Theatre reviews

The only noise heard is laughter

MAKING A NOISE: Gerard Carey (left), Edward Baker-Duly, Andrew Havill, Annette McLaughlin, Brigit Forsyth, Djalenga Scott, Brian Protheroe, Louise Shuttleworth and Ian Lindsay reach the end of the run of Nothing On, along with reaching the end of their tether, mind and everything else in Noises Off. Picture: Robert Day.

Noises Off

Birmingham Rep

****

TAKE a third rate touring company dragging a fourth rate farce around the non-league theatre circuit - the sort of towns and resorts that can’t manage a football league team - and there you have Noises Off.

This is Michael Frayn’s celebrated comedy about treading the boards which, as they say, is about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on - apart from Djalenga Scott that is.

She spends most of the time with her clothes off as Brooke Ashton who is playing Vicki, the standard farce staple bimbo, in the play within a play and under what is probably some unwritten by-law covering farces, she is obliged to spend much of the evening in French knickers and frilly bra. Not that I am complaining mind you.

There are also the obligatory couples caught in remarkably compromising situations through the most innocent of circumstances, many a trousers around ankles and no less than nine doors to provide endless permutations for confusion.

The play is in three acts opening in the early hours of the morning of the opening night with the cast battling through the technical-come-dress rehearsal for a new play, Nothing On, and losing rather badly.

SARDINES ANYONE?

Bridget Forsyth (pictured right) as the forgetful Dotty Otley in Noises Off who in turn plays Mrs Clackett in Nothing on (with me?) struggles to remember which props she has to use, particularly the sardines, which should really get a bow of their own, while Edward Baker-Duly’s Frederick, who in turn plays the part of playwright Philip Brent in the play that the play is about (do try to keep up at the back!) needs explanations to create his motivation for his every acting action, including carrying a box into a study, while the despairing director Lloyd Dallas (Brian Protheroe) slowly drifts towards either madness or a coronary.

To add to his problems he is also in a love triangle with Brooke and the assistant stage manager Poppy (Louise Shuttleworth).

Act Two is well into the tour when relationships are frayed and the whole set is reversed so we are backstage for a chaotic matinee performance with Garry attempting to kill Frederick, Brook about to walk out and Poppy trying to tell Lloyd her desperate news. Finally in Act Three we are back in the audience for closing night in Stockton-on-Tees when just about everything falls apart.

The play, not the play in the play, just the play strikes a chord with anyone who has ever had anything to do with a theatrical production from the local church hall upwards and the excellent cast of nine seemed to thoroughly enjoy lampooning their profession.

NOSE BLEEDS

Andrew Havill as Garry Lejeune the actor playing an amorous (or at least he hopes he will be) estate agent rushes around the stage in a manic, ungainly gallop and completes the evening with a slapstick fall down stairs of real class. Backstage he has the hots for Dotty and is jealous of Frederick who gets nose bleeds at any hint of violence.

Meanwhile Ian Lindsay staggers from scene to scene as the deaf and, whenever he can manage it, drunk, Selsdon who in turn plays a burglar.

Annette McLaughlin by comparison is almost normal as Belinda, darling, playing Philip’s wife and behind them all, holding Nothing On together, in a rather loose sort of way, are the stage manager (Gerard Carey) and Poppy, his emotional assistant..

The timing of the entire cast – critical to any comedy - is immaculate and they manage the switch between the painfully ham acting in the play what the play is all about (still with me) and the portrayal of their real characters in the real play, not the play . . . oh never mind, beautifully and they do seem to be having as much fun as the audience.

There are moments, particularly in the second and third acts when it flags a bit although it would be a near impossible task to keep up the laughs at breakneck pace for two and a half hours.

But since it first appeared in 1982 Noises Off has been regarded as one of the funniest plays in the English theatre and this slick production, based on the National Theatre version of 2000 and directed by Ian Talbot can only enhance that view. It is deliciously funny, beautifully observed, skilfully crafted on a marvellous set by Paul Farnsworth and I doubt you will laugh half as much again at a play this year. To 05-06-10.

Roger Clarke

These two men walked into a theatre . . .

****

THIS famous comedy takes you inevitably from the sublime to the ridiculous in Michael Frayn's play within a play.

It's a story about a company of actors rehearsing for Nothing On but getting into a range of crazy situations with the usual scenario of trousers going down, a glamorous girl who spends most of the time darting around in stockings, suspenders, knickers and bra, people charging in and out of doors or up and down stairs.

Brilliantly funny for a while, but by the end of the performance I was rather tiring of the antics, although it has to be said that a good section of the audience were choking with laughter.

You can have too much of a good thing, even though you have to admire the fitness of the cast who will have covered a few miles and perhaps pulled a few muscles by the time the Brum run ends.

Andrew Havill, for instance, plays Garry Lejeune with a switch of pace, sudden change of direction and an ability to fall downstairs that makes him a John Cleese lookalike.

Djalenga Scott is a delight as the pouting Brooke Ashton, more out of than in her sexy red dress, and Brigit Forsyth excels as the error prone housekeeper, Dotty Otley, while Brian Protheroe performs the role of the group's director, Lloyd Dallas, operating for part of the show from a seat in the auditorium.

An amusing performance, too, from Ian Lindsay as the boozy burglar Selsdon Mowbray.

A superb set represents the inside of a plush home in the first act, and revolves to show life and passion backstage after the interval.

Directed by Ian Talbot, Noises Off goes on till 05.06.10

Paul Marston

tickets@birmingham-rep.co.uk or

Hiya and Higher

Barbara Nice

The Other RSC

Sutton Coldfield.

****

JANICE Connolly’s alter ego, the Stockport mother-of-five Barbara Nice brought her hit Edinburgh show to the Other RSC at the Station Pub, Sutton Coldfield, scattering her thoughts and observations like currants in a bun.

We had her views on incontinence in women of a certain age, particularly after children, thoughts on pelvic floor exercises, why a recession is better than the credit munch and the benefits of pass the parcel at children’s parties.

It prepares them for life when they learn there is only one winner. “Much better to cry at seven than 33!”

There were useful tips from TAB, that’s Take a Break for the less well read as well as her thoughts on fractions, global warning and Sir Bob Gandalf.

Mrs Nice is, in her own words, an ordinary housewife who has the same worries as the rest of us. She admits to still missing Woolworth's and wonders if it was her pinching of a bit of pick’n’mix over the years could have led to their downfall.

It was a show all about making the world a happier place though and she certainly did that form the laughter. She had the audience up bopping for Mrs Khan’s dance and ended with a happy conga down into the car park to release her happiness balloons. To 20-05-10

Roger Clarke

www.rscaw.com

Success rides in on a dodgem car

Dreamboats and Petticoats

Birmingham Hippodrome

****

BILL Kenwright has found the winning formula for producing first-class musical theatre and Dreamboats and Petticoats will not disappoint.

The musical was born out of the success of the Dreamboats and Petticoats series of albums and the script, written by skilled duo Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, is full of playful innuendo.

It is a story about growing up as a teenager in what was a more innocent era for grown-ups of a certain age. Put this together with a collection of classic rock and pop songs, throw in a bit of nostalgia, some romantic trysts and you have a success on a plate.

Though the cast were very young they were strong, energetic and talented with amazing voices. The dancing did just fall short of the choreography potential. The audience thrilled to classic rock’n’roll numbers such as The Wanderer, Bobby’s Girl, Sweet Nothin’s , Poetry in Motion and Teenager in Love.

The story revolves around a group of teenage members of St Judes Youth club. Bobby a spotty, swotty, 17 year old, has a talent for writing songs and is desperate to sing in a band. He auditions but looses out to Norman (Jonathan Bremner), the older, narcissistic womaniser with great looks, great voice and questionable morals.

They compete to win a national youth club song writing competition, and the attentions of the beautiful and saucy Sue (Carolynne Good). Laura (Daniella Bowen) the school swot and Plain Jane, secretly in love with Bobby, is an accomplished musician and lyricist and the perfect foil for Bobby’s musical talents.

TUNNEL OF LOVE

Things come to a head on a youth club trip to the seaside. This scene is extremely well done; with dodgems and winged fairground boys in the Tunnel of Love. The a cappella moments here are exceptional. Laura and Bobby finally get together at her birthday party (Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen) and, yes you’ve guessed it, they go on to win the competition.

Josh Capper gave an excellent performance but didn’t quite carry off the Orbison number ‘In Dreams’. First-class performances were also delivered by Gareth Leighton in his first professional part playing Ray, Clare Ivory (Donna) and Tony Clegg as Phil and the Older Bobby. A special mention must be made to the band.

The audience loosened up during the second act joining in with ‘It’s My Party’ and by the end of the show most were standing, dancing and clapping. The show closed to a standing ovation.

When you leave the theatre and people are still singing you know the show was a success. To 22-05-10

Lynda Ford

And another golden oldie . . .

****

ROLL back the years to 1961and you can't fail to enjoy this high octane musical packed with some of the greatest hits from the rock 'n' roll era.

It may not be the most gripping story you will ever see, but the slim plot makes room for the cast to deliver a shedload of super songs like Bobby's Girl, Only Sixteen, Great Pretender, and Let's Twist Again.

There's love in the air, of course, with young Bobby and 15-year-old Laura hoping to win a song-writing competition, facing a little competition on all fronts from ladies' man Norman.

Josh Capper excels as Bobby and Daniella Bowen is impressive in the role of Laura who suddenly blossoms on her 16th birthday (Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen).

SEXY SUE

Both have fine voices, and there are splendid contributions from Jonathan Bremner as the cocky Norman and Carolynne Good, the sexy Sue.

Anthony Clegg strings things together nicely in the role of the older Bobby, reminiscing on his past, but this show is all about the music...a kaleidoscope of happy hits that ends with the entire audience on their feet dancing, swaying and clapping to C'mon Everybody and At the Hop.

Not forgetting the excellent band on stage.

Dreamboats and Petticoats, inspired by the megga-selling albums of that name, sails on to Saturday night

Paul Marston

In a word - a different world

Signs of a Star Shaped Diva

GRAEae Theatre Company

The Door, Birmingham Rep

*****

Graeae have brought this mesmerising show from Theatre Royal Stratford East to the Door at Birmingham Rep, and what a radical experience it is. In every respect.

Words take on a different dimension as they parade centre stage, projected on a screen and moulded in the face and gestures of ‘sign song’ diva extraordinaire, Caroline Parker.

Artistic Director Jenny Sealey wanted to find a vehicle that would embody Parker’s remarkable talent for signing (not singing) songs into a dramatic narrative.

Together with writer, Nona Sheppard, she has created an engaging story that allows Parker to explore every shade and texture of the diva-famous classics, from soulful ballads to up-tempo show-stoppers. The humour is laugh out loud, in-yer-face hilarious. The pathos is gentle and perfectly timed.

DARKENED ROOMS

We enter the world of demure, modestly dressed Sue, who leaves her world of darkened rooms and solitary teacups in a small-town northern funeral parlour to revel in the star-spangled glitter of show-time in Las Vegas. Donning wigs, eyelashes and stilettos before our eyes, Sue becomes her alter-ego Tammy and transforms the stage with hugely entertaining renditions of diva classics that will appeal to young and old alike, from Peggy Lee to Dusty Springfield to Amy Winehouse.

The whole show is interactive and last night’s audience were definitely on side - clapping their hands and engaging with the humour of Parker’s witty incarnations as her story unfolds. This collaborative element of the show is in itself remarkable because Parker is deaf, and as she admits in one of many moments of self-parody, lip-reading words can be a challenge in a world where “cotton sheets become cottage cheese”.

However in the language of signed song, this show is accessible to everyone. It places the non-spoken word centre stage and reveals just what a powerful art form that can be.

This is a virtuoso performance that challenges the way we hear, see and respond to the power of music.

Grab a ticket if you can. To 19-05-10

Jane Campion Hoye

tickets@birmingham-rep.co.uk or

Class act needing no explanation

Cruel

Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker

Birmingham Hippodrome

*****

THE final act of the incredibly successful International Dance Festival Birmingham 2010 was well worth waiting for.

The skill, artistry, athleticism and sheer talent of this Brazilian dance troupe is breathtaking while visually it is stunning. Musically it is a bit patchy in that the music rarely grabbed you and never moved you but then at the same time it never detracted from what was going on on stage and most of the time was just a background rhythm to the wonders unfolding before you. We were told it included music by Dvorak and Ennio Morricone but I never spotted it.

As to what it was all about? That was a bit of a struggle beyond knowing it was about relationships.

The piece falls into three acts. It opens with a giant glowing ball, which must be the world’s largest globe lampshade by several yards with the 16 dancers in a ballroom setting, all strictly come dancing until little Miss Wallflower appears and tries to grab her a man causing a bit of aggro.

I picked up on the all female section about pregnancy with eight ladies with stomach cramps throwing up in unison and the gay relationships but started to lose the plot when the ball was replaced by a huge table lit from below which was dragged around the stage as a burden, a weapon, a pedestal or an altar.

The moving table provided a collecting of dances which were at times frantic and at other sensuous and introduced us to five large knives which were sharp enough to stick in wood when thrown.

It all ended in tears though with one of the female dancers having her throat cut – symbolically of course – and one of the male dancers dragging the table tote-that-bale style into the gloom.

REFLECTIONS

The third act, after the interval was all circus. Four huge one sided mirrors, pivoting on huge frames like so many giant shaving mirrors and each mirror holding a large central porthole which could be opened to allow dancers and, at times, bits of dancers to appear.

With all the reflections intermingled with dancers, head, legs and so on appearing through holes, spinning mirrors, constant movement and clever lighting this was a magnificent visual overload attacking the senses. What it was all about I have not a clue but time flew while you watched it.

One particularly clever moment was performed by Danielle Rodrigues straddling the top of a mirror with one leg on a bar on the blind side. It might have been the old Harry Worth trick of using a shop window as a mirror but was still effective as the reflection of her visible leg made it appear she was suspended and swimming in mid air.

I have to be honest and say that most of the symbolism, what it all meant passed me by but then so did the time. No checking watches to see how much longer before you could escape here. You really did not have to understand this one to appreciate it.

The only pity about it was that a stunning piece of contemporary dance from an internationally renowned company did not attract a larger audience. Those who did make the effort were well rewarded and would have clapped and cheered happily well into the night if the house lights not been turned on.

The International Dance Festival Birmingham 2010 by the way has attracted more than 50,000 people it was announced last night, exceeding expectations.

Roger Clarke

Hot show flushed with success

Hot Flush

Lichfield Garrick

*****

HOT Flush is a sort of cross between Sex in the City, panto and stand-up with Flanders and Swann and Chubby Brown thrown in for good measure. It is a bawdy, mucky, girls' night out and gloriously funny.

The musical is all about four women of that certain age when gravity is beginning to get the edge in the battle for their bodies and hormones and moods clash daily – in short the menopause.

Myra (Lesley Joseph), Sylvia (Hilary O'Neil), Helen (Anne Smith) and Jessica (Ruth Keeling), form the Hot Flush club where they compare notes, try remedies, discuss HRT and give their views on men – all to an audience of largely women of a certain age . . . and a handful of brave men either there by accident or because they had a masochistic streak.

Not that it is an anti-men rant but a musical about the menopause is hardly going to get the local boozer organising a coach trip for a lads' night out is it?

SILICON ENHANCED

Myra's husband has left her for a younger woman, a silicon enhanced bimbo, while sexy Sylvia is bored with her husband, as she has been for 20 years, and is having a secret affair with Myra's 18-year son. A situation she blames on HRT turning her into a nymphomaniac.

Overweight Jessica is being pursued by the vicar while her husband spends all his waking hours in his shed while Helen's husband has left her by inconsiderately dying and she is looking for new love.

The 18-year old son, give or take 20 years or so, and every other male part is played brilliantly in a variety of wigs, walks, accents and costumes by Matt Slack who shows his stand-up and panto roots with impeccable timing and a cheeky smile.

Amid the lewd lines there are a few poignant, serious moments, and a couple of sad songs and there are some real menopause moments which really found their mark with the audience from the howls of knowing approval. But most of all this was a slick, often witty show which produced two-and-a-half hours of laughs. To 14-05-10

Roger Clarke

Not a dry eye in the house

Blood Brothers

Wolverhampton Grand

*****

WHEN you get a spontaneous standing ovation while the final notes of the final song of a show are still echoing around the theatre then you can take it that you have seen a rather special performance.

Willy Russell's Liverpool musical is a bit like Les Misérables, which opened in the West End in 1985, two-and-a-half years after Blood Brothers incidentally, they have become theatrical institutions; we all know how good they are when done well and this touring version is very good and very well done.

There have been some classy names playing Mrs Johnstone over the years, including ex-New Seekers star Lyn Paul (seen left) who played the role in the West End in 1997. Now she is back in the new tour and with her clear, powerful voice makes the role of the tragic mum her own.

Vying with her for honours in this production though is Sean Jones as Mickey who takes us from a hyperactive seven year-old to the pistol toting, shaking, shambling shadow of a man who has destroyed by unemployment, prison and years of anti-depressant drugs in the tragic finale.

EXPECTING TWINS

For those who have been off the planet Mrs Johnstone is the salt of the earth mum of seven. She can't stop having children and can't pay her bills so when she is expecting again her husband walks out.

She gets a job as a cleaner for for a posh family and when the lady of the house, Mrs Lyons, who has been unable to have children, finds her cleaner is having twins she persuades her to hand one over to her to raise as her own and the seeds of tragedy are sown. Her promise to let Mrs Johnstone see the child she has named Edward, every day is soon broken as she becomes paranoid about the truth coming out and sacks her cleaner.

Despite that the twins, Mickey Johnstone and Edward Lyons meet and become best friends, even becoming blood brothers, without ever knowing the truth until the final scene when Eddie, now successful and a city councillor, is confronted by a pistol waving Mickey who has reached rock bottom and can see neither hope nor a future.

Mrs Johnstone tells them they are real brothers not just blood brothers but it is all too late as the best friends born on the same day, die on the same day. Cue lof hankies appearing and shiny eyes as Lyn Paul sings Tell Me Its Not True.

Paul Davies was a fine Eddie while Kelly-Anne Gower is excellent as Mickey's girlfriend and then wife, Linda while the minor parts are played wonderfully by an enthusiastic cast doubling up. Holding it all together is the narrator Robbie Scotcher.

There is a reason shows keep going and going and when you see this one you will know why - it is superb. To 22-05-10.

Roger Clarke

Second opinion

*****

AS if by remote control, virtually everyone in the first night audience rose to their feet to give the cast of Willy Russell's magnificent musical a lengthy standing ovation at the finale.

Many were choking back tears, which is hardly surprising after the emotion-charged climax to the story of twin boys, separated at birth and brought up in two vastly different Liverpool environments.

When they meet up by chance, Mickey and Eddie become great friends - even blood brothers - to the concern of their mother and the anguish of the wealthy Mrs Lyons who, desperate for a child, persuaded hard-up mum Mrs Johnstone to part with one of the babes.

It's a show heavily laced with humour but building inevitably to an explosive, heart-breaking finish, and there is a truly wonderful performance from former New Seekers star Lyn Paul (seen right with Sean Jones) as the warm-hearted Mrs Johnstone, mother of seven who is abandoned by her husband when she discovers she is pregnant again, with twins.

Thirteen years after she was invited by director Bill Kenwright to star in the West End production of Blood Brothers, she has joined the touring production, and when she sings Tell Me It's Not True after the lethal shoot-out, there's hardly a dry eye in the house.

Sean Jones excels as the scruffy twin Mickey, with Paul Davies an impressive Eddie, Kelly-Anne Gower is a delight as the girlfriend, Linda, while Graham Martin proves a real hoot as the policeman and teacher.

Robbie Scotcher, however, lacks some of the menace and rasping Scouse accent usually associated with the important role of the Narrator in this stunning musical that runs to May 22.

Paul Marston

Mum's The Word

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

***

MEN thinking about attending this comedy with their wives or partners should perhaps be recommended to take a sedative before entering the theatre.

If the five actresses on stage - all mothers - are to be believed, childbearing and all that follows can be almost as scary as a horror film.

Maybe that's the reason the vast majority of people in the audience are women who have experienced and understand the physical agonies of bringing babies into the world, and the show starts with Kaye Quinley giving a pretty graphic impression of a mum-to-be's final moments in a labour ward.

Replacing the ill Bernie Nolan, she forms a powerful quintet with Tracy Shaw, Sally Ann Matthews, Susie Fenwick and Mandy Holliday in a show which delivers pain and humour by the bucketfull.

Biggest laugh of the night? That's when chubby Mandy Holliday, playing a mum whose toddler has slipped away while she was struggling out of her soaked bathing costume, dashes stark naked across the stage....and a few minutes later streaks, screaming, in the opposite direction.

Not far behind that in the titter stakes was the scene where the ladies appear to be using their breasts as 'water pistols'.

The play, which opens with the fab five sitting on wooden seats facing the audience, was written by six Canadian actresses, once glamorous, but facing up to life as exhausted mothers of ten children under the age of six.

Gentlemen, work has to be the easier option! To 08.05.10

Paul Marston

Quite simply - Strictly Brilliant

Strictly Come Dancing – The Professionals

Birmingham Hippodrome

*****

After many a TV show and tour spent carting lethargic celebs around the dance floor, the Strictly Come Dancing professionals were finally let loose on the aptly named ' Strictly Dancing The Professionals Tour' at the Birmingham Hippodrome.

Of course, with the absence of the celebs, follows the absence of the judges. But the disappointment was short-lived, as video clips of the judges were interspersed throughout the night - providing both comedy and information on each dance, as well as the more practical logistic of some changing time for the dancers.

The night was a mixture between couple and group dances and each one provided a real treat. The choreography managed to negotiate the dynamics of the stage, no mean feat, given the normal dance floor dimensions to which their talents are honed.

ELECTRIC ATMOSPHERE

Adding to the electric atmosphere was the live band - which gave a real depth to the routines.

With virtually all the major dances covered it was merely a case of waiting for your favourite - mine was the lindy hop which, during a trio of Jive and swing was the culmination of a brilliant 1st half.

Each performer had their part to play, introducing dances and also performing little pieces to the audience. The highlight was Vincent, a charming mix of self deprecating arrogance and Italian charm, a welcome contrast to the slickness of the dancing.

But it was on the dance floor that each couple had their chance to shine - Vincent and Flavia with their superb Argentine Tangos, James and Ola with their Cha Cha Cha and Ian and Natalie with their Viennese Waltz were the standout performances, with the two other couples, Brian and Kristina and Matt and Aliona also putting in great displays.

That they manage to keep going at such a pace with their performances of 2 x 45 minutes is testament to their fitness levels - and if you weren't sure of said levels then the skimpy costumes leave you in no doubt. They are not just performers, they are also athletes.

If you love Strictly you'll love this. And even if you're not a massive fan, the skill and atmosphere of the show will win you over. The tour is at the Hippodrome until May 8th and I'd recommend that you grab a partner and buy a ticket, you won't regret it. To 08-05-10.

Theo Clarke

Second steps

* * * * *

THIS show is strictly fabulous! The professional stars from the hit BBC TV series have come together on stage in a spectacular combination of glamour and style that is simply breathtaking.

Technical problems led to a 20-minute delay in the start of the opening night performance, but it was worth waiting for as James and Ola Jordan, Brian Fortuna and Kristina Rihanoff, Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, Matthew Cutler and Aliona Vilani, and Ian Waite and Natalie Lowe turned on the style.

If you think the girls were gorgeous on telly they are even better in the flesh. And the costumes are stunning, too.

Oh, and those controversial judges were not present. Well they were, but only on screen for the occasional amusing pearl of wisdom from Len Goodman, Craig Revel-Horwood and Bruno Tonioli.

Nor were the 'celebrity' dancers on stage, though former World Leightweight boxing champion Joe Calzaghe sat right behind me in the stalls and I swear I could feel his hot breath on my neck whenever his Russian-born TV partner Kristina Rihanoff was dancing.

Joe told me it was the first time he had seen the show, and he clearly enjoyed it as much as the large audience.

All the dances from the waltz to the Argentine tango, and the quickstep to jive and rock 'n' toll were given the special treatment, while singers Ricardo Afonso, Lance Ellington, Jenna Lee James and Ria Jones made an important contribution.

Directed by Karen Bruce, SCD runs to Saturday night 08.05.10

Paul Marston

Laugh a minute spoof of classic tale

Light my dear: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart as Hannay and Katherine Kingsley as Annabella Photo by Tristram Kenton

The 39 Steps

Birmingham Repertory Theatre

*****

IT IS 1915 and handsome Richard Hannay is bored with life since he returned from his travels, he is alone with no chums and tired of reading of elections and wars and rumours of wars in the newspapers. He decides that he needs to do something mindless and trivial. ” I know! I’ll go to the theatre!”

From that moment on we are treated to non-stop comedy action in Fiery Angel’s production of John Buchan’s classic, The 39 Steps.

The audience is delighted as the spoof thriller unfolds. Hannay is mistakenly accused of the murder of Annabella Schmidt, and becomes a fugitive from the law, travelling by train to Scotland to seek out a German spy. We follow as he is chased through the Scottish Highlands, uncovers the truth about the dastardly Professor Jordan and then returns to London to discover the meaning of the 39 Steps from musical hall entertainer, Mr Memory.

All four players are brilliant. Dugald Bruce-Lockhart is playful and mischievous as the hero, Hannay, with stiff-upper-lip, Harris tweeds and a rather attractive pencil moustache. He is the only member of the cast to play one character throughout. Katherine Kingsley is ravishing as the mysterious and unfortunate Annabella Schmidt. She also plays love interests Margaret and hard to get Pamela.

Laugh-out-loud

The show is full of great comedy and laugh-out-loud moments thanks to the outstanding Richard Braine and Dan Starkey, seen here as underwear salesmen. Their character and costume changes are excellently choreographed, swift-paced and very funny.

Toby Sedgewick, Movement Director, is responsible for the clever use of shadow puppetry as Hannay is chased on foot and by plane across the Scottish highlands.

This spoof version of the 1915 classic is the latest of many adaptations, of which Hitchcock’s version is recognised as the best film. Watch out for veiled references to many of his films.

This production of the 39 Steps opened in 2006 and won an Oliver in 2007 and two Tonys in 2008 Patrick Barlow’s adaptation is imaginatively directed by Maria Aitken and the cast of four play an amazing 139 roles in 90 minutes and well deserved five-star recognition for top class entertainment. To 08-05-10

Lynda Ford

tickets@birmingham-rep.co.uk or

www.alexandratheatre.org.uk

Harry's meetings still entertains

When Harry Met Sally

Alexandra Theatre

****

“WHEN you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible’

What a wonderfully thought provoking line in the play. It was this and other similar lines that had me entranced and hungry to see what the next scene was going to be.

The performance by both leading actors was truly addictive and entertaining. They both put on convincing American accents and played their characters well. Sally (Sarah Jayne Dunn) portrayed the character beautifully; annoyingly optimistic, whiny, but still intelligent. Harry (Rupert Hill), was entertaining as the initially emotionally unintelligent lawyer.

There were many funny moments during the play which kept it alive and moving at a pace. The end of the play the message was obvious, that differences really can work together.

The set was basic, but very appropriate and used very effectively to set the scene. It fitted with all the scenes and provided enough to get our imaginations going. The background music was especially recorded for the show by Jamie Cullum and his brother Ben and fits in with every scene

The atmosphere was light and everyone seemed to be relaxed and enjoying the show. It was easy to watch, light entertainment, an escape.

This show was an enjoyable experience and have already recommended it to others, a must see! to 08-05-10.

Jaspreet Bhogal

Second meeting

* * *

CAN a man and woman really be just good friends? That's the question posed by Nora Ephron's romantic comedy adapted for the stage from the award-winning film starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.

For 12 years of their on-off-on relationship it seems that Harry and Sally will never click in a physical sense as they date other people, argue and Harry marries someone else, then divorces.

The play has some delightful dialogue between the couple, she just out of college and he fresh from law school, and of course there is that famous scene in a diner when, to the amazement of other customers, Sally suddenly breaks off a discussion with Harry to fake an orgasm with much gasping, groaning and writhing.

In the film it happens in a packed restaurant, so inevitably the the stage version loses some of its impact because the witnesses are just one female customer and a waiter.

Rupert Hill, who plays Jamie Baldwin in Coronation Street, is superb as the articulate Harry, while Sarah Jayne Dunn sparkles in the role of the romantic Sally, and there is a touching scene when love finally blossoms for a happy ending.

I saw the play on Wednesday night when, sadly, there was a tiny audience. They witnessed a bit of unexpected entertainment, though, just as the action started and a stocky pensioner in the third row of the stalls for some reason decided to climb over the seats into the second row. He found himself with one leg trapped on top of the seats until a man in the front row heard his predicament and leaned over to release the man's leg.

Harry continues meeting Sally until Saturday night 08.05.10

Paul Marston

A legend laughed back to life

Jus' Like That

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

*****

"THE producer said how do you feel? I said a little funny and he said well you better get out there before it wears off". Clive Mantle is remarkable as Tommy Cooper and ‘it’ certainly didn’t wear off.

Cooper was one of Britain’s most talented and best loved comedians. His singular type of comedy genius is captured completely by Mantle in this sensitive tribute written by John Fisher.

It was said that Cooper would die with his fez on and he did; on stage in front of a live TV audience at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London in 1984. The first half of the show is classic Cooper comedy and magic and the audience is delighted with 45 minutes of non-stop laughter.

At 6’5” wearing size 13 shoes, Mantle has the physical attributes of the bungling magician as he performs tricks which are hilarious when they work and even more hilarious when they don’t. Mantle’s portrayal of the great man’s mannerisms is faultless and his comedic delivery is spot on; at times raising an hysterical response with no more than a look. His New Year’s Eve Hats routine is jaw-achingly funny. Throughout he is ably assisted by Carla Mendonça.

HEAVY DRINKER

Arthur Askey was an idol of Cooper’s and his radio programme plays during the interval and into the opening of Act 2 where we find Cooper in his dressing room. Here we are given an insight into the man behind the comedy, a heavy drinker with serious health problems who refuses to stop drinking or give up his 40 a day cigar habit.

His mistress, Mary (also played by Mendonça), struggles to motivate the drunken Cooper on to the stage. He is difficult to communicate with hiding behind one-liners and reflecting on his marriage to Dove; he was known to be hard on those closest to him.

Mantle goes on to recreate more classic Cooper comedy moments including the magic cloak trick and the blindfolded duck. Cooper’s death is sensitively handled in the penultimate scene and the final scene finds Cooper safely passed over into comedy paradise, looking forward to meeting another of his heroes Maxie (Max Miller) and telling heavenly gags such as, “my wife is an angel…she’s always harping on about something”, accompanied by an angelic Mendonça.

Mantle worked with Geoffrey Durham (The Great Soprendo) to recreate the magic tricks.

The influence of the man is such that Cooperisms are now part of our language. In interviews Mantle has said that he hopes the show “reminds people what an absolute genius Tommy was”. This tribute reflects exactly that - Jus’ like that!

Lynda Ford

Curtain call . . . jus' like that

***

THEY used to say Tommy Cooper only had to walk onto a stage and people would burst out laughing. It's not quite like that in this tribute show to the legendary comic magician, but the show contains plenty of humour.

In a Sunday afternoon performance Clive Mantle, best known for his roles in TV's Casualty and Holby City, tried his best to deliver that trademark voice but never managed to get it jus' like Tommy.

Nevertheless, he mastered some of those famous mannerisms and performed those simple tricks pretty well....both the ones that succeeded and the ones that the comedian fluffed, to the delight of his fans.

And there were plenty of Tommy Cooper fans in the Grand audience judging by the number who were on their feet giving Mantle a standing ovation at the final curtain.

The gags were all there - "A friend told me Margate was good for rheumatism....he was right. I went there, and got it."

Cooper died in 1984, on his way to hospital after collapsing on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre, and Mantle was at his best at the start of the second act when the scene switched to Cooper's dressing room where, in vest and white long johns, he was swigging a range of alcoholic drinks and smoking a cigar, clearly unwell before going on stage.

Writer John Fishes has produced a good final scene, too, with Cooper turning up as a piano-playing angel in Heaven, complete with white fez. The usual red fez he used in his act arrived by accident when he was entertaining troops in Egypt, couldn't find his pith helmet, and grabbed a fez off a waiter . . . Jus' like that!

Paul Marston

02-05-10

www.grandtheatre.info/

A night of wartime memories

We'll Meet Again

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

***

GREAT wartime songs were packed into this nostalgic concert which proved a real tear-jerker for the many pensioners in the audience.

And they joined in enthusiastically with the five singers for many of those Hitler-slugging hits, particularly when stunning young blonde Lucia Matisse gave her tribute the forces's sweetheart Vera Lynn.

White Cliffs of Dover and, of course, Well Meet Again piled on the emotion, and the cast helped bring memories flooding back by wearing army, navay and air force uniforms for some of the numbers.

And what a performance from Andy Eastwood, Britain's foremost exponent of the ukulele. He played the instrument brilliantly in his George Formby medley, including the trademark song When I'm Cleaning Windows.

The old Workers Playtime radio show was given an airing, with the cast playing the likes of Arthur Askey, Tessie O'Shea, Gracie Fields and that Cheeky Chappie, Max Miller, and if some gags were as old as gas masks, no-one cared.

Steve Barclay, Tony Leyton and Mervyn Francis made strong contributions, with Martyn St James and Phil Jeffrey providing the music on keyboard and drums for the three performances. To 30.04.10

Paul Marston

www.grandtheatre.info/

Honour killing brings bite to gritty drama

Respect

Birmingham Rep

The Door

****

If you like gritty, hard-hitting plays with a punch then Respect does just that. As the title says, it’s about how much respect passionately matters to second generation migrants (in this case Turkish) who are desperately trying to fit in with their Western German counterparts.

Respect is also a story of a real-life honour killing that inspired writer Lutz Hübner but offended German authorities so much it led to a two year ban on the play. This social realism adds to the play’s sense of menace, reinforced by Rae Mcken’s taut production, laced with motifs of shadows slashed on walls, layered staging from light down to darkness, and rushes of metallic noise that grate like the swish of a knife.

Libby Watson’s set imaginatively suspends the stark bright-white cell of an interrogation room above the stage, where police psychologist Kobert (Tim Wyatt) tries to make sense of the fragments of this murder mystery. Except here the questions are not so much whodunit, but why?

POWER STRUGGLES

As Kobart painstakingly draws out the varied accounts from Turkish boys Cem (Naoufal Ousellam) and Sinan (Simon Silva) we watch, through a series of flashbacks, the story of what happened when the boys take two girls, Elena and Ulli, out on a day trip to Cologne. It’s a violent game of power-struggles that end with one girl dead, and the other badly injured after a frenzied stabbing.

The teenagers are all convincingly portrayed, but it is Ousellam that stands out. As the volatile Cem, he explores every shade of rage - from sinister brooding to psychotic explosion – in a performance that lingers in the memory after the play finishes.

However, the highly structured set also stifles some of the performances, most notably Wyatt who, cooped in the prison cell, has to play far too many scenes from a sideways view. It’s only when the set and characters converge in the last twenty minutes that the play draws to a brilliant, heart-beat stopping climax.

Worth watching. To 08-05-10

Jane Campion Hoye

www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

Don Pasquale

English Touring Opera

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

***

THERE'S a lovely scene at the start of Donizetti's humorous opera when Keel Watson, playing Don Pasquale, stands in front of the theatre curtain and appears to be conducting, with passion, the orchestra in the pit below.

He makes a fine job of it, too, which is necessary because Pasquale is a wealthy conductor of international renown, though he soon finds himself dancing to the tune of the young woman he has decided to marry.

Watson was superb as the portly musician who, upset by his nephew's refusal to marry the woman he has chosen for him, decides to take a wife for himself with disastrous results.

In the amusing plot, Don Pasquale's agent, Malatesta, conspires with the nephew, Ernesto, to set up a fake marriage for the conductor which could enable Ernesto to eventually wed his lover, Norina, beautifully played by soprano Mary O'Sullivan.

Owen Gilhooly sparkled as Malatesta, with Nicholas Sharratt in fine voice as Ernesto.

Although the opera was sung in English, it was impossible to pick up every word and you wonder whether the electronic surtitle board should be used in all operas to help the audience follow what is going on.

Don Pasquale was staged on Monday, with Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro on Tuesday.

Paul Marston

Morris dance rings all the right bells

L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato

Mark Morris Dance Group

Birmingham Hippodrome

*****

MARK Morris’s dance masterpiece arrived in Birmingham for the first time carrying before it like a Royal standard 22 years of accolades, superlatives and adulation.

Up to its appearance at the London Coliseum earlier this month it had been ten years since it had been seen in Britain yet was still spoken of in bated breath and it is a magnificent piece of dance.

I hesitate to say modern when Handel’s music dates back to 1740 and John Milton’s poems are more than a century earlier but this is at times stunning contemporary dance with precision and timing especially, when 24 dancers are on stage at once, which is a joy to watch.

Morris uses his dancers to paint pictures and tell stories, show emotions and set scenes in a way that sets it apart from other modern dance classics. It might not have the drama or excitement - Handel and Milton don't do excitement - but it has a depth and elegance that will be a challenge to surpass.

A moment in the opening sequence when all the dancers run at full speed in a loop on opposite diagonals crossing in the centre of the stage without colliding or deviating in direction or pace was breathtaking. The hours of practice and bruises for just that short section can only be imagined.

There are other fine moments such as when the company flutter like a flock of starlings around the stage in a poem we assume was about birds - more of that later - and there is humour in there such as the tongue in cheek slapping dance among the men or the hunting scene where two girls are the prey hiding among the trees and shrubs formed by rest of the company chased by a male dancers as a pack of dogs - who, of course, do what dogs tend to do when they find a tree.

RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE

The choreography is stunning using the full Hippodrome stage and Mark Morris fully deserved the rapturous applause when he appeared at the end. He manages to isolate one or two dancers in the crowd to express a feeling, or co-ordinate several groups . A common theme was to use groups, or lines of dancers all doing the same thing but slightly out of sync - rather like a very graceful, very elegant dancing Mexican wave.

There was one point where a dance downstage was being mirrored by the same dance at the very rear of the stage but several seconds behind yet slowly the dance at the rear caught up until it ended with both dances in perfect time. That sort of thing takes imagination in choreography and skill in execution.

Morris creates not just dances but tableaux and shapes with dances becoming a small part of a larger movement which can spread across the stage. He also challenges convention with his women at one point lifting his men, or repeating an early dance when a group of men hold a female dancer in triumph towards the end with a group of women lifting a man.

Wherever you look there is something going on, something to make you wonder. The Mark Morris dance group itself is a revelation with dancers in all shapes and sizes along with beards and pony tails. It gives the dancers an air of everyman, of being a part of all humanity rather than just a dancer - and an exceptional one at that.

It all flowed seamlessly and seemed effortless - of course we know it was not. Blood is sweated to reach within touching distance of perfection.

The sets are simple and effective with gause screens, washes of changing colour and unobtrusive lightingsetting the mood while the equally simple costumes in pastel shades help the dancers in creating the images and expressing the emotions of the poems and music.

FAULTLESS ORCHESTRA

And for the music there was English National Opera orchestra who were faultless under conductor Jane Glover with a clarity and brightness that enhanced Handel’s music and one could not fault the New London Chamber Choir or the soloists sopranos Elizabeth Watts and Sarah-Jane Brandon, Tenor Mark Padmore and bass baritone Andrew Foster-Williams.

It was all First Division stuff and without the dance it would still have been an enjoyable performance but sadly this was also the Achilles heel of the piece.

Each of the 32 dances to an extent depends upon the poem to both set the scene and let the audience know what is going on - let us be honest Milton’s poems are not exactly top of most people’s reading lists and the Handel piece is rarely performed.

But making out the words is an impossible task which is no real fault of the singers - for a start they are down in the pit which hardly helps their cause and then the poems as songs to Handel’s music and the poems to be read and understood are two different beasts.

Thus the audience is left marvelling at the dance and how it flows wonderfully with the music but as both the music and the dance depend upon the poems for inspiration there is an element lacking

The poems are printed in the programme but that is really for reference later. It might sound sacrilege for something sung in English but surtitles might just be worth considering.

Roger Clarke

Stars shine bright in the moonlight

Frankie and Johnny were lovers: Rolf Saxon and Kelly McGillis contemplate embarking on a relationship

Frankie & Johnny in the Clair De Lune

Grand Theatre

****

KELLY McGillis has taken a bit of a hammering in the national press recently. Her crime appears to be that she is not as stunningly attractive, at 52, as she was in Top Gun in 1986. Now there’s a shock, people not getting any younger, what is the world coming to.

Miss McGillis might well not be as young as she was, even film stars have to accept second billing to Father Time, but when it comes to acting she still has it and much the same can be said when she shows slightly more than her age in the early nude scenes.

These incidentally are tastefully done and in dim lighting so shouldn’t shock a maiden aunt.

FAILED ACTRESS

Kelly is Frankie, a failed actress living in a tiny New York apartment and working as a waitress in a fast food restaurant.

Johnny is an ex-con who is a short order chef in the same restaurant. They might not be losers but they can hardly be classed as winners.

Johnny, played by Rolf Saxon (Mission Impossible) is a romantic dreamer who believes he has found a soulmate in Frankie.

We are introduced to the pair through a rather noisy lovemaking on a darkened stage and then follow them through a night of doubts, recriminations and confession as word by word, sentence by sentence we discover their fears, their past and their hopes.

Frankie is nervous, not wanting to become too involved, not wanting to be hurt. Johnny wants it all turning what could have been left as a one night stand into marriage and kids in a matter of a couple of hours.

The play, dating from 1987, is about loneliness, about 40-something strangers alone in a huge city, about hopes and dreams and people with both a need for and a fear of love and relationship. As the night goes one they love, break up, love and break up until dawn finally arrives.

CLEVER SCRIPT

Heavy stuff but Terrence McNally’s clever script never lets the story become depressing. There is plenty of humour in there, bittersweet at times, amid the honesty and confessions and in the hands of McGillis and Saxon we actually believe in the characters and want to know more about them, how they came together and what is going to happen. By the end we actually care about them.

Saxon, a Virginian living in London, keeps his Brooklyn - sorry Brooklyn Heights - accent perfectly with a mix of wisecracks, outlandish statements and alarming honesty.

McGillis is vulnerable, wary and has a life of disappointment behind her and wants to avoid disappointment in the life still to come. She makes us feel we want to protect her from the world.

RADIO PROGRAMME

Through it all, like a thread linking them both together, is their song, the “most beautiful music in the world” that Johnny has requested from the radio programme that is constantly playing in the background. He music is Debussy’s Clair de Lune, hence the play’s title, but we are never told its name and Frankie and Johnny don’t know it but he promises he will go to a record store and buy it for Frankie – he just has to ask for the most beautiful music in the world.

The radio presenter does not believe Frankie and Johnny exists but plays the music anyhow because he hopes they are out there and he hopes they are in love. And to an extent that is what this play is about - hope and love.

One novelty in the current climate incidentally, is that this is not a play hewn from the film. The film, from 1991 with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer, was adapted from the original play and it shows in a work that is in its natural home on stage. Two people discovering about each other and themselves.

Directed by Michael Lunney it runs to 17-04-10.

Roger Clarke

Another view

****

WHEN the curtain rises at the start of Terrence McNally's clever comedy the stage is in darkness, but its not difficult to guess what is going on.

Grunts, groans, gasps and other passionate sounds come from the bedroom of Frankie's small apartment in New York City where the hard-boiled restaurant waitress is entertaining Johnny the chef.

Dimmed lighting eventually reveal the couple in bed together for the first time, and while there is a moment or two of full frontal nudity it's unlikey to prove offensive, especially as there is so much humour in the play.

Two American film stars, Kelly McGillis and Rolf Saxon, are the ideal choice for the roles of Frankie and Johnny, giving the story realism and delivering the dialogue perfectly.

There are some great lines as the pair debate their new relationship, between the sheets, sitting on the bed, or in the kitchen. Johnny, a failed marriage behind him, is convinced they are destined to be together....apparently coming from the same small town in Pennsylvania, but Frankie, approaching 40, is more sceptical.

As they consider the possibility of a life together there are some sparkling exchanges.

A 1991 film version of the story, starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer, had the tagline 'You never choose love. Love chooses you'.

Paul Marston

Comedy with pick and shovel edge

Brassed Off

Lichfield Garrick

****

TURNING a film into a play is never easy. Films are episodic, visual, collections of brief scenes but director Chris Rolls and designer Aaron Marsden have done a fine job with this 1996 political commentary on the destruction of the coal industry.

There is plenty of humour in this pro-am production between Lichfield Rep and and Lichfield Players but underlying it all is the despair and bitterness of the miners of Grimley as their still profitable pit, their livelihood and their heritage is about to become history.

Grimley was a thinly disguised Grimethorpe whose pit had just closed and whose world famous brass band provided the players and soundtrack for the film.

The setting is 1994, ten years after the disastrous miner’s strike when a Thatcher Government and NUM leader Arthur Scargill had fought to the political death. The miners had lost.

The strike still had bitter memories and recriminations while what little was left of the coal industry was still being destroyed with pits closing and mining communities left destitute and devastated.

All the anger, fears, hopes, poverty, humanity, bitterness and despair are told through the eyes of the colliery band and its first chance to reach the national finals in its history.

DEBT-RIDDEN MINER

There were some excellent performances from the pro half of the production with Charlie Buckland as the debt-ridden miner Phil, son of the bandmaster, with a part time job as a clown. His wife Sandra (Janet Bamford) conveys the worry of poverty and debt finally leaving when bailiffs leave the family with just one chair.

There is Rachel Matthews as Gloria, the girl who left Grimley and has returned working for the colliery and fallen again for her schoolboy crush Andy (Matthew Stathers) who is now a snooker playing miner who finds his passion Gloria drowning in his hatred of management.

Among the amateurs Barrie Atchison shows the ideological illogical mind of the old fashioned militant as Jim while Ian Parkes as Harry bumbles through as a solid union member. Stephen Brunton is believable as the dying musical director Danny, who hails from Bradford incidentally, so had no problems with the accent. Danny sees the band as the be all and end all of Grimley, more important than even the pit and the jobs under threat.

And running through it all is that Grimley Band, played beautifully by the prizewinning Amington Brass Band.

The set was interesting using the black expanse of the Garrick stage with no scenery just bare walls which served as everything from the hall for band practice, the streets of the Moorland villages around Oldham and even a hospital with the cast sitting in the gloom around the edges waiting for their cues.

More important though, it also gave the impression of a coal mine deep beneath the earth particularly when a string of bare electric lights appeared in the blackness like the stark illumination along a pit underground roadway.

The production lacks a little bit of pace between scenes, and there are a lot of them, but that should improve as the week goes on, while some of the the northern accents would stand out a bit tha’knows int’ real South Yorkshire pit villages.

It was an entertaining evening and even now, 14 years on, in the hands of a good cast like this it still has the ability to move. To 17-04-10.

Roger Clarke

Second shift . . .

*****

CHEERS from the audience on opening night was music to the ears of the cast in this pro-am production featuring members of the Garrick Rep Company and the Lichfield Players.

A few tears, too, as people reacted to the emotion-charged story of how the talented Grimley Brass Band fought back when it seemed the heartbreaking closure of the local South Yorkshire pit might mean the end of its battle to reach the national championship final at the Royal Albert Hall.

Although it was staged without scenery, the smart uniforms of the award-winning Amington Brass Band provided plenty of colour and their music was frequently greeted with warm applause.

Humour aplenty, too, and sometimes accidental....as in the incident when one of the amateurs miming with the band saw the mouthpiece fall from his instrument, briefly considered how to replace it, then popped it in his pocket with a shrug.

Excellent performances from the Rep members, Rachel Matthews (Gloria, the local girl returning to Grimley with a special agenda), Matthew Stathers, playing band member Andy who falls in love with her, and Charlie Buckland, the troubled miner in cash-troubled clashes with his worried wife, Sandra (Janet Bamford).

From the Players, Stephen Brunton excels in the role of the colliery band's ailing musical director, Danny, in danger putting the band's interests before the tragedy of the pit closure, and Barrie Atchison is upbeat as veteran bandsman, Jim.

What a performance, too, from 13-year-old Tamworth schoolboy William Stevenson. He plays Shane, son of Phil and Sandra, and is never overawed by the talent around him.

Brassed Off, directed by Chris Rolls, plays on till Saturday night, April 17. Tune in to this one.

Paul Marston

Fresh telling of timeless tale

Star-cross'd lovers: Juliet (Mariah Gale) and her Romeo (Sam Troughton) Pictures: Ellie Kurttz.

Romeo and Juliet

RSC Courtyard Theatre

****

SHAKESPEARE’S tale of his star-cross’d lovers was one of the most popular plays in his time and has remained one of his most performed so for a director of a new production the trick is to bring a freshness to the familiarity which, on the whole, Rupert Goold manages with considerable skill.

The trick in this case was the set the play in two worlds. For Romeo and his Juliet we were in the 21st century with a picture of scruffy youth with Romeo in his hoody and a Juliet in trainers full of teenage . . . like, whatever . . . when we first meet her.

The rest of the cast are in traditional Shakespearian Elizabethan dress which emphasises that this archetypal tale of doomed young love is universal and not some bit of history set in a time of doublets and hose.

Of the pairing Mariah Gale is the more successful as Juliet. She manages to appear waif-like and has the innocent vulnerability of a 14-year-old. We feel her excitement at her love for Romeo and secret marriage and feel her pain and anguish when her father first tries then orders her to marry Paris (James Howard). Hers is a memorable performance full of teenage angst and passion.

Sam Troughton as Romeo is less convincing. Not that it is the excellent Troughton’s fault. He is comfortable and at ease with Shakespeare and makes the text come alive and sound like speech rather than a recitation but anyone who saw BBC’s Robin Hood where he was Much will realise that appearing as a teenager is always going to be a challenge for the 33-year-old, fine actor that he is.

He appears too worldly, too experienced for the kisses and romance of two teenagers in those early days of aching passion and a love to die for.

Not that it was a major distraction, more an observation.

The ancient and modern theme was nicely blended with Romeo first appearing as a tourist with a digital camera and meeting his cousin Benvolio who is handed the camera to see an image of Romeo’s love of that moment, Rosaline. Benvolio, rather than amazed or afeared by the magic light box uses the camera to take a picture of someone in the audience to show Romeo that there are plenty of other pretty girls to try first.

ANYTHING FOR A LAUGH

And when Romeo appears on a bike Mercutio takes it over without a second thought. Jonjo O’Neill is brilliant as the joking, anything for a laugh Mercutio and his mimed sex education lesson for beginners is almost worth the price of admission alone.

He brings laughs and humour to the proceeding, and although he is neither Capulet nor Montague, the two feuding houses of Verona, he also brings a mix of excitement and danger with his recklessness and hatred of Tybalt of the Capulets.

A hatred which sets into motion the course of events which lead to the rising body count in the final scenes as Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo, now his cousin, kills Tybalt and our lovers are doomed for etermity.

Joseph Arkley’s Tybalt (Seen above battling with O' Neill's Mercutio, right) gives us a brooding, hatred which is ready to explode at any time while another notable performance among many comes from the excellent nurse, Norma Dumezweni, (seen below dressing Juliet for her wedding to Paris) who brings humour to her fussing over her charge.

Praise too for Terry King, the fight director. There is a lot of fighting and it is way beyond the one-two-three-four left-right-left-right metronome swings seen too often in stage sword fights. This is full blooded clashes with steel on steel and a stage full of whirling violence with danger in every swing.

CLEVER SET

The play is also helped by a clever set from Tom Scutt and an ever changing back projection designed by Lorna Heavey although I was not too sure about the did the earth move for you sun burst as our star-cross’d lovers consummated their union.

I was also unsure about the beginning and ending. The prologue to set the scene and draw the battle lines was lost in the sing-song foreign accent from the earphones of an audio tour guide with the line requesting the audience to listen and follow the plot - “if you with patient ears attend” - lost in the cacophony of an opening fight.

As for the end . . . having everyone in modern dress with police on radios like refugees from the soon to be axed The Bill was perhaps overkill.

We already know that the play can be set in any time and enough productions have tried to show us that the two houses alike in dignity could be divided by colour, race or even come down to gang warfare.

If the message had not got through the patient ears already after three hours and five minutes then the chances are it never would.

But apart from the minor quibbles Goold has provided that freshness with a production full fire, violence, humour, passion and that glorious agony of first love. Last night’s audeince was heavy with young people and if this was their first taste of Shakespeare in the flesh then they will be back for more.

Roger Clarke

Video links http://www.rsc.org.uk/whatson/8956.aspx

0844 800 1110 www.rsc.org.uk

Stop Messing About

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton

***

EVEN if you had never experienced the joys of steam radio decades ago there was much to enjoy in this show.

The age range of the audiences for the three performances, however, told you there were many people looking for a bit of nostalgia, and they would not have been disappointed.

Set in a BBC recording studio, the sketches featured the extraordinary Kenneth Williams whose famous catchphrase provides the title for the wacky wireless series.

Robin Sebastian was superb as Williams, mastering that strange voice with its nasal twang and the shocked facial expressions to accompany some of his gags and risky innuendos.

He had great support, too, from India Fisher, playing Joan Sims, Nigel Harrison (Hugh Paddick and his many weird characters, including ancient Judge Sir Inigo Parchmutter) and Charles Armstrong as the beautifully spoken BBC announcer, Douglas Smith.

Some of the best laughs came with the sports report on the Army team that won the Tiddlewink Championship, a listeners' phone-in and a sketch on a spaghetti western featuring Pancho Villa, and his brother....Aston..

Written by Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke, Stop Messing About was directed by Michael Kingsbury. 10-04-10

Paul Marston

The Rape of Lucrece

Lichfield Garrick Studio

****

SHAKESPEARE’S most emotive narrative poem would not seem to be an obvious choice for the first production in the new look Garrick Studio which is laid out for cabaret for the next few weeks.

The choice and perhaps the fact it was Good Friday conspired to produce a disappointing audience for a compelling performance by RSC actor Gerard Logan who commands the stage for an hour as the narrator of Shakespeare’s dissection of a brutal rape and the terrible toll it takes on everyone involved.

Logan has that ease with Shakespeare that makes the language sound like natural speech, albeit from the 16^th century, rather than just recited verse and he manages to bring the narrative poem to life with all despair of and shame of Lucrece and the fears of her rapist, Tarquin.

This was a show winning awards at Edinburgh in 2008 and although the content might be an acquired taste there is no doubting the sheer quality of the acting and it is no surprise Logan is an Olivier Award nominee. Worth seeing for the acting alone.

Roger Clarke

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Awesome Les Mis storms barricades

Moment of destiny: John Owen-Jones sees the light as Jean Valjean. Pictures: Michael le Poer Trench

Les Misérables

Birmingham Hippodrome

*****

FIFTY Six million people can’t be wrong - 56,000,001 now if you include me.

That’s the number of people, give or take the odd row of seats here and there, who have seen Les Misérables since it opened at The Barbican in 1985 to less than enthusiastic reviews.

OK, so the critics were wrong . . . it happens . . . occasionally. Twenty five years on and the original in London, now at the Queen’s Theatre, is the world’s longest running musical, The Mousetrap of musicals, and a tourist attraction in its own right while this new touring production is simply awesome.

The sets are huge and spectacular, the cast faultless and - the acid test - the show seems to last nowhere near the three hours indicated by watches.

The musical is based on Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name and tells the tale of Jean Valjean, a reformed prisoner on the run. When Fantine, one of his workers, is sacked without his knowledge because she has had an illegitimate child, Cosette, her life falls apart and as she dies, Valjean full of remorse vows to bring up her child.

That is easier said than done when there is a police inspector on his tail determined to return him to jail and there is also a small matter of a revolution led by students in protest at treatment of the poor just around the corner.

RELENTLESS PIECE OF THEATRE

Not the stuff of musicals you might think, no hills alive there, dancing all night or corn as high as elephant's eyes to play with but this is much closer to opera than Oklahoma where love, tragedy and noble causes are stock in trade and the result is a relentless piece of theatre.

John Owen-Jones, from South Wales, was voted both the best JeanValjean ever and the best Les Mis performer ever in a worldwide poll of Les Mis fans and it is easy to see why. He has that certain stage presence which sets some performers apart, a powerful tenor voice and the counter tenor of an angel with Bring Him Home on the barricades a performance which makes hairs stand up on necks.

Not that he has it all his own way. Earl Carpenter as the downright nasty Inspector Javert shows a fine baritone and his suicide leap into the Seine is a spectacular special effect using the giant video screen and clever flying.

The screen provides a constantly changing back drop of prison, of cities and towns and of the sewers of Paris as Valjean carries his future son in law Marius to safety after the short lived revolution.

Fantine’s I Dreamed A Dream, was a hear a pin drop moment with perhaps the best known song in the show, well known and a standard long before Susan Boyle appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, while Rosalind James had a memorable voice in an equally memorable performance as the Thénardiers’ daughter Éponine

DELICIOUSLY DESPICABLE

The dastardly Thénardiers (right) almost steal the show with the buxom Lynne Wilmot and the deliciously despicable Ashley Artus - how Fagin fails to be in his CV is a mystery - as the horrendous villains of Dickensian proportions.

Artus manages it with such a light, sure touch and impeccable comic timing that the audience would forgive him and his wife almost anything.

Gareth Gates, the first Pop Idol runner up in 2002, makes a fine Marius, (below) the idealistic young revolutionary saved from the slaughter on the barricades by Valjean to marry Cosette, Katie Hall. It must be a relief for him to be judged as an actor rather than screamed at as a mere celebrity these days and his bittersweet solo Empty Chairs at Empty Tables had some real poignancy about it.

Throughout it all is the fine orchestra under Peter White who managed to get a good balance between singer and sound which is not always easy.

The direction by Christopher Key keeps the action moving at a fair old lick but that is also thanks to a brilliant set design by Mat Kinley. Whole walls and streets, broken carts, bridges, barricades, inns, cafes, country mansions and even a red light district glide silently into place or back into the wings or flies with no pause with the screen at the back adding mood and atmosphere.

BIG PRODUCTION

This a big production in every way with a dozen 45ft artics trundling the show from venue to venue around the countryside and the fact that the crew can unload and set the whole thing up ready to go with lighting, scenery, props and the rest in a strange theatre in a mere 48 hours is a remarkable achievement in itself.

Then there are some 101 cast and crew for each performance, 392 full costumes with 1,782 items of clothing and 31 wigs not to mention all the props carried on and off.

The facts and figures are endless; the show has been translated in 21 languages and produced in 41 countries with more than 43,000 professional performances, 33 cast recordings and on and on.

The show started as a French concept album by composer Claude-Michel Schönberg with a libretto by Alain Boublil and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and was staged as a concert event at a Paris Sports arena closing three months later when the booking ran out.

Five years later after two years in development Sir Cameron Mackintosh produced the English version in 1985 and the rest is histoire as they say with last night's performance 25 years on, earning a well deserved standing ovation.

From the Hippodrome Les Mis goes to Edinburgh and then heads to its birthplace of Paris from May 26 to July 4 this year where, in a twist of irony, it will be performed in English with French surtitles.

If 56 million people having seen the show so far - and still counting - that is more than two million a year. And with a General Election looming it is a sobering thought that since the last election in 2005 more people will have seen Les Mis than voted for Labour (9.5m), the Tories (8.8 m) or the Lib-Dems (5.9m).

Les Mis rules - OK!

To 17-04-10

Roger Clarke

Final word . . .

****

JUST how good is this 25th anniversary production of Boublil & Schonberg's masterpiece musical based on the classic novel by Victor Hugo?

I was out of the country on media night, but on my return so many friends were raving about the sell-out show I decided to try to buy a couple of return tickets, and eventually succeeded.

I must have seen Les Mis at least half a dozen times, including the schools edition, and never been disappointed, so I was very interested to see how the various changes introduced worked. Could they add to the enjoyment, or be seen as trying to 'mend' something that was not broken?

The black and white street scenes played on a huge screen at the rear of the stage worked well, particularly when our hero, Jean Valjean, was carrying the badly wounded student, Marius, away from the fighting and to safety. A definite improvement.

The scene where single-minded cop, Javert, leaps to his death from a river bridge, is definitely more effective, but the famous barricade was built with so many gaps a kid with a peashooter could have penetrated it.

And the there is a change for the better as the musical opens with the chain gang, instead of breaking rocks, are being whipped as they desperately row a ship in heavy seas.

John Owen-Jones, voted the best-ever Jean Valjean, is superb as the reformed convict and I have never heard the emotional 'Bring Him Home' sung better.

On the down side, Earl Carpenter, impressive as the cruel Javert, doesn’t quite do justice to the soliloquy before he jumps to his death, and in the comedy role of grubby innkeeper Thenardier, Ashley Artus never reaches the heights achieved by Alun Armstrong who was quite brilliant in the part.

Nor did the finale match that of past productions. Nevertheless, still a value for money show, expensive as it is. And many people in the audience gave the show a standing ovation.

Paul Marston

http://www.lesmis.com/

Hicks conjures up a majestic Lear

The Madness of King Lear: Greg Hicks as Lear makes a point that the blinded Earl of Gloucester, Geoffrey Freshwater, will never see. Pjotographs: Manual Harlan

King Lear

RSC

Courtyard Theatre

****

LEAR stands or falls with the king and in Greg Hicks the RSC have a monarch who not only stands tall but towers over this production.

We see a king who is at first in command yet shows a shallowness as he demands flattery dressed up as love from his daughters and when his youngest and favourite, Cordelia (Samantha Young), refuses to play his game and flatter to, as we see later from her sisters, deceive, she finds herself disinherited.

When his loyal aide the Earl of Kent (Darrell D’Silva) has the temerity to tell his king that he is wrong then he is banished for his pains. This is a king who takes agreement in the guise of advice and certainly wants no one to question his decisions.

Lear, having made his bed, then descends into madness as he is forced to lie on it before realising his tragic stupidity in the body-bag littered final scene.

Hicks has that ease of delivery that marks an actor in command of his craft and at one with Shakespearean verse and we watch him age and mentally disintegrate in this 3 hour 20 minute marathon. There have been suggestions that Hicks, at a mere 57 this year, is too young for the role of a monarch of 80 plus as if the world is full octogenarian thespians who could manage to remember the lines - or even the majority of them - remember to turn up for every performance and then perform one of Shakespeare’s most demanding roles brilliantly for three hours a night for a full season.

OPENING POMP

Hicks certainly does not look 80 in his opening pomp as King Lear but once his kingdom has been given to his two deceitful daughters and madness sets in his ageing is relentless and by the end, shrivelled in a wheelchair, cared for by Cordelia the daughter he disowned, he is an old, defeated man.

This is perhaps the most complex and unrelenting of Shakespeare’s tragedies with two fathers, Lear and Gloucester, (Geoffrey Freshwater) betrayed by their children and two children, Samantha Young’s understated Cordelia and Gloucester’s son Edgar (Charles Aitken) betrayed by their siblings in an intertwined plot of lies and deception.

There is plenty of scope for confusion among the audience which is not helped by director David Farr’s choice of costumes which each camp seemingly fighting different wars. Lear and his merry band are ready for Bosworth while his daughters Goneril and Regan, played with oily disdain by Kelly Hunter and Katy Stephens, have their courts ready for the Somme while Cordelia returns prepared to defend Stalingrad.

Among them all is an underclass of civil servants - and Gloucester - who appear to have stepped from an Ibsen drama.

Whether Farr wanted us to see the play in terms of old and new orders, or to show the conflict Lear’s daughters had brought to the kingdom was at least something that made the audience question even if they never found an answer.

GRIMY, CRACKED WINDOWS

The same could be said of Jon Bausor’s design with the play set in a dark, dingy factory with grimy, cracked windows and flickering strip lighting with dodgy wiring. Whether this a reflection on broken Britain or a stark backdrop for the open-heart tragedy unfolding is another aspect for the audience to debate among themselves. Jon Clark’s lighting was also stark reducing the set often to vertical shafts of harsh white light.

Particularly dramatic was the final moments before the interval when Lear and his fool (Kathryn Hunter) stood on a plinth on a darkened stage in a searing shaft of light and rain (pictured above right) and as Lear’s mind disintegrated before your eyes behind him the set was falling part in sympathy with panels crashing to the stage and girders slipping from the flies.

Kathryn Hunter, as the fool, is like a cheeky monkey, scampering and bouncing around telling the king truths he would rather not hear yet showing him great affection as he ages and loses his mind.

D’Silva’s Kent, the banished noble, who disguises himself as the bluff soldier Caius where he can still serve his king for much of the play - Caius apparently coming from somewhere on the Yorkshire moors from his accent - adds weight to the king’s cause while Gloucester, a braggart at the opening pays for his subsequent loyalty with his eyes at the hands of Regan’s husband The Duke of Cornwall (Clarence Smith) yet achieves a nobility and humanity as he stumbles around guided by the lunatic Old Tom, little realising it is his son Edgar.

LOCAL NUTTER

Gloucester is a character you care about in the hands of Freshwater as you do for the bookish Edgar who is set up by his bastard brother Edmund. The disguise as the local nutter (seen left with the genuinely mad Lear) is to avoid capture and death until the final reckoning when good clashes with evil.

And this is perhaps the problem with Tunji Kasim’s Edmund. He just isn’t evil or nasty enough enough. He is supposed to be a scheming, womanising Machiavellian, embittered character instead the words are all about plots and betrayal but they are delivered by a fresh faced lad who looks like he helps old ladies across the street.

As for his torrid affairs with the evil sisters, Edmund seems more seduced than seducer - rather like those teacher and pupil affairs much loved by the Sundays.

You suspect any butter in his mouth at the start would still be there, unchanged, as the audience wended their way home.

Lear is a challenge for the cast and for the audience and this production gives theatregoers plenty to think about on their way home.

Roger Clarke

www.rsc.org.uk

Nothing elementary about this one

Arthur & George

Birmingham Rep

****

I HAVE no idea how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle spoke but Adrian Lukis (pictured right with the suspected knife) gave us a Doyle who seemed to fit the part admirably - quite capital as Sir Arthur Himself might have said.

He was impetuous, questioning, appeared vague and hesitant as his thought processes ticked over in front of us, yet taking in each detail and computing it in a brain that was always looking for a decisive move, a key clue to solve the puzzle.

There is an Edinburgh burr to his clipped voice along with an impatience and that certain arrogance that the upper classes were afforded.

Doyle, who became so famous, and mistaken for Sherlock Holmes so often, that he killed off his creationreation for self preservation, was asked by George Edalji, the son of a Bombay Parsi clergyman and a Scottish mother to help him win a free pardon he had been jailed for mutilating livestock and sending menacing letters.

Chris Nayak’s George (seen below) is naive and hardly worldly wise with a belief people cannot dislike you for the colour of your skin unless they know you first. You can't dislike people just because of their colour . . .

The events all surround the turn of the 19th century and this world premiere of David Edgar’s play based on the novel by Julian Barnes is somewhat personal to the West Midlands.

George was a Birmingham solicitor and his offices in Newhall Street are no more than five or so minutes brisk walk from the theatre.

The events took place where his family lived in Great Wyrley in Norton Canes just off the Chester Road, north of Walsall and overlooked these days by a Sainsbury’s on a hill on the road to Cannock.

PIVOTAL SCENE

That there was racial prejudice was apparent from the police investigation and interviews and the attitude of the Staffordshire Chief Constable, whose clash with Doyle was the pivotal scene. He saw George as a half-caste where the mixed blood brought civilisation on the one hand and barbarism on the other.

His lawyers were less than impressive at the trial where Edalji lives through the cross examinations in dramatised memories as he relates his tale of woe to Sir Arthur.

Richard Attlee, Simon Coates and Daniel Crowder took on all the other characters with some admirable Walsall accents and the ability to make the cast look much larger rather than people doubling up. Their characters all had a life of their own.

Around the action fluttered the women in the play, Jean Leckie, (Kirsty Hoiles) who was waiting for the recently widowed Doyle to make her his second wife and George’s sister, Maud, who offered support and sympathy while Doyle’s long suffering secretary Woodie, played with a hint of humour by William Beck tried, with little success, to rein in his employer’s enthusiasm.

LONG COMPLEX NOVEL

Edgar states in the programme notes that it was a challenge to adapt a long complex novel of 500 pages to the stage.

Unless the audience are asked to bring a flask, sandwiches and a sleeping bag the result is always going to be a précis, the bare bones which gives none of the time, or scope, for character development or explanation.

We see how Doyle tried to solve the case as he would if it had been another Sherlock Holmes story, by deduction and supposition, rather than hard facts and evidence - a method that appalled solicitor George who had been convicted on much the same sort of supposition and innuendo and did not want to see another man suffer the same fate. But we were never really sure why Doyle took on the case or indeed why George approached him in the first place. The book is halfway through before the pair meet - the play opens with their first meeting which took place in the lobby of the Charing Cross Hotel.

With the play down to the bare bones of the story flesh is in short supply and we never found out, beyond George wanting to practice law again and Doyle wanting a free pardon for him, what drove the two men. It was almost as if we were shown chapter headings but not allowed to delve into the pages. The result is a story which is complicated but shorn of much of its complexity.

EVOLVING SET

Why for example was Doyle so obsessed with righting what he perceived as a grave miscarriage of justice or George, a man who seemed to have few friends in either Birmingham or Great Wyrley, so sure that racial prejudice could not exist if you did not know the person?

The direction by Rachel Kavanaugh keeps the story flowing on a revolving and constantly evolving set which manages to be hotel lobby, billiard room, pub snug, police station and a wedding reception with a few sticks of furniture and some clever lighting from Tim Mitchell.

Actors walk from one scene to the next as the stage moves beneath them which produces a coherent, continuous plot while a video screen in the distance gives an impression of horses, of trains and all manner of things as vague images to provide atmosphere.

Edgar has to be congratulated on reducing the book to just over two hours and keeping the plot intact but I suspect you will need to read the novel to discover the real story, the whys and wherefores rather than just the stark facts. That being said this is local history revealed before your eyes, fascinating if you know the area and the history is not lost too far in the past - remember George did not die until 1953.

Incidentally this case and Doyle’s campaign not only brought a free pardon but it also led directly to the creation of the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1907.

And, as another aside, the threatening and obscene letters, written in the name of the Wyrley Gang continued for another quarter of a century before it was discovered they came from an Enoch Knowles of Wednesbury who was convicted in 1934. To 10-04-10.

Roger Clarke

www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

www.Birminghamhippodrome.com

Longing while the iron is hot: Osmin (Petros Magoulas) has his heart set on bubbly Blonde (Clair Ormshaw)

The Abduction from the Seraglio

Welsh National Opera

Birmingham Hippodrome

****

THIS tale of kidnap and harems is not one of the world’s most popular operas. Let us be honest it is not even one of Mozart’s most popular but in the confident hands, and voices, of WNO it is turned into a romp and we are happily taken to the Brian Rix end of the operatic repertoire.

In Mozart’s time the Orient Express was probably a fleet-footed camel with half a dozen sacks of spices on its hump but to set The Abduction from the Seraglio (henceforth to be known as Seraglio to avoid the onset of RSI) on the famous train in it heyday in the 1920s opens up a whole range of possibilities.

The set, designed by Allen Moyer, is quite superb, with three carriages on the Orient Express on its journey from Istanbul to Paris. The carriages actually move which is a bit disconcerting at first but adds to the interest without scene changes.

With only a third of the height of the stage visible it is rather like watching a wide screen opera but balanced against the novelty of the set and whisking the action to the 1920s does produce a little niggle, well a big one really, about the plot.

Konstanze (Lisette Oropesa) a Spanish noblewoman and two servants have been captured on their yacht by Turkish pirates and sold to Pasha Selim (Simon Thorpe) who fancies Konstanze like mad.

But after months of searching for her, Konstanze's fiancé Belmonte (Robin Tritschler) has tracked her down to the Orient Express and tries to organise a rescue.

The original was set in a guarded house on the Mediterranean coast and, although a comedy, it did prey on fears of Europeans of white slavers and sexual trafficking by Johnny Foreigner, or in this case Herr Foreigner, out in the badlands of the Orient.

That gave the plot tension and the underlying threat of old Selim having his wicked way with a good, moral Christian woman which would have brought on an epidemic of attacks of the vapours among the Viennese ladies at the premiere in 1782.

CHUGGING ITS WAY

But on a train wending its way across Europe what is to stop the captured trio just walking off, or complaining to customs officials or guards and why would Belmonte have a ship waiting when the train is miles from the sea chugging its way through Europe to Paris?

On the average train journey these days, of course, they could easily have escaped when the entire case had to transfer to a rail replacement bus service because of engineering works at Lyon or wherever but that is another libretto. I really should get out more.

Suspend credulity for three hours or so though and back at the opera one of the reasons it is not performed as often as other Mozart offerings is perhaps that it is probably the most demanding vocally. For example Osmin, the overseer of the Harem, beautifully played for comic effect by Greek bass Petros Magoulas, (seen right going to pot) twice has to go down to a low D in O, wie will ich triumphieren in the third Act - go much lower and only a seismograph can pick it up.

Konstanze is not an easy part either and American soprano Oropesa was impressive in the complex coloratura of Martern aller Arten which also demands some delicate control from the orchestra under Renaldo Alessandrini.

Belmonte as the hero(ish) is no Indiana Jones, if fact he is a bit wet but Tritschler sings the part well with a very clear tone and pitch. He also looks and sounds good with Konstanze which always helps - all too often hero and heroine lovers go together like cake and gravy.

DOUBLE ACT

Along with Magoulas the other stars of the evening were Claire Ormshaw and Wynne Evans who not only had their vocal moments but produced an amusing double act as the servants Blonde and Pedrillo.

There were some nice comic touches such as Blonde sneaking a few swigs of champagne during one aria, or Pedrillo trying to spike Osmin's drink and the Turkish guards finally had more to do than stand around when they turned into Wilson, Keppel and Betty with a sand dance during Osmin’s protest at the Pasha Selim’s decision to free everyone.

The result is a light and frothy production that has been through six companies in the USA since 1997 and which is strangely reminiscent of those 1940’s romantic comedies with like likes of Cary Grant or Spencer Tracey where you know everything will all turn out right in the end.

It relies heavily on some fine comic acting, with plenty going on in the background and plenty of throwaway visual jokes although the long second act did seem to flag a little.

It wasn’t a classic but was still an amusing and enjoyable evening.

Roger Clarke

VIDEOS and PODCASTS

www.wno.org.uk

www.alexandratheatre.org.uk

Brendon's family fortunes

How Now Mrs Brown Cow

Alexandra Theatre

****

THE Mrs Brown series of comedy plays should carry a health warning - and by that I mean for the actors!

Irish comedian Brendan O'Carroll, who once again dons the frock for the role of Dublin family head Agnes Brown, mercilessly teases and torments the rest of the cast with hilarious ad-libbing.

And for poor Gary Hollywood, who plays Dino Doyle, it meant several seemingly unrehearsed slaps across the head with a tea towel.

Pity anyone who should actually mis-say a line, as did Brendan's own son Danny, who plays regular, Buster Brady.

Brendan, who devised and created Agnes Brown, certainly knows a good thing when he sees it, even admitting during a post-show chat with the audience that he is cashing in on the bandwagon.

No wonder that his original Mrs Brown trilogy has now evolved into five plays, whch have grossed more than £25 million at the UK box office alone, and with plans for a BBC television series starting later this year.

WORK FOR THE FAMILY

And it also ensures work for the family, with wife Jenny once again impressing as Mrs Brown's only daughter Cathy, Brendan's real daughter Fiona renewing her role as Agnes' daughter-in-law Maria, and sister Eilish McHugh again appearing as next door neighbour Winnie.

Brendan's latest offering is set in the run-up to Christmas, with Mrs Brown longing to see her son Trevor, who is working at a homeless shelter in America, for the first time in four years.

At the same time, the Brown children fear that one of them may be adopted.

It all makes for a riotous fun-filled evening enjoyed by a packed first night audience that included former Aston Villa footballer and now television pundit Andy Townsend.

Particularly hilarious moments, apart from the ad-libs, involve a Taser, trying to get the star on the Christmas tree, and testing an array of consumer products on long-suffering granddad.

To 27-3-10

Tony Collins

The Joy of Politics

Lichfield Garrick

***

IT is the best of times and the worst of times for political satire. The best because never have we had such an inept bunch of nest feathering, corrupt, lying, dishonest, self-serving political pygmies supposedly running the country . . . and the worst . . ?

Well on the basis that the most colourful of our MPs of whatever hue is a remarkably dull grey, clones of mediocrity, there is not much for a satirist to get their teeth into in a Britain where the only party of the common man is in the hands of Ann Summers or Tupperware.

Into this scorched earth political landscape arrive Ciaran Murtagh and Andrew Jones with The Joy of Politics.

This is a throwback to the days of satirical sketches in programmes such as That Was The Week That Was. But as those of a certain age still look back fondly upon the bite and irreverence of the groundbreaking TW3 it is worth remembering that quite a few of the sketches were real turkeys and the show only survived because there was a better one along soon and so it was with Murtagh and Jones and their curate’s egg of a show.

It had the loose premise of a new, wet behind the ears MP, William WIlberforce, arriving at Westminster and learning the ropes so we had sketches on the meaning of the one, two and three line whip - oh how certain Tory MPs of the 70s and 80s would have loved that one - which was predictable but still funny.

There was also the lesson on how to not answer any question based on the test piece of “Is that your of is that your Kit Kat Chunky?” Again amusing but leaning towards Yes Minister. The universal political cartoon sketch had a point and was probably the most subtle dig of the night and Nick Griffin’s appearance had its moments.

IMPROVISED SKETCH

The pair kept it topical with snippets from the day’s news as well as a clever impromptu sketch about a coalition minister of defence - a department decided upon by the audience - involving defeating the Taliban by the use of microwave ovens on the beaches.

There were sketches which were, frankly, non political such as the MPs surgery which had its moments but was overlong and several sketches had a few lines past their punchlines.

The songs were weaker moments with Murtagh’s Mrs Thatcher singing (badly) Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now and Jones’s Churchill in MC Hammer garb telling Hitler You Can’t Touch This. After the initial appearance the joke was gone with the lyrics neither strong enough nor performance good enough to sustain it.

The same could be said of the twin Karl Marx Village People Go Left routine to Go West as a finale to the first half. The joke was made in the first 10 seconds with the audience then left to laugh at two blokes dressed in silly wigs and beards being . . . silly. Mind you many a star has made a career out of such daft routines.

A sort of Whitehall Morris dance in bowler hats relating to some clause in a bill relating to herring fishing set to Maple Leaf Rag was particularly bizarre and pointless though and like the equally weak Origami session in the second set with the rest of the day’s news it had the look of padding about it.

The show is evolving though and with a General Election looming for an electorate who lost the political will to live years ago there should be a lot more material available to edge the weaker sections into the long grass.

That being said there were plenty of laughs in the show and, like TW3, the less successful bits were soon overtaken by something better.

Roger Clarke

Hobbit finds journey hard going

Ring cycle: Gandalf, Christopher Robbie, and Bilbo, Peter Howe contemplate the adventures to come

The Hobbit

Wolverhampton Grand

***

THE problem with bringing JRR Tolkien’s scene-setter for Lord of the Rings to the stage is that any stage is not really big enough.

It is a small book but a long, epic journey which paints a broad canvas ready for the entrance of the classic trilogy. Somehow having the hard working cast of 13 scrambling up and down scenery for no apparent reason, heading off stage in one direction and coming back from another doesn’t really convince you they are travelling very far.

To add to their problems, these days, there is the inevitable comparison with Peter Jackson’s £200 million Lord of the Rings films and when it comes to special effects . . . well this is more panto than Hollywood..

The giant spider is effective if only the collection of flying wires were not so obvious while the dragon is big but as we worked out pretty quickly that only his head moved the scariness dropped quite a few notches.

The book is about goblins, trolls, elves and wolves and the like which saw a motley collection of ragged costumes and blokes running about in wolf heads which is heading towards "it's behind you" territory.

FORMATION DANCING

We even had what appeared to be the Davy Crockett formation dancing team with a ho-down from the woodsmen in Beorn's Hall. All it needed was Duelling Banjos and we could have been in Deliverance.

Whether it was an attempt to cram the whole story in I don’t know but none of the characters were allowed to develop and two dimensional was as much as you got. Too often emotion was expressed merely by shouting. It was a struggle to care about what happened to any of the characters.

The book is quirky and full of charm with gentle humour. That is all singularly missing from this adaptation but as the Vanessa Ford production is on its third tour in eleven years it can at least be credited with longevity.

For anyone who has not read The Hobbit, or Lord of the Rings, following the story is probably a challenge and although with a cast of 13 playing all the characters in the book there has to be some doubling up but getting Gandalf (Christopher Robbie) and his Father Christmas white beard, to double up, with a strange accent, as The Master of Laketown must have confused a lot of youngsters in the audience.

"Why is Gandalf pretending to be someone else dad? Is it a disguise?"

Peter Howe made a fair fist of Bilbo but to be fair the script gave him little scope to develop the character and much the same could be said of Andrew Coppin’s Thorin Oakenshield while Christopher Llewellyn had the most difficult task as Gollum.

EXCHANGE RIDDLES

The film version with the voice of Andy Serkis is the definitive portrayal. Llewellyn made a fair fist of being his own stoor hobbit, Sméagol. The scene with Bilbo when Baggins has found the ring and the two exchange riddles inside the depths of a mountain is the only scene which manages any tension.

Some of the special effects had a novelty of their own such as the rope thrown across the black stream in Mirkwood. Throw it off stage left and it miraculously appears swinging in from the flies stage centre.

As mentioned earlier the giant spider was effective, if only they could disguise the flying wires better and the dragon was impressive at first sight. But once you realised only his head moved and there were no flames or smoke he wasn’t really that scary.

The scenery though was inventive with two hulks which turned to provide cliffs, harbours, halls, caves, mountains – whatever the script called for.

The story though was perhaps too much to cram in for the time, and even that was perhaps a tad long for little ones, so we are down to bare bones of narrative and characters who have no time or opportunity to develop.

It opens with a stylised battle scene which is never explained and closes with Bilbo apparently suffering stomach cramps, again with little explanation. Curtain calls saw a return of the ho-down with most of the cast involved which had the audience clapping along happily enough.

It seemed overlong, a bit of a plod but, that being said though, there were enough children talking excitedly about it in the interval and at the end to suggest they had enjoyed it and if it brings children to live theatre and fires their imagination to experience more then The Hobbit has done its job.

It runs to 13-03-2010 and reappears in the Easter holidays at the Alex for a week’s run on March 30.

Roger Clarke

www.birminghamhippodrome.com

Memories and magic

Beauty and Beast: Elisha Willis as Belle and Iain Mackay as the Beast. Photo: Roy Smiljanic

20 Years Celebration

Birmingham Royal Ballet

Birmingham Hippodrome

*****

AUDACIOUS was how director David Bintley described Birmingham’s bid to entice the Saddler’s Wells Royal Ballet to the city and the same could apply to last night’s 20th anniversary celebration.

Ballet and dance covering more than a century and two decades in Birmingham were condensed into two hours of magic and gratitude for what Birmingjham Royal Ballet have brought to the city.

This was the BRB’s equivalent to the old Greatest Hits CD with 15 dances from ballets associated with the BRB as well as an overture for each half which showed off the talents of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Philip Ellis and Paul Murphy.

Linking the dances were interviews with the likes of Bintley, a sprightly Sir Peter Wright and news footage shown on large TV screens scattered around the hippodrome.

Cleverest link of all was for the sexually charged pas the deux from Richard Rodgers Slaughter on Tenth Avenue with the introduction for the same piece on TV from the Royal Variety Show at the Hippodrome 1999.

Amid the BRB’ s contribution was a pas de deux from Concerto by Shostakovich danced more than competently by Yasmin Naghdi and Sander Blommaert and Birthday Waltz danced by eight different years from Elmshurst School of Dance.

SURE FOOTED

Bintley told us that the BRB founder Dame Ninette de Valois had told him one should always have one foot in the past and one foot in the future and on last night’s showing the future seems reassuringly sure footed.

Also included in the programme were seven dancers from the Ballet Hoo! project, the pro-am version of Romeo and Juliet performed in 2006 which brought a hundred or so youngsters from diverse backgrounds together with the help of youth and social workers to learn discipline through ballet – a medium many of them had never seen and knew nothing about.

The evening though was about the BRB and a 20th birthday party which opened with a stunning Orpheus Suite in stark black and white followed by the Grand pas de deux from The Nutcracker (Gaylene Cummerfield, Iain Mackay) – the BRB’s first thank you to Brum twenty years ago.

The Balcony pas the deux from Romeo and Juliet (Nao Sakuma, Chi Cao) was another highlight as was the Act 1 pas de deux from Beauty and the Beast (Elisha Willis, Iain Mackay) and the excerpt from Carmina burana with Robert Parker, (seen right) Carol-Anne Millar and Joseph Caley

Highlight of the evening was the haunting reconciliation pas de deux from The Two Pigeons (Natasha Oughtred, Joseph Caley) choreographed by the founder choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton complete with two live white pigeons who deserved a bow of their own.

Amid the beauty though was humour with Michael O’Hare back for Will Mossop’s stag night in Hobson’s Choice and a peg-legged pirate doing some quite amazing things swinging a leg in Sylvia and the dance expression of the bane of modern office life – printer jam (Kristen McGarrity, Joseph Caley).

VARIETY AND VITALITY

The evening ended with a pas de deux from Aladdin followed by the Polonaise from George Balanchine’s 1947 ballet Theme and Variations based on Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 3 for Orchestra in G major, Op. 55. (No Sakuma, Chi Cao).

The audience had been treated to plenty of variety from Duke Ellington to Tchaikovsky, modern dance to classical ballet which encapsulated all the variety and vitality BRB has brought to the city over the past two decades. These were party pieces with nothing cutting edge and no time to develop anything beyond what was almost a medley of their achievements. Solid and safe but this was really all about celebration though and it would be churlish not to give them five stars on their birthday.

There was a chance to see the celebration again the following afternoon and on the evening of March 10 the ballet lived up to its royal tag when the BRB President Prince Charles attended the celebrations. Sadly his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall and patron of the Elmshurst School of Dance, was unable to attend because of a back problem

review date 09-3-2010

Roger Clarke

And de deux . . .

THIS was a celebration fit to put before a king, and the country's next monarch, Prince Charles, was there to see it on Wednesday night.

President of the BRB, the Prince of Wales has praised the company's achievements since relocating from London's Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1990, and the three gala performances underlined what a coup the switch was for the Midlands.

First under the leadership of the legendary Sir Peter Wright and now guided by brilliant choreographer David Bintley, the world renowned Birmingham Royal Ballet is the jewel in the crown of Birmingham, and the city leaders deserve praise for their vision in attracting the company to this region.

The special celebration included exerpts from the great classics performed in a double decade of delightful dance as well as some of the special works created by the company.

The Grand pas de deux from The Nutcracker, pieces from Carmina Burana, Hobson's Choice, Romeo and Juliet, Beauty and the Beast and the amazing The Two Pigeons were all there in breathtaking splendour, and the sexiest ballet dance you will ever see - the pas de deux from Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.

A glorious piece of humorous dance, too, came with the pirates from Sylvia, including a pistol-packing pirate king performing brilliantly with a wooden peg leg!

Huge TV screens were used for occasional interviews with Sir Peter and Bintley, tracing the move from London and some of the world tours by the ballet as well as showing the work done with under privileged children at home and abroad.

Two hours of ballet bliss.

Paul Marston

If the shoe fits - thank Michael - an interview with the BRB Shoe Master.

http://www.brb.org.uk/

Secret revealed of why old

Adolf never stood a chance

TEA AND EMPATHY: Dominic Gerrard, William Findley, Sholto Morgan and David Morley

Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall

Birmingham Rep

****

SPIKE Milligan’s part in the defeat of Nazi Germany might have been small but was vital, as vital as all the gunners, sappers, squaddies and the rest who made up the numbers.

This stage adaptation of Milligan’s war memoirs by Ben Power and director Tim Carroll captures the absurdity of Spike’s humour and a little of the futility of war.

It benefits from an enthusiastic cast who do all their own scene shifting and prove themselves to be fine musicians – Milligan was a jazz trumpeter in another life – linking sketches and anecdotes with some good jazz with a Glenn Miller medley, Pennies from Heaven and Ain’t Misbehavin’ and a host of wartime tunes

Sholto Morgan, in his professional stage debut showed not only some fine trumpet playing but a fine sense of timing for comedy and manic manner as the young Milligan which promises a successful career ahead of him.

Star of the show though was somewhat more experienced Matt Devereaux as the CO and bumbling MC for the show, Major Chaterjack , who in real life actually had an M.C. – Military Cross. Devereaux was showed he was a mean sax and clarinet player.

William Findley as Goldsmith, David Morley Hale as Kidgell (seen here watering Milligan who is guarding a hole for King and country) and Dominic Gerrard as Edgington made up the rest of Battery D of the 56th Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery.

Edgington, the pianist in the Battery D Quartet band, formed by him and Milligan,was a special friend, known by Spike as Edg Ying-Tong – inspiration later for the Ying Tong Song. Edginton wrote the words – 67 years ago -for the brilliant Tommy Trinder Song in the show.

The full memoirs are a trilogy, probably the only trilogy ever written of seven volumes – remember this is Milligan - and Adolf Hitler was the first. The stage play is a sort of cross between M.A.S.H., Oh, What a Lovely War and a student review.

Much had to be left out otherwise the audience would have to bring sandwiches and a sleeping bag and trying to extract a coherent narrative from Milligan’s rambling, surreal style, was a big ask. If you had to explain what the what the books were about you would have the choice of “the war” or “you really need to read them”. There is not much ground in between.

So translate them for the stage and the result is a series of sketches, monologues and snapshots scratching the surface of 1943 mixed with songs and guest appearances by Hitler and Goebbels speaking through those 1940’s seaside affairs for holiday snaps with holes for faces.

It is not rolling about in the aisles, holding your sides funny but there is plenty of humour which gives a taste of Milligan’s somewhat individual take on life and the seeds of what was to become The Goon Show. There is also a nice tribute to Buster Keaton at the end of each act and a couple of moments of poignancy such as when the four gunners in a lull in the fighting in North Africa break into an a cappella version of Nearer my God to Thee or the solo of The Thrill is Gone or the Last Post at the end. It was a war remember and Milligan despaired at the futility of it all.

Perhaps missing are the passages of anger and humanity in Milligans's war. It was a huge undertaking to bring Milligan’s memoirs to the stage and probably an impossible task but the production makes a decent fist of it. Not quite there but amusing and interesting all the same. To 13-03-2010.

Roger Clarke

Another view from the front

***

SPIKE Milligan's war memoirs create more chuckles than belly laughs in this comedy, and the title is very much tongue-in-cheek.

The comic's first choice was 'It'll Be All Over By Christmas', but his manager, Norma Farnes, didn't think much of that, so he came up with the alternative, involving Adolf.

The biggest laugh, having sat through the show more amused than inspired, is the suggestion that Spike and his jazz quartet could possibly have had any effect on Hitler's demise.

It left me wishing there had been much more music from the talented cast, playing the hapless boys of Battery D and less of the vaguely funny sketches.

Sholto Morgan, on his professional debut, is fine as trumpet-playing Spike, but the performance I enjoyed was that of the vastly experienced Matthew Devereaux as the officer who also acted as MC and occasionally Herr Hitler, popping his head through one of those seaside cutout figures.

The other troops, all quite convincing, are Dominic Gerrard (Edgington), David Morley Hale (Kidgell) and William Findley (Goldsmith).

As you would expect, there is a smattering of barrack room humour, but that couldn't compare with those old tunes, Chattanooga Choo Choo and Ain't Misbehavin'. And this show is not on the same radar as Dad's Army or It Ain't Half Hot Mum.

Paul Marston

tickets@birmingham-rep.co.uk or

Let the celebrations begin - in style

SLEEPING BEAUTY: Nao Sakuma as Princess Aurora and Chi Cao as Prince Florimund - and below.

Photos - Bill Cooper

Sleeping Beauty

Birmingham Royal Ballet

Birmingham Hippodrome

*****

BIRMINGHAM Royal Ballet opened its 20th Anniversary celebrations last night and and anyone watching was left in no doubt that this was as much a celebration for the city and the Hippodrome as the company with its stunning performance of Sleeping Beauty.

When the Saddler’s Wells Royal Ballet loaded its pointe shoes and tutus in the back of the van and set off up the M1 to become the Birmingham Royal Ballet it was a journey into the unknown for all parties.

Two decades on and it is safe to to say the move has been a spectacular success for everyone concerned and Tchaikovsky’s ballet was a fitting way to start the celebrations.

As soon as the curtains opened the tone was set for an evening of right royal celebrations. The sets, designed by Philip Prowse, were all magnificent opulence, making the likes of Versailles look positively dowdy, while into the fabulous setting came a cast in rich, sumptuous, costumes all to the familiar music from the excellent Royal Ballet Sinfonia under Paul Murphy. A clap too for some impressive lighting from Mark Jonathan.

Lighting is usually only noticed when it goes wrong but good lighting is as important to a piece as sets or costume and helps set the scene for the dancers.

The cast. from the fussy Catalabutte, David Morse, to the coquettish White Cat, Sonia Aguilar, all played their parts with style but this ballet depends largely upon two couples as to whether it is truly memorable or not and in Nao Sakuma as Princess Auroa and Chi Cao as Prince Florimund, and Joseph Caley as The Bluebird with Momoko Hirata as the Enchanted Princess, memorable success was in safe hands . . . or in this case feet.

GOOD ENGINE

Joseph Caley, in particular, showed, in footballing terms, what a good engine he has got with some physically demanding solo dances that would require a cardiac arrest unit standing by if they were attempted by mere mortals.

Chi Cao has elegance and skill to spare while the two Japanese dancers Noa Sakuma and Momoko Hirata are a thing of beauty to behold. Their balance and speed of foot is remarkable.

The ballet, incidentally, celebrated its 120th anniversary earlier this year and Sir Peter Wright’s production is based firmly on the original choreography by Marius Petipa, the ballet master of the Imperial Ballet, from that opening night in St Petersburg.

The story is simple. King Florestan XXIV is holding a big Christening ceremony for his new daughter Aurora and invites six fairies - luckily including the Lilac fairy, Andrea Tredinnick, who has a better class of spells than the rest.

Unfortunately the old king doesn’t invite Carabosse, the local wicked fairy which, in hindsight, is a bit of a blunder and Marion Tait as the evil one is not going to let him forget it hamming it up beautifully with her entourage of six, black-garbed halloweenies.

PASSING PRINCE

She casts a spell that Aurora will prick her finger and die and you just know that is what is going to happen otherwise it is going to be a pretty short ballet. So when the princess does the deadly deed the Lilac Fairy changes the spell so that instead of dying she, and everyone else in the palace, will sleep for 100 years with the princess then to be awakened by the kiss of a passing prince.

Right on cue up pops the puckered-up prince ready to wake everyone up for a big party and almost three hours later we all go home.

It is a classic tale but in the hands of BRB it is given the freshness and sparkle that the company’s productions have time and again created to enhance the name of the city and to brighten the life of Birmingham. A fabulous celebration and, twenty years on, thank you for coming. Hope you can stay.

The production runs until 06-03-10 and then again from 11-03-10 to 13-03-10 with the BRB’s 20 Years Celebration concert on 09-03-10 and 10-03-10.

Roger Clarke

Second opinion, Doctor?

*****

THIS is the 20th anniversary of the BRB's move to Birmingham, and Sir Peter Wright's masterpiece of a production is proving a wonderful way to get the celebrations started.

The former Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet tell the classic story of The Sleeping Beauty with all the style, invention and imagination we have come to almost take for granted, and at times the visual impact is breathtaking.

Right from the opening scenes the audience realise they and witnessing something special because the exquisitely designed costumes are stunning, colours blending perfectly with the awesome scenery as the story begins to unfold in the castle of King Florestan and his Queen who are celebrating the Christening of Princess Aurora.

And of course the dancing, choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Tchaikovsky. A sheer delight, with Nao Sakuma a magnificent Princess and Chi Cao proving the perfect partner in the role of Prince Florimund whose kiss awakens Aurora from a hundred year sleep following a curse from the evil Fairy Carabosse.

Marion Tait creates a genuine atmosphere of evil as Carabosse, backed by her nasty black-clad henchmen with their chalk white faces, resembling a poisonous posse from the Pirates of the Caribbean.

A fine performance, too, from Andrea Tredinnick, the good Lilac Fairy who tempers Carabosse's sentence of death curse to one of a century of sleep after Aurora pricks her finger on a spindle.

Paul Marston

www.birminghamhippodrome.com

If the shoe fits - thank Michael - an interview with the BRB Shoe Master.

http://www.brb.org.uk/

Keeps you guessing to the end

Witness for the Prosecution

Wolverhampton Grand

***

REMEMBER those black and white crime thrillers with clipped accents that used to pop up on the Midnight Movie be shown on Sunday afternoon television to give people something to watch without too much effort after Sunday lunch?

This is the theatrical equivalent. Agatha Christie’s play first saw the light of day as a short story in 1925 but after the success of The Mousetrap it was reworked for the stage opening in 1953 and almost 60 years on, in truth, it is starting to show its age.

With the fine cast assembled for this production you feel it should be better than it actually is. Not that that is their fault or that there is anything wrong with it but has become . . . a little dated.

Without giving too much away Leonard Vole played convincingly by Ben Nealon (Soldier Soldier) a likeable, working-class sort of chap has found himself on the wrong side of coincidence for the murder of an old dear he had befriended.

She was 56 – which might have been old in 1953 but caused plenty of amusement among an audience many of whom had just been moved into the positively ancient category by that Vole chap on stage.

His only alibi was his German, actress wife Romaine played by Honeysuckle Weeks (Sam Stewart in Foyle’s War) who, once she had sorted her accent out, managed to have the audience guessing her motives and her affections as the play developed.

MUDDYING THE WATERS

Muddying the waters still further we also had the Scottish housekeeper Janet McKenzie (Jennifer Wilson) who obviously did not like Vole and said so in no uncertain manner – and an equally uncertain accent.

Defending young Vole was Sir Wilfred Robarts and Denis Lill (Dennis in Outside Edge) made him look and sound the part of a 1950's QC while his solicitor was Mr Mayhew, Robert Duncan (Gus in Drop the Dead Donkey), pictured above, who incidentally was also excellent in the touring version of Outside Edge, who brought a little levity to proceedings.

Presecuting, in splendidly bumtious syle is Mr Myers QC played by Mark Wynter, pictured below, while overseeing the whole thing was Mr Justice Wainwright played with that wit and lack of worldly knowledge that we so love in our judiciary by Peter Byrne who you might remember as Andy Crawford in Dixon of Dock Green . . . glory be, am I that old.

The action all took part in Sir Wilfred’s chambers and the courtroom with a remarkably clever set which could be switched in a matter of moments before your very eyes. The lighting was also impressive with huge shadows on the wall from the open fire in the chambers and clever lightening and gradual darkening to emphasis points or add effect. Both set and lighting designers, Simon Scullion and Douglas Kuhrt deserve bows for that.

In court we became the jury watching the trial unfold before us but even considering our important role in proceedings the first half at just under 90 minutes was a tad long – 56-year-old (and beyond) rears need armchairs, or at least cushions, rather than theatre seats beyond the hour mark and there was plenty of shuffling going on by the time the ice creams appeared which perhaps lost a little of the closing drama.

If the first act set the scene then the second much shorter provided all the twists and turns with the final revelation catching many by surprise.

It was all a bit Victorian melodrama at the end but was still a very watchable production but as I said, age has caught up. The murder of 56 year-old-woman would hardly be front page news day after day these days and perhaps the play also suffers because we as an audience are more sophisticated. With things like CSI, Law & Order, Silent Witness and the like on TV we are not even remotely impressed by blood on a piece of evidence that links it to almost 50 per cent of the population.

The play has become rather a period piece and you almost expect it to be in black and white but within its limitations it is well done and the twists keep you guessing right to the end as any good thriller should. To 6-03-2010.

Roger Clarke

Dance with all the right steps

Dancing at Lughnasa

Birmingham Rep

****

THE Rep stage was turned into a corner of Donegal, complete with a rolling hill for this excellent production of Brian Friel’s best known play which is based loosely on his mother and aunts.

The story, set in 1936, is told through the eyes of Michael, a child born out of wedlock – hardly the done thing in rural Ireland now let alone then – who was seven at the time the play is set.

Michael, (Barry Ward), now an adult, relates the tale of that summer partly from his memory partly in scenes acted out in the house he shared with his mother, Christina Mundy (Claire Rafferty) and her four sisters Kate (Penny Layden), Maggie (Siobhan McSweeney), Rose (Fiona O’Shaughnessy) and Agnes (Elaine Symons).

There is also their brother, Father Jack (Peter Gowen – who played Michael in a production five years ago incidentally) who has returned after 25 years as a missionary in a leper colony in Uganda suffering from malaria.

It is a story of grinding poverty in rural Ireland with Agnes and the sweet but less than intellectually gifted Rose scraping a living knitting gloves. Rose has managed to save enough money to buy a bottle of milk and a packet of chocolate biscuits to go out with a boy while a meal for eight comes down to a homemade loaf and three eggs.

Yet this is no sorry tale of the poor fighting against the odds. It is about five women who have fun and hope. Christina hopes that Michael’s father’s infrequent visits will become more permanent while the boy’s father, Gerry Evans (Daniel Hawksford) hopes that his latest new job will work out and hopes to bring a new bike for Michael the next time he calls.

All the sisters hope to find men and all find happiness in Marconi, the battery powered, temperamental radio which works – or doesn’t – in the corner to bring popular music and Irish dance music to their home.

GREAT EVENTS

It is not a play about great events or happenings. True, Gerry goes off to join the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War but it has no more impact on the Mundy family that had he popped down to the shop for a new battery for the radio – probably less.

We discover Father Jack had gone native in Uganda with the call of Rome now somewhat less strong than the call of the wild.

We learn about the women individually. Maggie is the fun loving one, always ready with a laugh and a joke or as the peacemaker at the first hint of tension. Yet we also see her quiet contemplation when she hears of her best friend’s successful life as for a while the clown’s mask fades.

Of Rose who believes Danny Bradley loves her while everyone else, even the audience, knows Danny is aiming to exploit a pretty country girl a few eggs short of a dozen.

Agnes seems infatuated with Gerry and is closest to Rose and after the Danny incident and the opening of a new knitwear factory which puts all the home workers out of business he future is bleak while the eldest sister. Kate, who seems to have a crush on a local shopkeeper, and takes on the mother role. She is the only one with a full time job, as a school teacher where her reputation is not exactly as life and soul of the party - her nickname is The Gander. She is a devout Catholic trying to bring her school marm ways to her four sisters less committed to the faith and a brother who is a priest who has found another calling.

Strangely the one we find out least about is Michael, the narrator, who tells us about everyone else but leaves us guessing about himself.

ORDINARY PEOPLE

There are no murders, strange deaths, robberies or momentous events, just a simple story of ordinary people with ordinary hopes and dreams, well told and wonderfully acted whether it was Maggie’s raucous dancing, Kate’s silent tears, Rose’s innocence, Christina’s dreams or Agnes’s secret longings.

Gerry is a likeable, unreliable dreamer, Father Jack a priest who has found a new religion while Michael is . . . and we never did find that out.

Full marks too to Tamara Harvey the director, Colin Richmond for the set design and James Farncombe for clever lighting design. If you see the play, and it is well worthwhile, notice how characters walk into sunlight as they leave the house – even though there are no walls. To 6-03-10

Pictured left to right are Claire Rafferty, Siobhan McSweeney, Elaine Symons and Fiona O'Shaughnessy in rehearsals. Picture Manuel Harlan

Roger Clarke

www.birmingham-rep.co.uk 0121 236 4455

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Return of the king of one man movies

One Man Lord of the Rings

Lichfield Garrick

****

I SUSPECT that few Tolkien fans out there realise that hidden within the Rings trilogy are references to Elvis, Edwin Starr and Johnny Cash.

They are easy to miss but thanks to Charles Ross, the Canadian master of the one man movie genre their true place is restored within the epic which he manages to condense to an hour and ten minutes.

We could have enjoyed this show five years ago had it not been for a legal wrangle with the movie makers which was only resolved last year just in time for the Edinburgh Festival where Ross was a sell out.

In just a black boiler suit and minimal lighting Ross brings the entire trilogy to life on stage with a staggering range of voices and sounds he creates without special effects and even had to overcome a microphone problem after about 20 minutes.

REFERENCES

Ross though, rather than battle on, added a short break while he changed his mic and then slipped in references to it throughout the show.

He becomes Gollum, Sam, Frodo, Gandalf, Orcs, Ents . . . all the characters of Lord Of the Rings in what is part tribute, part storytelling and at times very funny with asides and references that the films somehow missed out. Strange that but all very obvious when Mr Ross points them out . . .

His one man Star Wars was critically acclaimed and this is its equal for sheer inventiveness and skill although the amazing thing was that there were people in the audience who had neither read the books nor seen the films. What they made of it all the Lord only knows. It must be a bit like going along to a book club to discuss a book you had never heard of.

Sadly it was at the Garrick for just one night but check the website to see if it will be appearing at a Shire near you. It is well worth seeing . . . if you have seen the films, DVDs or read the book of course - otherwise it is a man rushing, creeping and writhing across the stage doing silly voices for no apparent reason.

Roger Clarke

http://onemanlotr.com/

Don't dream it: Janet, (Haley Flaherty) Dr Scott (Nathan Amzi) and Rocky (Dominic Tribuzio) try to be it with Brad (Richard Meek) and Columbia (Ceris Hine) behind

The Rocky Horror Show

Wolverhampton Grand

****

THE Rocky Horror Show is probably the most fun an audience can have in a theatre with its clothes on - or, in in the case of many of its number - with ,ost of its clothes off.

The show generates acres of flesh squeezing out of basques, suspenders fishnets and assorted costumes among the paying punters with at least one gentleman not having thought through the sartorial nuances of wearing a rather fetching outfit when it came to a visit to the comfort zone, as the Americans would have it, at the break. Basques are a just that bit short on flies.

The show has always encouraged audience participation but that has been toned down a little by theatres over the years who now discourage the hurling of rice, Bounty bars and Kit Kats on stage and a deluge from high powered water pistols as cheap FX for the storm scene.

The shouts and comments are still there though and this must be one of the few if not the only show with an audience participation script available - indeed the internet can boast several versions - with what to shout, when and where so woe betide any poor actor who fluffs his lines with several hundred prompts a night out there.

Amid the shouts from amateur Rockys - and a few horrors - with their audience scripts we had the usual mix of crudity badly disguised as wit, shouts at inappropriate moments and, thankfully, some genuinely funny heckles.

The excellent cast must have heard it all before though and Ainsley Harriot, as the Narrator camped it up with the best of them carrying a packet of his couscous around ready for the inevitable comment about his career.

To most people he is a TV chef but don’t forget it is less than 20 years ago that Ainsley was half of the double act The Calypso Twins on the London comedy circuit where he no doubt picked up the art of working an audience. If you can't do it in the comedy clubs you die.

Star of the show though was undoubtedly David Bedella (above) and his voice as smooth and dark as rich chocolate who brings Frank ‘N’ Furter to louche life.

He struts around the stage with his tongue so far into his cheek it must have been close to coming out of his ear - which in any Rocky show would not have been surprising.

He played unashamedly to the audience usually responding to heckles with a look, a smile or a gesture although one particularly crude comment did elicit a response as to whether the heckler was speaking from experience. His voice is like rich velvet

ANY TIME DAY OR NIGHT

For those who have been in a time warp this Richard O’Brien phenomenon which first saw the dark of night in the 63-seat Theatre Upstairs at the Royal Court in 1973 has been going almost continuously ever since. It is almost like I Love Lucy and M.A.S.H. in that somewhere in the world at any time night or day there is probably a Rocky Horror performance going on.

It is a camp pastiche of B-movie science fiction and horror films with Janet (Haley Flarerty) and Brad (Richard Meek) just engaged and stranded on a lonely country road in a thunderstorm.

But what luck! They have just past a large gothic castle lit up by flashes of lightning so why not disregard every danger sign and knock on the door for help.

Riff-Raff (Brian McCann) welcomes them in and they find themselves in a world where every low budget and sensationally bad horror and alien movie of the 40s and 50s seems to have found a home.

One lovely touch was a bank of TV monitors where Frank tracked the movement of Dr Scott (Nathan Amzi) while the audience tracked the movement of Riff-Raff behind the screens holding the cut out of the doctor in his wheelchair as its shadow went across the screens. Some of those 50s horror films had special effects that would not give you much change out of a fiver and it was nice to see that tradition kept alive.

STRONG NUMBERS

It is great fun, high energy and the excellent five-piece band do a wonderful job playing around heckles, interruptions and asides which is no easy job.

Time Warp is the best known of the songs but there are a number of strong numbers in there and all the songs are performed well by an enthusiastic cast.

One word of warning though. Rocky does have a smattering of naughty bits . . . or to put it another way it has quite a lot of explicit sexual content so anyone taking children - or maiden aunts who think sex is what coal comes in in Solihull - should be aware of that.

Not that the sexual content is particularly crude or mucky, far from it, it is camp and stylised and is more cartoon than erotic. It is designed to produce laughs rather than shock but it is there all the same. Very tongue in cheek . . . amongst other places. Vulgar with a smile rather than a snigger. So you have been warned.

That being said you would hope that anyone who goes to see a show where the star is a bloke plastered in make-up wearing a basque, suspenders, fishnets and high heels might just have an inkling this is not likely to be the sequel to The Sound of Music.

You get the feeling the cast - and a large chunk of the audience - are there to enjoy themselves come what may and the feeling is infectious. It is nigh impossible to see the show and not come out smiling. To 27-02-10

Roger Clarke

Ballet warms Siberian weather

Giselle

Russian State Ballet of Siberia

Wolverhampton Grand

****

MARIA Kuimova (above) must be every little girl’s dream of a ballerina. She is slender, elegant, looks beautiful and glides across the stage as if floating on air.

As for her stunning series of arabesque penchee? It was enough to make grown men wince. Her balance, poise and flexibility is way beyond that of mere mortals who wobble just standing on one leg.

The 26-year-old danced the title character in Giselle, the opening night of a three night, three ballet run by the Russian State Ballet of Siberia who must have been impressed that the Grand made them feel so much at home by organising a blizzard for their arrival.

Giselle, first performed in Paris in 1841 is one of the classic 19th century romantic ballets which is all about love and betrayal with forest spirits thrown in and is set in the Rhineland of the middle ages. It all starts when Count Albrecht of Silesia (danced with a mix of boldness and sensitivity by Vladimir Tsybenov) disguises himself - not that well I might add - as a peasant, Loys, living in the village to sow a few wild oats before he marries his betrothed, Bathilde, the daughter of the Prince.

ALL POWER AND ANGST

Giselle falls for him although the local gamekeeper Hans, (Kirill Litvinenko, all power and angst) who also fancies Giselle, warns her that Loys is a bit dodgy. Hans is Hilarion in most productions, but what's in a name particularly in ballet.

Loys and Giselle dance a love duet with mum Berthe (Vera Surovtseva) trying to stop it because of her daughter’s dicky heart. When the Prince and his entourage turn up and Giselle discovers the truth she tries to kill her self with Albrecht sword but before we get all that messy blood and gore her heart gives out and she dies just in time for the interval.

The second act set in a forest is more of a dancing spectacular. Just so you know Giselle is really dead there is a headstone with her name on that can be read from space.

Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis, was beautifully danced by Anastasia Kazantseva, like Kuimova, a graduate of the Krasnoyarsk State Choreographic School.

She calls up the Wilis, a group of ghostly virgins who have died of unrequited love, who are a fine corps de ballet, 18 strong who, when reuired, move in perfect unison. They are there as Myrtha raises Giselle from her grave and then starts to initiate her into her ghosty band.

When Hans turns up the Wilis set him into an endless dance where he is finally forced into a lake exhausted and drowns - these virgin victims of unrequited love have a pretty strong revenge agenda against men and next start on Albrecht.

Giselle dances with him but as exhaustion is about to see him shuffle off his mortal coil to join Hans in the lake dawn breaks and the Wilis, like vampires, have no power in daylight so vanish back into the marsh and Albrecht is saved, Gisselle goes back to her grave and the poor old count is left alone grieving on her grave.

TRADITIONAL PRODUCTION

This is a traditional production revised by the RSBS’s artistic director Serei Bobrov with the ballet attributed to the orginial choreographers Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot along with Marius Petipa, the choreographer for the Imperial Ballet who created the revivals at the turn of the 19th century and Leonid Levrovsky, the Bolshoi Ballet choreographer and director who was responsible for the celebrated 1944 production.

Like a lot of ballet the tale is all a bit vague when it gets on stage and you would struggle to know what was going on without a programme or knowledge of the ballet. It was a few mimes and scenes light of making things clear. That being said the dancing was more than good enough to engage your interest while the orchestra under Anatoly Tchepurnoy produced a pleasing, romantic interpretation of Adolphe Adam’s score. You could just sit back, relax, watch, listen and enjoy.

One small point though, maybe it is Russian pointe shoes, but they do seem noisier then those of English and Western companies. Not a problem but interesting all the same.

18-02-10

20-02-10 Sleeping Beauty.

Roger Clarke

Swan Lake

****

TCHAIKOVSKY'S sumptuous, lyrical score has helped make Swan Lake one of the best loved and widely known ballets in the world.

Almost every note is like an old friend so whether it was being back on familiar ground or simply the fact it had stopped snowing both the company and audience seemed to be more comfortable and at ease then with Giselle.

The opening in the palace might have had a bit more splendour and gravitas as the curtain went up but once into its stride the Russian State Ballet of Siberia production kept up a decent pace helped by their excellent orchestra under musical director Anatoliy Tchepurnoy. Whoever was responsible for the violin solos down in the bowels of the pit deserved their own round of applause with some memorable interpretations.

And when it came to interpretation Ekaterina Bulgutova was a fine Odette/Odile. As the Princess she was all grace and vulnerability with a moving pas de deux with Siegfried while as Von Rothbart’s daughter Odile she steps it up a notch or two.

HANG IN THE AIR

Seigfried (Vyacheslav Kapustin) shows good use of the stage with his solos and managed some hang in the air jumps but one the highlights was the inventive dance with Von Rothbart shadowing him. It was a clever foil for the main female part with Seigfried in his white and silver almost like Odette dancing against her shadow of the black malevolence of the Evil Genius almost as Odile.

Von Rothbart was danced by Vladimir Tsbenov by the way, who was earning his corn after dancing Albrecht in Giselle and once again was the pick of the male dancers.

Another inventive touch in this Russian production was to split the Corps de ballet of 18 into half black and half white swans in the final scene.

This must go down to the company’s Artistic Director Sergei Bobrov who is down as choreographer along with Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.

As the latter pair were responsible for the 1895 revival I think it is safe to say Bobrov can claim the credit for that one.

Other high spots included the dance of the cygnets which was exquisitely executed by Nadezhda Vlasova, Anna Germizeeva, Natalia Goroshko and Elena Tcherkashina.

Anastasia Koreshnikova as the Spanish bride gave us a lively dance as well.

All in all this was an entertaining and enjoyable production and even had an alternaive ending to the norm which leaves Odette grieving for her lost love who sacrifices himslef for her.

In footballing terms, and what most teams would give for players with feet that quick who could jump that high, the company might not be Champions’ League yet but they are certainly pushing hard for a Europa League place.

19-02-10

Roger Clarke

Sleeping Beauty

****

FOR the second time in three nights Maria Kuimova was the undoubted star of the show, this time as Princess Aurora.

In her pas de deux with Prince Desire, (the accomplished and athletic Arkadiy Zinov), seen below, she is rather like one of those ballerinas you find dancing on mirrors on musical boxes, spinning and moving en pointe, fixed firmly to the spot.

She has the ability to make the difficult look effortless and her presence lifts what is a good production on to another level. She is that good.

Natalii Goroshko, a petite dancer, was also excellent as the Lilac Fairy. She is a tiny thing with a compact, elegant style almost floating around the stage.

There were some other fine performances including Anastasia Koreshnikova who moved on from last night’s Spanish Bride in Swan Lake to the evil fairy Carabosse, a real pantomime villain with a hobble, bent back, sneers and snarls at the audience and a cape the size of Dudley to sweep across the stage.

Vladimire Tsybenov was back as well, this time filling in as a guard, a pretender to the heart of the princess as well as Bluebird - the lad must be really coining in the overtime.

Like Kuimova he does tend to lift the stage when he appears although his thunder was stolen a little in the fairytale section by Anastasia Kazantseva’s very attractive white cat in an amusing dance with Denis Pogorely’s Puss-in-boots.

ADDED FUN

It might not have had the technical range of Bluebird and Princess Florine (Anna Germizeeva) but it did add a bit of fun to proceedings.

The costumes were the most opulent of the run, a sort of Three Musketeers, meets Hunchback of Notre Dame meets Disney, a little garish if one is honest and very East European and the orchestra under Anatoliy Tchepurnoy were again in good form, although not quite up to their Swan Lake level, but somehow it was a production that fell just short of of where it could have been.

The second half in particular had a feel that some padding had been added and the pace was not helped by a long, long pause after Prince Desire had exited stage right downstage to reappear upstage stage left for his next solo. Whether he had just missed a bus, was sent the wrong way or took a wrong turn we never knew although the audience, the dancers assembled like statues on stage and the orchestra poised with pursed lips had plenty of time to think about it.

Even rearranging the spear carriers around the stage with a few waves, bows and curtsies would have given the audience something to look at while the prince made his way through the back streets of Wolverhampton.

A small point I know, but important all the same. That being said the Russian State Ballet of Siberia created a most enjoyable evening and perhaps as a reviewer you are looking more closely for good and bad points than the audience who clap loudly if they like it and politely if they don’t.

At the end they were happy to applaud enthusiastically with boos for Carabosse and those richly deserved cheers, whistles and shouts for the wonderful Aurora until the house lights came on as a hint it was time to go home.

Roger Clarke

A wig that can change the world

Cling to me like Ivy

The Door

Birmingham Rep

****

SAMANTHA Ellis’s bittersweet tale of tradition and values, love and religion gives a fascinating glimpse into Orthodox Jewish life.

We have nursery school teacher Rivka, all innocence and sexually naive played beautifully by Emily Holt in her theatrical debut since leaving LAMDA last summer. She is planning her wedding and loves her sheitel. Sheitel? Do keep up, those are the wigs worn by married orthodox Jewish women.

She is the daughter of a rabbi, untouched by human - at least male human - hand and weighed down by tradition.

Her friend is the slightly, oh let’s be honest, lot more worldly Leela (Mona Goodwin) a medical student who is a Hindu - the relevance to be seen later.

Rivka is set to marry David (David Hartley) the son of a rabbi who rebelled and became . . . an optician. That’s really letting your hair down. He makes dull seem interesting.

COMIC, SAD AND INTENSE

Her father Shmuley (Edward Halstead) feels he always has to prove himself after becoming an Orthodox Jew later in his life while Rivka’s grandmother Malka, a wonderfully comic, sad and intense performance from Amanda Boxer, is all Chicken soup, warm humour and words of wisdom. She also has a colourful past which, like most things in this well crafted play, has a bearing on events.

Into their cosy world, where the women see life through OK magazine, comes both Patrick, (Gethin Anthony) an eco-warrior and tree sitter and a challenge to the established order when a chance remark by Victoria Beckham about hair extensions caused a worldwide Jewish crisis.

Beckham was asked if her hair extensions came from prisoners in Russia forced to shave their heads and she flippantly said she had half of Russian Cell Block H on her head.

Hardly a crisis you might think. But in the celebrity obsessed fuss it emerged 400 tons a year in the international hair trade came from the Tirupati Temple, a famous Hindu Temple of Lord Venkateswara located in the hill town Tirumala of Andhra Pradesh.

WIG BURNING

Still wondering where the crisis comes in? Orthodox Jews consider Hinduism involves idol worship which is a big no no, second commandment, graven images and all that in the Decalogue; so that would make any wigs made from hair from a Hindu temple questionable under Jewish religious law. Hence the crisis with wig burning in the streets and Jewish wives and widows wearing synthetic wigs and swim caps until the matter was resolved by a London based rabbi who went to India on a fact finding mission then on to Jerusalem to make a decision.

Amid all this comes Rivka’s sexual and emotional awakening and to an extent a discovery by each of the characters as to what is important and who they are.

The set is a clever kitchen designed by Ruari Murchison which gives us two sinks, one for milk one for meat and never the two should mix, all part of a life most of the audience did not know existed.

TOUCHING MOMENT

There is a touching moment, literally, when Rivka pretends she has something in her eye and asks David to have a look - he can touch her for medical purposes apparently. It is a simple moment but one we all know is going to be important.

The set converts with a few hooks into a tree top where Rivka finds another world which will change her life for ever.

The climax is neither happy nor sad, it just is - which is, in the end, what life is is for most people.

There are drawbacks for a non-Jewish audience with some of the words and terms, rather like watching a sport where you don’t know all the rules and have to work it out as you go along but it is not difficult to follow and the effort is well worthwhile.

This is a world premiere and from its reception it looks like the play could well be around for some time. It is beautifully written, sensitively acted by a superb cast and well directed by Sarah Esdale. To 27-02-10

Roger Clarke

www.birmingham-rep.co.uk 0121 236 4455

www.Birminghamhippodrome.com

More than a trace of excitement

Traces

Birmingham Hippodrome

*****

TRACES is hailed a mix between circus and contemporary dance all to an eclectic soundtrack with everything from blues, to hip-hop via indie and euro trance along the way.

The French-Canadian company les 7 doigts de la main (The 7 fingers) were a big hit at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007 and after sell out seasons in the West End, New York, Paris and Montreal Traces is on its first UK tour with a three night run at the Hippodrome.

With a special half term offer on the Hippodrome website - up to two children half price with every full paying adult - it was nice to an audience with such a wide spectrum of ages.

DIFFERENT STRINGS

Indeed the diverse audience finds favour with the show, which is almost impossible to pigeon-hole; given that it has so many different strings to its bow.

It is rather like watching a great music video which you've never seen before (but know that you’ll love), or your favourite bits from your favourite cult film, which you want to share with everyone but not necessarily tell anyone about.

There is something bizarrely hypnotic about watching the five men and one woman perform in perfect harmony. They can make an everyday arm chair as impressive as Chinese poles, and every facet of the performance is meticulously planned, yet effortlessly executed.

Antoine Auger, Antoine Carabinier-Lepine, Jonathan Casaubon, Genevieve Morin, Philip Rosenberg make you want to take up Parkour and erect some Chinese poles in your back garden . . . but their grace and speed are deceptive; only the heaving of their chests show just how hard they work and how far they push themselves.

It is a strange experience to watch Traces - but strange in a good way. The intimacy of the piece, punctuated by charming humour and contemporary references make for an absorbing 1hr 40mins.

It is like watching everything that your average English Theatre goer isn't but wants to be - like a puckish, adroit, witty, European fight club.

ANCIENT SKILLS

This modern day circus, with its ancient skills clothed in modern phrasing and philosophy blows every dance show currently swamping the TV channels into the oblivion. Traces is the real deal, make no mistake.

With such a gushing review one might be left to wonder why only four and a half stars and not five. Well the reason is simple enough, I didn't like the end, not just for the slightly clunky and artsy finale but also because it was the end of such a great performance - and I'll dock half a star out of spite just for that!

If you're in Birmingham and want to see something special, see Traces and if you've got kids then the aforementioned offer provides superb value for a superb show - and you might even look a little bit cool to your kids; just avoid the temptation to do a flag handstand on your car bonnet afterwards. To 17-02-10.

Theo Clarke

Review 2

* * *

IT might have been a warm-up for a casual basketball game as five scruffily dressed characters charged round stage bouncing and passing a ball with a reasonable amount of skill at the start of this unusual show.

But the action is set in a makeshift bunker with the agile young people amusing themselves prior to some impending disaster, and they suddenly explode into a remarkable display of acrobatics that has the audience gasping for breath.

This is the French-Canadian company Les 7 Doigts de la Main who took the Edinburgh Festival by storm in 2007. Easy to see why.

Their props might have been the remnants of a war scene....a battered old piano, broken tailors' dummies, faded skateboards, a couple of steel poles rising high from the stage floor, and a few steel hoops.

But the four men and one woman use them brilliantly, showing amazing agility in climbing the poles and swinging from them, flying backwards and forwards through the hoops. One of the men even spins inside a giant steel hoola-hoop.

The dazzling action is set to a sound track ranging from rock 'n' roll to blues and hip-hop, with images of the five characters at various stages of their lives flashed onto a screen at the rear of the stage.

Paul Marston