Please note images featured in this review are from the rehearsal process

This fun and moving adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables by Cardiff-based theatre company August012 juxtaposes the battle of Waterloo and the Brexit Referendum. The intention behind the historical and literary parallel is to insert our daily lives into a wider perspective, to juggle the big and the small, the significant and insignificant, the past and the present. Les Mis, not the musical (thank God not the musical!), is a whirlpool of sound, words, and movement, expressing a sense of loss and futility, tempered by a feeling of compassion.

The scene begins with an account of the battle of Waterloo, cut by the recollections of Brits on holiday in Greece before the Referendum, and by the disbelief and shock at the result on the night. Away from formulaic narrative structure, Les Mis embraces a multilayered performance where music, words, and movement intersect and converge all around us. The music is spell-binding and plays a prominent role in guiding the audience into this tragi-comedy. It is a seductive and immersive experience that stirs the senses and brings awareness of the wider significance of Brexit.

The smell of grass, the thumping on the ground of the soldiers’ feet, broken by holiday-makers’ easy-going chatter and banter to the tune of Brazilian music in the sun-kissed beaches of Greece make the play at once seductive and moving. The charged atmosphere evoked by the battle is countered by the fun and ordinariness of the Referendum night. The parallel is sustained by local references to Cardiff’s roads and neighbourhoods. Napoleon is in Grangetown. Brussels is Ponty. Yet, the playfulness of Les Mis accentuates the brutality of Waterloo conveying a sense of awe, of something bigger than ourselves.

This heartfelt, engaging, ironic and exciting production articulates the current confusion, exhaustion, and ridiculousness of the aftermath of the Referendum. We don’t know what is going on. Les Mis has no comforting thesis, no tidy narrative, no solution, but a deliberate intention to throw off course.

At a time when over a million people have marched for a referendum on the deal, nearly six millions have signed a petition to revoke art.50, and when Parliament has rejected May’s deal and any other alternative, Les Mis captures the never-ending saga, the incomprehensible going around in circles, and the complexity of the present situation. Brexit has severe repercussions for peace in Northern Ireland, for EU citizens in Britain and British citizens in the EU, for Europe, and for Britain; yet its significance is drowned out in the daily drama deprived of substance. In all this, Les Mis wants its audience to wake up to the historical significance of our daily lives.

The play includes Nicola Sturgeon’s address to European nationals living in Scotland. In the endless noise produced by politicians on Brexit, European nationals in Britain are often forgotten and, at times, dismissed as ‘bargaining chips.’ Director Mathilde Lopez is a French-Spanish North African, who has lived and worked in Britain for 20 years and has a family with British composer/dj John Norton. Matteo Marfoglia, who choreographs the dancers, is an Italian national who has worked in the Netherlands and has been living in Wales for the past six years. For both Mathilde and Matteo the result of the Referendum brought the pain of exclusion. All of a sudden, their identity, status, and very presence in Britain were questioned.

Les Mis gives a voice to that sense of disorienting loss Europeans felt. There is no anger, no preaching, no pedantic history lecture. The political and philosophical rhetoric about the EU at the end is perhaps not as punchy and inspirational as it could have been, but it is genuine and moving. It gives voice to those in Britain who feel European and part of Europe and have been dismissed by mainstream media and politics not just for the past three years, but for decades. What is missing are perhaps the voices of  British politicians and thinkers who have dreamed of Europe, like John Stuart Mill, who joined Victor Hugo at the Congress of the League of Peace and Freedom in Geneva in 1867, where peace required a United States of Europe. I personally would have liked the inclusion of Hugos’ dream of a united Europe at the Peace Congress in Paris, in 1849.

‘A day will come when your arms will fall even from your hands! A day will come when war will seem as absurd and impossible between Paris and London, between Petersburg and Berlin, between Vienna and Turin, as it would be impossible and would seem absurd today between Rouen and Amiens, between Boston and Philadelphia. … A day will come when the only fields of battle will be markets opening up to trade and minds opening up to ideas. A day will come when the bullets and the bombs will be replaced by votes, by the universal suffrage of the peoples, by the venerable arbitration of a great sovereign senate’ 

Les Mis speaks of the hurt of those of us who feel deprived of Europe. Europe is no longer a dream, but a reality. There is an acceptance of defeat without despair, a search for strength in love, not distance. Les Mis appeals to faith, hope, and love. In opposition to the outside political message of exercising control and erecting borders, Les Mis, fruit of artists with diverse cultural backgrounds and political stances, celebrates friendship across divides. It calls on all of us to show compassion to one another.

What would Hugo make of this take on his work and, perhaps more crucially, what would he make of his own dream of a United States of Europe? He might be confused and excited to see that a Union of European countries has taken shape. He might feel inspired and hopeful that it is not just a philosophical, political, or religious idea, but a reality, clumsy and complex, but one that is increasingly in people’s hearts. This production of Les Mis, with its exuberant rhythms, poignant words, and passionate movements, lets us hear the heart of Europe beating.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Walking into the theatre, I was greeted by the curtain up on a bare stage, with Miss Marple (Susie Blake) asleep in an armchair. My first hint that this was not the usual Agatha Christie production, with dark deeds in a charming English village. 

The quiet stillness of St Mary Mead is disturbed by the arrival of retired American film star Marina Gregg (Suzanna Hamilton) and her producer husband Jason Rudd (Joe Dixon), who have bought Grossington Hall from Miss Marple’s friend, Dolly Bantry (Julia Hills) to live in, and are also making a historical film there, which will be Marina’s comeback. At a reception to meet the villagers, local resident Heather Leigh (Katherine Manners) is murdered, poisoned after drinking Marina’s daquiri, who is now considered to be the intended target by Chief Inspector Craddock (Simon Shepherd) of Scotland Yard.   

Using the idea of a film that is viewed, rewound and then viewed from other ‘cameras’ (witnesses), the writer Rachel Wagstaff and director Melly Still, have created an intriguing production where the cast act out witness statements, first one way, then the other, twirling from A to B then back to A again, an incredibly difficult thing to do live. Lighting, sound and set design all help with this, and at first I found it a little distracting, but as it went on I changed my opinion, drawn in by the artistry on show.  I was completely won over when the murdered victims helped trace each other’s outlines – a staple of crime fiction – using pink sand.       

This is a rare thing, an old story given a new interpretation that really works. Wagstaff opens it up and develops the characters, such as Dolly Bantry lamenting her lonely widowhood, from the stereotypical to the human, exploring the racism, sexism and ageism of the time. At one point Craddock, infuriated by what he sees as her interference, yells at Marple “you’re not a detective, you’re a spinster!” which provoked a completely involved audience, privy to the sad secret of her fiancé being executed in WW1, to hiss and almost boo him. An incredible reaction outside of panto.

Susie Blake is brilliant as Marple, smart, determined and quietly lonely, while also demonstrating the comedy skill she’s famous for. Simon Shepherd is a prickly detective, still dealing with losing his mother as a child, while Joe Dixon brings a caring gruffness to the husband. For me the stand outs were Suzanne Hamilton’s fading film star, vascillating from fragile, fading movie star to demanding diva, and Julia Hills, whose snobbish former lady of the manor reveals her true feelings of uselessness and isolation, now that she’s no longer a wife or mother. The rest of the cast do well with what they have, but contribute mightily to what is an original and stunning ensemble piece.

This production runs at New Theatre, Cardiff until the 6th of April.

Written by Amanda Whittington, Directed by Kirstie Davis

Showing Tuesday 26 – Saturday  to 30 March 2019

(4 / 5) A treat for any Strictly Come Dancing On Ice fans!!

Between September and December you can’t stay in on a Saturday night and not be intrigued by the glamour and drama of the feathers and sequins of Strictly Ballroom Whether you are a fan of the show or not everyone knows the hype that surrounds the all important accolade of making it to the world famous Empress Ballroom in Blackpool’s Winter Gardens. This is the setting for Theatre Clwyd’s latest hit offering “Kiss Me Quickstep”, a bittersweet comic insight into the lives of three amateur dance partners and their bid to be the best.

The stories of the three partners are loosely intertwined, with a sense of  rivalry, mystery and jealousy rippling underneath the surface loud enough for us to know all is not as it seems  – the story develops at a steady pace with no real surprises. The audience is left with a smile on their face, toe tapping and hand jiving with the sense that all is well with the world.

It would have been easy to have over developed characters and plot turning it more farcical than funny and creating caricatures rather than believable characters. Thankfully this talented ensemble do neither, characterisation is beautifully raw and timed to perfection – which is hardly surprising as everything about the play is about timing… even the stagehands dance with props in synchronisation. The trust and timing element is excellently displayed in a couple of costume changes on set which are risky but funny.

The set is depicted by a couple of chairs, rails and two arch lighting rigs.  The cast use a combination of movement and dance with this simple set and it becomes backstage, dressing rooms and the audience filled dance floor with ease.

It would be rude not to mention the dancing – I am a Strictly fan and for me there was just the right amount of dance any more and I think it would have been distracting from the play, any less and the sense of why they were there would be lost. As it was, it worked just fine, I did like it better when just one couple was dancing at a time as I felt the stage was a little on the small side for a three partners to be dancing, however this did not spoil the play in any way. As a bonus Theatre Clwyd Community Dancers were involved as additional dancers, this gave an extra dimension for the cast and audience to work with.

As far as rating go I am not sure I would place it as a quickstep – it lacked the bounce and speed, for me, it was more an American Smooth – it glided along elegantly, had a few high lifts and dips in the middle and ended with a peck on the cheek.