#MyTheatreMatters, and so does yours.

OK you're right, I should be blogging about James McAvoy in Macbeth. Or about 1984. But you know what? I might write that blog if I get time this weekend. Today there are more important fish to fry.

Lovers of theatre, we are called to arms! A new campaign launched today called My Theatre Matters!  Not only is this campaign important because it's being championed by Sam West and he's awesome, not least because he once gave me a pineapple, but there are other reasons too. I'm sure you know what they are but here are a couple of my reasons in case you've forgotten.

Local theatre is in trouble. Arts cuts will hit local theatre first because the government, your local council and even the arts council think they can cut funding to smaller theatres and we won't complain. And if we do they think they can pretend it's that or cuts to hospitals, or police and that will shut us up. And maybe you'll believe them, I don't.

But in any case we need local theatres. We really really do. As I explain not particularly eloquently on my post on the site (sorry, I wrote that on my lunch break) theatre gives me so much more than the occasional night out.

As a society we need hospitals and police. But we also need libraries, universities, music, laughter, and theatre. We need life but we also need to live. Otherwise we're all just monkeys in shoes.

I passionately believe that my interest in theatre, my joy in the arts, my compulsive creativity, these things are not genetic. They are not happy chance, or magically bestowed on me by some benevolent god. They are gifts given to me by the people who produced amazing plays just around the corner from my childhood home, by my parents who took me to shows, and by any teacher who organised a school trip whether it was to see Berkoff or Blood Brothers. And I am thankful to those people every day.

And I am thankful to any organisation or person who supported those early theatre experiences, or allocated them funding, or who voted in their local elections for people who would allocate them funding.

Small theatres fuel our creativity, make our communities better places to be, and nurture the very greatest of Britain's talent. If you want to see if Britain really has Got Talent, get yourself to London fringe or your local arts centre and see actors on their way to the top. 

Personally I don't think something should only exist if it makes someone money. But I suppose I should point out that as well as making life worth living, local arts are good for the economy. Not just in London but across the country. For every ten North East arts jobs, for example, an estimated further four jobs have been created. In fact, arts in the North East generated £74.3 million of economic activity in 2010/11. 

Those of us who love local theatre, and I'm guessing if you're reading this then that's you, need to fight for it. Because we're a quiet and friendly lot* but we need to get noisy and stand up for our local theatre and we need to encourage others to stand up for theirs.

MANY places have cut their arts funding 100%. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. Most recently Westminster, affecting Soho Theatre and numerous brilliant youth projects. Imagine if that was where you lived. In Croydon we've had a taste of what that feels like. And to me, it feels like my home town only exists to make money from me. Croydon's endless expanse of chain shops take my cash in exchange for cheap clothes that fall apart after 2 weeks and then try to persuade me that shopping is a leisure activity. And when all the theatres have gone I might just start to believe them.

Theatre fans, the fight starts here. Get the hell over to mytheatrematters.com and sign up for their mailing list, write every letter they suggest to you and put your photo on that lovely gallery they've got going on. I won't watch the UK theatre industry crippled without putting up a fight. Will you?



*Well, not me I kick off about stuff all the time. But, you know, we theatre goers as a group.

How can we save the Warehouse Theatre in Croydon?

Argh Blogger has changed the layout of this page where I post my blog and I DON'T CARE FOR IT! Changing fonts in self defence.

So this week's sad news from the Croydon Guardian is that the Warehouse theatre in Croydon is in administration. So, you may ask, why is a nice little theatre right next to East Croydon station in trouble? Here's what I think:


Why is a nice little theatre right next to East Croydon station in trouble?


1. Because of cuts to Arts Council funding 
Remember the Arts Council having to cut everyone's funding because the government decided it cares more about the people on the Times Rich List than the UK's position as a leader in the world of arts and theatre? So it kept funding amazing big places like the NT so people wouldn't get too angry and instead cut off the life blood of smaller local projects that it thought fewer people gave a crap about. If you don't remember you should have been paying more attention.


2. Because Croydon Council decided not to fund it either 
Because Croydon Council have higher priorities like their own pay rises. Also they are only really interested in helping out Fairfield halls because that's the place that makes the money (largely it seems to me by billing racist comics and sick 'mediums' who con large amounts of cash out of the bereaved by pretending they can talk to dead people because there are some people in the world that hell, if it existed, would be simply too good for. But I digress.) Also isn't Fairfield where the wives of people in Croydon Council work? And isn't one of the Councillors on the board there or something? That might be wild speculation which is allowed because this is a blog but ANYWAY the Tories in charge of Croydon, like the ones in charge of the country, only consider the arts worthwhile if they make money or win votes, preferably both. Fact.


3. Because The Warehouse Theatre is sitting in a building site
That can't be good for business. The situation as I understand it is that the Council tried to move the theatre but they elected to stay put. So they were promised a swanky new building as part of the redevelopment. The redevelopment hasn't happened (so far) because they can't sell/rent the office space because Croydon is already basically a graveyard of empty offices. So the theatre has been housed in a run-down building in a building site for years and years. It looks like that old bloke's house at the beginning of Up. Sadly, it seems they can't afford any balloons.


4. Because The Warehouse Theatre is badly run
This is based on my experience of the Warehouse which is limited. The reason my experience of the theatre is limited is because it is badly run. I go to the theatre A LOT. I live in Croydon. Take a look at how many of the 52 plays I saw last year were at The Warehouse, the closest theatre to my house. ONE. It's not for want of interest. I went to see a play there right at the start of the year. Looking for ways to see 52 plays over the year, I spotted a poster that said they were looking for Front of House volunteers. I spoke to the lovely lady at the desk, explained that I lived just up the road, had previously worked as a Front of House usher at Chichester Festival Theatre and would love to volunteer. She seemed interested and took down my details to pass on to her manager. I never heard anything. I went back and repeated this process three more times, spoke to three different people all of whom said someone would get in touch. Nothing. Why put a poster up? 


Hearing nothing from the theatre is something I have got used to. I don't get any emails from them (I've booked online so must be on their list) I spend half my life on events websites and never see them mentioned. They have never requested a review from RemoteGoat (unlike most other local fringe theatres like the Brockley Jack and indeed Fairfield Halls who do so every time they have a professional play on.) I don't see posters or ads, I get nothing through my front door or through Facebook. I go to the theatre all the bloody time, I get an email about a new show somewhere in London about every 5 minutes. If the Warehouse are not marketing at me, who are they marketing to?

5. Because The Warehouse Theatre is not engaged with the local theatre scene
Maybe there just isn't the demand for a small theatre showing professional shows just up the road from Fairfield and right next to a station from which you can be in the West End in 15 minutes. OK. But there is a screaming demand for a space that the many high-quailty non-professional Croydon-based theatre groups can hire to perform. Breakfast Cat and Exit have to go out to Carshalton to perform at the Charles Cryer, while CODA continue to bankrupt themselves hiring the Ashcroft.


Why on earth couldn't The Warehouse rent out it's theatre for a week once in a while to these groups? I think their audience would have loved Macbeth. We could have done it for a few nights at the Ashcroft and a few at the Cryer. It would have sold out, we would have paid them for the space AND, importantly, it would have brought to the theatre a wealth of new local audience members who they could have marketed all their other shows, professional and non-professional, to. There is no reason a theatre can't show both quality local theatre and great professional shows. The Spring in Havant might not be perfect but it has a theatre programme The Warehouse should be green with envy at, everything from Brecht from The Bench, improv comedy from SOOP, internationally renowned companies on tour like Faulty Optic, and Proteus and more than one cracking young people's theatre group too. The Spring (or Havant Arts Centre as it used to be rather more sensibly known) and the amazing groups who perform there are the reason I am interested in theatre today.




People reading this might be muttering to yourselves that I don't understand what The Warehouse is about. I'm not the target market. It has a closed membership. Explain it to me. Explain why, for me, this little theatre in my town is not the beating heart of my theatre world. Because I should love it. I should be furious that it is closing. And I am, but I am as furious with them for failing as I am with Croydon Council and the Arts Council and the businesses who are not renting office space in Croydon and the businesses flogging the offices making them too expensive so companies like the one I work for decide we can only afford to operate in East Grinstead and relocate. I have enough rage to go around, believe me. 


The only thing I love about living in Croydon* is the community of friends I have in the local theatre groups. The Warehouse could be a centre for this love and community. It would make people's lives better, it could reduce crime, improve Croydon's reputation, boost the local economy and make hundreds of people happier and prouder to live here. Sounds far fetched, but imagine Havant without The Spring. That should make The Warehouse a priority. So let's save it ...and change it! This is my wishlist for The Warehouse:


What I would do if I was God and could do whatever I wanted with The Warehouse Theatre
- Relocate it to the Croydon Clocktower
- Have a resident non-professional local theatre company who perform there 3 times a year
- Rent out the theatre by the week OR by the hour to local non-professional companies
- Offer a programme of touring theatre companies and professional shows, including popular favourites like Dick Barton and plays which are on the syllabus in local schools 
- Hold live music events
- Extend the existing young people's theatre club to start from age 7, a younger group meeting separately to the older group.
- Hire Stephanie Darkes to market the theatre to the Croydon community
- Relaunch with a Croydon Playwriting competition in which plays written and submitted by local writers are performed by the resident theatre company and the winner is voted by the audiences
- Install a second hand book shop in the theatre with an extensive play section
- Get rid of the local Council and instate some people who cared about the arts and could see the benefit of the above to the local community so they would fund it
- Hire myself to run it all


Anyway that's enough ranting blog for today. If you disagree with my condemnations of The Warehouse, the Council or the Government please do comment. In my opinion the internet is all about creating a massive argument. And your views are as valid as mine, unless or course you're wrong which I'll happily point out for you. Also do you think this font is easier to read?




*Apart from the excellent transport links to London and the rent being cheaper than nicer places.

On the radio

On Sunday I was a guest on the Nat Nollid show hosted by the lovely Rebecca Burge on ONFM.

The main guest on the show was Justus Emman, a fascinating guy who writes books and was on the show to talk about Voodoo. This meant that as well as theatre I had to talk about my opinions on Voodoo and its practice in the UK.

So for interested parties I include below a cut down version of some of what Mr Emman was saying, with my contribution towards the end:

Discussing Voodoo on the Nat Nollid show with Rebecca Burge by Ellie Dawes

And here is a recording of our discussion of this blog, theatre and what to look out for on the stage in 2012!

Ellie Dawes discusses theatre 2012 on the Nat Nollid show with Rebecca Burge by Ellie Dawes

I talk about this production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Haymarket's Tempest and The God of Soho at the Globe. I also naturally plug Breakfast Cat Theatre's upcoming version of Macbeth!

The Twitter account I'm talking about, which I've set up to promote Macbeth, can be found here, please follow and retweet it!

Please forgive my clumsy editing! You can listen to the whole show, with the full fascinating discussion with Justus, on Rebecca's website.

36 - Peer Gynt, Theatre Collection at the Lord Stanley in Camden

Theatre Collection use physical theatre and dance in a bare studio space to tell the story of Ibsen's Peer Gynt like a fairy tale. There was some skilful physical theatre, the highlight for me was when all the actors came together to create the Troll king, simple techniques like using another actor's hands as his own meant the central figure was able to represent an otherworldly creature in a really effective way.

I also loved the dark comedy when Peer came across what appeared to be an asylum in Egypt. Sebastian Canciglia as the raving Egyptian introducing the madmen was brilliantly comic and disturbing.

There was scarcely much of Ibsen's epic play remaining which meant that from the start the piece was very fast-paced. This meant that as I didn't know the play very well I felt a little confused about what the bigger questions of the text were and what it was saying. After seeing Ibsen's Emporer and Galilean at The National where you come away thinking about the human condition, religion and our place in the world, I found it a little difficult to adjust to taking Peer Gynt more as a simple fairy tale. However as the play is very narrative and there was a narrator figure guiding us through the plot was not difficult to follow.

The fast pace made the play into a series of strange visions, rather like being in someone else's dream which was complemented by the live music and interesting instruments the cast used. This was really clever and helped create the traditional story telling atmosphere.

There was also some lovely singing particularly the refrain from Nicola Fox playing Peer's love Solveig who waits for him and grows old as he travels the world.

Oliver Hollis-Leick played Peer Gynt very convincingly both as a young and impulsive dreamer and later as a more reflective older man. His charismatic and naive charm made him the ideal central fairytale hero, which was in ironic contrast to his flawed actions.

Don't go to see this to see Ibsen, go to see a slice of traditional skilful storytelling and you will enjoy it immensely.

35 - The Tempest, Haymarket

This was an enjoyable production but unfortunately my enjoyment was marred by 3 things. Firstly the seat in the balcony were ridiculously tiny and uncomfortable. Secondly Ariel and his the other spirits were camp rather than androgenous which I found a bit annoying. Thirdly I just didn't think the production was as effective as the Old Vic's last year which had a simplicity that this production lacked.

Oh I also thought Caliban was not savage or alien enough. When Caliban is too human, and played by the only black man on stage, the play just feels vaguely racist.

28 - Confusions, Charles Cryer

James and I directed this and I was really pleased with how it went. Clearly I can't write a review of my own play so here instead is someone else's:


Not sure what to make of 'competently directed' and would have thought he might mention our scene changer skits in between plays and other clever things we added to the script. However it is a positive review and mentions a few of the actors' names which is the important thing. On the whole I'd describe this as competently reviewed.


Here are some pictures, taken by Rafal Lacki http://photo.mackraph.co.uk:

28 - Jeffery Bernard is unwell

This hilarious tour-de-force by Robert Powell seemed to give us a glimpse of a time that has now passed. A time when journalists could get drunk and fail to turn in articles and no-one seemed to mind particularly. It was an evening of nostalgia for many in the audience.

The play takes place in a pub in Soho where Jeffery Bernard has managed to get locked in overnight and wakes up to find himself trapped. Unperturbed he begins helping himself to the spirits behind the bar and regales us with anecdotes and descriptions of the colourful characters he has met living a life of hard-drink, gambling and womanising.

Watching the play is like having the good fortune to sit with someone in the pub who has not only led a fascinating life but also has the skill to tell you about it in a witty and engaging fashion. Robert Powell was a surprisingly cheerful Jeffery Bernard, I think we were expecting a little bit more bitterness from the character but his performance was altogether more philosophical. He was assisted in telling his hilarious tales by a strong supporting cast who emerged in the pub, conjured by Jeffery's imagination and memories, as dozens of different characters each one different and engaging.

26 - Abigail's Party, CODA

I really enjoyed this production by CODA. The performances were very funny and the set, and in particular the costumes, were spot on.

The person I was with did admit to being slightly irritated by the similarity of this production to the film. However as I didn't remember anything about the film this wasn't a problem for me!

It was a shame the audience was a bit sparse in the massive venue. I think the production would have benefited from a smaller theatre which would have made it much easier to create the atmosphere for a single set character piece like this one.

25 - Much Ado About Nothing, Wyndhams Theatre

Having spent 6 hours on the booking line trying to get tickets to see David Tennant's Hamlet last year with no success, I was ridiculously excited to get seats to see him and Catherine Tate in Much Ado.

Judging by the audience reactions I wasn't the only one a little bit in love with David Tennant. From the minute he arrived on stage driving a golf buggy, his every word was met with cheers. I thought, that's going to get annoying. However the fans calmed down after a while and we were able to enjoy the play.

And we really did enjoy it. The production is set in gibratar in the 1980's and was full of great culture references from rubix cubes to massive speakers. They occasioanlly were a bit gimmicky but really created the atmosphere.

The best scene in the play came when the men and women split up to go out for a hen night, and stag do before the wedding. It's difficult to create the amosphere of a club on stage but this production really capturd it. The set rotated to reveal scenes from both nights out in turn, from women dancing around their handbags to the men getting lap dances from a stripper culminating in the scene where Don John's leitenant has sex with margaret up against the wall in an alleyway. This graphic representation of a scene which is traditionally left off stage made it easier to sympathise with Claudio, because Margaret was wearing Hero's veil it was very easy to see how he was deceived.

Catherine Tate was very well cast as Beatrice. At times she reverted to comedy faces we recognised from her TV impressions and she did look like a TV actor placed on stage. However her character was believeable, the way she rcited the verse was very accesible and funny and I felt like she held her own.

David Tennant though is a great stage actor. I was prepared to feel a bit sorry for the other actors, particularly those playing Hero and Claudio. But actually it wasn't that they were not famous, they actually didn't have as much stage presence as Tennant.

This was a great production for capturing atmosphere. As well as the night club, there was also the wedding scene, which opened with the chairs being set up and a child just running excitedly round the room. Simple touches like this projected the image of 'family wedding' and made you feel it instantly, a bit like watching a John Lewis advert.

The watchmen were hilarious and really cracked us up. The final great touch was the music: Shakesperian song lyrics set to 80's pop style tunes. Watching the actors dance to 'hey nonny nonny' with Adam Ant dance moves was a joy.

24 - London Road, National Theatre

I don't have a lot of time to write a review of this performance so here's a rushed one!

I was really lucky to get a last minute return ticket for this as it seems to be sold out forever and no wonder. It's so refreshing to see something unlike anything I've seen before. London Road is a musical but one presented entirely by a chorus without any specific main characters. The lyrics and all the lines are spoken in that very specific way of talking that a next door neighbour uses when you point a local news camera at them.

It's clever, funny and surprisingly for a production about prostitutes murdered in Ipswich, uplifting. That's because it's not really about the prostitutes who only feature briefly or the murderer Steve Wright who we don't see at all. It's about a very English community bonding over a tragedy, discovering pride they didn't know they had for their area until people on the news started calling it a red light district.

The songs feature catchy refrains including 'Everyone is very very nervous and very uncertain of everything, basically' or 'I've got 17 hanging baskets in this back garden believe it or not' or 'You automatically think 'it could be him' yeah, I'm just gonna, like, cry.' They are by turns hilarious and unsettling.

The characters that emerge are not stereotypes, but they are as recognisable as if they were. They are the bloke next door who dropped your post round, or that woman who Gordon Brown called a bigot on TV. The audience warms to them because they are so clearly people they know, even though we're not told any of their back story or even their names (until a few of them, right at the end when they are announced as the winners of a gardening competition.)

I thought the production would show an overly optimistic view of a community banding together, but it didn't. Some of the community were pleased that the murders had at least driven the prostitutes from the end of their road. Some of them enjoyed seeing their house on TV and followed the trial as if it were a soap opera. As their road is shut off by police, most quickly begin to feel more inconvenienced than shocked or depressed. The whole play is very real, and offers a snapshot into human existence. I love it.

Here's an interview with the playwright:

23 - The Winslow boy, One Off Productions

I really enjoyed the acting performances in this well constructed production.

The play is about the Winslow family. One day the youngest son Ronnie is sent home from the Royal Naval College accused of stealing a postal order. His expulsion and his protests that he didn't commit the crime he was accused of result in his father starting a long legal battle against the college to fight for a fair trial for his son.

The costs of the trial tear the family apart. Ronnie's sister Kate's engagement is in jeopardy, his brother Dickie is forced to drop out of his degree when funds run low and his father's heath rapidly deteriorates leaving him in a bath chair. We are watching someone sacrificing everything so they can stand up for what they believe is right.

The play at times was a little dry and tedious but these moments were dispersed with great displays by the vivid characters which made it all of a sudden a joy to watch. The father, Mr Winslow, was charismatic but not too over the top. He had great comic timing, I particularly enjoyed the scene where he had to discuss with John Watherstone his prospects of marrying Kate which was very funny.

The real star of the show was the actor playing Violet the over famililar maid who the family were 'constantly having to explain to people.' She was I'm afraid too old for the part, the text described her joining them from an orphanage but she seemed far too close in age to Mr and Mrs Winslow. However I'm very glad the company cast her anyway as her interjections were the funniest in the play, particularly her account of the final verdict towards the end.

I also thought the boy playing the young Ronnie Winslow gave a very accomplished performance for his age, his acting was both varied and believable.

The benefit of the play being set all in one room was the company was able to put together an excellent naturalistic set. I did think it was a shame that they chose to have a couple of essential elements of the room invisible on the fourth wall (a bell which Mr Winslow pushed to summon Violet and later the curtains which were discussed at length by a female journalist.) This device didn't fit in with the style of the production and felt a bit like a cop-out. An unnecessary one too: when they had managed to source a gramophone and build French doors surely some fancy curtains would not have proved much of a problem?

On the whole though a very polished production which was a credit to the company. Very well done to all involved.

22 - Most Drink in Secret, FellSwoop at The Spring

Daisy and I took a bit of a risk and took my little cousin Aiden to see this Checkov adaptation. Checkov is pretty weighty stuff and I didn't want Aiden to be bored. But as this was a young and emerging company I had confidence they would bring something different to The Seagull, and I was right. The performance was fresh, engaging and funny.

This was a three man show with each actor playing 2 or 3 characters. Fiona Mikel was a joy to watch, she differentiated the characters without making them too over the top or stereotypical. Another favourite was Clem Garritty as the hilarious chirpy doctor character who is sleeping with the gloomy Masha.

The introduction of modern music, with characters stepping out of the action and singing into a mic was interesting. I liked the way it broke up the action and added to the atmosphere, the songs were performed beautifully with the other actors playing props as percussion instruments.

I'm not sure the modernisation of the play was entirely successful. I liked that the play had been made into a film and it made it much more believable that Anna would not be sure about how good the final film was even though she was in it having not seen the final cut. However I think more recent political references could have been bought into the conversations about censorship and the arts as sometimes these felt a bit anachronistic where I wasn't sure what was referring to modern Russia and what had simply been taken from The Seagull.

There was great theatricality in the play, the way it looked has clearly been very well blocked and thought out. Clever moments included Garitty holding a drawer to become a chest of drawers, and Fiona Mikel and Bertrand Lesca standing up holding a duvet in front of them and a bedside lamp with the top of it facing the audience, so it was like we were seeing them sleeping in bed from above.

I also liked that they had a live goldfish on stage in a bowl in the centre of the table. It's funny how having a live unpredictable animal on stage, even if it's just a fish, makes a performance seem more spontaneous, lively and keeps the audience rivetted from the start. Particularly after the line 'swear on this fish's life,' I kept glancing back at the fish to check if it was still alive, and thinking how awful it would be if it died during the show.

I'm not entirely sure what the company was hoping to bring to Checkov by adapting it, or whther they wanted to say anything new. Perhaps they were showing that arguments about what is valid as art and what art is for are the same today as they were in 1895. Or perhaps they just borrowed a great story to create an exciting new piece of theatre. Either way this is definately worth a watch, and will transfer to Bristol's Tobacco Factory in June.

21- Project Snowflake by Sasha C. Damjanovski at Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

As Brockley Jack studio theatre is right near James' house we thought it was high time we checked it out and headed over there to see Project Snowflake.

It's a cracking little theatre with friendly front of house, really comfy seats and an eclectic offering, round the back of a nice bar which looked like it served very tasty food.

Project Snowflake is set in an Orwellian future, year 2060. The main characters Martha and Jeremy work in the Creativy Institute a branch of the government where their lives are tightly controlled. If they do not meet their targets at work they risk losing their jobs, and in Martha's case, her 'baby licence.' Unfortunately for Martha and Jeremy, their target is to turn their invention, a dream recorder, into a dream manipulator which will make the wearer have happy dreams.

The play started off really well, with a scene between the two main characters Martha and Jeremy in which Martha says nothing but read out case reports which Jeremy repeats as he types them into an appropriately futuristic looking computer. We see the relationship develop between the two of them as they bicker, flirt and sulk, all without saying anything other than reading the reports. When they do not work quickly enough an alarm goes off, and when Martha goes to make coffee she displays the cups to a wheeled security camera she takes with her at all times. Jeremy has a personal camera too, as do all the employees, it monitors their work progress and every word. This first scene cleverly introduced the characters and situation without clunky exposition and I really enjoyed it.

There were several examples like this of clever writing. My favourite was a very funny argument between two high up executives in the organisation, where they prefaced every insult they threw at each other with a lengthy disclaimer to say the following statement was their personal view and may not represent the views of their company or department.

The plot of the play could have used some more work, it seemed to cop out at the end without showing any real conclusion which left us feeling dissatisfied. There were a couple of confusing holes in the plot: why did Martha and Jeremy go from typing up reports, administrative work, to working in a lab on the dream recorder? Also one smaller character came on stage without a camera on wheels, seemingly because they didn't have enough of them backstage. Maybe there was reasoning behind that but if so I couldn't spot it.

The play was billed as if it would tackle the moral dilemma of whether it is ethical for the government department to control people's dreams. But this was only briefly mentioned and the main focus was the fate of the two main characters should they fail. This meant we were rooting for them to find a way to build the required machine, which I'm not quite sure was what the playwright intended.

Despite there being some aspects of the play that didn't work, there were some great ideas here, and some very engaging performances. Well worth the fringe ticket price.

18 - The Graduate, CODA at the Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon

There were some strong performances in this production of The Graduate which were a joy to watch. Danielle Lautier was an enigmatic and very sexy Mrs Robinson, perfectly cast. Christopher Rudd was engaging as the young graduate Benjamin who she seduces. His wide ranging performance had the right balance of stuttering insecurity and arrogant rebellion. I also particularly enjoyed David Sanders’ performance as Ben’s father Frank which was very funny.

I quite liked the atmospheric set but there were too many clunky and slow scene changes for me which left me feeling like this hadn’t been an entirely successfully adaptation for the stage. The muted palate of the set also made the scenes very samey especially as the characters spend most of the play sitting about talking nonsense.

They just don’t talk or act like real people these characters, and this is a problem with the play rather than the actors in this production. Elaine seems to impress Ben on their first date with her intelligent and sparkling conversation, but later she’s presented as an unoriginal thinker who has simply acted to please her parents all her life. She finds out her mother has slept with her boyfriend, then hangs around drinking with her all afternoon like a world-weary pragmatist. But she isn’t one, she’s supposed to be a relatively naive young women, who surely would react to the news by locking herself in her room, crying and playing pop music.

These undeveloped characters might work in a novel where their changeability and unrealistic nature might come across as existentialism or surrealism. (I can’t be sure, I haven’t read it.) But in a naturalistically acted play they were just irritating.

It felt a bit like this play had been wheeled out by CODA as an audience-pleaser because it was a popular film and men love to see a sexy cougar. But I was less than pleased, because the play pretended to have something clever to say about the human condition and in the end I don’t think it did. I want to see an experienced and well-established group like CODA in the large Ashcroft theatre give me as an audience member a bit more credit and put on some good plays rather than movie blockbusters please. Let’s have some Checkov next time, or better yet some Brecht.

17 - If Destroyed Still True, Sedated by a Brick at Tobacco Factory Theatre, Bristol

Sedated by a Brick is a performance company featuring Fraisia Dunn, Neil Puttick and Gareth Mayer, who has been my friend since we were both five. Gareth and I have a long-standing agreement to differ on our views of theatre and performance: Gareth thinks I don’t ‘get’ his kind of contemporary performance and I think no one does and people pretend to ‘get it’ because they are pretentious and anyway can’t we just go and see a nice Shakespeare? In the good natured spirit of this long-standing clash of perspectives I hope he won’t mind me reviewing their latest production from my perspective.

All three members of Sedated by a Brick are talented performers and they have a knack for presenting strong imagery on stage. If Destroyed Still True is a classic example of their style: a collision between theatre and performance art. However I felt that it was just missing the most vital elements of both, and reinstating these would turn it into a more powerful theatrical experience.

Theatre is about telling stories. This performance hinted at a story, but didn’t present us with any characters so we were not emotionally involved enough to care. And there were not quite enough hints for us to piece together a story out of the string of vaguely connected images we were shown.

Performance art on the other hand, and actually I think all art, should be about emoting an emotional response from the person watching it or putting across a message or thought of some kind. When I have seen iconic performance art in the past I have felt strongly afterwards: whether disturbed, upset, amused, drained. Here too I don’t think this performance quite succeeds. Because we didn’t have any context for the events or characters, we didn’t know what was happening and couldn’t derive anything from it. An image I particularly liked involved Gareth breathing into the mouth of an inanimate Fraisia who is lying next to Neil with their necks overlapping. Gareth then compresses Fraisia’s chest and this action inflates Neil’s chest. He compresses Neil’s chest and as he breathes out, Fraisia’s chest inflates again. This action seems to imply Gareth is resurrecting the inanimate figures and bringing them back to life, but this conflicts with what he does shortly afterwards- removing their clothes and wrapping Fraisia, Neil and the clothes in bin liners. This left me confused and with the impression that the performance didn’t actually communicate anything.

In the bar afterwards another member of the audience said it a disdaining tone of voice ‘there were a lot of people laughing in the audience.’ I said ‘yeah, it was funny.’ And at many points it was. Whether developing this piece further or working on their next project, Sedated by a Brick should look hard at the audience’s response and build on it. Organic performance like this can’t be about deciding how the audience should respond to something and then, if they react differently, dismissing them as not intelligent enough. Happily Sedated by a Brick are a company that is interested in the audience’s reaction to their work, to the extent that in the foyer after the performance we were invited to react to it by finishing a basis line drawing of a face which was printed on the back of the programme. These were put up on the wall for everyone to see and added to the mood of creativity among the audience who had just emerged. Conversations about interpreting the piece were flying around the bar and I liked the way the performance had provoked discussion among so many different people.

Sedated by a Brick are a talented and experimental group. By polishing their production and feeding from the audience responses they have provoked I think they will continue to develop and produce divisive and challenging work. Go and see their next production and let me know what you think, I’ll be there.

16 - Richard II, Tobacco Factory Bristol

I love adaptations of Shakespare, but it is nice to know some companies are still producing productions which concentrate on and showcase the language and poetry of the plays.

This deceptively simple staging was cleverly blocked for a theatre with audience sitting on all sides. The simple set consisted of a few pieces of set bought on for some scenes with a wooden throne like the one in the best known picture of Richard II framed from behind by a lovely stained glass set of doors. The setting was dressed by the fabulous costumes, flowing coats, authentic-looking fabrics and each person had a distinctively different outfit.

This was a very strong cast, we particularly enjoyed Benjamin Whitrow's performance as John of Gaunt chastising the King on his death bed, and he returned in the second half to give another engaging performance as the gardener.

The real star of the show of was Richard II, played by John Heffernan. Before his deposition he strode around the stage like a spoiled child, occasionally throwing a hilarious tantrum. But when he realised his kingdom had been won from him, we felt genuinely sorry for him. I felt like he was a young man who had been cruelly deceived into thinking his position as king was divinely appointed and therefore unshakable and watching him disillusioned was very affecting. When he wasn't on stage, although the other actors were all great, I felt eager for him to appear again and he represented a complicated character with a wide range.

It was a bit of a shock to find the play didn't seem to have been cut at all. I didn't expect to be emerging from the theatre at 11.20 and if the length was a little bit much for me it was certainly a killer for the large group of young girls sitting around us who I think were on a school or college trip. One of them fell asleep half way through the second half and while they were well behaved and polite they were certainly getting restless by the end, as was I. By the time Richard's moving speech in the tower came up and he proclaimed "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me" my immediate reaction was "tell me about it!"

That aside it was lovely to see the play in a way which showcased the beautiful language and I'd definately recommend this production to Shakespeare fans.

15 - The Children's Hour, Comedy Theatre

And so I return to the West End, this time to see The Children's Hour.

Forgive this rather hurried review here, I'm a few behind after a busy period of seeing 3 plays a week so I'm ahead on play viewing but a bit behind on play reviewing.

This was an engaging play. The heartbreaking tale of what happens when a little girl doesn't like it at school so she tells a lie, that the two teachers are engaged in a lesbian love affair. Immediately as the story spreads, all the parents pull their daughters out of the school and the reputation, business and lives of the two teachers are ruined. I love Keira Knightly on stage, she's not the most stellar stage presence ever but she is an enthalling and watchable actor. Elisabeth Moss was also enrgetic and gave a heart-tugging performance. I also enjoyed seeing Bryony Hannah as the obstinate young Mary who tells the lie who I saw in Earthquakes in London, one of my favourite plays of last year. She was vulnerable and frightening by turn, a really complex character.

While I enjoyed the production it did leave me a bit bemused though about why this play was being revived. It's from the 30s when they didn't say 'lesbian' and even this script about a lesbian romance that didn't happen was banned for being offensive. But we don't really live in that world any more. Surely there are plays that would say something about the kinds of prejudice gay people experience in today's world that would be more relevant and still get the audience rush that combining the words 'Kiera Knightly' and 'Lesbian' have no doubt provided. Compare it to the refreshing modern and relevant reinterpretation of The Misanthrope, Knightley's recent West End debut, and this all falls a little flat.

12- Hanging Hooke by Siobhán Nicholas, Take the Space

It's a great feeling when you go to the theatre and are told a new story you have never heard before.

Hanging Hooke tells the story of Robert Hooke. Before seeing the play I thought I knew that Saint Paul's Cathedral was designed by Christophen Wren. Turns out he designed it with Robert Hooke, a man who until now I'd never heard of.

I'm not alone in this. This relatively new play written by Siobhán Nicholas, tells the story of a man effectively written out of history. And not just any man, Hooke is described as the English Leonardo Da Vinci. He is a gifted architect and engineer, he designed a prototype flying machine, a clock that would work on a ship and some of the most sophisticated microscopes and telescopes of the day. He was also a fine artist, drawing amazing illustrations for the books he published on the natural world. He was a scientific genius, he wrote about natural selection before Darwin, figured out gravity before Isaac Newton and is the person who told us all how springs worked.

In the first part of the play Chris Barnes plays the painter Jack Hoskins, describing his friend Hooke who he brought to London as a child. He is working on a painting of Hooke and turns the easel around for the audience to see. When he does so, we realise that the props on stage feature in the painting and he moves them into place to mirror its composition. Then he takes his place amongst them and removes his coat to reveal the same suit Hooke is wearing. As he steps into the painting he transforms before our eyes into Hooke himself. The physical difference between the two characters is starling. As Jack Hoskins, Barnes moved precisely and sedately and the character had a quiet contemplative tone. As Hooke, he hunches over and walks with a limp, but nevertheless darts around the stage with a feverish energy, particularly when describing his scientific theories. One experiment he decribes features Hooke encased in a sealed tank before an audience, from which the air is gradually pumped. Barnes recreates this painful and disconcerting feeling by standing on his head in the middle of the stage while describing it, an impressive feat. The character's passion and enthusiasm for his subject is infectious and we feel as passionate and fascinated as he is. This really drew the audience in to empathise with Hooke, I felt real affection and love for the character. So when Hooke discovers he has been betrayed, his ideas stolen and his name written out of history we are enraged and heartbroken on his behalf.

For this play is no dry scientific lecture, it has a plot as compelling as Dan Brown's Da Vinci code, (only well written and not based on a load of conspiracy theory guff.) Hooke has a brainwave and comes up with a theory of gravity, how it keeps planets in orbit around the sun and how all things attract each other. He writes to Newton who he feels would be the ideal colleague to aid him in working out the specific mathematical ratios for this but doesn't receive a reply. A number of years later Newton publishes a book with Hooke's idea in it and claims it as his own. He destroys Hooke's portrait hanging in the halls of the Royal Society and works to discredit and remove him from office. Finally he sends a fellow member of the shadowy secret college, bound to him by a secret oath, to steal Hooke's folio of papers, the only records Hooke has of his work and ideas. The man Newton sends is none other than Hooke's oldest friend, the painter Jack Hoskins.

It's all just so interesting. Just the facts of the story are gripping but add in the fascinating 17th Century scientific theories and the lovable tragic character bought to life so skillfully by Chris Barnes and you have a real masterpiece.

8 - The Long and the Short and the Tall, Breakfast Cat Theatre directed by Tia Matthews

Occasionally, maybe once a year, a production comes along that really raises the bar for local non-professional companies. This was that production for 2011.

Willis Hall's captivating play set in British Malaya in 1942 raises questions about war, and what it does to people. The characters are a cross section of British society at the time: a Welshman, a Scouser, a Scotsman, Londoner, Northerner, etc. This alone poses challenges for actors; performing with an accent is one thing but producing a convincing accent when the rest of the cast around you are each speaking completely different accents is quite a feat. This cast rose to the challenge admirably and though I'm sure the eagle-eared could have found the occasional slip I was very impressed by how well they all accomplished this. They also managed to avoid plying stereotypes and each came across as very real, and each very different characters. This meant most people in the audience could recognise ourselves in one or other of the characters, forcing us to imagine how we might act in their situation.

This of course adds to the poignancy when these very ordinary men are faced with the extraordinary circumstances of war. We watch them struggle to fit in together, cope with authority just as we would in their position. And then, when a Japanese prisoner stumbles into their midst, we watch them struggle with the realities of war, and the big question of the play: does everyone have it in them to kill a man?

There are no easy answers to be found in the play. The officers Mitchem and Johnstone find the decision to kill the prisoner and give their patrol a better change of survival easier to make. They are more experienced at war, hardened towards making these decisions. Peter French as Johnstone was scary and a bully with just the right amount of menace to be intimidating but managed to avoid playing the character as a snarling stereotype. Scott Nicholson had a difficult role as a likable Sergent Mitcham. His obvious concern for his men was apparent but he has still just harsh enough, keeping them in line with an authoritative tone.

What was really impressive about the acting performances was the actors' performances when they had long amounts of time on stage without any lines. At one point I glanced at Jay Rolfe, playing the young Private Whitaker, during a tense moment and his face was such a wonderful expression of wide-eyed fear I wanted to go on stage and give him a hug. Of course the actor who had to do the most of this silent acting was Andy K as the Japanese soldier. His shaking with fear when he was first captured was brilliant and he really made us sympathise with him right from his entrance.

Roberto Prestoni brought the energy and pace to the stage as the rebellious Private Bamforth. He coped particularly well with the period slang, putting across what he was saying even though we didn't always understand every word. He and Tony Bannister as a lovable private Evans both brought out the humour in the play and really made me laugh.

The costumes were excellent and had real attention to detail, down to chocolate squares wrapped in brown paper and realistic sweat patches (added, I am reliably informed, artificially). These and a simple but effective set gave this production a professional feel and I was so pleased the cast lived up to this presentation and gave such polished performances. There really were no weak links. Next time you get the chance to get involved with Breakfast Cat, or see their next production, make sure you jump at the chance.


Photograph by Vicky Walters.

7 - Macbeth - Ashcroft Theatre Croydon

Walking into the theatre to see this production of Macbeth there was a thin cloud of fog in the air, setting the scene for an atmospheric production.

The witches, not as ghoulish as in some productions but quite creepy, were seated on the floor as they were for most of their scenes. This rather static staging meant their performance, while accomplished and interesting, was rather reined back. I don't quite like the modern idea that over the top dramatic and gory witches detract from the play and always find it a bit disappointing when they are just sitting there talking.

I was also slightly disappointed by Banquo's ghost scene, in which Banquo was noticeable by his absence. Instead Macbeth shouted at a spotlight on an empty chair while the others watched amazed. At first I thought, as other productions have done, they would play the scene again after the interval with the bloody spectre visible to the audience this time but this didn't happen. Strange, as this wasn't a production afraid of showing violence, later Macduff's family and Macbeth himself are killed on stage.

A great cast and a well cut script made this production enjoyable and pacy. Christopher Lane as Macbeth shone in the later scenes, emerging through the fog like a demon. His transformation from loyal soldier to inhuman tyrant was electric and highlighted the way his soul had been warped by the act of murdering his king. I didn't think his relationship with Lady Macbeth, played by Joanna Nevin, had much chemistry in their scenes together. However she too really shone in the later scenes and her wail in the sleepwalking scene was heartbreaking.

One thing I really didn't like about the production was the odd lighting. Whenever someone was giving a soliloquy they would suddenly change the lighting and put a spotlight on them. I would prefer a lighting designer to give me a bit more credit as an audience member. Yes. I get it. They are talking to themselves and other people can't hear them. It's not that complicated. And the moment in Macbeth's death scene when he moved and the spotlight had to move with him, rather slower than he did, was just painful. However this would make the play easier to follow for someone less familiar with the text. Other touches, like the army marching in holding actual trees, and the way the text had been cut down, made me think this would be an ideal production for school or college groups, and I hope some will go to this and Romeo and Juliet which the company will also be performing later this week.

There was a really great moment at the end of the production where Macduff stabbed Macbeth with his own crown, then in the next scene placed the still bloodied crown on the head of Malcolm. (Yet another) spotlight highlighted a young Fleance stood stage right looking over at Malcolm. It suggested that the violence in pursuit of power would inevitably continue, a modern twist reminiscent of a thriller film.

Great to have such an enjoyable Shakespeare production on our doorstep in Croydon. Go and see it.