I have met the enemy (and the enemy is us) - Review - Byker Community Centre

I have met the enemy (and the enemy is us)

Byker Community Centre
17th Oct 2019

A Common Wealth/Northern Stage production

Staged in the upper room of Byker Community Centre, this is a theatre experience with a difference. There is no stage, and no seats, we are invited to move around the space, interact with the actors and each other, but not to touch anything -unless specifically asked to do so... I enter the room, soft music is playing and there are structures with lights dotted around. "Hello, I'm Alex, how are you? Have you been to an arms fair before?" Within minutes I have been greeted by four people, and given advice on personal security by two of them, invited to look around, sample the refreshments and enjoy... Audience participation is not my thing - unless you count booing at the baddie in Panto, but I go with the flow as best I can. I hope I won't be called on to do more than make small talk.

This is not going to be your average theatre show.

In the prologue of the Arms Fair, we are introduced to the latest technological killing machines by a series of salesmen with slick sales patter where names such BAE and Rolls Royce are dropped into the conversation. And then the narrative moves to the more personal stories - of Alex, a British soldier, veteran of the Afghan conflict, Mo'min, a Palestinian from the West Bank, an actor, now living in London, and Shatha, an artist in Yemen, who appears via a pre-recorded video. They tell of their own experiences of war, of air strikes, of guns and bombs. Each one told from a different perspective, each one very personal. Each one painful. And each one the direct result of British arms deals.

Their stories are enhanced ad illustrated with the strange ticking light box props. These it transpires are metronomes. There are seventy two of them, representing the seventy two Eurofighter jets sold to Saudi Arabia and used in Yemen. The ticking of the metronomes echoes the Domesday Clock, ticking down to the destruction of mankind.

I Have Met The Enemy is hard -hitting, political theatre. It does not pull punches. But it is also compassionate and human, even as it highlights the inhumanity of the arms trade. These are real people, and their experiences are real. Their losses are real. Their fears are real. Their stories draw you in, you are delighted by the thought of Alex's mother walking her dog in Wales, of Mo'min out with the sheep and the horse, and of Shatha dancing at a wedding. But, they pull no punches - just as you settle into the stories, a gun is levelled, or a grenade is thrown, or an airstrike hits. Blood mixes with jasmine flowers.

It raises so many issues, asks so many questions, and leaves us uncomfortable, thinking about the consequences of war, and our part in it.

You can meet the enemy at Byker Community Centre until Saturday 26th Oct.

Denise Sparrowhawk

The Dark Earth and the Light Sky - Review - People's Theatre

The Dark Earth and the Light Sky

People's theatre
11th June 2019

Written by Nick Dear
Directed by Hugh Keegan


The Dark Earth and the Light Sky is the story of the friendship between poets Robert Frost and Edward Thomas.  There are four main characters - Edward Thomas, Helen Thomas, Robert Frost and Eleanor Farjeon and the play follows the relationships between these four friends. Though the play is ostensibly about the friendship between Frost and Thomas and the influence they each had on the other's career, for me, the relationship between Helen and Edward seems the strongest thread and Helen's voice the strongest, throughout.

Each character addresses the audience at some point - the first we hear is Helen and her voice throughout is the strongest. Even as she is moved away from Edward's focus she remains steadfast and forthright. Anna Dobson plays the role beautifully - capturing the transition from the joy of the young lover, through the drudgery of motherhood and housekeeping, essentially bringing up the children and running the household alone as Edward pursues his own dreams. Her devotion to Edward shines through even as he pushes her away.

Edward Thomas (Sam Hinton)  is an unhappy man - he doesn't fit comfortably into the world - at odds with his father, labelled failure by him because he does not share his hunger for financial success. Thomas wants to enjoy life as he lives it, not spend life striving in a job he hates in order to get on in society. His affinity is with words and with the land and the countryside. City life stifles him. He makes his living - such as it is writing literary criticisms, biographies, essays, reviews but it takes the friendship with Frost for him to realise he himself could be a poet. And yet still he feels that something is missing. Ironically, having fought against the constraints of city life, and the daily grind of marriage and children, he finally finds purpose by joining the army. And therein he finally breaks Helen's heart.

Robert Frost (Mark Burden) is a more enigmatic character - though he is one of the main characters in the drama I feel  we learn very little the man himself - other than his love for words, and his affection for Thomas, other than this we are given only glimpses into his own private life, snatches of his family history and background.

Finally, we have Eleanor Farjeon (Alison Carr), hopelessly in love with Edward but never more than friends. Their relationship brings light into Edwards life and darkness to Helen’s – she befriends Eleanor to keep an enemy close, and though the two women are friends, Helen is aware perhaps even before Eleanor herself, of the other woman’s love for her husband.  Eleanor is light, apparently carefree, and becomes the confident of Edward and Frost.  Hers is a lonely life, despite her place in society. Both she and Frost feel the loss of Edward keenly.

There are many, many layers to this play – it explores intellect and intelligence, but also emotion, and the nature of love, and expectation, success and failure, and self-worth. It is threaded through with images of nature and the love of the natural world, and the love of words. But also the power of words, both those spoken, and those not, their power to enlighten, and to educate but to also to confuse, to crush and to undermine.  The themes of language and nature are embodied in the stunning set created by Rolf Wojciechowski – with its draped images of distant hills and trees, and skies filled with cloudlike words – some legible and some just a hint of language.

The Dark Earth and the Light Sky is a beautifully sad play. A story of love, and loss. The cast portray their characters with such empathy throughout. Lovely performances from everyone involved. Performed in the round, this is an absorbing and intimate experience. As the audience, we switch from being voyeurs of these people's lives to being included in them, and back again.  

Studio productions never disappoint at the People's Theatre. This one takes them to another level.

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

Romeo and Juliet - Review - People's Theatre

Romeo and Juliet

People's Theatre
2nd Oct 2018

Romeo and Juliet is my least favourite Shakespeare play. I confess to disappointment that this was the People's Theatre choice this year.  I am in a minority. It's a crowd pleaser, everyone loves Romeo and Juliet except me. I think my dislike must stem from a bad production seen some time ago. And possibly Leonardo Di Caprio can shoulder some of the blame. I am always impatient with the fickleness of the characters, and the unreasonable feud. Do any of them even know why the two families don't like each other?

So it takes something special to get me on side for this one. Would People's Theatre be able to sway me from my prejudiced outlook?


Director Anna Dobson took her inspiration from the BBC's Peaky Blinders, bringing the play into post war 20th Century. This gives plenty of reasons for unrest and dissatisfaction in life to account for the many grudges and battles between opposing factions, and gives the wardrobe and set builders the opportunity to be a little more creative. No doublets and pantaloons here, and no rose covered balcony. The set is industrial, with barrels, packing cases and chains in place of the streets of Verona and rosy arbours. The cast are dressed in Tweeds and flat caps, swords replaced with flick knives and cudgels. The women dressed beautifully in furs and lace.
And in the background haunting Nick Cave tunes.

You know the plot - The Montagues and Capulets create fear and mayhem in the streets of Verona, violence erupting whenever the two factions meet. But two meet and fall in love - Romeo, a Montagu, and Juliet a Capulet. They enlist the help of Friar Laurence who marries them in secret. Meanwhile Juliet's father has brokered a marriage agreement with Paris.
I won't be spoiling the plot if I tell you it doesn't end well.

Craig Fairbairn and Emma Jayne Richards sizzle on stage with barely controlled passion in their scenes, capturing and conveying to all around, the immediacy of their attraction to each other and the all-consuming nature of their love.

Richard Jack gives an exceptional performance as the hot tempered and lewd Mercutio- the friend whose temper and loyalty contribute to the tragedy.

It is a fast paced, visually stunning and beautifully executed production. Did the team succeed in impressing me with their Romeo And Juliet? They did. They played a peaky blinder.

It runs until Saturday 6th October.

Denise Sparrowhawk

Review - Rabbit Hole - Royalty Theatre

Rabbit Hole

Royalty Theatre
19th Feb 2018

David Lindsey-Adair's Rabbit Hole won the 2007 Pulitzer prize for Drama. The synopsis sounds a little bleak. A couple coming to terms with the death of their son are faced with the news that the wife's sister is pregnant, and the teenager who caused the accident that killed their son wants to meet them. You might expect therefore a rather grim exploration of a family in freefall, trying, and probably failing, to come to terms with their grief. You'd be wrong. This is a sensitive and sympathetic portrayal of a family on the verge of disintegration, each member floundering in their grief, desperate to find a way through. It is a story told with compassion and gentle humour, with characters who are carefully observed and drawn.

Under the direction of Lee Stewart this small cast don't put a foot wrong. Corinne Kilvington is utterly believable as the grief-stricken mother Becca, struggling to live in a house full of memories. A homemaker in a home that has had its heart ripped from it, she tries to cling on to normality by baking for and nurturing other members of the family, while slowly removing the too painful evidence of her son - taking his drawings down from the fridge, sending his dog to her mother, giving his clothes to charity. In contrast her husband Howie (Ryan Rowntree) clings to the memories, watching the last video of Danny at the park, reliving the day over and over. Rowntree gives a very natural and unforced performance.

As the two try to cope in their own way they find themselves pushed apart, unable to accept the other's way of grieving. Emotions naturally run high and cracks begin to appear in their relationship. Will they manage to repair themselves and each other, or will their life together fall apart?

Into this come Becca's sister and mother. Izzy (Abbi Laidler) is the younger sister: irresponsible, a little wayward, and pregnant. We see her gradually become the voice of reason in the play. Nat (Anna Snell) the girls' mother, drawing on her own experience but causes only more pain and anger with her well meaning but untimely advice. These two actors perfectly capture the difficult relationships between mother and daughter, and older and younger siblings.
Finally we meet Jason - the teenager who caused the death of their child. Ben Gettins gives a heartfelt performance as this young man on the cusp of adulthood, trying to come to terms with the consequences of his actions.

The set is clean and uncluttered, changes in lighting mark the end of each scene with precision, and carefully chosen music adds to the overall feel of the play. The cast give incredibly assured and moving performances.

This an impressive production and one of the best I have seen here. The buzz of conversation at the interval and as people were leaving the theatre suggests I am not the only person to thinks so.

Rabbit Hole runs until Sat 24th February and is definitely one to see. Tickets are just £8.00 and available on the ticket hotline 0333 666 3366 or online at www.royaltytheatre.co.uk or at the box office before the show.

Denise Sparrowhawk