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 

Equus - Review - Northern Stage

Equus

Northern Stage
30th April 2019

I didn't know much about Equus before I opted to review it at Northern stage. I knew it was about a young man who committed heinous crime, I knew it involved nudity and eroticism. I knew this because of the furore that followed the announcement that Daniel Radcliffe was to take the lead role shortly after finishing his stint as the saviour of the world in Harry Potter. I suspect that most people - none theatre people, I mean -  if they are aware of this play at all, are aware of it because of this. I admit that it was partly Potter-induced curiosity that led me to raise my hand when the offer of reviewing Equus came up. I was curious to see what all that fuss had been about, had it been justified or was it all just media fuelled hysteria with little substance. I wondered if the cast of this production felt pressured by the play's recent history. And so I arrived not knowing much, not certain that the little I did know was accurate, and feeling just a little trepidatious. I really was not sure what to expect.

The stage as we entered the auditorium was clear - pale grey curtains, around the three sides, a grey
floor with the appearance of velvety texture - a dappled horse hide, perhaps? And in the corner a small brown clad figure. Martin Dysart, child psychiatrist. The best in the field and, as it turns out, a man on the edge. Martin, already over stretched, takes on the case of Alan Strang, a boy who has committed a terrible crime and it is through his eyes that we learn the truth, as he gently, patiently uses his psychiatrist's tricks to draw Alan out. He talks to the boy, to the parents, to his friend the magistrate who brought the boy to him and gradually secrets are revealed. Not just Alan's secret, but those of his parents and of Dysart himself. this story is as much about the doctor as it is the patient. As he unravels the mystery of the boy's actions, we see that he himself is unravelling, questioning the very core of his being, the validity of his skill, of his profession. The doctor is as chained as the horses, as much a prisoner in a world of his own making as the boy is. Both are trapped, and as the boy gradually breaks free from his prison, Dysart seems pulled deeper into his own.

The play is full of religious imagery and symbolism. The jealous, vengeful gods, demanding worship
and sacrifice and yet capable of  bestowing the most agonising joy, a spiritual and physical ecstasy. It shows how the extremes and contradictions of life, and love and devotion can influence an impressionable mind, and how imagination and fantasy can blur reality, with tragic consequences.

The performances are superb, throughout. Ethan Kai is a brooding presence on the stage, glowering with anger one minute, and painfully vulnerable the next. Zubin Varla's storytelling skills are matchless as he chain-smokes his way through Alan's strange and disturbing tale. And this tale is told as much through body language as words - most notably through the horses. They are noble and beautiful creatures - played by the actors without props, they stand, regally flanks quivering and nostrils flaring and at no point do you think that this is a man pretending to be a horse. They simply are the horse. Ira Mandela Siobhan as Nugget creates the most beautiful, regal creature.

The play is compelling, and disturbing, unutterably beautiful and unsettling, painful and sensual. I have rarely been so entranced by a performance, so completely absorbed by it - I realised as the first act drew to a close that I had been actually holding my breath and sitting so still for so long that the movement and noise of the audience as the curtain came down felt almost intrusive.

Was my trepidation justified? Not at all. There is no shocking sensationalism. There is a painful and sad story, an horrific act by a desperate boy, and a powerful and moving portrayal of the events and characters involved. Powerful, moving, compelling, beautiful. None of these words adequately describe the experience that Ned Bennett has created for this English Touring Theatre production. It is sensational for all the right reasons.

Equus runs until Sat 4th May.

Denise Sparrowhawk

Two - Review - Gala Theatre

Two

Gala Theatre
3rd Oct 2018

Written by Jim Cartwright
Directed by Tom Wright
Set design Hannah Sibai

Two takes place over one evening in a traditional pub somewhere in Durham. We meet the landlord and landlady as they serve an array of regulars, and we meet some of the regulars too.

The set is a perfect replica of a traditional pub from the 80s. Dark wood bar, optics full of spirits and taps for the beers, stools ranged round tables adorned with beermats and ash trays - yes, these are the days before smoking bans, when you'd come home from the pub stinking of smoke and beer. From the moment you enter the auditorium you feel like you could be in the local boozer. You can almost smell the smoke and alcohol.

The two actors, Jess Johnson and Christopher Price, play the Landlord and Landlady. Full of smiles and chatter for the customers but spitting insults at each other. it becomes clear as the night progresses that there is a serious issue between the outwardly jovial pair.
Johnson and Price also play all of the other characters who come into the pub - from amorous youngsters to the frail and elderly. They morph from publican to punter with surprising ease, transformed by a change of clothes and facial expression.

The delivery is punchy - literally at times - as we are taken on the rollercoaster experience of meeting the characters and having their true selves revealed. It is funny - belly laugh funny - but also poignant and shocking. price and Johnson constantly build tension and puncture it.
You will laugh, gasp, and maybe cry as the truth is revealed.

A fabulous set, hilarious costumes, and the subtlest lighting, alongside the prodigious talent of these two versatile actors makes this production an experience not to be missed.

Two plays until Sat 6th October. It ought to be on longer! Get a ticket and get the beers in before they call last orders.

Denise Sparrowhawk

Rattlesnake - Live Theatre - Review

Rattlesnake

Live Theatre
05 June 2018

OMG!!! I don't know what to say about a show that we have already done a review of here at SpikeMike.

Open Clasp once again make the north east proud with this fantastic show.  Roma Yagnik needs a special mention for the music - when you walked in Sting was playing (Every Step You Take) but sometimes it skipped then continued from the same spot.

Set in a cube in the centre of the stage we meet Suzy, played by the much travelled but great local actor Christina Berriman Dawson, and Jen who is played by adopted Geordie Eilidh Talman.
The two women are connected by James (who is never seen).

The story takes us through the whirlwind romances that both girls have with him and what goes wrong.

It's hard for a man to watch, and to think this happens in real life makes me angry.
The story is a real one from real people and it does happen!

Anna Reid did a fantastic job with the set design and Ali Hunter used the lighting to great effect especially at the end.

Open Clasp's Artistic Director and Writer has once again created a play that brings feelings out of you that you didn't know existed.
Charlotte Bennett did a great job with this show taking the issue and bringing the page off the paper.

For me the thing that made it stand out wasn't what was said and done but what wasn't!!

As a member of the audience You had to create the image of James in your head and picture him to make him seem real.

The Boxing Scene was hard hitting and really packed a punch (pun intended) and Robby Graham who I forgot to include in the above bit deserves credit for this part and all the movement.

I don't think I will ever see a show like this again (and I would go see it again). I look forward to seeing the next show by Open Clasp.

On until Saturday 9th of June

Reuben Hiles

Preview - Five Kinds of Silence - Royalty Theatre

ROYALTY THEATRE TO OPEN 2018 WITH FIVE KINDS OF SILENCE

The Royalty Theatre will begin 2018 with hard-hitting drama, Five Kinds of Silence.

Written by north-east writer Shelagh Stephenson, whose plays include The Memory of Water and An Experiment with an Air Pump, the play portrays a family living in fear of abusive husband and father Billy.  His wife Mary, and daughters Susan and Janet, have suffered his abuse for years, but have remained silent – until events take a tragic turn.

Director James Errington says, “I fell in love with this show the first time I read it; it’s dark, gritty and very powerful.  It's a pleasure to be able to direct such a play”.

Originally a radio play, the production will take place in the Royalty’s studio theatre, their first studio production since the sell-out The Vagina Monologues in 2015.

A strong cast includes Lorna Breeze, Helen Bowie and newcomer Becky Watson as the women of the family, and Andrew Barella as Billy.  Emma McLeary and Sean Landless, another Royalty debutante, also star.

Due to the play’s candid discussion of sexual abuse, the Royalty do not recommend the play for anybody 16 or under, though this is purely advisory and not a strict limit.

Five Kinds of Silence runs from 24-27th Jan. Tickets can be booked via www.ticketsource.co.uk/royaltytheatre or on 0333 666 3366, and are priced at £6.50 plus booking fee.   

Plays remaining this season are Rabbit Hole (19-24 Feb), Jeeves and Wooster in ‘Perfect Nonsense’ (19-24 Mar), Temple (25-28 April), Move Over Mrs Markham (21-26 May) and The Wind in the Willows (25-30 June). Tickets for these shows are £8 (£6.50 conc) plus booking fee. 

Rattle Snake - Live Theatre - Review

Rattle Snake

Live Theatre
26th September 2017

Presented by Open Clasp Theatre
Written by Catrina McHugh
Directed by Charlotte Bennett


Rattlesnake - a venomous snake, with a potentially deadly bite, makes a noise like a rattle to ward off its predators. Snakes are hypnotic creatures, not all are dangerous, but some are. The rattlesnake is dangerous and duplicitous, rattling to warn you that it is there, rattling to make sure you don't interfere.

James rattles. He rattles to control the women in his life, he rattles to keep the neighbours at bay. He rattles to protect himself while he destroys the lives of two women.

This play is mesmerising - from the start, as the two characters beat out a complicated, rhythmic pat-a-cake game, through to the closing scene of this story that has no end. You daren't look away, because you never know what might happen while you are not paying attention.

Rattlesnake is a fictional drama based on truth, an amalgamation of the stories of many women who have endured coercive controlling domestic abuse. Eilidh Talman and Christina Berriman Dawson play the two women snared by one man - James. Together they bring to life the horror and insidiousness of the control he exerts on them. The two women at times speak together, at other times they repeat each other's phrases, marking the parallels between the way their two relationships develop and disintegrate as James manipulates, coerces and threatens them into submission.

The set is simple and stark - the outline of a box-like room, table and chairs. The open sides are symbolic - despite external appearances the women are trapped, unable to escape a prison that most people are not aware of. The single overhead light flickers ominously, brightening and dimming as the atmosphere tightens, and bright floor lights flash like lightning bolts to emphasize pain, or danger or the sudden realisation of a truth. In the background a quiet hypnotic beat echoes the pat-a-cake game and the rattlesnake's warning.

This is superbly directed, produced and acted. The two actresses are utterly convincing in their roles. It is emotional, taut, intense.

Writer Catrina McHugh says "I believe Rattle Snake is important theatre, it takes your breath away and will change lives." Throughout the performance there was barely a sound from the audience - I think we were all holding our collective breath.

Rattle Snake is at Live Theatre until 30th September and then goes on tour around the region so there are plenty of opportunities to experience it. It is important theatre. Don't miss it.

Denise Sparrowhawk

Autumn Tour 2017

• 21 - 30 Sep: Live Theatre, Newcastle www.live.org.uk / 0191 232 1232
• 2 Oct: Rape Crisis @ Morpeth Town Hall rattlesnakerctn.eventbrite.co.uk
• 3 Oct: Teesside University, Middlesbrough 01642 738232
• 4 Oct: Sunderland Stages @ The Royalty Theatre sunderlandstages.co.uk / 0191 561 3455
• 5 Oct: Riverside Community Health Project, Newcastle0191 226 0754
• 9 Oct: Linhope Referral Unit (closed performance)
• 11 Oct: Trinity Academy, Newcastle (closed performance)
• 12 Oct: West End Women & Girls Centre, Newcastle0191 273 4942
• 13 Oct: Durham University
• 17 - 21 Oct: York Theatre Royal yorktheatreroyal.co.uk / 01904 623568
• 24 - 28th Oct: Soho Theatre, London sohotheatre.com / 020 7478 0100