Hanky Panky

OTHELLO

The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham, Saturday 11^th November 2023

When it begins, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d walked into an Ibsen play by mistake, thanks to the elegant late-Victorian costumes.  Rose and Stewart Snape’s meticulous costumes have instant impact, setting up time, place, and social standing on an otherwise empty stage.  But then, this is the Crescent, and the costumes are always worth writing home about.

In the title role, Papa Anoh Yentumi strikes a commanding figure, patiently tolerating the racist insults hurled at him by Brendan Stanley’s agitated Brabantio.   Brabantio is on the warpath because his daughter has eloped with Othello; Elizabethan audiences would perhaps recognise his reaction as ‘genuine concerns’ but before we cast the lead as the villain, Shakespeare quickly establishes his military credentials and his nobility of character, making sure we are clear that it is his manservant/confidant Iago (Jack Hobbis) who is the antagonist here.  Yentumi delivers the extremes of Othello, from cool and collected to insecure hothead prone to violence via capable leader, castigating his men after a brawl.  It’s a towering, powerful performance.

Sophie Manning’s Desdemona is an innocent English rose who does hurt and confusion well. She could do with being more passionate when first declaring her love for her husband rather than saving it all up for the final scene. That final scene delivers the goods with everyone at full throttle.

Nick Tuck’s Michael Cassio is a different kind of innocent, drinking and swaggering his way into Iago’s web of intrigue.  Grace Cheadle is an excellent Emilia, eager to please her abusive husband, and Robert Laird gives a sense of easy authority as the Duke of Venice.  Tom Lowde’s Rodrigo is something of a comic figure – without overdoing it – another hapless pawn in Iago’s machinations.  Jordan Bird’s Montano, tasked with announcing celebrations at Othello’s behest, delivers the speech with rousing vigour, as though Henry V were inviting us to a knees-up.  Amanda Nickless’s lowly Bianca adds a touch of Cypriot colour – the Snapes triumphing again with her period prostitute outfit.

The entire ensemble lends solid support to Yentumi and Hobbis.  I have written before about how excellent this latter is.  And once again, he convinces me he is the finest actor in Birmingham and for a wide radius beyond.  Here, he delivers an RSC worthy performance.  Hobbis’s Iago is a nuanced, conniving figure, with a charming if dark and cynical sense of humour.  No one delivers the blank verse so clearly or so naturally.  Iago is the most interesting character in the piece and Hobbis makes it easy for us to admire Iago’s Machiavellian scheming, catching us in his web as much as the characters.  When he delivers the famous line, “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy,” I get a shiver. When he gets his hands on a certain handkerchief, a key prop in his plotting, his reaction is delicious.

Director Colin Simmonds is an assured hand, setting his production in the round, making us spectators in an arena, watching a psychological game being played out, as Iago uses other people as chess pieces to bring about the downfall of his master.  John Gray’s lighting gives us night and day, highlighting key points of action (with Iago invariably at the edge, watching from the shadows) while Kevin Middleton’s sound design gives us unsettling tones as Othello unravels.  It all builds to a climactic, electrifying final scene.  All in all it’s a classy production of a classic, accessible to those who don’t know the play and satisfying for those who do.

A pity, then, that its message is still all too relevant in this day and age: It is by the darkness inside a man that he should be judged.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Floored! Iago (Jack Hobbis) has Othello (Papa Anoh Yentumi) right where he wants him. Photo: Graeme Braidwood

Disco Ball

CINDERELLA

Gatehouse Theatre, Stafford, Tuesday 13^th December, 2022

As soon as Fairy Fleur (Harriet Thorpe from Ab Fab) opens the show with a flash and a puff of smoke, we know we are in safe hands.  Camp and cheerful, Thorpe takes charge and sets the tone for a hugely enjoyable evening.  And the producers get their money’s worth out of her, having her reappear in several guises throughout the story.

Aya Elmansouri’s Cinderella is feisty and exuberant, not the downtrodden figure we might expect.  Her singing voice is powerful and we take to her immediately.  In fact, it’s an instantly lovable cast; Ricky K’s Buttons is a cheeky clown, adept at physical comedy; Tom Vaughan’s Prince Louis is handsome and clean cut and clearly having fun; Allan Jay’s Dandini is camply Scottish, and a serious challenge to Vaughan for the best singing voice in the show.

The scene-stealing Ugly Sisters, wonderfully named Tess & Trace, are unstintingly hilarious.  Jason Sutton’s Trace is the more traditional panto dame while Will Peaco’s Tess is more of a modern drag queen.  The pair work wonderfully together.  Even their moments of cruelty bring laughter.

The traditional pantomime elements are here, executed perfectly.  A slosh scene involving Button and the Sisters and a tub of face cream is all the funnier for its simplicity.  And a Staffordshire Sasquatch provides the ‘It’s Behind You’ scene, including a chase around the auditorium. 

The stage at the Gatehouse may not be very deep but the production company makes the most of it.  Production values are high, and the horse-drawn carriage at the close of Act One is breath-taking —  I would advise a puff of dry ice to better conceal the apparatus.

The well-worn story is served well by an excellent script by Julie Coombe, crackling with jokes, many of them aimed at the adults in the audience. There are many topical references promoting a greener lifestyle without holding these ideas up to ridicule e.g. Cinders and the Prince first meet during a protest to save some trees, the palace only serves Vegan food… It’s good to be included without being the butt of a joke!

Connor Fogel single-handedly handles the music.  Most of the songs are disco classics, serving to give the show a certain unity of tone, with Rebecca Jeffrey’s energetic choreography being both retro and contemporary.

This is certainly a pantomime that gets everything right.  It’s perfect entertainment, enthralling for the children and hilarious for the grown-ups.

I had a ball.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Out of the Ashes

LA CENERENTOLA

Birmingham Hippodrome, Thursday 15^th November, 2018

 

The influence of Mozart, the king of comic opera, is easily apparent in this version of the Cinderella story by Rossini, a worthy successor to the crown.  Rossini’s characters, for all the delight they bring, lack the psychological complexity of Mozart’s but in this colourful, storybook production this matters not one jot.

Director Joan Font keeps the staging simple: a staircase, a huge fireplace that becomes a huge set of palatial doors.  On this grey background, vibrant figures act out the familiar drama (there are a couple of diversions from the norm: the glass slipper is a bracelet, presumably because back in 1817 when the opera premiered, showing bare feet on stage would bring about the apocalypse; the fairy godmother is the Prince’s wise old tutor, disguised as a beggar…)  Joan Guillen’s design dresses the characters in traditional storybook costumes, with exaggerations and some Fauvist colourings: the male chorus all sport blue wigs; the clownish make-up of the comic characters includes painted on blue beards… Font doesn’t miss a trick when it comes to the comedy, and if you spend too long peering up at the surtitles, you might not catch some bit of business that augments the situation, and supports the overall tone of Rossini’s effervescent score.

Tara Erraught is sweetly dowdy – if that’s possible – in the title role, petting her only friends: an infestation of man-sized mice, who serve as stagehands and silent commentators on the proceedings.  Fresh-faced tenor Matteo Macchioni is, well, Charming as the Prince, who for reasons of plot, spends most of the show in disguise as his own manservant, Dandini.  Speaking of whom, Giorgio Caoduro, amid a host of amusing performances, proves the funniest of the lot as the manservant in disguise, camping it up as the Prince.  Fabio Capitanucci all but chews the scenery as bombastic, ostensible villain-of-the-piece, the purple-wigged Don Magnifico.  He and Caoduro excel at the patter, barking out rapid staccato almost to the brink of frenzy.  Rossini, like Mozart before him, makes music sound funny.  It’s a wonder to behold.

Wojtech Gierlach brings gravitas to this bit of froth in the role of the wise and slightly wizardly Alidoro – a figure who owes more than a bit to Sarastro in The Magic Flute,  while Aoife Miskelly and Heather Lowe have and give and lot of fun as the preening, posturing, bitchy sisters Clorinda and Tisbe, beneath towering pompadours of pink and bright yellow.

The WNO male chorus are in splendid voice, whether singing on-stage or off, but it strikes me at curious that, at the ball, the Prince has only three female guests from whom to select his bride.  The orchestra, under the flawless aegis of Tomas Hanus, deliver every note of Rossini’s frantic music to perfection.  Sometimes it’s so fast it’s as though the characters are in a hurry as they try to express the thoughts and emotions that are pouring out of them like champagne from a newly-popped bottle.

A delight from start to finish, this is a breath-taking feast for the ears with plenty of visual humour to keep the funny-bone tickled.  For me, it serves as a curtain-raiser for the impending pantomime season, as yet again WNO provide world-class entertainment with a production that would make the perfect introduction to the genre for anyone.  It would be a cin-der miss it.

Giorgio Caoduro and Fabio Capitanucci as Dandini and Don Magnifico (Photo: Jane Hobson)

Rome About

VICE VERSA

The Swan Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, Wednesday 14^th June, 2017

 

Phil Porter’s new play ‘borrows’ heavily (to put it mildly!) from the works of Roman comic genius Plautus – Porter is by no means the first to do so; everyone from Shakespeare to Frankie Howerd has been influenced by Plautus’s outlandish plots and larger-than-life character types.

Colin Richmond’s set is a painted representation of two Roman houses – the artificiality is undisguised, as a prompt to tell us we are not in the real world.  In this world, characters are broadly drawn, driven by particular foibles and appetites.  First among them is General Braggadocio (Felix Hayes), a swaggering braggart, a vain, posturing despot – clearly ripe for duping.  Hayes chews his lines with bombast and relish in a massively enjoyable performance.  He quotes and paraphrases Donald Trump – which should tell you all you need to know about what kind of dreadful, narcissistic idiot he is.

Running rings around him is Dexter, the cunning, conniving slave.  This is the Frankie Howerd role, played here by Sophia Nomvete, a hugely likable presence full of charm and warmth.  Her schemes are ludicrous but we take delight in watching them work out, as Dexter copes with each new obstacle that is thrown in her path.

Aiding and abetting (but mostly hampering and hindering) are fellow slaves, Feclus (a hilarious and tightly wound Steven Kynman) whose desperation and frustration are a lot of fun, and  Omnivorous (Byron Mondahl) who, as his name gives away, eats a lot but is at his comic best when he is pissed off his face.

Geoffrey Lumb’s handsome but dim young lover, Valentin, is a wide-eyed twit, while his other half, the general’s concubine Voluptua gives the performance of the night.  Ellie Beaven is the cream of this very rich crop of comedic talent, flitting between characterisations with impeccable timing and nuance – and it’s not the kind of show where you expect much nuance!

There is superb support from Nicholas Day as game old codger Philoproximus and a star turn from Allo Allo’s Kim Hartman as raddled old prostitute, Climax, hurling herself into Dexter’s schemes with energy and style.  Jon Trenchard reinforces the silliness of the whole enterprise, scampering around as Braggadocio’s monkey Terence (named for the other famous Roman playwright, I’ll wager).

Director Janice Honeyman doesn’t miss a trick to keep the laughs coming thick and fast, and much fun is had with some well-placed anachronisms.  Roman comedy gives us the opportunity to mock those who would oppress us, while championing the little guy and revelling in the indomitable human qualities of ingenuity and wit.  It’s not the plots we come for but the playing.  And this production delivers some exquisitely funny playing indeed.

Up Stratford! Felix Hayes and Sophia Nomvete (Photo: Pete Le May)

Toad Hally Awesome

TOAD OF TOAD HALL

Bear Pit Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, Friday 2^nd December, 2016

 

A.A. Milne’s stage adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s beloved novel is a classic in its own right, and its brought to charming life here by director Nicky Cox and a talented cast.  The playful staging (umbrellas for wagon wheels, stepladders for trees) sits well in the studio space, while the energised performances of the actors makes the action irresistible.

Natalie Danks-Smith is a likeable Mole, a blinking innocent who finds there’s a world of adventure beyond her front door.  Dominic Skinner’s affable, dapper Ratty represents what is decent in all of us.  Badger (Shirley Allwork) is the voice of experience and authority – the characters each represent an aspect of human nature, it seems.  Toad himself is an irrepressible hedonist, selfishly sweeping everyone else along with his whims and fads, embroiling them in the problems he creates.  Toad is also a supreme manipulator, caring only for his own interests – he is the attractive but negative side of us, all ego and no conscience.  He thinks the law of the land does not apply to him – much like certain members of the ruling class today!

As Toad, David Mears is magnificent.  Repellent and attractive at once, his antics are enjoyable if reprehensible, and Mears’s performance is a masterclass in comic acting.  No detail is overlooked.  Every twitch of an eyelid, every roll of the eyes is calculated to perfection.  Toad almost swamps the stage with his personality but Allwork’s Badger provides a well-tuned counterpoint, and an equally rounded if contrasting characterisation.  It is a treat to see these two working together.

Tony Homer’s Chief Weasel is an imposing figure, dressed like a sinister doorman – he and the Wild Wooders are clearly of a lower class to the protagonists and therefore undesirables.  This is class war of a kind the Tories still propagate to this day: the lower classes are scavengers, liars and criminals – the very transgressions of which they themselves are all too guilty!  But, leaving Marx behind for a bit, Homer is rather scary at first before mellowing into a figure of fun, in the court scene and so on.  The overthrow of the weaselly squatters puts them back in their place in the societal pecking order, revolution has been averted and the status quo is restored and celebrated, while Toad gets away with escaping from prison…

There is sterling support from Charlotte Froud as a sardonic horse, Philip Hickson as a blustering judge, David Southeard as an affronted policeman, but all players work with commitment and focus, be they providing the walls of a secret tunnel or nattering away as members of the jury.  Pamela Hickson gives a delightful cameo as an exuberant washerwoman.

Songs are performed a capella – the ‘Down With Toad’ by Chief Weasel and his confederates is especially effective.  It all adds up to an enjoyable evening (my political reservations aside!) excellently presented and reinforcing the Bear Pit’s reputation for the high quality of its productions.

Hats off to the Grand!

PRESS LAUNCH

Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, Thursday 8^th September, 2016

 

Since it first opened its doors in 1894, the Grand Theatre has been the best reason to visit Wolverhampton.  Now, 122 years later, the theatre is entering the next phase of its evolution with a massive and thorough refurbishment of the bars and front of house areas.   The transformation is remarkable.

There is a new bar in the foyer, a long curving counter with mood under-lighting.  This bar will be open from 11am Monday to Saturday, rather than only during show times.   The former stalls bar is now the Encore Lounge – the most drastic refit of the lot, including a new performance space – as I nose around, a jazz trio tinkles away, their music broadcast through the building by the newly installed sound system.   Here, more space is given over to seating.  Booths have been installed and – a lovely touch – bowler and top hats form the lampshades over the tables.

The Dress Circle also has a new bar, Arthur’s of the Grand – so named because of sponsorship from cutlery manufacturers Arthur Price.  New booths give the loggia a more intimate feel.  It all looks rather splendid, I have to say.  The décor is classy and elegant without being imposing.

Further up, on the Grand Circle level, the ‘bar that time forgot’ has not escaped the designers’ attention.  It too is now invitingly swish.  There is also The Spotlight Lounge, a function room and boardroom available for hire.

Bars and hospitality are important, to be sure, but the main business of the theatre remains unchanged.  The plush auditorium has not been neglected.  All 1200 seats have been replaced with new, ‘soft-closing’ seats for noise reduction and, I can testify,  they are very comfortable, soft with firm back support and improved leg room, it seems.

I decide I might move in, Phantom of the Opera style.  Just don’t tell the management.  The casual opulence of the refit has rejuvenated this beautiful old building, giving it a lift and making it the place to be.  I’m already looking forward to a return visit.  You can check out details of the Grand’s new season here, and then go and check out the splendid upgrade for yourself.

This photo in no way does justice to the Grand’s lovely refurb – I was too preoccupied with sampling the hospitality to take pictures!

What you talking about, Willis?

AN AUDIENCE WITH WINCEY WILLIS

Courtyard Theatre, Hereford, Thursday 22^nd May, 2014

 

Mention the name Wincey Willis and people’s eyes flicker with recognition. Remind them – if they need it – that she was the ‘weather girl’ on TV-AM in the 1980s and their faces will break into a smile. They might recall she did other things too. Channel 4’s Treasure Hunt, for example. Or they might have seen her in pantomime…

Off our screens for too long, Wincey takes us through her life story, revealing that the period of fame she enjoyed is not the only talk-worthy feather in her cap.

The evening is relaxed. Wincey is clearly at ease as producer Matthew Jones asks questions and prompts anecdotes, in a casual, we’re-all-friends-here, manner.   When there is a problem with her mic crackling, Wincey is unfazed. Years of live TV broadcasts have honed presenting skills that are still very much in evidence.

We hear about her early life, her strict adoptive mother, the trouble she got into at school. Wincey tells us funny stories in an offhand way, with the kind of deadpan Northern camp that would make her ideal for Alan Bennett.

But it’s not all jolly japes and comic cuts.   Wincey is open and frank about her adoptive mother’s coldness and, startlingly, about a plan to overdose with pills rather than continue to live with unrelenting, chronic and undiagnosed pain. (It turned out to be a severe caffeine allergy.)

Stories are illustrated by projections of photographs from Wincey’s personal collection, adding impact to her recollections.   There are some touching moments of how she used professional fame to call in favours and make some dying kids happy and, from her personal life, the decline into dementia of a beloved aunt.

There are also examples of her poetry, including a recording from BBC Radio 4 of a powerful piece she wrote about learning the name of her birth mother.

It’s not so much a confessional as a “this was me then and this is me now” kind of thing. Wincey doesn’t dish the dirt on other celebs (although I’m sure she could) – this is a much classier affair.   You cannot fail to enjoy her company.

She tells exciting tales of turtle egg conservation which involve being shot at – Wincey gave up telly to pursue her lifelong passion for wildlife protection and travelled the world in far from glamorous conditions. She had the time of her life.

What made Wincey popular on the small screen is what continues to make her so likeable today: she is down-to-earth, honest and funny, with a generosity of spirit that draws you in and makes you feel at home.

A thoroughly charming and engaging couple of hours – including a surprise a capella rendition of Summertime and a generous helping of laughter, An Audience With Wincey Willis demonstrates audiences still have a great deal to enjoy from this popular figure of yesteryear.