Sholom Aleichem In The Old Country - Review

Lion and Unicorn Theatre, London


****


Adapted by Saul Reichlin

Saul Reichlin

There’s a lot to be said for one man who can stand on an unadorned stage and with a few well chosen words, a wrinkled brow and a beady eye, transport an audience away to another time and a place; creating an illusion, for over an hour,  of the Pale of Settlement where the Jews of Eastern Europe once lived.

Unquestionably, Sholom Aleichem was the greatest Yiddish storyteller of the 19th century - some say the Jewish equivalent of Dickens - but here the credit goes to Saul Reichlin for his captivating performance, not only as Aleichem, but also as the twenty characters we meet on his journey.

We are first introduced to Sholom Aleichem as he travels by train to the fictional old town of Kasrilevke where he is taking a short holiday.  Instantly comical, the play opens with writer Aleichem trying to explain to his fellow train passengers how one can make a living from writing. Ach! He must own a bookshop they deduce.

Almost like a guidebook, Reichlin vividly describes the hustle and bustle of the town’s train station. A mirage of images becomes spun into a hilarious adventure that only ends with Aleichem in a flea-ridden hotel, having lunch in a restaurant with no food.

Reichlin's portrayal of the townsfolk captures their self-deprecating humanity; people who amidst all of life's pitfalls and petty resentments, hide loving hearts behind their snarky words and wry smiles. We meet the wise Rabbi who strokes his beard and sucks the end of it, the paupers who grab a free ride on the tram (they have nothing else to do). There is Tevye the milkman (yes, that Teyve) all kvetching and complaining.  Religion is everything to the eponymous dairyman; he looks to the heavens, shaking his fist to God; why does he have so much bad luck and stress in his life?  But he respects God above all else, so there’s always a smile and a joke. This character’s life, like nearly all those we meet in Kasrilevke, may well be hard and heart-breaking but it is heart-warming at the same time.

Sholom Aleichem In The Old Country is at once charming, funny, sad and yet it is ultimately tragic. Not because of any serious disaster that befalls the characters, but rather because it offers up a taste of an innocent time, a small window into the soul of the Jewish people of The Pale, who don’t know it, but who are about to lose everything. Reichlin's and Sholom Aleichem’s characters may be ultimately doomed but their humanity and comedy leaves one feeling incredibly uplifted.

Runs until 25th November

Reviewed by Jodie Sinyor

A Very Very Very Dark Matter - Review

Bridge Theatre, London


****


Written by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Matthew Dunster

Phil Daniels and Jim Broadbent

With a running time of just 90 minutes and Tom Waits as The Narrator, what’s not to like about A Very Very Very Dark Matter, the first seasonal show to be offered at London’s newest venue, the Bridge? In an alternative take on the typically seasonal, richly fruited and Victoriana-laced Christmas fairy tales, Martin McDonagh’s new play is set in Copenhagen and London, gorging itself on gothic grand-guignol and arguing a fantastic premise that both Denmark’s Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Dickens enjoyed a morbid fascination with African pygmy women.

McDonagh never misses an opportunity to let his politics get in the way of what might otherwise be a good story and so it is here, his narrative heavily laced with furrowed brow punditry upon the Congo’s complexities and exploitation. But don’t see this slightly troubled drama for its hobbled historical spiel on geo-politics. See it rather for McDonagh’s most fertile, febrile of imaginations putting on a theatrical treat that is played out by a magnificent cast.

Jim Broadbent is Andersen who, aside from a minor wig malfunction, puts in an assured turn portraying the weaver of legendary fairy tales as a racist, doddery misogynist who, in an intriguing conceit, was barely literate and whose stories were actually penned by Marjory, an African pygmy who he kept confined in a wooden box.  Broadbent’s timing and delivery is unsurpassed, but when he’s placed into a dining-table exchange with Phil Daniels’ exasperated Dickens - who has had to endure the unwelcome Dane as a house guest for five weeks - the exchanges are eye-wateringly brilliant. McDonagh captures the essence of The Two Ronnies, crossed with Derek and Clive - and in the hands of these two immaculate actors, there’s no finer double act in town.

The writer and his director Matthew Dunster offer up a sprinkling of nods towards Tarantino’s more wittier moments too, while alongside Broadbent and Daniels who both play scumbags of the highest order, there is standout work from Johnetta Eula'Mae Ackles as Marjory and a cleverly comic cameo from Elizabeth Berrington as Dickens’ much put upon wife Catherine. Anna Fleischle’s designs are as lavish as they are creepy, and for those who like their horror served bloody, the play does not disappoint.

Make no mistake, the evening’s imagery and language are the foulest, and whilst there may be a handful of talented kids in the cast, this is far from festive family fayre.

Worth catching though - much of this new writing is stunning.

Runs until 6th January 2019

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan

Honour - Review

Park Theatre, London


***


Written by Joanna Murray-Smith
Directed by Paul Robinson

Imogen Stubbs and Henry Goodman

'There’s no fool like an old fool’ an adage that sums up much of Honour now playing at the Park Theatre. The play introduces Henry Goodman and Imogen Stubbs as married couple George and Honour. She is a writer who gave up her career to support their thirty-two year old union, while he is a famed intellectual their lives being such that it is almost as if a slice of Hampstead’s intelligentsia has come rolling down Highgate Hill. When the much younger Claudia, an aspiring author who’s profiling George for a book that she’s writing, breezes into their lives, his middle aged mid-life testosterone kicks in and with barely a second thought he succumbs to her attraction, walking out on his wife. 

If the narrative wasn't so ineffably predictable, this might have made for a far more stimulating evening. As it is, as the drama hops from cliché to cliché with the production’s only redeeming feature being Stubbs’ interpretation of a woman in scorned and scorching agony. Hers is a wronged, devoted, heart that bleeds throughout a stunning performance, leaving the audience moved at her pain and cheering her on as faltering, she starts to find a path out of her misery.

Katie Brayben’s triangle-completing Claudia delivers all that the flawed script asks of her - but her encounters with both Honour and Sophie, the couple’s daughter barely a few years her junior, fail to convince. Likewise with Goodman who is forced to wade through interminable melodrama. There is a glimpse of his genius late in act two, after he has been inevitably spurned and rejected by Claudia for a more exciting lover where, Lear-like, he recognises the folly of his deeds. But by then it is too little, too late to redeem an otherwise disappointing turn.

Runs until 24th November
Photo credit: Alex Brenner

Lily Lowe-Myers and Robyn Cooper talk about bringing Welcome...? into the world

As new play Welcome...? runs in the Bridewell Theatre's Lunchbox Theatre season, Kirsty Herrington of www.jonathanbaz.com caught up with the show's writer/performers Lily Lowe-Myers and Robyn Cooper to learn a little more about the story behind delivering this pregnancy-promoting production into the world.

KH:    I’ve seen the play, but for anyone who hasn’t, can you tell me what it’s about?

LLM:    It explores creation from the point of view both of bringing a life into the world and creating a piece of theatre; and the uncertainty, excitement and fears that come with both of those journeys. 

KH:    Where did the idea come from?

LLM:    I’ve written a show every year for the last six years, so this year when I began thinking what’s the show going to be for this year, it was a very different show. Then I became pregnant and I thought, okay that will influence the show in some way, and then Robyn also became pregnant and it was like, wow okay, this is a very unique time.

I was listening to an audio book and this idea of a scientist who had allegedly asked for women to put themselves forward to be surrogate to a Neanderthal baby, and it really sparked something in my mind about what kind of woman would do that. What would be her reasons having decided to do it, what would be her fears and expectations? The similarity between the pregnancy and the creative journey just became very apparent while I was writing it, because I had three weeks to write it and I became aware that our last show would be three weeks before my due date. Knowing that there’s this impending deadline where whether you’re ready or not life is going to change, and I had this impending deadline of ready or not we would start rehearsals so I had to bring something into the world... 

That creative struggle to birth something and then the fears of how it will be accepted and what it will turn into, has strong parallels to how I feel as a woman being pregnant. 

KH:    How did the two of you meet?

RC:    We met when we were four in a swimming pool. One of our mums liked the other mum’s swimming costume. We were at the same nursery school already in Nottingham and my mum had already seen Lily’s mum leaving a few times and had thought “oh, I’d quite like to be her friend.” So they became friends and then they made us be friends and we stopped going to the same school shortly after but remained friends throughout. So 30 years of friendship this year...

LLM:    Aged five...aged six, we’d be making up our own plays and our first film when we were about eight.

RC:    We made a very good film that Lily wrote and directed when were like ten, but before that we made some bad films! 

LLM:    Including one film where Robyn plays a kung fu baby! And then I moved down to London after studying Drama with English Literature in Manchester and we moved in together ten –

RC:    Twelve years.

LLM:    Twelve years, oh god. And then we started doing plays together, we set up our company together, Hatstand Productions. Robyn writes the films for Hatstand Productions and I write the plays and then we both star in both. Being able to work with somebody that you’ve got that history with...there’s a lot that we take for granted that you wouldn’t usually get in the normal few weeks’ rehearsal period.

KH:    How easy is it to work together, with the two of you being such close friends? 

RC:    Well it helps to have a very diplomatic director for those rare moments when we both have very different strong views! We just hand them over to Matt, our director, who comes up with a third option that is better and incorporates both. 

KH:    So there aren’t any kung fu babies in your shows?!

LLM:    Next year’s show probably will have babies on stage because I’d love to explore what that means and how that works and how exciting that is for an audience, and as performers on stage how do you respond to this other being and still have a play. 

KH:    How do you find Lunchbox Theatre?

RC:     I love the idea. I feel like we’re all very, very busy, almost too busy perhaps, and.. it makes you take a lunchbreak for the people who work nearby, hopefully gives them a real reboot to go back to work but also doesn’t cut into family time, evening time. I find it very exciting to be able to tell a story in 50 minutes. 

KH:    What’s been the reaction so far to the play?

LLM:    It’s been great. One of the things that struck me on our first performance in London...what I was most shocked by was the difference in reactions. Everybody had really enjoyed the show and were saying very complimentary things, but how they felt and how they interpreted the show was very different. There were some who found it hilarious, others found it disturbing, and others found it really inspiring and it reminded of them when they were pregnant, and somebody found it serious and scientific. There was a real range from the personal to the scientific to the empowering. I was just hearing different people’s responses and I thought, wow, I don’t think I’ve ever created a play before that has ever been so open for different people to interpret in their own unique way. 

KH:    What would you like the play to achieve?

RC:    One thing I would love would be for someone else to take it on after us. Wouldn’t it be amazing if when actresses get pregnant, instead of thinking “I’ve basically got about six weeks before I can’t cast anymore,” they thought “I can play that!” There’s something about getting older as an actress that a lot of the brilliant roles disappear but you know you might play Lady Macbeth one day. It’s there, waiting for you, this incredible role. Wouldn’t it be extraordinary if there was this piece of work where people could think “we could put this on, I could find another actor and we could explore this.” I think it would be a wonderful experience. Instead of being a play where it’s “we can get away with you being pregnant,” it could be “the fact that you’re pregnant is what means you can tell this story really well,” and each person would bring something different to it because their experiences are different. 

KH:    From your own experience and that of your friends, how far into pregnancy can women work in theatre?

RC:    It’s different if you’re already in a show and you get pregnant, it’s something you can negotiate with the producers, and then it depends on how much you’re showing. I went for a casting when I was eight or nine weeks pregnant and I asked the casting director’s assistant when they wanted to know, and they said when you’re starting to show. Everyone is very careful to be sensitive about it which is wonderful, but no one knows. It’s different for everyone.

LLM:    Realistically there is a lot less work if you’re pregnant. From speaking to my friends who are also actors, if they’ve worked when they’ve been pregnant it’s because they didn’t say before they got the job and then the job has worked around it, but I don’t know any who got a job because they were pregnant. I was trying to understand why, because there are roles where people play someone who’s pregnant. I can see there’s a lot of fear around that, that it’s easier to bring in an actress who isn’t pregnant and just get her to wear a pregnancy suit, and sometimes that’s because in one scene you’re pregnant, in the next you’re not. So that was kind of part of wanting to create something where pretty much whatever stage of pregnancy you were at at could be used in the play, and to also take away the fear and to put together a research document.

We were interviewing other performers who either have worked when pregnant and what their experiences were... the experiences of people who weren’t able to get work when they wanted it, and some people didn’t want to be doing a theatre show... to collect as many voices as we can, because for directors and producers who are putting on a show and maybe considering working with a pregnant actress there’s not very much out there. 

We wanted to brainstorm other ways for smaller theatre companies like us to be able to do it in a way that we never feel pressurised...which is how we came up with the idea to get a collective of actors. We put the advert out for pregnant and non-pregnant understudies and the feedback was so positive. There are all these pregnant performers out there who want work! This idea that maybe they don’t want to be working is definitely challenged in that sense. 

KH:    How are you finding performing while pregnant?

LLM:    So far actually it’s been a lot less restrictive other than having to put on and do up shoes, which is definitely the most challenging part of the show for me. 

RC:    It’s very compassionate that it’s in the middle of the day. It’s fun to play and like Lily’s character says in the play, you could write a play about pregnancy where there’s so much angst around losing the baby, and I think that would feel quite different every day being like “okay how do I get myself ready to go there but protect myself?” It‘s nice to share the joy, to share what an exciting, unknown, random time this is.

Welcome...? runs until 2nd November

Photo credit: Oleg Katchinsky

Macbeth - Review

Barbican Centre, London


***


Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Polly Findlay

Niamh Cusack and Christopher Eccleston

The ever fabulous Royal Shakespeare Company presents the ever epic Macbeth by William Shakespeare at the gorgeous Barbican Centre until January 2019, with none other than Christopher Eccleston (making his debut with the company) in the titular role. It should be an absolute blinder with such a strong and perfectly brooding lead… but unfortunately, the production falls a little flat in pivotal places.

Polly Findlay’s direction makes much use of Fly Davis’ sparse and contemporary staging (complete with a doomsday clock counting down to Macbeth’s demise) which is easily filled by quirky performances. Eccleston is obviously excellent, conniving and believably nutty, thrown into turmoil by three of the creepiest and cutest witches to ever grace the stage. This ‘The Shining’ inspired turn added a layer of shivers to the darkness with the matching and overtly ominous red dresses hard to miss. Irish actress Niamh Cusack is the overbearing and ambitious Lady Macbeth, encouraging her husband to take what has been foreseen by the witches - a crown - with blood smeared every step of the way. Raphael Sowole brings an earthy and elegant edge to Banquo, the friend turned foe turned ghostly apparition. 

RSC regular Edward Bennett’s Macduff stood out, especially with his painful and stunning moment of silence as his wife and children’s murders are unveiled: a breathtaking moment in a fast-paced performance where there is barely time to take a breath. It’s good to see Bennett playing serious so well after his charming and hilarious turn in 2016’s Christmas double dose of Shakespearean comedy at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. 

This production embraced the menacing malice of Macbeth, with the countdown clock most menacing of all, which was a shame given such a strong cast and creative team. Kate Waters’ fight direction between Macduff and Macbeth was thrilling, as was the awesome illusions by Chris Fisher, with Eccleston disappearing and appearing with ease. These moments, however, felt somewhat few and far between, even with only a two-hour duration. This left it all feeling somewhat lacklustre when compared to some of the absolutely incredible Shakespearean presentations that can grace our London stages. 

Until 18th January 2019

Reviewed by Heather Deacon

Photo by Richard Davenport (c) RSC

Welcome...? - Review

Bridewell Theatre, London


****


Written by Lily Lowe-Myers
Directed by Matt Costain

Performed at the Bridewell Theatre in an enticing lunchtime slot, Welcome…? is a ground-breaking play that seeks to challenge the narrative around out-of-work pregnant female actors and is the first theatrical production in the UK to star two pregnant performers. 

Written by Lily Lowe-Myers in just three weeks and staring both Lowe-Myers and Robyn Cooper, who are in their third and second trimesters respectively, the play explores two storylines. One sees Lowe-Myers and Cooper planning the play, with comedic effect, while the other involves Rachel Smith (Cooper), a woman who in her own words is “unnoticeable but ready to be reborn.” She meets Doctor Larissa Parker (Lowe-Myers), and embarks on an experiment which will change her life and the world at large. 

Skilfully directed by Matt Costain, Welcome…? is a sharp, compelling play which explores the parallels of having a baby and creating a new work of art and it is hard to believe it was written in such a short space of time given its quality and the range of emotions encompassed. At times it’s dark and disturbing; at others it’s light and humorous, notably when the pair are bouncing on birthing balls, eating crisps and pondering the play’s direction.

There is comedy here and moments to tug at the heartstrings too and while a few of the scene changes are a little slow and unnecessary, it doesn’t detract from what is essentially a well-written, intriguing and thought-provoking play. 

Both actresses excel in their roles, with Cooper shining as mum-to-be Rachel, who is endearing as she grows attached to her unborn child. Lowe-Myers was particularly brilliant as Rachel’s mum, dry-humoured and frankly scary with a steam iron. Off stage, the pair are life-long friends, have great chemistry and, if the opening scene is anything to go by, a friendly competitive nature. It’s particularly refreshing to see two pregnant actors on stage, with not a fake bump to be seen.

Hatstand Production’s sixth show in as many years, Welcome...? makes for a perfect 50-minute long lunchtime treat. An intelligent, captivating play that will hopefully pave the way for future pregnant actors. In Welcome…? Lowe-Myers says she wants to make a piece of theatre “that pregnant women want to play.” It appears she’s succeeded.

Running until 2nd November, with two baby-friendly performances on 23rd and 30th October.

Reviewed by Kirsty Herrington

Guys and Dolls Live in Concert - Review

Royal Albert Hall, London

****

Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser

Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows

Directed and choreographed by Stephen Mear

Leading cast members|

Gamblers, gangsters and nightclub singers mingle together in 1950s New York in Guys and Dolls, Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows’ ‘musical fable of Broadway’, which returned to London in concert form for just 3 performances this October. Directed and choreographed by Stephen Mear and featuring a talented cast of star performers accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, this production was filled with moments of sheer musical brilliance and perfectly demonstrated why, almost 70 years after its inception, Guys and Dolls is still one of the most beloved musicals ever written.

Assuming the lead role of big-time gambler Sky Masterson was acclaimed actor Adrian Lester. Lester is a magnetic performer with an easy charm and inexorable presence which dominated the gargantuan stage of the Royal Albert Hall effortlessly. He starred opposite Lara Pulver as Sergeant Sarah Brown, a pious missionary with a starry-eyed streak. The pair’s act one duet I’ll Know was an early indicator of the smartly cast lovers’ compatibility. Unfortunately though, large script edits that were presumably implemented in an effort to increase the show’s given its scaled-down concert form meant that the interactions between Sky and Sarah felt disconnected, resulting in much of their chemistry never being given a chance to fully blossom.

Another drawback of this usually impressive show’s concert staging was that its focus was inevitably pulled away from some of the more intimate numbers, such as Sky and Sarah’s delightful first act closing duet I’ve Never Been In Love Before. The Royal Albert Hall’s vastness left the more intimate scenes seeming a little distant and impassive, even more so when the energetic orchestra, enthusiastically conducted by James McKeon, filled every corner of the venue with rich sound.

The evenings large group numbers however energised the space quite thrillingly. The Crapshooters’ Ballet was a vibrant, frantic sequence masterfully choreographed to both showcase the virtuosity of the ensemble and emphasise the bustling frenzy encapsulated in Loesser’s score and was undoubtedly a concert highlight. The second half’s other invigorating ensemble number, Sit Down You’re Rocking The Boat was helmed by Clive Rowe with charisma and dynamism in excess.

Notwithstanding a flush of tremendous performances, the night truly belonged to actress and cabaret artiste Meow Meow, who played a terrifically funny Miss Adelaide, the sniffling fiancée of Jason Manford’s hapless crap game promoter Nathan Detroit. Perfectly balancing bawdy grit with cutesy charm, her larger than life performance commanded the stage at all times. Meow Meow’s rendition of Adelaide’s Lament, a comedic gift of a song in its own right, was an expertly mixed cocktail of neurosis, fury, and flair which encompassed the tone of the entire concert!

Reviewed by Charlotte O'Growney