Category Archives: Theatre

Theatre

An interview with Matthew Bulgo

Leave a comment


Hi Matthew great to meet you, can you give our readers some background information on yourself please?
Hello, I’m Matthew Bulgo and I mostly split my time between being an actor and playwright. I also do some work as a dramaturg…and when I’m not doing any of that I’m also an Associate Director of Dirty Protest.
So what got you interested in writing and the arts?
I first got interested in theatre when I was in school. My school didn’t have a particularly good drama department but through the school I got involved in my local youth theatre (WGYTC) and it was a hugely formative experience.

I joined the company when I was 13 and continued performing with them until I was 20 and I still work with them regularly. The company exposed me to a massive range of skills and genres of theatre and it was being involved in the company that encouraged me to audition for drama school and pursue a career in theatre.
https://wgytc.co.uk
My interest in writing sort of came as a by-product of that. I only really started writing around 5 years ago. I’d dabbled a little previously but 2012 is when I decided to try and make a go of it and strike a balance between acting and writing. For me, the two areas sort of spoke to each other. I like to think I write plays with the performers process very much in the forefront of my mind. I like to make sure that my characters have really satisfying journeys and that their actions and their motivations and psychologies are really water-tight and fleshed out.
You are an actor as well as a playwright. I wonder if your knowledge of both disciplines cross-pollinates when you are working in both different disciplines?
Ha! I think I maybe just answered that one about. Whoops. Yes, I think so. A lot of my favourite writers were actors at various points in their careers – Pinter and Albee are two big influences on me. Then more recently writers like Anna Jordan who trained at LAMDA around the same time as me before going on to be a Bruntwood winning playwright.

#YOLO was commissioned by National Theatre Connections for this years festival. Each play is specifically commissioned for 10 leading playwrights by the National Theatre’s literary department. The plays are written with young performers in mind. Can you tell us more about this process?
The first thing I’ll say is that the process was such a joy from start to finish. I was given a lot of free rein to really write about what interested me. The parameters were really liberating. It’s very rare in Wales to be asked to write a play that has more than about 4 or 5 characters in it so to be encouraged to write something for a big ensemble was not only a big challenge but also a real gift. It was also really exciting to write a piece knowing that it was going to be interpreted and realised in numerous different ways. I think this encouraged me to write a piece that had a lot of leeway in it, a piece that could be owned and customised by each company that performed it.

Each production I saw was bold and brave and full to the brim with vigour, enthusiasm and creativity. I left each performance with a spring in my step thinking about those young people. I have a huge soft spot for youth theatre. I’d love to write more plays for young people in the future.
The plays are then performed by youth theatre companies in regional/national competitions across the UK. Did you Get the Chance to see any of these performances?
I really wish I could’ve seen them all! I think I managed 8 or 9 out of a possible 25…so not bad going really! I travelled as far north as Newcastle and as far south as Chichester. I saw a fantastic production at the Bristol Old Vic which is one of my favourite theatres. And I was really pleased that there were two productions staged in Cardiff at the Sherman Theatre that I was able to catch. One of which – plot twist – was performed by my old youth theatre. There was such a beautiful symmetry to that. If it hadn’t been for that youth theatre, I probably wouldn’t be involved in the industry at all. It’s a really extraordinary company.
The regional/national NT Connections performances are often supported by free additional workshops and skill sharing events, do you think this type of activity is beneficial to youth theatre members? Have you ever been involved in any of these workshops?
DEFINITELY. I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for those kids to work with people who are currently working in the industry and also for them to engage with their local, regional theatre. They’re the next generation of performers and stage managers and playwrights and directors and I think exposure to these kinds of workshops and events at that age is hugely beneficial.

Images from the NT Connections workshops at Sherman Theatre, Cardiff.

After their performance at the NT Connections Festival at Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre, West Glamorgan Youth Theatre were chosen to perform #YOLO at the National Theatre in London. I believe you were a member of this Youth Theatre company yourself? This must have been a proud moment for you? Did you see their performance in London?
I was absolutely over-the-moon for them. I cleared the diary weeks in advance to make sure I could be there to see them performing at the National. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
My youth theatre (and I’m sure everyone feels exactly the same way about theirs if they attended one) was very special. It shaped me as a young man – emotionally, creatively and politically. It helped me grow up but also reminded me that to be an artist you have to be an eternal child. It helped me understand the past and hope about the future. I was really pleased they got selected to perform at the NT. I wouldn’t be doing what I do without them. I’ll be eternally grateful. I owe the company so much and this felt like a bit of pay-back.

The cast of #YOLO with past and present West Glamorgan Youth Theatre members at NT Connections, National Theatre, London.

It was so great to see the number of alumni of the company in attendance too from every generation since the company was founded in the mid-1970s. A lot of them aren’t involved in the industry but still feel a huge amount of warmth towards the company. There were people. Di Botcher was rehearsing at the National at the time for their production of Sondheim’s Follies and she made sure to be there. Michael Sheen is an alumni (and huge supporter of the company) and saw the show at the Sherman in Cardiff. He couldn’t quite make curtain-up for the performance at the NT but he arrived in time to greet the young people as they appeared from stage door after the show.

Michael Sheen with the cast of #YOLO at Sherman Theatre, Cardiff.

Get the Chance works to support a diverse range of members of the public to access cultural provision Are you aware of any barriers to equality and diversity for either Welsh or Wales based artists or specifically writers?
I think the major one for writers is age. There are so many opportunities whether it be writing courses or competitions or bursaries that are specifically for people who under-25 or under-30. I didn’t really start writing until I was 32. For anyone who doesn’t fit into those age brackets, it means you have to do things the hard way. I think the recent writing course at the Sherman and also the ‘writer-in-residence’ programme run by Theatr Clwyd are two fantastic examples of development opportunities where your age doesn’t figure in things. They both just want to engage with theatre writers whose voices they’re really interested in or excited by.
There are a range of organisations supporting Welsh and Wales based writers, I wonder if you feel the current support network and career opportunities feel ‘healthy’ to you?
It can always be healthier would be evasion of that question! I think writing courses and workshops and residencies are all brilliant ways to develop writers and there are some brilliant examples of those things happening in Wales…but I think what writers really need are productions at the end of the day. There are so many promising playwrights in Wales and so few opportunities for them to get their work produced on a Welsh stage. So, yes there’s lots of good supportive things happening…but I’d like to see more productions by Welsh playwrights on our stages.
If you were able to fund an area of the arts in Wales what would this be and why?
Youth arts for one. It always seems to be the first thing against the wall.
What excites you about the arts in Wales? What was the last really great thing that you experienced that you would like to share with our readers?
The fringe scene in Wales is particularly exciting, I think. From companies like Gagglebabble to The Other Room to Motherlode to Fio. Such an eclectic range of companies with really distinctive voices and aesthetics.

Then newer companies like Run Amok, Graphic, Red Oak and Powder House whose work I’m yet to see but I’m really excited to see the contribution they make to the theatre ecology in Wales.

In terms of the last great thing I experienced…I’ll sum it up by saying the Edinburgh Fringe. I have gone to the festival every year for the past decade. If I’m not there with a show then I’ll go as a spectator and just glut myself on theatre. I always come out the other end of it feeling exhausted but really galvanised and really excited to get my teeth stuck into my next project. My highlights this year were Palmyra, Nassim, The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Translunar Paradise (the 2nd time I’ve seen it) and How To Win Against History.
Thanks for your time Matthew. Matthew is performing in The Cherry Orchard at Sherman Theatre this autumn.
http://www.shermantheatre.co.uk/performance/theatre/the-cherry-orchard/

Theatre

An interview with Ciaran Fitzgerald, Mess up the Mess Theatre Company

Leave a comment


Image Credit Kirsten McTernan

 Hi can you give our readers some background information on yourself please? 
My name is Ciaran Fitzgerald, I’m 22 and from Port Talbot in South Wales. I’m currently studying scriptwriting at the University of South Wales, going into my second year in September. I have cerebral palsy which effects the way I walk and talk. In my spare time I’m a member of Mess up the Mess theatre company, and have been since 2011 and have performed in many shows with them.

https://messupthemess.co.uk
So what got you interested in the arts? 
I got interested in the arts when I was about 13, I joined a local theatre company for young people with disabilities. After about 2 years I found the group wasn’t challenging me enough as a performer. Around the same time, Dafydd James was developing a play called ‘Click,’ about social networking and the concept of identity and the internet for Mess up the Mess Theatre Company. I played the part of Rob, a character who had cerebral palsy, I really enjoyed performing onstage with a diverse group of young people in a wonderful play. I have been performing, writing and volunteering with Mess up the Mess ever since.

Can you tell us about  Us Proclaimed: Clywch Ni? 
Us Proclaimed: Clywch Ni is a devised play with music which focuses on the life experiences of a group of young people between the ages of 11 & 22. The play explores themes including sexuality, gender identity, disability, mental health issues and also explores what the cast of young people think of each other and themselves. The question the play asks is whether we should seek to escape the difficulties we face in life, by vesseling them into ‘Robots’ or Musical theatre, and masking them in that way, or whether we should face our demons head on, and fully acknowledge their existence. Who do we want to be? What kind of society do we want to live in? These are the questions that the play asks.

Us Proclaimed: Clywch Ni throws a spotlight on the unique identities, perspectives, passions and interests of young people growing up in Wales today through music, comedy, poetry, drama and movement. How did you think the production has managed to capture all the different young people’s voices? 
I would agree that the voices of young people have been clearly received and heard throughout the project, however, not all of these extracts of self-expression have translated into scenes or sections in the play. Every member of the cast does however have a chance within the play to voice their opinions on subjects including, sexuality, gender, anxiety, the relationship between themselves and their parents and so forth.  You may ask whether this play is fully representative of the experience of being a young person in Wales in 2017? I would argue not, and I would also argue that it does not need to be. The play is representative of the company of young people who perform the play, but perhaps not the young people of Wales in general.

There are a range of organisations supporting Young Peoples creativity on this production. I wonder if you feel the current support network and career opportunities for young creatives feels ‘healthy’ to you? Can more be done? 
I think that certainly more can be done. There is definitely a base platform for young creatives within organisations such as Mess up the Mess to exude and foster their creative talents, but perhaps as young people get to the age where they want to make more of a solid impact upon the arts in Wales, there is no solid further platform for them to move on to other than university education, which is no guarantee of a career in the arts. I think that generally, there needs to be more opportunities for young people who perhaps want a career in the arts, but don’t want the pressure or debt that university brings. I also feel that there needs to be more opportunities for arts graduates to attain employment in their chosen avenue of the creative industry. There seems to be an appreciation of the incredible artists, actor, writer and directors that we have in this country who are already proven at the highest level, but less of an incentive to promote the new talent coming through the ranks. Companies like Mess up the Mess and Get the Chance definitely need to be at the forefront of this, and do their best to guide their young people who want a career in the arts along the right paths. There should I feel also be more liaising between production companies and youth arts organizations to offer young people who are interested in the arts, opportunities such as internships and work experience. We have wonderful youth arts companies in Wales, we also have many wonderful professional production companies, we need to bridge the gap between these two.
If you were able to fund an area of the arts in Wales what would this be and why?
If I were to fund one area of the arts in Wales, I would give more opportunities for graduates, or young people making their first forays into the professional industry. Perhaps offering internships or permanent placements for young writers, performers and directors in Wales.
You can catch performances at the dates/times below
Miners, Ammanford
25 August, 7.30pm
26 August, 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Tickets
Ffwrnes, Llanelli
7 September, 1.30pm & 7.30pm
Penygraig
8 September
Tickets on sale on the door through ArtWorks
Dance House, Wales Millennium Centre
16 September, 2.30pm & 7.30pm
Tickets not on sale yet
Thanks for your time Ciaran

Music, Theatre

An interview with Geoff Cripps

Leave a comment


The Director of Get the Chance, Guy O’Donnell recently got the chance to chat to Geoff Cripps. We discussed his career to date, his band  Allan Yn Y Fan and his thoughts on music and theatre in Wales today.
Hi Geoff great to meet you, can you give our readers some background information on yourself please?
I was born and raised in Pontllanfraith in the Sirhowy Valley and educated at Pontllanfraith Grammar Technical School, University College Swansea and UWIST Cardiff. My early interest in music and the arts came from my mother who gave me piano lessons when just an infant. Pont Grammar School with its annual musical theatre productions and very broad church school “Folk Club” encouraged the performer and participant in me. This was the fabled sixties (yes – I am an old git!) and I remember various peers showing each other in the school playground their mastery of the latest guitar riffs or chord sequences of the rock & pop music of the day…That, plus when I was in the sixth form, there was a sequence of wondrous gigs at the pre-refurbed Blackwood Miner’s Institute by the likes of Dave Edmund’s Love Sculpture, Black Sabbath, The Strawbs often supported by the Rhondda band which became Racing Cars. All heady stuff!
In Swansea I became the organiser of our hall of residence folk club – which was also where I first started booking performers. At this point I was mad about music, never recovered actually, and saw 137 bands in my three years there ( I was the nerdy boy who star rated them all in his diaries!).
At this stage apart from being taken to panto as a small boy and one trip to the Prince of Wales Theatre in Cardiff I was not a theatre goer or knowledgeable at all on this genre.

You are a member of the band Allan Yn Y Fan. Congratulations on your 21 years together! What are you all currently working on?
Thanks Guy. Sometimes it is hard to fathom how the initial quartet of myself, Kate Strudwick (currently boss of Head 4 Arts), Chris Jones & Linda Simmonds have stuck it out for more than 2 decades…Even harder is for me to think quite how I managed to make 4 albums, tour to Germany, Czech Republic, France, Ireland whilst Artistic Director at RCT Theatres! The current line up now also consists of lead singer Catrin O’Neill and fiddler Alan Cooper and together we are working hard to try and get the gigs that keep a six-piece band on the road!

These are tough times…but we are excited that next month we perform for the first time at the Abergavenny Food Festival Community Feast (14th Sept.), followed by our first ever performance in Austria at the House of Regions in Krems (21st Sept.) and then are honoured by performing at the Welsh night of the Labour Party Conference in Brighton on 24th September. We might all have a lie down in a darkened room after that lot!
http://www.ayyf.co.uk
As you mentioned earlier you are the former artistic director of RCT Theatres. Get the Chance has had a great deal of support for its work in the valleys venues of South Wales. The venues very often act as the social and cultural hubs of our communities. How do you see venues of this nature developing in the future?
I am so pleased that Get the Chance has been so well supported by the Valleys Venues. I came in to running a Valleys Venue – the Beaufort Theatre Ebbw Vale when I was first appointed as Arts Development Officer for Blaenau Gwent CBC way back in 1994. This was not long after the initiative from the old Welsh Office and South East Wales Arts Association which had enabled the refurbishment of a number of Valleys Venues in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This initiative brought back to life or reinvigorated some ex-Miner’s Institutes which had previously been the cultural and social hubs of the valleys communities. These days I am very fearful for the future of many of these venues in a period when money is so much scarce than in those heady days of the ‘90s but also when, it appears to me, that, despite all the evidence gathered over the past couple of decades, the value of the investment in arts and culture is still little appreciated by the political funding masters. I think that those local authorities that continue to invest in and support their cultural venues are to be applauded. Those residents in areas that still have their cultural venue operating and supporting professional and amateur artistic endeavours should cherish and use them – and shout about the opportunities they offer loudly and often to all their elected representatives.
The best venues and those which keep deepening the nature of their active engagement with their local population will be the ones which will survive and may ultimately thrive.
When you have any spare time you are also a board member of Creu Cymru and Theatr na nÓg.Creu Cymru is a development agency for theatres and arts centre in Wales. Is it possible to explain your more about this organisation and your role?
I have since retirement been proud to have had the opportunity to serve on the boards of The Borough Theatre Abergavenny, Creu Cymru and since 2016 Theatr na nÓg. I hope that whatever “wisdom” I may have picked up over my “career” I can share with and strengthen through good governance of these artistic organisations.
Creu Cymru is an organisation unique to Wales – its strength and appeal reflected in the fact that virtually all the professionally run theatres and arts centres in Wales are in the membership. It aims to be the development organisation for all those working in these arts venues – and links the big operations such as Venue Cymru or Wales Millennium Centre to places such as the Congress Theatre Cwmbran or Galeri Caernarfon.
Creu Cymru offers opportunities for theatre staff to go and see work – whether that be in Edinburgh, across Wales or – sometimes funded by WAI – for international visits such as to CINARS in Montreal. Visits such as these enable the programmers and marketers in the venues to see work across the genres and to debate with peers the merits or otherwise of all scales of artistic endeavour. This often leads to such work being brought to Wales for the benefit of Welsh audiences.
Creu Cymru arranges regular arts consortium meetings (Music, Drama and Dance) at which the work is discussed, members can bring to the table ideas they wish to or are about to develop and also identify strands of work that will enable them to reach out to parts of their audience ecology they wish to reach.
http://www.creucymru.com
I have been fortunate to have had two periods of board membership – coming to a conclusion in 2018 – and through my own membership it was the backing of or the interactions with my colleagues in Creu Cymru which emboldened me and my RCT Theatre team to start in our co-producing and producing role which I am delighted to see being continued by Angela Gould now.
It was this latter involvement which really set the seal on my support of and active involvement with Theatr na nÓg leading to us co-producing Tom in 2014 with the premiere being held at The Muni in Pontypridd. I am delighted to be on the board of such an inventive and exciting company – and also delighted that as one of the new strands of their work they are encouraging the participation of young people in theatre making via their Ambassador scheme.

http://www.theatr-nanog.co.uk
Get the Chance works to support a diverse range of members of the public to access cultural provision Are you aware of any barriers to equality and diversity for either Welsh or Wales based artists/creatives?
The barriers I am aware of are our poor transport networks, lack of money and lack of equality of opportunity – often compounded by the first two factors. I hope that with the focus Get The Chance brings to certain projects/areas/opportunities more pressure will be brought to bear on those who can best resolve some of the infrastructural issues!
There are a range of organisations supporting Welsh and Wales based musicians, I wonder if you feel the current support network and career opportunities feel ‘healthy’ to you?
For Allan Yn Y Fan our best supporters are the Musician’s Union and TRAC (which I was delighted to be the first Development Director 2001-2003). In some areas there has been support from ACW and WAI enabling Welsh musicians to take part in show casing opportunities such as WOMEX and Showcase Scotland at Celtic Connections. As a band we have been fortunate to have received modest grants from ACW to support our tours of Wales in 2010 and 2016 but with the diminution of Lottery funds – getting such awards are going to be increasingly rare. It is also a shame, in my view, that ACW has not supported the production of CDs in the way that Creative Scotland has and continues to do.
I do hope that in my lifetime we might see a showcasing event which will spotlight the current vitality and breadth of traditional music acts in the way that Showcase Scotland and Folk Expo England do.
https://trac.wales
I do hope that in my lifetime we might see a showcasing event which will spotlight the current vitality and breadth of traditional music acts in the way that Showcase Scotland and Folk Expo England do.
If you were able to fund an area of the arts in Wales what would
 
 
 
 
If you were able to fund an area of the arts in Wales what would this be and why?
See above – I would fund for a three year period on a tapering basis a Welsh traditional music expo with opportunities for the general public to attend all the showcase performances – this would assist in breaking down the widespread apathy or ignorance to the “real music” of Wales.
What excites you about the arts in Wales?
The blurring of the roles of “Presenter” and “Producer.” The contributions of artists across the country who do what they do for insufficient recompense or recognition.
What was the last really great thing that you experienced that you would like to share with our readers?

Just because it is so fresh in my mind I nominate the NTS production of “Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour” which I first witnessed at the Traverse in Edinburgh in 2015 and last week loved once again as it approaches the end of its’ London run at the Duke of York’s Theatre. I just wish that our National Theatre companies would develop and tour a show in the country’s theatres!! Site specific can be brilliant but please National Theatre Wales and Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru – put something of value into the network of Theatres in Wales….. (retires to await the brickbats!)
Thanks for your time Geoff
 

Music, Theatre

Review: Burning Lantern Fayre, St Fagan’s – By Eloise Stingemore

4 Comments


 
out of 5 stars (5 / 5)
 
Burning Lantern Fayre was the heritage attraction’s first large scale music event. Over 8,000 people descended on the country fayre styled event set in the picturesque grounds of St Fagan’s National Museum of History, Cardiff one of Europe’s leading open air-museum on a sunny albeit chilly evening.
With big names live on the main stage from the moment the gates opened, street food (Cavavan, The Grazing Shed, Taste of Spice and Dusty Knuckle), a crafts and activities tent, storytelling, a children’s entertainer, circus skills, pony rides and a vintage funfair. It is safe to say that no one was bored or hungry at the inaugural Burning Lantern Fayre!

Performances came from headliner Brit and Ivor Novell award winner Tom Odell, who gave an electrifying and charismatic performance, which featured a mesmerising light show. His unique show featured a number of hits but it was the songs ‘Still Getting Used To Being On My Own’, ‘Concrete’, ‘Hold Me’ that captivated the audience and really demonstrated why Odell is being touted as one of the country’s finest singer songwriter.

Whilst the UK first country music act to chart in the Top 10 Album Charts, The Shires, livened up the billing. Their 45-minute stellar set included a string of their biggest hits including: ‘Daddy’s Little Girl’, ‘Nashville Grey Skies’ and ‘Friday Night’, thoroughly entertained the 8,000 strong crowd and signed off their set with a promise to return to Cardiff soon.

Whereas top Motown act, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, despite not being everyone cup tea where given a true warm Welsh welcome. However, it was hot act of the moment Jack Savoretti that brought the biggest cheers of the evening and his set went down a storm. His live set included performances of his many hits including; ‘When We Were Lovers’, ‘I’m Yours’ and ‘Tie Me Down’, certainly got the crowd in the festival mood as the sun set on the stunning location.

The first even Burning Lantern Fayre was a huge success with the 8,000 strong-crowd enjoying a variety of music, entertainment and food under the sunset skies. Here hoping that the buzz of Wales’ newest music event hopefully ensures it was the first of many Burning Lantern Fayres to come!

Theatre

Review Hamlet Almeida Theatre by Kevin Johnson

Leave a comment


I’ve been trying to see this for nearly a year, since it was at the Almeida. It was worth the wait.
Andrew Scott, one of my favourite actors, gives what I can only describe as a true Irish Hamlet: sad, bittersweet and quietly, heartbreakingly funny.
He sees the irony through the madness and the sorrow, yet his grief is always just behind his eyes. This is a romantic hero of legend, Scott brings a childlike sweetness to the role and thus he makes us care for Hamlet all the more, even when he is at his most irresponsible.

The setting is modern, innovative and intriguing. The play begins with coverage of the King’s state funeral straight from a cable news channel, albeit in Danish. CCTV is everywhere, the ghost first appears on a control room screen, and everyone is being watched and spied on, as they are in the play. As are we.
Ian Rickson’s 2011 Hamlet emphasised the madness within the play by setting it in an asylum, the audience even entering the theatre after walking through the set. Robert Icke’s production in contrast focuses on surveillance. Britain has more security cameras than any other country in the world, we are all being watched. The same, it seems, is true of the ‘state of Denmark’. Is this what is ‘rotten’?
The play within the play takes centre stage, while the cast sits in the front row among us, their faces thrown by live camera onto screens around the auditorium and above the stage. A clever use of old and new, theatre and video, where Claudius’ reaction is ‘caught on tape’, before he storms out of the theatre. It strikes true in today’s society, where it seems as if nothing is real unless shown on screen.

This also means that the subtle looks from the actors, such as Hamlet’s eye rolling at a Claudius soundbite, is not missed. Indeed such moments give this production a lot of humour that I haven’t seen since David Tennant’s version.

In other resonances to modern times, Polonius seems to be suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s, Rosencranz and Guildenstern are a couple, and both Hamlet and Gertrude (A loving yet still sexual Derbhle Crotty) are the only characters that speak with Irish accents, which subtly evokes the mother/son bond.
For me, Michael Sheen is still my favourite Dane, but Andrew Scott is but a hair’s breadth behind. My only criticism would be his foot-stamping, which brings out the ‘little prince’ in the character, but is over-used. He makes the words his own, and shares his feelings only with us.
Jessica Brown Findlay is a sweetly sensual Ophelia, crushed by heartbreak, Angus Wright’s Claudius has more smarm than Tony Blair, Joshua Higgott’s Horatio is a true friend of Hamlet, but it was Peter Wright’s performance as Polonius that most caught my eye.
Switching from caring father to tyrant, from accomplished fixer to absent minded rambler, hinting at some form of dementia, Wright subtly makes him all too human.
The trouble with this play is that often you have a great Hamlet but not a great production, or vice versa. Here, for once, you have both.
https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/hamlet/16-feb-2017-22-apr-2017

Musical, Theatre

REVIEW: ‘HAIRSPRAY’ BY GEMMA TREHARNE-FOOSE

Leave a comment

out of 5 stars (4 / 5)
If you’ve toyed with the idea of seeing Hairspray on stage but doubted whether anyone could top Ricki Lake’s original 1988 portrayal of Tracy  – or indeed Nikki Blonsky’s 2007 film version, you really needn’t worry.
The new stage version of Hairpray brought to you by producers Mark Goucher, Matthew Gale and Laurence Myers will delight new and old fans from start to finish.
The show hasn’t lost an ounce of its popularity, having first swept the board at the Tony Awards on Broadway in 2002 and the more recent film version introducing a new generation of fans to the musical and original film.
Set in 1960s Baltimore, Tracy Turnblad dreams of  a starring role as one of the teenage dancers on the popular Corny Collins show – a cheeseball TV format of young beautiful things dancing and miming to the latest pop / rock n roll records.

Already at a disadvantage due to her shape, she encounters the realities of colour segregation rife in Baltimore and the US at the time. Only white teenagers were allowed to dance on the show, apart from ‘Negro Day’ every other Friday.
Based on real events with the real ‘Buddy Deane Show’, on which Hairspray was based, the story sees Tracy lead a group of friends to storm the TV studio and force the live broadcasting of integrated dancing, leading a protest against colour segregation and challenging preconceived ideas about women of shape at the same time.

The show is perfectly aided by a riot of technicolour staging and costume courtesy of TAKIS, while Drew McOnie’s superb vintage choreography will have your heart fluttering and your foot tapping.

But the story reminds us that for all the iconic fashions, bubble-gum scented nostalgia and fondness for the golden era of pop and rock and roll, black Americans were denied basic civil rights across America.
Such was the power and divisiveness of segregation, we see ‘seemingly nice’ young all-American kids suddenly spewing hatred and vitriol when the status quo is challenged.  Underneath the petticoats and the chucks and the varsity jackets and polite manners, there is suddenly spite and anger.

Hairspray is gently subversive, poking fun at the idiocy, prejudice and fear at the heart of  white America. What’s all the more cutting is the reminder that while the 60s may seem far away, the lurking presence of racism is rearing it’s ugly head again in the US.  
Two years ago I used Hairspray (the movie) as a vehicle to talk about civil rights and race in America in the 60s with my little girl.  Suddenly, it’s time to return to that ugly, awkward conversation.  We’re at a crossroads once again – because ‘nice guys’ in middle America are waving around swastika flags and white hoods.   
It’s not too hard to believe that the ‘nice polite white kids’ at the Corny Collins dance might have been the same kids lining up to shout abuse at kids entering the first integrated schools or kicking off at the lunch counters they thought were their domain when black protesters sat in ‘their place’.
So as an audience we laugh when Penny Pingleton’s Mum screams when she finds her daughter in bed with a black boy and shrieks ‘But what about the neighbours….the house prices!?’, when her deep-rooted instinct is to flinch/cower when Seaweed gives her a hug or when others gasp with horror as Tracy Turnblad admits she WOULD swim in an integrated swimming pool.
In some shape or form, we’ve all encountered the tropes and the stereotypes surrounding integration and mixed heritage relationships. We’ve rolled our eyes at the staggering lack of awareness even the nicest of people have, just like those kids at the hop in the ‘Nicest kids in town’ song in the first act.

I was overjoyed to once again see Layton Williams (in the role of Seaweed) at the WMC, who previously slayed in the role of Angel Dumott Schunard in RENT earlier this year. I’ve decided it is utterly impossible to take your eyes off him whenever he is on stage.  Former X Factor contestant Brenda Edwards was spellbinding as Motormouth Maybelle, with vocals that shook the rafters and I loved Annalise Liard-Bailey’s squeaky/dorky portrayal of Penny.  Ensemble cast member Graham Macduff was also hilarious in all his guises.  
As anyone who’s seen the 2007 film adaptation of Hairspray will tell you – you can never unsee the sight of John Travolta in a dress, but Matt Rixon and Norman Pace (of ‘Hale and Pace’) had a wonderful on-stage presence together and clearly enjoyed each other’s company
Hairspray recognises the ridiculousness of racism, blinds it with sequins and deafens these ugly faults with a soundtrack of rock n roll, pop, cha-cha-cha and motown.  

It calls racism out for what it is and still dares you to believe that the future will be different.  It’s hammy, it’s cheesy, it’s sweet and it’s a glitter bomb of cherry-cola scented joy.

Theatre

An interview with Charlie Hammond from Me Me Me Theatre

Leave a comment


The Director of Get the Chance, Guy O’Donnell recently got the chance to chat to Charlie Hammond. Charlie spent time training in Cardiff and was one of our Young Critics. We discussed his career to date, Me Me Me’s current production ‘Clonely’ and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Hi Charlie can you give our readers some background information on yourself please?
Sure, I am an actor and theatre-maker based in the North-West. I create a lot of physical, visual, and chaotic performances. I borrow heavily from clown and physical comedy, and I have trained with various clowning and physical practitioners, in particular Philippe Gaulier, who is regarded as a leading practitioner in clown and performance training. His school is near Paris. I have also worked closely with director Cal McCrystal, who I learnt a great deal about directing and performance from whilst acting as associate director for Giffords Circus. Giffords are a traditional 1930’s style circus who create intimate performances which tour largely in the South-West of England.  Originally I studied English Literature at Cardiff University, and spent a large amount of my time being involved with the artistic community in Cardiff, including writing for the Young  Critics.
http://community.nationaltheatrewales.org/profiles/blogs/young-critics-review-children-of-mine-by-charlie-hammond
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/theatre-news/review-its-family-affair-well-6140851
So what got you interested in the arts?
Just everyday culture really. Growing up my parents watching a lot of comedy, Red Dwarf, the Young Ones, that kind of seminal alternative comedy, and I absorbed a lot of that. And then the high school I attended had very good arts facilities and that really started my interest in performing, and I did a lot of singing in chamber choirs and a barbershop choir, theatre productions and musicals. I also always felt that the arts was actually something I always found challenging, where as more traditionally academic subjects like mathematics and science came a little bit easier to me.

Thanks Charlie, can you tell us about the work your company is taking to this Edinburgh Festival Fringe?
So, our show Clonely is a sci-fi adventure in existential crisis, a blend of bulls**t arthouse theatre with nonsense games and DIY props.
Our company, Me Me Me Theatre, strive to poke fun at the avant-garde, science fiction cinema, the audience, and crucially, ourselves. It’s a mixture of theatre, sketch comedy and audience interaction that blends together into a surreal and anarchic hour long show about space and being a clone.

Me Me Me is made up of myself, and writer-performer Jasmine Chatfield, who recently won a Northern Writers Award 2017, and produces and excellent art event in Manchester called FLIM NITE. We started working together this year, and have set out to make the kind of weird and funny work that we would like to see on stage. Closely runs Friday 4th to Sunday 27th August (Mondays off):, Laughing Horse Free Fringe at The Mockingbird, 2.45 (1 hr).
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/clonely
The festival features a huge range of productions and there is great deal of competition for audiences, why should audiences come and see your production?
To support the free fringe and new work. But if you are interested in weird comedy, with sci-fi elements which doesn’t take itself too seriously then you should watch our show. We are very proud of it, and really feel that it captures the best of free fringe. I mean and also the Scotsman gave us 4 stars, which we were pretty chuffed about, and called us ‘gifted physical comedians’, so there’s that as well!

What would you recommend seeing from this years festival?
Butt Kapinski’s film-noir show is one of the best pieces of clown which really plays into its concept and gets the audience on board. I love Red Bastard, and his new show Come Lie with Me is a very interesting and electric dissection of the rules of love. Jordan Brooke’s Body of Work is a fantastic show; it’s just transferred to the Pleasance Courtyard and is a masterpiece in audience manipulation. But that’s just the few I’ve been able to see.

What do the artists and companies do when they aren’t performing?
Anything to pay the bills! It differs from person to person. Most artists hold down a couple of days a week doing a steady job, some work full-time and balance creative opportunities on top of that. I am very fortunate as I currently work pretty much full-time as a performer, but I also run workshops and do various little jobs to make extra cash. But when I say full time a lot of that time is spent making work, which tends to be a labour of love.
And finally what’s the best Fringe show you’ve ever seen?
Couldn’t pin it down to one. You assign so much weight to a type of show you’ve seen for the first time. John-Luke Robert’s work has always been memorable for me, he was my first introduction into a very different type of comedy and show. The Alternative Comedy Memorial Society has always been one of my favourite shows to visit to see something totally different. I remember rating NTW ‘The Radicalisation of Bradley manning’ as a powerful and mesmerising performance. But then it might have to be A Young Man Dressed as a Gorilla Dressed as an Old Man Sits in a Rocking Chair for 56 Minutes and Then Leaves, which is exactly what is says on the tin as is for one-night only, and represents the fringe perfectly.

Dance, Music, Theatre

Review Llechi, Pontio by Gareth Williams

1 Comment


out of 5 stars (4 / 5)
 
Having missed it first time around, the chance to catch the restaging of Llechi seemed too good to miss. Originally performed as part of Pontio’s opening season, this eclectic mix of visual, musical and aerobatic art forms was a fascinating watch. It was engaging from start to finish, featuring a host of performers, all of whom played their part in making this a thoroughly enjoyable and captivating show. Despite its fluency in the Welsh language (with the exception of poet Martin Daws), I, a humble learner of the lingo, still managed to be entertained and entranced by the spectacle on offer. It was a delightful performance that offered plenty of emotion and a real sense of place.
Originally curated by alt-folk group 9Bach, the Welsh sextet returned to lead a talented cast in this fresh and innovative approach to storytelling. Taking us on a journey through the history, culture and traditions of the slate industry, this performance brought to life, in a new way, the story of local Welsh slate – the people, and the landscape. Full of experimental sounds and a mix of genres, it spans the centuries. This huge timescale is reflected in the song choices: from a spine-tingling rendition of Welsh hymn Dyma’r Gariad to the bass-fuelled beats of ‘90s rave music. There is no clash of musical styles here however. Instead, 9Bach have managed to create a very diverse yet complimentary soundtrack. The changes of tone, mood and tempo that take place throughout are at no point jarring. Instead, with help from the lighting, each transition is smooth and natural. It is something that could so easily have been a disaster. Here, though, it not only works well. It works incredibly well.

Alongside the musical prowess of 9Bach, choreographer Kate Lawrence and her team offered up some stunning physical performances in the air. It helped being seated on the lower balcony to watch these four talented dancers move across the auditorium. It was clear that many of their actions were reflecting the movements of quarrymen. But their pieces also featured an elegance that conveyed something of the local landscape too. Their graceful movements made for a mesmerising sight. But it also brought to mind, as a result, the ethereal and mythic quality of the mountains and the quarries. This was complimented perfectly, at one point in particular, by the hauntingly beautiful vocals of Lisa Jen Brown. Truly evocative, the backdrop of images that featured in the show were sometimes superfluous as a result. It was a strangely immersive experience.

I came away from Llechi desperate to buy the soundtrack. The music was wonderfully inspirational, eclectic and truly evocative of its Welsh setting. 9Bach have delivered a beautiful collaboration that is full of heart. It is a love story that awakens the senses and births a spirit of hope. It says that this land is not forgotten to another age. Instead, it evolves, becoming the place of the next generation who follow in the footsteps of their forbears whilst carving out new paths of their own. Sadly, the soundtrack isn’t available to buy (hint to anyone who may be able to change that.). Nevertheless, it will stick in my mind for a long time to come. Llechi is a truly memorable piece of contemporary Welsh art.
https://www.pontio.co.uk/Online/Default.asp

Theatre

Review The Addams Family WMC

Leave a comment


A nickelodeon remake of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’
In essence, you can categorise all performance criticism under two Cheryl Cole .circa 2008-11 X Factor, automated responses, ’you’re right up my street’, or ‘it wasn’t my cup of tea.’ ‘The Addams Family’ was not my ‘cup of tea’. It wasn’t even my dirty pint that I’d down – victim to peer pressure – on a Saturday night… but it was fun and harmless… unlike a dirty pint on a Saturday night.

‘The Addams Family’ gives you all that you’d expect – the characters’ dead-pan eccentricity, a fabulously ghoulish set, its beloved theme tune and numerous merchandise stalls to preserve its ever-inflating franchise. But it is niche exploited – the musical is farcical. Personally, I can’t quite accept that the self–contained world of ‘The Addams Family’ (on screen) – and the escapist voyeurism that it offers – can be exposed to a stage adaptation without making a mockery of the former.
‘The Addams Family Musical’ is basically a panto with an extremely high production-value, but, hell, sometimes a spiralling farce and a classic ‘dad joke’ will be perfectly suffice – for some – if you like that sort of thing… It’s a simplistic and worn narrative pardoned by pizazz!

Musical numbers were gloriously theatrical, and the voices of Samantha Womack and Carrie Hope Fletcher rang beautifully within the theatre. It was Fletcher’s portrayal of Wednesday Addams which is undoubtedly the highlight of the production. She has an inexpressible and innate draw; an attraction that defies an audience’s choice in the matter.

The set design by Diego Pitarch was innovative, transporting – it had a masterful subtlety to defining a scene with ease and interchangeability. Alistair David’s choreography, paired with the sheer vibrancy of the production’s costume and technical design, was a spectacle; combined, the chorus were an indispensable surge of energy.

‘The Addams Family’ is a spectacle, shallow, but a visual delight. If you’re looking for a show that the kids and grandma will enjoy look no further – just get yourself a vodka orange in the interval and you’ll find it just as funny as them.

by Lauren Ellis-Stretch

Film & TV, Theatre

Review National Theatre Live: Angels in America Part 2: Perestroika by Danielle O’Shea

Leave a comment


out of 5 stars (5 / 5)
You can read Danielle’ s review of part one at the link below
getthechance.wales/2017/07/22/review-national-theatre-live-angels-america-danielle-oshea/
Extending on the theme of survival, the second part of Angels in America questions progress as a way for religion, society and humanity to survive.  Moving further from the domesticity seen in Part 1, hallucinations and prophetic visions become all the more common and fantasies, whether they be of Heaven or Antarctica. But despite this change in tone, emotions still run high due to discussions of more minor themes still relevant today such as healthcare and the justice system.

Overall, Perestroika is a deeper exploration of the themes of Millennium Approaches and it reveals that what is beneath the message of survival is one of hope even in the bleakest of times.
In its entirety, Angels in America is a magical, modern questioning of identity and change that takes the entire audience on a journey through dark and light times before leaving them with a message of overwhelming hope.
27th July 2017
Gwyn Hall, Neath
Running time: 4 hours 20 minutes with two 15-minute intervals
Author: Tony Kushner
Director: Marianne Elliott
Design: Ian MacNeil (Set Designer), Nicky Gillibrand (Costume Designer), Paule Constable(Lighting Designer), Robby Graham (Choreographer and Movement), Adrian Sutton (Music), Ian Dickinson (Sound Designer), Finn Caldwell (Puppetry Director and Movement), Finn Caldwell and Nick Barnes (Puppet Designers), Chris Fisher (Illusions), Gwen Hales (Aerial Director), Harry Mackrill (Associate Director), Miranda Cromwell (Staff Director)
Cast: Susan Brown, Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, Nathan Lane, Amanda Lawrence, James McArdle, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Russell Tovey, Stuart Angell, Laura Caldow, Claire Lambert, Becky Namgauds, Stan West, Lewis Wilkins