Photo credit: Jane Hobson

(3 / 5)

Off the beaten track for a more curious endeavour in London. A queer reimagining of Shakespeare with Antony and Cleopatra. Conceived and directed by Robert Chevara, this was a simple affair made better with a intimate venue.

We see a lot of the typical things asscotaed with gay men…clubs, dancing, leather, cross dressing, poppers almost other delights. I’d say this worked to an extent  wondering if this play has ever had this tenet before. It is condensed into a 70 minutes so there is little time to truly develop things organically. Like the blasting club beats, you have to get lost in the heat and sweat of it all. Antony is William McGeough  perhaps the strongest in the show. Lots of rage and sultry allure on this fallen Roman. Cleo is Jonny Woo, who steals the show with wild dress up, camp personas and a swooping mood swings.

Stripped back with the two leads and thier assistants: support was that of Charmian and Dolabella. Alexis Gregory and Jonathan Blake in these roles work well, moment of blissful camp elevate the Bard’s word for lines that might not necessarily funny. Both had seriousness too when needed, the weight of the lovers romance begets tragedy for all involved. Moments of karaoke helped soften the mood. Its usage did not overbear, though any more would have done so.

Some of props and costumes use is clever. Cleopatra’s wonderous death crown and jewels have to be seen to be believed. No asp in site for her tragic end, instead a more piffy shot of smack it would seem? Stroves lights upon the wall and ceiling are effective, not over used in moments of attack nor movement. There is a fair bit of back and for between the audience, I found myself moving over front and centre that I was.

This should find an audience, its queerness shot through and it had its moments.

It runs at The Divine till 26 Sept 2024. 

(4 / 5)

1975. An empty Broadway stage. It’s the final audition stage for a brand new musical and only eight dancers will make the cut. The stage is bare, we can see the inner workings of it all including being able to see the stage-hands as they move the set pieces across the stage.  The first round of cuts take place and seven leave the stage. We are left with our final 17 performers.

This is the musical that revolutionised Broadway when it opened at the Shubert Theatre in 1975 after a number of workshops and an off-Broadway run. With music by the legendary Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban and a book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante, it was a huge hit, winning nine Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1976.

This touring version is based on the 2021 Curve Leicester production with Adam Cooper and Carly Mercedes Dyer reprising their roles of Zach and Cassie respectively. They are joined by a hugely talented cast who recount the real-life stories of dancers who faced these gruelling auditions, recorded in late night sessions by the creator of the show, Michael Bennett. What I really loved about the show was the delivery of these testimonies; you can feel the weight and the truth of these stories echoing from across the ages.

 The bareness of the stage and to view the inner workings of the theatre eerily reflects how Director, Zach encourages the seventeen performers before him to lay bare their souls. Individuals struggle with what they should tell him, which is hugely amplified by Larry who ‘features’ them by live streaming their nervous faces onto a huge screen behind them. I really enjoyed this aspect; the idea of the chorus line is to ‘not be seen,’ to become one of the dancers and to not stand out or draw the eye. But the chorus line is still made up of individuals; human beings with their own hopes, dreams, egos, fears, their own stories. The use of the camera really helps this to shine through. Even when there is action on the front apron of the stage, Larry shows us the inner workings of the people behind the chorus line.

It goes without saying (in this sort of show) that the dancing is spectacular. When they dance as a whole, the effect is dazzling. Huge kudos to Ellen Kate, the choreographer of the piece. Being sat in the circle allowed me to really appreciate the formations as they stretched into the depth of the stage. The singing too is excellent, as an ensemble and individually, the talent on display is exceptional. I particularly enjoyed ‘At The Ballet’, ethereally delivered by the trio of Sheila, Bebe and Maggie (played by Amy Thornton, Lydia Bannister and Kate Parr respectively), ‘Sing!’ delivered with fantastic comedy and dancing by Kristine and Al (Katie Lee and Joshua Lay), ‘The Music and the Mirror,’ stunningly delivered by Carly Mercedes Dyer is danced and sang to perfection and, ‘What I Did For Love’ in a heartfelt rendition by Diana (Jocasta Almgill) and the Company. Of course, ‘One’ is a triumph, a stunning end to a musical which flies high with dreams, brings us to the depth of human emotions, makes us laugh and cry in equal measures.

I highly commend the production and its well-deserved place in the history of Broadway and musical theatre as a whole. Touring and West End productions are stunning, dramatic affairs with huge sets, beautiful costumes, jaw dropping effects. It’s refreshing to see the ‘bones’ of a production, what makes up the incredible productions we have the pleasure of seeing here in Cardiff; to see the blood, sweat, tears, joy and fear that go into the creation and casting of Musical Theatre’s biggest shows. This show truly is a ‘singular sensation’ and one that cannot be missed.

(4 / 5)

Nia Gandhi and Rhys Parry Jones are a tour-de-force in this two-hander play from the newest company in residence at the Sherman Theatre, Red Oak Theatre. Red Oak have set out to be a design-led company and this is clear from the offset with the stylish ‘forest canopy’ above the performance space, featuring various elements that will be used throughout the play. The canopy creates intriguing swirls and patterns across the stage and dapple the actors’ faces in a poignant reminder of the play’s key theme of nature healing us through grief.

Gemma Prangle makes her playwrighting debut here and the piece is one that came about quite unexpectedly for Gemma. In a similar fashion to the way grief itself grows, changes, adapts, the writing of this piece found a way to be told through Gemma. I found that there were lots of moments throughout that particularly resonated and I enjoyed the counterbalancing of speech between David and Mali, his 17 year old daughter. There was also a clear link here with Gemma’s dancer and movement director work; clever use of space and bodies; the space used to great effect and even each actor being utilised to their full potential in fluid (or not so fluid, as the mood dictates) movements across the floor creating tableaus that make us laugh or equally bring us close to tears.

Nia Gandhi captures the essence of Mali with ease; she bounds across the stage with childlike enthusiasm at first and her delivery of the comedy lines at the beginning especially are expertly handled. Her relationship with her father, David, is delivered with balance and poise. She has exuberance on one hand and quiet contemplation on the other. It is an assured performance from a gifted actor.

Rhys Parry Jones is also fantastic, the timbre of his voice perfectly counterbalances the quieter, more contemplative Mali. Line delivery is very good, the moments of comedy drawing laughs from the crowd but he is devastating in his moments of grief and anger. He stares into the very souls of us as audience members, his eyes reliving every moment of his wife’s impending death and his outburst at realising she was gone absolutely broke my heart.

Particularly worth mentioning is the ‘birthday scene.’ Mali, seemingly oblivious to the inevitable demise of her mother, pulls together decorations, puts on her mother’s best shoes and dress and sings along to ‘Uptown Girl.’ The entrance of David into this ‘happy’ scene is truly heartbreaking and was an image that stayed with me long after I’d left the studio. It is the perfect way of showing how each of us deals with grief in different ways and the splinters that occur in our relationships when these ways of coping do not quite match up.

Splinter is a difficult but truly worthwhile watch. There are content warnings galore and it is hard to listen to the raw, unfiltered emotions but they are emotions we can recognise all too easily in ourselves. A mention though to the volume of lines; as someone who struggles a little with hearing and due to the piece being in the round, I sometimes struggled to hear certain lines when the actors were turned away from me. I found myself leaning forward in my seat as I did not want to miss a single line! However, this is a small thing in an overall assured and confident first production from Red Oak Theatre and Gemma Prangle. I look forward to seeing what they will come up next!

(4.5 / 5)

Image Credit Mark Douet

Seren Hamilton has a searing, visceral professional debut in this new Welsh language version of ‘Iphigenia in Splott.’ From the moment she stalks across the stage, hovering her hands over a standing lamp and watching as it lights beneath her hands, to the final devastating lines delivered to the audience, the piece crackles with ferocity and emotion that transcends any language barriers.

As a Welsh learner I had slight trepidation about keeping up with the furious venom that is delivered rapidly towards the audience members, but I needn’t have worried; the subtitles ensured that a ‘dysgwyr’ like myself was able to keep up easily without having to take my eyes off the unfolding plot. The language is of the street, English and Welsh slang tumbling together to create a dialect that truly reflects the way that the Welsh language lives and breathes with the benefit of making it accessible for someone like me.

Lighting is expertly designed by Katy Morison, inspired by Splott itself. The large blank wall at the back of the stage enables the lighting to become its own entity, bringing the streets of Splott to life with ease. The sound too, (ably created by Tic Ashfield) is created from actual recordings of sounds about the area, creating the music and ugly, yet symphonic world that Effie inhabits. The overall set design is simple, but truly effective; the mattress, the chair and lamp, emphasising Effie’s isolation and the desolation of her environment.

Based on Greek Goddess, Iphigenia, the theme of sacrifice is strong throughout. It’s not just the sacrifices that a single young woman makes though, but the sacrifices of community of Splott and the wider sacrifices of the working class of Wales and even further afield. The themes are initiated with Effie informing us all that we ‘owe her’ and that she’s come to collect her debts, and it echoes throughout the hour and half. Mentions of the soldier trying to put together his life again after a catastrophic accident; small mentions of shops closing down and flats stacking up; Nan working in the Co-Op even though she’s in her seventies and the ultimate sacrifice that Effie makes for us all, her community, the people who would turn away and see her only as a ‘nasty skank.’

This play is a vital part of Welsh theatre now, having made its debut at this very theatre in 2015, there is no denying its impact and it’s fantastic to see it delivered in its ‘native tongue.’ It is no mean task for a director and an actor to approach a piece that’s almost a decade old now and so important to the theatrical make up of Wales, but Director Alice Eklund breathes new life into the piece, capturing the energy and lifeblood of Splott, paying homage to the original but creating a new version to stitch into the tapestry of this ongoing story.

Seren is exceptional in the role; she owns the stage, stalking, dancing, crawling across it, delivering her lines directly to audience members without hesitation or apology. This then gives way to a softer, tragic side of Effie as she struggles to come to terms with her feeling of ‘not alone’ and what that means to her and for the rest of her life. As she reaches the peak of the performance and the true sacrifice that Effie makes, you can hear a pin drop in the studio space of the Sherman, and no one can tear their eyes away. It is a striking, assured debut and I cannot wait to see what she does next.

Ultimately, I am so glad that I overcame my sensitivities around my less than perfect Cymraeg and took the plunge to watch Iphigenia yn Sblot; this is such an important piece of theatre and remains as poignant in its message today as it was almost 10 years ago. The Sherman’s goal of ‘telling local stories with global resonance’ is truly alive and well and delivered with expert hands in this newest production. Llongyfarchiadau pawb!