Theatre reviews 2011

This page is part of the theatre section

On this page: | Mid Summer Nights Dream | | One Flew Over the Cuckoos Next | Britains Got Bhangra | Akram Khan's Desh | West Side Story | Schrodinger | Double Double | Habeas Corpus | Time for the good looking boy | Yes, Prime Minister | The History boys | There's always tommorrow | Romeo and Juliette | Umbrellas of Cherbourg

See our events page for dates of forthcoming shows.

11th December

That'll be the day rock spectular

Read our review of the Christmas rock show at the DeMontfort Hall, up now

9th December

42 Street at Curve

Photo © Pamela Raith

See our review of 42nd Street at Curve

15th November

Buried Child

Buried Child, by Sam Shepard, Curve, 11th November to 3rd December

If, like me, you have not heard of Sam Shepard before, you might like to know that he is an American playwright who has authored plays, books and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for Buried Child. He was born in Illinois in 1943, the play being set in that state, on a ranch, maybe like the one where the play takes place. He wrote the screenplay for Antonioni's iconic 70s film Zabriskie Point.

Tonight's production, Directed by Paul Kerryson, was another amazing experience, with set design by Paul Wills, it utilised the wonderful capabilities of Curve. As we walked into the Studio Theatre, we could see a cornfield - the corn on the cob type of corn that is, with the stems of the plants being well over the height of a large man. Before the opening of the play, the tops of the corn plants are half way up the front of the stage with the lower half being hidden by a black board. This suggested the black earth below the corn. The sound of rain could be heard behind the incidental music.

The lights went down and the lower half of the set was revealed: the field of corn plants. The set transforms into the room is which the whole of the play is set, the ground floor living room of the Illinois ranch house.

Actor Matthew Kelly Photo © Helen Maybanks

The first act introduces most of the characters and begins to tell the story. For a long period of time, the start of the play is a dialogue between central character Dodge (Matthew Kelly) and his wife Halie (Jane Lowe). Halie is off stage, talking to Dodge (who is on the sofa in the downstairs room), from her room on the first floor.

The taught dialogue was not unlike the attenuated speech and incisive use of long pauses that we would recognise as 'Pinteresque'. In fact the influences of Arthur Miller, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter can be seen in the way the play was written. As in Shakespeare, humour is used to heighten the tragedy and the dialogue is peppered with amusing phrases and unnerving comic happenings.

Another long dialogue ensues between Dodge and his adult son Tilden (Matthew Rixson). During the first act Dodge (the grand father of the family group) hardly leaves his sofa. The small cast (only seven actors) are only rarely on stage together but the story is unraveled often between two roles or small groups of people. There are critical moments in the play where references are made that point to the central idea of the story; one of these being a tense argument between Dodge, Tilden and Halie where the grumpy and irascible Dodge uses the phrase "my flesh and blood". Later we hear the line "face within a face" as the characters pursue their relentless analysis of each other, who they have been in the past and who they have become now.

The play is about a dark secret and the web of family relationships and histories that surround it. The plot revealed the dark underbelly of family life. It's gothic eeriness and macabre ending were both moving and unsettling.

The family lived on a remote ranch house where they kept the world at bay. In the first act Dodge and Tilden conflict over differing realities. Tilden brings in an armful of sweet corn cobs which he says he gathered in the yard outside the ranch house. Dodge insists no corn has grown there for thirty years. A tense second act saw the characters picking over the bones of their murky histories and lives, engaging in exhumations of long gone events, loves, lives and relationships.

A group of family members are portrayed as dislocated, refusing to recognise long lost offspring, burdened by the successes and failures of the past, unable to understand the world that has emerged around them, isolated and introverted in their remote farm house where they grapple with each other's memories and recollections.

In the second act, grandson Vince (Lloyd Thomas) arrives with girlfriend Shelly (Catrin Stewart), sure that he has arrive that the house he can remember from eight years earlier. Dodge refuses to recognise him; even his own father fails to embrace him as his long lost child.

The gloomy gothic play uses moments of humour to drive the plot forward and demand the audience's full engagement. The three generations of angry, broken family members stagger about in a fog of conflicting realities and their own mire of births, marriages and deaths. A killer of a play.

A tense psychological drama, it reminded me of In the Heat of the Night and A Streetcar Named Desire, dark and brooding dramas in which actors can shine.

A somber but riveting and powerful drama capped with a macabre ending.

Michael Beckley in Buried Child Photo© Pamela Raith

First class acting from Matthew Kelly, Jane Lowe and Matthew Rixon with Michael Buckley as Bradley following up his recent fine performance in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest with another superb character role.

Details of the play are on the Curve web site.

31st October

A Midsummer Night's Fringe?

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Curve, 31th October to 5th November

A play by Shakespeare? A musical based on a play by Shakespeare? A rock gig? A piece of avant-garde experimental theatre? A mix of all these things. Our view: a fringe style comedy night.

As one of the actors says in the film (see below) "Don't come expecting anything, 'cos it won't be the way you expected it ". That sums it up well. Oliver Dimsdale (Puck) explains "The magic comes from the music and the music is the magic". As various other reviewers have noted, when you arrive in the auditorium the stage is set out ready for a gig with various Apple Mac laptops, keyboard/synth, guitar, bass, drum kit and a variety of sound effect props.

The musical theatre that happened tonight was radical and riotous, fusing serious acting with music and fringe style comedy. The play was spoken using Shakespeare's original lines, with a few ad libs here and there and the action was plentiful. There was a bit of singing and a lot of electronic sound effects.

I don't want to spoil it by giving too much detail about what happened, for those who want to be surprised between now and November 5th. Suffice it to say that if you have experienced comedy at the Fringe, you will like Filter Theatre's production. If you are a Shakespeare aficionado, may be not.

There are some ace one liners, like when 'Steve' (who plays Bottom) comments, after seeing part of the play, "It's like a live version of Emmerdale".

If you're a music fan, an habitué of the Soundhouse perhaps, don't go expecting a mint gig. The music is not much to write home about but the electronic sound effects are marvelous, doing much to amplify and evoke the atmosphere. At one point the drummer pulls a violin bow across one of the cymbals and then uses the sample to create an amazing assortment of sounds. Never seen that done before!

The comedic elements of the show had the audience laughing and giggling pretty much all the way through. It was the mad cap humour and slap stick action that did it for me. Including the bread fight which involves the entire cast and musicians and the fight scene between Lysander and Demetrius which is magically controlled by Puck using an X-Box consol, with appropriate sound effects.

An hilarious evening of unbridled fun. At the end of the show you will wake up thinking it was all an amazing dream.

See the promo for the show on YouTube.

Watch out for Rhys Rusbatch who plays The Guard in Merlin on TV.

19th October

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Curve, 14th October to 5th November.

"You must follow the rules", Nurse Ratched demands of her patients on the ward of the mental institution where the play is set. The ward is organised like a prison; rules, policies and strict routine are order of the day. Medication is handed out, a 'chemical cosh' designed to keep the inmates subdued and compliant.

The asylum is run like a military academy, with an emphasis on order, routine and compliance and a belief in the curative properties of discipline. The day is organised into a series of activities and events, one of which is group therapy in which the inmates are encouraged to talk about themselves and discuss individuals.

Nurse Ratchet rules with a iron will Photo © Jonathan Keenan

The ostensibly 'democratic' regime of the therapy group is portrayed as being manipulated and controlled both by the steely Nurse Ratched (Catherine Russell) and by the patients themselves, not least by McMurphy who organises them to vote in favour of watching the world series on the TV.

Randle McMurphy Photo © Jonathan Keenan

In to the orderly routine of the ward comes Randle McMurhpy (Michael Beckley), a brawling, aggressive but fun loving, untamed rogue of a man who, in those days, would have been referred to a 'recidivist'. He has been committed to the institution as an alternative to being sent to the drudgery of the penal work farm, having committed a variety of offences during his life of drunkenness and debauchery.

The Nurses keep a strict eye on the patients Photo © Jonathan Keenan

The plot is set. The characters and their relationships are ready and ignited to burn towards the explosive ending of the play. The ward is a microcosm of the wider society, the USA of the time (the late fifties, early sixties). The story is about rebellion against authority, revolt against tyranny, insurgency - sounds familiar?

Chief Bromden Photo © Jonathan Keenan

We discover that the inmates of the ward fall into two groups: those with acute conditions that are there to be cured and eventually released and those with chronic conditions for which a cure is not an option. Referred to as "vegetables", their fate is to be warehoused indefinitely. One such inmate is Chief Bromden (Thomas Renshaw), a native American Indian, who spends most of his time, motionless in a chair, apparently deaf and dumb.

Chief Bromden understands the struggle for power that he sees in McMurphy's bid to take on the might of Nurse Ratched. It is through Bromden's eyes that we see the underlying significance of the struggle of the individual against the machine.

It is his relationship with McMurphy which is pivotal to the whole plot. Initially said to be deaf, dumb and catatonic, he delivers a set of soliloquies, illuminated by a bright spotlight in an otherwise darkened stage. The mysterious monologues unravel a deeper meaning to the plot. In the later stages of the play, McMurphy and Chief Bromden engage in a duo scene, impeccably and movingly acted by Renshaw and Beckly.

McMurphy playing cards with the patients Photo © Jonathan Keenan

Another revelation appears later in the play when we find that some of the acute patients were admitted voluntarily; something which shocks Randle McMurphy. He is accused of feigning mental illness to avoid the penal rigours of the work farm. He believes that some of the voluntary patients chose to be there as a way of escaping unbearable situations in their personal lives.

Are they mad? It's a theme that had been around since the time of Shakespeare, who used madness, either real or contrived, in Hamlet and King Lear. The twist that writer Ken Kasey puts on this theme is to question the sanity of the wider society and of the people who are running the mental institution.

McMurphy refers to group therapy as "chicken pecking" - one member of the group is pecked to death by the others. If life on the ward is not brutal enough, there is the spectre of ECT - electro convulsive therapy - in which patients are subjected to electric shocks which send their brains and bodies into spasms. That is not the ultimate punishment that could be inflicted. If ECT fails to modify their behaviour, violent patients could be subjected to surgery, having parts of their brains removed.

Randle is determined to conquer the case-hardened tutelage of ward nurse Ratched. She is a taught figure, an iron lady whose dictatorship must be obeyed to the letter. The battle of wills winds towards its dramatic and tragic denouement.

The production was well cast, the characters fitting the plot like a glove and the cast delivered a set of superbly acted roles. Altogether, an excellent production, mixing the darkness of the plot with moments of humour and pathos. Their acting skills created a believable storyline and the result was a convincing play that did justice to the book.

The cast brought the story to life and made it enthralling. Like many in the audience, I had seen the film, in fact, more than once. A story about mental patients in an asylum might seem to be an unattractive theme, depressingly sombre and far from uplifting. Novelist Ken Casey used the plot to open up something about the wider society of the day and to explore aspects of the human condition.

Ellen Cairn's cleverly designed set Photo © Jonathan Keenan

Designer Ellen Cairns has put together a set that fitted the plot, the one room of the ward, given depth by the clever use of perspective, with the lines of the room using well known optical illusions to make it look much bigger than it really was.

Was this production enjoyable and entertaining? Last time I was at Curve, I saw a musical. That certainly was enjoyable and entertaining. Being the person I am, I don't only like bright, happy, joyful entertainments. Plays, films and books can lift one's spirits in a variety of ways and stimulate the mind. This was a piece of 'drama noire', a dark thriller with a tragic ending. It plays out issues that speak to us on a variety of levels.

Drama does not have to be superficial to be entertaining and often deals with the darker and challenging elements of the world and human existence. Director Michael Buffong has done an excellent job of keeping the action and the drama taught and convincing. The plot unwinds towards its (literally) explosive ending. The stark ambience of the clinical ward is lightened by comedic moments and by amusing quirks and idiosyncrasies of the characters.

Acting lunatics is never easy but Paul Joseph did a particularly brilliant job of playing the catatonic Ruckley, a victim of over-used ECT. Based on Ken Casey's iconic, cult novel of 1962 (his first book), and the 1975 Oscar winning film starring Jack Nicholson and directed by Milos Forman, that was based on it, both are credited with dealing the death blow to ETC. They influenced the emergence of the anti-psychiatry movements both in the 'states and here in the UK by opening up the sinister world of state psychiatry to the public.

The book was quickly brought to the stage by playwright Dale Wasserman. Broadway was ripe for productions with social issues, ever since West Side Story opened in 1957. Several stage productions of the play have appeared, both in the West End and in the Midlands.

Find out more about the Curve production and buy tickets for the play, which runs until 5th November.

5th October

Britain's Got Bhangra, Curve, 4th to 8th October

Trevor Locke and Harjinder Ohbi went to see the musical Britain's Got Bhangra at Curve today and we absolutely loved it!

The music, the costumes, the singing, the dances, the storyline ... it was an incredibly good experience.

The musical's story line follows the progress of Indian singer, nicknamed Twinkle, who emigrates from the fields of his native Punjab to Southall in London, where he begins a career as a Bhangra Singer.

The interesting feature of the show is the way it follows the course of the musical genre from its roots in the folk tradition of India, though the "sequin clad 80s", through to the afro, R 'n' B remixing of the 90s. Beneath the musical plot there is sub-theme of the assimilation of immigrant Indian cultures and people into the British way of life and also the tensions and conflict between the two communities. It shows the Indian community first embracing the red of new Labour and then the blue of the Tories. One scene depicts a protest by the National Front and a counter-protest by the ethnic groups they targeted.

These are images along the way but the real journey is that of the music from its Punjabi folk roots into the musical idioms of Western pop. Driving that trend, we see the promoters and music moguls bent on making money from record sales and chart successes. In this regard Bhangra shares much in common with Bollywood and other genres such as reggae and hip-hop. Mrs Shinde is portrayed as a ruthless promoter, getting rich on the music of Twinkle and DJ Lovely but she eventually meets her nemesis, as her dodgy dealings catch up with her.

I loved the portrayal of DJ Lovely, the cap and shades wearing DJ who remixes the singer's traditional songs into the idiom of the day, beautifully captured by Rakesh Boury.

The cast were top notch: good singers and dancers, portraying captivating characters in situations that could be either comically amusing or heartrendingly traumatic. There were superb performances from Natasha Jayetileke (Mrs Shinde), Michael Tailbi (as the band leader Rocky Singh) and Rina Fatania (Twinkle's mum) and not least the superb performance by the lead role of Twinkle performed by Shin from the British Asian band DCS, formed in 1983.

Warm congratulations also to the live band, their music was really good; with a Dhol drummer and variety of instruments, they really did an excellent job.

The show continues its tour, after the end of its time at Curve, moving on to The Hackney Empire and then The Theatre Royal, Windsor.

More information is on the web site of the Production Company, Rifco Arts

A definite five ***** rating from us.

15th September

Akram Khan's spectacular dance performance at Curve

Photo © Richard Haughton

Dancer Akram Khan's hour and half long solo dance performance was a spectacular success. Read our full review of the show on our Dance News page.

18th July

West Side Story opens at Curve.

West Side Story is a remarkable piece of musical drama. Tonight's community production was a remarkable success, as Trevor Locke reports.

Tragedy unfolds at the Jets fight with the Sharks. Photo © Pamela Raith

West Side Story launched at CURVE tonight. It was a triumph for the young cast and for artistic director Paul Kerryson. I'll tell you why.

This is a musical about youth. Most of the cast were the same age as they characters they were portraying.The opening overture was electrifying, the orchestra caught the mood and vibrancy of the overture and the company brought it to life. The jagged, stabbing chords of the introductory music captures the essence of the piece.

It's a story about youth in the racially tense city and the rivalries of gang culture. WSS became a hit when it opened on Broadway in 1957. It reflected many aspects of life in the brave new world of the 1950s and since then has had a lasting effect on dance-drama and choreography.

Gemma Kotak and Sharon Phull who share the parts of Anita and Rosalia Photo © Pamela Raith

It gave a refreshingly new slant on dance, whilst still offering the big ensemble pieces like Dance at the Gym, the finger clicking Cool routine and the much-loved girl's routines, I feel pretty and America. It combines the most entertaining elements of dance spectacular, with chart busting songs and instantly recognisable melodies.

It's not however an easy show, in fact it's quite a challenge to pull off but the young cast of newbie performers rose to the challenge and the result was exhilarating. Curve's main hall was crammed to capacity for this sell out opening night. The evening was punctuated with rapturous applause for the set pieces of dancing and singing.

The company caught the mood of the story, evoking laughter, delight and tears as the tale of violence, hatred and romance unfolded. WSS is still relevant, it never lost that appeal to contemporary consciousness. Unlike some of the products of the 1950s, it has not dated. As several reviewers have pointed out, gang culture and knife-crime still haunt the minds of people today.

The energy with which the cast committed to the dancing and action was wonderful. You could tell this was a show they loved doing. Girls got thrown around with gusto and some of the male dancers performed acrobatic moves of Olympic proportions. What stood out was the way in which this production accurately caught the nervous energy of teenagers; it was bursting with sexual passion, anger and aggression.

Tony and Maria Photo © Pamela Raith

The first challenge that leading man, Michael Lanni (Tony) faced was the first solo song of the show. Tony has met Maria for the fist time; his song 'I just met a girl named Maria', is crucial. It's a defining moment of the first half. This song cannot just be sung. It has to be acted. Michael Lanni has a fine voice. He sings 'Maria. I've just met a girl named Maria.' This song has to capture the audience. He has to make it feel like he really means it. It's a difficult task but it's pivotal to the whole of the first half. This was his big chance; Lanni had to make it work, he had to nail it. Did he?

I have to be careful here. I have seen this show several times. I have seen the original Broadway production on film and West End companies on tour. Lanni is not a professional actor/singer. Like most of the cast he is a newbie. His voice is delightful but I do not think he really caught the emotion. Probably because it was a first night, first night nerves, no doubt. No matter how much you rehearse, it's not until you have done it live a few times, that the ecstatic feelings of the song really take hold. It was a fine performance of this truly great song, but Lanni did not achieve that extra touch of passion and magic that it needed.

Having said that, I am inclined to want to go back on the last night to see if, by then, he's got it. I think Lanni is an impressive performer. I think he will get into the role of Tony and really let go with it. His last song as he lay dying in the arms of Maria was genuinely moving. I think he will he will make it really come alive. After a few performances they all will.

The Jets Photo © Pamela Raith

The show requires a good deal of tightly coordinated dancing, ballet routines and even some stunning acrobatics. Well, the youngsters certainly pulled that off. If I had not known that this was a community project, I would have been astounded to find out they were not professionals. Bear in mind that all these performers were thrown together by auditions. Some had already had limited live experience whilst others had never performed before.

Given the short period of time between the auditions and the first night, to have achieved an end result as convincingly polished as this is astonishing. As Paul Kerryson writes ' What better musical could there be to show off the dynamic and emerging talents of our local young people?' Absolutely and this is yet another example of Leicester demonstrating its ability to bring forth amazing talent, no matter what the artistic genre.

After only a few months of rehearsals, the community company have been honed to an astonishing degree of finesse. This was a triumph for Paul Kerryson and Choreographer Ellyn Phillips. They got these local youngsters to perform like professionals. No mean feat. Having auditioned all of them from hundreds of applicants, it looks like they have chosen well. The leads were fantastic vocalists. The company featured strong key dancers. The lighting and sound were, as always, top notch. The 17 piece orchestra, under the directorship of Chad Kelly, very satisfactory.

The show runs until 24th July. I would be surprised if any of the nights were not full houses. It's a popular work and this is a magnificent production. Demand for tickets has already been strong with an additional performance being added to satisfy the demand.

The dance scenes sparkle with the exuberance of youth and so they should. Maria (Natalie Nightingale Beniston) and the girls' numbers 'America' and later 'I feel pretty' works beautifully. They have to fizz and they did. The fight scene is balletic in its rendering. It's not meant to look realistic. It's mean to portray a drama in dance. To evokes the angry realism of the 'rumble', it requires exact timing and exhausting concentration to get right and they did it.

Two more challenges come in the second half. Tony and Maria's duet ' There's a place for us' is another defining moment in the show. Another chance for the two leads to really wow the audience. I was surprised, therefore, when I heard it being sung off stage while they were on a balcony looking down on the company dancing below. Jerome Robbins and Leonard Bernstein did have this device in some of the early productions but it was an opportunity for the leading roles to shine. In the film they sing it together in true operatic fashion.

A couple of tonight's sequences deviated from the better known staging; this one and 'Gee, Officer Krupke' , where the cop's song was taken over by one of the Jets. Whilst I found that satisfyingly original, the loss of the pivotal Tony and Maria duet was hard to swallow.

Like the Shakespeare play on which the show is based, WSS does not have a gratifyingly happy ending. As Tony's lifeless body is carried off stage, the ending is as cathartic and somber as it gets; but woeful endings did not deter the great Bard nor many a subsequent dramatist. Nor has the tale of troubled urban youth diminished the popularity of this work over the past 50 years.

Like all great stories, it stands the test of time. West Side Story is my favourite musical. It ranks, in my mind, alongside my other most cherished musical passions: operas by Puccini and Verdi and ballets by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. For me, tonight's community production stood up against the professional productions I have have seen over the years.

To bring a show of this quality to the stage with an amateur cast is a triumph. It was an amazing production. Another milestone in a series of successes for the artistic team at CURVE.

See our interview with members of the WSS cast.

Get the background to the musical.

See the West Side Story, official web site.

Wednesday 11th May

Schrodinger at CURVE

Reviewed by Trevor Locke

What is drama about?

When you go to the theatre to see a play, you would usually expect to see a group of actors playing parts - characters with names who speak to each other. You might expect to see a set - props, costumes, scenery - and the play would be divided into acts with scenes and pulling all this together with be a story, a plot.

So if you wanted to make a play about one of the most esoteric and difficult concepts in phyics or philosophy and explore what that means to us (assuming we are not either physicists or philosophers) how would we do that?

Schrodinger by the Reckless Sleepers is a project that deals with these issues about what drama does for us (the audience). The set was a box. The action takes place within, around and on top of the box. The actors continually go into it, come out of it, interact with it, relate to each other through and with the box.

At the start, the box is a simple, monolithic, black, solid set of three walls and a roof with only the front being open so we can see into it. The box is like a theatre within a theatre. It is a large black box full of doors, windows, hatches, portals, trapdoors, flaps and openings. The box is like a blackboard and throughout the play the acting scientists write on it in chalk. There was no cat.

The props consist of tables and chairs not unlike those who might find in a lecture room. There is a plot. We (the audience) have to figure out or to imagine what the plot is from what we see going on. A black box is something we cannot observe directly. It's properties can be deduced from what comes out of the box. It's rather like a black hole. We cannot see inside a black hole because light cannot escape from it. We can only observe or measure the properties of a black hole from the way matter reacts to it.

The audience can see into this black box because the front of it is open, rather like the proscenium arch of a stage. At the beginning of the play the five actors arrive at the box, entering from one of the theatre's side doors. Scene one shows them entering the box, looking at it, beginning to explore it, like the re-opening of something they were revisiting after a long period of time.

It's quite a long time before any of the actors says anything. The first spoken part is the reading of a statement with one actor speaking this monologue from the front of the stage and another speaking exactly the same words from behind the box.

Schrodinger was an enigmatic and paradoxical piece of drama. It was a surrealistic experience in which reality and unreality were difficult to distinguish. The plot, during the initial part of the play, depicted a group of scientists opening the box, experimenting with it, measuring it, testing, marking it, drawing lines and graphs. There was comparatively little spoken content. The actors never spoke to each other; there was no dialogue. They spoke only in statements.

Most of the play was a dance of accurately choreographed events, movements, happenings, procedures, situations and actions. There were episodes, references back in the action and no discrete spaces between the 'scenes', which would blur into each other, starting and ending without boundaries.

The play had a plot and scenes but within this structure the actors extemporised what they were doing, according to a set of rules and according to what they had rehearsed. There was no programme to read, telling you what the rules were. As with all black boxes you had to figure out what the rules might be from what you can observe. Some actions were repeated; something that happened at a moment of time was repeated later. An action that took place on one side of the box was mirrored by an opposite action taking place on the other side of the box.

What we observed was a series of events. As an observer, your task was to interpret these events and ascribe meaning to them. By the end of the play the box had become derelict, confused, wrecked, graffiti'd, swimming with water and rubbish, trashed, tested almost to destruction. So to were the experimenters.

Early on, someone mentioned their need for oxygen or alcohol but wasn't sure which. This idea is picked up by people trying to escape from the box, climbing out of its claustrophobia, gasping for air. A bottle and a wine glass are introduced. One actor takes a drink. Gradually more and more bottles and glasses appear. At length the back of the box opens to reveal a bar. More and more drinking takes place until the highly ordered action governed by rules of action and interaction slides into a scene of drunkenness and chaos. The ordered universe of the box becomes increasingly random.

There is a scene of synchronised drinking, where they pour a glass of drink, drink it, drink from the bottle, according to numbers called out. A great deal of drink is spilt. Towards the end the box is awash with drink. The carefully ordered world of rules and logic collapse into an increasingly disordered universe of anarchy.

There were rules governing what could happen on stage during the performance but you had to decide for yourself what those might be. In the beginning there was order but the order gradually decayed into chaos. For the characters in the box, it was a lonely place, where relationships existed, developed, dissipated or dissolved according to the flow of the action. You could read into a their actions a sense of longing or desperation, hopelessness, confusion, discovery or triumph.

If the box was an experiment, who was the experimenter and who was being experimented on? When the box is opened it is no longer an experiment. It is about its potentials, possibilities, allowable actions and properties but there are gaps, cracks, fissures and things that are hidden from view. Sometimes the action was hidden; not all the audience could see everything that was happening all of the time. The action was relative to the position of the observer.

Tonight's performance will be repeated tomorrow night. The play will be the same play but it will not be exactly the same set of actions, not an accurate replica of the previous night. There will be the same mathematical sequencing, the same logic, the same rules but within that there will be a degree of entropy. Each play will be the same but each performance will be different.

Before I went into the CURVE studio I did not read the book of the play. I had not thoroughly researched the project. I took it as I saw it, as it happened, putting into it and taking from it what occurred to me. It was a play about asking a question: what if? But there was no right answer. I had to deduce what this project was about from indirect sources of data. I came to it with fresh eyes and suspended my disbelief. I was willing to be the subject of an experiment.

From the beginning to the end of the single act, I was mesmerised, captivated, enthralled, amused and sometimes disturbed by what I saw. That is what drama is about.

Find out about Erwin Schrodinger | Find out about Schrodinger's Cat | Read up on Black Boxes

Schrodinger runs at CURVE until 14th May

Double Double at The Little Theatre

Double Double by Eric Elice and Roger Rees at The Little Theatre, Leicester, Monday 2 May

Reviewed by Karen McCandless

Reading the synopsis of Double Double prior to attending the opening night at The Little Theatre, Leicester, I was struck by the timelessness of the subject matter. A widow invites an unknown homeless man into her swanky London flat to persuade him to pose as her dead husband so she could inherit his £2 million trust fund.

Greed, ruthless ambition and deception: all very relevant in this day and age. This Eric Elice and Roger Rees play indeed got some updates for the modern day audience, with a nice reference to William and Kate's wedding.

The modern and funky set and contemporary choice of music also brought it right up to date. Performed by the Leicester Drama Society, Karen Gordon starred as Phillipa James, a cold and ruthless woman recently bereaved by a husband she claims to have loved deeply. Playing opposite her is Clive Hawley as down-and-out Duncan McFee. Of course, there is more to both of them that what we initially see and the face they are both keen to portray to the outside world.

One of the themes of the night generally seemed to be transformations - not just physically but also emotionally - and finding out the back-stories of both characters and how past events have shaped their current situation was one of the most interesting parts of the play. How much of what they say is true is up to the audience to decide. The dialogue was well delivered and believable while Hawley's ability to switch between broad Yorkshire and Sloan Londoner was particularly impressive.

The chemistry between Gordon and Hawley was excellent and both coped well with the changes in pace and the mix of comedy and drama. There were one-liners aplenty, which at times quickly swayed into more serious issues. Rather than being a scary, edge-of-the-seat thriller, this play instead explores the issues of trust and deception and aptly portrays how things (and people) are often not quite how they seem. And it keeps us guessing right until the end.

A few first night nerves crept in with the occasional stutter and fluffing of lines but other than that the performance went without a hitch under the expert direction of Ruth Cheetham. The Little Theatre was almost sold out for this play even though its opening night fell on a bank holiday Monday and the Leicester venue's intimate and old-world feel was the perfect choice of venue.

Just a word on the excellent hospitality of The Little Theatre staff who went out of their way to make sure this slightly late reviewer was able to enter the theatre prior to the start of the first act.

Double Double runs at The Little Theatre, Leicester until 7 March.

Habeas Corpus at the Little Theatre

Habeas Corpus by Alan Bennett, The Little Theatre, Monday 11th April 2011.

Reviewed by Trevor Locke

The Little Theatre might be little buts its productions are big on quality. Bennett's satirical comedy opened tonight to a full house. Eleven actors of the Leicester Drama Society did a great job of bringing out the spirit of the play. The casting was spot on with John Ghent playing the lead role of Arthur Wicksteed and Maggie Devlin as Muriel Wicksteed.

The Plot of the play is complicated in that it involves multiple infatuations and liaisons between nearly all the characters and there is plenty of trousers dropping or coming off. It's a carnival of infidelity and betrayal. The Wicksteed family of Hove experience what seems to be a day of emotional turmoil.

The Little Theatre has been going for a long time; this was production number 998. I remember going there to see a show years ago. It's a pleasant and well run establishment and it's clear that a lot of people like it as a venue. It's not, perhaps, the destination of choice of the younger crowd, judging from the serried ranks of white and grey heads in the house tonight but then Bennett is likely to appeal to the more mature generation who, like myself, have seen his work going live over a number of decades.The small, more intimate atmosphere of the Little Theatre might attract many in Leicester and this show, in particular, has broad appeal for its saucy humour and funny one-liners. The audience reacted warmly to the play and its jolly, if risque, antics.

The Hon. Felicity Rumpers (Sophie Wilford), Dennis Wicksteed (Sam Philips) and Mr. Purdue (Peter Lakin).

Bennett likes to play with ideas; he can seem to be unravelling a farce but all the way through he his lampooning and satirising the middle classes. Well, that was very popular with the audiences of the early 70s. Written in 1973 with its London debut in the same year, the play looks back at the permissive sixties. The morality of the post Victorian era is crumbling into the age of free love and the rise of feminism. Against this broad backcloth, Bennett paints his picture of middle class professionals whose lofty professional ideals clash with their private passions.

He mixes in some traditional farcical elements: mistaken identities, the revival of long dormant flames and a series of highly unlikely events that throw people into confusion and turmoil.

The set was minimal. Just a balustrade with some steps and two blue chairs. It didn't really need an elaborate set and furnishings. It wasn't about conjuring up realism. It seems the proscenium arch and the red velvet curtains are long gone. You can tell it's been a long time since I was a regular visitor to the theatres in London, The Old Vic and the Royal Court.

Lady Rumpers (Elaine Rook), Athur Wicksteed (John Gent) and Mrs Swabb (Sue Dale).

The action always cantered along at a brisk pace throughout the play with occasional pauses for Bennett's famous monologues. I kept seeing Shakespeare in some of what Bennett was doing. The soliloquy, the asides to the audience, the plot being explained by a narrator (the cleaning lady) and the inevitable clowns. Somewhere between a pantomime and a puppet play, or roman theatre, the lines are often declaimed rather than said. It presents the monumental aspects of the drama; it's the theatre of imagery rather than of realism.

It's part of Bennett's satirical style to work with stereotypes whilst still commanding the audience's compassion for the humanity of human lives that he cartoons on the stage. Early on in the play, the characters are introduced as though they were contestants in a variety show competition. At this point a curtain of glittering ribbons drops on to the stage to add to the effect.

At various points the actors suddenly start speaking in rhyming couplets and plain dialogue suddenly becomes verse. Bennett's style sets out the iconic aspects of the plot; it's not about real characters, it's depicting the cartoon characters from sea side postcards. The plot is as fantastical as a Brian Rix farce. The characters however do have humanity and Bennett does not loose that.

Constance Wicksteed (Alison Levy) and Cannon Throbbing (Trevor Butlin)

Habeus is a tour de force of commentary on the fickleness of relationships and the weakness of moralism in the face of sexual lusts and fantasies. Everyone has been tempted at some time or other - even doctors. "The medical profession is a form of seduction", claims Arthur Wicksteed.

Beneath the comedy there is mocking wit and excoriating cynicism as Bennett preaches his mantra of scorn, against the medical profession in particular and against middle class morality in general. Behind the soft, saucy, seaside humour, Bennett's barbed observations on middle class morality are at work. His lampooning of the medical profession is decidedly scathing. It's farce but then so was 'That was the week that was' and Monty Python's Flying Circus and this work is a bedfellow with them just are many contemporary stand up comedians.

These programmes have groomed us to chortle at the ideosyncracies of professionals and the pretentiousness of the comfortably off. Muriel Wicksteed is not unlike Hyacinth Bouquet. Bennett worked with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and they achieved fame through the Beyond the Fringe reviews and at the Edinburgh Fringe.

As Director David Kimmins points out in his programme note, 'One of the key requirements of a good farce is that it has believable characters in unbelievable situations.' Flat-chested Constance Wicksteed (Alison Levy) orders a breast enlargement prosthesis and a representative of the suppliers, Mr Shanks (Carolos Dandols), arrives to 'fit it'. He is greeted by the big bosomed lady of the house, rather than her daughter, commencing the comedy of errors. Meanwhile, Doctor Wicksteed has a nubile young female patient in his sights, who, incidentally forms a relationship with the said doctor's son who falls in love with her. The President of the BMA, Sir Percy Shorter (Colin Woods), arrives and an old flame rekindles with Mrs Wicksteed.

Thus, Bennett portrays the doctors as obsessed with the crises of their own middle age while the nuisance patient, old Mr Purdue, is phoning the doctor about his suicidal tendencies, only to get ignored because the doctor has more pressing things on his mind, namely his new, young female patient.

The first act ends with suicidal Mr. Purdue putting a noose around his neck and climbing on to a chair, threatening to end it all, as a cry for help. Muriel Wicksteed pulls it from under him, scolding him for standing on her best chair. The old man hangs from his noose while various members of the family continue to argue with each other about what has been going on in their lives.

The cast in rehearsal

The second act opens with poor old Mr. Purdue still hanging from his noose. Happily he gets rescued and seems none the worse for his ordeal. In the second half the relationships that started in the first half are unravelled as people begin to find out what has been going on behind their backs. Despite the sometimes shocking goings-on, they all live happily ever-after, as problems are resolved and animosities are settled.

An hilarious farce laced with waggish one-liners and slap-stick situations. A great production by the Leicester Drama Society.

You can see Habeas Corpus at the Little Theatre through to 16th April.

Time for the Good Looking Boy

Karen McClandless at CURVE - interview and review

A time for everyone

Time for the Good Looking Boy is a new one-man play from Box Clever production company and Salisbury Playhouse written by Michael Wicherek.The show, which tackles the issues of life, love, loss and growing up, is making its debut at Curve tonight (Wednesday 30th March).

Karen McCandless spoke to star of the show Lloyd Thomas ahead of his hotly anticipated first performance.

Rising star Lloyd Thomas hasn't always wanted to be an actor. In fact until the age of 14 he wanted to be a police officer. A shy child, it was youth theatre and the encouragement of his mother that really helped him come out of his shell and make his mark on the stage.

Thomas describes the decision to stick at acting as a life changing experience and is keen to encourage other people to take up do the same. "I want to encourage more people to go to youth theatre and drama school, as it's a brilliant experience," he says.

Growing up, the young star found his inspiration from a surprising source: Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Yeah, Arnie was my inspiration!", he laughs. "I also think The Wire is great and I enjoy the performances that Christian Bale gives.

"The person that I really admire though is Jake Gyllenhaal. He plays such varied roles and I like the way he goes from a big Hollywood film to an indie one. People like Robert De Niro and Al Pacino play quite similar roles in everything they do but his parts are so diverse. He's also someone you don't read about in magazines a lot; he's not just in it for the fame."

His own love of theatre was evident when he made the trip to Leicester to run a workshop for young people at the Curve theatre.Thomas reflects: "The workshops at Curve were great. I love talking so it was perfect for me! I also think it's a brilliant venue. The design is incredible, with the amount of space available, but it's also about the atmosphere."

Thomas is quick to acknowledge the difficulties of breaking into the industry and of finding work. He says: "Some advice I gave them was that you have to really love what you are doing. I heard someone say that the acting is the easy bit; it's what you do the rest of the time that's the hard bit. It's about getting that one break and it can be really frustrating."

Having worked with the production company behind Time for the Good Looking Boy since drama school, Thomas was cast in this role in 2009 when the first performances of the play took place, although the script has changed since its debut two years ago. After a run in Brighton, the critically acclaimed production is now coming to Curve, Leicester before heading off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Thomas admits that while being on stage on his own is a nerve-wracking experience, he is fortunate to have got the opportunity so young. "I know I'm lucky as very few actors get to do a play on their own and especially so early on in their career. I was really nervous to start with, as you have to control the audience, but then I really got into it. I wondered if I would remember the script as well because there is a lot of dialogue but once I get past the first five minutes I find myself becoming really absorbed. It has also helped me so much and I've learnt a lot. I've got used to being on stage alone and now it's really strange being on up there with other actors!"

The play has been getting rave reviews even since the first performances in 2009 and according to Thomas the reaction from audiences has been overwhelmingly positive. Describing the play as fast paced and very emotional as it swings between comedy and drama, his enthusiasm for a part he has been playing from the beginning and for theatre in general really came across throughout the interview. "Theatre is a unique experience because it's live. I've done TV in the past and sometimes you might shoot the last scene first so it's completely different."

While theatre in Leicester seems to be on the up with the high calibre of plays the Curve continues to play host to and other venues such as The Y Theatre and The Little Theatre also gaining in popularity, this doesn't seem to be the case across the rest of the country.

In fact, today (Wednesday) is D Day for the Arts Council England as it finds out the exact extent of the funding cuts it faces. This, for Thomas, is one of the major problems of working in theatre at the moment. He concludes: "I think supporting the arts is so important and it's a shame that that it's always one of the first things to be cut.

"Unfortunately there is the perception, especially in the West End, that only certain people go to the theatre. And given how expensive it is, it does limit who can actually go. I think people need to take bigger risks to try to get to a wider audience and new writing needs to be encouraged. It would be great to encourage a sort of community atmosphere where the bigger theatres help out the smaller ones.

"That's what Curve is doing, it is really trying to reach out to the community and make theatre accessible to all. That's where these workshops for young people come in and I wish more theatres would do similar things."

Time for the Good Looking Boy is at Curve from 30 March to 2 April.

More details from CURVE web site.

A star in the making

One man. On stage. On his own. For over an hour. Something that sounds challenging enough for the most experienced of actors, but brilliantly handled by Lloyd Thomas in Box Clever's solo show Time for the Good Looking Boy. Arriving at Curve, Leicester after performances in Brighton and before heading off to the Edinburgh festival, Karen McCandless got a front row seat to what has been described as a 'tour-de-force performance.'

The intimate nature of Curve's Studio was the perfect setting for what was described as an 'Urban Ghost Story'. An eerie atmosphere was created even before Thomas set foot on stage. Smoke was billowing from the set with music crackling on the radio. Just like an old-fashioned ghost story brought to life for the modern day.

Then Thomas appeared. Having spoken to Lloyd on the phone previously, his transformation to this street-talking urbanite was quite a surprise, but a very good one.

This boy begins his lyrical journey from childhood all the way to the present day with energy and charisma. Stranded outside his house after a party and a fight with his 'girl', he reflects on the night's events while remembering incidents from his childhood. He seems just like a normal teenager with normal problems, from an inner city neighbourhood.

The beauty of this play is that it deals with issues that will strike a chord with most teenagers nowadays but also stay with us through the rest of our lives. It's about love, friendship, family, independence and the future told from the perspective of a school child but appealing to everyone. An immensely likeable yet slightly vulnerable character, Thomas presents the complex nature of growing up though an energetic yet emotional performance.

Alternating between talking and rapping gave the play a rhythmical feeling, like we were going on a journey with him and were part of the ups and downs that came with it. The music complemented the dialogue perfectly, giving it more emotional depth without being cheesy.

The fast-paced play moved from moments of humour as he impersonated everyone from his mum to his sister to his girlfriend and then to poignancy as he reflected on his childhood and the absence of a father.

Thomas commanded the stage and made it his own while moving about with the ease of a much older actor. The simple stage layout worked perfectly, giving the young actor the room to move freely and express himself while not distracting from the tightly written dialogue, which was the crux of the play.

And the way he interacted with the audience, well this reviewer was quite shocked to actually become part of the play! We were all so involved and Thomas made us feel part of his story as it unfolded to a dramatic conclusion. A truly captivating performance and one I'd love to see again.

No doubt about it, Lloyd Thomas is a real star in the making.

Yes, Prime Minister

Reviewed by Karen McCandless

Richard McCabe (Jim Hacker) and Simon Williams (Sir Humphrey Appleby) photo © Manuel Harlan

As a TV series Yes, Prime Minister was a major hit for the BBC in the 1980s. Critically acclaimed and hugely popular among the viewers, a stage play was always going to have a hard act to follow. Luckily for the packed Curve auditorium, the stage version produced laughs in bucket loads and plenty of political satire to keep the purists happy.

Yes, Prime Minister arrived in Leicester following a sell out run in the West End and we were certainly lucky to have it. Excellently updated for the modern era, Prime Minister Jim Hacker heads up the coalition government and surprise, surprise, it's in crisis! Global warming, the European Union, the euro and an oil deal with Kumranistan (wherever that is!) dominate proceedings.

Set in Chequers, the set design is very much reminiscent of a 1980s Whitehall, the only concessions to modernity being a wide screen TV and the use of Blackberry mobile phones. Oh yes, and the addition of a woman! Charlotte Lucas more than held her own in the old boys' club as Claire Sutton, special policy advisor to the Prime Minister.

Even the language had been updated for the modern era with talk of 'pimping' at one point! Opening to the iconic BBC News theme tune, the play sets the scene nicely with the usual jokes about how the civil servants are the real ones running the country and the Prime Minister is just a bumbling idiot at their complete mercy.

Slightly slow to get going, this play was soon into its stride. With a cast of seasoned professionals, the dialogue was tightly delivered with not so much as a hesitation from any of the actors.

Simon Williams (Sir Humphrey Appleby) and Richard McCabe (Jim Hacker) photo © Manuel Harlan

Simon Williams as Sir Humphrey Appleby in particular coped brilliantly with his extremely long speeches and earned several rounds of applause for his efforts from an appreciative audience. The actors' engagement with the audience made the long speeches easy to listen to and the play an almost interactive experience. I felt like we may be called on to give our opinion at some points!

Stage direction was also well executed, as this clearly very well oiled machine proceeded without even a hint of a hitch. The characters themselves had evolved slightly from the original screen version. Sir Humphrey Appleby was a lot less ruthless than he used to be in the television series although, as per usual, he comes to the rescue of the Prime Minister in the second half.

Richard McCabe played Prime Minister Jim Hacker in an initially sniveling and arrogant manner then turning into a thoroughly energetic and enthusiastic performance. He really came into his own in the second half as a panicking Prime Minister. Running about the stage, hiding under the desk, comedy is clearly his strong point! While the Prime Minister's performance will no doubt earn most of the plaudits, I think special mention should also go to Chris Larkin as Bernard Woolley, the principal private secretary to the Prime Minister.

Hapless but loveable and the moral backbone of the play, Larkin adds depth to this character as a trustworthy, if slightly green, aide to the PM. He is also responsible for adding a lot of the more mainstream comedy moments to the play. The witty one liners spattered throughout were very relevant, I particularly loved the references to the Department for Cultural Media and Sport and how pointless the department as none of these things actually matter.

This was a very apt comment and close to the bone in the current political climate as well. If the first half was slow to get going, the second half got out of the box with a bang. Far less about dialogue and far more about the action, the actors had clearly all got into their stride by this point. Fast paced and almost farcical at times, the action came thick and fast.

The audience was almost roaring with laughter at some points. The play was livened up considerably with the appearance of Jonathan Coote as the director general of the BBC. Although I wonder how accurate his salary projected salary of £834,000 is!

Kudos to the set designer and props for a realistic interpretation of how Chequers might still look, as well as innovative use of furniture by the actors! The lighting was spot on with the moment in the second half when the lights go off and Sir Humphrey walks in as 'god' being a moment of comedy genius. And it earned another round of applause from the Leicester audience.

I couldn't end this review without giving a mention to the excellent sound production from Andrea J Cox. I don't think there was one person in the whole audience who didn't jump at the clap of thunder half way through the second act! And the second clap was almost as bad. It says a lot about the acoustics of the Curve that such powerful noises can resonate throughout the whole, fairly large auditorium. I get more impressed with the Curve as a venue on every visit. Again, the theatre was nearly full and all this on a Monday night as well! It's great to see that theatre in Leicester is thriving.

Yes, Prime Minister is at CURVE from 28th March to 2nd April

Monday 21st March, CURVE, The History Boys

An education worth having

Karen McCandless reviews the History Boys by Alan Bennett

Alan Bennett's masterpiece that is The History Boys made its Leicester debut to a packed and appreciative audience at the Curve on Monday night. The most well known of Bennett's plays and probably the most critically acclaimed, I put this right at the top of my 'do not miss' list when the Curve unveiled its programme for the season ahead. And I was not disappointed. Just to recap, The History Boys is set in a school in Sheffield in the 1980s. It follows the fate of a group of boys who are studying for the Oxbridge entrance exams at the fictional Cutlers' Grammar School.

The play also focuses on the teachers' attempts to impart an education to the boys: Irwin (brought in specially to coach the boys), Mrs Lintott (straight-forward and factual) and Hector (charismatic and eccentric English teacher), while the headmaster is mostly interested in exam results and league tables.

Philip Franks as Hector

One criticism sometimes leveled at this play is that Bennett puts too much of himself into it. While it may be true that the playwrigh's views on the importance of education are apparent throughout, the issues actually tackled here are much more complicated than that. The characters are all fairly complex individuals, not so one-sided as to be either good or bad, nor loveable or easy to hate. Nor does Bennett particularly condemn or condone any of the behaviour or manner of teaching in his play. In a way, this is very much a coming of age drama, a transition between youth and adulthood, a glimpse into the sort of education Bennett himself enjoyed. He has previously likened himself to the character of Irwin, saying that is the kind of education he had at degree level, while a teacher similar to Mrs Lintott at school taught him at school. Hector is the only one who he has never been taught by and as such still remains something of a mystery.

Hector takes a class

Given the blaze of publicity that follows any production of The History Boys, directing a new stage version must be a daunting, but at the same time very exciting, prospect. It is certainly one the director Christopher Luscombe handles very well. The choice of set and the music that accompanied each of the fast-paced set changes all helped to set the scene. The backdrop was a simple classroom window, meaning that there was nothing to distract the audience from the action that was taking place centre stage. The revolving set gave the audience a multi-dimensional view of what was going on; it meant we looked at things from new angles all the time. The action, meanwhile, was anchored firmly in the 1980s, with both the music choices that accompanied each scene change and the dingy classroom chairs and tables.

The teachers have a meeting with the boys

Luscombe's casting was a triumph. Ben Lambert was a perfect fit for Irwin, both in looks and character. With a smug and patronising air and emitting the feeling of 'I'm better than you' from every pore, he occupies the unenviable position of being the easiest character to dislike.

To his immense credit, he plays that part very well and it is only during the second act that he reveals a new dimension and lets us inside the young man's mind. When he reveals the truth of his university history to Dakin and when we find out what will become of him in the future, we are firmly persuaded that this is actually a fairly likeable man. His antithesis Hector (Philip Franks) is an enthusiastic and slightly foppish character, a likeable yet slightly laughable man. Franks aptly portrays the innate sadness of his whole situation, and his scenes with Irwin when he discusses how much of a disappointment his life has turned out to be are truly moving. One of my favourite performances of the night came from Penelope Beaumont as Dorothy Lintott. Straight-laced and sensible, she gives real dimensions and depth to what could otherwise be just an also ran character. "A safe pair of hand is how they would describe me," she says.

The class portrait

As for the schoolboys, Dakin (George Banks) was played with plenty of pomp and bravado, just as he should be. You could almost see the swagger in his walk. While for Christopher Keegan as Timms, a career in comedy surely awaits him. I for one was in stitches with his uncanny impersonation of a lady of the night. The stand our performance for me came from Posner (Rob Delaney).

He brilliantly portrayed the complex nature of his character; after all growing up a Jewish homosexual in the 1980s in Sheffield couldn't have been easy. Despite that, Delaney manages to bring out the humour in the situation with his love for song and dance and his open but unrequited love for Dakin.

Performance wise, he sang, danced and acted brilliantly and with so much life the whole way through. A star in the making. The chemistry between all the teachers and the boys is magnificent. The camaraderie feels so real and the friendship and animosity between the teachers comes across really well. At times I felt like I wanted to jump out of my seat and get on stage and join them; they just seemed to be having so much fun! The delivery of dialogue was tight and well rehearsed, not a line out of place.

The whole production seemed like a well-oiled machine of epic proportions. Given how much I enjoyed this play, I was glad to see it clearly captivated the Leicester audience as well. It couldn't have been more aptly demonstrated than at the end of the first act, when not a noise could be heard across the whole theatre. The moments of hilarity followed by moments of poignancy were dealt with brilliantly and were lapped up by and entranced and enthralled public. A simplistic set design, perfect music choice, comedy mixed with the tackling of important topics, superb acting and direction; this is how theatre should be.

See our special feature article on Alan Bennett

Saturday 12th March, Leicester University, There's always Tomorrow

An extraordinary experience awaited me as I walked in the Queens Hall for the Leicester University Theatre's play, There's Always Tomorrow. A play written by a second year student which - if I had not known before hand who had created it - I would have assumed was the product of an established play wright.

The play was acted by students - not even drama students but just those who enjoy acting. It was all rather wonderful and impressive. Acted on the floor of the Queens Hall (rather than on the stage) the set had a hospital bed at one end and a reception desk at the other. The window of the bedroom is projected on to a screen behind the bed. The audience are seated on either side of the acting area.

On the surface the plot was simple enough. A young man (Alex) is in hospital recovering from a road traffic accident. He has been in a coma for a long time - probably several months - but has now 'woken up'.

What is so remarkable about the play is the way in which the plot is underpinned by a number of themes: memory and loss, time and existence, the fragility of human relationships, the quest for identity and love. This can be seen as a love story but one in which emotional engagement is trapped within professional ethics.

The patient is being looked after by a female doctor (Dr.Shaw). From the outset of the play, everything seems to be normal, matter of fact even, but gradually clues are dropped into the scenes suggesting that something is wrong. A mystery unfolds in which the patient tries to piece together fleeting memories, some prompted by the delivery of a bag full of his personal possessions. Photographs from his past, contained in an album, help the young man to reach deep into his mind to see if he can salvage any recollections of his life before the amnesia creating crash.

As the plot unfolds, we find that the young female doctor had fallen in love with the comatose patient. When he 'woke up' however, the doctor had to bury her emotions beneath her professional role. In the dialogue we see the unraveling of the underlying themes: a young man searching to re-construct his identity from fleeting memories and scraps of evidence from his past life. A doctor struggling with the conflict between her emotions and her professional ethics. A patient trying to recover from trauma, caught between the support his therapist and his suspicion that something about his past is being covered up.

It was an enthralling psychological drama that was well acted by the students. It was the play that really impressed me, though. This could have been a fairly flimsy tale but Diani Davies has woven into it mystery, some complex issues about medical care and probings into the nature of time and existence. What is so stunning the way that she had handled this so deftly, with subtlety and compassion.

I did feel at times that the plot might start hectoring the audience with anti-pychiatry tracts, as so many other plays about mental health recovery have done. Apart from waving a hand generally in the direction of these issues, the plot stuck firmly to unwinding the relationships between the characters and unfolding the story of their experience.

"There's always Tomorrow" was a real credit to the students who acted and produced it and a massive achievement by Diani Davies whose first ever play it was.

Find out about the LU Theatre | There's always tommorrow Facebook page

Wednesday 2nd March, CURVE, Romeo and Juliet

"A community split by its differences, a young girl rebelling against her parent's expectations, knife crime and gang violence ..." - an episode of East Enders or Hollyoaks? No. Just Curve's introduction to the current production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

In the "ultimate teenage story", the young characters play out the angst of rebellion against their parent's wishes, rivalry between family clans and the joys and anguish of first love. With background music, a smoke machine and skinny jeans: its Pilot's indie version of the timeless tale of star-crossed lovers.

If they had got one of our local bands to play live throughout the show it would not have been out of place but they settled for commissioning the the background soundtrack from composer Sally Nuttgens.

Using Shakespeare's original words, this was no watered-down version, sanitised to spare the blushes of prim schoolgirls. This was the bard in all his colourful glory, with the naughty bits beefed up. It would have gone down well with the first night audience at The Globe.

Shakespeare brought alive for today's audience.

It seemed to go down well with the serried ranks of Leicester's sixth formers too, at this special public Matinée. Evoking nervous giggles from the girls and wolf whistles from the boys (or it might have been the other way round) the Facebook generation loved it. The "naughty bits" were played out as they were intended.

The great dramatist's roller coaster lurched from bawdy comedy to stomach churning violence to tear-jerking catharsis, just like any modern episode of a TV soap opera. The best way to illuminate the difficult wording of Shakespeare's old English dialogue is to act it out on stage and this the company did extremely well.

"My only love sprung from my only hate", wails 14 year old Juliet Capulet , realising that she has fallen for Romeo Montague (believed to be around 16), a boy from the House of her family's rivals. I suspect that William would have liked the way this production caught the mood and flavour of his play.

The comic bits were really good

The Directors (Marcus Romer and Katie Posner) and the cast brought the plot alive for today's audience. The cast lived the story on stage, with vibrant and passionate performances from the central characters. The comic scenes were tantalisingly well choreographed. The comedic scenes, where street kids Romeo, Mercutio and Benvolio, amuse the crowd with their rude banter, were particularly well produced, brought alive by razor-sharp acting from Chris Lindon (Mercutio), Oliver Wilson (Romeo) and Bryn Holding (Benvolio).

I liked the modernisation: the aged nurse was played by Louisa Eyo, whose portrayal of her as a West Indian 'mama' was brilliant.

Even the appearance of Friar Lawrence - (Richard James-Neale) in half-length cargo pants, sporting a full tattoo on one arm, a festival wristband, a watch and a Che Guevara t-shirt, made him look like he had just been ministering at a rock festival - was an update with considerable panache, I thought.

The flowery set was interesting: what is the word for more than minimalist? The balcony was an icon, a square platform lit by neon tubes, just as the cell of Friar Lawrence was signified by a neon cross. The neon square served as Juliet's bedchamber and also served as the tomb on which the two young lovers met their death ... an ironic touch that reached deep into the symbolism of the storyline.

Designer Chloe Lamford has astutely realised that flowers (in today's culture) are mainly associated with weddings and funerals, shrines and churches. Flowers are icons of celebration, fragile tokens of happiness or sorrow. The set required a collection of 600 silk flowers which were strewn about the stage and used as props throughout the play. Shakespeare is full of flowers and herbs; scholarly books have been written about the significance of each type of plant in the various plays and we remember them particularly from Hamlet ("... here's Rue for you".)

This was no costume drama. This production was about jeans and contemporary dress. The cast could have left the stage and gone straight to Mosh and would not have looked out of place. Just as the school students broke into a resounding cheer, at the end of the last act, so I think this production will appeal to people who think that Shakespeare is stuffy and impenetrable.

The Pilot Theatre production didn't, as previous adaptations have done, place it in the Victorian Era or something like that. Smart, snappy dialogue that kept to the original text of Shakespeare was good; what interpreted it for the 21st century audience, was the contemporary costumes, the upbeat delivery of the plot and the insightful realisation of the characters.

It didn't need to evoke medieval Verona. The timeless tale can be woven into the fabric of any age and has inspired many notable interpretations including Bernstein's West Side Story, Prokoviev's ballet and several film and TV productions and even the lyrics of a rock band's song.

The Pilot Theatre Company have built on the success of Umbrellas of Cherbourg with this makeover of a classic English drama; their partnership with CURVE has brought some memorable shows to our flagship theatre ... a partnership that is working well.

What we thought:

The cast: Wonderful
The Acting: Pretty good
The set: Flowery
The audience: Noisy
Worth seeing?: Defo'

Romeo and Juliet is running at CURVE until 12th March.

Thursday 17th February, CURVE, Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Review by Trevor Locke. Photos by Steve Tanner ©

Delightful, charming, a show to send you home feeling happy and well entertained. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg received it's Leicester premier tonight at CURVE and brought the audience to its feet for a well justified standing ovation.

When it was described as a 'musical confection', that was an apt choice of words. This show is indeed a sweet and satisfying song and dance treat that evoked an enthusiastic response from the full house at Curve.

You could describe it as a musical comedy. You could describe it as a play set to music. In some respects it is not really either of these. It's a show where the actors do plenty of dance routines to the live band and where the dialogue is half sung, half spoken. Musically, it has one main theme tune that pervades the whole two hours, with some fifties and then sixties jazz tunes to accompany the various dance scenes.

The contemporary, minimalist set by Lez Brotherstone, ably captured the feel of the French port and some of the dialogue was spoken in English (with a French accent) and some parts in French (to add to the atmosphère français.) The show conjured up the feel of a seedy Channel port in the 1950s, with sailors and tarts and illuminated shop signs in French, portraying the ambience of the show in easily recognisable icons.

Blending together comedy and drama, the audience was kept amused by the ever present sailors who helped translate certain french words and time-line announcements (e.g. three months later) by holding up various items like tea towels or umbrellas. Silly but amusing. They also acted as scene and prop shifters and carried or lifted cast members like props.

The show was opened by Lola (cabaret star, stage name Meow, Meow) who brought the audience into the action with a comedial prologue backed by three sailors. The audience really loved their whimsical dance routine, so much so, that they were called back at the end of the show, to do it as an encore, once the standing ovation had died down.

The plot is delightfully thin: a tale of first love, spiced up with some sex scenes and an unplanned pregnancy. Nothing too deep there but the plot rolled along at a steady pace, presenting one enchanting cameo after another. Genevieve's mother, Madam Emery runs a failing umbrella shop. Shortly after receiving a big bill that could close down her business she meets and affluent gentleman diamond dealer, who offers to bail her out. He, however, falls not for her but her daughter, who he marries, even though she is carrying Guy's child.

At the centre of the plot was the love affair between 17 year old Genevieve (Carly Bawden) and her 22 year old boyfriend Guy Fouchier (Andrew Durand). He gets called up to serve in the army but before he leaves, well, one thing leads to another, and Genevieve looses her knickers to him. As you would expect. Genevieve clashes rebelliously with her mother Madame Emery (Joanna Riding), whilst Guy is looked after by his invalid aunt Elise (played, curiously enough, by Dominic Marsh).

Originally a cult film, 'Les Parapluies de Cherbourg', directed by Jacques Demy (1964) with music by Michel Legrand ('Yentl' and 'Windmills of your Mind'), the show has been brought from the screen to the stage by Emma Rice. The Kneehigh company did an excellent job of bringing the show to life. The lighting, sound and stage effects showed off Curve's state of the art capabilities to good effect, showering the company with snow and rain and backing some parts with realistic sound effects (car engines, seagulls, etc.)

The eight piece orchestra (under Nigel Lilly) was excellent and included wind instruments, keyboards, drums, a harp and a double bass. The vocals were solidly good from all the performers and the dance routines always tightly executed and engaging.

To be honest, I did not really know what to expect from Umbrellas of Cherbourg, even though I had read the notes and put up the pre-show publicity in the magazine. Even though light musical entertainment is not my cup of tea, I have to say that I left the theatre feeling very warmed by the production and happy that I had gone to see it. I think that feeling would be echoed by the mixed-aged audience, who clearly loved the plot, the dancing and the fabulous production. It was a heart-warming experience that captured the feel of the setting and presented engaging characters.

Will it do so well in the West End? The show transfers in March to the Gielgud. Pleasing though the show is, unlike a fully-fledged musical, it lacks the big hit tunes that people have got to used in productions like Les Miserables, Cats and Phantom of the Opera - ith the exception of the acclaimed song 'I will wait for you'. Umbrellas is a different kettle of fish. It could well find itself competing, in the theatre-goers imagination, with big crowd pullers like Billy Elliott. The difficulty in marketing the show, will be getting into the right niche for the London audiences. In certain respects, it feels more like an extended burlesque; it's in a class of its own perhaps but the bitter-sweet storyline and tear-jerking climax will draw people in, as it certainly did tonight at Curve.

In Leicester, it was an immediate hit.

A superb production. A triumph for Emma Rice, the company and Curve.

Two hours of charm, atmosphere and pleasing entertainment.

The show is running at Curve until 26th February

See The Umbrellas of Cherbourg web site | Find out about shows at Curve.

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