Carousel - Review

Birmingham City Academy, Birmingham

*****

Music by Richard Rodgers 
Book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Based on Ferenc Molnar's play Liliom as adapted by Benjamin F Glazer
Directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones

NYMT's Carousel

In the most inspired and gorgeous of site-specific settings, the National Youth Music Theatre’s (NYMT) production of Carousel is presented on, and around, an actual fairground carousel! With the audience seated in three tented enclosures around a thrust stage, this traditional, historic, steam-powered fairground attraction creates a stunning backdrop to the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic musical.

For all sorts of reasons Carousel is a mountain of a musical to be scaled, with its dark and complex themes presenting a challenge to any theatrical company, let alone a cast where the performers’ ages range from 10 through to their early 20s . Along with a handful of some of the most exquisite songs in the canon and some gorgeous love stories, the show also offers troubling takes on suicide, loss and, when presented to a 21st century audience, an uncomfortable perspective on domestic violence.

Josephine Shaw and Amie Shipley get the vocal work off to a fine start as Julie Jordan and Carrie Pipperidge respectively. Shipley is gifted most of the show’s (rare) comedic moments that she masters with assured timing and a delightful delivery. Shaw’s delivery of Julie Jordan however is heartbreaking in its excellence. Her soprano voice is as strong as it is fine, and as the narrative evolves she brings an astounding maturity and heartbreaking pathos to her performance that belies her age. Shaw's delivery of What’s The Use of Wond’rin? was a tear-filled joy to listen to. Billy Bigelow is played by Maximus Mawle who alongside his strong baritone voice, also captures his ultimately honest love for Julie. As Mawle’s Bigelow looks down from heaven on the pain of his daughter Louise’s life, his acting is top-notch. Daniel Langford completes the quartet of leading lovers with an assured performance of herring tycoon, Enoch Snow.

There are other notables in this fine young company. Sean Cosgrove’s Jigger Craigin is an absolute delight, with Cosgrove nailing his character’s despicableness with wit, confidence, braggadocio and a superb singing voice. Athena Florence Mensah as Nettie Fowler gets her vocal chops around You’ll Never Walk Alone with equal splendour. 

The Ballet sequence is always a focal point of Carousel and in this iteration Marianna Micallef as Louis smashes the role sensationally. Her dance routine that lasts a jaw-dropping 15 minutes is stunning as, with minimal dialogue, she tells of Louise’s troubled life through exquisitely choreographed movement. And on the subject of dance, a massive nod to choreographer Adam Haigh. Not just in Ballet, but his company routine in Blow High, Blow Low was bold, ambitious and breathtakingly successful.

Alexandra Spencer-Jones has directed the show with perception throughout, a particularly neat touch being the deployment of a cohort of the company’s younger members as the show’s heavenly troupe.

NYMT’s orchestras always impress, but under Flynn Sturgeon’s baton, Carousel’s 30-strong ensemble make marvellous work of the score. With a heavy strings presence, the music is a lush delight and from the opening bars of the Carousel Waltz there is not a note out of place. It is a rare treat these days to enjoy such a lavishly orchestrated musical.

And finally, a mention to the carousel itself, a gloriously integral component of Libby Todd’s design work for the show. The carousel’s revolve is used sparingly throughout the piece, such that when it does start to turn, the impact is phenomenal. As a gentle revolve is started half way through Micallef’s Ballet, the effect is stunning, and when it slowly turns in the show’s finale to transport the celestial characters back to heaven, just wow!

Only on until tonight, Carousel maintains NYMT’s long established standard of first-class musical theatre!

Runs until 30th August 

A Clockwork Orange - Review

Soho Theatre, London

*****

Written by Anthony Burgess

Directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones




Martin McCreadie (centre) leads the Ensemble

 

Action To The Word’s production of A Clockwork Orange, has finally exploded onto a London stage. Having seen the work performed at Edinburgh in 2011 and 2012, it remains one of the most remarkably electrifying displays of excellence across a company, both in individual performances and from the ensemble.

Opening with a meticulously choreographed fight ballet set to Beethoven’s 5^th, the production does not flinch from portraying the ultra-violence of Burgess’ novel. No stage blood nor clever trickery are deployed by the actors, rather 9 talented and supremely fit young men throwing themselves and/at each other with a perfection of bone-crunching timing that is as sickening as it is beautiful.  With minimal use of props and extensive use of mime, movement and the most simply suggestive of costumes, scene changes are deftly executed and locations convincingly created ranging from court room to milk bar to prison. When Alex climbs on a table and mimes the opening of a window that he prepares to jump from, the tension created is almost palpable.

Martin McCreadie plays Alex, a droog or young man, evolving from street thug to murderer, and ultimately the subject of the government’s mind-washing Ludovico technique, politically motivated, to “cure” him of his criminality . His is a role requiring total commitment of voice, face and body, onstage throughout the 80 minutes of the play. No green room rests for him, though it is fair to state that the rest of the cast undergo such frequent character changes, that all of them, in one guise or another, are on stage for most of the show’s duration. It is invidious to single out names as without exception all the cast excel, though Philip Honeywell’s harrowing portrayal of a man violated by broken milk bottle, Neil Chinneck’s Dr Brodsky and Stephen Spencer's oleaginous and duplicitous government minister remain as particularly chilling moments from amongst the supporting role call of characters.

More than three years in development and with many of her original cast still in role, Alexandra Spencer-Jones has fashioned her own masterpiece from this modern literary classic and it is a credit to both her and to her company that Methuen have released the lastest re-print of the text ( first published in 1987 ) branded and foreworded with the cast and creative team details of this Soho Theatre production.

Spencer-Jones’ selection of music, that includes snatches of Beethoven’s most recognisable pieces, is modern, eclectic and punchy. Having seen the show twice on the Fringe, where both time and space impose rigid boundaries upon a troupe’s potential, to  witness it on a London stage, in front of a deeply raked audience, and with a stage that offers height and depth and lighting that were simply not available in Edinburgh, as well as a more generous time slot, is to see an already beautiful piece of work simply polished to perfection.

A Clockwork Orange is not for children, nor for the faint-hearted. But if one enjoys chic, stunning, provocative theatre, then this production is not to be missed.

Runs to Saturday 5 January 2013

To read the review of this production at EdFringe 2012 click here

A Clockwork Orange Ed Fringe 2012 - Review

Pleasance Forth , Edinburgh

*****

Written by Anthony Burgess

Directed by Alexandra Spencer-Jones

Martin McCreadie as Alex

Action To The Word return to Edinburgh 2012 with their acclaimed A Clockwork Orange. The company have a deserved reputation for delivering Shakespeare in a manner that is direct and accessible and their working of this 20th century classic remains a highlight of the Fringe.

For this year the company reside in the  slightly larger venue of Pleasance Forth, providing an expanded performance space for their graceful treatment of the book. Burgess' novel, with it's bleak view of Britain in the future and a cityscape dominated by violent youth suggests boots and Doc Martens . That this cast sport ballet pumps throughout emphasises the movement and grotesque beauty of the ultra-violence that they portray.

The creative team behind this production have woven the most amazing piece of theatre from their talented actors. Alexandra Spencer-Jones' direction is perceptive and she reveals the darkness of the story in both broad tableaux of violence,  alongside the most subtle of nuance and characterisation. There is barely a wasted second of any of the performers' time on stage. Spencer-Jones has been ably assisted in the choreography of the piece by Hannah Lee, two women who clearly know how best to direct an all-male cast to tell a story. Fight director Lewis Penfold has portrayed the most violent of acts in a manner that has the audience wincing, yet such is his talent to portray this grotesque brutality through simply movement and the occasional use of props that no stage blood is used throughout the show.

The story follows Alex's journey from murderous thuggery to being selected as a guinea pig for a government sponsored brainwashing scheme, to "cure" him of his criminality and return him to society. Martin McCreadie reprises the lead role in a performance of breathtaking dance and physicality. His athleticism impresses as he moves around the stage with a serpentine litheness. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to Tom Hardy, he earns our abhorrence administering sometimes lethal violence with breathtaking beauty. Once brainwashed however, he evokes our sympathy as a victim whose mind has been chemically altered. McCreadie is the only cast member who stays in one role, and on stage too, throughout the play.

Without exception his fellow performers, who each play several supporting roles and when required switch gender too, excelled. Memorable were Robin Rayner's ballet of assault with a golf club, Simon Cotton's cuckoo-like usurping of Alex's place in the family home, forcing him onto the streets and Philip Honeywell's prison warder and brutalised rape victim. Neil Chinneck's compassionate yet menacing F.Alexander, Stephen Spencer's Dim and Matt Crouziere's Clown were also chilling in this brave new loveless world. Will Stokes and Damien Hasson with their Governor and authoritarian Mr Deltoid respectively matched the quality of performance of their peers. This review highlights but a few of the play's characters.  All were delivered faultlessly.

The story features Beethoven prominently -  his 5^th, the “glorious” 9^th , whilst the brainwashing scheme is referred to as the Ludovico technique. The company use the composer’s music cleverly throughout the show, with the Moonlight Sonata featuring, as well as an inspired inclusion of Morricone’s The Verdict (Dopo La Condanna) , drawn from Fur Elise.

This show remains a highlight of the Fringe and demands a London staging.

Runs to Augist 26th


Note - In November 2012, this production opened at London's Soho Theatre .
 Read the review here.