Alice Bartlett

REVIEW – STUFF (The Lowry)

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MG_4134
Date: 4 july 2015
Upstaged Rating: 

Toby and Jess are a successful young couple, deeply in love with each other and with the world at their feet, they appear to have everything. Well almost everything. The couple really want to start a family of their own, however early on in the play it is established Toby is unable to father a child. One night their zany, charismatic and terminally ill friend Xav arranges to visit and offers the couple first refusal on his ‘stuff’, which he has had frozen earlier in the day. This sounds like it could be quite a distressing storyline, doesn’t it? Fortunately for us, witty writer Mick Cooper approaches this potentially difficult scenario with insight, a good dollop of humour and likeable, well rounded characters.

Cooper’s script is fully realised by director Alice Bartlett and the wonderful cast of three. Peter Ash gives a fantastic performance as Toby; having just recently returned from army service, he looks bewildered at times, deeply in love with Jess and happy to comply with her fertility spreadsheets and ovulation charts. Eve Burley, as Jess, puts in a subtle and highly believable performance – playing the supportive partner to Toby and life-long friend to Xav.

Xav, exceptionally well acted by Karl Greenwood sweeps into Jess and Toby’s living room and scoops them both along with his humour and craziness. Despite being diagnosed with a brain tumour and the possibility of only having months to live, he is a perceptive character – giving and positive and also the main source of humour in the play.

It is no wonder that Stuff won the hearts of its audiences when it was first performed in 2014 at Manchester 24:7 Theatre Festival. Winning the Audience Favourite accolade, the beautifully balanced script is littered with familiar cultural references and a fair helping of  hilarious synonyms for the ‘stuff’ that Xav wants to give to the couple. The Northern crowd chortle when Xav describes the process of IVF using tubs of humous, taramasalata and a bread stick. Perhaps most importantly, the humour is balanced by a deeper insight into the position of the three characters. Cooper has fine tuned the subtle details of the script – our attention is drawn to Toby when he reveals his feelings around all of the infertility leaflets being pink and when we witness Xav and Toby thrashing out their differences, it is evident that this is a play driven by friendship.

-Kristy Stott

STUFF is being performed at The Etcetera Theatre in Camden as part of the Camden Fringe Festival  from 20th to 23rd August 2015.

You can visit My Beating Heart Theatre Company website for more information.

REVIEW – JB Shorts 13 (Joshua Brooks)

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John Catterall and David Crellin in Coalition Nightmare
John Catterall and David Crellin in Coalition Nightmare
Date: 16 april 2015
Upstaged Rating: 

After 12 sell-out seasons, JB Shorts is back with its thirteenth edition. For those who aren’t familiar with JB Shorts – it is an evening of 6 brand new plays, each of 15 minutes duration, written by respected television writers. JB Shorts was first produced in 2009 and has built up a brilliant reputation and received widespread critical acclaim – this live entertainment bonanza continues to brighten up the dark cellar of Joshua Brooks pub in Manchester city centre with two editions each year.

First up is Talk Talk, a two hander written by Catherine Hayes and directed by Liz Stevenson. What first appears as an abstract conversation between Mathilda (Sheila Jones) and Ellie (Jennifer Hulman) about currency and post codes actually transpires to be a very peculiar job interview.

Karaoke Cara, written by Trevor Suthers and directed by Barry Evans, is up next. When snotty Michael (Bill Bradshaw) tries to snoop on his widowed and aristocratic father’s new love interest he gets more than he bargains for. Encouraged by his super-posh friend Jeremy (Aaron Cobham), the story takes a humorous twist when his fathers new girlfriend Cara (Denise Hope), shop worker and karaoke singer, manages to get the upper hand on the pompous pair. Bradshaw and Cobham’s exaggerated upper class accents, which did slip at times, masked some of the promising humour in the script.

Number three is Chris Thompson’s Safe in Our Hands. Directed by Alyx Tole, it is a left wing Dickensian expression about the state of the NHS. When Bunyan (Ralph Casson) complains about pains in his chest, three ghosts visit him – the first his dead mother Bev (Joyce Branagh) who gives him a dressing down with a fine performance; secondly, upper-class Bullingham (Jack Dearsley) appears as a representative of capitalism trying to flog elements of the NHS to Bunyan; finally, he’s joined by the ghost of Branston (Ethan Holmes) who tries to convince him to purchase private health care while dressed as a Virgin air hostess. It’s all very entertaining and relevant to the general election next month.

Illusion written by Diane Whitley and directed by Alice Bartlett, was the highlight of the night for me. Through the interval the cast roam the crowd performing card tricks which paved the way for the Victoria magic show which followed. A renowned magician, Mafeking (James Lewis) has disappeared during one of his shows and his comrade Archie (Haydn Holden) organises a spooky séance to try to find out what has happened to him. All of the cast put in strong performances namely, Vanessa Hehir, Emma Laidlaw, Alex Phelps and Joe Slack and the staging for the magic tricks is well executed and managed.

Number five was A Muslim, a Jew and a Christian Walk into a Room written by Nick Ahad and directed by Max Shuell which depicts an Orwellian state where religious expression has been outlawed. The three characters David (Garry Hayden), Qadir (Kamal Kaan) and James (Murray Taylor) meet in secret to pray. However, a clever turn in the plot reveals that one of the characters is not how he appears.

Coalition Nightmare was the final short of the night, written by Dave Simpson and directed by James Quinn, it depicts the nightmarish prospect of UKIP managing to swing the balance of power in a hung parliament. There are good performances all round, Jack (David Crellin), Ted (John Catterall) and Charlotte (Jenny May Morgan) stealing the show with a well observed and well timed representation of a newsreader.

JB Shorts never disappoints, however, this time it seemed to be overloaded with political material due to the general election next month. And with the election propaganda being forced down our throats at the moment, I would have welcomed more escapism, like Diane Whitley‘s Illusion, with open arms.

-Kristy Stott

JB Shorts 13 is on at Joshua Brooks until Saturday 25th April. Tickets cost £7.00.