Theatre In Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Somerset & Wiltshire

Death Comes to Pemberley ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️

In the 250th anniversary year of the birth of Jane Austen there are many celebrations of her legacy of works and the Mill at Sonning in Berkshire has produced a new play, Death comes to Pemberley based on a novel by PD James which continues the story of Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice . Following the original author’s alliterative title, it might have been called Murder and Mystery at the Mill. It finds the minor character Captain Denny from the story murdered on Fitzwilliam Darcy’s Pemberley estate leading to George Wickham standing trial for the murder. 

 Fans of Pride and Prejudice  will enjoy meeting the characters from the book six years later just as the Napoleonic French invasion threatens the country. It is the eve of the annual Pemberley Ball which reinforces the Darcys status in society and to which Wickham and his wife, Lydia Bennet, have been excluded. The snobbish Lady Catherine De Burgh (Sarah Berger) is determined to ensure its success and urges that the music and dance should be practiced and bristles at every interference that threatens the event.

When Lydia (Mogali Masuku) arrives unannounced at Pemberley in a distressed state with the coachman from the Red Lion, Pratt (Paul Jerricho) the Darcy status is threatened when a search of the Pemberly woods finds Wickham (Sam Woodhams) bent over the body of Captain Denny and claiming responsibility for his friend’s death, it looks like a closed case for the magistrate, Hardcastle,(Todd Boyce) who is summoned to investigate. Wickham refuses to explain the circumstances to protect the honour of someone involved but as Elizabeth proclaims those who seek to protect honour are behaving in a dishonourable way. Can the Darcys find out what really happened?

The challenge to the investigation is that Fitzwilliam Darcy,( a credible performance from James Bye) would rather see Wickham gone from his life, despite their childhood friendship as his wild behaviours threaten Darcy’s standing. Elizabeth Darcy (a calm and serene Jamie- Rose Duke) still harbours fondness for Wickham and is determined to find out the truth,and so sets out to try and save Wickham from the gallows. What does the enigmatic Colonel Fitzwilliam ( Sean Rigby in magnificent mutton chops and beard) know of what went on?

 There are many characters in the tale and five of the cast of eleven are required to double up ( or more) in the parts. The whole Bidwell family who live in the woods are played by characters from the House but at least it gives them a chance to show their acting range with strong contrasts in the characterisations between the poor underclass and the society elite. It adds an element of fun to the production as they exit in time to re-enter in a different guise!

The set has to cover a multitude of locations within Pemberly, the Woods , Court room, Red lion and Bidwell home and does so by relying mainly on lighting changes. The glorious image of the Derbyshire hills across the back of the stage sets the location but the sliding panels that looked designed for internal setting are swept aside after the first scene and we are left to imagine the rest of the locations with a single chair and an ever present 18^th century piano forte played by Celia Cruwys-Finnigan ( as Georgina) and David Osman ( as Alveston) as part of pleasant subplot. The noise of the runners on which the panels move suggests that this was not the original intention of the design, but the simplification  gives a fluidity and speed of transition between scenes that is well managed by the cast and crew.

This is a standalone murder mystery but is given extra interest by its inspiration by Jane Austen’s novel and there were ripples of amusement in the audience as lines resonated from the book. Elizabeth is confirmed as a woman ahead of her time, determined to find a role beyond being a loyal wife and she emerges as the heroine again amongst a group of “honourable” men who behave with dubious motives of status, greed and sex. It confirms again why Jane Austen’s characters continue to resonate with audiences 250 years after her birth.

 Nick Wayne

Four stars.

The Maids - Reading Rep

After a successful run at the tiny Jermyn Street Theatre in January, Jean Genet’s 1947 play Maids in a 1999 adaption by Martin Crimp arrives at the intimate 168 seat Reading Rep black box theatre. The tale is apparently based on a true case of infamous sisters Christine and Léa Papin, who brutally murdered their employer and her daughter in Le Mans, France, in 1933. That story feels like it has the basis of a shocking horror show but the style of presentation is a curious mix in which we are never quite sure what is fact, what is game play and what is just fantasy. The staging of the play, in a set designed for the Jermyn Street audience, adds to the confusion. 

The white padded room conveys a sense of a lunatic asylum cell . The purple flowers give it a funereal air. The large mirror in which we can see a reflection of the audience becomes a window overlooking nearby flats, then a portal through which we view brief glimpses of other characters (all too quickly to have any meaning or impact) and finally a gaping hole to the rear stage. It is disconcerting but does not raise the tension as it is frustratingly unclear what the intention is of the devise. The lighting too is designed to change the atmosphere casting long dark shadows or red glows but reinforcing the sense of fantasy. 

The script also seeks to tease the audience as the two maids role play the murder of their mistress. In the opening scene Claire plays the mistress, and her sister Solange plays the maid, Claire but all too quickly we realise the affected delivery is all part of a role play, and the scene is overlong so by the time they revert to their Maid roles we have started to lose interest. For drama to engage the audience you have to care about the characters and believe in their situation and when it is as artificial as this, you soon have no interest in whether they live or die, you just wish they would get on with it either way. Nor do we have any sense of their motivation for murder that we could detect.

There was a period in the 1950’s and 1960’s when the Theatre of the Absurd became popular as a theatrical style in which what happens lacked purpose, with irrational and illogical construction and an aim to shock or disturb the audience. Perhaps that Director Annie Kershaw was aiming for in this production and certainly we were left reflecting why did they behave this way, why was the gaping hole left for Solange final long monologue, and why was the room a padded cell?  

The three actresses Anna Popplewell as Solange, Charlie Oscar as Claire and Carla Harrison-Hodge are left to breathe some life into the show and gamely strut the stage in their dual characters but needed more help from the script and staging. An interval might have allowed us to reflect on what we have seen before the final twist as well as refreshed us from the uncomfortable armless seats. The run straight through over ninety minutes failed to build tension or suspense. 

This show received four stars reviews at Jermyn Street, perhaps it lost something in the transfer west to Reading, perhaps the cast are tiring of the deceit but for this reviewer at least the production was tedious, confused and disappointing and after the emotional stirring of Boys from the Blackstuff as Windsor and Riders to the Sea in Southampton on the previous nights left me cold.

Nick Wayne

Two stars.

Magic Night at the Mill at Sonning  ⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

The delightful Mill at Sonning stages Concerts, Comedy and Magic nights in its intimate 217 Theatre with the same 2 course meal on Sunday and Mondays when the main plays are off providing an alternative entertainment for the audiences of Berkshire. This week Dan Hudson returned to curate an evening of three magicians on the set of the current show Calendar Girls. Don’t expect grand illusions or spectacular magic but the four of them do present a light-hearted enjoyable and highly interactive evening’s entertainment for those who appreciate some classic magic tricks which usually appear to rely on forcing the selection on the audience. However, as the evening progresses the production values do greater and the acts slicker.

Dan Hudson introduces himself and the three acts with his own jovial banter teasing the audience about the areas where they live and their dress code. It sets the tone and warns the audience to be ready to be fully involved in the show. If you sit in the first three rows expect to be picked on at some stage! Thankfully everyone selected seemed to respond to the coercion and took part!  Hudson himself performed two classic old magic tricks although the first hardly justifies being called magic at all as it is a simple word play on the selection of one of eight coloured socks and the second, he credits to the Great Soprendo (Magician Graham Durham who was once married to Victoria Wood). It involved the tearing of a newspaper into pieces before “magically “ reassembling into its original form – a regular trick in stage magic.

The first magician introduced was Lyndon Webb (based on Aldershot) who bills himself as a Mentalist whose act naturally involved members of the audience whose minds he claimed to read. The two simple mind reading tricks are heavily dressed up to fill his thirty-minute slot but finally got going when three people were selected to name an activity, a place and a person who inspires them and write it on a card placed in envelope. He then impressively announces what they have written. The second trick was equally complicated by an unnecessarily long sequence to shuffle the cards before he appeared to force the selection of pre remembered cards on to his volunteer. The trick would have been more impressive if he had identified which of the 10 audiences’ members was holding which card rather than simply recalling the 10 cards.

Act 2 was Kay Dyson (a former trapeze artiste with Gerry Cottle’s circus) who promotes herself as Miss Magic with some more mind reading tricks given a fresh feel by her glamorous and clever presentation style. Unfortunately, she was initially hampered by her hair interfering with her personal microphone to create tapping sounds but one it was switched off she was able to project her voice enough for us to enjoy her act. After a well-presented trick with a pack of “invisible cards” with one audience member she then selected a couple for a very convincing routine to demonstrate of “twin telepathy” and then a more standard routine to transfer cards from one person to another. She had more fun with another member of the audience who she showed “doing” cards to before some clever word play games revealed that he was thinking of eating while she led audience to believe he was thinking of sex! The poor gentleman was then asked to wear an electronically controlled mask for a ventriloquist act magic trick which although we could see her lips move was nevertheless slickly presented.  Her final trick involved getting an audience member to guess the cost of her jacket which was again impressively presented with a good twist at the end.

Act 3 Tom Wright controlled a musical underscore to his act which added drama and comedy and even used a smoke machine to add a final touch to his finale. His engaging personality and lively style entertained throughout the act made even some of the corniest old jokes and tricks (like the drawn bowling ball drop) work. The selection of one of three envelopes with £5 in and a £20 note appearing inside an Orange felt very standard tricks but were well presented. He certainly nailed the sense of jeopardy in the classic slamming his hand onto a spike in one of five brown bags trick and handled the audience member well who seemed to try and undermine the trick! His finale of mind reading by drawing an image of an animal selected at random from audience members written suggestions placed the emphasis on the comedy but in many ways summed up the whole evening. Fun and interactive with the empathise on comedy rather than magic but entertainingly presented and a reminder that Magic is an underrated skill sadly largely ignored by TV these days and yet remains a good night out.

Nick Wayne

Three stars.

Oh what a lovely war  Windsor Theatre Royal ⭐️⭐️⭐️

It is the sixtieth anniversary of Joan Littlewood’s ground breaking end of the pier show that lampooned the incompetence and lack of humanity of the Nations and military leaders during the First World War. Oh, What a lovely war with its strong anti-war stance that highlights the futility of war is as relevant today as it was in the sixties when it was created but somehow time has eroded its impact. It is now a curiosity, more appealing because of its legendary status in British Theatre than for its impact today. 

The grim projected statistics of casualties still horrify and shock as they mount into millions as the war progresses  or the scale of losses for tiny or marginal land grabs seems staggering, but the narrative feels laboured, full of extensive exposition loosely linked by traditional music hall songs from the turn of the twentieth century. The satirical criticism of war should connect to the audience through the sharp contrast between those dreadful statistics, the portrayal of the out of touch pompous leaders and then comical interludes from the Pierrots. But in this production, there is not enough contrast between the elements as it is played earnestly at a level pace and tone.

 The young cast bring plenty of energy and musicality to their performances switching between instruments, but the combination of poor diction and a weak sound mix meant we lose lots of the words. The striking contrast between the horrors of war and the joy of musical theatre is somewhat diluted. There are moments when it works like the depiction of the famous Christmas meeting across the trenches between the troops some chilling descriptions of the battle sounds, and the portrayal  of Douglas Haig as he dismisses casualties as a necessary consequence of war. 

 Victoria Spearing’s set hints more at a circus tent through which the cast enter for each scene than Music Hall or end of the pier variety stage but the low-level footlights at the front of the stage do cast some dramatic shadows on the tent and screen behind. The costumes have abandoned the white and black Pierrot costumes and opted instead for a collection of Edwardian Variety troop.

Tom Benjamin leads the way as the ring master of this circus with Tom Crabtree, Harry Curley and  Euan Wilson camping it up as the larking about clowns and Chioma Uma and Alice E Mayer as the chanteuses who leads the singalong to “Sister Susie’s sewing shirts”. The standout song remains the ironic title song “oh what a lovely war” which opens Act 2. There are snatches of other famous tunes too like “it’s a long way from Tipperary”, “Hold you hand out, you naughty boy”, “Goodbye-ee” and “Keep the home fires burning” although the generation who remember these will have passed on now so the nostalgia they might have previously generated is lost.

The tour continues around the country until May and if you have never seen this piece of classic British Theatre, it is worth a trip to support this young cast and its Producers Blackeyed Theatre who do more than many in  bringing shows to the smaller UK venues. They and those Venues need your support more than ever in the coming years.

 

Nick Wayne

Three stars

Best Regional productions of 2023

Lord of the Rings at Watermill Theatre

For a 200-seat venue to take on this production was brave especially so soon after the Arts Council cut its funding, but Paul Hart’s production once again demonstrated what can be achieved with a creative spirit and hard work, was a commercial success and will surely reboot the stage version of Lord of the Rings for further exploitation around the world. This reworking of the original production in this unique setting made the narrative stronger as the focus is on the central characters and their adventure together in Bree, Rivendell, Lotherioren and Mordor.

Girl on a train at Salisbury Playhouse 

This is a play that you should see if you have not read the book or seen the 2016 film, since the plot is built on uncertainty and lack of knowledge and is enjoyed as the audience grapple with the same challenge as the main protagonist trying to put together the puzzle pieces of a missing person. Paula Webster’s novel has been adapted for the stage by Rachel Wagstaff and Duncan Abel and creates a very tense taut mystery that keeps you guessing as the twist and turns of the characters are slowly recalled and the full picture emerges. The staging design by Adam Wiltshire creates a very fluid environment in which meetings and interviews are interwoven with memories and flashbacks enhanced by Dan Light’s video design, to unpack the mystery of the disappearance of Megan Hipwell.

Theodore and Charlotte at Bath Theatre Royal Ustinov

The title of Charlotte and Theodore, the new play by Ryan Craig, which enjoyed its world premiere in Bath, does not do justice to the brilliant writing and performances of this clever two hander. The promotional blurb states, “cancel culture, gender politics, trans rights, online abuse and power struggles are all at play on a university campus” and suggests a rather dry woke debate about modern society driven by social media activism but instead the ninety-minute romp is a funny, witty and pacy exploration of a couple’s relationship over ten years which resonates with Generation X and older audiences. Despite running straight through it never stops amusing and engaging and we could have happily sat through another few scenes of their life together.

Wonderful Life at Reading Rep 

The story’s roots in The Christmas Carol, with George’s eyes being opened to the joys of friendship and loyalty in a Scrooge like redemption gradually become clear and emotionally engage the audience. This is an exceptional piece of theatre, beautifully staged, with charming storytelling, and delightfully acted by the cast of four. Reading Rep is establishing itself as an innovator with a mission to transform lives through Theatre. This production demonstrates that traditional story telling delivered with skill and care can really connect with an audience and open our eyes to the impact each of us can make on our local community.

Gypsy at Mill at Sonning

The story of Gypsy (1959) presents a challenge with the coercive mother, Rose, bullying her daughters into performing in a desperate desire to fulfil her own need for stardom. Producers and Directors need to find a new way to present these fabulous scores to appeal to modern audiences and the Mill at Sonning’s wonderful musical theatre creative team led by Joseph Pitcher has established a track record of doing just that in this unique Berkshire Dinner Theatre. Following the extraordinary success of My Fair Lady , Guys and Dolls, High Society and Singing in the rain in recent years they delivered a fresh modern take on Gypsy which is exquisitely staged and packs a powerful emotional punch. 

 

Christmas Carol (On Air) – Windsor Theatre Royal⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

     

The Windsor Theatre Royal has been staging unique adaptions of classic plays in a radio play format over the last few years and they provide a cost-effective programme filler which attract very good casts for the short engagements. What is surprising, if the latest Christmas Carol is representative, is that they provide a very entertaining, accessible, and enjoyable theatre visit. The adaption of Charles Dickens’s classic tale feels fresh but stays true to all the familiar elements and scenes. 

The conceit that we are watching a radio broadcast from a BBC studio with a cast who have dressed up for the occasion with a Foley Artist who adds many of the sound effects live is simple and effective. However, when the curtain rises you immediately feel drawn in by the elaborate staging with elegant furnishings and period decorations behind the standing microphones. It has a lovely sense of location and provides a good background to the uncomplicated blocking with Scrooge taking the central microphone and  the rest of the cast circulating behind him to create the various scenes.  

Roy Marsden directs and stars as Ebenezer Scrooge and is wonderful as we watch his gradual transformation from mean miserly skinflint rejecting all requests for assistance to benevolent benefactor of the local community. We hear his coldness start to warm up after he meets the Ghost of Christmas past and is reminded of moments from his youth. It was lovely to see Jenny Seagrove on stage again as a Scottish Ghost of Christmas past and then as an East End Mrs Cratchit. Matthew Cottle makes a sprightly optimistic Bob Cratchit.

 Leon Ockenden bounces around the stage as Scrooge’s nephew and as a younger Scrooge while Sara Crowe has the contrasting roles of Mrs Fezziwig and young Martha with a simple change of headdress. Ashley D’Gale makes an eerie appearance as Marley, with a very lightweight looking chain around his neck , an ebullient Fezziwig and a Caribbean Ghost of Christmas Present creating each with charm. Kayleigh Cooper is delightful as Scrooge’s first love Belle, and Tiny Tim as well as leading the company and the audience in some traditional Victorian Christmas carols. 

Hardest worker of all is Martin Carroll as the voice of the Christmas Future and as the Foley Artist adding live sound effects of doors closing, curtains being drawn, bells ringing, glasses clinking, a candle being blown out, papers being touched and a wonderful underscore of thunder and wind. It is this element that adds to the atmosphere and drama and makes the radio play an enjoyable format.

 The format focuses on the narrative and the message of redemption and care for those less well off than yourself and we are reminded of the reason why this story written in 1843 still resonates so well today and has become such a staple of British Christmas tradition. It also shows what a talented Ensemble of actors can achieve with, one assumes, limited rehearsal time and a clear vision and suggests that this is a format that can deliver again in 2024 when it returns to the quaint Berkshire theatre under the shadow of Windsor Castle. Christmas is here and if you don’t like it Bah! Humbug too you.

 

Nick Wayne 

4 stars 

Kinder Norden Farm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Smoking Apples enjoy telling stories through puppetry of unsung heroes and their latest production is a remarkable retelling of Sir Nicholas Winton’s extraordinary rescue of 669 children by train from Prague between March and August 1939 as their families feared the Nazi occupation of the city. Each child was allowed to take one suitcase on this long journey through Western Europe to meet foster parents in the UK.

The production is designed as an intimate immersive experience targeted at children of nine plus and can be set up in school halls or small venues for a one hour show but at Norden Farm Centre for Arts it was a largely adult audience who enjoyed the story telling which was given more poignancy by the presence of Sir Nicholas’s son in the audience and followed by a fascinating Q & A about the story and the process of bringing to the stage. The creat9ve forces behind the show are director Molly Freeman, Set designer Matt Lloyd, and Puppet designer and performer Hattie Thomas with additional puppetry from David Burchhardt and Tea Poldervaart. 

 The show is set in a box set of thirty-two seats, a cross between a railway waiting room and perhaps the carriage of the train itself and the action takes places around us and even above our heads as three puppeteers bring the emotional story alive. We meet elderly Babi journeying back to Prague with her grandchild and recalling her young self’s journey to the UK in 1939. There are chilling verbatim voiceovers to connect the story, but the real magic of the show is the puppetry. The main tabletop puppets appear in openings in the walls to describe those train journeys and interactions with the people they encountered on the journey and on arrival. Though the puppeteers are visible we follow their concentrated gaze to the puppet as they breathe life into them.

 Other scenes are described with simple shadow puppets projected on a central screen including the German invasion or by puppets of just a head and hand or legs and voices off encourage the audiences’ members to play their part in interacting with them to deliver props to another part of the room which adds an element of fun to the powerful emotional tale. All around the audience there are other elements of simple animation to enhance the story telling. It creates a unique immersive experience fully deserving their Offies awards and worth catching as it continues it tour until Mid November . 

This is a delightful immersive experience , imaginatively staged , with charming puppetry and good balance between humour and the narrative story telling of this remarkable tale. It deserves to be seen by more people as it completes it UK tour.

 Kinder — Smoking Apples (smokingapplestheatre.com)

 

Nick Wayne – 4 stars

How the other half loves ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Alan Ayckbourn’s plays dominated the theatre landscape in the Seventies and Eighties in the UK, each starting at his venue, the Stephen Joseph theatre in Scarborough, before transferring into the West End on an annual basis. In each new play he displayed a wonderful understanding of the theatrical form in ever more complex plotting and staging which created fascination and anticipation in the latest work. How the other half loves which premiered in 1969 was perhaps the first of this extraordinary sequence of success and the whole plot is structured around a composite set of two similar suburban living rooms and the action that takes place simultaneously side by side. The set up which is immediately apparent from the first moment as one neighbour phones the other stood next to her on stage and creates moments of hilarious physical farce.

The set becomes a critical part of the plotting with walls and furniture colour coded to represent each abode , green for the Fosters and orange for the Phillips with the sofa and dining table being split to represent each home. Indeed, the Act 1 Scene 2 dinner parties which take place in each house with same guests, the Featherstones, on consecutive nights is a brilliantly scripted farcical scene as the guests swivel between the two dinners and without doubt the comic highlight of the evening. The compact Mill at Sonning stage set once again is cleverly fitted into the space (with virtually no backstage room) to accommodate the multiple entrances along the back wall and works very well. Only is the long scene change in Act 1 scene 1 to scene 2 do the limitations of the space appear obvious although even that is choreographed in the half-light to engage the audience and reinforce the duality of the location. 

The acting too is first class throughout creating six very different distinctive characters who play the ludicrous mistaken voices and alleged infidelities with a straight bat , at an even pace , so the audience is swept along with the confused accusations.  Stuart Fox is magnificent as slightly absent minded intense cuckolded boss, Frank Foster who is at the centre of the orchestrated confusion and Julia Mills, his cougar wife Fiona who is desperately trying to cover her tracks. Damien Matthews is the guilty partner Bob Philips escaping the domestic mess of his marriage to Teresa , Ruth Gibson, and his offstage baby son. But it is the Featherstones who drive the comic interactions with the seriously dull William, Ben Porter, wonderful in some comic business tying Frank’s shoelaces while bursting for the toilet and then combining brilliantly with his mousy put upon wife Mary, Emily Pithon as they switch between dinner parties.

 The problem is that Ayckbourn’s middle class suburban domestic characters attitudes and demeanour don’t survive well the fifty plus years that have passed since he wrote the play. The story seems routed in a late fifties, early sixties culture when the men worked and the little ladies stayed at home , when it might have been acceptable to playfully slap a wife and the husband’s expectations were for a clean house and his food on the table . Now it seems uncomfortably anachronistic and while we can still laugh at the physical business and some of the ludicrous misunderstandings it is hard to escape the underlying tone and attitudes that have thankfully been largely left behind in the 21^st century. 

Ayckbourn was a master of his craft using his brilliant creative theatrical settings to create wonderful comic farces, but his characters were largely white middle class suburban couples who may even have been a little old fashioned in their outlook when he wrote them. I enjoyed them all when they first came to the stage, and it seems right that we should continue to celebrate his talent for theatre but somehow Directors need to find a way to freshen the attitudes and perhaps as in this play the behaviours are so imbedded in the action it is impossible to escape them. We are left to admire the setup, the physical business, and the performances rather than engage with characters and enjoy the story. This may be enough for the traditional regulars of the dinner theatre in Sonning, but it is unlikely to attract a new younger audience and for me tarnishes the memory of Ayckbourn’s marvellous legacy of British domestic situation comedies for the theatre. We will have to wait and see how his 1975 play Bedroom Farce fares when it comes to the Mill next September.

 Nick Wayne Three stars

 

The Mirror Crack’d – UK Tour  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Agatha Christie’s detective creation Miss Marple has been adapted for film, TV, and stage in many incarnations from Margaret Rutherford (in the sixties), Joan Hickson (1984-1992), and Geraldine McEwan (2004-2008) and in this latest stage adaptation Susie Blake plays the role more in the style of Hickson and McEwan than Rutherford. Rachel Wagstaff’s adaptation of The Mirror Crack’d cleverly uses Marple’s rather static investigation model in this case with a sprained ankle as a springboard to create a stage adaption that explores different characters recall of key moments around a murder through flashback re-enactments to accompany the witnesses’ interview with her and the Chief inspector Craddock (Oliver Boot). 

This then requires a fluid setting where characters appear while Marple reflects or chats to someone, so everything revolves around Adrian Linford’s single truck of a corridor between two see through walls. It fails to have sense of period, the fifties I think, but does allow for some creative moments where we see through the walls someone listening in or for an imagined line up of suspects. Not so clever was the poor masking of stage left wing which telegraphed each entrance and even props being prepared for a scene or the lack of personal microphones which meant some voices were very quiet in the large Wycombe Swan auditorium. However, these are the compromises of a touring show with different size stages and although irritating did not detract from the overall quality of the production. 

Wagstaff’s script provides a creative solution to the usual investigative process of successive interviews around the murder in a room full of people and we clearly see the different memories and can try and spot those deliberate misleading statements from those of poor recall. It makes a fascinating watch even when you half recall the story from the TV version of the story. It helps that it is very good cast with each character distinctively and well-drawn so we can see and hear their background and attitudes and catch the hints of their hidden stories.

Susie Blake is the quietly spoken reflective Marple with a determined sharp intellect that can read people and piece together the evidence in a way so we can follow her deductions. Her sprained ankle may restrict her movements and leave her fairly static for much of the play, but she draws you in and convinces you that she is smarter than those around her. Boot is an overly aggressive and procedural Detective, but he too reveals momentsof emotion and caring which are engaging. The list of suspects for the murder of Heather Leigh played by Jules Kelvin is long as she dies at the party in Gossington Hall. 

At the centre of the story is Sophie Ward as the American actress Marina Gregg who has just acquired the hall and is shooting her latest film nearby. Is she the intended victim of the murderer who has accidentally killed the wrong woman? Her latest husband is also her film director Jason Rudd played by Joe McFadden who seems overly controlling and protective but admits to having access to the poison used. Then as it is a murder mystery there is her Italian Butler of 19 years, Giuseppe Renzo played by Lorenzo Martelli and her secretary Ella Zielinsky played by Sarah Lawrie. Both seem to be loyal and in love with Marina but know too many secrets. 

Then we meet Dolly Bantry played by Veronica Roberts who is the former owner of the Hall and clearly regrets the sale and Cyril Leigh played by David Partridge who is the victim’s loving husband.  Suspicions also falls on two people at the party who were not invited guests, rival American film star Lola Brewster played by Chrystine Simone who turned up uninvited and Mara Allen as Cherry Baker, Marple’s home help who happens to be moonlighting serving canapés at the party. They both seem anxious to speak to Marina . All the characters seem strangely drawn to Marina and could be a potential killer. 

Philip Franks’ direction is well paced and uses the space well. The lighting design by Emma Chapman needs to cleverly distinguish from scenes that we are seeing live and those that are recalled and does so by using a line of small birdies in a false foot light to illuminate the memories giving them a slightly hazy ethereal feel and creating some dark spots. When we are in Marple’s home, the hall or the studio, the stage is flooded with light from above and brightly illuminated. The changes between setting is charmingly choreographed in the half light. Max Pappenheim’s sound scape adds quietly to the atmosphere.

The result is a fresh feeling adaptation of the classic Christie story, cleverly staged and well-acted and bringing out some of the emotions hidden away behind the characters to produce a satisfying conclusion and make a very enjoyable evening . 

The tour continues around UK until Aberdeen on 4th March . 

 

Christmas Carol - Reading Rep ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reading Rep has now settled into its new home and its seasonal programme continues to promise familiar titles with a local twist and a creative approach to staging in the intimate venue. The staging of Beth Flintoff’s witty and clever reimagining of the Charles Dickens classic tale is simple and effective smoothly setting the scenes using the filing cabinets of Scrooge’s office at Huntley and Palmer’s factory in Reading. The script sticks to the original story of his transformation into a benevolent Victorian by the visit of the three spirits of the past, present and future but weaves in a tin full of Reading & biscuit references . 

Brought up in Coley in the west of the modern town and with a home in Eldon Square, Scrooge sleeps in the factory offices just of Kings Road having worked his way up from an apprentice on factory floor to a partner in the firm. His single-minded ambition and love of money makes him oblivious to the needs of the less well-off who he says can go to the Reading Gaol or the Union Workhouse in Oxford Road or die. It gives the story a strong local connection although does seem a little harsh replacing Scrooge’s dead partner Marley with the ghost of Mr George Palmer, who in real life was a benevolent Victorian whose lasting legacy is Palmer Park.

Flintoff updates the tale by making his clerk Cratchit a female, Bobbie and the daughter of Scrooge’s first love Belle, who accuses him of only hiring her because she was a woman, and he could pay her less. It provides a compelling emotional heart to the story and simplifies the cast of characters. Charlotte Warner doubles up as delightful Bobbie Cratchit and the spirit of Christmas past elegantly guiding us through Scrooge’s early years. Rick Romero plays the eerie Ghost of Palmer and the spirit of Christmas present revealing the impact of Scrooge’s attitude on those in knows. Nathalie Coosi plays Belle capturing her innocent love for young Scrooge played by Elijah Ferreira who delivers all his lines with an enthusiastic energy. The mute Spirit of Christmas future is played by the same young actor who plays Tiny Tim which adds to the poignancy and pathos of the predictions. 

Co-Directors Paul Stacey and Chris Cuming keep the action brisk with charming transitions between scenes covered by cast members as eerie spirit figures who set the stage with lanterns in hand. If anything, the show feels too short lasting well below the advertised two hour running time and left us wanting more but with the small cast some of the traditional scenes happened offstage. The lighting designer Simeon Miller and set and costume designer Anna Lewis perfectly set the show creating simple and effective pictures of each scene.

This is a charming production of a very familiar story given a real resonance by its setting in the community it serves and demonstrating what can be achieved on limited budgets by creative and imaginative teams . It could easily become a regular feature of the Reading cultural scene .

 

Nick Wayne

Into the woods ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The combination of Stephen Sondheim’s extraordinary score (less than a year after his death), Terry Gilliam’s outlandish creative ideas, Leah Hausman’s extensive operatic movement and choreography, a cast with the Julian Bleach recreating the weirdness of The Grinning man and Audrey Brisson captivating us as she did in Amelie, the evocative staging of a Pollock’s Toy Theatre and the glorious setting of the intimate Theatre Royal Bath combine in this production of Into the Woods in theatrical alchemy to create a wonderful celebration of this amazing composer. Sondheim’s music can be something of an acquired taste, but once acquired the joy never leaves you. Though the songs are not as memorable as those from Gypsy or Sweeney Todd, there is a wonderful tongue in cheek joy to the mash up of traditional well-known fairy-tale stories and its commentary on the human condition with its themes of growing up, morality and wish fulfilment. This version does not seem so macabre as I recall it, although the majority of characters do die , the staging and childlike setting of the toy theatre give it a more engaging emotional connection so that the final songs of “No one is alone” and “Children should listen” are much more touching and meaningful.

Gilliam’s creative stamp is throughout the show with moments reminiscent of his Monty Python animations and his more outlandish movies. The dressed proscenium arch and forestage which mirrors the Pollock’s toy theatre centre stage immediately sets the tone as you enter the venue. The young girl playing with it, placing the tin cans and vase on stage brings you into her world of imagination before she invites you to watch the show. The delightfully comic Milky White (played with great physicality by Faith Prendergast) looks and acts like the girl’s toy. The Baked Bean tin becomes Rapunzel’s tower and the 2d sets look like they have been cut out of the Toy Theatre kit. The use of the stage left box in the false proscenium for the Stepsisters (Charlotte Jaconelli and Jamie Birkett) is also very effective. When the Giant arrives, it is a cross between the Monty Python giant foot and the terrifying doll’s head from Toy Story. Visually its stunning in its theatricality and creativity.

The bizarre plot sees the Baker (Rhasan Stone) and his wife (Alex Young) being sent into the woods to find a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood (from Red Riding Hood, Lauren Conroy), hair as yellow as corn (Rapunzel’s, Maria Conneely) and a slipper as pure as gold (Cinderella’s, Brisson) in three days in order to lift the curse of infertility which the Witch has set (Nicola Hughes). As in the traditional pantomime versions of these stories all gets satisfactorily resolved but here it is done by the interval and the second half sees it all unravel as the consequences resolve. The inevitable comparisons with the traditional Christmas shows are generally avoided and the production has the feel of a morality tale but with plenty of comic moments.

Julian Bleach’s eerie white-faced narrator dressed as a Victorian undertaker or the grim reaper moves stealthily around, peering around flats ,hovering in the background until he is thrown to the Giant complaining “I just tell the story , I am not part of the plot”!  The two Princes are excellent with Henry Jenkinson as the flamboyant lothario Prince to Cinderella (“I am charming not sincere”) and Nathanael Campbell as the more caring Rapunzel’s Prince (and doubly up as the voracious Wolf). Together they make the most of their song “Agony” and its reprise which for me was a show highlight. Cinderella’s Prince and The Baker’s wife have their “moment in the woods” to good effect. Another of the best moments comes in Sondheim’s challenging “Your Fault” as the survivors Jack (Barney Wilkinson), Cinderella ,the Baker, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Witch argue who has caused the mayhem they have just witnessed.

Somehow the characters seems to have more depth than I recall in earlier versions, so we connect with them and emotionally engage with their actions whether the youthful innocence of Jack , Little Red Riding Hood or Cinderella or the outrageous behaviour of the two Princes and Baker’s wife. Rapunzel too, with her shorn hair giving her the look of Fantine in Les Miserable, presents a visible contrast between the girl in the tower and the crazed woman in the woods.

This is a wonderful reimaging of Sondheim’s distinctive discordant work brilliantly staged and very well acted and sung that sits perfectly on the Theatre Royal Bath’s stage. It runs in Bath until 10^th September. It deserves to be more widely seen and a West End transfer must be in the cards in 2023 but I hope to an appropriately sized venue, so it does not lose its intimacy. Some of Sondheim’s music especially this show , divides opinion  but I urge you to go see it, even if you are not sure about the tunes, for a visually theatrically superb reimaging that is a wonderful fitting tribute to this great composer.

Nick Wayne

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

Murder on the Orient Express  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Murder on Orient Express which was written in 1934 is perhaps one of Agatha Christie’s best known Hercule Poirot detective mysteries and has reached worldwide audiences through the 1974 Albert Finney film version, David  Suchet’s 2010 TV version and Kenneth Branagh’s recent film remake. Set almost entirely on the famous train stuck in a snow drift and with a plot now familiar to so many from the film versions it presents quite a challenge to adapt to the stage . Ken Ludwig’s adaption written in 2017 simplifies the suspects slightly by reducing them to eight but satisfyingly tells the original story and continues to engage us despite many knowing before Poirot whodunit!

Jonathan Church’s Chichester Production which has now settled in the theatre Royal Bath until Saturday 25th June brings the play to life with a delightfully simple but effective staging that suggests the train with simple carriage trucks and the front of the steam engine that symbolically appears upstage. Curiously the narrative of the approaching rescue party for the stranded train is told by a cast member hanging off the steam train on phone to the rescuers!

This version almost accepts that we know who the murderer is from the start by revealing in the opening scene the kidnap and murder of Daisy Armstrong by a silhouetted male figure and when we meet each character as they arrive to the board the train the clues begin to drop. Of course, the story revolves around the unexpected presence on the train of Hercules Poirot played with a delightfully Belgium accent and plenty of stylish affections by Henry Goodman. He may not bring the precise character of Suchet’s Interpretation although he leans towards that version, but he does add an emotional turmoil of whether justice is always achieved by bringing the culprits to court. The final long denouement scene, such a standard of her Poirot stories, is cleverly presented on a revolve so as he prowls around the stage the suspects slowly spin around him abandoning any sense of a train but nevertheless effectively adding tension to the revelations.

The suspects, all elegantly and appropriately dressed in thirties garb, easily establish both their presented characters and hints of their hidden identities. At the centre is the American Helen Hubbard played by Sara Stewart with assured elegance, the Countess Andrenyi (who is now also a trained Doctor) played by Laura Rogers with understated confidence and the Princess Dragomiroff, played by Joanna McCallum with a suitably regal air. These three women dominant the story telling as Poirot tries to elicit the truth from them. There is a simmering romance between the blustering Colonel Arbuthnot and the overly cautious Mary Debenham who pretend they have only just met (Philip Cairns and Taz Munyaneza). The remaining three suspects are Hector McQueen ( Samuel Collings) , Michel (Marc Antolin) and Greta Ohlsson (Joanna Van Kampen). Ratchet, the victim, is played by Timothy Watson and the Head of the railway is played by Patrick Robinson.

Agatha Christie’s said her books were entertainment and this translates to the stage. There is no heavy messaging , no difficult narrative to fathom and no modern allegories to unravel. It is simply presented as escapist entertainment, storytelling done well and ultimately an excellent theatrical experience in which Goodman brings to the stage the classic detective and holds our attention throughout so that even though we knew from the start the story we remained enjoyably engaged .

 

Nick Wayne  

Four stars

A theatrical Gem in Berkshire

The Mill at Sonning is enjoying a glorious bounce back from the effects of the Covid enforced closure with it wonderful four- and five-star production for Christmas , Top Hat , the musical based on the 1935 RKO Pictures classic black and white Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie Top Hat, featuring the music of Irving Berlin. It  follows on from their annual pre-Covid Christmas hits of My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls and Singing in the rain which have become part of their annual season of commercial Comedies, Thrillers and Musicals. Our reviewer, Nick Wayne went along to meet the MD/ Artistic Director, Sally Hughes to see how this unique venue has weathered the storm. They meet in the elegantly refurbished bar next to the still turning watermill as the local book club wrapped up and staff had a lull inactivity before the evening audience arrived.

Sally began by telling of how the venue came into being when her parents, Tim and Eileen Richards, had the extraordinary idea to find a venue to launch a dinner theatre in the UK as they had experienced in the USA. They came across the derelict mill which used to grind the flour for Huntley and Palmer’s biscuit factory in Reading  until 1969, just a few miles west from Sonning. As they looked at the large granary store, they envisaged their theatre and with the help of Tim’s brother Frank began the renovation and conversation, opening in July 1982. After a false start they established the successful formula of a two-course buffet served dinner before the show followed by a full-scale own production in the 217-seat theatre. Peter Egan was the first Artistic Director, and he returns for a Charity night on 23 January 2022 with Rick Wakeman.

Forty years on the formula still works and it remains a unique year-round theatrical experience in the UK. Pre Covid annual attendance had grown to 60,000 and Turnover to £3million without any grant funding or support and it thrives based on the reliable quality of its programming which knows what its audiences want and a loyal audience base who travel from all around the South of England for their visits. Coach parties fill the matinees on a regular basis , eager to enjoy the simple fare and an entertaining show. Indeed, when the steak pie or bread and butter pudding is taken off the menu Sally is quickly reminded that this is an essential part of the experience!

In recent years they have invested heavily in refurbishing the venue with a fresh modern feel to the decor in the bar and restaurant while still retaining the ambience of the historical building. The plans are to further enhance the site improving the foyer and entrance stairs , add a lift, building storage facilities, and adding accommodation to the site. They are also ahead of the game in their green credentials with a water driven turbine and ground source heat pump to not only supply their own energy but also feed out into the Grid. As with every decision, there is a sound business rationale behind its decision to keep the business self-sustainable.

There is a loyal audience basis and a group or around 20 Mill Angels who provide regular support for shows as well as a friend’s scheme which offers “walk and talk” tours and invites to season launch party. The venue won UK Theatre Award for the Most welcoming theatre for three years running 2016 to 2018. You are certain of a warm reception if you visit and can be reassured by the insistence of Covid status checks on arrival. Not only that unlike most other Theatres the car parking and programme is included in the price!

Of course, the real key to the success is the consistent appeal of its main theatrical programming. A recent regular success has been bestselling author Peter James’s dark thrillers adapted for the stage and his ghostly The House on Cold Hill will be staged from 3^rd February to 26^th March 2022 with local resident Debbie McGee and Richard Gibson (best known for Allo Allo) in the cast. Brian Blessed is a regular director here too. His next play is Busman’s holiday a detective comedy from 28^th April to 25 June 2022 which is followed by Barefoot in the park, directed by Sally herself from 30^th June to 20^th August. Ray Conney’s classic comedy farces have also been a popular feature each year and the venue recently recognised his contribution to the place by naming the theatre after him.

In January Sally is experimenting with Still Life, the original play by Noel Coward on which the film Brief Encounter was based. The welcoming downstairs bar will be transformed into the railway café that the story is based in with staff in period costumes for a romantic immersive encounter and period music. The original six performances are sold out and four more have been added but will sell out quickly.

When asked about what’s next Sally’s eyes light up and with a glint in her eye she says she is working on something rather special if she can clear the rights and despite pressing, she won’t reveal more but if it matches up to the wonderful Top Hat it will certainly be worth looking out for in 2022 or 2023. In the meantime, while December is pretty sold out , there is availability in November for Top Hat and you will be guaranteed a good entertaining night out with the delightful feelgood lift that only live theatre can provide. That is what makes this venue a theatrical gem to be cherished and supported.

 

Nick Wayne

The Hound of the Baskervilles - Open air Theatre at Watermill

It was, as always, a delight to travel down the M4 to the wonderful Watermill Theatre near Newbury to see Abigail Pickard Price's post Covid adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle story of the Hound of the Baskervilles. Of course, the experience was very different from my last theatre visit to see Quality Street at the historical theatre in Bury St Edmunds on March 12th. Part of the joy of the show is the celebration of being back watching live theatre, and the audience and the cast enjoy plenty of jokes about social distancing, face coverings and anti-bac sprays . This sets the tone of the show, a melodramatic Pantomime which uses the original novel as a launch pad for a riotous three handed dash around the Dorset , sorry Devon, moors in search of the Hound which as one character says would have Conan Doyle spinning in his grave !

Pickard Price, as an associate director of the Watermill, has directed several shows over the years at the venue and is used to working within the limits of the small venue but on this occasion she has worked with no set , props from stock , and apparently only four days of rehearsal. The limits of the production constraints show, a bit like an Edinburgh Fringe show but that is part of its charm. The outside setting with the audience seated at tables of four seats adds to the fun as the cast move amongst them and applaud themselves on and off stage as they run to and from the usual dressing rooms.

The story features a multitude of quirky oddball characters inhabiting the Gothic Baskerville Hall and the surrounding areas including Sir Henry, Beryl and Jack Stapleton, a convict Seldon, the butler Barrymore, locals Mortimer and Laura, and of course the glowing Hound. With just three actors to play the roles the necessity of doubling up on roles becomes part of the comedy and they revel in switching characters and sexes. Indeed, the only two constants are Victoria Blunt as Miss Watson, the narrator of much of the story, and Rosalind Lailey as Holmes, with James Mack starting as Sir Henry. In the warm sun of the outdoor stage their energetic and committed performances are to be admired.

 Victoria Blunt's comic ability is already known to the Watermill audiences as she gave them her   Gender bending Bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream earlier this year. She was also Malcolm in the 2019 production of Macbeth. James Mack has also appeared there too in an excellent adaption of The Rivals in 2018. They make a great team with Lailey and because of the multiple parts are rarely off stage (just an occasional quick change in the bushes).

The running time including interval is only 90 minutes, but it is fun, silly, and highly entertaining and a celebration of both live theatre and the creativity of Watermill in reopening in a safe and enjoyable way. When the short run went on sale to the public, the 25 tables for each performance sold out within 20 minutes but additional matinees have now been added later in the summer when a concert version of Camelot plays the outdoor stage.

Paul Hart's leadership of the venue continues to set high standards and shows what can be achieved on limited budgets and constrained audience sizes. It deserves every success and many other larger subsidised companies and regional theatres should look to this model when they reopen to create quality productions on smaller budgets and capable of operating successfully on smaller audiences. 

Top 5 Regional shows in 2019


Captain Corelle’s mandolin – Kingston Rose

Louis de Bernieres's 1994 novel runs to over 500 pages divided into over 70 chapters and became a two-hour movie in 2001, so the ambitious challenge for adapter Rona Munro and director Melly Still is how to tell the story when spans about fifty years of life on The Greek island of Cephalonia on stage. The resulting production is an extraordinarily creative mixture of narrative storytelling, balletic choreography, moving performances and exquisite lighting and projections. This is theatre at its best, taking an impossible task of an epic book and presenting it in an emotionally engaging, visually stunning and totally absorbing way (one imagines on the smallest of budgets) with a faultless ensemble cast. 


Prism – Richmond theatre

Prism is a play about the extraordinary Cinematographer Jack Cardiff.  Cardiff was the cinematographer on Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948) and African Queen (1951). Johnson uses these memories to explore the later life of Jack Cardiff when he was suffering from dementia and cleverly both educates us on his achievements and explores the impact of dementia on his close family in a dramatic and poignant play. He brings all the elements together to present his play on stage in a compelling and moving two hours that deserves wider exposure and larger audiences to appreciate and Robert Lindsay once again compellingly demonstrates his skill as a stage performer. It is a phenomenal performance of great variation and touching moments that make us laugh and cry.

Amelie- Watermill – Newbury

Amelie UK premiere was at the intimate Watermill Newbury and captured the delightful quirky Frenchness of the original 2001 film with Audrey Tautou and reinventing itself by all accounts from its Broadway musical debut. Its success is built around the petite French-Canadian actress Audrey Brisson who has a joyous expressive face, large sparkling eyes and a glorious voice that means you can’t take your eyes off her even with the rest of the ensemble cast towering around her. She is Amelie the awkward young girl, home schooled with a heart condition who lives in a garret above an Art Nouveau Paris metro station and spies on the odd collection of people passing through. The story takes us through delightful flights of fantasy and with an amazingly inventive staging that is amusing, engaging and keeps the pace up throughout most of the show.

This is the life I lead – Salisbury Playhouse

From the moment you enter the theatre and see the cut-out silhouette in the door frame of David Tomlinson and a pale blue set with scattered Bowler hats and an umbrella you can sense you are in the presence of Mr Banks from the original Mary Poppins in some spiritual world in the sky. As soon as Miles Jupp enters through the silhouette, he brings him to life with a gentle charm that engages the audience and reveals emotional depths to the portrayal. This is a highly enjoyable touching play that reveals a lot about this well-known actor's life and provides an insightful comment on father son relationships and leaves you not only wanting to revisit his films but also reflecting on your own father son relationships. 

Audience – NST Southampton

Peter Morgan's fascinating play imagines the conversations between the Queen and her Prime Ministers in her weekly meetings. Sam Hodges, the artistic director of the NST directs the play and makes some bold staging decisions with his designer Rosanna Vize to emphasise the nature of their relationships. The traverse stage ensures that we constantly sense the feeling the protagonists must have of always being under watchful scrutiny and the travellator means the Queen is faced in her private audience room with a conveyor belt of Ministers going back to her first in 1953, Winston Churchill. He also cast one actor, Paul Kemp, in all the male Prime Ministers to emphasise that they are almost interchangeable as each deals with the crisis of the day,  The success of the production is built on the brilliant writing which not only easily incorporates historical events, adds great humour and mostly shows the human relationship between Queen and the leaders of her Government but also on the extraordinary performances of Faye Castelow as Elizabeth and Paul Kemp as the PM's.

My Cousin Rachel Bath and on UK tour **


Daphne Du Maurier's collection of novels have established her as a classic British writer and many of her stories have been translated to the stage or screen to reach a wider audience. This latest adaption to the stage of the 1938 book My Cousin Rachel starts its UK tour in the wonderful Bath New Theatre Royal. The Gothic novel appears to lend itself to a dramatic staging of the story of the mysterious exotic widowed Italian countess who arrives for first time at the family home on the Cornwall Coast. Yet Joseph O Connor's adaption and designer Richard Kent set design seem to inhibit the actors in bringing the story to the stage.

 Rather than create the imposing family home of the Ashley's the design symbolises the home with a huge three-story open staircase up to a tall tower adorned with a portrait of the deceased Ambrose Ashley over a fireplace. This staircase must double for the remote treacherous Guinevere Point overlooking the sea, but the result is that it creates a long awkward climb to the room Rachel stays in which looks difficult and dangerous for her in her crinoline and petticoats. The absence of a full set and furniture means when the young Ward Philip has critical scenes, they take place in the unlikely location of the bottom stair and when he falls ill, he is found in a single chair by the fire. This completely undermines the scenes and makes it very hard for the actors to convincingly portray the situations. The rear wall does evoke rugged Cornish coast, but the effect is to make the house itself look like a ruin on the cliff edge rather than a desirable respected home of the local Landowner.



John Lumsden as Thomas and Sean Murray as Secombe are the two long serving servants of the house and successfully create these two loyal Cornish characters which helps anchor the action in the location. Simon Shepherd is the young Philip's godfather, Nicholas and executor of the estate and has the authority and care for his charge although it feels curious for the period to hear him called Nick by the boy rather than sir or perhaps Kendall. Aruhan Galieva is the godfather's daughter Louise and childhood friend of Philip but their relationship and the tension between them feels underwritten.



The central character is Rachel Ashley played by Helen George, but she is portrayed more as an English Rose rather than the exotic beguiling woman who bewitches Philip. The twists and turns in her character's apparent motivations that should mystify the audience don't grip us and it felt like the adjustment from rehearsal to the long sweeping staircase of these opening nights was still being made. She is described as a woman of scandal and it is said that " beautiful woman attract rumours" but the smouldering sexuality implied is restrained. There are feminist themes too like when she says, " I am a woman so I shall always be a servant ".



We first meet Philip played by Jack Holden seven months before his twenty fifth birthday when he would fully inherit Ambrose's estate and the action takes place over those months until his birthday arrives. He feels very young and naive and easily led but never passionately hating or loving Rachel. Christopher Hollis plays the cameo role of Guido another mysterious Italian character who adds to the intrigue.



Director Anthony Banks keeps the action moving and uses the revolve to slickly change locations but the artificiality of the set design never creates settings that support the actors or create the required atmosphere of situations they face and there is little contrast between the intimate interior meetings and the rugged exposed external ones.



There is plenty in the original story and characters to make this an engaging and dramatic drama but in this production the elements don't come together to deliver on that promise and as a result it falls short.



Nick Wayne  Two stars

Salisbury- Classic Morecambe & Wise  Comedy  ⭐⭐⭐


Morecambe and Wise were comedy legends in their own lifetime and a whole generation fell in love with their unique double act in the seventies and early eighties and were saddened and shocked by Eric Morecambe's early death at 58 in 1984. Over thirty years later the memory of their greatest sketches and routines continue to be celebrated on TV and on stage and this latest tour which is currently in Salisbury is "An evening of Eric and Ern" is a brilliant tribute to many of their best-known gags.  

Ian Aspitel wonderfully recreates the stage presence of Ernie Wise, the little one with short fat hairy legs and a pretend grey toupee. The straight man who feeds Eric and is the brunt of many of his putdowns but is the anchor of the double act and constantly demonstrates his well-tuned music hall craft.

Jonty Stephens has all Eric's mannerisms and side glances in a solid tribute although does not (perhaps not surprisingly) quite create his amazing physical presence and classic voice. He does execute the brown bag ball catch gags brilliantly.  Nevertheless, they do together demonstrate the obvious trust and affection that the two comics had between them.

It is a joyous nostalgic evening in which the audience continually ripples with laughter of recognition and affection and occasionally bursts into applause of delight at the delivery of a classic punch line as in the show highlight, the Andre Preview Grieg piano sketch line " I'm playing all the right notes , but not necessarily in the right order".



They also give us the sketches in the living room and their bedroom, " He won't sell many ice creams at that speed" and Mr Memory, "Arsenal" as well as Eric's Hamlet, vent act and reading Ernie's This is your life.  Of course, music was always a key part of their shows and we see their "Stripper" routine plus their duets of "Positive Thinking”, “Following you around " and " Bring me sunshine".



They are supported by vocalist Rebecca Neale who represents all the guests their shows had who never got paid as well as the interaction with them such in a great "Send in the Clowns " with Eric and Ernie dressed as clowns with balloons before being allowed to sing unhindered a good version of Cilla Black's "You're my world".



This is classic Morecambe and Wise that brings back strong memories of their great stage show which I saw in the seventies in the Gaumont Southampton and at Thames TV in the early eighties. It shows what made them great but also reminds us how comedy has changed and that there will never be another act like Morecambe and Wise.



Nick Wayne



Three stars

Salisbury- Classic Ayckbourn Comedy ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Alan Ayckbourn has had a phenomenal career and I saw many of the first productions of his huge theatrical hits of the seventies and eighties including Absurd Person Singular, Norman Conquests, Bedroom Farce, Sisterly Feeling, Way Upstream, Intimate Exchanges and Chorus of disapproval . But I had never seen his first big hit Relatively Speaking which was staged in the West End in 1967. It was therefore great to see this delightful production at the Salisbury Playhouse.



The play has all the elements that made his comedies so wonderful. Witty one liners, normal middle class families in crisis and a unique understanding of how to structure theatrical plots to create chaos out of seemingly normal situations. Here the premise is simple a young man Greg, follows his girlfriend of a month, Ginny to her parents’ home to ask for her hand in marriage. What could go wrong?

The main house is transformed with seating all-round the excellent detailed set designed by James Button with a clever switch from first scene in Ginny's London bedsit to the beautiful garden in the country of Shelia and Philip. There are flowers everywhere and a delightful water feature which gets used to great comic effect. So realistic is the garden feature that when a real Red Admiral butterfly fluttered into the stage it stopped the show and caused the cast to corpse as they reacted to its presence.



Director Jo Newman uses the space well. The entrances and exits are perfectly timed to drive the escalating farcical misunderstandings along in a believable and amusing way. It also ensures each line is allowed to hang in the air long enough for the audience to let it sink in and to take in the facial reactions.



Tim McMullan is magnificent as Philip the middle-aged married man at the centre of the situation with his hang dog expressions and combination of bemused frantic and fearful reactions. Opposite him is Caroline Harker as his wife Shelia who he suspects of an affair with someone who writes to her on a Sunday. She gets the balance right of a faithful tease, suspicious wife and keen hostess and makes it all feel truthful.

The young couple are played by Hubert Burton (a 2014 RADA graduate) as the earnest but slightly daft Greg who seems very slow in working out what is going on with his new girlfriend the charming but duplicitous, Ginny, played by Louise Calf. It seems hard to believe that he is the "Fantastic lover" whose "life did not begin until I met you" but the awkward scene when he first arrives in the country is brilliant and his despairing horror at having spent nineteen shillings and six pence on the train fare down is hilarious.



The language at times may now feel dated but the outstanding performances from the cast, slick staging and the brilliance of the play's structure and plotting is a joy to watch.



The play continues until the 28th September.



Nick Wayne



Four stars




 Dick Whittington - South Hill Park  - FOUR Stars

Community Pantomime for the whole family is an essential part of Christmas tradition. It is very exciting when a producer takes the traditional story and gives their version a neat twist to keep it fresh and distinctive. The creative team behind South Hill Park's Dick Whittington have certainly done that with this production. Wonderfully staged, with updated versions of the pantomime standard routines and an excellent James Bond style chase, it is a fun filled entertaining two and half hours for all the family.

The set design by Victoria Spearing is ingenious and incredibly effective and detailed. From the moment the curtain rises on a large dolls house that opens up into a puppet theatre for a Victorian feeling prologue you can sense the research and thought that has gone into the design. When the action moves into the full stage of London Town you can see the Storybook set stacked up to page turn with each scene change. The shop interior is an exceptional piece of set design packed with practical props and so much more impressive than many much larger venues staging of the title. So too are the mechanical cut out waves which are so effective and must have picked out from a Victorian pantomime picture.

The clever twist in the script by writer Joyce Branagh is to ship wreck Dick in Lapland and for him to battle King Rat in Father Christmas's workshop which not only connects with the time of year but is a refreshing alternative to the Sultan of Morocco. It also enables the team to refresh the overdone twelve days of Christmas routine with burst balloons and four dancing Penguin/elves. This classic staple of pantomime is executed brilliantly with great comedy, a fresh feel and properly integrated into the show.

 

There is a youthful charm about the young principals of Michael Ayiotis, making his pantomime debut as Dick opposite Faye Ellen as Alice (returning to South Hill Park for a second pantomime) and Rebecca Ayres as Tabby the cat. They work well together, full of energy and good clear vocals.

Brad Clapson returns in his tenth pantomime as the Dame Sally who engages well with the rows of children in the audience and Shani Cantor plays the Fairy and Captain Orange Beard with equal amounts of pleasure and energy.

John Conway is Fitzwarren (good to see spoon playing make a comeback!) and Father Christmas and Matthew Houston is a very well spoken King Rat.

Another appealing feature of the show is the music selection with very good medley's around "Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner" with the spoon playing, a "Nautical medley” and a "Happy Feet medley” with tap dancing penguin/elves. Of course Baby Shark has to make its appearance with the audience joining in ... it would not be 2018 Pantomime without it.

There is a lovely feel to this show, harking back to Victorian Pantomime traditions with an excellent ensemble cast and lively entertaining music and dance. This is a must see Pantomime for those in the area and much better than travelling further afield to see those with star names and bigger budgets.

Nick Wayne

****

Henry II - Reading Between the lines,  Reading Minster

***

Henry II is the third of Beth Flintoff's Conquerors trilogy for Reading Between the Lines (RBL) set about the time of the building and consecration of Reading Abbey (1120 to 1164). I missed the first two installments , Henry I of England and Matilda the Empress, so was unfamiliar with the style and story to date. She has taken real historical figures and even some snatches of dialogue from contemporary accounts and fashioned a period set play in period costumes but with a modern feeling script and including some lively folk music by Luke Potter. It is at times a curious mix and some of the writing, especially in the overlong first act, feels like it needs another draft or two to refine and sharpen the dialogue. Staged in the Reading Minister the pews did begin to feel uncomfortable even with the cushion hired before the interval. However the whole production takes off in the second half as the various story strands are drawn together and the Director Hal Chambers makes better use of the space. 

The historical storylines are based around the deteriorating relationship between Henry and his powerful wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, the sudden change in his relationship with Thomas Beckett after he becomes Archbishop of Canterbury and the development of troubadour’s, musical poets who sang about consensual love. We are shown the contrasts in Beckett behaviour in Act 1 with a slightly bizarre song and dance about his days as a drunk with Henry and in opening of Act 2 as the pious serious Archbishop in a self flagellation scene . With the troubadours we see in Act 1 a rather dull explanation of the principles of Troubadour poetry but in Act 2 we get a powerful well grouped scene at King's banquet where they fall under the troubadours spell in a test of Henry and Eleanor's relationship when he sings" here lies my heart my love ".

The nave of Reading minister makes a good setting for the drama with the large arch lit in blues and reds but the raised stage , necessary for sight lines , also makes entrances and exits less fluid and the constant moving of stone coloured cubes slows the action even though attempts are made to cover the scene change. The episodic nature of the writing means some scenes seem shorter than the scene change!

What makes the show work and engage the audience is the strong female characters with an excellent Annabelle Brown as Eleanor capturing her power and insecurity, Bethan Mary-James as Marie who really shines in the second half as her true identity is revealed and by RBL producer Dani Davies as the ageing Matilda, Henry's mother. She brings a moving regal strength to her portrayal in the crucial Banquet scene. In a world where marriages are arranged and affairs seems to be common place , Flintoff gives us three characters constrained by the society but trying to influence and change it from their position in the court.

The men become more crude caricatures. Henry, Mark Middleton, is a unbending autocratic ruler and Beckett, Toby Davies, the unflinting unmovable cleric. Much of the comedic moments are delivered by Dominic Allen as Gerald the loyal cleric obsessed with Beavers and Yanick Ghanty as the flatulist entertainer. It is difficult to find sympathy for their unbending attitudes.

This is a production with a strong local appeal with plenty of local references and firmly set in Reading. It is always a delight to see site specific plays and the setting of this one sets the tone as you enter the Minster through the tower entrance. We do learn about a less known period of English history and the fascinating character of Eleanor. RBL deserves to succeed in its Endeavour telling stories like this on site but on this occasion it needed thirty minutes trimmed and some redrafting of the early scenes .

  

Private Peaceful- South Hill Park Production 

***

The 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War in November 2018 deserves fitting remembrance and a reminder not just of the loss of brave lives but of the societal changes that the war brought on those left behind. There have been great story telling in plays like "Oh what a lovely war", "Journeys End" and "War Horse" that dramatically tell of the way the war was fought. Michael Morpurgo's book "Private Peaceful" tells a much more personal story of the impact on one family. When the father is killed in an accident, the three Peaceful brothers Charlie, Tommo and Joe are left in the tide cottage with their mother on a rural English estate and Charlie and Tommo fall in love with same girl Molly. When the war starts the family is split up as Charlie (19) and Tommo (just 16) join up and are sent to the Western Front.

The play tells the story in a series of flashbacks and memories that Tommo has while struggling to stay awake one night in June 1916 on the edge of the Flanders battlefields and switches between his life in rural England and the life in the army. The mood of the soldiers is of "being in a hopeless bloody mess, a hell hole, with men dying for nothing ". If anything the writing is a little too episodic and over reliant on letters read aloud , perhaps portraying its roots in a book and we don't really get a vivid sense of the hell hole as they clamber over the set.

The production is set on a composite, multilevel staging designed by Victoria Spearing which doubles as his home, the school and the battlefields. It looks excellent and creates the feel of the period and countryside but is less effective in the battle scenes where the horror and tension of trench life, raids to capture prisoners and gas attacks is more effectively told in Journeys End. The lighting designed by Alan Valentine picks out the various levels and focuses our attention effectively. There is a lovely background soundtrack which in scene changes echoes Tommo's memories and includes Oranges and Lemons and Long way to Tipperary.

The large youthful cast of 21 and a dog work hard and energetically although occasionally there words can't be heard clearly, especially if they speak upstage. Michael Aylotis is excellent as Charlie, the confident elder brother who cares so strongly for his sibling. Kier Buist captures the younger, timid, quietness of Tommo, dependent on his brother's protection at school and in war. Ally McEnhill is Molly, the girl they both love and the three charmingly and tenderly portray the love triangle which builds to a moving and emotional conclusion.

South Hill Park Productions has the strong feel of a community theatre serving its local population and it was great to see an audience full of young school children quietly observing the play and then loudly checking outside who cried at the end! Director Joe Malyan marshals his troops well creating some wonderful small vignettes of life during the First World War and is well served by his young cast. Overall this is a fine act of remembrance which movingly echoes stories that must have effected so many 100 years ago.

Nick Wayne

Three stars