These Folk, 11 Oct 2020 ***1/2

At The Boulevard Theatre (in Soho)

Improvisation Theatre online (with The Bristol Improvisation Theatre)

Performed on Fri 27 March 2020

Reviewer: Kate Herbert

Reviewed on 11 October 2020

See this online at this link:

https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/stage-shows-musicals-opera-free-stream-online_51198.html?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=30september2020&fbclid=IwAR28zE7z_JqmMJY2-al4wduuxxRLHeoOfZ6M5Idrq3Rm9HxKsUQ9Iwp_958

This review appears only on this blog. KH

Justin Brett and Susan Harrison improvise a mythical, musical journey in this show at the Boulevard in Soho that just squeaked in before the UK Covid restrictions closed London theatres.

 

Tall, lanky Brett is a contrast to Harrison, who is petite and sweet, and both are capable and charming improvisers who, with two musicians, are able to create a coherent and cohesive improvised landscape of characters, places and songs in a moment.

 

The inspiration for their 30-minute fable comes from an audience member named Equador (Yes, really!) who tells the pair that he made a bag this week out of his late grandparents’ old curtains. This surprising and evocative story is a gift for any improviser.

 

Brett and Harrison launch their tale with a word at a time story about Equador going on a journey with his bag. Brett, as Equador, sings the Song of Sadness then visits a Youth Hostel owned by a privileged, young woman called something that sounds like ‘Morona’. Their dialogue is riddled with puns and she dubs him a ‘pundamentalist’.

 

In a wonderfully poignant and philosophical moment, Equador says carries his memories and family with him in his bag made from grandparents’ curtains.

 

They reminisce about the past in a song called 1982 (‘What a time to be alive!’) but Equador travels on without Morona until he meets the Woman of the Border of the Balkans and sings The Woman of the Border, She Stands for Order.

 

The performance ends with a celebratory song called Now Is Where the Now Is, about going home and keeping the past with us in the present.

 

This is a joyful musical and comedic improvisation that highlights the skill and spontaneity of the two performers and their musicians.

 

By Kate Herbert

Missing People (Online), Leeds Playhouse, 10 Oct 2020 ***1/2

Written by Brad Birch

Produced by Leeds Playhouse & Kani Public Arts Center (sic) co-production

Filmed at Kani Public Arts Center, Japan, on 26 Feb 2020

Performed in English and Japanese with subtitles on video

Reviewed by Kate Herbert online, 10 Oct 2020

Stars: ***1/2

This review appears only on this blog. KH

Fortunately for those of us outside the UK, Missing People, written by Brad Birch, can be viewed online. Unfortunately for the company, this fortuitous turn of events is because the in-theatre season was cancelled on press night, 26 February 2020, in response to the Covid Pandemic.

 

This co-production between Leeds Playhouse and Kani Public Arts Center, Japan, is performed in English and Japanese subtitles and is co-directed by Mark Rosenblatt and Nobohiro Nishikawa, so language and cultural differences and clashes are at the forefront of the play.

 

Sakiko (Susan Hinkley) and Dan (Simon Darwen), travel from the UK to Japan to visit Sakiko’s parents, where their communication is clearly more problematic than simply a language barrier.

Dan’s mum, Linda (Ishia Bennison) accompanies the couple to Japan so that the two families can finally get to know each other and assist Sakiko and Dan to plan their upcoming wedding.

 

However, Sakiko’s mother, Chiyo (Natsumi Nanase), and father, Masaru (Yutaka Oda) are defensive, anxious and so secretive about their son’s whereabouts, that Sakiko suspects there are problems far more serious than issues at her brother's workplace.

 

This is a story of a prodigal daughter returning home, only to find that the ‘good’ son who followed the family’s rules has now become the prodigal.

 

The story is both a family drama and a mystery with the absent brother at the centre. The families must struggle with awkward, extremely formal communication and the beleaguered Sakiko is responsible for all slow and complex translations.

 

The cast brings depth, warmth and anguish to the characters and relationships as they struggle to understand each other and their predicament.

 

The stylised and austere, Japanese-inspire set design features tall columns and floating beams that loom over the characters and also act as narrow screens on which to project translations.   

 

The blend of languages intensifies the drama and suspense as we follow the trials of the family members and await news of the prodigal son.

 

Missing People can be viewed through this link:

https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/stage-shows-musicals-opera-free-stream-online_51198.html?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=30september2020&fbclid=IwAR28zE7z_JqmMJY2-al4wduuxxRLHeoOfZ6M5Idrq3Rm9HxKsUQ9Iwp_958

 

Cast

Sakiko -Susan Hinkley

Dan -Simon Darwen

Linda -Ishia Bennison

Yasuko -Yuri Eikawa

Chiyo -Natsumi Nanase

Masaru -Yutaka Oda

Koji/Genki -HirokiTanaka

 

Set Design --Rumi Matsui

Costume -Rie Nishihara

Lighting -Elliot Griggs

Sound Design Matt Padden

Movement- Director Sachi Kimura

 

 

Lem N Ginge: The Princess of Kakos, Audio excerpt 7 Oct 2020 ***

 

Lem N Ginge: The Princess of Kakos (excerpt only)

Written by Ell Potter and Mary Higgins

Part of a new series of audio dramas plays called Written on the Waves (UK)

5min 10 sec

Produced by 45North and Ellie Keel Productions.

Reviewed by Kate Herbert

Stars: ***

https://soundcloud.com/whatsonstage-830861346/lem-n-ginge-extract

Short review of this online audio play. Review published only on this blog. KH

 

Sharon D Clarke

Lem N Ginge: The Princess of Kakos is described as an 'all-singing all-dancing queer feminist fairytale', performed by Sharon D Clarke with the writers, Ell Potter and Mary Higgins.

Ell and Mary push themselves to the front of the crowd for the Princess’s 25^th birthday but the King makes an emergency announcement that the Princess has had her voice stolen. She cannot speak publicly as an adult. The King will tear out the tongues of all girls under 25 if the voice is not found.

The fable is a goofy parody of a fairy tale quest with a sting in the tale. The two women choose to go on the quest because, to quote them,  the Princess is ‘fit’.

This excerpt is a bit twee and old-fashioned, but who cares?

Composition, sound design and editing by Tom Foskett-Barnes.

Come To Where I Am Vol 1: Critical Stages & Paines Plough 7 October 2020 ***

THE RIVERLAND OF RAX By Alysha Herrmann

VIOLIN By James Elazzi, Western Sydney NSW

FIREBRAND By Peter Matheson Maclean NSW 

By Critical Stages Touring & Paines Plough UK 

Register for their Screening Room and watch online  

https://criticalstages.com.au/  

Reviewed by kate Herbert: 7 October 2020

Stars: ***

 

This is a short review of Volume 3 and is published only on this blog as a Lockdown comment and review. I'm trying to cover pieces hat are available to Australian, or more specifically Melbourne audience online. e are in a much longer Lockdown than other states. KH

 Peter Matheson

Come To Where I Am is a series of commissioned 10 minute pieces about the Covid experience around Australia. These may be theatrical or fiction or memoir or other forms of spoken word. The three pieces in Volume 1 vary in content and quality but all are in the form of short memoir read and delivered directly to camera for online viewing.

The Riverland of Rax is a short memoir about her life in Renmark and the stories from that place. Violin by James Elazzi reads a first -person account of his night with his Dad, scavenging for good finds that he can sell to help with the cost of groceries. He finds a violin and memories of wanting to play an instrument comes back and Dad scorns his find. He is flooded with memories of his Mum.

Perhaps the most compelling is Firebrand, a first-person memoir account in which Peter Matheson reminisces about his grandfather, Bert, comes, a war veteran from ambulance corps is France. ‘Mud, blood and mateship.’ He then recalls a feisty, reliable, pioneering neighbour confronting a voracious bushfire.  Matheson conjures the thick, burning acrid  burning of an Australian bushfire and the terror that accompanies it.

There are three more volumes that you can view online. (See above for link.)

Executive Producer: Chris Bendall
Series Producer: Melanie Carolan
Dramaturgs: Chris Bendall & Charlotte Bennett
Editor: Ben Pugh

Good Dog by Arinzé Kene (online 19 min version) 1 Oct 2020 ****

Good Dog by Arinzé Kene 19min online version- Youtube

Adapted for screen by Natalie Ibu

Based on the stage production of Good Dog, produced by tiata fahodzi and Watford Palace Theatre

Reviewer: Kate Herbert 1 October 2020

Stars: ****

 

This 19-minute version of the stage play, Good Dog, by Arinzé Kene, has a pulsating, relentless rhythm that follows a young boy’s emotional journey in a public housing tower block in England.

 

Anton Cross, irected by Natalie Ibu and Andrew Gillman, plays the Boy who is the narrator and subject of the stories he relates about his life and his neighbours on a public housing estate.

 

Cross is a magnetic presence as he talks with open-eyed honesty direct to camera, addressing his absent audience intimately. We follow him as he leads us up tower block stairs, onto balconies, into stores and down lanes where he is followed by the estate bullies.

 

The Boy introduces us to Trevor Senior, the overworked and addled father who spends his exhausted waking hours worrying that his son, Trevor Junior, a contemporary of the Boy, will end up with the same work-roughened palms as his father.

 

We then follow the Boy to the local store, run by Ghandi, described as a ‘a 51-year old boy’, who struggles to manage the ‘What What’ Girl who shoplifts, and her What What mum who threatens to get all her What What pals to boycott Ghandi’s shop.

 

The key allegorical tale that the Boy relates is a revealing and familiar story about Little Dog who is terrified and cowed by Big Dog. Big Dog barks all day through the fence terrorising Little Dog who dashes whimpering inside as soon as her owner returns. She is afraid of her own big tail.

 

The 'little dog' harbours her fear and revenge until she grows to a size that matches her tail and viciously savages 'big dog'.

 

This allegory reminds us that inhospitable environments and relentless abuse breed fear that can grow into violence and rage. All rules have no meaning when one has tried to be a Good Dog all one’s life, only to find that those rules don't apply to other who consider themselves to be Big Dogs.

 

Big Dog is a poignant, topical piece that is impeccably performed by Cross and would be a treat to view in its full two and a half hours in the theatre.

 

By Kate Herbert

 

Directed by Andrew Gillman & Natalie Ibu
Adapted for screen Natalie Ibu

Music Michael Assante

 

CAST

Boy -Anton Cross

Young Boy -Sammy Kamara

Trevor Senior -Vinta Morgan

Trevor Junior -Amerjit Deu

What What Girl -Lara Vira

What What Mum --Maria Alexe

Teenage Boy Edward Kagutuzi

Desmon -Calvin Cawood

Massive Martin -Alex  Radosavljevic

REVIEW: Watching Rosie with Miriam Margolyes, 27 Sept 2020 ****

Watching Rosie Written by Louise Coulthard

by Original Theatre Company

Miriam Margolyes, Louise Coulthard, Amit Shah  with Philip Franks

Released online 6 August 2020. 60% of donations to Dementia UK. Available online until 30 Sept.

Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Sunday 27 Sept 2020 (Melbourne Australia) 

Stars: ****

 

Miriam Morgolyes in Watching Rosie

In Watching Rosie, Miriam Margolyes totally inhabits the body and mind of an elderly woman, Alice Maxwell, who is suffering with dementia and grappling with the isolation influence upon her by Covid restrictions. 

 

This 15-minute online play, written by Louise Coulthard who also plays Alice’s granddaughter, Rosie, is performed with poignancy, sensitivity and warmth and written with honesty, authenticity and intelligence.

 

On FaceTime, Rosie checks in with her rather rumpled, wild-haired Alice who sits on her sofa near a window, chatting and smiling in a gently confused way and asking how Rosie got inside the tele, calling for Arthur who we presume to be her late, and therefore absent husband who she wants to read her a story.

 

Alice has shoved the flowers Rosie sent upside down into a huge vase, complains about her career, Stacey, being a common thief, coming around, going through Alice’s cupboards and eating her Bourbon biscuits, a type of bikkie that Rosie insist Alice does not have because she does not like them.

 

Margolyes displays moments of lucidity, anger, sadness and nostalgia as Alice, and keeps insisting that Rosie find a man. Rosie is irate and overreacts momentarily to what she clearly hears as criticism of her lifestyle.

 

‘Being on you own is not all it’s cracked up to be. You remember that,’ says Alice knowingly.

 

Alice lights up when she answers the doorbell to Kavan, the delivery man. She totes Rosie, who is still online on the laptop, to the front door, where we see tall piles of loo paper rolls inside the doorway. This is Alice’s perfect opportunity to introduce Rosie to a nice, handsome young man. Perhaps it will work. Rosie and Kavan are evidently as lonely and isolated and as Alice during lockdown.

 

The most poignant moment is the ending when Alice perches her framed photo of Arthur carefully on the back of the couch and Rosie plays her a recording of a man’s voice reciting A Shropshire Lad by AE Houseman. Alice is content to listen to ‘Those blue remembered hills’. 

 

This piece, directed by Michael Fentiman, is a loving, gentle and lyrical short play that is perfectly suited to online performance, a form to which we are now all accustomed. It will be a strange experience to go back into the theatre surrounded by all those breathing bodies instead of peering into the eyes and souls of actors who are centimetres from us, albeit on screen.

By Kate Herbert

 

Miriam Margolyes as Alice Maxwell

Louise Coulthard as Rosie

Amit Shah as Kavan

with Philip Franks

Directed by Michael Fentiman

Composer Barnaby Rice

Sea Wall by Simon Stephens, performed by Andrew Scott, 22 Aug 2020 *****

THEATRE ONLINE 

Date reviewed: 22 August 2020

Reviewer: Kate Herbert (viewed online in July 2020)
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/seawallfilm/99749028

Stars: 5

 

Andrew Scott, in his solo performance of Sea Wall by Simon Stephens, displays his startling capacity to alarm and engage simultaneously.

 

Alone in a cavernous, studio space littered with paraphernalia, Scott switches on a single camera and addresses his faraway, online audience directly as a man who he tells his personal tale of love, happy family life with his beloved wife, adored young daughter and his relationship with his father-in-law.

 

In Stephens'  considered and moving script, Scott's story shifts suddenly from past to present as he interrupts episodes at the very moment he is about to reveal something that we, his rapt audience, long to hear – and also fear to hear.

 

The child is perfect, the marriage is perfect the father-in-law in interesting, so why does Scott’s character swing suddenly from jubilation to teetering on the edge of despair and seem to be on the verge of confession of – what?

 

He paces nervily around his studio as searching for the words to express that thing he is hiding from us. He breaks off mind-conversation, mid-sentence, and tilts back to the past to describe another light- and love-filled memory; his first, magical encounter with his wife, their seemingly blessed marriage or the joyful birth of their child.

 

Scott makes us hold our breath in anticipation of the joy or disaster that is to come – and the disquieting revelation explains all that comes before.

 

by Kate Herbert