East is East - Review

Churchill Theatre, Bromley

****

Written by Ayub Khan Din

Directed by Sam Yates 

Pauline McGlynn and Simon Nagra

A story about identity, packaged as a comedy but addressing some very real and hard-hitting issues, East is East is a slick production.

Simon Nagra's George Khan is a Pakistani immigrant, a staunch Muslim married to a Salford woman and the father of seven children. The play captures the life of his family as he does everything he can to cling on to his heritage and culture and we witness just how difficult this is.

The story will resonate with many British Asians (and indeed anyone who feels that they are juggling roles and responsibilities), as the struggles of aligning two very difficult worlds - the home and family, alongside the external environment in which they exist - are played out. 

Khan Din's use of the seven children is a clever tool, enabling the audience to see a range of differing attitudes. Among the six we find a devout Muslim, a college student, an artist (albeit unbeknownst to his father), the rebellious child and the son who has become a hairdresser, consequentially being disowned by George Khan.

The cast is excellent - bursting with energy, although keenly attuned to the challenges of their characters' identities. Salma Hoque is a delight as the only daughter of the house, playing out the juxtaposition of East meets West effortlessly, as she switches between being the foul-mouthed and outspoken sister, with being the dutiful daughter who makes and serves the tea and who will wear a sari when necessary.

Pauline McLynn as Ella Khan, the mother who loves George and her children - all seven of them - conveys her own conflicts beautifully. The audience roots for her throughout and wills her to protect her children from George's decisions, by going beyond to pick up the pieces afterwards.  

The concept of familial love lies at the heart of this tale and, as it candidly demonstrates, the differing ways of displaying this love. The siblings bicker and pull no punches towards each other, but when their unity and happiness is threatened, they face these pressures together. George Khan evolves as an interesting character, with a couple of moments where he shows weakness and a possible disgust for himself. Yet it is difficult to feel much empathy for a man who is such a bully to his family.

There is a perceptive social commentary on offer too, as the play touches upon racism, domestic violence and poverty - the latter also cleverly suggested through Tom Scutt's set design.

Set against the backdrop of the Partition, as Pakistan was split off from India at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives the events of the times are closely followed by George Khan, as snippets from news broadcasts are played out.

In today's world where religion is vilified and native cultures can gradually be eroded or assimilated – often willingly – East is East has a contemporary relevance. A complex concept, worth exploring.

Plays at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley until 11th July, then tours

Reviewed by Bhakti Gajjar

As Is - Review

Trafalgar Studios, London

****

Written by William M. Hoffman
Directed by Andrew Keates

David Poynor and Steven Webb

As one sits in the Trafalgar Studios waiting for Andrew Keates’ production of As Is to begin, there is an awareness of a gentle backdrop of conversation that eventually distils into individuals speaking of when they learned of their AIDS diagnosis. Gradually it builds, with statistics about the numbers of people dying or infected beginning to get louder. Perhaps the most uncomfortable soundbites are the (1981) news stories declaiming in loud American voices the menace of the Gay Plague along with vox pop interviews of members of the public saying how “they only have themselves to blame”.

It is two years since Keates brought William M Hoffman’s play to London’s Finborough Theatre and it has grown in impact. The set of the play is sparse but effective as a hospital space / New York loft complete with prerequisite red drainage pipes suspended from the ceiling. Strange multi-coloured light boxes hang on the walls. But perhaps most interesting is the use of the blackboard paint on the three other walls with names written in chalk. The audience is invited to write the names of AIDS victims known to them with the chalk provided.

Essentially As Is is a love story. Rich and Saul are a couple. They have lived and loved together for a long time. Saul is deeply happy and contented. He sees the relationship as having structure and stability. He describes it as being “Something to fall back on when life throws you a curved ball”. But Rich is stagnating. A writer “who can’t”, but who finds a muse in Chet (Giles Cooper) who is all muscle and California Dreaming. Rich (played excellently by Steven Webb) is leaving Saul to live with Chet. The only item from their life together he wants is the Barcelona chair. Then Rich discovers he has AIDS.

Suddenly the whole cast are on stage declaiming how Rich’s diagnosis has affected them. His caterer mother’s company loses contracts, his sister’s new hotshot boyfriend won’t meet the family for fear and embarrassment, whilst his brother has a wife who forbids him to have any contact with Rich for fear of the health of their children. All around is ignorance, panic and a crescendo of voices to deliver the line “What are my chances?”.

Rich is taken back by Saul (David Poynor) whose tenderness and real love of Rich is incredibly moving. Saul is prepared to stand by his man even though he may be gambling his own life. Rich gradually comes to realise the power of true love.

The issue of sex crops up now and then as you would expect. Some of the content is quite explicit but not gratuitous, with both Bevan Celestine and Russell Morton simmering with sexuality in leather and a hilarious scene where Rich and Saul discuss sex and how much they miss it.

Part public health information and part entertainment, As Is never preaches, rather it delivers. This is a laugh-out-loud and cry-out-loud production which explores what it is like to be outside of society, not only as an HIV+ individual, but also as a human being facing his or her own mortality. Amidst hilarious one-liners, we are reminded that none of us know what lies ahead of us. We must not just enjoy life, we must also protect ourselves and our health.

In publicly declaring his own HIV+ diagnosis Keates has made a personal stand that it as inspirational today as Hoffman’s prose was decades ago. The emotional and physical importance of As Is demands that it be seen.

Runs until 1st August 2015
Guest reviewer: Lucy Middleton

July 4th - On Jaws 40th Anniversary - I speak to Carl Gottlieb

"You're gonna need a bigger boat..."

On the Fourth of July 2015, some 40 years after Steven Spielberg's summer blockbuster Jaws exploded into the world's cinema and psyche, it's worth recalling a line in the movie spoken by Amity City's odious mayor Larry Vaughan (played by Murray Hamilton) to Roy Scheider's police chief Brody, as the mayor summed-up the impact of a shark attack on his seaside town's summer season.

 "I don't think you appreciate the gut reaction people have to these things.., it’s all psychological....

You yell 'Barracuda!' everybody says 'Huh? What?'  

You yell 'Shark!,' we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July."

Memorable words penned by gifted American screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, who in one movie gave the world both a fabulously structured fable and some of the most oft-repeated movie-quotes of all time. 

Gottlieb was kind enough to take some time to talk with me and as an LA late bird, his preferred local time to speak on the phone is around 1am. So it was that early on a foggy London morning I found myself speaking with the man whose Twitter name says it all: @JawsWriter

JB:    Tell me about the genesis of your Jaws screenplay?

CG:    I had read the book and had a good understanding of the story and started working on the script maybe three weeks before principal photography commenced.

I kept writing just ahead of the schedule. The text is mine and although the structure of the movie is mine and Steven's, he is the author of the film.

I don’t think anybody had any notion of Jaws' global impact. In telling a story that was to be plagued with mechanical difficulties, we were trying to get through it un-damaged and be faithful to the idea of making a good movie. That’s all we wanted to do.

JB:    Peter Benchley's novel included a passionate love affair that develops between oceanographer Hooper and Ellen, Brody's wife. Why did you excise that from the film?

CG:    I made the decision to remove the love interest. When we started filming, the love interest was still in there. But it quickly became apparent from the performances that the idea for thee affair was all wrong and misplaced the actors' motivation. The three principals are so likeable and attractive, I couldn’t imagine Hooper cuckolding Brody. So we said it muddies the waters, lose it. And we did.

JB:    Over the years, many observers have commented that the movie's plot marginalises women. Was this an intentional thread?

CG:    1974 was to see the first real wave of American feminism, with consciousness of the issue only starting to emerge. Neither Zanuck and Brown (Jaws' producers) nor the studio had their consciousness raised and it was only myself and Richard Dreyfuss (who played Hooper) that had mixed in the same circles in which this new paradigm was emerging.

In our storytelling it was men against the sea and to be fair, there isn't a strong woman in the novel. It wasn’t in our minds at the time, we were making an adventure movie. Three guys - and that’s how it appeared. Post-analysis has asked: where was the feminine angle? In 1974 that was a long way from being anyone's concern. 

JB:    You just referenced Jaws as an adventure film, yet increasingly it has been badged as horror, with the American Film Institute including it amongst their Top 100 Horror Movies. What genre would you apply to it?

CG:    Its true genre was probably horror. In 1974, no mainstream studio made horror per se except the rarely scheduled items such as The Exorcist or Psycho. The horror genre was widely considered exploitative.

JB:    The quality of writing and performance, make it very much a drama movie.

CG:    (laughing) Moby Dick meets Enemy Of The People!

JB:    Jaws is widely credited as being a seminal and influential piece of cinema. Do you ever see your work in Jaws being reflected elsewhere?

CG:    I think so, yes. I was simply following the basic principles of good story telling as I understood them, but remember, my background was in comedy. I knew the value of humor both in adding dimension to a character and in setting the audience up for a scream or a shock.

The wise cracking action hero has kind of become the template but that’s not to do with me. Burt Lancaster did a wonderful send up in 1952 with The Crimson Pirate, a perfect parody, yet at the same time an excellent action piece. The use of comedy and laugh lines to lull the audience off guard, so that they can be shocked a moment later has become part of the vocabulary of the action film, to varying degrees of success depending upon the cleverness and the sense of humour of the writers and directors.

In some cases, there is no sense of humour, because the director is pre occupied with big things banging together.

JB:    Your line - and a classic- "You're gonna need a bigger boat ". Does that characterise your comedic approach?

CG:    Yes – that and a little earlier, when the shark makes its first full-face appearance which comes straight after the laugh line, "you come on down and chum some of this shit”. The shriek when the shark appears, works better because of the line that came before it.

I wrote those words, or I wrote something so close, that when the actors were ad-libbing, which is of course a tribute to the writer. A character has been written so completely, such that when the actor inhabits that character and goes “off book", he will ad lib in character.

I also want to pay a tribute to Howard Sackler who located the Indianapolis episode (in which Robert Shaw's shark-hunter Quint tells of a shark attack on the survivors of the torpedoed USS Indianapolis) and who is very little remembered for that contribution. Good writer, sailor and navy man.

JB:    In the evolution of mobile story telling over the last 40 years, who has impressed and who has disappointed you?

CG:    CGI (computer generated imagery) storytelling has devolved rather than evolved. We are seeing great stories in low budget pictures, whilst studios, in order to protect multi-million dollar tentpole movies, continue to offer sequels / prequels / reboots / reimaginings or comic book adaptations. In large budget films, there is often very little story telling going on. Frequently the narrative is a stupid hero's journey, with some guy having to fight titanic forces, that explode across the screen in ever increasing CGI complexity, with no doubt of the plot's outcome.

JB:    How easy do you think CGI makes the task for the writer?

CG:    CGI makes some things easier - but in terms of storytelling which is character and relationships, a good writer is still very much in demand. The screenwriter is more concerned with telling a compelling narrative, with interesting characters in interesting places in complex relationships. Tentpole action, genre film doesn’t do that. Andrew Marlow, the screenwriter, has described big action as like writing a libretto for opera, where the crash and burns are the arias and the narrative is the recitative and typically out of 100 pages, maybe only 40 are dialog and character with the rest being a description of explosions.

It is simpler (and more simple minded) to write a series of interstitial scenes between explosions. The challenge remains to write that in an interesting way. Probably one of the few films that has managed that successfully was Iron Man 1 where Robert Downey Jr brought a certain charisma and wit to the performance. 

The writers who I admire now, like perhaps the Wachowski brothers, don’t write in that genre, whilst the old masters of the big action genre are not even being hired to write the new movies.

The writing profession is being split in two. Today it's guys who can construct a big action narrative and who get used by the handfuls on each major project. The other half is writers who compare about narrative and dialogue and for that you need a longer slower movie, or at least a more literate one, where actors can speak actors and compellingly. I use compelling a lot, because much of what I am seeing now is not of interest.

JB:    Carl - Thank you very much.

Jaws is widely available to download.

On July 4th the movie will be screened in London at The Prince Charles Cinema and in LA at The New Beverly Cinema

Carl Gottlieb

Kit and McConnel - Review

Crazy Coqs, London

****

Kit and McConnel

The cabaret duo Kit and McConnel have only been performing together for 3 years, so this show’s title The Game Is Old dues not suggest themselves. Instead it refers perhaps to their satirical act that contains classic melodies given a modern twist, as they cover contemporary issues with razor-sharp wit. Nominated for the 2015 London Cabaret Award, Kit Hesketh-Harvey and James McConnel make a welcome return to The Crazy Coqs.

From the outset, the sight of the debonair McConnel on piano and the exuberant presence of vocalist Kit commands our attention. A wave of nostalgia for a bygone era in their first number quickly makes way for the crowd pleasing Nandos (parodying Abba’s Fernando) containing some sharp and incredibly funny observations. There Are No Plumbers Left in Poland is satire at its best, as is the very true to the mark Pilates.

Between songs the dry humour of McConnel is evident in his stories, with his virtuosic piano skills proving incredible during the Liszt improvisation game.

A cleverly constructed original playlist is never an easy task, but the beautiful and finely observed second act songs such as All The Things We Never Said and Afghanistan offer a wonderful contrast to the mostly comic elements of the evening’s programme.

Kit and McConnel are seasoned performers who combine their obvious great talent of music and comedy with charismatic and endearing personae. There is room for them to explore their set’s tender moments further, similarly we could hear more of McConnel’s humorous stories with input from Kit. But this show has the power to make an audience laugh from the beginning of a song right to its end and remains a privilege to watch.

In residence until 4th July

Guest reviewer: Francesca Mepham

All I Know Now - Wonderings And Reflections On Growing Up Gracefully - Book Review

****

Written by Carrie Hope Fletcher

Growing up, she was the youngest sibling of two. But today Carrie Hope Fletcher is a virtual big sister to thousands of young girls across the world.

A stage star – currently she is an acclaimed Eponine in London’s Les Miserables – Fletcher is also a hugely successful YouTube vlogger, with a wildly loyal fanbase. On top of this she is a songwriter, illustrator and now, a published author. 

Bursting with creativity and a genuine desire to pass on some invaluable advice to younger people facing the same issues growing up (be it dealing with school, chasing success or feeling comfortable in their own skin), she has put together an incredibly useful book. It feels slightly ironic that, for someone who has built a large part of her career online – where every question can be answered by Google – that she has felt the need to create a book. But it proves absolutely the right thing to have done, for Fletcher applies a ‘big sisterly’ filter to the information that teenagers and young people are bombarded with, all day, every day.

The book is structured, cleverly, in the form of a stage show. The contents page is renamed ‘Programme’ and the chapters ‘Acts.’ She flies through a whole range of topics – friendships, love, the internet and more – drawing advice from her own experiences. 

What is interesting is that, in the beginning, the book is quite strongly geared towards teenagers, reflecting upon experiences drawn from the school environment. However, as the book progresses, its appeal broadens to older people with Fletcher fiercely advocating a principle of "following your dreams". She attributes her own incredible success to the fact that she has always had a goal in mind and has put in the work to reach it. Her advice in this area could apply to anyone, regardless of their age.    

All I Know Now is also, in parts, a study of social anthropology, exploring how humans operate. Fletcher recognises that whilst we are all incredibly complex characters, we each crave friendships, security and love – and she supplies tips that are both witty and useful for how best to navigate the various relationships we all have. 

Fletcher's enthusiasm and passion for life is contagious. The words spill out of her, alternating between very short thoughts and longer streams of consciousness. You can tell that she truly wants her fans and readers of the book to take on board what she is sharing. 

Above all, Fletcher comes across as an incredibly lovely and sweet girl, who wears her heart on her sleeve and who wants to share what she has learned about life. And, particularly in a world where honesty is to be applauded, Carrie Hope Fletcher deserves a standing ovation.

Reviewed by Bhakti Gajjar

Two Jacks - Review

***

Written and directed by Bernard Rose

Jack Huston

There’s a stylish cast and concept to Two Jacks, out this month from Bernard Rose.

Taking an idea from Tolstoy’s Russian fable The Two Hussars, Rose pitches his tale straight into a genre of updated Hollywood noir. It makes for  neat conceit and in a movie set entirely in and around Tinseltown, the atmosphere Rose that creates of smoke filled poker parlours, bare-fisted brawls and beautiful women casually seduced, could be straight out of Raymond Chandler. 

There is a hint of real life imitating the art on screen, for as the story tells of fictional wild film director Jack Hussar seducing the beautiful Diana (a sizzlingly demure performance from Sienna Miller) and who, years later sees his son Jack Jnr return to become entangled with Diana’s daughter, Rose casts Danny Huston to play the older man, with his nephew Jack playing the younger man. That both men are direct descendants of legendary director John Huston contributes to the story’s grit and that Danny Huston, in both appearance and demeanour bears more than a passing resemblance to Jeremy Clarkson, only adds to the tale.   

Two Jacks’ womanising, gambling, alcohol and thundery rainstorms are timeless nods to Hollywood’s darker side and with Jacqueline Bissett playing the (much older) Diana many years into the plot, the classy credentials of Rose’s cast are only enhanced.

Whilst the movie is mostly chic and the acting a delight, Rose is let down by occasional script naiveties and also a budgetary constraint (I guess ?) that sees him not only write and direct, but also photograph and edit the movie too. That’s unfortunate for there are moments of poor continuity, lighting and focus-pulling, that would never have made it out of a decent film school, let alone form part of a commercial release.

Bringing the picture straight out to the DVD and download markets after playing the festivals a couple of years ago is probably wise, with Two Jacks making for a wonderfully romantic movie, beautifully performed.

Out on DVD and download 29th June

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4qMZy3wFwg&feature=youtu.be

The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) - Review

ALERT:

THIS REVIEW COMMENTS UPON A VIOLENT HORROR MOVIE
IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED, OR OF A SENSITIVE DISPOSITION, THEN PLEASE DO NOT READ ON

Certificate 18

***

Written and directed by Tom Six

Dieter Laser

The Human Centipede 3 - Final Sequence (HC3) marks the last chapter of Tom Six's trilogy of everyday folk who find themselves joined, stitched mouth-to-anus, to their fellow citizens. Throughout his series, Six has tended to play fast and loose with the word "centipede". His first movie's creature featured only 6 legs (formed of three unfortunates) whilst the beast in Final Sequence, formed of 500 souls, sports 2,000 limbs- but this is Hollywood so what's a leg-count here or there anyway?

The movies' notoriety has snowballed with each emerging sequel. HC1 took a "traditionally" horrific take on Six's vision, with German actor Dieter Laser portraying the deranged Doctor Heiter, who was to hand-craft the first creature, in an unflinchingly dark movie.

HC2's raison d'etre could not have been more corny, even if its metier was still born of a heart of darkness. Laurence R Harvey played Martin, a ghastly misfit, who is introduced to us watching a DVD of HC1, before going on to replicate Heiter's experiment himself. 

With the third film, Six adopts an end of term/semester approach to the concept. Where HCs 1 and 2 were dark, Final Sequence lobs in some ironic comedy and in so doing offers us what is possibly (and literally) the most tongue in cheek film ever made. 

Set in a prison in the southern USA, Six indulges himself with an outrageous grindhouse satire. Think of 2011's Hobo With A Shotgun that starred Rutger Hauer and you start to get an idea of ​​Six's skewed reality.

As a further nod to the franchise's heritage, both Laser and Lawrence return. This time the German plays Bill Boss, the stetson toting prison governor (deranged, natch) who also sports a phallus-replacing six-shooter, with Harvey as Dwight, his trusted sidekick accountant. When Dwight suggests that a human centipede would make for an ideal punishment in addition to incarceration, the movie takes off . 

Along the way, Six makes no bones about offending and exploiting everybody. Men and women alike are horrifically violated (there is no one-side sexploitational misogyny here), religion is mocked, with Hollywood B-listers Bree Olson and Eric Roberts adding to the carnage.

A satirical sub-theme hints at the story offering a version of violent and medieval punishment that much of the USA's right of centre population would happily see meted out to criminals. Six has to tread this particular mockery carefully especially as he is on record (and confirmed in a movie cameo) as saying that the idea of ​​the centipede came to him initially, as an appropriate form of punishment for paedophiles. 

There's minimal CGI on display here and what you see is the action that Six has photographed. Those with an insatiable appetite for taboo-busting cinema that includes, amongst other moments, scenes of castration, boiling-waterboarding and the eating (literally eating, this ain't porn) of both genders' genitalia will be more than entertained by what Six, his designer Rodrigo Cabral and their uber-talented special effects team have come up with. Oh, and just like in real life, the bad guy comes out on top too.

If you like your horror bloody yet still ridiculously overdone, you won't be disappointed. 

In cinemas from 10th July
Trailer http://youtu.be/xr-31o8xXqY