Rent Party - Review - Northern Stage

Rent Party 

Northern Stage 
6th July 2019

So this was a party that I wasn't sure what to make of going in,  but wow did I enjoy it!

A Rent Party was a party back in 1950s America to help young black Americans pay their rent.

Thankfully I didn't need to go to America to go to this party! (It would have killed me in these heels.)

It's a play like no other and I don't think I'll see a play like it ever in my life again - you can only see this once.

We were given sweets and vouchers to give to the performers when each of them had performed. This is a great idea and it brought the interaction level up, not just between the performers and the audience but the audience with each other.

It's a play based around true life and the three main people tell their stories about being young, gifted and black.

Usually they have a 4th member of the team called Camille but she was absent as she is just about to have her second baby.

Her dream is to play Dolores Van Cartier in Sister Act - and I do love my musicals!

There were games to play like pass the parcel (called Pass the Duchy).

There was limbo which was funny as owt - but not what you think it would be, and it had audience participation.

There were party bags for the kids and stickers for everyone else, not forgetting the shots for the over 18s in the audience who toasted many things even Brexit (which went down like a lead balloon).

Jason - who looked gorgeous and whose makeup was on fleek - tells their story about how their bf kept locking them in the house so they couldn't get to work.

They all worked in the musical Starlight Express - which would be why they are so good on roller skates (they can do jumps and everything!).

Lena is a dancer and used to come up with dances with her two little sisters while she studied at uni.  Her family is important to her. And wow can she dance!

Tolu is one of the best musicians and he sings one of my favourite songs from the musical Charlie and the chocolate factory (Pure Imagination). He not only sings it well but puts his own twist on it which had me drawn to him. He talks about how his parents came from Nigeria and how he would love to be able to take his partner back to his homeland but doesn't think he will be able to.

The host of the Rent Party is Stuart Bowden who tells us about one event in his life where he went to his step sister's christening and was collared by all four mums of his 12 step siblings. 

He got called a little coconut which for him wasn't that a big of a deal but his mother was offended and I can guess he didn't see his dad for a long time after that incident! (Black on the outside, White on the inside!!!!).

The Director of the piece Darren Pritchard was a part of the cast helping to fill in the void that Camille had left.

This play/party was great and it was funny from minute one to the end. It has lots of audience involvement, and we were even allowed to have a dance.

It is part of the Curious Arts Festival allowing LGBTQI artists to put on their work. (I'm hopeful you might see some of my work in their Autumn programme).

This show is definitely one to see, it will live long in my memory.

Rubes Hiles 

Actors - 

Lena I Russell

Darren Pritchard 

Jason guest 

Tolu 

Stuart Bowden

Oliver Twist - Royalty Theatre - Review

Oliver Twist
Royalty Theatre
19th June 2017


The Royalty's season finale is an adaptation by Jeremy Brock of Dickens' much loved tale of Oliver Twist.
A challenging play to stage for an amateur stage society - not least because of the association most people will have with the Lionel Bart musical, and the preconceptions that will bring. Fortunately the setting on stage has more in common with recent televised Dickens drama - with their dismal, murky interiors than with the old fashioned Hollywood musical style. Dicken's works are filled with dark settings, and larger than life characters. It's a big ask to find actors for all the parts and the Royalty cast list is 21 strong with many doubling up (I advise buying a programme to keep track of them all).


Just as some of the actors are playing more than one part, so too is the stage - all the scenes are played out on just one set. This is cleverly conceived and manages to serve as the workhouse, the undertakers shop, Fagin's lair, the courthouse and the house in Chertsey, as well as various London Streets. It's a tall order, but it works well, giving the flavour of Dicken's world rather than the actuality, and avoids any cumbersome scenery changes. Lighting is used to great effect - with spotlights highlighting characters and leaving the rest of the stage in darkness where the background scenery would be a distraction. Characters enter from either side, and from the top of two stairways as if from the alleyways of London, the corridors of the Workhouse, and from a set of double doors at the back of the stage for the grand entrances. This creates a sense of space beyond the stage with characters arriving from different directions and on different levels.

These characters are the usual mix of good, bad, ugly and beautiful people from Dicken's imagination. They are in some sense caricatures of humanity and some play this aspect to its fullest - David Armstrong as Monks is a kind of terrifying Ray Whinstone character as he delivers hoarse threats to Fagin, Bill and Mr Bumble, and Billy Towers' Fagin limps and shuffles his way through the play with false camaraderie and obsequious double talking. Bill Sikes, played by Jordan Carling is not the most dislikeable character in the play, he comes across as a hard desperate man but there is a sense of lostness about him which is evident in the short scene after the botched burglary where Bill, recovering from a fever, reveals his dependence on Nancy (Abbi Laidlar). Nancy, in her bright red dress provides a rare splash of colour. It's also indicative of her fate, a bloody death for trying to bring Oliver out of the dark existence that Fagin, Bill and Monks have set for him.

Oliver Twist, of course is the face of real beauty and true innocence and is played by Becky Lindsay - casting a girl as the lead character is another clever move, as it does give Oliver that unusually sweet appearance.

 Artful Dodger looks the part in his dapper tails and his top hat poised at such a precariously jaunty angle that I worried he would lose it off at some point.  I did wonder if actor Aidan Evans had similar concerns as he lounged rather nonchalantly against scenery, however he displays some pretty fancy footwork in the demonstration of "The Game" to Oliver and his hat stays safely in place!


There is a lot of story to fit into a short time with this play, and at times it is a little disjointed - there are one or two deviations from the book as I remember it (though I admit it is a few years since I read it). The sheer volume of characters and subplots can be a tad befuddling, but credit goes to Thomas Potts as The Narrator who comes in at opportune moments to introduce characters, set scenes, fill gaps and sum up.

This is a challenge to end their season, and they made a fair stab at it. Good fun, a few surprises and plenty of drama.

Oliver Twist runs until Sat 24th June. Curtain up is at 7.30pm each evening and a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm. At just £8 a ticket it is well worth a visit. Tickets are available online or on the door.

Denise Sparrowhawk