Reviews Archives - Page 27 of 28 - UPSTAGED MANCHESTER

REVIEW – Shappi Khorsandi: Because I’m Shappi (The Lowry)

April 13, 2015kristobel1 Comment

Date: 11 APRIL 2015

Upstaged Rating:

Shappi Khorsandi bounds on to the stage, sparkling like the sequinned trainers she wears and informs us that she is going to do her own warm-up – she quickly adds, “Times are hard.”

The aptly entitled show ‘Because I’m Shappi’ is uplifting and refreshing – it is not often you see a stand-up show which is built on happiness, a reflection on the good things in life and a celebration of the characters who have contributed to her stand-up career. It is clear to see that Shappi is a comic who loves her life on and off stage and she is happy when she is performing.

I can relate to Shappi- a mother of 2 children herself – she is proud and fearlessly independent, she is also highly likeable, mischievous and charming. During her warm-up act for ‘Big Shappi’ she handles her diverse Mancunian crowd with a razor sharp wit. She chats with a bride-to-be about how much she loathes hen parties and chocolate cocks and then starts to play a giant game of snap with her audience. And when she looks on edge and tells us that she is confiding in us, things that she has never divulged before – we believe her.

The whole show feels quite free-flowing and relaxed, with tales about childhood friends and family, Twitter trolls and internet porn while pregnant. We feel as though we are a confidant listening to a friend – Shappi’s tone is warm, engaging and conversational. Although, occasionally the material does feel a little too free-flowing and in covering such wide ranging subject matter, there didn’t always seem to be a main strand to follow and sometimes fluidity lacked as she jumped from one topic to another.

On leaving Shappi Khorsandi’s show I feel hopeful – her humour is infectious and refreshingly truthful- she fizzes energy and she is a charming and compelling entertainer. It seems that everyone in the theatre, including Shappi, has enjoyed themselves and that’s the most important thing.

-Kristy Stott

Shappi Khorsandi continues her show ‘Because I’m Shappi’ at The Ropetackle Arts Centre on Friday 24th April and she continues to tour the UK through May and June 2015. For more dates please click here.

REVIEW – Room on the Broom (The Lowry)

April 9, 2015kristobel

Date: 8 april 2015

Upstaged Rating:

THINGSTARS:

Tall Stories Theatre Company are well versed in adapting well-loved children’s stories for the stage. Using their trademark physical theatre style, catchy signature tunes and puppetry – they succeed in appealing to the adults in the audience just as much as they do the children.

And Tall Stories usually present the well-known childhood story with a frame story which serves to entertain the children as they enter the theatre. There is no waiting around for the action to start because as the audience file in to take their seats, the actors are all on stage improvising a camping trip to the woods. What is really clever is that the actors tap into older relatives experiences of a family camping trip too, particularly us parents who might find that we need to have “a ploughmans, a tiramisu and then…a shot!”

The camping trip setting leads through to a Blair Witch-esque sighting of something flying in the sky which leads neatly to the narrative that we have all been eagerly waiting for, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s, Room on the Broom.

Yvette Clutterbuck’s Witch is as scatty as is hinted at in Donaldson’s original story, a good likeable witch who struggles to cast a spell. Luckily, she has a super competent cat with plenty of ideas, a marvellous singing voice and an endless supply of sweets, played by Emma MacLennan.

As the witch and her cat fly along on their broom stick, they end up making friends with three other animals, who help her retrieve her belongings when they fall to the ground. The puppets, designed by Yvonne Stone, are well characterised by David Garrud, who plays the dog and the frog and Daniel Foxsmith as the green bird. The American country and western singing frog is a particular hit with the young audience, as is the dog, especially when the two puppets swap accents during an exchange. I’m not sure that this was intentional but it was a great source of humour for many in the audience.

Tall Stories Theatre Company, headed up by Artistic Directors Olivia Jacobs and Toby Mitchell, never fail to delight with their interpretations of Julia Donaldson’s well-loved tales. Although admittedly, Room on the Broom wasn’t my favourite Tall Stories production, they have certainly succeeded in producing superb children’s theatre consistently and they absolutely had the young audience at The Lowry under their spell for the full 55 minutes.

-Kristy Stott

Room on the Broom is at The Lowry, Salford until Sunday 12th April 2015. It then continues the tour at The Lyceum Theatre in Crewe for 14th and 15th April. Room on the Broom continues to tour nationally until 29th August 2015. For further UK tour dates click here.

REVIEW – Secret Diaries (The Lowry)

April 4, 2015kristobel

Date: 02 April 2015

Upstaged Rating:

Secret Diaries, presented by Art with Heart, pays homage to our teenage years, the awkward time when you realise that life isn’t going to be as straight forward as you originally thought that it would be. When a thirty something year old Hayley returns home and starts to look through her old belongings, it doesn’t take much more than the smell of an old school polo shirt and the familiar sound of her cassette player to transport her, and us, back to the 80’s.

As Hayley reminisces over her teenage experiences, laughs, loves and losses – she reads excerpts from her diary which are then animated and brought to life by the cast of three. Hayley is played well by Sarah Emmott, managing to portray the ups and downs of teenage angst vividly, as we follow her coming of age but also, more poignantly, her coming out as a gay woman.

Hayley is flanked by her best friend Deb (Catherine Pugh), a mouthy teen with a wet perm. The two friends work well together on stage, writer Sarah Evans has created two well layered characters, that we can laugh at and sympathise with all at once. Hayley’s father also seems to struggle to find his feet in an ever-changing world, played by Michael Forrest, we can empathise with his sentiment although his performance does feel awkward at times. Some of the scenes between Hayley and her father, particularly towards the end of the play did seem to lose some momentum.

Designer Lynsey Akehurst‘s stage design and soundtrack was a technical highlight and the star of the show for me. The flashbacks from the present to Hayley’s teenage years could have posed quite a challenge but Akehurst’s ingenious set design, 80’s soundtrack and speedy costume changes made light work of two decades. And Rachel Moorhouse‘s fluid direction ensured that the stage was swiftly changed to suggest a classroom, a teenage bedroom and a trusty old park bench with ease. Sound bites from a news reel signifying the Iron Curtain falling and snippets from the Band Aid II single all succeeded in suggesting the passage of time.

Secret Diaries is worth checking out for reminiscence purposes alone, packed full of guilty pleasures from the eighties and nineties, Sweater Shop jumpers and Smash Hits posters, that will make you smile and reminisce about your own experiences.

-Kristy Stott

REVIEW – BRINK (Royal Exchange)

March 27, 2015kristobel

Date: 26 march 2015

Upstaged Rating:

Written by Jackie Kay and in collaboration with The Royal Exchange Young Company, Brink examines the space between being a child and gaining responsibility and independence while crossing into adulthood. With a focus on those years from 14-21, Brink explores ideas, worries and those ‘brinking’ moments in a young persons life, when you’re on the edge, venturing into the unknown or having to make a crucial decision.

What is most remarkable about this production is that the young people are involved in every element of the production, not only on stage but behind the scenes too. With support from the wonderful Royal Exchange and working professionals, the young company are encouraged to take the reigns in marketing the production, producing programmes and stage managing. And it is through this amazing opportunity that this talented bunch have experienced the inner workings of a top notch theatre, like Manchester’s Royal Exchange, and the hard graft that is involved in honing an idea and achieving the standard of a professional production.

Brink is performed on a thrust stage which resembles a cosmic looking rubik’s cube. Frankie Bradshaw‘s design sees each young person enter through a door at the back of the stage, as they find themselves ‘on the brink’. Under the clever direction of Matthew Xia, the young people unpack their concerns and experiences surrounding sexuality, the concept of home, education and mental illness. Jackie Kay has moulded their experiences into a beautifully poetic and frank expression of their feelings which each member of the cast delivers with honesty and individuality. The production also tackles issues such as depression and abuse which Mercy (Natasha Hylton) displays with sensitivity and bravery.

The show is made up of spoken word, movement and song, with many of the cast being talented musicians and singers – Jason Patel and Abigayle Bartley, responsible for music composition, stand out as being ones to watch, as does Yandass Ndlovu, a skilled beatboxer with electric moves to match. And the bored and disinterested Harvey (Nea Edwards-Dixon) has a wonderfully rich voice which is complemented by the tuneful harmonies produced by the rest of the cast.

Brink is a wonderful, insightful and hopeful production by a group of talented, hardworking and creative young people.

The Young Company at the Royal Exchange gives young people aged between 14 and 21 the chance to train as Communicators, Design Technicians, Performers and Writers.
Working alongside theatre staff and arts professionals, the Young Company offers 100 young people 12 months of in-depth training to broaden their understanding and develop their skills in their chosen discipline.
To find out more please click here.

Brink runs from 26th – 29th March 2015 in the Royal Exchange Studio.

-Kristy Stott

REVIEW – Anna Karenina (The Royal Exchange, Manchester)

March 25, 2015kristobel

© 2015 Jonathan Keenan - ANNA KARENINA — © 2015 Jonathan Keenan – ANNA KARENINA

DATE: 24 March 2015

UPSTAGED RATING:

The Royal Exchange Theatre launches its new Spring – Summer 2015 Season with a contemporary adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece, Anna Karenina. Writer Jo Clifford, certainly must have had a mammoth task on her hands in stripping back and making cuts to this classic, almost 900 page novel, so that the story and themes could be condensed into a two hour performance inhabiting the intimate space at The Royal Exchange.

Admittedly, I have not read Tolstoy’s novel from cover to cover but I am familiar with the main themes running through it. For this production Clifford puts a particular emphasis on love, infidelity and trust to capture the tour de force of Tolstoy’s original text, but, even with this element as a main focus, this adaptation did feel a little over packed.

Set to the backdrop of nineteenth century Russia and directed by Ellen McDougall, this adaptation of Tolstoy’s monster focuses around three couples and their experiences of love and marriage. Firstly, we encounter Dolly (Claire Brown) talking to Anna (Ony Uhiara) about her unfaithful husband, Oblonsky (Ryan Early) Ironically, Anna convinces Dolly to stay with her husband and work at her marriage. Anna meanwhile married to Karenin (Jonathan Keeble) gives up on being the dutiful wife when she is introduced to Vronsky (Robert Gilbert) and the two embark on a passionate affair culminating in her leaving her husband for her new exciting lover. Running alongside these two stories, is the story of Levin (John Cummins) and Katy (Gillian Saker), their relationship is a slow burner but ultimately, they marry completely for love – embracing the ups and downs of a true marriage.

“Love is just a better way to hurt each other”

The symbolism in Joanna Scotcher’s set is a stark but perfect delight. Train-lines cut right across the bare stage containing a channel of brown soil which runs between them. This design is aptly suggestive of the ground that the characters inhabit and the formation of the railways running relentlessly through them.

“If you cut someone from the soil, you damage him.”

Anna and Vronsky first lock eyes with each other at a fairytale-esque ball. They maintain eye contact through a sea of large, hooped pastel coloured skirts, in contrast Anna is wearing a plain black dress. Magnetically the lovers are drawn to each other, they begin to intertwine and move passionately but it all feels a little awkward. In trying to fit such a monster of a text in to such a short time frame it feels as though we are being raced through the characters lives, which results in us being feeling quite detached from them, their emotions and the predicaments that they have landed in.

“And trains that can crush us as if we are fleas.”

Maybe like the characters are affected by the train lines cutting across the stage, I hoped that this adaptation would reach an emotional peak and leave me feeling as though I’d been on a wild train ride, sadly, I didn’t feel as though this production had any particular destination in mind.

-Kristy Stott

Anna Karenina is running at The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester until Saturday 2 May 2015.

REVIEW – Twelve Angry Men (The Lowry)

March 24, 2015kristobel

© 2015 Pamela Raith www.pamelaraith.com — © 2015 Pamela Raith
www.pamelaraith.com

Date: 23 march 2015

Upstaged Rating:

Twelve Angry Men opened at The Lowry last night following its record breaking run at the Garrick Theatre in the West End. Presented by Bill Kenwright, this powerful new production sees Reginald Rose‘s gripping courtroom drama and three-time Academy Award nominated screenplay, including best picture, suited perfectly for the stage.

It’s late summer in 1954 and the scene is a New York City courthouse, a jury of twelve men has murder on their minds as they decide the fate of a young delinquent accused of killing his father. If found guilty the boy faces the death penalty. At first the trial appears to be an open and shut case, with a unanimous verdict of guilty, but there is one juror who believes the case isn’t as straightforward as it first appears to be.

Olivier Award Winner, Tony Award Winner, Variety Award Winner and Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Tom Conti plays Juror 8, an architect, who believes it could be possible that the boy did not kill his father. The verdict of the case becomes a huge dilemma as tensions, prejudices and discriminations, from each of the jurors, towards the accused are laid bare and thrashed out.

Under the direction of Christopher Haydon, the whole play works perfectly in the one setting of the jury room, there are no scene changes and the walls of the jurors room become claustrophobic as the tension builds throughout. The thunderstorms and stifling summer weather transfer well into the jury room. Michael Pavelka‘s set design sees the rain pouring down the windows to the sound of thunder- it’s all very reflective of the pressures and anger of the twelve jurors confined to the room.

None of the jurors are known by their names instead they are referred to as a number, although, there is some reference made to their occupations. It is hard to pick out any stand-out performance in this show as it is extremely well cast with many strong performances, Tom Conti‘s performance as juror 8 is outstanding.

The production did start half an hour later than planned on its opening night, because of technical problems, however this did not detract from the show in the slightest. Twelve Angry Men is an edge of your seat courtroom drama that was well worth the wait, managing to keep the audience captivated from start to finish.

-Kristy Stott

Twelve Angry Men is at The Lowry until Saturday 28 March 2016.

REVIEW – Falling in Love with Frida (The Lowry)

March 21, 2015kristobel

Date: 20 march 2015

Upstaged Rating:

Walking in to the studio at The Lowry to lively Mexican music, letters on our chairs (which we weren’t allowed to open yet) and brightly lit neon cacti seemed to relax everyone straight away. And this was before the shots of Tequila were dished out.

Falling in Love with Frida first previewed at Sick! Festival in Brighton last year. This year the Festival comes to Manchester, aiming to shine a light on urgent issues that are taboo and misunderstood and looking to confront the challenges of life and death.

With a cast of 4 women, Falling in Love with Frida, is a warm, intimate and interactive performance exploring the life, love and legacy of the artist Frida Kahlo. The 50 minute performance is made up of movement, music and spoken word and is led by Australian born Caroline Bowditch, a disabled performance artist and choreographer, who now lives in Glasgow.

Frida Kahlo was severely injured in a road traffic accident as a teenager, recovering from these injuries caused her to become isolated – a feeling which influenced her most famous works, namely self portraits. Caroline Bowditch explores her own experiences, having brittle bone disease and being a performance maker and wonders what mark she will leave on the world. It is apt that the play opens with Bowditch lying on the top of a yellow dining table staring at a reflection of herself in a mirror – the performance is a self portrait of Bowditch.

With seating on 3 sides of the stage, the performance allowed for the audience to really get involved – dancers Welly O’Brien and Nicole Guarino would lock eyes and flash a smile to individuals in the crowd. Bowditch even shared a piece of water melon with one lady as well as passing a small note to another. British Sign Language interpreter, Yvonne Strain was also fully immersed in the movement on stage- skilled choreography made Strain intrinsic to the performance, something that I have never seen before.

As Caroline Bowditch expresses her passion for Frida Kahlo she draws parallels between herself and the painter, using this to reflect on her own life and experiences. Throughout the show I ended up finding out more about Bowditch than I did Kahlo – she gave me a snapshot of her life, her loves, her dreams and explored ideas around legacy and how we might be remembered.

This is the first time Sick! Festival has been launched in Manchester and it has certainly aroused discussion and succeeded in encouraging people to talk and debate subjects which may not have been approached so honestly before.

-Kristy Stott

REVIEW – Nirbhaya (Contact Theatre, Manchester)

March 15, 2015kristobel

Date: 14 March 2015

On the night of December 16th 2012, a young woman, Jyoti Singh, and her male friend boarded a bus in Delhi. This 23 year old woman was gang raped by six men, beaten and left for dead – her male friend was unable to defend her as he had been beaten unconscious. This attack shocked the whole world. What happened on this night not only changed the lives of the two young people involved but it became a catalyst for action and protests all over the world. People, men and women began to stand up and stand together; they began to break the silence and talk about their experiences.

Jyoti Singh was given the name ‘Nirbhaya’ by the Indian press before her real identity was released. Nirbhaya means ‘Fearless One’ in Hindi.

It feels wrong to be a theatre critic and watch this show with a view to reviewing it and to give it a star rating. So I put my notebook away. This type of production works beyond and outside of the normal constraints of theatre – asking us to question the role of theatre in spreading an important message and how art can bring about change and give people, who have been previously silenced, a voice.

The cast dressed in black make their way from out of the audience to a barely lit stage, one arm raised, to each tell their stories. Shrouded in white, Singh hands each of the women a prop with which to tell their story – her brutal experience and its coverage around the world has helped other women to come forward and break their silence. They are stories that are unimaginable and stories that really should not be true.

“I want to pull my tongue out from my mouth, like a tree, I want to destroy its roots.”

By taking Singh’s story as a starting point, writer and director Yael Farber, explores the problem of sexual violence against women. Farber makes it perfectly clear that this is not just a problem in India but all over the world, as Pamela Sinha, tells the story of the horrific attack that happened to her while she was living in Canada.

Sneha Jawale recounts the shocking abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband – a dowry bride, she endured horrific experiences of domestic abuse which included being doused in kerosene and set alight. Her tears, real tears, falling down her scarred face – the emotion is raw, it is there for us to see and to hear – she is prepared to speak out and break her silence. Still choked with her tears she makes her way back to the ensemble.

“My body is not mine. My spirit is still intact.”

This catalogue of stories need to be told. They demand words. This is a brave, real and haunting piece of work which stops you in your tracks, leaving you speechless.

-Kristy Stott

Nirbhaya is showing at the Contact on 15 March 2015 at 8pm as part of Sick! Festival

REVIEW – Forever Young (Oldham Coliseum)

March 7, 2015kristobel

Date: 6 march 2015

Upstaged Rating:

Forever Young is a musical and a black comedy set in a nursing home where the residents are all retired actors. The play is based around each of the characters and their own quirks and traits – it’s rather like a collection of musical numbers punctuated by short comedy sketches.

Ironically, the play opens very quietly, the only noise being a clinical looking Sister George (Georgina White) who whistles the Kill Bill tune while slapping rubber gloves against her thighs and spraying air freshener around the residents lounge. Slowly each of the ageing thespians are revealed to us as they make their comical entries onto the stage. First up is Mr Bednarczyk, who is the musical director as well as a resident at the home – he reluctantly takes his seat at the grand piano to provide the soundtrack for the other characters to make their ceremonial entries on to the stage.

The cast are all superb, under the careful direction of Giles Croft and the clever choreography of Adele Parry, they all stagger to life and deliver some cracking numbers once Sister George exits the stage and closes the door. Mr Frater’s gait and word finding difficulties are highly convincing and Ms Little’s confused stare and disinhibited outbursts are all believable traits of somebody with dementia. When a conflict breaks out between Mr Frater and Mr Elkington, beside from being the slowest fight in history, it is the greatest source of humour for the audience – they roared with laughter on the night that I attended.

Musical comedy highlights are a plenty – the two romantics Ms Darcy and Mr Superville sing a sweet version of I Got You Babe as well as trying to recreate Torvill and Dean’s 1984 Olympic winning Bolero. Tiara and lace clad Ms Little also sends up a version of Aqua’s Barbie Girl with a prosthetic limb and uses her fox stole as an air guitar for an entertaining version of I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll.

The play also harbours some tender moments between the characters – when Ms Little passes a tissue to Mr Frater we can only imagine that he is thinking about lost youth and love. Ms Darcy’s version of the Nirvana classic, Smells Like Teen Spirit, also reminds us of the loneliness associated with getting older.

The production is loaded with plenty of highly amusing comic sequences and characters that you could watch all day – however, there isn’t much of a plot to push it along and so it does feel like it drags at times. Nevertheless this didn’t appear to hinder the audiences enjoyment judging by their applause and squeals of laughter.

Forever Young celebrates the lives and loves of older adults and blows the assumption that people in nursing homes are just waiting for their final curtain call. As well as being a musical comedy on the surface – this play actually makes a valid commentary on the way that we treat and view older people. This talented cast of seven certainly prove that old age can be a laughing matter.

-Kristy Stott

Forever Young runs at Oldham Coliseum until Saturday March 21st 2015

REVIEW – Coppélia – Birmingham Royal Ballet (The Lowry)

March 4, 2015kristobel

Date: 04 March 2015

Upstaged Rating:

The Birmingham Royal Ballet are back at The Lowry with an enchanting production of Coppélia. As David Bintley CBE celebrates his twentieth year as director of the company, there really is no ballet more apt for this occasion than the story of Coppélia, packed full of mischievous humour, triumph and joy.

As the Royal Ballet Sinfonia begin to play and the gauze raises to reveal Peter Farmer‘s impressive leafy set, we are transported to a village somewhere in Eastern Europe where Dr Coppélius, an eccentric toy maker wheels out his latest mechanical creation on to his workshop balcony. His only wish is to bring this wind-up doll, Coppélia, to life. Michael O’Hare tells the story of the funny doctor well and looks the part with his puzzled facial expressions and his frazzled white hair.

When Coppélia is left out on the doctors workshop balcony she arrouses attention from flirtatious Franz and the green eye of jealousy from his wife-to-be Swanilda, with neither of the pair realising that she is only a doll.

When the two lovers, separately and unknowingly decide to enter Dr Coppélius’ strange workshop comic chaos is unleashed. Swanilda and her friends pull off the dusty red drapes in the doctors spooky workshop to reveal more of his mechanical dolls. Peter Wright‘s choreography succeeds in bringing all of the humour in the story to the fore, not an opportunity is missed and the world class dancers deliver with energy and sparkle.

Elisha Willis as Swanilda is as an amazing storyteller as she is a dancer – with impeccable timing she conveys humour while delivering complex ballet sequences with ease. Chi Cao as Franz shows a lightness of movement in his solo pieces – turning effortlessly as he appears to float in mid air. Again, a good actor, performing with a good hint of arrogance as the flighty Franz. Following the two striking female soloists in Act III, Celine Gittens and Delia Mathews, the pas de deux between the two main dancers appears to lack a little confidence though.

Peter Farmer‘s intricate, striking set design frames the dancing perfectly, the leafy forrest and Dr Coppélius’ workshop through to the grand drapes and garlands during the Festival of the Bell.

This joyous and witty ballet is a light hearted and humorous celebration of love, suitable for seasoned dance lovers or those who are making their first trip to the ballet. I took Thing 1 (aged 9) and he found it easy to follow and found the story very amusing. With Delibes wonderful musical score, stunningly pretty costumes and Peter Wright’s impressive choreography, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Coppélia really is a magical feast for the senses.

-Kristy Stott

Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Coppélia continues at the Lowry until Saturday March 7th.

With First Steps: A Child’s Coppélia on Friday March 6 at 1pm.