Westovians - Preview - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Durham

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Durham,  

Tuesday 10^th to Saturday 14^th July 2018.   

Westovians final show of the year is a comedy written by Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood. It is an irreverent and anarchic take on the story of the Lindisfarne Gospels. A sketch-based play, featuring around 40 characters played by just three actors, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Durham, covers more than 1400 years of English History in just 90 hilarious minutes. It included encounters with many famous historical figures, including five Kings of England, a Saint, several Vikings and Monks, a Leper, a Spin-Doctor, the Easter Bunny, and of course, Sherlock Holmes.

Tickets are just£8 (Tuesday and £9 (Wednesday – Saturday), and are available online at Ticketsource, or from the Visitor Information Centre at The Word. Tickets will be available from the Theatre Box Office each night during the performance from 10^th July. Theatre doors open at 7pm, and the performance starts at 7.30pm. 

Further details on the show are available here .

Watch out for the following outside hires coming up soon too! 

• Friday 27^th and Saturday 28^th July – The Blue Flamingos 60’s Review, a live band bringing you hits from both sides of the Atlantic (The Kinks, The Searchers, The Beatles, The Everly Brothers, The Mamas and the Papas to name but a few). Further information is available here. Tickets priced £12.50 are available at the Westovian’s Ticketsource.
• Friday 14^th (7.30pm) and Saturday 15^th September (2.30pm/7.30pm) – Ed Waugh’s The Great Joe Wilson, a play with Geordie songs, about the life of the undisputed North East concert hall superstar. It starts Micky Cochrane, Sarah Boulter and Phil Corbitt, and is directed by Russell Floyd, with Joe’s words put to music by Pete Scott. Please see here for further information. Tickets cost £16 and are available at the Westovian’s Ticketsource.
• Thursday 20^th – Saturday 22^nd September – the Gilbert and Sullivan Society Concert. Please see their Facebook page for further details.
• Saturday 15^th (7pm) and Sunday 16^th December (2pm/6pm) – we welcome back Encore for their Christmas show. Please see their Facebook page for further details.  

All Together Like the Folks of Shields - Review - Westovians at the Pier Pavilion

All Together Like the Folks of Shields

Pier Pavillion
17th Oct 2017

Cast
The Charltons
David Beston
Tracy Office
Jack Robert Young
Declan Marshall
The Armstrongs
John Errington
Viv Wiggins
Katie Stubbs

Directed by Jim Barton


Written by David Cooke this is a comedy set in neighbouring flats in South Shields in the 1970. It follows the relationships of two families. The Charltons, and the Armstrongs. They have very different outlooks on life, and very different lifestyles. The Charltons are a dyed in the wool Shields family, Des is a bloke's bloke, the life and soul of the party. They are established in their home which was left to them by Des's mother. The Armstrongs have moved into their flat after a downturn in their fortunes. Alvera has had to give up her big house, full of all the mod-cons the 70s could offer and take a job cleaning other people's big houses. She is not happy in the flat.
The contrasts between the two families provide the opportunity for comedy. Des is constantly drunk, while George Armstrong is straight-laced and serious, disillusioned with life. As the play progresses we learn that all is not as it seems for either of the households. Life in the Charlton's house is not quite the one long party it appears. Pushed to the limit by their husbands' attitudes and behaviours, the two wives take action and creating the bizarre circumstance that finally reveals all the secrets of the two families. Alongside this their sons and daughter watch the developments and play out their own drama.

There is a lot wit in the sparring verbal sparring between the characters, and this is the strength of the play. The dialogue is very funny, and the extreme action the women take to teach their men a lesson leads to humorous situations. But there is a lot going on in this play - it has more twists than a corkscrew. There are several threads - the reason for George Armstrong losing his job, the history behind the dislike between the two men, not to mention what is really going on in Des Charlton's life. Then there is the two sons and the daughter's storylines. The play tackles unemployment, self esteem, relationships, teenage aspiration, family values, sexism and chauvinism, and the value of reputation and principles and finally of friendship and vindication. That's a whole lot for one play to try to deal with. Act One lays the foundations and sets us up for the (many) revelations that are to come. It is the stronger half of the play - because of its simplicity. Act Two has so much to unveil that it loses its way a little - it feels like there are just too many threads to follow. You could make two plays out of it - one with the adult's story and another with the teenager's story. Director Jim Barton does a fair job of pulling it all together.

That said it is very funny and the characters are likeable despite their many flaws. The set is cleverly done with the stage split between the two flats, and the lighting and freeze frame effects work well as the action swaps between the Charlton's and the Armstrong's homes. There are good performances from all the cast. as always we see some excellent drunk acting from all four adults but particularly David Beston.  I think particular mention should go to Declan Marshall who gave an assured performance as Jack Charlton in his stage debut.

All Together Like the Folks of Shields runs until Sat 21st October. It will give you a laugh even if, like me, you come from Sunderland.

Denise Sparrowhawk

Westovians - New Season - Preview

Westovians at the Pavilion Theatre
Season Preview
Sept 2017-June 2018

The Westovians' new season starts in October (17th -21st). with David Cooke's "All together like the folks of Shields". A comedy drama about two very different couples living next door to each other in typical Tyneside flats.

Next up is the panto Aladdin in January (19th-27th) - perfectly timed to miss the pre Christmas rush and give everyone something to look forward to in the new year. Join them in Long Poo Village to see whether Abanazar can become Master of the Universe. Expect much booing and hissing and some terrible jokes...

March (6th-10th) brings a musical drama with Be My Baby by Amanda Whittington. A poignant story about teenage pregnancy and keeping up appearances in60s Britain. If you were unmarried and pregnant life was very different back then.  A great play featuring songs from the era.

In May (8th-12th) things turn a little more sinister with Simon Brett's ingenious thriller Silhouette. Who murdered Martin Wallis? Was it the wife or her lover...or someone else?

And finally the Westovians round off the season in July (10th-14th) with another local comedy - "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Durham" - Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood's irreverent take on the story of the Lindisfarne Gospels. 1400 years of history and over 40 characters condensed into 90 hilarious minutes by just 3 actors...

The programme has a good mix of plays with a nice northern feel to it.  Tickets are on sale from Sept 1st from www.westovians.co.uk or from the The Word in South Shields.

Denise Sparrowhawk

Beauty and the Beast - Westovians Pier Pavilion - Review

Beauty and the Beast

Westovians at the Pier Pavilion
Jan 15th 2017

Eleven o'clock on a Sunday morning feels like a strange time to be coming to the theatre. And since for most people the Festive Season has been well and truly over for a good week at least, it feels even stranger to be coming to a Panto. We are all back at work and school with our noses to the grindstone and festive frivolity has been packed away. But not at the Pier Pavilion  in South Shields - here they are just getting started! The Christmas tree is still up in the foyer and the Beauty and the Beast is set and ready to go...Oh yes! It is!

This tale as old as time makes a passing reference to the Disney version (I suppose these days all fairy tales have to, despite the tightly bound performance rights) but it is very much its own tale. Writer Philip Meeks is accomplished at writing pantomimes that draw on the original tales and cock a polite snook at the establishment.

So we have the story of Jolieville, a french town under siege by a hideous monster, and an even more hideous and corrupt Mayoress. In the town there is a beautiful girl - Belle (french for beautiful) and of course she is beautiful inside and out as true heroines in Panto always are. Only she is able to see the good inside the Beast and she sets out to prove that he is not all bad and to save him from the curse he is under. She is aided and hindered in this endeavour by various comic characters - from her father the inept Professor Baguette to friends Bertie and his mother Dame Fifi Latrine. Naturally there are many hilarious puns and word plays derived from their ludicrous panto names, and a healthy mix of fart and pee jokes for the kids and smutty innuendo for the adults. There is magic that has gone wrong, a terrible curse that must be broken and an evil sorceress who must be vanquished before everyone can live happily ever after ( hope that hasn't spoilt the ending for you all - if you've not been to a panto before you may not realise that there is always a happy ever after - that is the whole point). There also always has to be a parade of increasingly bizarre frocks for the dame, a custard pie or two in the face, and lots of booing, hissing and screaming from the audience. Am happy to report that this panto has all of the above in shed-loads.

The cast execute the whole thing well - keeping the audience engaged against all the odds at times, battling against the noise of rustling sweet wrappers and fractious toddlers, to sing dance and joke their way through the plot. David Foster as Diablo and Erin Atack as Mme Bon Bon keep the story straight so the audience know that the Beast (Ty Roach) and Belle (Ashley Mitchell) are following the plan. Craig Richardson and Stephen Sullivan are the stars of the show as Bertie and Fifi Latrine, keeping the audience involved with jokes and banter throughout. In fact I think all pantos should introduce a karejoke contest from now on. The baddies of the show are Gary Manson and Annie Cairns as Claude and Camilla Parker-Bike and they are suitably booed as their nefarious deeds unfurl. That said, the high spot of the show for me has to be Mme Fifi's duet with Professor Baguette (Mark Lamb)- you just can't fight a feeling like that and you probably shouldn't try.

Staged traditionally in January to avoid competition with other theatres in the area - perhaps most notably the Customs House just down the road - the Westovians timing is a piece of genius. Nothing lifts your spirits so well as a room full of kids (and adults) screaming "he's behind you!" at a stage sporting a man dressed as a woman with a preposterous outfit and a huge hairy monster (now, now you smuttmeisters! What did you think I was going to say?). So if you are labouring under new year blues nip along to Shields for a couple of hours of belated festive fun.

Beauty and the Beast plays until Sat 21st Jan. Tickets can be bought from the box office tel 0191 456 0980. You could do worse than buy a ticket for this (seriously, it's worth it just to see the duet!)

Denise Sparrowhawk

I'll Be Back Before Midnight -Review- Westovian Theatre

I'll Be Back Before Midnight
Westovians 
12th November 2012

Following a nervous breakdown Jan is brought to an isolated farmhouse by her husband Greg – ostensibly to complete her recovery. But unsettling things start to happen as soon as they arrive. First, Greg’s sister Laura, with whom he seems to have an unnaturally close relationship arrives. There is also George, the slightly demented old farmer who lives nearby. A nightmare series of frightening occurrences results in a thrilling and heart-stopping ending!

With all of the ghouls and ghostly happenings that was Halloween a few weeks ago, you would think that the Westovians would ease us into the dark cold nights with something funny, maybe something fruity. Not so, right from the off with the lights low, the eeriness of the set, and the characters that play upon it, were set out to scare and make us sit on the edge of our seats.
Set in the living room of the farmhouse, with the colours dark and gothic you definitely got a feel of coldness and something about to happen, so great marks to the technical team for bringing this illusion, the lights and sound were very good.
With all of the action taking place in the same set, the actors were always the main focus of the play, with great scenes of mental psychology, tussles and some great jumpy moments that had the audience saying all of the 'oooahs'and 'aaaahs'
James Barton (Greg) played the husband and brother figure with great ease, his final scenes were very well acted and scary.
Paul Dunn (George) playing the strange and funnily scary farmer, was very instrumental with his interaction with all on stage, a really good showing from him.
Laura Pigford (Jan), played a great part in this play but I sensed a little nervousness especially with her flow of words in the first half..she did warm up and pick herself up in the second, which was great to see.
Megan Wright (Laura) played with great style the wicked manipulative sister(in law) who used her acting skills to the best of her vantage.
I'll Be Back...is a scary, interesting, well acted play, with smidgens of humour thrown in.
Produced by Carrie Wilson, Directed by Peter Dawson
Well worth the entrance fee.

I'll Be Back Before Midnight is playing until Sat 12th November

Michael Hunter

This week inspecting the boards

This week I have three theatres to visit and review...

Tuesday, I am Reviewing Guys and Dolls,at The Peoples Theatre,in Heaton
http://www.ptag.org.uk/guys-and-dolls.html

Thursday,I am reviewing Heartbreak productions adaptation of The Secret Garden in Jesmond
http://www.heartbreakproductions.co.uk/portfolio/the-secret-garden

And finally on Saturday reviewing Fawlty Towers put on by The Westovians Theatre in South Shields. .
http://www.pierpavilion.freeuk.com/


A hectic week,but Culturally fantastic,looking forward to seeing new directions,will be meeting the cast and directors of these plays and chewing the cud with them. . If they can(and they do)put over to me how passionate they are about performing,and ideal for that particular role,then hopefully I can get this over to the public in my review.

Hey this is a hard job but someone has to do it. .

Spike