Review - Dad's Army - People's Theatre

Dad's Army 

The People's Theatre 

23rd April 2024

A total delight!

Dad's Army is the latest in the long line of sitcoms adapted for the stage, by the People's Theatre in Heaton, Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Like Blackadder, this is a huge production with many actors and actresses on board and spans multiple famous episodes from the tongue in cheek sitcom from back in the day.

The sets are well decorated as usual, the costumes perfect to represent the 1940s war effort. Even haircuts, facial hair and outfits, perfectly suit the period. There are two halves to the performance and what I counted as about four episodes from the show, perfectly tweaked for the stage.

All the acting was top notch, with most of the female cast occupying several roles, such as Nazi troops, or 40s pin ups. Most actors chose to mimic their on screen counter parts almost to a tee, whilst inputting their own style on the characters.

The crowd, almost certainly just about all familiar with the material, were absolutely loving it, laughing in all the right places, as the timing was superb.

Highlight performances include captain Mainwaring played by Steve Robertson, a veteran of peoples theatre shows. The character of Edith Parish (played by Helen Doyle with a performance that could easily slot into a carry on film and not look out of place) was great. Pike and Sgt Wilson (Roger Liddle) also had a strong showing, very true to their on screen counterparts.

Overall I had a blast and the performance went by quickly, which is always a good sign.

Playing every night from Wednesday 24th April - Saturday 27th April 2024. Anyone who has tickets is in for a great time.

*Photo credit: Paul Hood

Frank Cromartie Murphy

Review - You Need to Say Sorry - The Laurels

You Need to Say Sorry  

The Laurels, Whitley Bay 

18th April, 2024 

Written by Alison Stanley, 

Live theatre is special, whether you're in a big gilded proscenium arch theatre or a little studio theatre up a set a creaking stairs. When it’s immersive, when you’re sharing space with real breathing human beings, it can be intense. I hadn’t thought quite how intense.

You Need to Say Sorry so intense. The Laurels is a small venue, up two flights of creaky stairs. For this production it was transformed into a cosy cafe with realistic menus. The audience sits at their cafe tables and appears to witness a couple at the next table.

Vic and Bill, an older couple are on a first date. They are connected via a friend of a friend of a friend on Facebook. There’s lots of awkward pleasant banter about technical incompetence, young people and their phones. There’s a glancing reference to online scammers and the dangers of meeting up with strangers: you don’t know who they might be. But this pair are too sensible to fall for that nonsense. We are drip-fed Viv and Bill’s backstory through this playful interaction. Viv is a widow with a daughter and grandchildren; Bill is divorced. They seem such a nice couple, we are willing them to get together…

… switch to a domestic interior, a living room. We gradually work out that this is the future where they have got together. (I didn’t at first; I thought it was a flashback). Not so much fun now. Bill is grumpy and critical; Viv is annoyingly eager to please. The course of true love never does run smooth, does it?

… back to the café. As an audience, we are now alerts to hints and clues. Bill talks about his own step-father, who was a bit too handy with his belt. But he’s turned out all right, hasn’t he? He’s charming and has a funny mannerism, of not getting cliché phrase quite right: “You’ve buttered your bread, now you’ve got to lie in it.” It’s a winning flaw, we’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt…

… switch to the living room. Things are really not right. Bill is irrationally jealous, controlling Viv’s movements, cutting her off from family and friends. His comments to her are personally wounding, designed to belittle her and crush her spirit.

This is the drawback of immersive theatre: empathy. There’s a scene in Don Quixote, where Quixote is at a puppet theatre and mistakes the actors for real life and leaps up to violently defend the abused heroine. It’s funny because it’s theatre and we know the difference. Tell that to my sympathetic nervous system! The coercive control and verbal abuse is so well-observed, so horribly real that I had to stop myself jumping up like Quixote and yelling at Viv to get out while she still can. 

My heart was thumping in my chest as if I was in real physical danger. I knew it was a piece of theatre, constructed out of words, scripted for actors, but it was so well written and performed that I felt I was there, helplessly witnessing the annihilation of a once bubbly loving woman.

Alison Stanley has done a brilliant job of conveying the soul-shredding texture of coercive control, and she is ably supported by Steve Lowes as Bill, convincingly alternating between funny charmer and terrifying abuser. It’s an important issue dealt with fantastic subtlety and wit, but not one to see if you’re feeling fragile.

You Need to Say Sorry was showing for just two nights at The Laurels, but watch out for it making a return at Alphabetti in July! 

Gerry Byrne 

Preview - Rutherford and Son - Little Theatre

Rutherford and Son 

22 April – 28 April

by Githa Sowerby

Coming this week to The Little Theatre, the Progressive Players present Rutherford and Son a gritty Northern Drama written by  local playwright, Githa Sowerby.

A patriarch owner of a Glass works in the North East, Rutherford rules his family just as he runs his business in the early 20th Century with a true rod of iron and a ruthless air, brooking no challenge to his reign. However in his latter years, his sons have other ideas, and now Rutherford’s legacy is crumbling around him and he reaps what he sows. A real Northern family period drama. 

Githa Sowerby, also known by penname K. G. Sowerby was born in Gateshead, her family the Sowerby’s were a local glass-making family. A noted feminist as well as a playwright she wrote a number of children’s books, including a number of retellings of classic fairy tales Cinderella and Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Rutherford and Son is her most well known play.

Tickets are available online from ticketsource or from the box office 

Telephone 0191 4781499 (Box Office answerphone) 

Box Office opening hours: 

Week before play week - Monday to Friday 6.30pm to 8pm, and during play week - Monday to Saturday 6.30pm to 9pm.

Or you can Email boxoffice@progressiveplayers.org

Review - The Effect - Royalty Theatre

The Effect  

Royalty Theatre

18th April, 2024

Written by Lucy Prebble

Directed by Jordan Carling

I really wasn't sure what to expect from The Effect. The blurb (is it called blurb for a play??) on The Royalty website didn't give much away, a drama about a couple who fall for each other while taking part in a drug trial. It did give a content warning...."Scenes of a sexual nature, mental health, depression, a mention of suicide, depiction of an overdose, and medical trauma." Hard hitting stuff, and all in the confines of the studio space. It was likely to be something of a challenging theatre experience, and maybe not entirely comfortable.  

It is certainly hard hitting, and a little uncomfortable at times. For a play with only 4 characters, and minimal set it packs quite a punch. Performed in the Studio, the audience are literally feet away from the actors - in the front row you could reach out and touch them. Indeed at one point Mik Richardson as Dr Toby Sealey actually interacts with members of the audience. It's a moment only but in doing so he draws us all further into the story than we might want to be.  As the story unfolds we witness, and experience, the developing relationship between Connie and Tristan. It's intense, passionate and accelerated by the restrictions imposed upon them... confined by space, and the prohibitions on their actions, and subject to the side effects of the drug they are test subjects for. Their experiences, their emotions, are heightened, and their actions and reactions observed and documented with sterile, clinical objectivity. Their passion is a complete contrast to the measured, scientific trial procedures, and the aloofness of the Doctors. But as we watch, the audience begins to unpick the professional relationships and we begin to learn that there is something more - there are undercurrents here that are deep seated and will prove more devastating than the whirlpool of  emotion surrounding Connie and Tristan. 

Lucy Prebble raises some difficult issues. Drug trials, big pharma and profit versus health and wellbeing of the individual, the moral and ethical rights, the nature of depression, the fragility of our mental health but also the resilience of the human spirit. So I was not really expecting this play to make me laugh, and yet it does. The honesty of the characters, the absurdity of their situation, their ingenuity and at time naivety provide moments of humour to balance out the trauma, the anguish, the uncertainty of their situation. The laughter both punctuates and accentuates the seriousness of the situation, not just that of the Connie and Tristan, but also of Dr James and Dr Sealey.  There are so many layers to this play it would take more space than I have available here to examine or explain them. Relationships, loyalty, honesty, integrity, ethics, morality, the nature of love, are all examined and the audience, in the end is left to draw their own conclusions. 

Helena Wildish and Jamie Lowes are utterly convincing as the test subjects, irresistibly drawn to each other, neither they nor the audience ever sure if the attraction is real or simply drug induced. 

Mik Richardson's Dr Sealey is such an odious, self-serving man - try as I might I could not like him, even in the final scenes I felt his true intent was simply to prove himself right, and avoid blame. 

And finally Emily MacDonald as Dr Lorna James, the professional, yet humane face of the drugs trials. Emily's performance is understated compared to the volatility of the other characters, yet she conveys both the strength and fragility of the character with integrity.

Four excellent, self-assured performances in a thought provoking and emotional play - not always comfortable to watch, especially so if you have experience of the issues it raises, but definitely worth it. 

There are limited seats available, and I would recommend you buy one in advance for the last performance. Tickets available online at  www.royaltytheatre.co.uk  

Denise Sparrowhawk

Preview - Dad's Army - People's Theatre

Atten-SHUN! Fall in and join the People’s Theatre in Heaton for a nostalgic evening full of laughs with DAD’S ARMY!

 

Whether they’re battling the Germans or their own incompetence, the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard are never far from a disaster in this classic wartime comedy.

 

Original writers Jimmy Perry and David Croft adapt their beloved BBC sitcom for the stage, bringing together three hilarious episodes:

 

The Deadly Attachment: The platoon are instructed to guard a captive U-boat crew. Are they up to the job?

Mum’s Army: The Home Guard are recruiting women, and there’s a brief encounter in store!

The Godiva Affair: The platoon rehearse their Morris dancing routine to raise money for the local Spitfire fund!

 

All of the well-loved characters are present and correct, from the pompous Captain Mainwaring (Steve Robertson) and his effacing deputy Sergeant Wilson, to “stupid boy” Pike and “don't panic" Jones!

Image credit: Paula Smart

And there might be a bit of whiffling in there too!

 

DAD’S ARMY runs from Tuesday 23 to Saturday 27 April on the Main Stage.

 

Tickets are available from the People’s Theatre Box Office on 0191 265 5020 (option 2) and online at www.peoplestheatre.co.uk