Garyswordz

Orwell wrote this, his eponymous novel,  in 1944 when the UK and US were allies with the Soviet Union. It is a political satire on Communist totalitarianism , the events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Alongside his own  !984, and Huxley’s Brave New World, it stands as an unique political vision of a dystopian future. An allegory whose imagery has endured and become embedded into  our political culture, language and discourse.

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This production, directed by  Iqbal  Khan arrives from the Octagon theatre Bolton, before proceeding to Hull. At a time when politics is in disarray in the Middle East, and the UK and USA are in Election years its revival could not be more timeous.

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The text has been widely used in secondary schools for exam purposes for over fifty years. It is amongst the best known works of English fiction. Khan wisely eschews making any significant changes to the story. However its presentation is a different matter. Should the animal character simply be offered as human? Or should they appear as animals? Khan settles for head dresses  and porcine movement whose anthropomorphism does not always convince.

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The opening sequence of the pigs  take over of Farmer Jones’ farm is noisy, and powerful, the actors as pigs emerging from stalls on a single set  designed by Ciarán Bagnall which works well, offering an alter like centrepiece. I found the anachronistic use of surveillance- cameras, borrowed from the later “1984” jarring.

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Much of the dialogue is lifted from the novel which was not written as a play. Eighty years on  Orwell’s grasp of the vicissitudes of politics remains painfully accurate, although the Right Wings appropriation of aspects of Communist Totalitarianism  was not anticipated.

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A cast of six combine animal movement  with stirring  human speeches, often addressing the audience directly, and often amusingly , the light touch welcome amidst the dour political message.

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Sam Black,  as Boxer the cart horse, provides an Everyman figure initially credulous, then incredulous at what unfolds before him. Ida Regan’s Napoleon is superb, surely inspired by Liz Truss. Power mad and unscrupulous her six principles are literally rewritten as the story unfolds

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Divided into two acts of 55 and 35  minutes the production is potent and punchy, its tragic denouement inevitable

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“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

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Animal farm continues at derby until 16^th March and finishes in Hull the following week.

2.22  A Ghost story – Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

****

2.22 is a rarity, a brand new  ghost/ thriller story , written by Danny Robins  creator of the hit BBC podcast The Battersea Poltergeist.  It skilfully conflates the traditional Ghost Story  genre as established by Charles Dickens with the current  popular appetite for the paranormal. Touring psychic  Sally Morgan regularly sells out thousand seater plus  venues such as the Grand, this play  taps into that current audience  interest in the paranormal.

Danny Robins

The play premiered in 2021 and has previously featured Lily Allen and Cheryl Cole in lead roles, enjoying  five record-breaking seasons at the Noël Coward, Gielgud, Criterion theatres,  The Lyric Theatre and The Apollo Theatre.

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No good  ghost story is without a twist, and so it is here. Robins implores audience not to share that twist,  and I shall certainly honour that request here.

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A deceptively simple single set  ( Anna Fleischle) admirably establishes the appropriate atmosphere whilst simultaneously conjuring up the odd surprise.

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Largely a four hander,  events unfold for a married couple and their newborn baby hosting an old female friend and her new boyfriend in a recently purchased old house. Before long equally old tensions emerge and “things” go bump in the night, particularly at 2.22am.

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Vera is tautly played by Vera Choc who is convinced that their new home is haunted. Husband Sam ( George Rainsford) is the sceptic, both to his wife, and the audience. Female house guest  Jenny ( Fiona Wade) gives a sparkling nuanced performance but it is “Wanted” pop star Jay McGuinnes who impresses as Essex wide boy , but surprise believer in the paranormal,  who plays his part with confidence, wit and good humour,  the latter of which is liberally interwoven into the  script. An almost sold out first night in a cold wet windy Wolverhampton including an unusually strong young audience demonstrated the strong word of mouth following for this  production and the star quality of McGuinness which was self -evident.

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At two hours including the interval, directors Mathew Dunster and Isabel Marr  keep proceedings zipping along. Robins’ script is lean and  sinewy and requires close listening attention, however  the first half goes nowhere dramatically, a shortfall which is compensated for in spades after the interval.

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Extraneous flashes and screams ratchet up the tension, or are somewhat gauche , dependent upon your mood, I was in the former camp. This production cleverly interweaves a strong story with a broader exploration of the paranormal including past lives and table tipping. I brought along Jane Osborne, the UKs leading Past Life Regressionist for an expert view. Jane found the evening authentic, compelling, gripping and entertaining ( as I did).

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 2.22 plays until Sat  24^th and continues on nationwide tour.

This is a much heralded revamp of a story which has endured both on stage and screen. You cannot beat a good courtroom drama. It is the best live straight play production  I have seen on stage for many years.

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Serendipitously, justice, and what it means,  is back in the news with Mancunian Andy Malkinson’s wrongful rape conviction for which he served over twenty years, the Covid Enquiry, the Contaminated Blood Enquiry ,and the Post Masters Scandal. An audience whose default position may have been to accept is now more than ever ready to question.

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The fundamentals of the  Oscar-nominated    1957 film  remain as compelling to day as they were over half a century ago.

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“A life in the balance. Twelve men. One verdict.”

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Unfolding on a single set, a case which initially looks open and closed has its component parts peeled back, onion like, to reveal what is underneath- complacency, indolence, prejudice, assumptions, bigotry and differing life lessons.  But there is no place to hide physically , morally, or  intellectually, as the temperature and  stakes rise while the table turns, literally. Very quickly it becomes apparent that it is not just the unseen Defendant who is on trial , but each one of the jurors too.

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 Clever lighting  effects mark the passage of time. The stage design is simple, though effective. One room with a twelve-seater table in the centre which slowly revolves as the narrative progresses. It does a full 180 during the first half, the table literally turning as the story unfolds and the plot slowly thickens. This continues in the second, equally gripping half, the long, hot day turning to dusk, lightning striking the city overhead.

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An unusually strong cast ,under the direction of Christopher Haydon in a production brought  fresh from the West End on tour by Bill Kenwright Ltd, is studded with television staples. Casualty and Emmerdale star Jason Merrells takes the Henry Fonda role of Juror 8, ably supported by an ensemble cast including Gray O’Brien (Coronation Street, Peak Practice), Tristan Gemmill (Coronation Street, Casualty), Michael Greco (EastEnders), Ben Nealon (Soldier Soldier) and Gary Webster (Minder, Family Affairs).

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Character actors  Paul Beech, Samarge Hamilton, Jeffrey Harmer, Mark Heenehan, Kenneth Jay, Paul Lavers and Owen Oldroyd complete the  compelling cast  as the concept of reasonable doubt and what and should not be accepted as a fact  are explored.

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The play is beautifully staged  with set design by Michael Pavelka , Chris  Haydon’s direction demands constant movement in what could easily have become  a static production, writer Reginald Rose packs both a cerebral and visceral punch into a literate script. The warm and prolonged curtain call was richly deserved from a full Tuesday house.

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This scintillating  production runs until Saturday and continues on nationwide tour

This  play is not be confused with the  hit 1964 sex comedy film of the same name ( screenplay Wilder/ Diamond) starring Dean Martin and Kim Novak which drew on several sources for its material.

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Instead it is written by Frenchman Didier Caron, a distinguished playwright with over twenty film and play credits to his name. Its English translation is by Charlie Gobbett  ( who specialises in French and German translations) , receiving its English language premiere in 2022

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On a cold dark evening Sutton Arts took on the  daunting task of brightening   the mood and lifting the spirits of  its post festivities audience for an unknown play. The theatre’s loyal following packed it out. Sutton Arts rose successfully to that challenge in some style.

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Translating foreign language plays is no easy task. Molliere is unquestionably one of the greats of French and world literature, yet  none   of his plays has enjoyed a  mass market transition in English.  French farce doyen  Feydeau comes closest in that regard, But Caron born in 1962 is not writing  straight farce, instead a comic hybrid. Thus we have multiple  doors, but doors that symbolise life options, not shagging ones.

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With four characters who are largely onstage simultaneously this is  a demanding production for the cast and is tightly scripted, set, contemporaneously in two Parisienne  apartments. Viviane  (Elena Serafinas )is a  middle aged women in a long standing marriage to Bernard ( Gary Pritchard), Cindy  ( Phebe Bland) is an aspiring young  actress hired by Bernard  to pretend to be his mistress as a ruse to smoke out  his wife’s suspected infidelity. Oliver,( Paul Atkins) is Elena’s putative love interest, young vain and unlucky in love who provides a pleasingly understated anchor to the proceedings.

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Cindy consistently has the best lines laced with malapropisms , mondegreens  and spoonerisms galore. Her skirts are as short as her recall of recent events, Bland plays the bimbo confidently, injecting energy and pace  into the production. Her pretend love rival, Viviane is coy, wily, sassy and deceptively measured, played by Serafinas and has the benefit of the last word. Bernard is a delight in the hands of Pritchard, he epitomises the  anecdote of the man  who buys a chest expander to beef himself up- but cannot get the device out of the box. In turns, geeky, nerdy, mock defiant, cod philosopher and fashion disaster he is the comic ace in the pack for the show. However the programme’s claim that the actors were costumed from their own wardrobes reveals  in Pritchard’s case a disturbing predilection for cycling lycra and  Humphrey Bogarde style raincoats. The use of Supertramp, quintessentially English MOR fare, for incidental music was a curious feature

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A clever single set  is split into two for the purposes of allowing the two apartments and works brilliantly ( however I still struggle with the late Colin Townsend’s absence from the set builder credits).

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Technically  a  show like this is hard to critique. How much of this is in the original untranslated, script? How much credit falls to the translation? How much is down  to the cast ? And how much is down to the Director Ian Cornock who has to pull all the strands together for a largely unknown play? The audience may simply only judge what is laid before them. An  assured first night, frothy, bright, light and laugh out loud entertaining for which Cornock deserves considerable credit. You will enjoy it. Continues until Sat 3^rd Feb 2024

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Murder in the dark- Derby Theatre

****

This is the debut tour of playwright   Torben Betts’ latest drama. Although the material is new, the pedigree of those involved  is well established. Derby audiences have already savoured his work through previous productions of “Invincible” and “Caroline’s Kitchen “. Phillip Franks directs, having enjoyed a distinguished acting career,   most notably in “The Darling Buds of May” and “Heartbeat”. I saw the opening night which was surprisingly, and pleasingly,  well attended despite  a bitterly cold evening when Derby County football club  were playing at home.

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Betts’  programme note pleads for no spoilers . This is a problem for a production which hinges on several surprises. But I will reveal all that can be revealed.

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The premise  is that it is  New Year’s Eve and a car crash on a lonely road brings  once famous but troubled singer Danny Sierra and his extended family to an isolated holiday cottage in rural England. A sequence of inexplicable events unfolds… and then the lights go out.

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Trying to nail down a genre is no easy task. Murder mystery, horror, tragedy, comedy and melodrama are all present. I did a vox pop prior to curtain up, and the audience were unclear about what it was that they had actually come to see. Ninety minutes later , no consensus had been reached.

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Two cast members dominate proceedings, Tom Chambers is the down on his luck singer drowning his sorrows with alcohol.  Susie Blake, fades in and out as  the mysterious , mischievous, old Mrs Bateman owner of the farmhouse She is superb and steals the show.

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Director Philip Franks has much fun with the story. Parody, pastiche and homage to horror as a genre surface throughout, with skilful assistance from the technical team.

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 Simon Kenny’s design for the cottage is effective and offers several physical surprises,  alongside  Paul Pyant’s lighting to help with the mystery as it flickers and shifts in the  dark. Max Pappenheim’s sound and music is portentous, haunting and sinister.

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Betts chooses to riff on an Agatha Christie closed set model, complete with “Three Blind Mice”. The production is split into two halves of 45 minutes each, pretty much an optimal length for a caper like this. The second act is more satisfying than the first but descends into chaos as Betts tries to pull the cross genre strands together. The physical comedy  and shocks are good, the psycho drama plot which emerges is less convincing despite being well written with some laugh out loud jokes. The significance of the title is revealed only at the end.

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An appreciative audience offered a warm rousing reception at the end , the show runs until Sat 20^th and continues on national tour.

Gary Longden

Annie – Wolverhampton Grand Theatre

*****

Before leaving for the theatre I watched the Labour Party Conference highlights on the news. The signature song from Annie  “Tomorrow”  ( sung by Roosevelt’s 1930’s  cabinet in the Oval office!) could easily have been used, thematically demonstrating its contemporaneous relevance.

This musical debuted on  Broadway in 1977, written by  Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan. It  is based on the Little Orphan Annie comic strip created by Harold Gray in 1924.,(which in turn was inspired from the poem Little Orphan Annie by James Whitcomb Riley.  There have been numerous film and television adaptations.

Dramatically, the show pivots on the character of orphanage matron Miss Hannighan,  for whom Director Nikolai  Foster has chosen a man, Craig Revel Horwood, to perform the role. Originally the late Paul O Grady  had been listed for the part. Although famous for his judging on television’s Strictly Come Dancing, Craig has  a distinguished  track record in Musical theatre ( Miss Saigon and Crazy for You) as well as being omnipresent on the Pantomime circuit, he can sing well in addition to being able to dance well. Jodie Prenger takes the part on Saturdays.

I had my reservations about his casting beforehand . They were wholly misplaced. He is brilliant as the booze loving, children hating matron. There is ( thankfully) not a trace of his television judging persona, nor does he assume the role of a pantomime dame, he IS Miss Hannighan.

The cast  is large, and child heavy . Inevitably the child roles rotate, suffice to say they are all excellent, and assiduous dancers.

Alex Bourne is imperious as multi–Billionaire Daddy Warbucks whose stoney capitalist heart is melted by orphan Annie. Amelia Adams is sassy, and persuasive as Warbuck’s personal assistant Grace. Paul French enjoys himself as the conniving confidence trickster Rooster, trying to claim both Annie and a reward by presenting himself and leggy girlfriend Lily ( Billy Kay) as Annie’s parents.

The costuming is lush for Warbucks’ scenes, the stage lavishly set, both courtesy of Colin Richmond with period Radio news broadcasting  as a backdrop.

On the one hand the story is contrived and manipulative- who can resist a coterie of young female orphans and a dog? On the other hand  the story is so well told, and acted , that it becomes irresistible.  Director Foster revels in presenting the song and dance scenes, including tap, all bursting with brio, pizzaz and zip. “NYC” was barnstorming. Choreographer  Nick Winston must have been looking over his shoulder when Revel Horwood was around!

Essentially this is about Annie, a young girl, and her dreams in a world beset by poverty, homeless ness and economic adversity and her hope, for a family and a better life. I loved it. The standing ovation at the end was richly deserved. Continues until sat 14^th then on national tour.

***

An extraordinary one woman show featuring a table, a chair and Ruby Wax.

This is not her stand up comedy show, instead a stream of consciousness monologue about mental health in general, her mental health in particular with reflections upon all of our mental health. What appears on paper dour and down beat is energetic, vibrant and quixotic in her hands as she promotes her book: “I’m not as well as I thought I was”

The highlight is unquestionably her trip whale watching with some reassuringly offbeat characters. she does meander and go off piste, but not i suspect, off script, whilst always commanding her audience and performance.

The show is short, about 45 minutes for the first half, and barely 30 minutes for the second, but perfectly formed. Afterwards she was charming for the book signing, around 200 people at £18.99, the best part of £4000 after you have finished work – not bad….

Ruby Wax’s comedy career has been eclipsed by her prodigious campaign work for mental health (for which she was awarded an OBE in 2015). I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was is her seventh book, and another that mines her life and her experience of mental illness, as well as exploring routes to good mental health. But it was derailed from its original destination: “I didn’t set out to write a book about being in a mental clinic. It was going to be a kind of guide for people who wanted to find something deeper in their lives: find a purpose outside of a job and a partner and living the ‘same old, same old’”.

Wax planned to undertake a series of journeys “with the intention of finding meaning, purpose to life, peace, compassion, joy – whatever you want to call it”. She went on a month-long silent retreat at Spirit Rock, a renowned meditation centre near San Francisco; she sailed from the Dominican Republic with a contingent of American and German “healers” to swim with humpback whales; and she helped in a refugee camp in Greece. But it was during her stay with a Christian community in Yorkshire that Wax’s mind eventually gave in to collapse.

While talking to a priest, she began to feel truly dreadful. She lied, telling him she had a Zoom call, and headed to her bed. Even at her most vulnerable, she couldn’t help her hard-wired defence of humour: “I think he probably knew I didn’t have a Zoom call, but he still looked at me with non-judgemental love. These guys just won’t stop giving”. She was soon admitted to a clinic where she wrote the beginnings of this book. Her depression – at bay for the best part of twelve years – had returned.

One chapter, “Television”, seems to want to remind us, and Wax herself, of her success on screen (with speedy accounts of her most memorable interviews). Yet her relentless output – and desire for affirmation – contributed to her undoing, and she can feel the wounds of her past keenly. (Her parents escaped Vienna in 1938, and the home Wax grew up in was emotionally abusive and unsafe.)

*****

Brassed Off  – Derby Theatre

*****

I experienced a classic moment tonight. At the bar I made conversation with a fellow drinker now referred to as the man at the bar ( TMATB). “Have you seen this before? ” I enquired.  TMATB replied, ” Several times, have you? And did you like it?”. Enthusiastically I continued ”  Yes, It’s one of my favourite pieces of theatre”  TMATB replied ” And mine, I wrote it”. At which point Paul Allen  revealed himself, and offered numerous brilliant anecdotes.

As I prepared to leave for the theatre at tea time, the news was dominated by a Conservative Government abandoning the North at their party conference, the previous week had been dominated by mass job losses at local employer Wilco. “Brassed off” may have been written thirty years ago, but it is a story for our times.

Key to the success of this production is  live music onstage  in the shape of the Derwent Brass band based in Belper, Derbyshire. The rich plangent tones of brass have an unique quality, rousing, melancholic and nostalgic, and the evening treated us to a mini concert within the play, each number earning deserved extended applause. An audience member told me that she had only come, knowing nothing of the story, because she liked brass bands.

The film upon which the stage play is based is amongst the finest observations of British social history in the past half century, many of the audience will have seen it. As time moves on,  the direct connection of  audience members to the  political social history will inevitably wane –  yet the link in Derbyshire  remains strong.

The film was released in 1996, Paul Allen’s theatrical adaptation was first seen at  the Sheffield Crucible in 1998 after Harvey Weinstein, then of Miramax, who owned the rights to the story, gave Paul Allen permission  to produce the play which saved the Crucible theatre from bankruptcy.

 I saw the 2015  production which hitherto has been the theatrical high water mark of Derby’s recent history. It retains several of the original cast and creative talent.

Pivotal to the story’s  success  are   band conductor and leader Danny,  and Gloria, new band member and management interloper.

 Seren Sandham-Davies reprises her role as  Gloria. The part of Danny is now played by Gareth Williams,  who  drives the band, and production, with his obsessive commitment to music and the legacy it offers.

Only at the end is he riven with doubt as he delivers an oration on the social injustice of the mine closures in a spine tingling moment.

Sandham-Davies has a tough job, not only does she have to take a principal role, she also needs to play lead parts with a Fugelhorn. A  criteria for the part  which thinned out the audition process a little! Fortunately, not only is Seren an accomplished musician, but she also plays Gloria with considerable aplomb, feisty and articulate, and sexy with it, she charms both the defecting band members and audience. Gloria’s longs  to belong. She has returned to her hometown, childhood sweetheart and industry which her family worked in at a time when all those things are disappearing as she knew them. That  underpins the part, and is well portrayed by a fine young actress.

The huge advantage of the staged version over celluloid is the emotional impact of a live brass ensemble blowing through the music such as Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma”  with skill and brio. Tara Fitzgerald merely had to mime the fiendishly difficult flugelhorn solos in the film – Seren performs live.

The original “Concierto de Aranjuez” is  replaced by “Nessun Dorma” due to Rights issues, and some of the dialogue has moved, but otherwise  this reprises the 2015 production.

In supporting roles, Lee Toomes  (Jim) and Howard Chadwick ( Harry) delight and entertain as comedy double act friends. Chadwick has the physique of a miner who probably didn’t need mechanical tools, whilst Harry has the best line of the night as the numbers who might vote for the redundancy package are assessed:” “Nobody ever says they voted Tory either, but somehow the buggers keep getting in.”

Jo Mousely (Sandra) is wonderful as the mother of four trying to keep the family together whilst the bailiffs systematically strip the house.

Paul Allen has done an excellent job adapting Mark Herman’s screenplay for the stage, this is no pallid facsimile of the film . Stage designer Ali Allen opts for a largely minimalist kitchen sink set depicting  working class homes and silhouettes of an industrial landscape. The harrowing suicide scene is graphically,  and spectacularly, set against the pit head wheel .

Director Sarah Brigham is  a stickler for accuracy, and handles the politics well, and sympathetically, never hectoring or lecturing.  That authenticity, light touch , and attention to detail is an integral part of this emotional and compelling production which deservedly evoked a standing ovation at the close. “Brassed Off “ runs until Saturday 28th October. Unmissable.