Photo credit: Pamela Raith

(4 / 5)

In this brandnew production of Dream from the RSC comes delight, humour and awe. I first got my teeth in the play in college and fell in love with it ever since.

There is real joy here, director Eleanor Rhode has gone all out with massive scope. Lucy Osborne’s design is multi-coloured filling the stage with ladders, giant hanging orbs and soaring platforms. Another huge element to proceedings is John Bulleid as illusion director and designer. The magic on display is nothing sort of astounding, the video work and little lights in the actors palms are also really nice touches. This all works wonders in the space.

The band are another sensation, thanks to the score of Will Gregory brimming with sass, flair and nods to several genres. The cast are huge and marvellous. Much marketing has been done on Mathew Bayton as Bottom, which is valued (can’t get over the appalling sideburns!) but the rest of the cast are also stars and rising talent. Mathew plays the role with his usual wide eyed mirth, a snapping comic timing and an understated insecurity that Bottom calls for. His donkey transformation sees ears which can move of their own accord, one of many funny moments. From Romeo & Julie and Machinal, Rosie Sheehy as Puck was a familar face. She works mightly well in the role, the image of Heath Leger’s Joker, one of several punk trappings. I love her ornamented accent in the role, brimming with grit, bite, resentment and a wistful endurance.

Many cast members stand out and there is much to shout about. The lovers shine Hermia, Demetrius, Lysander and Helena thanks to the efforts of razor sharp quartet: Dawn Sievewright, Nicholas Armfield, Ryan Hutton and Boadicea Ricketts. There absurd little moments are noteworthy, the lovers should be particularly physical and highly caffeinated. Ryan’s leaping, Nicholas’ marital arts postures, Boadicea’s shrieking and Dawn’s rages are left in the brain. The rest of The Mechanicals shine, the indifference of Emily Cundick’s Snout, Snug from Laurie Jamieson as a lovable dimwit. The Pyramus and Thisbe wrap up should be the funniest scene of the play and here it was. Given a loving send up of Giallo horror films, with plenty of deep red blood and cheap, anxious keyboard chords to boot.

Helen Monks is Peter Quince the flustered director for their little play, not really seen enough in the role. As Starveling, Premi Tamang came into her own as Moon in the outlandish Pyramus set, her smug face and flickering torch is one of my favourite moments. Nitesh Soni as Flute is another adorable addition to the actors group, another comedic discovery. We don’t see as such the Forrest Nymphs, though the light and effects did most of the work here, each of the actors voiced the tiny roles with conviction. Barry Gill as Theseus faired well in delivery, though I found he did little with a straight laced Oberon, though this punk attire was a standout. Airline Saba, as both Titania and Hippolyta exuded a fierce persona for each and a sensusal use of mannerism. Neil McCaul seen for a shortlist while at the start and end is Egeus, outraged over the young lovers actions, as the show starts off with a serious tone.

I’ve left little of the story out of this review, it being pretty well known. I would recommend a trip to Stratford for this gem of a show.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs till 30 March 2024.

Photo credit: Ellie Kurttz

(4 / 5)

In the centenary year of his birth, I attended Benjamin Britten’s prized creation: the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk. Walking to his grave, I spoke in one of my awful poem’s how I “staggered sharply” to pay my respects. His black megalith, is paired with his life partner Peter Pears, singer of renowned who created many of Britten’s tenor roles. Behind them is Imogen Holst.

Daughter to Gustav Holst, renowned for the eternal Planets Suite, Imogen had a gun-ho attitude to her career in music. She kept up morale during WWII, teaching children and amateurs to play instruments and sing. This new play by Mark Ravenhill sees her friendship formulate with Britten, over the terrifying commission of Gloriana, for the Queen’s coronation. With 9 months till the premiere, their relationship is greatly tested through power dynamics, sexual politics, class, position and taste. Though I did not find any great appeal in her compositions, she remains a female composer of note, not just for assisting in an opera and festival planning.

Imo is billed as a musical adviser to the creation of the opera. She dips in and out of the role, notes and advice abound about the score, cast and programming. Ben’s depression, bad arm and composer’s block is what makes the creation so fraught, his cageyness about Imo is another huge barrier about what she is on the project. Ravenhill’s knows his stuff, his work in the operatic form lies in his back catalogue. There is a depth in his characters, who seem to brush aside the total nonsense of the world. It is eloquently written, possibly working better as a one act show around 95 minute mark, like the radio play it is based on.

Director Erica Whyman has created a intimate show in the Swan Theatre. The space may evoke Shakespeare’s Globe, yet the back wall had a feel of Britten’s own Snape Maltings, with beach shingle spread across the floor. The soundscape is of the sea through out, expected due to the setting (Britten’s exposed house gets flooded at Christmas). The score by Conor Mitchell is a dastardly wonder, piano heavy and not heard enough. Connor Fogel playing live offstage was a wonderous addition, adding a live musical elevation to the show. This how ever didn’t stop the actors from both pretend playing the revolving piano on stage, with it spurts of water during the flood scene. Both Conor and Connor have had fun on the music side of things, the references to Britten in the score are there apparently to point out.

As Britten, Samuel Barnett looks the part, the curly, tempered hair, the clothes and glasses. His face does capture something of the composer if only a little. The sensible, then furious mood swings are delivered well. Britten would not have been an all rounded figure to gel with, how easy it was to be excluded at the drop of a hat. There was tenderness too, the love for Imo still there even in roaring insults. Victoria Yeats is chatty, whimsical, yet still grounded as Imogen. She arrives almost like Mary Poppins into the space. Yeats seems to brush off most of the tantrums of her fellow composer, like a mother, sibling and at times a wife. She stands her ground with Barnett in moments of shouty confrontation, all for the good of music making.

The second act sees the most patient driver in existence, as the tense morning before trying out the opera in London is delayed due to Imo’s tardiness. There is much yelling and poison from both, it could have almost turned physical. This is a work of fiction about two recent creative lives, people who knew them both are still around. I wonder just how catty things really got between them…

Though the opera Gloriana itself, does have its fans, it is nowhere Britten’s best. Much is said of a flop at its opening and though it has seen some stagings here and there, there is still life in the show yet. Ben & Imo proves just how intense a process it was to make.

Ben & Imo runs till 6 April 2024

(5 / 5)

Murder in the Dark was not exactly what I had expected and I did wonder by the early reaction of other theatre goers close by, if it had been what they had been expecting.

Wonderfully played out, this production had us drawn in by the end of the first scene.  Seldom have I been to any play that has had the ability, so quickly, to engage with an audience where you actually felt as if you are there, as part of the very story itself.

Without giving away any spoilers, the plot centres around Danny (Tom Chambers), a ‘famous’ musician who has been stranded on New Years eve following a car crash.  Mrs Bateman (Susie Blake) offers him an opportunity to stay overnight in her holiday let on a farm in the middle of nowhere.

What transpires next is a revelation into family relationships and the mysteries of the mind.

Brilliantly cast, with Rebecca Charles as Rebecca, Jonny Green as Jake and Owen Oakeshott as Will and Laura White as Sarah.  This tight group of actors certainly took us on a journey where none of us could have predicted the destination or outcome.  

I have never been to play where there was so much audience reaction with audible intakes of breath and laughter when the characters made comments that we could all have made in the circumstances they found themselves with laughter as light relief, or was it really to suppress the fear of the situation?? 

Written by Torben Betts, best known for his dark comedies of social embarrassment with a smattering of political commentary thrown in, this was departure from his usual writing.  

Directed by Philip Frank, this masterpiece of theatre was almost an immersive experience and I think best played in an intimate theatre space. The New Theatre, Cardiff, the ideal venue and assisted in helping create the an atmosphere and mood needed to enjoy this production to its fullest.

The design of the set as both realistic and clever and the designers, Simon Kenny for set and Max Papenheim for sound, created the perfect on stage environment for the telling of this particular tale.

Intrigued? Murder in the Dark Plays at the New Theatre until Saturday 2 March.