world where wearable devices have given way to an even more deeply connected way of being and where everyone is permanently connected to The Grid. Some astonishing stage movement (which was stunning viewed from the Ev circle) showed us hordes of people who no longer know how to touch or even talk to one another.

But what happens when The Grid goes offline?

Disconnected from what has become their world, its inhabitants wander like refugees in some sort of post-apocalypse scenario. One by one, individuals begin to make connections with each other and start re-learning how to communicate. The story divides into a number of separate threads played out in interwoven episodes. By the time we approach the conclusion we’re catching glimpses of hope that human interaction may have returned in the absence of the all-controlling Grid, but will it last?

This is an astonishing piece of ensemble work with some very complex choreography in the movement, but the main body of the piece offers opportunities to see individual performances from a large number of the cast members, and it is in these scenes that we are able to see just how important the YEP are for developing the people who will populate the stages of our future. There is some very skilful acting and a casting director could have a field day watching this showcase of new talent.

The piece is very much presented as a collaborative effort and none of the individual performances are named, and I understand that there will be cast rotation half way through the week with different performers swapping lead roles with the supporting cast. Keep an eye on the faces in this production – many of them surely have a future on the stage if they want it enough.

I found it a little ironic to see tiny pools of light in the stalls below me as people couldn’t resist surreptitiously checking texts from time to time on smart-phones inside their handbags. Normally this would be a source of irritation in the theatre but here it almost added more truth to the story being played out before us. But be warned, ladies and gentlemen in the stalls, the gallery can see you!

The irony wasn’t lost on me either, when my first inclination on leaving the auditorium was to switch my iPhone back on (yes, it had been turned off, not just on silent) in order to tweet about what I’d just seen. The Grid is already nearer to us than we might like to believe.

The Grid lasts approximately 140 minutes, plus one interval and runs at the Everyman until 26th April, with performances at 7:30pm and a 2:00pm matinee on Saturday. With tickets at £6 / £4 this has to be some of the best value performance you’ll see this year… why not go twice and see the cast rotation?

There is some excellent production photography on Brian Roberts’ Blog here:

http://brianrobertsimagesblog.com/wp/the-grid/

And for more info and to book tickets visit:

http://www.everymanplayhouse.com

Because She Loved the Lion – Lantern Theatre Liverpool – 17/04/2014

Please stop shouting; you’re making it very hard for me to dream…

How do you dramatise the subject of domestic violence in a way that will engage an audience? Well, you could go for the jugular and play it out with finely choreographed fight scenes or you could take the rather more subtle approach used by Laura-Kate barrow in her new one act play.

The closest we get to seeing any physical evidence of the abusive relationship Ella has with her partner is some smudged eye makeup. He certainly never appears on stage but remains a looming unseen presence, alluded to frequently but absent. We gather that the father of Ella’s child is touring with his band and, in his absence, Ella’s sister Sally makes increasingly urgent appeals that she should get him out of their lives for good.

Ultimately, however, it is through the voice of seven year old Millie that we get our greatest insights into what is actually happening in the household. Her candid observations could only be expressed by the thoughts and words of a child.

Set on an open stage with a very few props, lighting cues lead us rapidly between scenes. Millie’s favourite bedtime story is Aesop’s The Lion and the Mouse. Her mum’s repeated re-telling of this fable of co-dependency changes subtly as the play progresses and it becomes a palimpsest through which we can read Ella’s troubles. The point toward the close where Millie finally applies the tale directly to her mother’s actions is both chilling and deeply moving.

The three-strong cast assembled for this Lady Parts Theatre production all demonstrate the company’s commitment to strong female roles. Esther Dix displays the stoical weariness of balancing her increasingly testing relationship, her love for her daughter and her own self-preservation without once allowing the part to become self-pitying. Sarah Keating is by turns aloof and angry as her frustration at watching her sister’s life reaches boiling point.

Eventually it is Nuala Maguire who has us transfixed most of all with her stunning performance as the seven year old Millie. Although somewhat taller than her “mother” it is only a couple of minutes into the action that we forget we are watching an adult actor and are captivated by the child, who protects herself from the domestic mayhem surrounding her by building her own view of the world which she discusses and acts out with her family of soft toys.

Director Peter Mitchelson (who has worked with this writer previously in Bump for Shiny New Theatre) steers a deft line through the rapid shifts of atmosphere between scenes.

Laura-Kate Barrow continues to demonstrate her talent for producing dialogue that flows naturally from her characters. What is very much in evidence here is her ability to tell a story without preaching to her audience. We understand that she worked with domestic abuse support charity Refuge in researching for the play and it could have been all too easy to take a full-on assault on the subject. Allowing us to see through the eyes of a child lets us view things from another perspective. It also enables her to throw shafts of light and moments of laughter into the writing too.

This is the third piece of Laura-Kate’s work that I have seen by see my previous commentaries on Trolley-shaped Bruise and Bump. She is currently writer on attachment to Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and has contributed to the writing of The Grid for Young Everyman and Playhouse which opens at the Liverpool Everyman next week.

Following its three days at Liverpool’s Lantern, Because She Loved the Lion will transfer to the Brighton Fringe (Upstairs at Three and Ten) from 3rd to 8th May and will appear at the Kings Arms Salford on 1st June and the Little Theatre Chester on 7th June.

The Events – Everyman Theatre Liverpool – 08/04/2014

Searching for answers in a tragedy-scarred community

David Greig caused a stir in the press when he was reported to have researched into the mass shooting by Anders Breivic in Norway and was going to exploit the survivors’ traumatic experiences to write a “musical” based on the tragedy.

The finished result was neither exploitative nor a musical, but an intense study in how communities and individuals find ways of moving forward after a catastrophic event.

Following a successful and award winning opening run last year the Actors Touring Company are now touring with the work, and it plays at the Everyman for one week.

For each performance the two handed cast of Amanda Drew and Clifford Samuel are joined by a different local choir and the first night honours went to Up For Arts Choir, directed from the piano by Magnus Gilljam.

Amanda Drew, who many will remember for her Blanche in the Playhouse 2012 Streetcar, plays Claire, a priest who runs a community choir in an unnamed location. We meet them rehearsing together in a representation of a village hall. With the arrival of Clifford Samuel “the Boy” we quickly learn that this is a community trying to recover from a tragedy in which their numbers were decimated in a seemingly senseless, random shooting.

Samuel’s schizophrenic and mesmerising performance represents a host of different characters, ranging from the perpetrator of the atrocity to Claire’s partner, and many more between. Through a series of encounters we see Claire grappling with the questions that are in her head and her heart, most particularly the least answerable of all – why?

Her search for answers becomes increasingly obsessive, leading Claire to challenge the very core of her belief system. The community around her, represented by the choir, have their own way of dealing with The Events and simply want to draw a line in the sand and move on, which ultimately leads to a crisis point in the drama.

By the time Claire resolves to seek retribution it becomes apparent that her need for a resolution is becoming self-destructive, and something has to give.

This is an intense 90 minutes of drama, played out without an interval, but the passages with the choir and moments of dark humour keep it buoyant enough to hold us throughout.

A fascinating and thought-provoking piece that explores the different ways that people deal with trauma, The Events speaks of an insatiable need to find answers where there are none to be had. It could equally well be applied to the present anger and despair of those waiting for news of flight MH370, who will possibly never find closure. Sometimes we may need to accept that there are not always answers to everything, and seek ways to move forward with unresolved grief.

Two riveting central performances are supported every night by a new choir, members of which have occasional passages of dialogue to interject. A directorial nightmare, one would think, but something that Ramin Gray seems to have overcome with aplomb.

The Events plays Liverpool Everyman until Saturday 12th April and then continues to Newcastle, Belfast and New Haven before closing at the Young Vic on 2nd August.