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Theatre

REVIEW Looking Good Dead, New Theatre Cardiff by Barbara Hughes-Moore

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Live theatre is well and truly back at the New Theatre Cardiff, as is the return of the ubiquitous mystery thriller. An Inspector Calls was one of the last shows to play here before lockdown, and it’s fitting that Looking Good Dead, a crime thriller by bestselling novelist Peter James, is one of its first since reopening.

The opening scene is easily its most dramatic. An escort is lured to an abandoned warehouse; once there, she is killed by a pair of masked men who broadcast the whole thing live on the internet (imagine if the torturers in Funny Games were Twitch streamers and you’ve got the general idea). The next day, Tom Bryce (Adam Woodyatt, of the EastEnders hall of fame) finds a USB on the train home and, with the help of his apathetic but computer-savvy son Max (Luke Ward-Wilkinson), accesses its contents. When they succeed, they open a link to footage of the escort’s murder and are plunged into danger from which it seems only Detective Superintendent Roy Grace (Harry Long) can save them.

Directed by Jonathan O’Boyle and adapted by the award-winning Shaun McKenna, Looking Good Dead is based on the second book in James’ Roy Grace series, the DS recently played by John Simm on ITV. Roy Grace is just about as typical a copper as they come, with a hair-trigger gut instinct and a tragic backstory (your common garden ‘haunted by the disappearance/death/divorce of his wife’ schtick, as ascribed to most fictional gumshoes). Grace may have the gut, but the show doesn’t have the guts to give him a proper hook – a novelty, or a tragedy – for us to cling on to. While Simm’s DS was haunted by the inability to solve his wife’s disappearance, Long’s is celebrating his recent engagement – not exactly meaty material. Don’t get me wrong, a good detective doesn’t have to be tormented to be compelling (and Long is likable and believable in the role), but they do need to give you a reason to join them on the trail – and a great detective is one who is as much a mystery as the cases they solve.

It’s notoriously tricky to pull off suspense in the theatre, and while Looking Good Dead never quite excels at chilling the blood, its central mystery is intriguing and there are twists and turns a-plenty right through to the final seconds. There’s a reason James is the bestselling crime novelist in the UK, after all, as Looking Good Dead is the fifth of his novels to make it to the stage with critical acclaim, following the likes of The Perfect Murder and Dead Simple. And the cast are a huge part of what makes it enjoyable. Adam Woodyatt, known to many as Ian Beale, invests the audience in the story from the second he steps onto the stage. Woodyatt’s award-winning tenure as EastEnders’ longest serving cast member has meant that he hasn’t trodden the boards since 1982, but he’s so natural in and committed to the role, it feels as though he’s never been away.

Co-starring Gaynor Faye (most recently of The Syndicate) as his glamorous and slightly chaotic wife Kellie and Ian Houghton as slimy American entrepreneur Jonas Kent, the show succeeds largely on the charm of its cast, which also includes Leon Stewart as DS Glenn Branson, Gemma Stroyan as DS Bella Moy, and Natalie Boakye as the ill-fated Janie. Easily the most impressive performance is that of Mylo McDonald, making his professional stage debut. His scenes are brimming with tension, underscored by the innovative stage design, lighting and sound by Michael Holt, Jason Taylor and Max Pappenheim respectively (not to mention an effective costume by Chrissy Maddison). The stage, primarily a sparsely stylish middle-class home interior, is frequently backlit to reveal a hidden set that looks like something out of Saw – and every time that part illuminates and McDonald skulks back in, it’s like entering another world. He not only ably holds his own alongside stars Woodyatt and Faye but steals the whole show – and I’m excited to see where his career goes next.

At times comedic, at others sadistic, the world premiere of Looking Good Dead is an enjoyable mystery for fans of Luther and Line of Duty. If you like your cases cold and your pursuits hot, Looking Good Dead is the mystery you won’t want to miss.

The world premiere of Looking Good Dead is playing at the New Theatre Cardiff from Tuesday 28 September to Saturday 2 October 2021.

Review by
Barbara Hughes-Moore

Get the Chance supports volunteer critics like Barbara to access a world of cultural provision. We receive no ongoing, external funding. If you can support our work please donate here thanks.

Theatre

Review Small Change, Both Barrels Theatre by Tanica Psalmist

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Small Change is written by Peter Gill & presented by Both Barrels Theatre. The play takes you on a journey of self-discovery from childhood to manhood as well as a poetic adventures exploring themes closely linked to identity, undealt issues, mental arrest, poverty & self-reflection. This play is set on the east side of Cardiff in the 1950s and 70s, which was known mainly from the characters’ accents.  Small Change centres around Gerard, a troubled man at the end of youth, trapped by his past mentally & emotionally. The play begins with Gerard and Vincent beginning as teenagers getting up to mischief, as though they were schoolboys finding things to do to relieve their boredom.

https://vimeo.com/388827142

The Mis-en-scene in this production is kept simple, the set is made up of huge long rectangular blocks, which gets moved throughout. This play has to be well followed to grasp any surrounding narrative of who’s being directly referred to as there’s a lot of continuous character switches.  

Mrs Driscoll (Tameka Mortimer) struggles to cope as her complex home life feels surreal & distressing, she suspects that Mr Driscoll is seeing someone else due to his consistent absences from their house. Vincent, her son, had been thrown out of his local Catholic parish church – not much luck follows him soon after as his friend Gerard (Andy Rush) ends up drowning with guilt during adulthood, meanwhile Gerard’s mother, Mrs Harte played by (Sioned Jones) who’s character is extremely feisty as well as outspoken & consolidating has a strong nature to bite, however simultaneously loves her husband regardless.

The production portrays the impact of the past, present and future fairly well. The play become slightly unclear towards the end as situations portrayed climax differently, causing greater understanding although the understanding in the first place was not so transparent, it’s revealed towards the end that there are certain things that were left unsaid in an era when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain. Here, we begin to see expressions of love between the two men on stage – however, despite the private setting of their conversation, it doesn’t quite convince Vincent causing them to distance further.

During this play sexual orientation is not, in any event, the central point of the show, which appears to be more to do with exploring why it is that people are driven to behave in certain ways. Whilst talking with several cast members after the play it was agreed that the script was slightly confusing, some felt that same way when they were first exposed to the script, I was slightly surprised to hear that the storyline of Mrs Driscoll was based on a true story. Overall, the humour of this play became more amusing towards the end, the small space was well used & each actor performed their characters well.    

Cast:
Sioned Jones – Mrs Harte
Tameka Mortimer – Mrs Driscoll
Andy Rush – Gerard
Toby Gordon – Vincent

Creative Team:
Directed by: George Richmond-Scott
Movement director: Rachel Wise
Set and Costume Design: Liam Bunster
Lighting Designer: Ali Hunter
Sound Designer: Lex Kosanke
Production Manager: Gabriel Finn
Casting by Jane Frisby
Photography credit: Jon Holloway

Celebrations

Irlen Awareness Week by Jennifer Owen

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Irlen Awareness Week is a worldwide week to increase awareness of Irlen Syndrome and to educate the public about Irlen Syndrome, this year it is the 18 to 22 October, 2021 so please join us this year. This years event will take place online due to Covid 19.

It’s a very special week for people with Irlen Syndrome and their families

Here are my plans, I have written a blog series about all things about Irlen syndrome, and I have got the Red House in Merthyr, lit up in Purple again this year and shared information about Irlen Syndrome on my own blog too.

If you want to get involved please visit HERE

Dance, Theatre, Uncategorized

Review, Small Change, Peter Gill, Both Barrels Theatre, Omnibus Theatre By Hannah Goslin

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out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

A blanket white stage. Some old, red colour metal scupltures. I hear someone describe them as artwork much like Barbara Hepworth. Very old city feel.

A set design, perfect for such a play. Small Change is set in Cardiff – these “sculptures” reminded me so much of the Bay, the docks, the nooks and crannies of Cardiff. Where there’s always something to discover around a corner.

Small Change tells the story of 2 boys and their 2 mothers – it looks at their relationships, all intertwining into one another, of the time period and its taboos, of mental health and repression. It’s a lot to put into a play and Both Barrels Theatre do this well.

Firstly, we have to talk about the accents. All very perfect, I suddenly felt transported to my family, to my time in Wales, and it erupted personal memories for me. Granted, this may not do this for every audience member, but the thick sing song accent certainly helped place the performers before our eyes in Cardiff.

The play took another worldly, unusual turn. The writing of Small Change is at times nonsensical but also poetic – just like most Welsh writers, there is a poetic and descriptive aspect to the narrative, and this not only felt unique to the play but also highlighted a unique part of Welsh theatre. Repetitive statements, questions, rhetoric. The genius of the writing is one of truly great playwrights in that it is unusual, it is one of a kind but also allows the director and performers to read into it and develop their own opinions and approaches to the text. And Both Barrels have utilised this.

I wasn’t expecting and was certainly pleasantly pleased to see physical theatre – a type of theatre that I feel I see less of and which is a shame, because it is so interesting how atmosphere and feelings can be shown through movement. We really feel the struggle, the sense of looking back at the past, the changes in time, and the moments of real emotional turmoil not only through the writing and the performers conviction, but also their movement.

Small Change drew me in; it is poignant, it is a really unique take on a well known production and the physical theatre is fitting and fluid.

Musical, Theatre

REVIEW Priscilla Queen of the Desert, New Theatre Cardiff by Barbara Hughes-Moore

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Trigger warnings for the show: strong language, violence, and homophobic and transphobic slurs.

Before there was RuPaul, there was Priscilla – who, like Divine and Crystal LaBeija before her, brought drag to mainstream attention. The 1994 movie, starring Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and Terence Stamp, won an Oscar for its spectacular costume design and introduced a new generation to a thrilling world of glitz and glamour, a world to which the stage musical eagerly wants us to return after being left so long in the COVID wilderness. Racy, rowdy and rambunctious, Priscilla Queen of the Desert is a riotously fun time that reminds you exactly why live theatre is irreplaceable and invaluable.

It’s thrilling to be back in the New Theatre after so much time away, and the Priscilla UK Tour is the perfect show to welcome us back through its doors. The show centres on three drag queens, two cis men and a trans woman, who journey across the Australian Outback on the titular tour bus. Tick/Mitzi Mitosis (Edwin Ray) persuades two close friends – egocentric ingénue Adam/Felicia Jollygoodfellow (Nick Hayes) and drag doyenne Bernadette (Michael Western) – to perform their act at a casino in remote Alice Springs, where Tick will have the opportunity to reconcile with his estranged wife and son. Along the way there are sequins, setbacks, and singalong disco classics that will have you dancing (COVID-safe) in the aisles. Fun, filthy and fabulous – Priscilla puts the ‘extra’ in ‘extraordinary’!

Directed by Ian Talbot and produced by Mark Houcher and Jason Donovan (who originated the role of Tick on the West End), the show is a jukebox musical brimming with camp classics from ‘Boogie Wonderland’ to ‘Go West’ to ‘Hot Stuff’. Every musical number is joyous and unique, and songs are beautifully woven throughout (like Dionne Warwick’s ‘I Say a Little Prayer’, which recurs in its most poignant moments). While the humour might feel dated at times, the songs never do. Charles Cusick-Smith’s sublime costumes do justice to the Oscar-winning originals while bringing a new flair and Tom Jackson-Greaves’ excellent choreography lights a kinetic spark that burns throughout the show – they, along with the exceptional live band (directed by Richard Atkinson), ensure that the production is a feast for the eyes and ears.

The level of talent on display is staggering. Edwin Ray brilliantly anchors the ensemble as a man trying to marshal all the facets of his identity, while Western’s Bernadette exudes Old Hollywood grace and glamour and Hayes’ Felicia bags all the best songs, including a truly show-stopping entrance number – you’ll know it when you see it. I have never seen a happier ensemble: from the main trio to the Three Divas (Claudia Kariuki, Aiesha Pease and Rosie Glossop) to the performers dressed variously as giant cupcakes, dancing paintbrushes and plaid-clad delinquents, the cast’s unadulterated joy at being back in action was palpable.

While the zingers sizzle and the sequins glitter, Priscilla doesn’t gloss over the real-life hatred and violence inflicted on the LGBTQ+ community. Bernadette not only faces transphobic bullying from bigoted straight people but from Adam, who repeatedly deadnames and misgenders her. Adam himself is the victim of an attempted assault, and even apparent allies can turn out to be fair-weather friends when the sun rises. Though the central trio often bicker and Priscilla often breaks down, they stick together and they neither give up nor turn back, proving that true allies are there even after the music stops and the engine fails.

Priscilla concludes that, no matter how long and winding the road, your family will always be waiting to welcome you home at the end of it – and that true family are the ones who stay by your side no matter how bumpy the ride. Family are the people who climb mountains with you, both literal and figurative; they are the people who help you follow your dreams. When the audience rose, as one, for a much-deserved standing ovation, it felt like the best kind of dream: the one that comes true.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert UK Tour will be playing at the New Theatre Cardiff from Monday 20 – Saturday 25 September

Priscilla UK Tour

*The review previously misstated the show’s costume designer. This has been corrected.*

Musical, Theatre

PREVIEW Priscilla Queen of the Desert at the New Theatre Cardiff 20-25 September

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After endless months of lockdowns, Zoom hangouts and laughable attempts to bake banana bread, we’re all dusting off our boots and getting our sequins out of storage as we take a step back into ‘ordinary’ life following an extraordinary year and a half. But Priscilla Queen of the Desert is here to put the ‘extra’ in ‘extraordinary’!

The UK Tour is the inaugural event of the New Theatre’s much-anticipated reopening, and there truly couldn’t be a better show to welcome us back. Based on the Oscar-winning 1994 film which starred Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce and Terence Stamp, Priscilla Queen of the Desert centres on three friends as they journey through the Australian outback in the titular tour bus. Produced by Mark Goucher and West End icon Jason Donovan (in his producing debut), the show stars Miles Western as Bernadette, Nick Hayes as Adam/Felicia, Edwin Ray as Tick/Mitzi, who lead an amazing ensemble through such classic tunes as ‘It’s Raining Men’, ‘Hot Stuff’, and ‘I Will Survive’ and many more.

After so much uncertainty for so long, it’s amazing to be seeing a show which proclaims to be ‘pure joy guaranteed’ – and I for one can’t wait to hitch a ride.

Review to follow!

Priscilla Queen of the Desert UK Tour will be playing at the New Theatre Cardiff from Monday 20 September to Saturday 25 September

Priscilla UK Tour

Preview by
Barbara Hughes-Moore

Get the Chance supports volunteer critics like Barbara to access a world of cultural provision. We receive no ongoing, external funding. If you can support our work please donate here thanks.

Dance, Theatre, Uncategorized

Review, Is this a Waste Land?, Charlotte Spencer Projects, Sadlers Wells, By Hannah Goslin

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out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

Out in the East of London, we are taken to a barren land sitting in between skyscrapers and posh looking apartment buildings. Some built, some in the stages of being built, with the Olympic park and Orbital tower also over looking us.

There’s nothing here, but bits of old materials, items, objects in a small part of this fenced off area. We are asked to pick an object, and so the performance begins.

Armed with headphones and work gloves, we follow instructions spoken to us to explore and experience this space, at times as a group, at times on our own. Music and soundscapes are added to the recording, adding atmosphere and transporting us to different places while we look out on the concrete land. Over the space of an hour and half, we become familiar with this space, beginning to think of its past, present, future, of our own lives and those less fortunate or even in better positions. We think of society, of politics, of environment and nature. We think of London and gentrification. So much comes out of an empty fenced area and a bunch of junk.

Soon it is clear that we are being told different instructions, splitting up and doing different things in different groups. We are the performance, and while the instructions will be the same for each performance, it is clear that there is scope for each production to produce something unique dependent on the participants.

There is at first hesitation: What are we waiting for? What are we doing? What is the reasoning? Soon we are immersed and so all the elements and subjects that are brought to light that I mentioned earlier become clear, giving food for thought and making us feel a range of very deep emotions.

At times, there are professional performers who do their own things to the side, creating physical performances of their own, of artistic installations that are there and blink, you could miss them. A lot goes on and again, this makes each performance different for those attending – some may see some things, and from a certain angle, others something completely different. And that is the beauty of this.

Something so barren becomes familiar and filled with items, with people, with physical theatre, and without words, when we are teaming up or constructing, we work together and it makes sense. Somehow, communication isn’t always needed – after some time, we all just understand one another.

There are for sure some hard hitting moments; we are instructed to make, to create, to perform and soon we see it destroyed or taken away and there is a real social and political underbelly to what we are experiencing.

Is this a Waste Land? Is a complete triumph of physical theatre, of space exploration, of immersion and of poignant point making.

Musical, Theatre

Review, Amelie The Musical, Criterion Theatre, By Hannah Goslin

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out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

If you are a millennial, I guarantee you watched Amelie the film when you were a teenager and fell in love with its weirdness, quirkiness and general artistic cinematography.

I feel that it was a cult film for us all, that we remember and hold a special place in our hearts. Which is why when I heard it had been turned into a musical, I was dubious on what they had done.

But boy was I wrong.

If you haven’t seen Amelie, it is about this girl who is sheltered from the World as she grows up. When she reaches adulthood, she decides to move away but still shies away from everyone, not going out or engaging. When one day, she bumps into the love of her life and everything changes. She goes on a journey to make people happy and in the process, coming out of her shell to grab love and hold onto it.

In true Amelie style, the whole production – set, lighting, costuming has this mellow tinge reminiscent of the 70’s. Dark blues, browns, yellows, reds all light up the stage, giving it that chic, French feel that the film holds so dear.

It also does not shy away from how quirky and original the original narrative is. Amelie is a strange girl and so is her story, and so no memorial points that I remember from the film are missed, bringing them in in poignant or hilarious ways, and integrating them into the songs. I feared that what I loved most about the film would be missing, but it wasn’t and was elaborated on with gumption.

The music was also reminiscent of the atmosphere created – all those on stage played a live instrument, and it gave that french, grungy, Paris street feel that you associate with the city; the chic, unusual, hippy feeling – the too cool for school feeling. It balanced the narrative well, and made me honestly forget that this was a musical. Usually, expecting something perhaps a little tongue and cheek, or satirical, this was complimentary and really reflected the story and its aesthetic.

The performers were also brilliant. Never missing a beat, they were so perfect, moving from scene to scene with effortless grace, sometimes it was easy to forget they were real bodies in front of you and not an edited film.

Amelie The Musical is everything you want it to be and more. For those millennials who grew up with this firmly in their teenage years, it brings the film and story to life, with all the original elements and enhances it before your eyes.

Music

Review, Road to Ruin, Dan Jordan & The Warbirds, by Gareth Williams

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out of 5 stars (3 / 5)

Dan Jordan and The Warbirds evade categorisation. They are poetry. They are music. They are outlaw country. They are moody blues. They are folk storytelling. They are heavy metal vocals. The only seminal thread that runs through their latest album, Road to Ruin, is main man Dan’s clear connection to the music of Bob Dylan. He may not readily admit to such an influence being a conscious thing, but it is apparent that his time spent with Dylan over the course of his first album has had a lasting effect. His vocal delivery may not be to everyone’s taste, but one should at least be able to appreciate the hard-felt poetry that emanates from it.

Opening track Slow Burn may get off to a slow start but its first few moments of silence create a real sense of anticipation. A whirring cymbal then comes spinning into existence before being knocked sideways by the hard keys of a piano. It introduces the heavy beat which symbolises much of the album’s dark veneer, Jordan’s own smoky Dylan-esque vocals then coming in to add further shade. There is a sultry otherworldliness to the piano and electric guitar which gives it a certain intrigue and stops it descending into a black hole. The various mixing of genres, from the Latinized Country of Rider to the Metalized Blues of Run, have a similar effect, the poetic nature of Jordan’s lyrics also contributing to this sense of fascination which surrounds much of the album.

Each track is greeted with surprise. Each offers something slightly different from the rest. Ain’t Got Nothin’ may have a classic Blues structure but Matts White and Taylor bring some wonderful organ and electric guitar respectively to give it an added dimension. The soft and delicate composition on Seven Deaths of You creates a beautifully light atmosphere which allows deeper access into Jordan’s poetry. There is a real slice of folk storytelling here, delivered rather nicely through a deep voice that contains the faint presence of delicacy and vulnerability. Sweet City Ruin manages to uncover this further in lines like “stumbling through the city like a spectre” and “all you want is for the world to know that you were here” even as they are hidden behind the up-tempo, western swing style music.

There is a mythical quality to Elena which could be said to draw on folk tradition. The track that follows, Nightingale,certainly seems to suggest a strong folk influence upon Jordan’s work. His always gritty and grave delivery never allows for the same cadences that one might find among the typical folk singer however, meaning the loss of emotionality to some degree. What is lost here though is made up for in another unexpected musical addition, this time the introduction of pop elements followed by a sudden flurry of different instruments that take the album in a completely different direction. It means that, even as Jordan’s vocal starts to feel staid, there is enough originality to keep you listening right to the end.

Final track This Land has No Name is definitely worth sticking around for. On its musical surface is a wild west evoking landscape, complete with tolling bell and front porch guitar. It is the country music of the outlaws, reclaiming their rural roots from the urbanisation of an earlier sound. Dig a little deeper into the lyrics, and you begin to see the parallels. Yet this song speaks not of a place across the pond but a land much closer to home. Those “structures… crooked… battered” are the stone houses dotted across the countryside. The “roofs made of tin” are the barns stood in fields “still breathing [though] barely alive”. The bar, “as dry as a bone” and “the shops, boarded up” represent the communities who have lost their amenities to the forces of globalisation and capitalism. It is a depiction of Wales that is keenly felt and of which Dan Jordan seems acutely aware, no doubt garnered from his own geographical movement across the nation’s map. It is a protest song, if you will, inspired, whether conscious or not, by folk pioneers such as Bob Dylan, with a contemporary resonance that ensures Road to Ruin finishes with a political bang.

To find out more about Dan Jordan & The Warbirds, click here. To listen to album on Spotify, click here.

Reviewed by
Gareth Williams

Theatre, Uncategorized

Review, The Memory of Water, Hampstead Theatre, By Hannah Goslin

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out of 5 stars (4 / 5)

In true Hampstead Theatre style, the staging is impeccable and welcomes you as soon as you come in. All based in one bedroom, the room is traditional and like ones I remember my Grandmother having when I was a child. Above the staging is ever changing cloudy sky, that throughout the production, seems to reflect the mood in colour and atmosphere.

This set is only the beginning of this well thought out play. The Memory of Water is a story of grief, relationships and secrets. Of the passing of a Mother and the memories associated with her and their childhood. As things unravel, we see new sides of each character and the impact that both memories and relationships have on how we live our lives and think of our past.

The set of the bedroom not only makes this feel intimate, but adds to the sense of a broken fourth wall. The interactions between all the characters are perfection; they bounce off one another, are quick witted and natural. We certainly feel like we are going through the moments of grief between family members, and their estranged relationships, while their memories bring them back together. It is easy to feel relatable to and anyone who has lost someone can certainly feel their life reflected.

The performers move effortlessly around the stage, feeling at home, comfortable and all the while very naturalistic. Even when we see interactions with the deceased, this is meant to be hyper-realistic but there is a fine line between feeling whether this is real or not.

The Memory of Water is a very relatable depiction of family ties, of the importance of memories in how they shape yourself, your life and how you view others. It is also a very enjoyable production, feeling like an easy and immersed narrative.