Garyswordz

“Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story ” has now been touring for twenty five years , celebrating the songs of an artist whose recording career lasted barely two years, but whose music endures some fifty six years after his untimely and tragic death. A jukebox musical, the two halves mainly comprise his rise to fame and studio work in the first half, and an extended concert sequence in the second.

Dan Ankatell takes the eponymous, demanding, lead role , which requires a performer who can sing, act, play competent electric lead guitar, as well as have a passing resemblance to Buddy Holly himself. Angular and enthusiastic, Ankatell is credible and lively in the part, ably supported by a large chorus for the big numbers. His confidence grew as the night unfolded, dealing with a faulty guitar connection at one point with an ease that Buddy himself would have smiled at.

The real Buddy Holly in action at Birmingham Town Hall in 1958

The plot fairly thinly joins the dots between the music, but it is the songs which star. They have transcended their late fifties origins to become standards which by a process of cultural osmosis are as fresh now as they were when written. Rock n roll aficionados will feel the tradition has been well represented, new generations continue to sign up to the cause.

Amongst numerous satisfying cameos, Helen Simon delights as Maria Elena, hotter than a desert at midday, and with a convincing Latin accent. Pete Beck marvellously milked the part of the Big Bopper for all it was worth ,and Tony Orbell injected some vital energy and pace into the Clearlake concert sequence. Dave Hill also made the most of scheming producer Norman Petty .Of the dancers, Sally-Jane Adams consistently caught the eye with her dynamism, brio, and crisp movement.

The Garrick’s stage was packed to capacity by the cast which at its peak numbered over fifty . A Spartan, but versatile, set which incorporates recording studios, concert halls, radio stations, and living space, provided a fitting sense of occasion, culminating in the theatre stage becoming a concert stage.

There is no secret to this show’s success and longevity, the songs are very strong. Contemporary hits “Shout”, “ La Bamba” and “Johnny B Goode” flesh out the Holly numbers, offering variety, shade and musical context. Musical Director Sheila Pearson does a good job utilising her considerable chorus providing a new dimension to songs whose original arrangements were quite sparse. Choreographer Maggie Jackson has no shortage of willing dancers whom she manages both to squeeze on stage, and squeeze the best out of.

Veteran Director Lynne Hill is a safe pair of hands for a show like this with an impressive roll call of successful past productions to her name. Her strengths lie in her technical proficiency and vision for the big set pieces, skills which were pleasingly on display for this accomplished production. A full opening night house was thrilled by the show during which the “magic programme” winner hailed, improbably , not from Sutton Coldfield, Lichfield or Clearlake, but Guatemala! “Buddy” runs until Saturday 6th June .

Neville’s Island was the first play penned by author Tim Firth in 1992 and was originally   commissioned by Alan Ayckbourn . Firth later found fame with Calendar Girls, and was a contemporary of Nick Hancock and David Badiel, and the script has a 90’s tint to it. The four handed, all male, cast, finds itself stranded, in somewhat contrived circumstances on a Lake District island after a corporate team bonding expedition goes wrong, working its way through comedy , horror, satire and psychological thriller.

John Islip and his stage team will be delighted to have won the first round of applause of the night as the lights went up on a carefully crafted, dendritic heavy, single set. A forest of conifers were denied their Christmas date with destiny , and silver birches swayed, lending a physical verisimilitude, augmented by some particularly effective camouflage nets. The play’s title alludes to Devils Island, but in truth there is little threatening about their surroundings nor is there the menace which laced the film Deliverance, which explored similar themes, some twenty years earlier.

The advantage of the small single island set is an innate sense of claustrophobia, the down side is the action is inevitably confined and static. Currently Bear Grylls is leading a survival series entitled The Island in which two teams of women and men are stranded on separate islands and have to fend for themselves, the team dynamics between the play and television programmes are not dissimilar. The play opens with the protagonists dripping from a wrecked boat, but the show is no damp squib. The mists roll in, contact with land is lost, blood appears, and tempers fray.

Three of the actors are on stage for the whole of the production, only one disappearing briefly, making this quite a demanding show for the players. Rod Bissett does well with the awkward part of Neville whose job it is to try to keep everybody calm as team leader. Ben Field has the most interesting part as Roy , a Christian and ornithologist, dealing with the after effects of a nervous breakdown after losing his mother, combining pathos with comedy in hugely demanding circumstances.

The irritant in the team is Dan Goodreid who is first-rate as Gordon: he presents us with the archetypal party-pooper who, having neither a domestic life nor identity of his own, achieves fulfilment by destroying other people’s. Office geek Angus, played by Phillip Beadsmoore, writhes likably as the uxorious Angus , plagued by fears of an errant wife whilst carrying equipment consistent with an assault on Everest rather than a Lake District weekend away. But this is an ensemble piece and every actor works hard to produce a team production rather than grandstanding their own comic cameos.

Act One is a fairly light –hearted and frothy affair, as the men become accustomed to their new surroundings, but the second Act veers into darker territory as adversity fails to bring the best out of them. The plot can be a little clunky. It is difficult to be cut off from the rest of the world in the Lake District, and the one dead mobile phone, and waters around their island supposedly infested with deadly pike, require a certain amount of suspension of disbelief.

Director Joanne Ellis squeezes the most out of the comedy with the fate of their only sausage at prayer the comic highlight of the evening. Generically, the laughs are of the Men Behaving Badly variety, but Joanne has left the original script intact save for a few minor tweaks and the laughs hold out well. A particular mention should go to Ben Field who had to assume the part of Roy at a few hours notice, following the original actor’s indisposition. He acquitted himself with considerable distinction, ably supported by director and cast.

An appreciative audience enjoyed an entertaining show which runs till Saturday 9^th May.

When you ask Barrie Atchison to direct an Ayckbourn play it’s like recruiting Jose Mourinho to manage your football team, you are guaranteed a safe pair of hands, and success. And so it proved on this, the opening night.

Although the word farce is in the title, this is a comedy. There are no banging doors, or falling trousers. Atchison eschews a Seventies set and fashion for the contemporary, and the script survives being wrenched from the period to the present surprisingly well.

The single set comprises three bedrooms on two levels for four couples. John Islip and his stage team have done a tremendous job cramming the bedroom paraphernalia of three very different couples into a relatively small space.

First performed in 1977, the comedy explores the fissures in four marriages. The only bedroom-less couple, the roving and highly neurotic Susannah and Trevor (Louise Farmer and Jimmy-Joe Corbett) drag and impose their problems around the other three bedrooms, creating chaos in their wake, not least on the best set-piece of the night, when their fight ruins a house party.

The older couple, Ernest and Delia (Allan Lane and Hazel Evans),go wild by sharing tinned fish in bed, and anchor the night with a warm, characterful performance. Lane’s grumpy old man becomes grumpier and grumpier, Evans’ dutiful wife becomes wilier and wilier in dealing with her long standing marriage partner.

Nick and Jan (Jon Hall and Emma Woodcock) bitter , irritable, and resigned, have both settled for second best, know it, and accept their lot. Hall has to play the physical comedy for all its worth as he is incapacitated by a bad back for proceedings, Woodcock is sassy and lively opposite him, barely suppressing her frustration with her supine husband

Malcolm and Kate (Dave Douglas and Hellie England), provide the froth and pace, but they have their secrets too amidst silly bedroom games . Crucially, England injects vital enthusiasm and dynamism to the production after the scene setting opening.

Aykbourn’s take on marriage is a little bleak, but the play is always funny. The appallingly selfish, Trevor and Susannah expose the fault lines in other people’s marriages, all of which survive the examination. Any man who has ever had to assemble flat pack furniture will laugh out loud, as will any woman who has found herself having to get dressed in a tight situation.

Director Barrie Atchison grasps the mechanical demands of an Ayckbourn play admirably, juxtaposing rueful, disquieting home truths with knock-about comedy. A witty and rewarding evening’s entertainment. “You can learn a lot from people’s bedrooms”

Bedroom Farce runs until Saturday 28th March.

A three handed play, with all -female cast, by David Mamet, written in 1999. “Boston Marriage” is set a century earlier, the title being a euphemism, said to have been in use in New England in the decades spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to describe two women living together, independent of financial support from a man. The place is assumed to be Boston, New England.

The term “Boston marriage” became associated with Henry James’s The Bostonians (1886), a novel involving a long-term co-habiting relationship between two unmarried women. Although James himself never used the term, his sister Alice, who lived in such a relationship with another woman, Katherine Loring, was among his sources .

Plays about, or featuring, gay men are not uncommon, those featuring lesbian relationships less so. However acceptance of women living together in ambiguous circumstances has been more socially accepted over the years than men doing likewise. The plot is modest, the script verbose, making it a challenging play for a director. If it is played as a niche lesbian drama it narrows its audience, if played as a straight parlour play its raison d’etre is lost, if sexed up, the border between comedy and vulgarity can be fine.

Director Sandra Haynes aims for subtle, rather than vulgar, comedy, and implied, rather than overt sexuality.

Alison Cahill is the stay-at-home Anna, mistress to a wealthy man who maintains her lavish, kept lifestyle, while her lover Claire (Joanne Richards) has met an innocent young woman whom she hopes to bring to Anna’s house to seduce. Although pivotal to the plot, we never physically meet the intended prey. Anna is waspish and overbearing, Claire is all aloof social refinement mixed with carnal lust. Both principals handled their word heavy, demanding roles, admirably, although I read more sexual chemistry and tension in the play than is portrayed here.

Between the two lovers is the put-upon Scottish maid Catherine (Jen Godbehere) , whom Anna calls with equal indifference Mary, and any other name that comes to mind. Catherine’s quick wit, sly disobedience and cheeky subversion are nicely played, and Godbehere’s confidence in the part grew as the play progressed. The cruel bullying by Anna of Catherine is explained by her desire for her, as evidenced by her proposition , mirroring Claire’s desires for a younger woman too.

The badinage is witty and quick-fire, designed to shock, that the outwardly refined can be so filthy of thought and bedroom desire. Curiously the language uses frequent anachronisms ( “Go tell it to the marines”) combined with obscure and arcane words and phrases a century old, all delivered in iambic pentameter making it a demanding piece for the actors to learn.

The studio performance was particularly apt for this single set production, a parlour play performed in a parlour. “Boston Marriage” runs until Saturday 14th March.

I came to this production “cold”, knowing nothing about the show, having little regard for puppets, and a disregard for much American humour. Little did I know how much my theatrical spirit would be enriched and my views changed over the proceeding two and a half hours!

Richard Ham as Princeton

Avenue Q is a downmarket New York street inhabited by humans and puppets. The show revolves around Princeton, a college graduate searching for a purpose amidst his penury, surrounded by a nymphomaniac puppet, a masturbating monster and a Korean harridan, amongst others. It is an adults only production which draws on the idealistic world of children’s television characters, and then imagines what will happen when they grow up.

The cast consists of three human characters and eleven puppet characters who interact as if human, Sesame Street-style. The puppets are animated and voiced by actor/puppeteers who are present, unconcealed, onstage, but remain “invisible” relative to the storyline. The same puppet may be operated by different puppeteers in different scenes, and the actor voicing the puppet may not be the one animating it. One puppeteer sometimes voices two or more puppets simultaneously. Conversely, the so-called “live-hands” puppets require two puppeteers — again, in full view of the audience. It is a complex show to stage, but six months in rehearsal pay off.

Highbury Theatre itself is a little gem, tucked away on the Sutton Coldfield/ Erdington border. Modern and well appointed, the higgledy- piggledy café and bar lounge provide plenty of space for refreshment, whilst the auditorium itself is up to date, with comfortable seating and well raked tiers.

Producers Keith Hayes and Nigel Higgs have gone the extra mile on production values, and are paid back in spades. A professional set has been imported rather than an improvised constructed version being built, the puppets are the bespoke creations made by Paul Jomain for the West End run, and instruction on how to use them was provided first hand by West End puppeteer Nigel Plaskitt.

The cast are divided into two teams for the two week run, such are the demands of the production. Unsurprisingly the colourful puppets are superb, operated by black clad actors, but with both acting meaning that there are often twice as many expressions to observe as people on stage. Although a musical, the libretto is strong and humorous, reaching out way beyond its American origins with some neat contemporary and local references added in.

But it is the songs which shine. “Everyone is a little racist sometimes” is painfully funny with lines such as “Ethnic jokes might be uncouth/ But you laugh because/ They’re based on truth”. However the stand out moment is the outrageously crude show-stopper, “You Can Be as loud as the hell you want ( When You’re Makin Love)” . The sight of puppets bent over a table “at it”, their puppeteers bent over the table simulating being at it, whilst other puppets perform oral sex, and a monster masturbates while watching, is not standard theatre fare, and had the entire audience roaring with laugher at the ever –increasing contortions on the puppets and puppeteers’ faces.

The large and rotating cast deliver a tour de force as an ensemble, with no weak links. On the night, Liz Webster, an actress for whom amplification is usually unnecessary, was outstanding as Korean harridan Christmas Eve. She convincingly terrifies fiancé Brian (Richard Beckett) throughout, yet sings a beautiful solo , and duet (with Kate Monster) too; “When You Ruv Someone”. Karisse Willets delights as Kate Monster, and Suzy Donnelly sways and sashays a treat as Lucy the Slut. Richard Ham holds things together nicely as Princeton and Dave Fox’s Gary Coleman is streetwise and fun. Counterpointing the main characters, Dave Carey and Mark Murphy are a wonderful comic double act as the onanistic Trekkie Monster, and Duncan McLaurie offers a poignant, sensitive portrayal of Rod the closet gay who retains his friendship with Nicky, nicely played by Simon Baker.

Coming out as a puppet isn’t easy

The original production was conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, but it is this terrific company, and Keith Hayes vision which shine through. A great show, memorably realised, offering laughs, reflection, coming of age poignancy, and good old fashioned bawdiness, a brilliant night’s entertainment.

Avenue Q is on at the Highbury Theatre Centre until February 28. To book tickets call 07931 033661 or visit http://www.avenueq.org.

Directors Nigel Higgs ( left) and Keith Hayes (right) with ensemble behind