Friday, October 13, 2017

Goth Weekend -review- Live Theatre

Goth Weekend – Thursday 12th of  October  2017
 – Live Theatre

Written by Ali Taylor
Directed by Paul Robinson assisted by Alice Kynman

This is my second show in two days and I have been so looking forward to seeing it ever since I first noticed the flyer outside the Live Theatre
Goth Weekend is about two families brought together by fate who are polar opposites to each other.

Belinda who is a goth singer / songwriter or an artist as she likes to be known (played extremely well by Jessica Johnson), if I met Belinda in real life then I would be scared of her and Jess is perfect for the role.
Belinda’s son Simon played by Gurjeet Singh is deeply distraught by his parents break up and will stop at nothing to get his parents back together again

Ken, or Kenneth as he’s also known (played by Sean McKenzie) is a boring man who is still getting over the death of his wife, he has been on many dates with other equally boring people which his teenage daughter, Anna (played by Amy Trigg) has set him up with, though the medium of Tinder
It’s on one of these dates where Belinda and Ken meet.

They start the strangest relationship ever!! They are very much polar opposites in compatibility and style
The play is set around the Whitby Goth Weekend.
The weekend is something of a dynasty to goths and you can’t move without seeing people dressed up in black.
Belinda fits in but Ken doesn’t,but she soon changes that and gives him a great makeover, which makes him standout like a sore thumb.

Belinda manages to get a gig at Whitby because of a Toyah Wilcox injury, but Toyah makes a fantastic recovey,the agent gets a lot of abuse from Belinda but her ex offers her a chance to perform on the main stage at the Weekend.

The second half starts with the guys close enough to Whitby but not quite there and the atmosphere can be cut by a knife with the tensions brewing in the air between everyone.
But the real action comes later !!

Love is patient, Love is kind and Love is strange but True love is great and when you find it you don’t want to lose it and you can’t help who you fall in love with can you?
I will say that the cast had great chemistry and you could see that from the off and it made the show enjoyable from the start.

Goth Weekend is a great play with some of the best lines in it like “I’m the queen of darkness I can’t be seen in a Costa coffee"
The whole team can be proud of themselves with this production,  it’s been written really well and it will have you laughing and sometimes nearly crying.so credit to Ali Taylo, he should bring more shows to Newcastle.
Helen Coyston made the design work and some of the costumes were fantastic, the stage was adapted well for every scene.
The lighting and sound design was fantastic but as a sound engineer myself you need longer XLR cables on stage (Health and Safety and all that).
Tiger Johnson was the lighting designer and he makes and uses light in ways that are truly inspirational and definitely understands Goth music, Paul Stear did a fabulous job with the sound and there was always something catching my ear and in between the scenes he uses music extremely well.

Both Director and Assistant Director (Paul Robinson and Alice Kynman) deserve a lot of credit for all their hard work with this play.

The play is fantastic, amazing and funny and a show that everyone could enjoy.
It has a 14+ age limit as there is some mild nudity throughout the play.

But what happens to Belinda and Ken do they fall in love and live happily ever after? You will just have to go and watch the show if you want to find out.

The show runs  on till Saturday 28th of Oct

Reuben Hiles

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