Sister Act

Opening night of Leicester Amateur Operatic Society's annual production at Leicester's Curve was sold out, and quite rightly so. Combining the immense talents of the LAOS membership with the hugely professional support they get from Curve and you have a production that is heavenly. It is sacrilegious that this production is only on for four days. It deserves at least a week!

It was obvious from the moment that the curtain went up that we were about to see a West End standard show and we were right. For an amateur production the scenery was unbelievable, the sound amazing and the vocal talents of the cast on a par with anything you see in a professional touring show.

A show like Sister Act, classily based on the film starring Whoopi Goldberg, relies almost entirely on the casting of the main character, Doloris Van Cartier, failing nightclub singer and murder witness. Taking her first leading role, unbelievably, in Shelley Henry LAOS has struck gold . Dominating the stage she has a voice that in turn tears up the scenery and then breaks your heart. But this is not a show that can rely on a single strong singer carrying the rest of the cast and in this production we are spoilt with an array of stand out voices. Debbie Longley as Mother Superior and Tom Mottram as baddie Curtis lead a list of principal players who give way more than we could hope for in an amateur production.

Of course, Sister Act is not going to tax anyone with its tenuous storyline but that doesn't matter when the entire show is filled with sassy, uplifting vocals. The story has been transported to the 70's to enable an entirely new score to be created. It also allows for some truly awful costumes, all in keeping with the period, of course.

If by some chance you manage to get a ticket transport yourself to redemption, give in to temptation and genuflect your way to an evening of blessed enjoyment.

Sister Act is on at Curve until Sunday 28 June

First published in Western Gazette
© Paul Towers 2015

Matthew Bourne's Car Man

Even while the house lights are up and the audience are only starting to trickle into Curve's main auditorium, the cast of Matthew Bourne's The Car Man are slowly populating the set and establishing both their characters and the town as though opening the garage and cafe for the day. The story is set in 60's Middle America in one of those god-forsaken dots on an unrelenting highway that seems to lead nowhere, no-one ever pauses, let alone gets off the bus. That is until Luca, the titular Car Man, suddenly appears and the carefully balanced humdrum lives of the residents are thrown into chaos.

A breathtaking story that sees gang warfare, male rape, murder and the abuse of women inveigle its way through this small town is played out on an ingenious set that constantly revolves, slides and lifts to change from Diner to Garage, to Club, to Jail within the blink of an eye. Add on top of this the sheer talent and exuberance of the entire cast and it is no wonder that this 15 year old piece has been revived again and is touring to exceptional business.

Bourne had long resisted choreographing 'yet another production of Carmen' despite loving the score. But then he came across Rodion Shchedrin's beautifully condensed 40 minute ballet version of Bizet's score and he realised he had to use it, even if he had to throw out the Carmen story. So, taking inspiration from the film The Postman Always Rings Twice, he collaborated with Terry Davies who composed the extra music in the style of Bizet and it finally became the dance story that his company love to perform.

Be under no illusion this is not a cosy tale like his Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella, this is a steamy chronicle of sexual abuse and murder. There is much violence on stage and I would say is not suitable for the under 15's.

Matthew Bourne's company, New Adventures, is far from 'just another ballet company'. His breadth of genres range from ballet to modern dance and everything inbetween. No matter which dance discipline you are interested in a Matthew Bourne production will leave you gasping with admiration for the sheer talent on the stage and the imaginative way he has of story telling.

The Car Man is a sumptuous and multi layered feast for the eyes and is on at Curve until Saturday 20 June

First published in Western Gazette
© Paul Towers 16/6/2015

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time

It is no wonder this production collects awards like I collect nectar points! This is cutting edge theatre at its very best. A set that resembles the inside of The Matrix not only reflects the confused mind of Christopher, the central character in this whodunit, but is also used superbly to double up as scenery.

A midweek matinee is, invariably, either an OAP-fest or, as today, a school kids special. The over-excited crowd of e-numbered rugrats took a little while to settle down, and continued to titter whenever an f-word was used, but otherwise were enraptured.

The stage was set as we took to our seats with the titular dog, supine and speared by a rather nice Spear & Jacksons garden fork, centre stage. From that rather surprising start the story took off as Christopher, an Aspergers sufferer (or embracer, he would say) tried to unravel the curious incident of the dog in the night-time. With unbelievably meticulous choreography the set became in turn a bedroom, a garden, a street, a tube station and everything inbetween. The three sided set, reaching high up into the flies, is a vast electronic chalk board and LED display.

Christopher's special issues both help and hinder his investigations; unable to lie he believes everyone else is the same. His complete inability to be touched means his only tactile experiences are via a Vulcan Mind Meld-like touching of finger tips.

While the main thrust of the story, and the starting point, is who killed the dog, it soon develops into Christopher's attempt to understand social interaction with the various people in his life

While this is a tour de force for the lead actor, Joshua Jenkins in most performances but sometimes Chris Ashby, the rest of the company is paramount in making this a seamless piece of storytelling that embraces modern technology to get inside the mind of a 'different' teenager as he tries to use his unquestionably amazing mathematical and pure logical thinking to unravel a mystery and push the boundaries of his social comfort zone.

The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night is on at Curve until Saturday 13 June and additional tickets have just been released.

© Paul Towers 10/6/2015

Fiddler On The Roof

Wigston Operatic Society's annual production at Leicester's Little Theatre this year was Fiddler On The Roof, a tale of traditional Jews being evicted from their home village in 1905 Russia. The WAOS president expressed surprise in the programme notes that the society hadn't performed this show before. After seeing it I am not surprised.

While a hugely talented cast do the best they can the material is just unrelentingly downbeat. This is not an uplifting, feel-good musical. There are precious little toe-tapping tunes. Even If I Were A Rich Man, shorn of Hollywood's OTT glamour and glitz, is nothing much more than a mildly amusing dirge. There are quite a few amusing little one liners between Tevye and his wife, they are not enough to balance the rest of the downbeat story.

However, the poor choice of material can not take away from the cast their professional performance. Led by a live orchestra of 10 this huge cast of 22 don't put a foot wrong, there is not a weak cast member in the company and Ady Bales's Tevye more than fills the shoes of Topol in the Hollywood film.

Fiddler On The Roof is on at Little Theatre until Sat 23rd May

First published in Westerm Gazette
© Paul Towers 20/5/2015

What The Butler Saw

It has been far too long since I have wandered up Dover Street to Leicester's Little Theatre and tonight's production of Joe Orton's What The Butler Saw by Leicester Drama Society just highlights what a fool I have been to deprive myself of the professional quality productions they put on.

Written in 1966/7 but having to wait til 1969 and the final abolition of the contentious 1737 Licensing Act and 1843 Theatres Act whereby all scripts had to be approved by a Government body, latterly the Lord Chamberalin's office, Orton's final play, probably his most outrageous (for the time), is fittingly staged almost 50 years after being written in the very theatre that Orton made his stage debut in 1949.

Maybe preempting the abolition of censorship on stage, Orton has thrown every taboo he can think of into this fast paced, outrageous farce of cross dressing, mistaken identity and even a spot of nudity. With satirical digs at doctors, psychiatrists and his especial favourite target, the police Orton weaves a chaotic farce out of Dr Prentice's efforts in covering up a potential indiscretion.

A very talented cast of six amateurs (and let me re-emphasie this, amateurs) don't put a foot wrong and the audience are laughing out loud from the off. An ingenious set somehow makes the stage look much bigger than it is and the obligatory swinging doors and french windows provide all the entrances and exits needed to compound the confusion.

It would be unfair to single out any of the actors but Paul Large and Angela Edwards as Dr and Mrs Prentice were superb.

What The Butler Saw is on at Leicester Little Theatre until Saturday 16 May. This show is not for the easily offended but will provoke belly laughs.

© Paul Towers 12/5/2015
First published in Western Gazette

Billy Bow

The final show of Curve's Inside Out Festival 2015 is this glorious workshop production of Ian Friel and Andrew Fisher's Billy Bow, the tale of how an abused black English woman escapes from her alcoholic husband and runs away to sea disguised as a man. Having grown up with tales of daring do related on her father's knee, Wilhemina , a freed slave, becomes Billy and joins the wartime British Navy in, one supposes, the 18th century just as England engages with the French. Of course life under sail is far from the fantasy her Father sold her but she figures anything is better than her abusive husband. 'Billy' falls in love with a black press-ganged slave who guesses 'his' secret. This fails to be a happy ending when the poor unfortunate is soundly flogged and then thrown from the mast-head.

Act two starts off with an hilarious bawdy song by the 'Portsmouth Polls', the working girls who gathered round the arriving ships like flies round tainted meat. This provides very welcome light relief to what is, by its very nature, a largely heavy story.

Two keyboard players, one on either side of the front stage, keep the action moving along in a production that, without dialogue, bears more than a passing resemblance in style to Les Miserables. The huge cast (I counted 34) more than fill the stage of Curve's Studio. Unlike many workshop productions this one does have a backdrop (a ship's sail) and plenty of barrels and boxes to sit and stand on. The theatre itself was imaginatively draped in various ropes to convey a seagoing vessel.

This is, once again, a Curve Young Company production and is a great example of how a theatre's engagement with the local community (in this case mainly DMU) can produce some very professional work.

Billy Bow is on again on Wed 6 May. There might still be some tickets available if you are quick.

First published in Western Gazette
© Paul Towers 5/5/2015

Girls With Balls

Back to Curve for yet another toe dip into the highly successful Inside Out Festival and Off The Fence's contribution to the festivities. While most of us are used to seeing productions staged in either the main auditorium or the studio, we sometimes forget that Curve was designed to be infinitely adaptable with various rehearsal spaces being available for use. Girls With Balls was snugly ensconced in Rehearsal Room 2, converted for the duration into an intimate performance studio, as we eavesdropped on two contrasting ladies' football teams and their respective coaches.

Local author and first time playwright Alison Dunne has crafted an, at times, hilarious play that tells the story of how the thriving women's football sport was killed stone dead by the FA after the Great War when it refused to let them use official pitches. This was supposedly so that the remaining men who came back from the trenches wouldn't be distracted from interest in the reignited men's game, abandoned during hostilities.

The small cast of four double up as both teams as we switch from 1971 and supposedly enlightened modern society and 1921, the between the wars struggle to retain the rights women gained during the conflict. With a one-liner strewn opening the story gradually gets darker as we empathise with the frustrations of the 1920's team fighting a chauvinistic Football Association and celebrate the bawdy bravado of the 1970's team as they embrace modern liberations. It is only in the final minutes, appropriately enough, that the seeming lack of progress is starkly illustrated. The modern women's liberal consumption of cigarettes and expletive laden dialogue starkly highlights what is both right and wrong with emancipation.

This production brings together two of Off The Fence's favoured actors, Becca Copper, last seen as Vesta Tilley in England Expects, and Jonny McClean, seen most recently in Clamber Up The Crucifix. The company is completed with Molly Waters and Jessica Noonan under the expert direction of Off The Fence's artistic director and Curve regular, Gary Phillpott. Plans are already under way for a national tour in 2016.

It has to be said that there is an awful lot of swearing and smoking from the 'modern' team but this does highlight the differences between the two eras. For this reason alone this is not something that children should be taken to see, especially when the final twist in the tale happens.

© Paul Towers 2/5/2015
First published in Western Gazette