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

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 - Birdsong - Gala Theatre

Birdsong set to return to Gala to mark centenary 

Based on the world famous, emotionally powerful novel by Sebastian Faulks, this critically acclaimed show returns from Monday 21 May to Saturday 26 May, 7.30pm (+ 2.30pm on Thursday and Saturday) to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. A post-show discussion will also take place on Wednesday 23 May.

“It left me choked up and blinking back the tears at the end”

**** The Daily Telegraph

Set in pre-war France. A young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, embarks on a passionate and dangerous affair with the beautiful Isabelle Azaire that turns their world upside down.

As the war breaks out over the idyll of his former life, Stephen must lead his men through the carnage of the Battle of the Somme and through the sprawling tunnels that lie deep underground. Faced with the unprecedented horror of the war and with her love forever engraved on his heart, Stephen clings to the memory of Isabelle, as his world explodes around him.

This enthralling version of one of the nation’s most loved novels has been adapted by Rachel Wagstaff, and brought to life by the award-winning Original Theatre Company.

A mesmerising story of love, survival and courage. Set before and during the Great War and performed by a large ensemble company.

“Moving, gripping, dramatically electrifying and outstanding”

**** The Times

Tickets for the show are £25 (£23 concession) £22 for first night, matinees and for Gala Members. You can book by calling the box office on 03000 266 600 or via the website . 

*information provided by Gala Theatre

Breaking the Code - Review - People's Theatre

Breaking the Code

People's Theatre 

13th Feb 2018

The impact of this show begins as soon as you take your seat – the stage is set with box shelves with typewriters and other paraphernalia each side of the stage, in perfect symmetry against a backdrop of oversized dials, dramatically lit, and at the front a single bare table and chair.

As the play starts a man – Alan Turing - enters, sits at the table and positions himself prone, one arm outstretched across the table, his head resting on the arm, he rests motionless as broken sentences, music, and electronic noise blare out in a cacophony of sound. This sound, harsh and abrasive will mark change of each scene as time switches between each flashback of Turing’s life.
The scene changes are swift and almost clinical as the cast and crew move props swiftly and silently in almost choreographed movements.  

From the very first line uttered Richard Jack holds us spellbound with his sympathetic, compassionate portrayal of Turing. The first scene is his interview with the police officer Mick Ross, reporting a burglary in which very little of worth has been taken. It becomes increasingly obvious that there is more to the burglary than Turing is admitting, and Detective Ross grows increasingly suspicious. You can feel the undercurrents of distrust and anxiety between Turing and Ross as the questions become more pointed and the answers unsatisfactorily vague. And yet it is also filled with humour – as is the whole play. It deals with such heart-breaking injustices and yet it is not at all self-pitying. It portrays Turing as a bright, intelligent, passionate, and compassionate man. A truthful and principled man. Lacking social skills, he appears gauche and awkward at times and yet is transformed when he speaks of his work, of the love of mathematics and philosophy.  Jack’s delivery is impeccable. From the young, adolescent Alan to the older, jaded man he is utterly believable.

The supporting cast all give excellent performances, but acknowledgements should go to Adam Kadow as Christopher, Richard Gardner upholding the law as Detective Ross, and  Eileen Davidson endearing as Turing’s mother. Steve Robertson is outstanding as Turing’s gruff, forgetful boss at Bletchley. While Nathan Hussain as Ron leaves us wondering whether he was a good guy or a bad guy – louche, charming, but dishonest.  

Breaking the Code is a funny, emotional, heartrending play. It seems horrific to us now that a man who was instrumental in helping end the Second World War should have been so hideously treated – act two really only hints at the difficulties that Turing encountered before and after his arrest. He is a national hero and yet was ostracised by the very people whose freedom he helped to win.

I wonder, did he take a bite of the poisoned apple to escape a life he felt was untenable,  hoping a charming prince would save him, or did he do it, knowing he had achieved all he could in the circumstances, and would finally join his prince, the boy he had loved, and who had inspired his entire life’s work?

This is the best performance yet from The People’s Theatre. It runs until Saturday. You should not miss it.

Denise Sparrowhawk

It's not the character's problem - Royalty Theatre - Review

It's Not The Character's Problem
Royalty Theatre

2nd June 2017

Written and performed by Jordan Carling

I have seen a fair few one man (and one woman) shows over the last couple of years. It's a form of theatre that I increasingly love. They are invariably performed in small venues, and not necessarily to capacity audiences. Although, it has to be said, depending on the particular venue even a capacity audience can be pretty intimate.

There is something very special about being in a small space, listening to what are essentially very personal experiences. The shows take many forms - some have a lot of props to create atmosphere or context. They tend to follow a similar pattern in terms of theme - the meaning of life - or death - the nature of love, hate, indifference. They deal with some heavy subjects, and they usually do it with a fair amount of humour - often self deprecating - as the protagonist takes us on their journey of discovery. They are conversational, questions are posed, answers are invited, the audience is drawn in.

It's Not The Character's Problem we are told is a hard story tell, and may be a hard story to hear. It's Jordan's story. It is very personal. For this reason, I think, after the initial introduction - with some very sobering statistics about male suicide rates - he switches from first person, to third person. He tells Jordan's story almost like a case study, thereby distancing himself from it, and at the same time illustrating perfectly the isolation he creates for himself. In order to cope with unwelcome, negative feelings, Jordan removes them from his life - he banishes them to the wall of switches and turns them off. He builds a fortress around himself so that he doesn't have to deal with any of them, thinking that this makes him a man. Cold, dispassionate, ruled by his head not his heart. And it works fine (sort of) until a cataclysmic event leads him to finally realise that feelings, even the painful ones, are necessary to be able to fully experience life.

The show deals with a difficult subject and themes. It is a journey of self discovery. It is Jordan's journey, as he explores the way men are conditioned to respond to the emotional demands of life. How are men supposed to react to the events that life throws at them? How, in fact, has Jordan reacted to these? Not too well to begin with, as it turns out.

In this respect, this show is pretty much like others that I have seen. However it is also quite different. This is a very serious piece of story telling. There is humour - but the humour is used sparingly, with pinpoint accuracy it punctuates the narrative, providing a moment of welcome relief and preventing it from becoming too difficult to bear.

The dispassionate, third person narration means that when finally emotion begins to break through, it is all the more telling; the anger is more shocking, the grief more poignant.

"It's not the character's problem" is performed very simply with minimal props, and almost no staging - a chair, some papers, a spotlight and a white screen. Nothing is projected onto the screen, it is just there. Jordan sits throughout, reading from the papers and discarding the pages one at a time, until the story is almost done. The only action is the representation of the heart monitor in the hospital room, he draws the line in the air with his finger and taps out the heartbeat on his chest. This is an incredibly moving moment, followed by a literal thirty second pause, until the realisation that the heart has stopped. I find myself counting off the seconds. On the count of 30 Jordan resumes the story and brings it to slowly to its conclusion.

Finally an image appears on the screen.  A dedication to his father.

This must be a hard story to tell. It is a hard story to hear, but for an hour the audience's attention is held, and we listen and we feel.

"It's not the character's problem"  showed for one night only to an almost capacity crowd in the studio at the Royalty. It has also been staged at Northern Stage and the Customs House. I would hope it gets an airing in other venues, it's a story worth telling and a story worth hearing.

Denise Sparrowhawk 

 

From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads - Sunderland Stages - Review

From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads

Sunderland Stages at the Royalty Theatre
14th Feb 2017

From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads is a one man show written and directed by Adrian Berry, performed by Alex Walton and featuring the voices of Margaret Campbell (Glenda) and Rob Newman (Bowie).

This is the story of Martin - a boy with problems. His father left when he was just two years old, his mother is a chain smoking alcoholic. Martin himself is isolated, bullied, lonely and confused. He has an eating disorder and self harms - not a lot, "just enough to remind himself what it's like to feel". He is intrigued by a box in his mother's room and one day - aged 11- he picks the lock on the box and discovers a different world. The box is full of Bowie memorabilia, tickets, programmes, badges, playlists, and photographs of his father. For this lonely, misfit child it is a revelation and the birth of an obsession. From that day on he lives and breathes Bowie and dreams of his father. On his 18th birthday his mother gives him a letter that his father wrote before he left sixteen years earlier. It contains a map and an invitation to adventure. An invitation to follow his father's journey in search of their idol. Martin sets off to London on a pilgrimage to visit all the places that are significant in Bowie's early life, and believing he will finally, maybe, see his father.

Alex Walton narrates the story, introducing Martin and describing his London pilgrimage, he also plays all of the characters throughout from Martin, to the record shop owner, bus driver, barman, kebab shop server, and Martin's mother. Walton moves from character to character seamlessly, transforming with little more than a shrug from dispassionate narrator to the childlike Martin - filled with the joy of his passion for Bowie or crippled by his insecurities, or into a gruff Scottish shopkeeper, or a streetwise barman. His performance is gripping, holding the  audience and carrying us along for almost an hour and a half through the joy and pain of Martin's journey.



The story is punctuated with blasts of Bowie's music, images projected onto the backdrop, and snippets of speeches from Bowie (Newman). It's a story of how Bowie influenced and inspired two people. It is full of dreams, anguish, humour and heartache. Will Martin follow in his father's footsteps right to the end or will he become a Starman and shine? The ending is satisfyingly ambiguous. We are left to draw our own conclusions.

The UK tour of Ibiza ends on 27th Feb. You can catch the show at these venues in the north:
15 Feb: York, King's Theatre Queen Ethelburga's Collegiate
16 Feb: Georgian Theatre Royal, Richmond, North Yorkshire
18 Feb: Selby Town Hall SOLD OUT
21 Feb: Hartlepool Town Hall Theatre

Tickets are selling fast so I recommend booking in advance!
Information on other dates and venues can be found on the website: https://www.fromibiza.net/tour

This is the third show I have seen from Sunderland Stages. All three have been very different but all have been excellent, thought provoking productions. Their aim is to bring the best theatre, dance and
spoken word performances to different, unexpected and favourite venues in Sunderland; watch out for more from them in the coming year.

Denise Sparrowhawk

Rob Hudson Needs to Talk - Alphabetti Theatre - Review

Rob Hudson Needs to Talk
Alphabetti Theatre

10th Feb 2017

As I entered Alphabetti for tonight's show I was greeted by a sign on the door that sais I should be aware that the performance contained partial nudity. Another sign reiterated the message on the door to the bar...I get the feeling that someone has complained somewhere down the line. I don't recall seeing such signs when I came to see Jon Coleman trying to be a man and there was a fair bit of partial in that. Still, I was a little bit concerned for Matt Miller - Alphabetti is never warm at the best of times and tonight it was actually snowing outside. I feared he might catch his death. I needn't have worried - the partial nudity was very partial as it happens (just his bum showing).

The auditorium is declared open and we file in - collecting a rug for our knees on the way (like I said, snowing out) and choose a seat. Alphabetti seats are mildly famous - infamous? - a mishmash of chairs - some padded, some not - and there was a friendly scuffle in the front row over a "squidgy" chair. I can understand that - I have sat on one of the lesser padded seats and it can be distracting. Tonight however I chose with care and sat comfortably on red velvet for the hour of the show. And what a show! I almost don't know where to begin, as you can probably tell by the previous preamble! This is a fifty minute one man show and it is packed full of laughs, observations, advice, onions, sadness, pain, more laughs, self help, lies, more onions, questions, relationships, friendship, heartbreak. And laughs. And darkness. It soars up into the brightness of a new relationship, and it plumbs the depths of its break up.

Matt Miller leads us through the relationship between Rob and Sarah - how it all began, and how it all ended. Rob needs to talk. Sarah has broken his heart, and for a while ruined his life. But he's getting better. He is better thanks to his mother (she likes to help) and his self help books: Louise Hay's "You can heal your life" and "F**k It, the Ultimate Spiritual Way". Yes, it is a real book, written by John C Parkin. You can borrow it from the library, as Rob did. And you can breathe in and release the stress from your life by naming the stressor and then, instead of breathing out, you say F**k it. Rob invites us to try and asks if anyone has anything that is causing us angst. Either no-one in the audience has any anxieties or they are too shy. Surprising really because they appear to be a group of drama students. So, to help out I share the current propensity for parts of my car to drop off, making life a tad difficult lately. We breathe and F**k it. We laugh. I feel better.

Rob however has taken a good while to feel better. Sarah has not been a perfect girlfriend. She has not been entirely honest or open and this has taken her to a dark place, a place that Rob understands, and he endeavours to help her out of it. He helps her so successfully that she moves back to London. She is still not very honest and open. Another book helps him to understand Sarah. This one is not from the library though. This one is Sarah's diary and it is full of truth, and lies. Truth that she has not shared with Rob, and lies that she has. The truth and lies break him and he spends a very long time getting better.

This show is a conversation with the audience, and at the end we are left with a decision - he needs our advice on what to do next, we are invited to help him decide by placing our "pay what you think" envelopes in a "burn" or "return" bucket. Whichever bucket gets the most votes will be the final course of action for Rob. As I put my vote in the bucket it seems most people have gone for burn. I hope he follows the advice - he really doesn't need to give Sarah any more ammunition. Burn the book, Rob, and close the chapter.

Rob Hudson has talked for the last time at Alphabetti tonight, but am sure he'll be talking in other venues. If you get the chance to hear him go along - he's worth a listen.

Denise Sparrowhawk