Cinderella: A Christmas Adventure! - Bench Theatre at The Spring in Havant

I love Bench theatre. Their dedication to produce plays most non-professionals wouldn’t tackle, and at the highest possible standard, gave me the opportunity to see plays ranging from Shakespeare to Sarah Kane on my doorstep while I was still studying for my GCSEs. I have seen productions there which have far excelled some I have seen on the West End. They are essentially in my opinion, the reason to visit Havant.

So when I heard they were producing a pantomime, I knew it would be a good night out, and naturally dragged a couple of car loads of my friends down from Croydon for the weekend.

Firstly, Mark Wakeman has written a really excellent script which offers just the right mix of a traditional story with modern references. There were plenty of jokes for the grown-ups but lots of ‘he’s behind you’ stuff for the kids. It also didn’t go too smutty or contain lots of in jokes for the locals, referencing pop culture and TV instead which made it very relevant. We particularly liked the way the story followed the familiar tale of Cinderella but veered off after the ball to give us extra plot and characters.

The ugly sisters, played by Terry Smyth and Callum West, were hilarious, and a particular favourite among my friends, one of whom insisted on getting a photograph with them afterwards (above). Dan Finch and Mark Wakeman really set the scene as the story tellers, keeping the story moving and the audience laughing. I also thought Flic Jolly had a great pantomime style as Cinderella as did Lorraine Galliers as the fairy godmother.

What really made the pantomime magical was the contagious energy of the cast and the truly spectacular set and costumes. The beautiful hand-painted sets were so lovely I wanted to take them home for my own house. Now OK I’m a bit biased about the costume because my mum led the team of talented people behind them, but I think anyone who sees this production will agree they are truly amazing. From the bespoke patterned tailcoats which looked straight out of a Vivienne Westwood collection to the adorable horses, they were a joy to look at. Each character had different costumes for the ball and many had more than two or even three different outfits making this a real feat.

I think what I love most about this panto is that it gives local parents the opportunity to take their kids to a Christmas show they will all love without breaking the bank. No need for fireworks or past-it celebrities, take the kids to this and you will make their Christmas.

Oh and it goes without saying, the turkey in scene one was totally awesome.

Kupenga Kwa Hamlet - Two Gents Productions at The Oval House Theatre

By a strange coincidence I seem to be seeing a play a week already, and it’s not even 2011 yet! Last night we battled the snow to see Two Gents Productions’ Kupenga Kwa Hamlet.

I saw Two Gents’ last production, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and was really impressed with how accessible the production was and how high energy and fun to watch. So I was looking forward to seeing how they would tackle a tragedy.

I’m no purist when it comes to Shakespeare and love to see the plays tackled in totally new ways. Two Gents Productions draw on the two actors’ Zimbabwean/Shona background to place Shakespeare in an entirely new social and cultural setting. In this case, the Shona attitudes toward family ties, death and ancestors made this a really fresh look at the play. A highlight was the exuberant Rossencraft and Gilderstone, re-imagined as witch doctors, entertaining Hamlet by using members of the audience to be the players. This comic energy was reprised towards the end with the singing grave diggers.

And that’s what Denton Chikura and Tonderai Munyevu are really good at: comedy. Switching quickly between characters with self aware references “Corambis also known as Polonius: We’re doing the first Quarto.” Mixing cultural references from Zimbabwe and Shakespeare, making the plot really accessible to people who don’t know the play very well and keeping everyone hooked with music and clowning around.

Where I felt the production fell down was in getting the real power of the tragedy to come across. The big tragic speeches and scenes had been intentionally reined back and were quiet and understated. After watching David Tennant’s high energy, high intensity Hamlet this quiet considered Hamlet just felt a bit disappointing. I think the actors were concerned about not making the tragedy comic by over dramatising it but in doing this I felt they had lost something. Particularly as the production was entitled The Madness of King Hamlet, I was hoping for a bit more cursing the sky, chucking Ofelia around, jumping in the grave, that kind of thing. Instead “get thee to a nunnery” was spoken as callous but pretty sane advice to a pregnant Ofelia to indicate that he did not want anything to do with the baby. While it was a clever change, as a lover of Hamlet I thought this was a bit of a waste of a good scene. It also meant that Ofelia’s next lines, indicating dismay at a Hamlet robbed of his wits, didn’t quite fit. The new situation surely rather demanded that she rail against his deception and cowardly behaviour.

There were other points too where the reinterpretation didn’t quite fit. After telling her father she’d been nothing but aloof with Hamlet, why would Ofelia then confront Hamlet about her pregnancy when she knows the King is listening in to their conversation? Perhaps that’s just me but I like it when a production which re-works a story has a real attention to detail.

Aside from these little details though, I enjoyed the way the text had been reinterpreted. It was like watching the play for the first time, I didn’t know what was coming next or what to expect. As the production added portions of new script written in modern English and sections of African language (presumably Shona) it was a clever move to use the less well known first quarto text. It meant that the sections of Shakespeare that usually sound so familiar became unfamiliar making the whole play gel together better than it might have otherwise done. (Of course, it’s also always easier to avoid cliché with “To be or not to be/aye there’s the point.”)

I also enjoyed seeing Hamlet’s mother, Gertred in this production, a lot less passive than usual. She comes round to cooperating with Hamlet rather than naively siding with Claudius and also drinks the poison knowingly as the end after it is revealed that the king is abusive towards her. This change, combined with a seductive and sexually active Ofelia, created a more modern and realistic representation of women, which was great because the play can often come across as quite anti-women in a traditional staging.

I would recommend this production, but perhaps not to people new to Hamlet as I think the plot was a little confused and some of the really powerful parts of the play were not as effective as they can be. If Two Gents Productions turn their hand back to comedy for their next production though, I’ll be dragging as many people as possible to see it.

The Revenger's Tragedy - SOOP at The Space

I'm kicking off this new theatre blog early with a review for SOOP's production of The Revenger's Tragedy. I saw this production at The Space, where it is no longer playing but in early 2011 you will be able to see it in Havant, Newport on the Isle of Wight and Portsea. For full details of dates and venues visit www.soop.org.uk.

You don’t see many productions of The Revenger’s Tragedy. With so many characters, a complicated plot and a plan for gruesome revenge so over the top it can only come across as comic to a modern audience, it’s a minefield of potential problems for a director brave enough to take it on.

Nathan Chapman took all these challenges and turned them into highlights in SOOPs skilful production. With four actors playing 17 characters I was concerned this would make the plot harder to follow. However the script had been stripped right down and the production cleverly used costume accents and beautiful original commedia masks and puppets to differentiate the characters. This meant the actors could create commedia del arte style over the top characters which were instantly recognisable and very funny. Though far removed from the traditional style for a Jacobean revenge tragedy the commedia style fit perfectly with the Italian setting and transformed the play into a black comedy ideal for a contemporary audience. At times it was like watching the League of Gentlemen.

A strong ensemble cast really made this production work. The actors changed quickly between characters of different age and sex without it being confusing because the performances were so concise. Alice Corrigan showed particular skill when playing two brothers at the same time, one through a puppet, which was very funny particularly when she was alone on stage and the characters suddenly realised they were holding the head of their third brother in a bag. Rachel Carter played a brilliant Castiza, moving in stilted ballet positions. This made the character look awkward and at odds with the others, which I thought helped set her apart as the only virtuous one and by contrast made the scheming, lustful and revenge-hungry characters even more grotesque.

I was reminded of some of Propeller’s Shakespeare productions where a cut down script, vivid characters and precise physical performances make a script modern and accessible. SOOP’s production would be ideal as an introduction to the genre, or equally give Jacobean drama fans a fresh and original take on the play.

The Revenger’s Tragedy offers a fascinating insight into what people watched before we had Hollyoaks or Saw 4 to satisfy our urge for sex scandal and gruesome violence and this is a brilliant opportunity to see it tackled in a unique way. It’s a rare production which will make you laugh all the way through a play first performed in 1606! If SOOP are performing near you do not miss the opportunity to see this.