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MIDLANDS THEATRES - REVIEWS

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BIRMINGHAM REPERTORY THEATRE

www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

BOX OFFICE:  0121  236  4455

Permanent Reviewer required for this venue - please contact The Editor via email:  GPowner@aol.com

THE ALEXANDRA THEATRE, BIRMINGHAM

BOX OFFICE: 0870 607 7544.

Permanent Reviewer required for this venue - please contact The Editor via email:  GPowner@aol.com

THE HIPPODROME

BIRMINGHAM

CALL BOX OFFICE: 0121  622  7437

www.birmingham-hippodrome.co.uk

Permanent Reviewer required for this venue - please contact The Editor via email:  GPowner@aol.com

THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY  STRATFORD-UPON-AVON

Box Office: 01789 295623 (open 9am - 8pm Mon - Sat)

REVIEWS

"Love's Labour's Lost"

by William Shakespeare

Directed by Gregory Doran for the RSC

Now playing at The Courtyard, Stratford in repertory to 15th Nov 2008.

A handsome confection of wit and not too serious romance.

David Tennant, playing Berowne, skilfully tap dances his way through an evening of frivolous patter, and enthrals the young female audience in so doing. Shakespeare has ensured that at no point is reality allowed to impinge on the tale; hence nothing matters but the ability of the cast to carry the implausible tale forward. This they do without putting a foot wrong.

From the diminutive Moth, aping the highly comical Don Adriano de Armado (Zoe Thorne, Joe Dixon) to the Schoolmaster/Curate team, the timing and articulation of a series of awkward lines was perfect. Oliver Ford Davies played Holofernes the schoolmaster to Jim Cooper's Curate, Sir Nathaniel.

Ricky Champ's lascivious clowning as Costard was a joy and in super contrast to Ewen Cummins' Dull.

As to the 'main' tale, Ferdinand, King of Navarre is host to a visiting French Court. Unfortunately the visit coincides with a self imposed moratorium on womanising. Worse, the visitors comprise a beautiful French Princess and her three companions.

For the visitors, the most lovely, Mariah Gale was the Princess of France. Amazingly, for all the make believe around, she maintained a smidgeon of royal presence. Her team of flirtatious beauties, Rosaline, Katherine and Maria (Nina Sosanya, Kathryn Drysdale and Natalie Walter) very soon had the measure of Navarre's finest.

The King of Navarre, played with great aplomb by Edward Bennett, tries to keep his court to the rules of the moratorium. No chance, with David Tennant's Berowne reluctant to sign up, and the King himself sold on the Princess.

Tom Davey's Longaville and Sam Alexander's Dumaine paired off in a trice with the Princess' ladies in waiting, my impression was that they would not have long to wait!

There are some fun/impressive dance routines; I was most taken by a 'clog' and stick performance which made The Courtyard reverberate with the rhythm of the dance.

The setting, a glade in a wood, served the whole production. The air above and behind the playing space was filled with green foliage in the form of shards of translucent green material, most effective.

It's a good looking show with the demanding text delivered with clarity. With hardly a word of the tale likely to be believed by the audience, the trick is to convince us that the players believe their lines, this they do consistently. There is even time to draw the odd member of the public into the fun, with this tale so appropriate.

Reviewed by Don Fathers for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

HAMLET

by William Shakespeare

Directed by Gregory Doran for the RSC

Now playing at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford in repertory until 15th November 2008.

A wonderful telling of a fantastic tale. Familiarity with Shakespeare's enthralling text is no bar to the emotional demands of the storyline when the quality of the production is on par with last night's performance. David Tennant, playing Hamlet, took us deep into his refuge of madness as the awful truth emerged about the fate of his father and the subsequent behaviour of his mother.

Patrick Stewart plays the Ghost of the murdered King Hamlet, and though his presence and his message got through in that role, there was for me no element of ghostliness in his contribution..

The moment Stewart appeared as Claudius his performance took on a whole new scale. The menace in his voice and actions, ensured that Hamlet knew, mad or no, that Claudius had to go. Claudius' purloined wife Gertrude was played by Penny Downie, an elegant and moving performance as she tries to calm Hamlet and sate Claudius.

Oliver Ford Davies played Polonius, father of the ill-fated Laertes and Ophelia. His portrayal of an elderly man gently slipping into dementia, momentarily surfacing and then drifting away, was superb. The gentle laughter from the house illustrates the now much wider sensitivity to the problem. He meets his death in the arras as ever, but the circumstances differ from convention, quite spectacular!

The lovelorn Ophelia, played by Marion Gale, joins Hamlet in his distraction in a most convincing manner, she sings and dances beautifully. Her brother Laertes, played by Edward Bennett, does anger, treachery and swordplay in full measure. All to no avail - he dies in the impending reshuffle!

The Touring Players and the Dumbshow team show Claudius that the game is up with their re-enactment of the murder, David Ajala (Dumbshow Poisoner) goes the long way round to get the toxin into the Kings ear, another interesting variation on standard.

A most entertaining evening's theatre, Tennant bringing a vigour to the part of Hamlet which perhaps reflects the changed familial structures that we see today. A more 'in your face' expression of his anger and pain.

A good Hamlet was had by all at the Courtyard, the theatre was bursting at the seams and the cast can have been in no doubt about customer satisfaction.

Reviewed by Don Fathers for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

GRAND THEATRE

WOLVERHAMPTON

Box Office: 01902 42 92 12

Website:  www.grandtheatre.co.uk

"Fiddler on the Roof "

By Bock and Harnick

Now playing until Sat. 26th Sep

An old favourite returned to the Wolverhampton Grand this week with the production of Fiddler on the Roof. I had really been looking forward to seeing Joe McGann play the lead role of Tevye and was disappointed when it was announced that he had been advised to stand down from the role due to an injury sustained to his elbow. What a blow! However, I need not have despaired, for as soon as the curtains opened and the haunting sound of 'Tradition' rang out, I knew that I was in for a treat. Understudy Martin Callaghan has taken over the role and I must say it seemed to 'fit him like a glove'. With a great feel for the character and a wonderful voice that allowed him to simply belt out songs like 'If I were a Rich Man' and 'Do you Love Me?' he has simply made the role his.

Martin Callaghan was well supported by a very enthusiastic and talented cast including Carrie Ellis as his wife Golde, Wendy-Lee Purdy as the matchmaker Yente, and Tommy Sherlock as Motel.

Throughout the show there are several themes that keep recurring. The first is the importance of tradition to a Jewish family. The small community are happy in their day- to- day existence, but when outsiders are introduced into the action their traditions are threatened.

Another very important theme is the faith of the Jewish people. Though they have been persecuted for hundreds of years they always remain faithful to Jewish law and Tevye as the central character, is the spokesperson for the rest of the community.

On a more personal note Tevye has his own family problems to deal with. Daughters who want to marry but not so much in the traditional sense. What must he do - follow his faith and tradition or risk losing his beloved daughters?

The production last night marked the anniversary of the musicals Broadway opening in 1964 and there seems no reason why it should not continue for many more years to come. A great performance was put in by all the cast and the show is well worth seeing. It runs until Saturday 26th.

Reviews by Fran and Steve Onions for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

HAYMARKET THEATRE, LEICESTER

REVIEWER NEEDED FOR THIS VENUE - Please contact the Editor via e-mail:-  GPowner@aol.com

THE BELGRADE THEATRE

COVENTRY

BOX OFFICE: (024) 7655 3055

REVIEWER NEEDED FOR THIS VENUE - Please contact the Editor via e-mail:-  GPowner@aol.com

WORCESTER SWAN THEATRE

Box Office 01905 27322

Reviews by Rebecca Vines for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

MALVERN THEATRES

FORUM and FESTIVAL

GRANGE ROAD

MALVERN

WORCESTERSHIRE

WR14 3HB

(BOX OFFICE) 01684 892277

Reviews by Rebecca Vines for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

DERBY PLAYHOUSE

Theatre Walk,  Eagle Centre,  Derby , DE1 2NF

Box Office 01332 363275

Website www.derbyplayhouse.demon.co.uk

e-mail admin@derbyplayhouse.co.uk

The Killing of Sister George

by Frank Marcus

directed by Cal McCrystal

now playing until 18 October

Derby Playhouse is back in business. It's been a big struggle to turn round what looked like almost certain permanent closure at the beginning of the year, and everyone is to be congratulated on the massive amount of hard work involved.

That, though, is a separate issue from the main purpose of this review. Hindsight is always 20/20, as the cliché goes, but you can't help wondering whether Sister George was a wise choice to re-open with. The central character of Frank Marcus' play, originally played on stage and in the film version by Beryl Reid, is June Buckridge, a wholesome, well-loved personality in her role as the district nurse in long-running radio soap 'Applehurst', but a boozing, foul-mouthed emotional wreck in her private life. She lives with Alice, a thirty-something waif who has regressed to a state of infant dependency under June's domination. The only other characters are Mercy Croft, the BBC executive who arrives to break the news that Sister George is to be written out of the show, and Madame Xenia, the medium from downstairs. The play may describe itself as a comedy, but its tone is savagely black, and the ending is desperately tragic.

At least, it should be. If the choice of play for this particular moment in Derby Playhouse's history was questionable, the choice of director was nothing short of a disaster. McCrystal may be "the brains behind some of the funniest theatre in Britain" as The Independent claims (a line quoted in the show's publicity), but I have not seen a more painfully evident mismatch between director and material since - well, since he directed Alan Bennett's Kafka's Dick at Derby Playhouse four years ago. He clearly doesn't do wit or subtlety, and appears to be embarrassed by anything approaching pathos. What he does do is invent tiresomely irrelevant bits of stage business, which sabotage any hint of dramatic credibility. He particularly seems to have a thing about throwing sugar cubes around, and girls in short skirts bending down to pick something up, showing their knickers and coyly grinning at the audience (just in case we hadn't got the point).

Jenny Eclair plays June. She may be a brilliant stand-up comic (indeed, her short routine before the start of the play is the best bit of the evening), but she's no actress. Catherine Hamilton could have been a really touching Alice in happier circumstances. Joy McBrinn's Madame Xenia and Carla Mendoça's Mercy Croft are simply caricatures.

At one point, Alice says "There's a right and a wrong way to do things." Quite.

Reviews by Mike Wheeler for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

CHESTER GATEWAY THEATRE

Hamilton Place

Chester, CH1  2BH

BOX OFFICE: 01244 340392

Theatre closed

Reviews by Jonnie Woodall for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

CREWE - LYCEUM THEATRE

Lyceum Theatre

Heath Street Crewe Cheshire CW12DA

Box Office: 01270 537333

Reviews by Jonnie Woodall for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

NOTTINGHAM PLAYHOUSE

Wellington Circus

Nottingham NG1 5AF

Box Office: 0115 941 9419

Minicom: 0115 947 6100

The Box Office is open Monday to Saturday from 10.00a.m. - 8 p.m. and Sundays and Bank holidays 2 hours before any performance.

Book Online - www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

Email - enquiry@nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk

"Vertigo"

From the novel The Living and the Dead by Boileau and Narcejac

Adapted for the stage by Jonathan Holloway

Director Giles Croft

Now playing until September 27th

Anniversary time here! It's Nottingham Playhouse's 60th anniversary season, opening with Vertigo, made famous by the Hitchcock film of 50 years ago. It's no surprise that adapter, Jonathan Holloway, takes a purist line and returns to the ambience and starkness of the original novel by French thriller writers, Peirre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.

It's set in occupied France of the 40s. We, the audience, are the spectators at a hypnosis session in which Roger Flavieres (Ben Keaton), the ex-cop with no head for heights, re-lives a colleague's fatal fall, an obsessive love affair with his friend's 'wife' and a startling revelation of murder. We are guided through the action by psychologist, Dr Jacques Ballard (David Acton), with his assistant Gratin (Robin Bowerman), who, with theatrical economy and intensity, play multiple roles to recreate the plot. The set (courtesy of Jamie Vartan) is a clinical staging of consulting room, couch, hospital bed with the all important spiral stairway to represent the high tower and the inner turmoil of Flavieres' vertigo. It's a good set with an important feeling of height. But it is also a stage for us the audience to watch the show, recalling the way these circus shows of hypnotising people were fashionable entertainment in France in the early 40s.

Central to the plot is the mysterious Madeleine, played hauntingly by Phillipa Peak. Beautiful and elegant, she lures Flavieres into madness. She, too, switches roles to good effect. Keaton (Flavieres) is particularly effective moving between persona - the mentally unbalanced patient, the man overwhelmed by the femme fatale and the duped, enraged lover.

This new adaptation cuts out some of the more ludicrous aspects of Hitchcock's film, no bad thing for a sophisticated modern audience. It substantially differs from the story in the film, adapting to the more confined space of a theatre stage. Director Giles Croft resists well the temptation to use video film as a backdrop, distancing himself totally from the film. His economy of action is a tribute to his skill of imaginative portrayal of the story.

But I was pleased to have recently seen the Hitchcock version. Without it there is a possibility that the whole psychological package wrapping up the play would get in the way of the clarity of the story itself. The key thing for satisfaction in a who-dun -it is to understand what happened in the end - and on the way there too!! I've a feeling in the play it isn't all that obvious. But it's full marks for the ending - strong and totally convincing!

Vertigo is playing from Friday 12 September - Saturday 27 September 2008

Tickets: from £7.50 (concessions available)

For information and booking, call the Box Office on 0115 9419419

Reviews by Elaine Peel for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

THE COURTYARD THEATRE

EDGAR STREET

HEREFORD

HR4 9JR

Box Office 01432 359252

Reviews by Rebecca Vines for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

For more details or individual advice/help - email:

GPowner@aol.com

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