(3 / 5)

A morning spent trying to get to Manchester would be met by awful train journeys and the finding of hosts. Having always wanted to go to The Lowry, I stood up to the challenge and checked out some local theatre maker’s work.

Wayne Steven Jackson’s piece And Here I Find Myself is a highly personal affair, where the abstract meets the honest, the queer meets the quest for parenthood. Wayne’s journey in seeking a child through adoption or artificial insemination has proven to be a remarkably difficult venture. His show attempts to unravel this along with life goals, disappointment along with the battle with heteronormativity.

Long strips of blank scrolls are hung from the rafters, as Wayne pops more paper on washing lines, where projected actions are given and he must follow. He jumps, climbs ladders and speaks openly about all these things that have defined his life. I could easily relate to a great deal of his truth, though I can honestly say I would not want a child in the state of the world at this present time. Speaking how holding a baby made him feel, that overwhelming love for the child proves his legitimate desire to be a parent. The law for single, gay men to adopt a child is also a very recent action and should have been done much sooner. 

Though the show is mostly there, I think some extra touches could really finish it off well. Wayne needs a head microphone when above the ladders and in other parts. Even with myself in the front row I was sure people in the back would have struggled hearing. He has a mic for the moody sequences in the back, spotlight bound on him going off on more insights and memories. The score by Jack Fleming is pretty and dark when need be, a sweet song by Katherine Myles is seasoned well in a scene after much discord. The video work by Studio 91 Media adds atmosphere, projected onto the scrolls and a metaphorical magpie (Wayne in a sort of Black Swan glow up) haunts the space for most of the show. 

Maybe I craved a bit more humour or less of an experimental veneer (though I usually live for this). I could feel I was sat with friends of Wayne, so there was also that. There is some interesting ideas here and more queer voices are truly want I want to hear now. We hope the journey’s end of this story is a child to call one’s own.          

(5 / 5)

Finding all the right words to talk about this superb show is an undertaking. The recovery period for it as well, can be daunting.

In what is one of the finest post-pandemic shows in London, a new version of Kander and Ebb’s iconic musical waves in the ether. From the moment you step into the Playhouse Theatre (or the Kit Kat Club as in the show) you are met with a bombardment to the senses. Cognac is offered at the door, the prologue dancers muck about in the foyer and a real sense of joy washes over you. This is a special show with some lovely padding before the main event. Very much a sense of “Welcome back!”

With a complete restoring of the theatre, the revolving stage is small and packs a lot of punch. The dancers make great use of the space, with thrilling moves and an all round sex appeal thanks to the choreography of Julia Cheng. The direction of Rebecca Frecknall should not be underestimated, the animation of this production reaches a fever pitch I’ve rarely seen on the stage. Amazing work from Jennifer White as music supervisor and director leading this immaculate bravado band. Sets and costumes by Tom Scutt are fitting of the Weimar era and have a real slick style to them. Not faired to show off some legs, thighs amongst other regions. Tis a very autumnal coloured show, cloaked in black.

What the musical is perhaps most noteworthy for is the colossal tonal shifts, with Hitler’s rise to power and the unwavering chaos this caused. The cabaret space becomes the place to express oneself though some songs also bleed I to the real life of the characters. There is little it takes to be moved by these proceedings as queer and Jewish characters become the focus of hatred and violence. These mood swings in the show are what makes it perfect, the threat of the Nazi is omnipresent as apposed to literal on the stage. Moments of panic lead to a absolutely belting dance number and vice vera. 

The cast shine eternal. Fra Fee as the Emcee is the master of ceremonies and our guide for the show. Ever the charmer, Fra has taken over from the big boots of Eddie Redmayne, talking the dream role with aplomb. 

Amy Lennox is a powerhouse Sally Bowles. I loved her little bit of screaming she did in the title song, her wry English wit ever cutting and blunt. An amazing voice never far away and her costumes, perhaps the best in show.  

Omar Baroud as Clifford Bradshaw is charming and quick witted, the plucky American writer who is taken Berlin and all it has to offer. It’s a lovely role with a big effect on the story.   

 Vivien Parry is quite touching yet also plays the spurious role of Fraulein Schneider. Her entanglement with Richard Katz Herr Schultz has some funny and lovely moments, a song about a pineapple remains a highlight. Ernst Ludwig is a challenging role due to his change in allegiances, here given up Stewart Clarke in a dashing, pristine take. The marvellous Anna-Jane Casey is both Fraulein Kost/Fritzie who was not in it enough and I was craving more. I’ve already spoken of the stupendous ensemble and band, yet I find myself mentioning them again. Their talents are other worldly.   

The Kit Kat Club is calling and you simply must accept the call. 

The new cast for Cabaret from  October 2022 includes RWCMD Graduate Callum Scott Howells & Madeline Brewer. 

(4 / 5)

One of the great London discoveries for myself pre-pandemic was the work of Lazarus Theatre Company. With a sensational take on Oscar Wilde’s Salome and later Macbeth, one ponders what might be next…

Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe made for great theatrical flair from this company. I expected a lot of wackiness and panache was delivered it in bucket loads. Impassioned lead actor Jamie O’Neil, works very well as the titular anti-hero, easily wooed by the devil’s messenger Mephistopheles. In a series of ever increasing mania, Faust abuses his newly acquired powers, a strange array of Pope visitations, globe trotting and an outrageous number featuring the seven deadly sins. The colourful, whiplash speed is alive throughout and the curtains used get a keen workout.

As Mephistopheles, David Angland is wickedly good, his evil glares really selling it, along with other funny moments. An amazing troupe of supporting talent have the reigns in a conveyor belt of locations and situations. A dance number after Faustus signs the deal features tight movement and the all round glowing energy that they bring throughout are more highlight. Director and adapter Ricky Dukes must be praised for this fine thing. The exceptional use of such a small space enhanced the experience making for an intimate endeavour.

Some beautiful moments saw a hark back to their Salome, figures slowly traversing through a smokey tableaux. There is a lot of this here, though it remains a pretty sight, none more so when the apparent Helen of Troy joins Faustus in relations. Money, blood and ectoplasm stain the stage and the famous plastic sheeting another nod to previous work. Sell your soul to book this.

Doctor Faustus runs at the Southwark Playhouse till 1 October 2022.

Lazarus Theatre next production at the Southwark Playhouse will be Hamlet.

The National Youth Theatre of Wales isn’t a company like other theatre companies, so its work can’t be lined up against standard productions. It’s more akin to a BTEC Performing Arts course in which the end-of-year show is designed to give all students an equal opportunity to participate.  Because of this, there aren’t individual stars whose performances can be picked out.  In The In-Between, the main plotline features a heroine but she is played by different performers at different times.

Reviewing is not course moderating.  Reviewers can’t comment on the process that lies behind the end product, even though the workshopping will have been a key part of an educational process and will be very valuable to the student. The performance is only the tip of an iceberg, however exciting it may be.

Equally, you can’t say much about the script, which is specially worked up for this production and which may never be used again.  So, there are difficulties reviewing The In-Between. 

To stick to facts, the production features twenty-three performers, backed by a creative team of twenty-five.  It’s no small undertaking. The combined work of these people (assisted by staff at Theatr Clwd) is compressed into a fifty-five minute, single act showcase.  The linking theme is the story of Fay, a student on a performing arts course who is considering dropping out.  The show starts with Fay’s failure to hand in her homework, or perform ‘her’ song for her lecturer.  It ends with her predictably deciding to stay on and at the end, supported by the entire cast, she sings what is quite an effective pop song, celebrating the state of being in between training and working.

As Fay’s story unfolds, group activity is choreographed around a series of small sketches.  There is a constant supply of business, much of which centres on a stolen letter.  This handwritten letter, in which Fay tells her lecturer she is dropping out, is recognised as being an anachronism and a bit of a joke.  Dialogue throughout is in English but it’s peppered with Welsh in an evocative way.  Overhead screens carry the script, like subtitles, and a signer works at the side of the stage for deaf members of the audience.  There were a couple of fluffed lines and the screens seemed to get stuck at one point but generally everything was done enthusiastically and well.

– Only I did want a bit more.  I wanted more character acting, allowing a dramatic penetration of Fay’s crisis of confidence.  The self-conscious conversations about the problems of working in the industry didn’t achieve this in any depth, since students really know little about what awaits them down the line.  There might have been a second person, a friend, who does leave the course, recognising that there are other things in life beside the performing arts. (Sacrilege!) The snatches of character acting there were – like the cameo of a grandmother and the emergency call handler who breaks out into ‘Staying Alive’ to demonstrate the kiss of life (!) – were delivered properly, making you think the cast members could easily have done more of the same. 

Perhaps I wanted more conventional acting because I don’t greatly like musicals, even though I recognise their popularity and their economic importance for theatres and for television.  Unless there is an exceptional score, as in West Side Story or Mac The Knife, personally I never feel musicals rise above the level of light entertainment.  I prefer shows that make a demand on my intelligence rather than ones that aim to make me tap my feet.  I like plays where verbal control and projection goes into lines rather than songs and when physical agility is present in movements and gestures and not just in dances. 

I am also intrigued by work where the two genres overlap.  However, in The In-Between there is no question but that music theatre is the be-all and end-all.  It comes with the fairy tale suggestion that fame and fortune do wait around the corner for the girl who is determined to make it come what may. I didn’t engage with this idea.  I wasn’t bothered about whether Fay delivered her course work or not.  I started thinking instead about the cast and the fact that there were more than four times as many young women as young men performing.  A BTEC computer course would probably reverse this statistic. (In contrast, the production team is almost evenly split and the script was written by a woman and a man.)  Maybe this production could have referenced the social conditioning behind gender imbalances.

I would have enjoyed an exploration of late adolescence in which anxiety really came centre stage.  Anxiety is hardly the sole preserve of those on performing arts courses: it is wide-spread and not just in the student community.  Watching one character overcome anxiety in a convincing way would have been interesting.  Watching another fall victim to it might have been moving.  Could there have been a second half?

You could say my taste means I am not the target audience but another feature of this particular type of work is that it has no target.  It was pleasing to see the large audience in the temporary auditorium at Theatr Clwd  (where the buildings are being redeveloped) was an unusual mixture of young and old and the show did have something for everyone – we laughed and applauded – but it didn’t have quite enough of anything in particular to mark it out.  

Maybe the title – and the subject of Fay’s delayed solo – says it all.  The show itself is in-between genres.  It left me in between admiring it for what it contained and for what it allowed its young performers to do but fussing about what it left out.  For a student show, it was very entertaining. As a piece of contemporary theatre, it fell a bit short.