Fag Ends and Families

Artist: Simon Edgerton

Venue: Sir John Mills Theatre, Ipswich

Simon Egerton

It would be easy to dismiss Simon Edgerton's latest stage show Fag Ends and Families as derivative. Indeed, a lot of the patter-song material could well appear on the lips and hands of Victoria Wood or Richard Stilgoe, and before them, Flanders & Swann or Noel Coward. However, upon deeper examination, Egerton's work has a USP all of its own.

This is a story, told in song and anecdote, of a time before political correctness when the air inside and out was thick with cigarette smoke,  when women were openly floozies, and men with homosexual leanings kept their desires to themselves or at least in the shadows.

Egerton is at pains to explain that Fag Ends and Families isn't autobiographical, but rather a collection of memories. It tells of a boy with a loose-moraled mother and a closeted gay father, brutally aware that he's always going to be second best to a dead elder brother and with no clear aim in life.

Yes, the opening numbers do seem strangely familiar and you fully expect to see Victoria Wood bouncing about on her piano stool; however, things quickly take a darker turn and the clever story songs become heartfelt ballads of a chaotic childhood.

The songs, Egerton explains in the subsequent talkback session, come from his collection Now We Are Older, the stories carefully crafted to fit by both the performer and his director, Lawrence Evans.

Whether the genteel ambience of Fag Ends and Families will survive the rigours of the Edinburgh Fringe remains to be seen but its opening in Ipswich has been a commendable one.

PAUL COUCH

Set Fire To Everything!

Venue: Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Suffolk

Company: RashDash Theatre

This review first appeared on The Public Reviews website 

RashDash's Helen Goalan and Abbi Greenland

There’s something very evocative about a solitary yellow balloon floating silently up into a steel-grey sky. When realisation dawns that the balloon is meant to represent someone’s hopes and dreams, the analogy becomes even more poignant.

RashDash’s Helen Goalan and Abbi Greenland brought a frenetic piece to this year’s Latitude Festival; Set Fire to Everything is an exploration of how chores both large and small dominate the central character’s (Goalen) life. Her opponent is brought to life by Greenland, resplendent in a Post-It Note dress and backed by three mad musicians (the duo’s longer musical collaborators, Not Now Bernard).

As the pressure mounts, her adversary takes the opportunity to clamber up onto the roof of the portable set and release yet another balloon, each ambition slipping out of the reach of Goalen’s character.

Set Fire to Everything has no narrative as such but it does have a story. As the pressure grows on the protagonist, a full-on fist fight ensues between her and her angst personified. The battle continues across the performance space, each getting the upper hand as the other weakens while the band add a raucous soundtrack to the proceedings.

Goalen and Greenland bring an anarchic humour to the quirky piece, which, while only 20 minutes long, will certainly resonate with anyone whose life’s commitments threaten to overcome them.

A fun and extraordinarily relevant theatrical experience.

PAUL COUCH

Eisteddfod

Company: High Tide

Venue: Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Suffolk 

This review first appeared on the Whatsonstage.com website

Sarah Hoare and Sean Hart

Widower Ben Pilgrim is dying and it’s not going to be an easy process. He and his family – sons Matthew and Jon, daughter Sarah, and Matthew’s partner Vera, all fresh from the council estates of Ipswich – are en-route to Suffolk’s Bluedale Eisteddfod to tell their folk-tales. 

However, this family is more dysfunctional than most and soon the skeletons are rattling their ways out of its many cupboards. Sarah and Vera harbour the biggest skeleton of all and it’s very angry and threatening to tear the family apart. 

In all honesty, it’s hard to find any affection for the Pilgrims – Matthew and Vera (Alex Warren and Laura Prior) are prime contenders for The Jeremy Kyle Show, weak-willed Jon (Sean Hart) ups tail and runs for the hills at the first sign of anything in the least bit threatening, while father Ben (Keith Swainston) is a gruff obsessive and it’s surprising that the dear departed Julie stuck with him as long as she did. It’s only Sarah Hoare’s Sarah, desperate to escape her mediocre life and see the world, who solicits any real pathos. 

Eisteddfod is beautifully-crafted theatre that, even performed in a forest in the rain with nothing but a campervan as a backdrop, impresses with the power of its narrative and certainly its performances. However, it’s not without flaws. Some of Luke Barnes’ dialogue, especially Ben’s, is a little wordy and occasionally incongruous with the characters – who clearly do not originate from Suffolk. 

While there’s not enough time to establish their back-story, the question arises why these pieces of Suffolk rough are heading off to perform at a rural folk festival in the first place – they’re hardly the Von Trapps. 

Director Rob Drummer has excelled at bringing his small cast together to create a genuinely engaging piece. Whatever defects Eisteddfod has are minor ones and are far outweighed by its virtues. 

The show has been compiled by HighTide from snippets of real-life experiences garnered from events such as the company’s annual theatre Festival. With a few judicious trims here and there, it clearly has a life outside the festival circuit. 

PAUL COUCH

Kate Tempest: Brand New Ancients

Venue: Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Suffolk

Writer/Performer: Kate Tempest

This review first appeared on the Whatsonstage.com website

Kate Tempest

If Shakespeare were alive today, he’d probably be writing in the same style as Kate Tempest. She’s got an eye for social issues, a way with words, and she knows how to get an audience wound up. But this is Shakespeare of the streets – Tempest has no interest in the machinations of a Royal Court or dual identities. 

Now, as a bit of a performance poet himself, this reviewer has seen a lot of angry young urbans in pubs and cafés proclaiming on all sorts of issues, but surely none has ever raised the bar as high as Tempest, who rhymed her way through a 90-minute epic about how two London families interact across the years.

This isn’t poetry – it's rap, performance art, hip-hop patter-song all rolled into one. Indeed, Tempest – backed by her four-piece band Sound of Rum – sings en-route occasionally, but the tune is almost subliminal and barely registers on the senses.

Those expecting a calm delivery of Brand New Ancients, though, will be disappointed. Tempest’s style is passionate and chaotic. Scans and bridges are stretched impossibly and just as she gets into a rhythm, Tempest shocks by changing it mid-line.

She apologises for the profanity and then does it all over again because the piece needs it. She feels every word she utters and slings each syllable at the audience with consummate ease. Kate Tempest is a rare talent and a name on the horizon with far more potential than she perhaps recognises.

PAUL COUCH

Translunar Paradise

Venue: Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Suffolk

Company: Theatre Ad Infinitum

Director: George Mann

This review first appeared on the Whatsonstage.com website

Deborah Pugh, George Mann & Kim Heron

Translunar Paradise doesn't have words - it doesn't need them. Theatre Ad Infinitum's artistic director George Mann sums it up: “Its strength is in the absence of words. Places, actions, images, moments of memories, really evoke a dialogue but with the body and movements”. 

Indeed, Translunar Paradise (the title is borrowed from a W B Yeats poem) is a beautifully crafted exploration of grief that tugs at the heartstrings and yet succeeds in being joyous and inspiring at the same time. 

Mann, who co-wrote and also directs and performs, sweeps across the stage with fellow performer Deborah Pugh with the fluidity of a fine ballet as we watch William and his wife meet, court, marry, fight, grow old and die. It's a life-cycle that only the hardest of hearts would fail to be moved by.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspect of Translunar Paradise is that the older characterisations are immediate at the moment that the masks are donned and physicality adjusted. 

Joining the duo is Kim Heron, who manages to create an entire evocative soundtrack to the piece with accordion and wordless vocal. As William's wife passes away, her last rattling breath is produced by Heron and her instrument; a ticking clock produced with a fingernail and varnished case. Of course, creating such fine detail isn't an easy task in a tent in the middle of a field. 

Mann is pragmatic: “Normally in a theatre space you're able to encapsulate the piece allowing the audience to focus on it”, he said before the show and continued: “We've mic-ed up the accordion and so the music will be very clear; as it's a silent piece, there's no need to hear the dialogue”. 

And he's correct. Features covered by latex masks as the elderly couple and bare-faced as their younger selves, Mann and Pugh are nothing short of exquisite in their warts-and-all, poignant portrayal of a life-long love affair. A masterclass in theatricality.

PAUL COUCH

Billy Chickens is a Psychopath Superstar

Company: Theatre 503

Director: Lisa Cagnacci

Venue: Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Suffolk

An adapted version of this review first appeared on the Whatsonstage website

 

Simon Rhodes as Billy Chickens

Billy Chickens isn’t one of life’s endearing characters. Misogynist, competitive eater, boxer, now he’s finally found his niche in life as a famous double-murderer. Recently released from prison, he‘s now the darling of both media and public. In saying that it’s impossible not to feel a touch of sympathy for Billy.

His has been a chaotic childhood, surrounded by a mother with loose morals and a violent, distant father, wetting himself in class regularly due to his stammer and taunted by any number of school bullies – not least of whom is the grating Tommy Weasles (Paul Stocker). 

Simon Rhodes is magnificent as Billy, all swagger and neo-fascist bigotry. Despite a few first night technical issues with a mic pack, Rhodes carried on regardless and brought Billy’s story to life with a gruff yet beautiful eloquence. 

Lisa Cagnacci’s slick direction excels and her 10-person cast is clearly in expert hands. Actors slip into multiple characters with ease and, without reflecting on their palpable personal skills, a great part of this has to be credited to Cagnacci’s mastery of her art.

 

Billy Chickens is a Psychopath Superstar obviously has a life beyond the Latitude festival at which it first appears. According to producer Flavia Fraser-Cannon, the company has no plans as yet to tour the show but theatre of this quality deserves to have a wider audience outside the festival circuit.

PAUL COUCH

Chicago

 Venue: Regent Theatre, Ipswich

This review first appeared on the Whatsonstage.com website

Stefan Booth as Billy Flynn. (Photo: Paul Coltas)

Despite being set in Prohibition-era America, John Kander's and Fred Ebb's book reflects beautifully our modern-day obsession with criminality. “Murder, greed, corruption, exploitation, adultery and treachery ...all those things we hold near and dear to our hearts ...”, proclaims MC Claire Rodgers as the curtain rises and we can all pinpoint immediately events in history more modern than the 1920s – O J Simpson, Jeffrey Archer and many others that have dug a scorpion-like sting into our consciousness. 

Something as iconic as Chicago will always be viewed in relation to its big-budget cinema and stage antecedents. Bob Fosse’s choreography is difficult enough in itself to shake off, and choreographer Ann Reinking doesn’t try –  each tip of the hat is exactly where her mentor had always intended it to be. We could accuse Reinking of a lack of imagination but, when you’re dealing with something so tangibly “not broken” in the public imagination, why fix it?

Tupele Dorgu makes a stunning and foxy Velma Kelly and, stepping into the spotlight to replace an indisposed Ali Bastian, Chloe Ames is a very credible Roxie Hart. Any real casting criticism goes to the choice of Bernie Nolan as prison matriarch Mama Morton. That Nolan has a beautiful voice is undeniable, but she clearly lacks the physical stature and grit of her predecessors in the part.

The revelation of the evening is Stefan Booth who gives a swaggering, cocky performance as lawyer Billy Flynn. More familiar for his television roles in Hollyoaks and The Bill, Booth excels in both stage presence and vocal ability, creating another monster of popular culture with consummate ease.

There’s not much love in evidence in Chicago – as the MC attests, it’s more about the hunt for fame and cynical exploitation than heart-felt tenderness. It’s very much Velma and Roxie’s story as they shrug off murder raps with the help of the reptilian Flynn. Roxie’s cuckold husband, Amos (Jamie Baughan) provides the only real pathos, but he’s so wet anyway that an internal cheer goes up each time this dimwit is thwarted.

Ken Billington’s stark lighting plot is pitched perfectly, creating enough light and shade to set off William Ivey Long’s sizzling array of scanty costumes. This is a gutsy show and needs space to soar. However, even a barn-like auditorium such as the Ipswich Regent fails to offer adequate stage space – despite Chicago’s simple setting, most of which seems to be taken up by the onstage 11-piece orchestra. Other than that, it’s a fairly flawless production of a well-loved musical that just seems to improve with each outing.

PAUL COUCH

Forever Young

Adapted by: Giles Croft

Venue: New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich

This review first appeared on the Whatsonstage.com website

Forever Young

One’s heart has to go out to the jobbing actor. These days, unless you’re some A-list top-ender, the chances are that work is few and far between and so you take what’s offered at Equity minimum and are grateful for the work. 

However, when somebody invites you to appear in something as artistically questionable as Forever Young, the hungry player might well be advised to take a moment of reflection about the value of immediate monetary gain over long-term reputation. 

If ever there has been an example of more self-indulgent nonsense appearing on a stage,I have yet to encounter it. Forever Young has no plot whatsoever and paper-thin dialogue that is used purely to segue a collection of tenuously-themed standard pop songs. 

The hopelessly contrived visual gags were ancient when Benny Hill was doing them in the 1970s. Is the sight of a group of faux-geriatrics croaking out Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit funny? Possibly, if you’re inebriated or ten years old. 

In the New Wolsey Theatre, it is the year 2050 and the theatre has become a retirement home for elderly actors. It’s an interesting concept – one that has potential for pathos and development of the characters. 

Unfortunately, adapters Giles Croft and Stephan Bednarczyk, and the original Swiss deviser Erik Gedeon, take the easier route of creating a hotchpotch of musical numbers, which the elderly residents of the home – performed by poorly aged-up young actors – belt out for no apparent reason. 

There are some poignant performances and these are highlighted in a second act clip-show of Shakespeare’s finest scenes but ultimately Forever Young is a four-minute sketch that’s eked out to a painful two-and-a-half-hours. On television, Catherine Tate’s foul-mouthed 'Nan' Taylor character works because she’s delivered in small doses. When the same idea is brought to the stage for that length of time, it becomes boring very quickly. 

In the interests of fairness, it has to be reported that the opening night audience at the New Wolsey Theatre seemed to be lapping it up and there was an element of The Emperor’s New Clothes when the troupe was given a standing ovation. As they say, there’s no accounting for taste.

PAUL COUCH