Theatre Roundup April

Three visits to the theatre during April, and three quite varying stories and productions.

THE THRILL OF LOVE

by Amanda Whittington

St James Theatre

(8^th April 2013)

Runs 27th March 2013 – 4th May 2013

Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain, convicted of the coldblooded killing of her unfaithful lover. This is her story, the fact that she pleaded not guilty after having handed herself over to an off duty police officer at the time of the murder, and offered no defence at her trial.

The story follows the investigating officer’s gut feeling that there was more to her case than was first apparent. His investigation takes him to the nightclub where she worked and the story unfolds through the eyes of the other women that worked there.

Although well staged, it did feel as if something was lacking, and that might have been the non presence of the other men in the story, the violent ex-husband and the equally unpleasant boyfriend and murder victim.

This production contains gun shots, smoking, strong language, scenes of a sexual nature and recreational drug use, and is recommended for ages 16+. Smoke, Haze and Strobe lighting are used throughout.

MARKET BOY

by David Eldridge

The Lost Theatre

Ran 24th to 27th April

The art of selling shoes in Romford Market during the 1980s, with Margaret Thatcher as the market inspector. This play set during the years of Margaret Thatcher’s occupancy of number 10 Downing Street felt a little rushed to stage to coincide with her passing. Whether you loved or loathed her, Margaret Thatcher changed the United Kingdom during this period.

I remember the period well. I remember Romford Market during that period and I have to admit the play did bring back memories of the lost era. The characters and stalls depicted were almost as I remember them, although I’m not so certain there was a stall full of CDs in 1985, more vinyl than shiny disk. The story was a bit weak, following a young lad starting as tea boy on the shoe stall and performances were mixed, although the fights were staged culminating in the biggest fight Romford Market had ever seem. (However, I’m guessing that might have changed since the period it was set.)

I will pick out George Vafakis, as Mouse, his comic expressions and timing were brilliant, and I hope to see more of him in future productions.

The performance was not suitable for under 12s

GUTTED

By Rikki Beadle-Blair

Theatre Royal Stratford East

(30^th April 2013)

Runs 26^th April to 25th May.

Described as “A daring, shocking and intensely emotional new play by Rikki Beadle-Blair”, this play is certainly an emotional rollercoaster. There are quite a large number of very funny moments during the play which contrast against other times when the story becomes quite uncomfortable and other moments where it is funny but you are telling yourself they shouldn’t be.

The story follows Bridie Prospect (Louise Jameson) and her four sons, Mathew, Mark, Luke and John and their partners in a turbulent examination of a mother’s love for her boys and where this dysfunctional and self destructive family went wrong. The Prospects are the royalty and the nightmare family on this council estate in South East London.  When one of the boys is released from rehab it triggers a 24 hour period that will change the family forever.

Louise Jameson gives a tremendous performance as the hard but vulnerable mother, and I challenge anyone not to feel for her by the end. The whole cast give strong performances and the only problem I had towards the beginning was to follow the timeline of the play as there were many fast and often short flashbacks during the narrative, signalled by the projection of images of the boys as children above the stage. 

GUTTED embraces adult themes and contains extremely strong language and scenes of a sexual nature. Suitable for audiences aged 16+

Theatre Roundup March

Only three visits this month, and what diversity...

Early on in the month saw two quite crazy productions come my way.

Dorothy in OZ

by James Michael Shoberg

Immersion  Theatre  at Waterloo East

26th February to 17th March 2013

Coming with a warning that it was not suitable for children should give you some idea what might be on the cards. Set in the facility for mental illness, ‘The Ozlin Centre’  this play made no excuses for itself. A brilliant parody of the Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy having to escape from the centre via the Great Administrator Oz, having been put in the care of the wicked witch of a doctor by her Auntie Em. On route she meets up with Tin Man who has anger management issues, Skarekrow (with two Ks) the junkie and Lion Man with sex addiction and performance problems. Very funny, the only issue was the Tin Man was styled too heavily on Adrian Edmondson's Vyvyan from “The Young Ones”.

Mile High – The Musical.

A new musical by Mike Hume and Terry Newman. 

The Lost Theatre

5th March to 24th March 2013

Two rival airlines in a battle to win the coveted title of Mediterranean Small Airline of the Year. One a cheap budget airline (Icarus Royal Airline ) and the other a snobby business class over priced airline who usually win. A pair of Kylie’s hot pants bought on Ebay is bet against a date with the steward of the high class operation (Fantasy Airlines). The main story revolves around the Richenda, the hostess who has never known her father and would rather be a pilot.

The audience had great fun and everyone seemed to really enjoy the show with enthusiasm and the only fault I’d pick out is that the cast should have been miked up rather than rely on a couple of free microphones.

The review for Mile High in The Stage was very harsh and I have to disagree with them entirely, it was a good evening’s entertainment. However I’m in total agreement with their review of the big West End Production of Viva Forever.

Viva Forever

London’s Piccadilly Theatre

Current.

A New Musical based on the back catalogue of songs from The Spice Girls.

Now I’m not the biggest Spice Girls fan, but the songs I do know are great party numbers and so I was prepared to give this a try although this has now firmed up my misgivings for shows that take a catalogue of songs and try to shoehorn a plot around them. It generally does not seem to work, there are just a few exceptions.

The plot was weak, a parody of X-Factor called Star Maker would have been funny ten years ago, but these shows have become a parody of themselves – you only have to watch the Twitter feed on a Saturday night to see that. 

And speaking of which, to encourage the audience to Tweet throughout the show is in my opinion a great big NO NO!!!

It was a pity, the script was written by Jenifer Saunders and I hoped for much better, but the characters were a poor man’s left over from “Absolutely  Fabulous”. Mum was too much Edina, mum’s best friend was a poor Patsy and even one of the judges had an assistant that was Bubbles. No originality there then.

The best parts of the show were when the full cast and ensemble took to the stage and performed the well known numbers, they sang and danced like troupers and full marks have to be given to them, but for the rest it just did not work.