Gilbert (no Sullivan)

Review by: Paul Towers, 16 December 2016

Gilbert (no Sullivan) by WS Gilbert adapted by Brian Mitchell & Joseph Nixon

The Foundry Group – David Mountfield & Brian Mitchell

Upstairs @ The Western, 16 & 17 December 2016

“Victorian comic stories”

It is entirely appropriate that my last review for this year and under the old guard at Upstairs at The Western should be for the renowned and very popular Foundry Group. In what has become an annual treat for playgoers at The Western we have had our taste buds tickled by uproarious tales of wrestlers, Henry VIII, magnificent flyers and now dear old Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, the lyricist half of  Gilbert and Sullivan.

I for one didn’t realise that, prior to his musical collaborations with Mr Sullivan, Gilbert was a prodigious writer of  tall tales, comic rants and parodic reviews as a means of making ends meet.

The Foundry Group have maintained their high standard by collating five of his more outrageous tales from the latter half of the 19^th century and adapted them for two actors. These Victorian comic stories were published in the magazines of the day and proved very popular, especially when accompanied by Gilbert’s own illustrations.

In David Mountfield and Brian Mitchell this production has two very able character actors who are very at home with a variety of accents and quick costume changes. Watching these sketches one can clearly see where modern performers like Tommy Cooper, Tony Hancock and Benny Hill got their inspiration from. Accompanied by hilariously bad ‘special effects’ and more awful props than a Play School toy box this is an hilarious evening of fun that you can take even your maiden aunt to.

There are still a few tickets available for Saturday night’s performance and I would urge you to grab one if you can.

Tickets for Saturday at www.upstairsatthewestern.com

Full details of future dates are at www.foundrygroup.co.uk

First published on Western Gazette and London Pub Theatres

The Twits

Review by: Paul Towers, 14 December 2016

The Twits by Roald Dahl, adapted by David Wood

A Curve and Rose Theatre Kingston co-production

Curve – 10 December to 15 January

“a wonderful annual tradition”

In what is becoming a wonderful annual tradition at Curve yet another Roald Dahl story is brought to life in the studio space. This year, after the astounding success last year of The Witches, we have The Twits. This is the tale of two of the horrible-ist, dirtiest, most loathsome people who, not being bothered to work like normal people, decide to exploit a family of monkeys who they have captured deep in the rain forest and trained to perform tricks.

This production is jam packed full of audience participation, circus skills, songs and gross jokes. The perfect Roald Dahl story!

A small cast of seven bounce around the set playing instruments, singing and dancing.

The set, a caravan, starts off as a storage container as the talented cast whip the audience up into a participation frenzy. As soon as the action starts the sides fall away to reveal the cess pit that is The Twits barely habitable home.

The script is adapted by acclaimed children’s author David Wood (who also adapted The Witches) and is perfect holiday fare for children of all ages.

Tickets are available at http://www.curveonline.co.uk/

First published on Western Gazette

Layla's Room

@pubtheatre1 Review by: Paul Towers, 09 November 2016

Layla’s Room by Sabrina Mahfouz

A Theatre Centre production with Shanice Sewell, Alex Stedman and Emma White, directed by Natalie Wilson

Upstairs @ The Western, 09 November 2016

“a beautiful rollercoaster of a teen life.”

In an attempt to get inside the mind of a modern inner city teenage girl author Sabrina Mahfouz trawled through a national survey of a thousand UK teens. The result is Layla’s Room the often exaggerated world of a digital girl growing up in this fast paced, sometimes skewed society of pay gaps, thigh gaps, pop stars, selfies that are Photoshopped and all the angst these produce.

Layla lives with her gay mother, her brother and her mother’s girlfriend in a tower block. The prospect of moving to a ‘normal’ house with just two floors and a garden fills her with dread. As she packs up the last few boxes of her stuff she reflects on the events that lead to this upheaval.

The set, designed by Ele Slade,  is an ambitious geometric wire frame hung with line drawings of the view from the tower block. The floor reflects this Japanese-influenced design and provides an ideal base for the choreographed moves required to move the simple boxes around to make rooms and locations. Credit must also go to sound designer Elena Pena whose unobtrusive background noises easily anchor the various locations and also provide a reinforcement of various plot points.

Shanice Sewell as Layla leads the production as the confused, ambitious but ultimately bullied teen of the title. Alex Stedman plays all the male roles with an assuredness that belies his years and Emma White has her hands full with various female characters that again are a credit to her youth..

Mahfouz’s script is a beautiful rollercoaster of tears, tantrums, comedy and crisis that make up the average teenagers hormonally challenged life.

Layla’s Room is on tour. Full details at http://www.theatre-centre.co.uk/

Trailer

Upstairs at The Western http://upstairsatthewestern.com/

First published on Western Gazette
and on Pub Theatre Blog

Julian Clary

Review by: Paul Towers, 28 October 2016

Julian Clary – The Joy of Mincing

Curve 28 October 2015

“revels in every glorious opportunity to shock.”

Back in the 80’s I used to run a famous pub in South London called The Goldsmith Tavern, the starting place for many famous comedians including Vic Reeves, Rory Bremner and the inimitable Julian Clary, then known as The Joan Collins Fan Club, much to the Dame’s displeasure. Reverting to his real name Clary has garnered a reputation unique to him.

For his 30^th anniversary of clambering onto a stage to entertain a room full of punters, Clary is in the middle of a nationwide tour bringing joy and outrage to us ordinary folk.

As he narrates tit bits from his illustrious career we are treated to rather more detail of his unexpurgated life than perhaps some would want. His drug taking is an especially unedifying period of his younger life but is told in all its gory detail as a lesson to the unworldly.

As is to be expected Clary shies well away from a double entendre when a single one is available and revels in every glorious opportunity to shock while shamelessly namedropping everyone from Paul O’Grady right up to Dame Joan Collins.

Julian Clary’s The Joy of Mincing is out on tour throughout the autumn. Full details at http://julianclary.co.uk/

The Importance of Being Earnest

Review by: Paul Towers, 11 October 2016

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

A Curve and Birmingham Rep co-production

Curve 6 – 29 October

“beautifully rhythmic prose”

Watching an Oscar Wilde play you are guaranteed an evening of sparkling wit and including, in the case of Earnest, virtually every notable quote Wilde is remembered for.

However, in this revival Curve’s Director Nikolai Foster and designer Isla Shaw have ramped up the sparkle to an almost parodical level whereby the set almost outshines the dialogue. The stage is lined, side to side, top to bottom with mirrored panes meaning there is nowhere to hide from the razor sharp epithets and aphorisms of Wildean wit. It also illustrates perfectly the inherent narcissism, decadence and vanity of the world of Earnest and his companions. While the manners and furniture are Victorian the costumes are an interesting melange of period and modern sensibilities which sits perfectly with the set.

This comedy of manners relies heavily on every phrase being enunciated, projected and audible to every member of the audience and this cast made sure every line was heard clearly.

There is something beautifully rhythmic about the prose which means that all the laughs seem to be written into the text and the actors rarely have to pause and wait for the audience to stop laughing.

While Edward Franklin’s fey, dissolute Algy and Fela Lufadeju’s John Worthing are the central characters of the story it was Cathy Tyson’s Lady Bracknell we were all holding our breath waiting for. Would she do an Edith Evans or a David Suchet when it came to THAT line? Well I am pleased to say that Ms Tyson copied no-one and made the handbag line her very own with a fabulous sense of outraged conservatism. As the leading (young) ladies of the piece Martha Washington and Sharan Phull as Gwendolen and Cecily are a joy to watch as they vacillate between outrage at being deceived and their desire to marry their beaus. Angela Clerkin’s prissy Miss Prism throws herself around in faux outrage as her past deceits find her out. Each of the characters are explicitly drawn and none are wasted. Even Darren Bennett’s Merriman’s largely silent butler gets unwritten laughs from a raised eyebrow or a sigh. While Dominic Gately’s Dr Chasuble channels his inner camp to bring the pastor to life.

Scene changes were beautifully choreographed utilising the many doors set within the mirrors and the interval, much like a television commercial break, merely paused the action while the audience caught its breath.

This is a production not to be missed and deserves to tour forever

The Importance of Being Earnest runs at Curve until 29 October.

Full details available at Curve website
First published in Western Gazette

The Pajama Game

Review by: Paul Towers, 24/8/2015

The Pajama Game by George Abbot & Richard Bissell

The IDOLS

The Little Theatre 10 – 15^th October

“an undemanding evening of musical theatre”

The Pajama Game (and yes, that spelling is right) is not a taxing story. If I tell you that the film starred Doris Day you can guess the level of  saccharine and hearts and roses.

The story revolves around a labour dispute whereby the workers in a pajama manufacturing factory are up in arms because the management won’t give them a 7½c payrise in line with other companies. To complicate things the Grievance Committee head and the new Supervisor fall in love.

While the story might be quite slight the songs are mostly very taxing to perform. There are several standards amongst the soundtrack, namely Hey There, Once A Year Day and Hernando’s Hideaway. But most of the rest, and there are a full 21 numbers aside from the overture and ent’act, are very demanding to sing.

The IDOLS (Leicester’s Infirmary Dramatic Operatic and Literary Society) have long had a reputation for producing classic standard musicals for the last 60 years as a means of fund raising for various medical causes. So it is no surprise that they have chosen to resurrect this 1950’s musical.

The entire cast are incredibly talented and have been working all year for this, their annual offering at The Little Theatre. Jodie Blowfield and Vaughan Ashcroft as Babe and Sid have both the singing voices and stage presence to lead the company while Martin Bell as Hines and Debbie Neath as Mabel have great comic routines together. Jordan Handford as Prez is superbly, creepily pervy.

Unfortunately this great cast was let down by persistent sound issues with microphones not coming on in time and feedback . On top of this the orchestra, which I assume is all amateur and led by experienced Musical Director Tony Rifugiato (who should know better), had a very duff trombone player on the brass section who missed many notes and those he did hit were invariably flat!

Hopefully these problems can be ironed out as the week progresses.

But all in all this is an undemanding evening of musical theatre that comes to us straight from the 50’s and thus won’t offend your maiden aunt and won’t tax your intellect.

First published on Western Gazette

Yes Prime Minister

Review by: Paul Towers, 04 October 2016

Yes, Prime Minister by Antony Jay & Jonathan Lynn

Leicester Drama Society production

Little Theatre 3 – 8 October 2016

“theatre heaven.”

Oh joy! This is a seriously funny piece of political satire that, even though it was written in 2011, still resonates today and continues to puncture the pomposity and obsequiousness of parliament and the civil service with very few updates. In fact some references have accidentally become hilariously appropriate.

Right from the moment the metaphorical curtain rises the snappy one liners tumble forth and the laughs never stop.

The story is all about a weekend at Chequers where the PM is entertaining the Kumranistan ambassador with a view to signing a major oil deal which will save the EU from bankruptcy. As the weekend progresses PM Jim Hacker ties himself up in every tighter knots, some of his own making but many of Sir Humphrey’s.

As Hacker gets progressively more frustrated and bogged down Sir Humphrey steps in to try and diffuse the situation with his impenetrable business-speak obscurations designed to confuse but not clarify.

Yet another beautiful set design by Alec Davis of an old country study, oak panelled with bookcases and French windows allows for the obligatory farcical entrances and exits while a large screen on the back wall is used to good effect for news footage and the credits.

A very strong cast is led by David Lovell as Jim Hacker, Charles Moss as Sir Humphrey and Joff Brown as Bernard Wooley. Moss, in particular, garnered several personal, well deserved rounds of applause for getting his tongue round several of Sir Humphrey’s ambiguous, incomprehensible and positively obfuscated soliloquies.

For those of us that remember the 80’s when this was on TV this is theatre heaven; a sharp script with very familiar characters perfectly preformed to a very appreciative audience. What more can you ask for an evening’s theatre?

Yes, Prime Minister is on at Little Theatre until Saturday 8 October

Full details at www.thelittletheatre.net/

First published on Western Gazette