Michael Grandage's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Noel Coward Theatre 25th October.

When was the last time you saw a Shakespeare comedy that was so funny the whole audience repeatedly belly laughed? Anyone with a ticket to this production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be able to easily answer that question.

There are always high expectations when “stars” are cast in Westend shows and sometimes that very expectation can be the production’s downfall. Casting David Walliams as Bottom and Sheridan Smith as Titania was a risk worth taking. Walliams played the part of the clown with expert timing and a great deal of showmanship. Though he occasionally exhibited familiar gestures, such as stroking another characters face, and expressions from his TV characters, this actually fitted perfectly with his portrayal of Bottom. He was very ably assisted by the rest of the amateur actors hopeful of performing for the Duke at his wedding. Together they proved the often disputed fact that Shakespeare’s writing can still be funny today when performed by comic actors.

Smith carried off the dual characterisations of Titania and Hippolyta making each her own. Her Titania was sumptuous and joyful, played with an overt sexuality which was a recurring theme of the fairy court. Another theme of the fairy court seemed to be symbolic of an altered state of reality where they all got high on Titania’s cigarettes. I wasn’t convinced by this interpretation mostly because of the characterisation of Puck (the Fairy King, Oberon’s servant). This Puck was less a clever trickster, more a drunken frat boy playing practical jokes. I felt this made his actions (upon which the confusion and cross-purposes driving the main action of the play hinge) accidental rather than executed according to a plan designed to cause mischief.

The sexual undercurrents of the original text are brought unapologetically to the fore in this production, with the four lovers shedding their dull coloured and modest Athenian garments as they delve deeper into the fairy kingdom, until they are all scantily clad in pure white undergarments. The antics of these four were played with brilliant physicality and humour. Helena, played by the superb Katherine Kingsley, in particular had the audience on side and laughing from her first speech.

There is further symbolism in Michael Grandage’s creation, in the set design of the two main stages. The fairy court is a ruined version of the Athenian court with a great hole rent in the back wall through which a giant moon shines. I was struck in the very first scene by the blocking which from my vantage point in the Grand Circle seemed very precise and often symmetrical about centre stage. This was very effective in concentrating attention on character groupings and I couldn’t help but wonder how the staging would look from different angles in the theatre.

To experience this production from another visual perspective would only be one of many reasons why I’d be happy to watch this Dream again. This production might not be saying anything new but what it does say is extremely funny.  

Progress Theatre's 8th Annual Writefest, Progress Theatre, Reading 16th October 2013

This was Progress Theatre’s 8^th but my 1^st Annual Writefest. Each summer a competition is held for writers to submit short plays from which eight winners are chosen. These winning plays are then assigned a director and developed into a performance. It is difficult to say on what criteria the plays were judged based on the performances but the programme delivered a nice balance between serious, contemplative pieces and light-hearted comedy. Rather than seamlessly move between pieces with musical interludes to set the change in tone, the Producers decided to use a compere, Jon Speed, to introduce each piece. Having stated at the start that the show was about the plays not him I was rather worried when he read a monologue several minutes long after the first play. However, his monologues did became shorter and pithier as the evening progressed so I was inclined to forgive him this initial lapse.

The opening play, “Three Little Words” was a comical take on the superhero, alter-ego and regular human love triangle. Anjali Singh gave a spirited performance as the “earth-woman” suspiciously frequently in peril. She also had to work hardest not only as the character the audience needs to relate to but as the feed for most of the gags for the other characters, for example setting up the evil masterminds as being short sighted in their desire to rule the world by blowing it up. The villains, when they inevitably arrived, were quite panto but Emma Kellow did a good job of portraying an inept but enthusiastic female side kick. The main twist in the tale was not unfortunately a surprise which may have been why an extra twist was needed for a strong ending.

The next piece was “The Incident” by Liz Carroll. A young woman (played convincingly and naturally by Ellen Fernley) lays bare her life to the audience as a monologue scripted as a one-sided conversation with a coma patient. The choices she has made and the background to how she came to be at the old ladies bedside is slowly revealed with skill and subtlety. There is a tantalising description of characters not seen which makes you want to see them but most striking for me was the way a strong relationship formed between the two women despite one being unconscious. I was even taken by surprise by the ending, perhaps that is my cynical nature but I rather think it was the joint talent of the writer and actress. This monologue piece had that quality I think all short stories or plays should have, of leaving the audience wanting to know more.

“The Invisible Guest” was the next play. It begins with a man in a suit on a bench holding a balloon. A woman walks on stage looking for a seat and asks if she can join him on the bench. She is curious about the balloon and starts to ask him about it, apologetically at first as though she really doesn’t want to bother him but can’t help herself. Patricia Spence played the woman with ease and made the transition from awkward enquiry to comfortable open conversation very naturally. However, perhaps it was partly the limitation of his lines to short direct answers, I found the man rather confusing. I wasn’t sure if he was a threat, a figment of her imagination, a harmless loner. He unfortunately leant more towards threatening for me. This of course changed when he began to talk about his own experiences and his reasons for the balloon and interacting with the woman became clear. The message was laid on a little thick in his speech for my taste but the general concept of the piece was a good one.

Last up in the first act was “Déjà vu” by Kathy Reid. This was a lovely little sketch with a lot of clever word-play. The scene is set with two middle-aged women at their regular bar partaking of their regular routine but their conversation soon becomes irregular as they begin to discuss the possible implications of multiverse theory. I liked this piece a lot; it was smart, funny and well executed by both actresses.

Opening the second act was “So Quick” by David Lea. This was the only piece which I would say was truly a complete short play with a complex storyline, well developed characters and a satisfyingly rounded narrative. Two people are introduced at a party with the ominous knowledge that their hostess thinks they have a lot in common. They are both at that stage in their life when they don’t want to waste time and we are drawn in as they begin to work out exactly what they do have in common. Thrown in between the discoveries of compatibility are flash backs to a year earlier in the man’s (played by John Goodman) life. John brings a natural charm to the part which immediately brings the audience into his confidence. There were some lovely visuals in the flashback scenes, most notably when John is fumbling to get change out of his pocket to pay the car-park ticket machine and a huge shadow is thrown across the back wall. How many of us have had that feeling of someone looming over our shoulder in a queue? The only thing which, for me, didn’t work well was the choice of painting the Doctor’s face white in the flashbacks. This technique worked for the other transient characters of the flashbacks, highlighting them as fleeting memories. However, in the case of the Doctor it was distracting. Perhaps it was because she wasn’t wearing a white/grey, washed out wig as the others seemed to be or the lighting wasn’t quite right, either way it didn’t really fit. Overall though a very enjoyable and thoughtful piece.

“Our Father” was rather the opposite. I found this piece quite juvenile and I was left wondering on what criteria the play was chosen by the judges other than it might be controversial. The three characters are God, an Angel and Jesus. There was no subtlety and nothing new about the piece as God and the angel have a good laugh at all the silly people getting the bible wrong and not seeing it as the allegory it clearly is. God bless the silly American’s and their beliefs. God save the audience from having the message that “you have to let your children make their own mistakes even though you, of course, know exactly how they should behave and react in any given situation because all parents are omniscient” spelt out to them. Despite a valiant effort by Ellen Fernley as the Angel this piece did offend me but I doubt very much it was in the way the writer had hoped.

The next piece brought the evening back on track for me. “Jessica” by Glynn Oram opens with a woman slumped on the floor and two bystanders, a young woman and a policeman. At first everything seems normal, they are trying to help her but there is a language issue and the woman has lost her bag so they cannot identify her. Slowly the sinister truth is revealed that this is not (yet) our world but a different reality where to be a stranger is a crime. Well performed by all the cast this short scene again left me wanting to know more. What happens to the characters afterwards, how do they deal with the inhumanity of the lives they are forced to lead? “Jessica” worked as a stand-alone scene but I think there is potential for more from this writer on this theme.

The final play, “Separation” by Paul Houghton was, I suspect, a bit of a risk. Fortunately, it paid off and ends the show on a high. Again this is more of a sketch than a true short play but it was very well received. Two men meet in a bar for a pint and a chat. I’m not going to say anymore because it would spoil the surprise, all I will say is that it was excellently performed by Michael Beakhouse and Angus Draycott and leaves you with something to think about beneath the humour.

So, all in all my first Writefest was an enjoyable evening with a great variety of stories and characters. I hope that this is not the end of the road for some of these pieces but rather that the writers can now look at their work again having seen how these directors, actors and above all audiences reacted to them.

Zuloo Productions' Blackadder II: The stage play created by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton. The Hexagon, Reading 12th October 2013

How do you top a cast that includes Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry and is led by Rowan Atkinson? Don’t be silly, that’s a trick question. You can’t. So, what do you do if you want to put on a stage version of one of the best loved British TV sitcoms of all time, without the original cast? My advice would be to follow in Zuloo Productions’ footsteps and combine a great deal of passion with talented actors to imitate the originals as closely as possible.

As the last few notes of that iconic theme tune faded away and the curtains rose on Saturday’s performance of Blackadder II: The stage play, the nervous tension of the audience was palpable. Thankfully, that tension was immediately soothed by the opening scene from Bells, the first episode of the TV series. In this scene Kate (played faithfully by Deborah Rochfort) declares her intention to disguise herself as a boy and seek her fortune in London, whilst her father (again competently played by Jim McGuigan) expresses his preference for her to stay at home and go on the game. So good was this opener that a delighted (and perhaps a bit relieved) audience applauded as the lights dimmed and the stage was reset for the entrance of the character on whom the rest of the performance depended. We were not disappointed, with a dark beard and sardonic demeanor, Kieran Suchet was an assured and convincing Edmund Blackadder. However, it was not a completely perfect imitation and most noticeably missing was Rowan Atkinson’s wonderful pronunciation of the letter ‘b’. Perhaps it is unfair to expect an actor who does not suffer from the same speech impediment to be able to reproduce that memorable comic pronunciation of ‘Bob’, but it does lead me on nicely to the issue of episode choices.

Bells, Potato and Chains but not Heads, Money or Beer. Bells and chains may seem obvious choices being the first and last episodes in the original TV series. Certainly ending with Chains worked well for the narrative and includes some great physical comedy. Potato is also a favourite of mine so I can’t complain on that score and I would not have wanted to miss Andy Sears’ sublime Captain Rum. Bells was unfortunately, despite good performances by the actors involved in that episode, not as strong as the other two. Part of the problem with this episode was the short scenes with set changes required in between. The set itself was cunningly designed, simultaneously showing Blackadder’s house and Queenie’s throne room with an invisible wall in the centre. As Blackadder’s adventures unfolded, his side of the set revolved revealing new locations such as Captain Rum’s ship. In Bells the set seemed to be revolving constantly leaving the audience waiting and this did interrupt the flow of the performance.

For this reason and for a greater amount of physical comedy involved, I would have preferred to have seen the show open with Heads (which I believe was actually intended to be the first episode of the TV series, until it aired when Bells was chosen instead). A little more interplay between Baldrick (Tony Carpenter) and Blackadder, which this episode could have provided, would have been welcome. However, that is my personal preference and I rather think the fact that I would like to see this cast and crew produce a performance of Heads, (and also Money and Beer) is a testament to how enjoyable the show was.

A special mention must be given to Queenie (played flawlessly by Bryony Tebbut) and Lord Percy (Josh Vince). Not only did both performers completely capture the intonations and gestures of their original counterparts but, they were so believable that their interactions with the audience in the latter half of the production, which could have led the performance in a disastrously panto-like direction, were completely uncontrived, natural and welcome.  

Overall, this was a fantastic show. Undoubtedly a loving homage to the BBC production but equally as enjoyable to someone who has never seen the shows as to a super-fan. I certainly look forward to seeing what Zuloo Production’s come up with next.

Glynis Henderson Productions' A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Theatre Royal Winchester 7th October 2013

Male beauty met the male grotesque tonight in Glynis Henderson Productions’ version of A Clockwork Orange. The show opens with a balletic battle in which a thrust of the crotch is used to threaten as often as a brandished fist. For one hundred and ten minutes the ten man cast captivated the audience with their sometimes graceful, sometimes brutal physicality and a Shakespearean delivery of Nadsat that any RSC alumni would be proud of.

This is not an easy play, it is hard to find a likeable character amongst either the villains or the victims. In this version, cast as an all-male ensemble, all the actors cast as villains, excepting Alexander DeLarge, also play victims and vice-versa, which subtly reinforces one of the main messages about modern society (as relevant now as it was in 1962) in Burgess’ novel. It would be unjust to pick out one actor as the star of the show, this performance is truly an ensemble piece. DeLarge is portrayed with intensity and was incredibly convincing in his physical reactions and I was impressed by the ease with which all the other actors transformed from one character to another, mostly by using only their bodies and voices. They may not have made the characters more likeable but I certainly enjoyed watching them.

Music is hugely important to the character of DeLarge and the plotline and I loved the soundtrack to this production. Several visually powerful scenes (the courtroom comes to mind) and all the scene changes (always danced, always part of the performance) were enhanced by retaining the classical music but also using modern songs with a classical edge.

I was lucky enough to get a front row seat for the opening night of this performance. I can only advise you to get any seat you can, you won’t regret it.

Richard Eyre's adaptation of Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen. Performed at Almeida Theatre, London 5th October 2013

There have been times when I have seen an emotionally challenging play which left me physically affected when the final curtain fell, only to be jarred back to reality by the buoyant cast taking their (well deserved) bows. Not so in Richard Eyre’s Ghosts at the Almeida Theatre, London. Despite the effusive applause and even, in some quarters, standing ovations, the five members of this cast were sombre, sober and humble, clearly exhausted and perhaps drained by the emotional realism of their performances. They all had cause to be tired, the play runs for 90 minutes without an interval and from the very opening scene the performance is full of energy. This play, which revolves around the widowed Lady of the house Helene Alving (Lesley Manville), consists mostly of verbal sparring between two or three characters at a time. Only towards the end is there a dramatic event and even this occurs off stage so the actors are required to keep the audience involved throughout all the tragic revelations.

The actors are aided by Tim Hatley’s beautiful and cleverly layered set design. Whilst the scenes of the play are all set in Helene’s parlour, we can see through the back wall of this room into the next, (the dining room). This serves the narrative in several ways. It draws us in more intimately but also adds a sense of voyeurism, a sense that we are spying on private conversations. As we learn that for Helene the house is full of ghosts, the ghost of her husband’s memory, ghosts of her life as it might have been had she made different choices, the half seen room takes on the symbolism of a ghost itself. This is used to great effect when Helene and Pastor Manders (played by Will Keen), occupying the immediate and solid parlour, discuss the past whilst the youthful Regina Engstrand (Charlene McKenna) and Oswald Alving (Jack Lowden) are in the pale and indistinct dining room behind. Intriguingly the main entrance to the house was also located in the back wall of the dining room, forcing all those that entered the house to pass through a ghostly phase before solidifying upon entering the parlour.

Lesley Manville’s portrayal of Helene is natural and consistent throughout. She maintains the strength and charm that is at the heart of Helene even whilst revealing her vulnerability and regrets. At points where it might have been easy to lazily slip into a stereotypically hysterical or weak woman, she never succumbs, holding her head high and dominating the room. It is thanks to Lesley’s performance that the true tragedy of this interpretation is the realisation of Helene’s that the two men she loves, and lives for, don’t love her. One of these men, the Pastor, has a wholly unlikeable superior manner which makes it difficult to imagine how he could have captured Helene’s heart in their youth. Although his own vulnerabilities are shown in the course of the play I never felt any sympathy nor empathy for him. There was, for me, a distinction between the Pastor and the other characters. Helene, Regina, Oswald and even Regina’s father Jacob (Brian McCardie), all undergo a journey and their lives are substantially altered by the end. However, the Pastor goes through no alteration. Even Regina’s father, an undoubtable rogue whose motivation throughout is his own pursuit of money and happiness is more likeable because he seems to have accepted and embraced his own faults. The Pastor never seems happy and refuses to examine his own choices. Will Keen plays the Pastor as a weasel of a man that ends the play as much a moralising coward as he seemed at the start, preoccupied with soliciting public opinion rather than following his own intelligent judgement.

The final word must go to the junior members of the cast, Charlene McKenna and Jack Lowden. Both portrayed their difficult characters with skill. Jack Lowden, playing Helene’s son, had the extremely challenging task of performing rapid physical deterioration on stage at the end of the play. By playing Oswald as restless, quietly powerful and full of trapped energy throughout, he made this transition all the more distressing and I certainly felt my own emotions all the more caught up with Helene’s. Regina’s transition was harsher, heralding the end of hope. Charlene McKenna played her exactly as I imagine Ibsen wrote her, awake to all the possibilities for joy in life, clever and determined. Her realisation that the woman she admired and revered (Helene) and the man she thought worthy of her love (Oswald) were actually using her, is shortly followed by her leaving. Charlene is so watchable that I wanted her back again as soon as she left and not just to delay the inevitably sad ending.

This is an exposition of human fallibility but thanks to skilled performances, especially from the two women, I could wipe away my budding tears and join in the applause of my fellow audience members with gusto, knowing that the past is unchangeable but the future is ours to shape. I know I will remember this performance whenever I sit down to Ibsen again, as Richard Eyre has delivered a version of Ghosts that does indeed haunt.