Tag Archives: Arcola Theatre

“Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage” at the Arcola Theatre

The life of Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas, including his well-publicised struggle with his sexuality, makes for compelling drama. There’s a danger, though, that it might interest rugger fans more than anyone else. Here is where Robin Soans’ play, based on Thomas’ life so far, first scores: far more than a biography, or a work about sport, Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage is ambitiously expanded into a big, bold play. Full of intelligence and power, it lives up to its verb scrum of a title.

Working with Thomas, there’s a searing sense of honesty to the piece. The player is a hero because of his sporting status and charity work, but he is movingly portrayed as human and hurt. That the play isn’t a star vehicle is enforced by having all six cast members, male and female, don a jersey and take the leading role at some point. The casting works surprisingly well, although predictably the younger men, Rhys ap William and Daniel Hawksford, who also ably double as Thomas’ father and best friend, have the edge.

Expanding the play, Thomas’ story is told in tandem with that of a troubled young girl, also from Bridgend, in Wales. In a stunning performance from Lauren Roberts, Darcey’s story of self-abuse and attempts at suicide emphasises the admirable unsentimentality that marks the piece. Connecting these two very different locals, the play becomes a bullish kind of community theatre, rooted in geography and exploring politics in the punchy manner that director Max Stafford-Clark excels at. With the production ending a UK tour here in London, it’s stirring to know it has deservedly been offered over the country.

Until 20 June 2015

www.arcolatheatre.com

Photo by Robert Workman

“Clarion” at the Arcola Theatre

Having previously worked as a newspaper journalist, Mark Jagasia has the credentials for writing a satire about the media. With direction from Mehmet Ergen, as well as a cast a first-time playwright would kill for, Clarion is a seriously funny play that had the perfect audience at yesterday’s press night – I’ve seldom heard critics laugh so much.

Set over a day in the offices of the titular newspaper, Jagasia’s scoop is two great comic creations, performed to perfection. Claire Higgins is faultless as the indomitable Verity, a former war correspondent and “mother” of the newspaper in the Medea mould. Greg Hicks plays editor Morris, who carries around a Roman centurion’s helmet and delivers an outrageous combination of articulacy and filth that redefines egomania. Depending on whether or not you’ve worked in the media the play delightfully embraces exaggeration or serves as an accurate documentary. Either way you’ll laugh.

You can take the man out of Fleet Street but Jagasia isn’t afraid of a good pun, a cheap gag or a taste for shocking. Clarion isn’t for the sensitive “milquetoasts” Morris so despises. The depiction of a younger generation – a dispirited young journalist who works as immigration editor and a young intern (ably performed by Ryan Wichert and Laura Smithers) – has just as much venom and laughs, but might strike you as a little ungenerous.

The foul-mouthed viciousness offers insights into an industry in decline. Racing to find a celebrity’s missing dog, a disappearance eventually blamed on travellers, Morris describes Hampstead Heath as a “homosexual wilderness surrounded by Keynsians and men hiding in poofta bushes” – and for him that’s pretty mild. And yet the pace isn’t quite maintained. As Jagasia becomes more serious, ironically, the play becomes too fantastical. And the darkening themes of consequences and responsibility, which might have been more fully extended into the private lives of the characters, are slightly overwhelmed by the play’s comedy. But the headline is clear: Racist Red Top Exposed.

Until 16 May 2015

www.arcolatheatre.com

Photo Simon Annand

“Peddling” at the Arcola Theatre

Harry Melling’s debut as a playwright, already acclaimed at the HighTide Festival and Off-Broadway, is currently running at the Arcola Theatre. The tragic story of a nameless, homeless youth, struggling with poor mental health and failed by social services, is an original and intelligent work. With its finger on the pulse of our times, Peddling feels filled with an urgent energy that demands our attention.

Melling’s writing is poetic and, at almost an hour long, his play, in which he stars as the sole performer, is an impressively coherent achievement. The script may not carry the emotional punch you might expect from its subject matter, yet it is raw and unsentimental, clear and ambitious, taking on big issues of inequality in our society. The poetic elements work perfectly to reflect the protagonist’s confused mental state, injecting a good deal of tension in his potential for violence.

Working with director Steven Atkinson, it’s no surprise that Melling brings an extraordinary commitment to his own writing and performance. It’s intense, yes, but also unusually sincere. And Atkinson’s staging, placing the action within Lily Arnold’s startling design of a transparent box suggesting a cage, creates an uncomfortable intimacy, which adds to an already powerful night of theatre.

Until 28 March 2015

www.arcolatheatre.com

Photo by Nobby Clark

“Visitors” at the Bush Theatre

After an acclaimed run at the Arcola earlier this year, Barney Norris’ Visitors is now playing at the Bush Theatre. Impeccably directed by Alice Hamilton, the story of elderly couple Arthur and Edie, she sliding into dementia, is finely written and superbly acted. It’s hard to believe this is Norris’ first full-length play, it’s so accomplished: a moving family drama full of excellent observation and real heart. The subject matter is difficult, but the play so infused with gentle humour and poetic wisdom that it’s a delight to watch and an inspiring experience.

Two younger characters, the couple’s son, Stephen, and Kate, a recent graduate employed as a carer, serve as entry points for all ages in the audience. It’s clear that Norris aims to examine not just the afflictions of old age, but also how memory links to identity, and the importance of the choices we make throughout life. Stephen’s poor jokes show how spot on the humour in the show really is and, while his mid-life crisis might be a touch predictable, Simon Muller does well in the role. Eleanor Wild is superb as the young Kate, ostensibly the visitor of the title, an intriguing and carefully drawn figure.

The elderly couple is an often uncomfortable memento mori for the younger characters. With little action in Visitors, the play reminded me, somewhat fancifully, of a Dutch still life painting; something demanding careful attention and worth treasuring. Arthur and Edie are in no way clichéd and never patronised. Robin Soanes is utterly believable as the elderly farmer Arthur and Linda Bassett’s performance one of the best I’ve seen this year. Bassett makes good lines great with assured comic touches. As Edie’s observations on life, though obscured by her illness, become increasingly poignant, each line she delivers becomes all the more memorable.

Until 10 January 2015

www.bushtheatre.co.uk
Photo by Mark Douet

“Carousel” at the Arcola Theatre

A favourite musical for many, a new production of Carousel opened at the Arcola Theatre last night. Making the most of this intimate venue, with astounding up-close choreography, this is a high energy affair that does wonders to work the big scale of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s masterpiece within a small space.

Director Luke Fredericks has a clear grasp of the fantasy within Carousel. The overture is used to establish the fairytale atmosphere with an interesting air of danger surrounding a trip to the fairground. Let’s be honest, the love story of “bad un” Billy Bigelow and the innocent Julie isn’t that believable, so adding a surreal touch is clever, especially for later scenes set in the ‘backyard of heaven’.

Tim Rogers as Billy Bigelow and Gemma Sutton as Julie Jordan in CAROUSEL. Photo Credit QNQ Creative
Tim Rogers and Gemma Sutton

As Billy and Julie, Tim Rogers and Gemma Sutton seemed nervous at first but their acting was strong throughout. No easy task when you consider how many of the morals within Carousel make their characters unhappy ones for a modern audience. Rogers’ manages to make the vicious Billy sympathetic and Sutton insures Julie’s martyrdom is moving.

Joining them in romance, Vicki Lee Taylor and Joel Montague have a jollier time as Carrie Pipperidge and Mr Snow. Their sweetness doesn’t cloy and the humour is well developed. When The Children Are Asleep is a highlight, with the odiferous sailor Snow washing those fishes right out of his hair on stage. The whole ensemble is incredibly hard working. Special mention for Amanda Minihan’s spirited Nettie and a lusty rendition of June Is Bustin’ Out All Over.

Nettie’s raunchy appeal is matched at several points by earthy touches in Fredericks’ production. I normally quite fancy the clambake in Carousel – not so much this time as it seems to make everyone sick – but I can see the point of bringing the show down to earth a little. Similarly Richard Kent’s villainous Jigger makes an impression with a knowing delivery of his character.

Best of all is Lee Proud’s choreography, with a stirring combative streak and a use of circus skills that is inspired. So close is the action you might feel a little nervous if you are on the front row. Rest easy with the wonderful score, which soars under Andrew Corcoran’s musical direction. Here the coup is the presence of a harpist, squeezed onto a platform above the action, sure to please Carousel connoisseurs.

Until 19July 2014

www.arcolatheatre.com

Photo by QNQ Creative

Written 24 June 2014 for The London Magazine

“Moby Dick” at the Arcola Theatre

The Simple8 theatre company has already won acclaim for its current brief season at the Arcola Theatre. Moby Dick is its second production, following The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, another ambitious adaptation made remarkable by a back-to-basics method. With minimal props and a set erected during the action, Simple8’s emphasis is on story telling, delivering an appealingly pared-down piece of theatre.

Taking on the subject of mad Captain Ahab and whale hunting in such a rudimentary fashion works well and much of the success comes from the accompanying music, sea shanties and touching folk songs. Performances are also excellent, from Joseph Kloska as the cruelly obsessed, mutilated mariner Ahab, forever “bound” to chase the eponymous Great White, and Oliver Birch for a series of smaller roles. Taking the lead is Sargon Yelda as an impoverished schoolmaster turned sailor. If at times a touch too ebullient, he navigates proceedings admirably as our narrator.

Sebastian Armesto’s adaptation of Melville’s mammoth classic is strikingly economical and effective – qualities also commendable in his direction. Armesto superbly wrings out the action in the text using a great deal of mime and Melville’s religious concerns are downplayed. Instead, Armesto is fascinated by the allegorical use of the sea as a mirror for man’s own nature. It’s a rich seam to explore and one that gives satisfying depths to a show that provides much to reflect upon.

Until 4 May 2013

www.arcolatheatre.com

Photo by Idil Sukan

Written 3 April 2013 for The London Magazine

“Sweet Smell of Success” at the Arcola Theatre

The musicals staged in London’s fringe theatres are often excellent, but every now and again a real stunner comes along and, for now, the title of best musical on the fringe has to go to Sweet Smell of Success at the Arcola Theatre. Nominated for seven Tony Awards on Broadway, and receiving its UK premiere in Dalston, its director Mehmet Ergen has a real hit on his hands.

Based on an Ernest Lehman novella, which became a film in 1957, Sweet Smell of Success has society journalist JJ Hunsecker making and breaking careers at a time when “it’s not love that makes the world go around – it’s the word.” The year is 1952 and gossip, encompassing politics as well as celebrity, is hugely influential in an America where mass media and McCarthyism are at their height. JJ’s obsession with his younger sister Susan leads him to try and break up her relationship with a singer. Caught in the middle is the hero of the piece, Sidney Falcone, desperate for success as a press agent and dependent on JJ’s newspaper column for exposure.

This is smart musical for grown-ups. The cynical story has dark overtones of crime and corruption, with a bleak view of consumers only interested in the “dirt”. The jazz-inspired score by Marvin Hamlisch is fascinating, the lyrics by Craig Carnelia intelligent, and the book by John Guare fantastic. You don’t often get plots this strong in a musical and it should reach out to those the genre doesn’t normally appeal to. Ergen’s production takes advantage of all this: the sound is impressively big, with clear delivery, clever staging and adventurous choreography by Nathan M Wright.

If Sweet Smell of Success has a flaw it’s that it’s a little too cold to love unconditionally. Adrian der Gregorian does a good job of making Sidney appealing despite his Faustian pact and he has a terrific voice. But JJ is a little too repellent in David Bamber’s portrayal – he needs more charisma – and although some tricksy lines are dealt with expertly, Bamber isn’t a singer and you can’t help wondering what the role would be like if his voice were stronger.

Thankfully, the show has heart in the shape of the lovers JJ tries to part. As the success around them turns bitter, it is their relationship that becomes the focus of the show. Caroline Keiff is wonderful as Susan, struggling movingly for independence, and she has great chemistry with Stuart Matthew Price’s Dallas. It is the latter who will really win you over with a scrupulous performance and some stupendous singing that should not be missed.

Until 22 December 2012

www.arcolatheatre.com

Photo by Simon Annand

Written 15 November 2012 for The London Magazine

“The Pitchfork Disney” at the Arcola Theatre

The Arcola’s new production of Philip Ridley’s The Pitchfork Disney marks the play’s 21st anniversary. It’s a study in terror, which might lead us to speculate whether our collective fears have changed in texture over the last two decades. Ultimately Ridley deals with such basic, and base, themes that his work remains alarming and powerful.

Under Edward Dick’s faultless direction, Chris New and Mariah Gale are remarkable as Presley and Haley – pill-popping, chocolate gorging twins with a psychotic bent. Agoraphobics who wallow in their piteous existence, they tell stories to each other not just for escapism but to perpetuate their trauma.

And what stories, hypnotically poetic, ruthlessly insightful and grotesquely overblown as they are. The cast revel in the telling, with New especially adept in bringing out the morbid, humorous edge. His Presley peeps through the letterbox, looking at the real world but describing his imagined apocalypse.

When the door to this disgusting flat is opened, inviting in a “pretty boy and a foreigner”, we start to see connections between their fantasies and what really exists. Cosmo Disney has a thought-provoking story of his own, and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s performance in the role is captivating. He damns the twins as “ancient children” and mocks mankind’s desire for a “daily dose of disgust”, making his dissecting analysis more like a vivisection.

Disney is a performer and Stewart-Jarrett preens to perfection, with a cabaret trick of eating cockroaches. But The Pitchfork Disney doesn’t just curl toes – it surprises. When Disney’s fellow performer Pitchfork arrives, it is into a bizarre, spooky and fantastic scene that doesn’t deserve a plot spoiler. Presley’s nightmare starts to come to life and they play’s conclusion is truly desperate.

If people such as these exist, they surely don’t get this weird without something happening to them. Ridley never offers us a specific reason and his play is so full of themes that the mind boggles. In this way, he leaves us to examine our own fears of “freak accidents and freaks” – and that of course, is truly scary.

Until 17 March 2012

www.arcolatheatre.com

Written 2 February 2012 for The London Magazine

“The Seagull” at the Arcola Theatre

Dalston’s an unlikely place for a dacha. But Joseph Blatchley’s fine new production of The Seagull at the Arcola Theatre takes us to the Russian countryside in a fresh and exciting way. Working with Charlotte Pyke and John Kerr on a new translation, Chekhov’s text seems funnier and more dramatic than ever.

The new adaptation takes the young writer Konstantin’s advice to heart, creating a script that “flows freely”; full of naturalism, with judicious use of modern idioms, it is clear and pacey. In a play so crowded with art and performance, the histrionics and famous Russian gloom take on a comic twist – yet when sincerity comes forth it packs a punch.

“So much anguish, everyone in love” announces Roger Lloyd Pack’s excellent Dr. Dorn: mostly to himself since Chekhov’s characters are solipsistic despite their self-awareness. Their selfishness is played for humour by the ensemble cast. In the star role of Arkadina, the successful actress who can’t stand the spotlight being on anyone else, Geraldine James is wonderfully intense.

Arkadina’s battles are tremendous set pieces, none more so than her confrontations with her son Konstantin. Al Weaver takes the part, funny as a petulant artist, and then deeply moving as he becomes a tortured young man.

Konstantin’s love for Nina, the girl next door who wants to become an actress, is so convincing it gives the whole production a romantic air. Yolanda Kettle, in a professional debut to be proud of, plays the role charmingly, making her character’s demise all the more moving.
Nina’s downfall comes via Trigorin, in Blatchley’s version a more than usually fascinating character. Played expertly by Matt Wilkinson, the startling accusation he has been “grooming” Nina adds considerable tension, making her seduction relevant to a modern audience, and preparing the ground for a traumatic conclusion that becomes as appropriately tormented as the good doctor predicted.

Until 16 July 2011

www.arcolatheatre.com

Photo by Simon Annand

Written 16 June 2011 for The London Magazine

“The Painter” at the Arcola Theatre

The much-acclaimed Arcola theatre has relocated closer to Dalston’s refurbished train stations, and it opens its barn-like doors with The Painter, a new play by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The painter in question is Turner, but biography is really just a primer for Lenkiewicz’s ambitious and engaging look at women, art and society.

With the smell of fresh plaster filling the former paint factory, it’s all very East End art scene. The temptation might be to see Turner as some kind of early YBA, but Lenkiewicz is too clever for this. She manipulates chronology and uses modern idioms to abstract Turner’s obsession with creativity, his battles with patrons and the relationships in his private life.

Toby Jones is excellent in the title role. Under Mehmet Ergen’s skilled direction he gives a refined, understated performance. His character’s complexity is clear, but Jones allows those who perform alongside him to shine.

We encounter three women who seem dangerously close to cliché. A young tart with a heart (Jenny Cole), a widow looking for a new husband (Niamh Cusack), and an overbearing, insane mother (Amanda Boxer) whose fate, like many an awkward woman, is to be institutionalised. Despite the danger of caricature, all three performances are stunning, the actresses bringing out the subtlety of Lenkieweicz’s characters. It’s a close call as to who succeeds most completely. I go for Boxer, who shows unbearable cruelty to her son and then painful lucidity about her mental decline. She edged me to tears.

Lenkiewicz writes taught, short scenes that command attention. All are impeccably handled by Mehmet: offstage screams are chilling and Jim Bywater plays Turner’s father so endearingly that a scene of only a few moments showing his collapse is a sharp, brutal shock.

Unfortunately such brevity doesn’t always serve. In particular Turner’s fumbling lectures at the Royal Academy need elaboration to clarify the connection between the painter’s life and art. As an essay in sublime abstraction Turner himself would probably have approved of Lenkiewicz’s work, but her effort ultimately feels slim. Taking Turner’s work and using it as a palimpsest is a fascinating prospect, but the result is a shadow that is sometimes too faint.

www.arcolatheatre.com

Until 12 February 2011

Photo by Simon Annand

Written 17 January 2011 for The London Magazine