Amelie

Review by: Paul Towers, 9/7/19

Amelie by Craig Lucas, Daniel Messe & Nathan Tysen

Haymarket Leicester 9 – 13 July 2019

“My verdict? In the vernacular of the youngsters today, meh!”

The set of Amelie is a work of art. Doors slide back and forth to reveal hidden rooms and Amelie’s bedroom is entertainingly perched atop the set in the style of a Hobbit house.

The story starts off with Amelie as a toddler, imagined adorably realistic in puppet form. Along the way there are several surreal elements, at times almost like a Terry Gilliam movie. Amelie has had a terrible childhood with an icy mother and a wanting father. She is socially secluded and views the world through a telescope. When she spots a boy she fancies she has to devise a roundabout way to meet him. At least, that’s what I think it is about.

The score is reminiscent of Once, folksy and almost Irish in tempo.

I have never seen the film and, apparently, watching the film will make more sense of the stage musical.

It’s not a bad show; the instrument playing ensemble are perfectly good instrumentalists, they can also act and sing. The leading actors can sing and act well enough. But the narrative, in ‘Allo ‘Allo French accents, is often hard to follow and the story is not at all clear. My verdict? In the vernacular of the youngsters today, meh!

I assume that the leads are played by Audrey Brisson and Danny Mac but there were no programmes available so I haven’t a clue. As for the rest of the cast, your guess is as good as mine.

Amelie is at Haymarket until Saturday 13^th July

Haymarket Theatre - https://www.haytheatre.com/

Upstairs at The Western http://upstairsatthewestern.com/
First published on Western Gazette

The Color Purple

Review by: Paul Towers, 03/7/19

The Color Purple by Marsha Norman
with music by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephan Bray 

Directed by Tinuke Craig

A Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome co-production

Curve 28 June to 13 July
Birmingham Hippodrome 16 to 20 July 2019

“T’shan Williams as Celie has a voice to bring the house down”

On the off chance that you have not seen the multi award nominated film The Color Purple is the story of Celie and her appalling abusive childhood where she is raped by her step father (Delroy Brown) at the age of fourteen who then takes away her two resulting children. Celie is given away to a friend of her step father, Albert (Ako Mitchell), who continues the cycle of use and abuse, isolating her from her sole family member, sister Nettie (Danielle Fiamanya). Cowed and used as a skivvy Celie meekly accepts her lot in life til she sees friend Sofia stand up to her husband, giving him the beating he threatened her with.

Having had a lifetime of men using her Celie turns to Shug (Joanna Francis), a travelling jazz singer and starts a lesbian affair with her.

The first half of this musical is a litany of unrelenting domestic abuse and I found it difficult to watch. It seemed that the characters had barely shaken off the oppression of the old slave masters than they were trapped in a similar cycle of abuse by their own kind. The women especially seem to be controlled by both their menfolk and the church.

However, the second half starts to pick up as Celie finally finds her voice, breaks free of Albert’s cruelty and goes to live with Shug and her latest lover in Memphis, far from her roots in Georgia. With freedom she also discovers she has a gift for making pants and returns to open a shop left to her by her step father.

T’shan Williams as Celie has a voice to bring the house down, which she does spectacularly with I’m Here, especially. Much needed comic lightness is provided by Karen Mavundukure as Sofia (the Oprah Winfrey role in the film).

Writing a musical about such awful unrelenting abuse and making it entertaining must have been very difficult but you do come out of the theatre feeling that at least Celie has found peace and is her own woman

The set is very clever, a clapboard background that has various rooms sliding in and out while animations are projected onto it for effect.

This musical, originally produced on Broadway in 2005, is based on the Steven Spielberg film of 1985 starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. This in turn was taken from the original 1982 book by Alice Walker.

The Color Purple is at Curve until 13 July when it moves to Birmingham Hippodrome on 16 July. Tickets are still available

Curve http://curveonline.co.uk
First published on Western Gazette

Afterglow

 

Review by: Paul Towers, 2/7/19

Afterglow by S Asher Gelman

An Adam Roebuck, Aaron Quintana and Justin Coffman presentation directed by Tom O’Brien

Southwark Playhouse, London 5 June to 20 July 2019

“a cautionary tale of an open relationship”

Dealing with nudity in a play is a difficult tightrope to tread. Timing it wrong and it becomes much more important than the story it is trying to tell. Afterglow solves this dilemma by starting this production naked from the start. It gets any audience embarrassment out of the way immediately.

Afterglow is a cautionary tale of how an open relationship can quickly turn sour. The fact that it is about a gay couple is fairly inconsequential although staging it with a straight couple would derail the narrative and it would end up just looking exploitative.

Josh (Sean Hart) and Alex (Danny Mahoney) are in a long standing relationship. They love each other deeply and are awaiting the birth of their surrogate child. All seems perfect except that Josh has a much higher sex drive than Alex. So, to spice up their bedroom adventures, they invite cute and younger Darius (Jesse Fox) into their lives. Inevitably love gets in the way and Josh and Darius fall for each other and everybody ultimately loses out.

A clever set moves around to show various bedrooms, a massage parlour, a shower room (yes they shower onstage) and even a rooftop terrace.

This play is not for the faint hearted with lots of nudity, plenty of simulated sex and a fair sprinkling of bad language. However, I would recommend it to anyone thinking of taking the step of moving a threesome from fantasy to real life.

Afterglow is on at the intimate space at Southwark Playhouse until 20^th July 2019

https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/