Review: A BRAVE FACE

Who? Vamos Theatre

Where? Taliesin Theatre, Swansea

When? Friday 15th March, 7.30pm

Words are funny things – they aid us in communication while, paradoxically, having the potential to muddy up intended meaning. How many times have you sent an email to have the recipient interpret it in the wrong way?

There are some things that transcend words. Complex emotions that cannot be defined within such a formulaic structure. Mental health is one of those things. The words we say only account for 7% of meaning transmitted to our recipient(s), the rest is taken from tone and body language. Where words fail, we can look to these elements for the clues.

Edfest: Week Two

Yesterday, I finally had a day off from front of house duties; The first since we started on July 30th. Circus Hub had a “dark day” as it is known in the industry – a day where no shows run and maintenance and such-the-like happens. I had high hopes, a pocket full of dreams and a list of shows to see.  It was going to be a great day.

If only I’d had a pocket full of tickets instead.

It was not a great day.

I’d go as far as to say it was the worst day I’ve had in a while. Anxiety decided to pay me a visit.

I was going to spend a large proportion of this post explaining all the ‘bad’ things that happened to send me on this downward spiral, but I realised that that’s just feeding the beast. And there are so much worse things happening in the world than being denied entry to a bunch of sold out shows, wandering around aimlessly and losing tickets.

That said, I’ve noticed a lot of the shows running in Edinburgh are inspired by mental health problems. Has this always been such a prominent impetus for creation? It makes sense – turning dark thoughts into something tangible, something that may help unravel the mysteries within.

The day before, I’d seen two shows at Summerhall revolving around fragile mental stability – ‘Sacre Bleu’ and ‘I’m Doing This For You’. The first was a bit too much like a lesson in panic attacks and anxiety – a lesson most people attracted to this show wouldn’t need. I went to two years of CBT, I know it already. A cardinal rule of writing is to show not tell, all the more pertinent in theatre, a medium meant to be watched . The latter show was a perfect example of this.  The words ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’ are never used, although reference to prescriptions are made. Instead we watch a bubbly, fun-loving character slowly disintegrate into a fragile, needy mess. It’s uncomfortable theatre, but so much more effective for it.

These shows pull me in for #hashtagrelatable reasons, but should they also come with a trigger warning? Is that the reason I felt wooly-headed and head-messy the next day?

Enough introspection. Extrospection time (is that even a word?)

I thought I’d tell you a bit about what it’s like to work Front of House at Underbelly’s Circus Hub, since that is what I’m spending most of my time doing.

There are two tents at Circus Hub – The Lafayette and The Beauty. Weird names for tents, right? Underbelly explain why here, if you care. It’s a sweetly tragic story.

My favourite of the two tents, is the Lafayette. It’s a spiegeltent, which people continuously mistake for a hall of magic mirrors…. I can’t imagine why.

I like this one the best only partially because it shares the name with one of the characters from my current favourite musical, Hamilton. Mostly because it’s so much warmer than the other tent and there’s more to do.

The seating and staging changes for pretty much every show at this venue, where as in The Beauty, the seating is fixed.

It’s all very hands-on in The Lafayette. We have a mad hour  where we all rush around rearranging seating/ moving parts of the steel deck about, followed by an equally mad 10 minutes or so of getting people seated in a way where everyone can fit in. That means moving all the way to the ends of the rows, people. Or having the rest of the row clambering over you… usually with plastic cups of sticky drinks. Whichever you prefer.

Then there’s a much calmer hour where we stand, either inside or outside the venue and make sure everyone is behaving – i.e. not taking photos, filming, trying to sneak in the venue or using the convenient cover of darkness for other varied activities.

So far, I haven’t encountered the latter two. Thankfully. For the most part, the audience are well-behaved and we get to just stand and watch the performances.

I’ve now seen every show at Circus Hub – most of them several times. I’m okay with that – circus is the kind of thing that doesn’t get too tedious to see over and over. After watching it so much, you get to a point where you think ‘I could do that’ and then you try, and really, really can’t. The fact these guys perform feats of core strength and balance every day, and so perfectly, is amazing.

Circus Hub finishes before the end of the the festival on Monday 22nd August; Not long to go now, so if you are planning on seeing anything there – get moving.

I am here till the end of the month, however, so hope to start seeing and reviewing a LOT more from next week.

 

 

 

Review: The Spoils

 

Where? Trafalgar Studios

When? Saturday 16^th July 7.30pm

Written by? Jesse Eisenberg

Directed by? Scott Elliott

Who’s in it? Jesse Eisenberg, Kunal Nayyar, Alfie Allen, Katie Brayben, Annapurna Sriram

 

We could be in a television studio watching the filming of a sitcom – the interior New York apartment setting gives off that vibe straight away, almost preparing us for something in the vein of Friends or Big Bang Theory. It’s a weird mash-up of stage and screen, especially with the cast being plucked from TV land themselves. It’s lulled us in to a false sense of security really – what follows IS a laugh-out-loud situational comedy, but with a much darker theme reserved for more serious drama.

Review: Doctor Faustus

Where?  Duke of York’s Theatre

When? Weds 20th April, 7.30pm

What better way to celebrate 400 years of Shakespeare than by seeing a show by his contemporary and rival playwright, Christopher Marlowe?

I studied this play for GCSE English what feels like 400 years ago now. I distinctly remember being more taken with it than Shakespeare at the time. Shakespeare was a slow burn for me.

But Faustus struck a chord right away – despite my teachers questionable interpretations (in my view). This is certainly not the classic interpretation that she would expect. I remember her trundling in the old TV and VCR and putting on a pretty straight, safe and ultimately uninspiring production.

Straight and safe are not words that can be used in Jamie Lloyd‘s production.  He’s taken the surreal and amped it up to 11, as well as bringing the morality tale into a context relevant to a modern audience. In this production, Faustus makes his pact with the devil for fame in line with a celebrity obsessed culture, rather than the academic acclaim Faustus’s (Faustai?)of the past may have sought. Something to think about in itself – is this what we’ve actually become? I can’t help but feel a sense of irony here, in the fact that Kit Harington of Game of Thrones fame is pulling in the same celebrity obsessed clientele… For the greater good of course,  but isn’t that what Faustus believed?

The set focuses on an adaptable room. Starting off as an apartment, with a bedroom down stage and kitchen up, later transforming into backstage area and hotel rooms. This allows fluidity and unobtrusive scene changing, often combined as part of the movement.

And Mr Harington? How does he fare outside of the role of the ever serious Jon Snow? Very well, in fact. His descent into the hedonistic world of renown and fame is a fast one but Harington shows the different stages distinctly, bouncing between indulgence and despair in the moment it takes to change a lighting state.

His performance is equalled by Jenna Russell‘s Mephistopheles. She slinks around the stage seductively, temptingly offering him a world he is almost powerless to resist and she makes it easy to see how he could fall.

The cast as an entity are superb – they move as separate parts of one singular body of temptation. It cannot be easy to dive into that dark, disorientating world every night; I left with a lingering feeling of disturbance after merely watching it. To me though,  this is the sign of a good show – something that stays in my mind long after the curtain falls.

Jamie Lloyd said once in an interview with whatsonstage.com that it’s not enough for a show to be merely entertaining, that with a powerful tool such as theatre it should be used to change perspectives and make people think.

Though I don’t necessarily completely agree – one should be able to merely enjoy a vacuous, fluffy few hours of feelgood if that’s what they want – Lloyd has managed to create something both entertaining and deeply thought provoking, though at times – dare I say? – a little like something I’d expect to see at a drama school showcase – for instance, I didn’t understand the significance of the nudity (I speculated on symbolism of purity but the characters don’t seem particularly pure even at that point). It seemed like a superfluous theatrical device, for shock and spectacle, more than making a statement.

The script has been adapted by Colin Teevan but still includes chunks of the original work. It’s meshed together so you barely notice the transition between the old language and new, it feels very natural and effective, tying two very different times together.

This is the inspiring, relevant production I’d have liked to have seen all those years ago. My brain felt heavy with the weight of the dark themes as I left, yet I felt a pull to return and watch it all over again. Temptation maybe?

Show & Tell: 11 – 17th April

“Soapbox” Shame

Shame on ‘The Stage’ for publishing the damaging views from one disillusioned supply teacher earlier this week – GCSE drama supply teacher spouts elitist bile. The heading to their ‘soapbox’ feature states

Soapbox is The Stage’s platform for readers and theatremakers to air views anonymously for the greater good of the theatre industry.

For the greater good?? Who, on hearing the pitch for this nonsense, thought “yes, this is for the greater good of theatre… it’s not like there’s already an accessibility issue”

It also reminded me of a (better) article from the Guardian posted a few years ago now, looking at the issue of how acting is a rich man’s game.

Being Posh Helps Actors | The Guardian

 

Unsuccessful Success?

Wrestling with Success | Intermission Magazine

I found this article through someone else’s retweet (I forget who now, sorry). I’m glad I took the time to read it, because it’s something I have been thinking about a lot lately.

I love theatre and arts and I want – need – to be a part of it… but there’s no money in it. You do it for love but for all the outward success – acclaim, awards, magazine features – there is rarely a tangible reward. No, life isn’t about owning material things and, yes, experience is more valuable that money – except you need to have somewhere to live, you need to be able to get around you need to fulfil basic human needs… and these things all require money.

 

The Return of Kimmy Schmidt

On a much lighter note…

Hooray, Season 2 of Tina Fey’s ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ is back on Netflix.

Musical theatre references abound through Tituss Burgess’s irrepressible, selfish but completely endearing character Titus Andromedon – an aspiring Broadway star who’s talent is matched only by his, er, laid-back work ethic. One of my favourite lines from season one is where he wails “But I already did something today” #relatable  (I use this hashtag in an ironic Tina Fey sort of way, you understand)

Here’s the Season 2 trailer, and if you haven’t seen season 1 yet… GO. GO NOW AND LEAVE ME.