Just For Lookin' Thru

On a rainy night in Truro the audience file in to a dimly lit auditorium. The curtains open onto a bright, very smart set – a stylish Manhattan apartment, boldly coloured in maroon and orange with a chrome and glass galley kitchen to one side. A young man enters from what must be the bedroom, wearing only a bath towel, and the row of middle-aged ladies behind me snigger and giggle, shoving each other and mumbling their approval. He moves around the apartment with confident ease, as though this is his place but, when a woman comes out of the bedroom in a robe, their exchange is perplexing. Not a couple at all, Camille (Karen Drury), a wealthy and successful jewellery designer, has brought this young man home from a party, and admits to a weakness for waiters with charm. She tries to pay him off but he won’t take the money and he won’t leave. His earlier confidence is replaced by what seems to be offended sensitivity, but soon becomes smug arrogance as he sits back in her arm...

Written in 1940, Miller’s play reached Broadway in 1944, closed after four performances, and knocked his career sideways. It must have been way before its time, because this play about a young man having it all while those around him fail and flounder is superb. Staged in 1944, post-depression, perhaps it was too realistic. Seeing the play today, it is about fate, acceptance, and philosophy, and sits comfortably with our modern understanding of psychological self-doubt and anxiety. Western neuroses recur about why some of us have wealth and success and some have nothing, locally and globally. Miller’s play questions how much control we have over our own destinies, and what effect we have when we try to force events. From a go-with-the-flow attitude to make-it-happen determination, The Man Who Had All The Luck suggests a combination of the two. David Beeves is a cheerful, self-taught motor mechanic with a small repair shop in Michigan. In love with his childhood sweetheart, al...

Dodgy Clutch Theatre Co in assoc with The Market Theatre, Johannesburg UK Tour, March - April 2008 A bewitching production providing a great evening’s entertainment, with story, dance, music and song. The elephants of the title are stunningly beautiful, enormous puppets that are both awe inspiring and enchanting. Dancers and singers from Johannesburg and the UK combine to perform Elephant, a cautionary tale about forgiveness and humanity. This is Chief Zanenvula’s story: refused entry to heaven, he has to look back over his life to discover his mistakes. Accompanied by a manipulative new ‘friend,’ who has something of Alexei Sayle about him, the Chief revisits key scenes in his childhood, adolescence and maturity. He gradually understands how he has offended the spirit of Africa and learns how to redeem himself. This an energetic production: the dancing is varied, athletic and graceful; songs are soulful and lively, the text touching and comic. Staging and lighting recreates the warmth...

The Northcott Theatre Company perform the UK premiere of Tennessee Williams’ 'The Notebook of Trigorin,' a free adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s 'The Seagull' to an almost exclusively white and grey haired audience. Why does Chekhov not appeal to the under 55s, or is it that tragedy appeals only to the worldly wise? Chekhov’s play about human fragility and the impossibility of people relating to each other in an equal and meaningful way is a depressing premise. However, despite the gloomy subject matter there are touches of intentional comedy. Mme Arkadina, a successful dramatic actress, clings to her youth and glory, and fears the decline of her powers. She is unable to recognize – or she resists – the talents of her son, Constantine; he has youth, vigour and a passion for writing ... and the whole of life ahead of him. He merely reminds her of her age. Liz Crowther plays a sprightly Arkadina although the choreography has her skipping around the stage at times which is in...

Writer David Stuart Davies has created a superb one man show, and the script is spot on, combining humour and pathos with drama and keeping the tension throughout. Sherlock Holmes returns to Baker Street after the funeral of his old friend, Watson and, from the moment he appears on stage Roger Llewellyn is riveting. It is impossible to tear your eyes from him as he talks to Watson, or to the memory of him, recalling their first meeting, reminding him of conversations past, and recreating the cases and the stories they worked on together. He demonstrates a tender and regretful affection for Watson which is often poignant, but also amusing. Llewellyn’s performance is spellbinding. He plays a whole host of characters, switches accents and posture with bewildering ease, and terrific direction from Gareth Armstrong keeps him moving around the stage in surprisingly physical theatre. He is both fit and graceful. The pace is fine tuned so that moments of high melodrama move seamlessly into tou...

Written in 1621, The Changeling requires a modern audience to cast aside twenty-first century social and sexual politics. A pre-show talk by Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company’s Steve Unwin explains that, far from being distressed, Beatrice-Joanna would have been honoured to have her husband chosen for her by her father, and that her disobedience would have struck contemporary audiences as deeply shocking. Days before her wedding to an unwanted suitor, the apparently indulged Beatrice-Joanna instead falls for Alsemero. An awkward situation, further complicated by her father’s devoted servant de Flores, who is obsessed with her. She repels de Flores until she decides to make him useful, asking him to kill her bridegroom and leave her free to marry Alsemero. It has not occurred to her that she has made a deal with the devil. To her horror, he refuses money but claims her as his reward, switching her from privileged and headstrong young woman to hapless victim. Not only a Jacobean reven...

Alan Bennett wanted to write about a charismatic schoolmaster and has come up with Hector (Desmond Barrit) whose approach is to teach the boys poetry and songs; Hector’s view is that learning moving, insightful or just plain silly texts provide the antidote to the earnest love of 'words'. He has the boys acting, singing from musicals and speaking French rather than studying History, and his unorthodox style aims to provide them with cultural awareness and breadth. These boys are ambitious and their Headmaster wants them to get into Oxford which will give the school a better ranking in the league tables so he brings in a young teacher, Irwin, to prepare the boys for the examination board by challenging the way they think about history. The play is about teaching, the way to open up young minds balanced against exam training, and Bennett’s play shows how a teaching career can be fulfilling but also limiting; the school is a nation in microcosm: flawed individuals doing their best...

Four married couples feature in this play which presents their very different relationships over the course of one farcical evening, on into the early hours. Delia and Ernest are celebrating their wedding anniversary while Malcolm and Kate are having a housewarming party. Nick has a bad back so has to stay at home in bed; his wife Jan goes to the party without him, where she bumps into old flame Trevor who is having a row with his depressed and distracted wife Susannah. The stage set cleverly presents three bedrooms; lighting and action moves audience attention from one to another, and there is an intelligent use of space and timing. Moments of intensity from neurotic Trevor and Susannah are relieved by comedy, while Jan and Nick’s bickering and jibes are also offset with some humour. Herford directs a well known cast but it is always apparent that they are acting. Only James Midgley and Natalie Cassidy work with perfect comic timing, which makes an audience forget they are delivering ...

It’s fascinating to see the BBC setting up for Question Time - two enormous lorries filled with a mass of recording equipment arrive early in the morning and spend all day unloading. They set up six cameras, the set, computers, televisions and enough cabling to go round the world twice. A team of men in black put everything together and a security team frisks all the audience as they come in, while four local policemen contribute their presence. They omit to frisk the stewards which is interesting, as any one of them could have some polonium to spray on Boris Berezovsky. They can't have read any John Le Carre or Claire Francis novels or they'd have realized what a strong possibility this is in the provinces. Berezovsky’s a brave man who says he feels safe in England, yet I don’t see any security men on the stage door side of the building. The whole team is at the other entrance checking people’s bags and scanning them with detectors. Progress into the building is slow. Other pa...

Put It To Julian … “You’re a very spiritual person aren’t you?” Clary is astonished: “Me?!” “In your own way I think you are” “Okaaay,” he says warily, “everyone likes to think they’re spiritual” It’s a surreal moment. Known for his wit, and waspishness, Clary looks somewhat fazed during his question and answer session when a woman in the audience commandeers the roving microphone to “give him some advice.” He listens to the animal healer, then pulls a face and grins hugely, “Oh, this is a scream. Are you going to tell me she’s going to get something wrong?” She tells him repeatedly that in two years time he can expect his little dog, Valerie, to have a problem with her back left leg. She further expounds that she never charges a fee; that all genuine healers don’t charge. Clary promises that he’s taking her seriously. At the end of all this she wriggles in her seat and demonstrates that she has only one leg. I wonder if this is some kind of bizarre form of psychological projection ont...

A triumphant performance with understated elegance and high drama. Set to Tchaikovsky’s familiar score, the troupe of young Russian ice dancers astonish and impress with their breathtaking skill and grace. The performance ranges from the divinely elegant, through joyous and comic, jaunty and confident, to dramatic and heart-stopping. Many times the slender girls are thrown by powerful men, and sent spinning into the air, with a surprising momentum; yet they land perfectly, with inches to spare, on the stage sized ice rink, and the audience can breathe once more. Despite an accident during their matinee show the cast perform again in the evening with consummate professionalism, throwing themselves into the ice dance with exciting enthusiasm, having reworked the routine in their short break to omit the trapeze sequence. It is not only their stamina but their courage that is applauded. They look so young, yet their punishing schedule often means six evening performances and three matinees...

Wartime Comedy with Swing Band Classics. Great Fun. A glamorous Northern all-girl swing band keeps losing members, particularly when American GIs are stationed nearby. Band leader Betty needs to recruit fresh talent for a BBC broadcast and she gets a schoolgirl, a nun, an upper-class tart and a draft dodger. Alan Plater has written a very funny script and the comic timing is spot on. The versatile cast astonish and delight; switching with ease from acting, to a wide range of instruments, then singing. The cool bluesy songs are all beautifully delivered; they’re sultry and sexy, moody and touching. Rosie Jenkins stands out as Miranda, the upper-class tart; she has great lines to deliver and her entire performance is bright and funny. She’s a joy to watch and, while she sings ‘Body and Soul’, the audience becomes very still. Pam Jolley executes ‘Ribbon Bow’ very well but disappoints as Elizabeth, the sixth former, instead coming across as an over-excited ten to twelve year old but, apart...

The matinee performance fills 850 seats in the theatre with almost exclusively school trips for GCSE sufferers and a smattering of unsuspecting individuals who each look somewhat crestfallen to be confronted with a venue full of over-excited young people released from the confines of the classroom for an afternoon, some of whom have never been out of their own localities into the city. They shove and giggle and squeal and, most delightful of all, every time they are frightened they scream with the effect of a Mexican wave, started off by one pre-emptive female and taken up in relay throughout the entire auditorium. This prolonged screaming is followed by a similar wave of laughter which relieves the tension in the dark. There is a significant element of heightened drama here, and it’s not on the stage. On stage, however, the performance is robust and engaging, led by Dominic Marsh, a tall, impassioned thesp who delivers his lines with force, clarity and precision. Michael Burrell plays...

We’re seated around four sides of a square stage, set up as a wood planked drawing room, and only two feet above the floor of the hall. In the front row we are so close to the actors we could reach out and touch them, and this intimacy creates a wonderful sense of sharing the room with them, listening and observing this Russian family. There is no need for projection, and the actors’ and voices are set at normal speech level which adds to the atmosphere of inclusion. This play is deeply ironic, and a masterful observation of human emotion and character. The actors are staggeringly well-rehearsed, and their facial expressions are natural throughout. Beecham has directed this play in such a way as to make the doctor likeable, Michel quite melodramatic, and Natalya more hysterical than I pictured from my reading of the paper text. There is more spirit on show. There is much laughter from the audience at the irony, even, most inappropriately when it is tragic, as much of it is. On paper, t...

Rattigan’s post-war drama highlights the voracious nature of woman’s passion, and his use of language brilliantly conveys the unsaid, which lies behind the politesse of formal speech. Hester’s desire for Freddie has no reason to it, other than itself, the force of her passion is an ind in itself, serving no purpose than to blaze and consume. Freddie’s desire for Hester does not come across; he is merely portrayed as a shallow and inconsequential fellow who has no purpose in his life since the end of the war. Lost in peacetime he has turned to drink and playing golf as escape mechanisms for his inability to ‘live’. As a result, his character fails to engage. In strong comparison, Hester’s veers from ladylike self-control to almost demented frenzy and back again. Her physical pain comes close to the primitive, and the conflict between the primitive and the civilized is wonderfully captured. There are times when her focus on the need for Freddie in order to be able to live seems like weak...

Shakespeare's play is rewritten by Carl Grose and adapted by Kneehigh's Emma Rice, on 'loss, confusion, hate, and war'. It has humour and hoodies, music and song, mistaken identities, the lost and found, divided and reconciled, all mixed up with a classy score, noise, smoke, flashlights and quirky props. It's loud, strange, funny and dramatic. Mike Shepherd plays King Cymbeline and Emma Rice his second Queen. Once his nurse she has become his drug supplier while he is depressed and dependent following the loss of his sons who were stolen away in infancy. His daughter Imogen, played by Hayley Carmichael, is later lost to him by marrying against his wishes. Her husband Posthumus, played by Carl Grose, sails to Italy and encounters a pimp, instead of Shakespeare's Iachimo, and prostitutes instead of his army. Two of these are played by male actors, including Mike Shepherd, and are grotesquely funny. Kneehigh always have fun with staging and props. This play employs...

Following Franz Capra's wonderful film starring Cary Grant is a tough call, but this is a well staged play. The set is a delight with a staircase, landing, windows and doors that provide plenty of interest before the actors begin. Wayne Sleep plays the part of the unscrupulous surgeon, Dr Einstein and, being so tiny, is contrasted well against the enormously tall Damien Myerscough as Jonathan, for good comic effect. Myerscough uses some nice quirks which make the audience laugh, and plays the violent and disturbed criminal very well - not an easy role when expected to be menacing and laughable by turns. Louise Jameson and Sherrie Hewson are cast as the two elderly spinsters, Martha and Abby Brewster, and whilst Hewson is spot on, Jameson is miscast. Hewson plays her role with an engaging sweetness and carries off innocent eccentricity perfectly, incorporating elderly body movements and mannerisms which are never overdone. Hewson is an experienced comedy actress. Jameson is more use...