Garyswordz

*****

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This is a one woman, one hour performance. The Blue Orange theatre,  a modern, compact space on the fringes of the Jewellery Quarter was perfect. Off beat, and intimate.

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An established writer, actor  and performer on the midlands arts circuit, pretty much everything that Lorna  Meehan does is interesting. This is no exception.

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Yes the title is an attention grabber, and the content is as the title suggests. If profanity and sex disturb you, the new Barbie film is available as an alternative.

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When the show had finished, two words  dominated the exit babble, “brave” and “courageous”. Superficially this is one woman’s monologue reflecting upon her experiences of hiring a male escort, her reasons for doings so, and the fall out. It is also about human desire, and how a failure to acknowledge it can be  all consumingly ,devouringly, self -destructive. It is not didactic, nor is it a cautionary tale. Tales of female prostitution, of the  “Pretty Woman” variety are commonplace, tales of female desire less so  ( Ann Bancroft’ s Mrs Robinson in The Graduate”?) The conventional narrative is turned on its head, the woman wants sex, not the life story of her sexual partner.

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At one point, Lorna stuffs a cake into her mouth and swigs from a bottle of wine invoking the  spirit and hedonism of Dionysus and bacchanalia whilst exploring fleshy matters. Dionysus was  the  Greek   god  (amongst many things) of wine-making, of festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. Those who partook of his mysteries were  believed to  have become possessed and empowered by the god himself. But the Roman state treated  popular festivals of Bacchus (Bacchanalia) as subversive, partly because their free mixing of classes and genders transgressed traditional social and moral constraints and  celebration of the Bacchanalia was made a capital offence. The territory which Lorna explores has always been controversial.

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Solo performances are always demanding, but Lorna pulls it off with a combination of compelling physical performance and a powerful script written in narrative  verse. So strong are the visuals that I found my brain regularly searching for  the “rewind” switch as couplets and internal rhymes danced by, demanding to be recalled. This piece will be available in both written, and audio book form in due course which will enable her audience to do justice to the smart, sassy and saucy script.

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Having lured us in with a salacious title, she manages to get down and dirty with the content without being vulgar, being titillating without the tits! It is also witty and funny.  This is primarily an exploration of intimacy, a subject which crosses the age and gender divide and dares to talk frankly about sex.  The musical interludes ae perfectly chosen, Chris Isaak “Wicked Game” and George Michael’s “Father Figure” amongst them. Director Zak  Marsh excels with a minimalist stage and imaginative props, each of which has to earn their place in Lorna’s hands.

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Subversive, innovative and imaginative, Ruby Wax would love to get her hands on this script. See it when it is next performed, buy the book when it comes out. You will not be disappointed.

This is a revival of a play  by British playwright Roy Williams,  first staged in 2010 at the Royal Court Theatre in London when it was nominated for the Evening Standard Award and the Olivier Award for Best New Play.

Williams himself  was born in Fulham and brought up in Notting Hill, the youngest of four siblings in a single-parent home, with his mother working as a nurse after his father moved to the US. Williams decided to work in theatre after being tutored by the writer Don Kinch when he was failing in school and attended some rehearsals in a black theatrical company Kinch ran. In 1992, he took a theatre-writing degree at Rose Bruford College and has worked ever since as a writer.

I attended the evening with  current Commonwealth boxing light flyweight champion Matt Windle, who lives in the Midlands  as my guest to give me an inside view.

The story is told within a single boxing set in deprived London in the 1980s, with a gym, and ring centre stage ( designer Sandra Falase). Two young black boys, Leon and Troy, are trained by a white trainer, Charlie, who sees their potential. Events unfold against the backdrop of social unrest and racism. The thirteen years since the play was first staged exactly covers the period of a Conservative Government. The social issues covered are no less  relevant now.

The cast of seven features a solitary female,  Becky (Poppy Winter),  Leon’s  would be girlfriend. Winter, in her professional debut,  makes the  very best of her well written role dealing with boys, interracial relationships and an alcoholic, financially hopeless father with considerable skill.

Matt Windle commented , “Gary, boxing is theatre”. He is right. Tragedy,  romance, comedy  success, failure, treachery and revenge are all present in this play which revolves around love. The boxer’s love for their sport, a father’s love for his daughter.

Star of the show is Shem Hamilton as aspiring boxer Leon opposite bad boy friend Troy (  Christian Alifoe). Hamilton convinces as a boxer and love interest for Becky and wrestles with the nuances of his relationship with gym owner and trainer  Charlie ( Liam Smith) admirably.

Charlie forces him to choose between  a relationship with his daughter and a boxing career cleverly framed as white people paying to see black men beat each other up, amongst numerous awkward racial challenges.

Laughter, levity and life are provided by aging Lothario, Squid ( Wayne Rollins)  who plays Leon’s father , a man whose moves are for the bedroom, not the boxing ring.

The script is awash with racial  and sexual slurs, purely there to reflect the time rater than to shock. The unusually diverse audience, of which I would estimate 50% were from the ethnic communities and 80% of that 50% were afro Caribbean m with men and women equally represented, did not take offence, instead roaring laugher.

Closed caption screens were used for the hard of hearing but proved invaluable to follow some of the slang used. The fight sequences were imaginatively handled, often in flash back and slow motion, Asha Jennings-Grant and Enric Ortuño’s work on the movement and fight direction were very effective.

The performed running time is around two hours exclusive of interval in a show which kept everyone engaged winning  deserved rapturous applause at the final curtain. Director Nathan Powell has done a fine job projecting   complex and big issues on a small stage asking what it is to be black in Britain today. Matt Windle confirmed its authenticity and accuracy for the cognoscenti, and felt that racism within boxing and the gyms  was far less a problem today than in the 1980’s, for the rest of us, it was simply a damned good show which tun until Fri 16^th at the Grand and continues on tour.

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Six years ago   Derby theatre  performed Laura Easons’ adaptation of this classic story directed by Theresa Heskins .  The 2023 production 150 years on from  the original English publication, is very different and unrecognisable from its previous incarnation , this time directed by  Juliet  Forester for Tilted Wig productions.

Jules Verne’s classic story has obvious cinematic possibilities realised by others in the past, and equally obvious drawbacks as the basis for a stage adaptation. How do you portray a worldwide journey on a theatre stage? Yet that conundrum is also the basis for this dramatic incarnation of the tale. You don’t. You allow the audience’s imagination to do the work. Circus has long been the home of tall stories and impossible feats . Thus Director Juliet Forester  chooses a circus motif and theme to develop the story which is presented to the audience by a group of circus performers as a play within a play. As a novelty she also tells the story   of Nellie Bly, who  travelled around the world in just 72 days.

Sensibly, Forester eschews the problems of depicting eight countries and utilises a single circus set with a roller banner identifying which country the characters were in at any given time . Sara Perks’ split-level  colourful set dominates, its hidden hatch facilitating the best joke of the evening. The see-saw is well used.

The play within a play device allows the circus performers to  engage with younger members of the audience and comment upon the original story and some of its anachronistic elements as well as  using the character of  Nellie Bly to revise the entire premise of the proceedings. Katriona Brown is superb as Bly who somewhat overshadows  Phileas Fogg, played by Alex Phelps.

Wilson Benedito makes the most of classic comic creation Passepartout, the hapless valet.  Eddie Mann steals the show as Detective Fix  attempting to thwart Foggs’ journey and bet, not least in a wild west shoot out which is ingeniously shoe horned into the production. . Foggs’ 80-day trek ends with him finding happiness somewhat closer to home with Aouda ( subtly played by Genevieve) in a schmaltzy denouement which was straight out of the Disney/ Spielberg playbook. Verne hadn’t visited many of the destinations depicted, in the same way that Coleridge  ( Rime of the Ancient Mariner) had never been to sea, but this never impedes a good story.

This is a bold attempt to rework and reinvent a classic story for a modern audience and plays until  Saturday 10^th before continuing on nationwide tour.

Gary Longden

This was the third Bowie Tribute I have  seen in as many months providing a useful contemporaneous comparison, previously John Mainwaring’s Jean Genie, then Oliver Slee’s Bowie Experience.  I suspect that “better or worse” comes down to the setlist and how that resonate with your own favourite, but Absolute Bowie  are certainly different.

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They are  by far the most lavishly costumed. I did not think that would make a difference, but it does, particularly for the first half when the Spiders are dressed as the Spiders. They play as a five piece, John O’Neill as Bowie, Andy Marr on lead guitar as Ronson/ Slick , Varo Sitsi as Wakeman/ Garson on Keys, Sam Ferrari on bass as Bolder, and Alex Face as Woody on drums. As far as I could tell there were no backing tracks, and mercifully no tacky pyrotechnics just a bit of dry ice.

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What sets Absolute Bowie apart is the Bowie/ Ronson interplay. I had  forgotten how important that is visually, Marr resplendent in black sequins, platforms and blonde wig- and boy can he play guitar!

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They opened with “Let’s Spend the Night Together” which I had never seen performed live before- it works brilliantly and O’Neill uses its refrain  skilfully to connect with the audience. “Ziggy Stardust” is magnificent, but “Moonage Daydream” blows the roof off followed by a rip roaring “Suffragette City” O’Neill establishes a one to one link with the fans as he wails “Keep your electric eye on me babe, put your ray gun to my head” whilst Marr stretches out the solo to provide the standout moment of the night. I am not a fan of swaying my hands in the air, that is best left to a Lionel Richie concert, but for “Dudes” I was swaying them with everyone else, a joyous “Starman” providing a further opportunity for a sing along. The first set closed with a “Life on Mars” which was just a shade bombastic for these ears, sometimes less is more, but was ecstatically received.

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The second half opened with the band out of Ziggy Costumes, but with Marr as rock side man Slick and Setsi wearing a jacket as worn by Garson and blasting into “Blue Jean” a bold choice amongst an eclectic  second half set. I have never been a hugs fan of “Fame” live but Marr made it his own with some clever and inventive improvised licks. However the standout song of the second half, vying with “Moonage Daydream” for song of the night, was “ Ashes to Ashes” in which Setsi was given full rein to stretch out then duel at the end with Marr. It was sublime. Garson would have approved.

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The second was enhanced by a barnstorming “Look back in Anger” , “China Girl” fell between the Bowie and Iggy versions, “Heroes” did what it needed to,  “ Space oddity “ curiously ended rather than opened the evening and a  400 odd crowd, many of whom had returned after their last Derby show, went home happy.

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Absolutely Bowie are unquestionably different. O’Neill embraces Bowie’s sexiness and fey sexual ambivalence and channels Ziggy era Ziggy perfectly, the lavish and on point costumes are an integral part of that. They also visually, and through performance, feature Ronson as an integral part of the show. The same is true of Garson throughout.  Musically they are faultless.

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The set list managed to offer some surprises and unpredictability. Anecdotally, many of the fans I spoke to  are fans of the image and hits, not the minutiae of his back catalogue. This traps any Bowie tribute act. With all their money coming from touring, it is the hits which bring the paying punters in, the glorious offbeat obscurities would be commercial suicide for the performing artist.

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During “Moonage Daydream” I was transported back to Earls Court in 1973- thank you.

Two months after the originally scheduled show was postponed  at short notice due to illness,  the “Bowie Experience” appeared to a 500 seat sell out at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre on a Sunday night.

I am a die hard Bowie fan and an enthusiastic consumer of tribute shows.  Tonight intrigued  me. Previously I had seen Laurence Knight fronting the show, who did very well, but for reasons which are not entirely clear to me Oliver Slee has now taken frontman duties. Laurence continues   to tour with a band badged  “The Bowie Experience”, a distinction which many will not identify in advance, and on the night the frequent wig and costume changes   mean that some in the audience may not even realise the frontman  replacement. But that does not matter, as Springsteen once proffered “You have to prove it all night, every night”. To these eyes the original band  seem to have remained in situ apart from a new rhythm guitarist for a cracking evening.

I recently saw John Mainwarings’ long established  “Jean Genie” show and am seeing “Absolute Bowie” in Derby on Friday. The market for Bowie tributes is a given, the challenge they face is becoming harder. The calibre of tribute acts for numerus artists  in terms of presentation, production, performance and musicianship is improving all the time, audience expectation is rising. The sceptre of Abba’s “Voyager” show has also changed everything. A virtual performance by a band captured in their heyday takes some beating.

Oliver Slee a Bournemouth actor and drama teacher, is 26 years old, the same age  as Ziggy era Bowie enjoying a similar lean physique and frontaas Bowie. “Space Oddity” is an apposite opener. Vocally it is not too stretching, but musically it gives  the band a chance to stretch their muscles. As it draws to a close, we all know that everything is going to be alright.

They do use some backing tracks, most notably on “Life on Mars” adding orchestration, but the eight piece ( Slee on vocals and occasional guitar), lead and rhythm guitar, keyboards, bass, drums and two backing singes one of whom plays saxophone, the other a multi instrumentalist make a pretty hefty sound in their own right.

First half

Space Oddity

Queen Bitch

Changes

Life on Mars

Moonage daydream

Ziggy

Man Who Sold the World

Sorrow

John I’m Only dancing

Jean Genie

Suffragette CIty

Rebel Rebel

Second Half

Diamond Dogs

Cracked Actor

Station to Station

Young Americans

Sound n vision

Boys keep Swinging

Fashion

Lets Dance

China girl

Under Pressure

Heroes

All the Young Dudes

The first half is Ziggy era culminating in a rousing “Rebel Rebel” and the amusing sight of a predominantly sixty something audience enthusiastically yelling the chorus. It also reminds you how THAT riff, alongside “jumping Jack Flash”, “Sweet Home Alabama” ,”Don’t Fear the Reaper” “Whole lotta love and “Smoke on the water” is locked into our collective subconscious waiting to explode as soon as those chiming notes ring out.

The surprise highlight was a sublime slowed down waltz paced “Sorrow” segueing into an euphoric “John I’m Only Dancing” cheekily introduced  by borrowing Queen’s  Crazy little Thing called Love” intro. A song that on vinyl struggled to find a home on stage found just that with this spot.

Musical director and lead guitarist Tim Wedlake had a few more surprises up his sleeve too.

In the second half I am always wary of Station to Station being used in any other set position that is not opener. But here, a slightly edited version segues  magnificently into “Golden Years” as the second half. It worked brilliantly. “Ashes to Ashes” is given a reggae intro ( which begged for a “Don’t look Back” sample which didn’t come”), “Boys keep Swinging” goes full rock and “Under Pressure” a song I don’t like, becomes a show highlight with backing singer, and multi-instrumentalist Charlotte Talbot, all glam in a black evening dress with mesh sleeves, taking centre stage for the duet, the song soars.

“China Girl”  performed by Iggy Pop is dark and dirty as envisioned by Nile Rodgers it is light and poppy. Wedlake reinvents it once again as a stretched out hybrid of the two, it was wonderfully realised.

The home straight of Heroes and “Dudes” was euphoric stuff with the crowd baying for more but Slee confessing they had nothing further rehearsed which was  a shame – it cried out for “Rock n Roll Suicide”. Ssaxophonist Westwood was a vital ingredient, her concession to costume change was to chnage from black pvc leggings into black tights for the second half!

With tribute shows it is easy to look for trouble, but the fact is that the band delivered a popular hits heavy set which the audience lapped up with arrangements which were skilful and much helped by five part vocal harmonies, saxophonist Emily Westwood dovetailing nicely with Talbot.