Flanagan Collective's Romeo and Juliet, St Olave's Church, York - 12th May 2015

Photo Credit: James Ducker

(Accessed from http://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk)

Shakespeare would have been proud how love is celebrated in this production of Romeo and Juliet!

This contemporary production is part of York International Shakespeare Festival and currently playing at the city's St Olave's Church.  This all women cast tells the story of Shakespeare's tragedy which is infused with live music and singing.  Flanagan Collective take prides in using non traditional approaches and maximising intimate spaces.

One big party atmosphere greets the audience arrival with balloons, whistles and the donning of party hats.  The cast welcomes one and all to the party celebrating the youthful spirit of falling in love, being in love and being care free.

Alexander Wright makes the story people orientated as possible and focus on the universal quality of love with celebration with song and dance.  Reflection plays a part in joyful and painful circumstances through harmonic recitals, rituals and traditions.

There is this passion and energy by the six member cast throughout Romeo and Juliet from the beginning to the end.  With the adapted text from Tom Spencer the play links perfectly with the relevant themes, primarily love, which are relevant today as much then in Shakespearean times.  The objective of this production is the characters' present being rather than past events and fates.

This beautiful 15th Century Church stages the production effectively with great use of the alters and pulpit.  The characters interact with the audience in the pews.  The second act, as in line with the story, is reflective and poignant and this is when the use of candles come in. The dimmed lighting during the act reflects this,  Certainly a contrast of ambiance from a carnival party like atmosphere at the beginning to the poignant reflection of the lovers' tragic fate.

Hannah Davies' portrayal of the nurse stands out especially.  Her down to earth portrayal of the nurse is familiar with the audience with words shared plainly and wittingly.  It confirms that the producers' desire to project honest storytelling with its simple use of language; not compromising the Shakespearean feel but engaging the audience with comprehension. Rest of the cast plays the multiple characters; a job well done!

Certainly energetic and the passionate shared love is celebrated and reflected.  A must see during York International Shakespeare Festival!  It's playing at St Olave's Church until Saturday 23rd May.

Macbeth, Harrogate Theatre - 8th May 2015

Photo credit: Tara Arts

(http://tara-arts.com)

Jatinder Verma's production of Shakespeare's Macbeth, jointly presented by Tara Arts and Black Theatre Live, has been touring the country between February and May 2015. Seeing it at the last venue on the tour, Harrogate Theatre, Macbeth is presented with an Asian twist.

The setting is in the midst of an Asian British Family and the murder of Duncan is considered as patricide, family linked, not regicide.  Verma is keen to explore the strong themes Macbeth bring which can relate to a family setting as much as a monarch one. These include honour, superstition, faith, identity, desire, ambition and so on which are driven with expectations.

The key characters in the play remain intact.  One notable change in the production are the colourful Indian hijras, drag queens, who replace the witches.  They define themselves belonging to the spirit world which links to Ardh-Narishwar, the half-man half-woman god.

Robert Mountford plays a convincing Macbeth and meets the troubled character's requirements.  The same goes for Shaheen Khan as Lady Macbeth.  The acting ties in nicely with the Indian/Asian percussion played by Rax Timyr with precision and creates the compelling atmosphere and mood the play demands.  

There are some blurred moments identifying the exact location - it is felt sometimes the action happening in Scotland, in the castle or the battlefield instead of the family's suburbia! Nevertheless it is interesting to see a contemporary, open and ambitious interpretation of one of Shakespeare's popular tragedies.  Verma proves how versatile Macbeth is and how its strong themes and messages can be applied in any era and setting!

The staging is simple and effective allowing for maximum interpretation of this production with flexibility of the characters in which they play multiple roles.  This ensures smooth transitions between the scenes and the characters.

Certainly a unique production with an Asian twist and reliving the appreciation Macbeth deserves.

Hindle Wakes, Oldham Coliseum

 Image Credit; Oldham Colisuem

(Accessed from http://www.coliseum.org.uk)

Stanley Houghton's Hindle Wakes, originally produced by Annie Horniman, is jointly produced by Oldham Coliseum and Bolton's Octagon Theatre.  It premiered at the Octagon Theatre before coming to the Coliseum.

At the boom of the cotton industry in the early 20th Century, the story tell us about Fanny Hawthorn (played by Natasha Davidson), a mill worker, and Alan Jeffcote (played by Tristan Brooke), a mill owner's son, who spent an illicit weekend away together at the seaside.  For obvious reasons at the time they had to keep the affair a secret until a dramatic turn of events exposed their weekend away.

Houghton wrote the play in 1910, a time when women rights came to the forefront and at the height of the women's suffrage, and one can think of  the local activist Emmeline Pankhurst.  Like the women then Fanny fights for the right to be independent than conforming to the traditional lifestyle which was expected by doing the 'right thing' such as getting married and being an 'honest' woman.

Hindle Wakes is humourous particularly James Quinn's Nathaniel Jeffcote as well as controversial and celebrates and consolidates the early women's emancipation and their say in society at the time.  Great direction by David Thacker who kept the authenticity of the era with Lancashire's cotton industry and how important Wakes Weeks were to the mill workers. Crucial social issues alongside women ones were directly and indirectly raised in the play.

 Photo Credit: Ian Tilton

(Accessed from http://www.coliseum.org.uk)

An enjoyable play that keeps the audience entertained throughout the two hours which a talented cast and creative team successfully delivered.

Personal thoughts about Opera North's 2015/16 Season

Photo Credit: Opera North

(http://www.operanorth.co.uk)

I had the privilege attending Opera North's Season Launch in Leeds to learn more about the new opera season for 2015/16.  A proud supporter of Opera North I was curious what will be featured in their forthcoming repertoire.  Announcement was made earlier in day so I know by then what is coming our way to the stage.

Richard Mantle,Opera North's General Director,opened the launch, gave a company update and shared exactly an update of works with some musical highlights sung from the new programme by two Opera North guest artists.

Autumn 2015

The season will host Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate, directed by Jo Davies and co-produced with Welsh National Opera.  There are some traditional opera greats such as Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Janacek's Jenufa.

The New Year and Spring 2016

There's Giordano's Andrea Chenier, which is an opera based on the French Revolution and the story is told through the eyes of an artist.  Some will enjoy the traditional operas of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte and Donizetti's L'eliser d'amore. A new commissioned chamber opera, Pleasure, composed by Mark Simpson and written by Melanie Challenger, is a story about Val who works in a gay night club and a young man - which upon their meeting brings a dramatic turn of emotions and actions. One of the highlights of the season must be Into The Woods, a Sondheim musical produced jointly with West Yorkshire Playhouse. Two of my favourite directors, James Brining and David Charles Abel, will lead this exciting production. It's a definitely a must see!

Outreach

Opera North has a commendable outreach programme which Mantle shared with us.  The company is keen to attract a diverse range of audiences to the operas and involve schools and communities regionally. 

Wagner's The Ring

Not forgetting Wagner fans; there is The Ring which journey  will come full circle in Summer 2016 with a celebratory programme.

I look forward to seeing some Opera North performances during 2015/16 and hopefully illness won't get the better of me as I've had to miss two operas last season!

Dawn Smallwood

7th May 2015

The Measures Taken and The Grit In The Oyster, Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre, Leeds (On Behalf of The Public Reviews)

This review was originally written for The Public Reviews and the review can be accessed here.

Accessed from The Public Reviews(http://www.thepublicreviews.com)

Alexander Whitley brings his dance company to perform the double bill, The Grit in the Oyster and The Measures Taken to Leeds.  The programme opens with The Grit in the Oyster set to Thomas Adès’ Piano Quintet and Sadler Wells commissioned this for Adès’ See the Music. Hear the Dance.   The classical music feeds well into Whitley’s choreography with the three dancers interpreting the fast tempo and intense music.

The musical arrangement has a tango like passionate feel; the dancers, one male and two female, appear to be in a love triangle with an involvement of pushing and pulling, intertwined with vicarious movements and emotive body language expressions.  The dancers interpret physically and intricately to the music and the simple staging is used well.

The Measures Taken is reputed to be “visually striking and kinetically charged” and it certainly lives up to its reputation.  The piece is created jointly with Marshmallows Laser Feast and lasers are indeed used effectively – diagonally, horizontally and vertically symbolising how technology dominates people’s lives.

The visuals have a good relationship with the five dancers who navigate figuratively their personal relationships with technology and Rutger Zuydervelt’s music works in unison with Whitley’s choreography.  Some of the scenes show how far technology can go in humanity and the dancers’ physical movements, such as the robotic sequence towards the end, show these frustrations and restrictions; the clever use of digital projection and the dramatic soundscapes.  Certainly an enjoyable and unique production.

National Dance Company Wales - Spring Programme 2015

National Dance Company Wales came to Leeds' Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre to present their mixed programme.  Three pieces, couldn't be any more different, are presented by the company's dancers.

Photo credit: National Dance Company Wales

(http://www.ndcwales.co.uk)

First piece, Walking Mad, by Johan Inger, is danced to the versatile Ravel's Bolero and the reflective Pärt's Für Aline.  The nine dancers explore with physical interpretation a range of emotions and creative usage of space reflecting the different circumstances of predicaments in relationships.

Inger ensures an emotional romantic combination of seriousness and teasing humour in Ravel's masterpiece which pictures individual life journeys of yearnings and being in the present.  The pregnant pause in the latter stage of the music makes one wonder the sudden unforeseen circumstances one encounter in their lives. Pärt's music is interpreted beautifully and with reflection by two dancers.

After the interval Lee Johnston's They Seem To Find the Happiness They Seem is performed by two dancers.  The piece is interpreted to a variety of music cleverly arranged by Max Richter.  It explore inner relationships, which are unknowingly carried out, within individuals and between couples.

Tuplet, choreographed by Alexander Ekman, is performed by six dancers.  The dancers have an opportunity to perform impulsively and spontaneously to sounds and visuals using their physicality to create rhythmically a story or message.  They use their bodies as percussion instruments.  Erkman considers this unique as every dancer is an individual who react subjectively to sounds, visuals and invitation to impulses.  It may not be to everyone's taste but it's a refreshing opportunity and an ambition creativity to create this unique piece where it's guaranteed to be changed whenever it's performed.

An ambitious bill by the company and performed by talented dancers and creative choreographers.

A Testimony to the Bradford City Fire - 11th May 1985

FYSA Theatre is presenting The 56, on tour and was recently on at Bradford's Alhambra Studio, a fitting venue in city where this tragedy happened nearly 30 years ago.  This is a testimony to the 56, 54 Bradford City supporters and two Lincoln City supporters who lost their lives in the Bradford City Fire.

The 56 at Bradford's Alhambra Studio

On stage there is a replica of wooden seating, symbolising the main stand's wooden structure that caught ablaze during the match between Bradford City and Lincoln City. Three performers, representing the supporters, retell the story, based on real life sources from witnesses, on the fateful day of the fire. Their poignant accounts emphasises how the tragedy brought the city together through solidarity and community cohesion. Emotions are felt with the truthful accounts bringing shock and tears.  It is very fitting to have the 56 victims announced in alphabetical order at the end of the performance.

                             
The production is attended by a number of Bradford City fans, of all generations and it's incredible to witness the intergeneration spirit within the audience.  Afterwards money is collected for the University of Bradford Plastic Surgery and Burns Research Unit.

    

The cause of the fire is unclear although speculations has been shared by the media.  Being told real life accounts from witnesses certainly gives one a clearer deeper soulful picture of the tragedy which the media coverage wouldn't have given.  Only more information and emotions will be revealed, seen in other tragedies, as time goes by.

The 56 may not be with us today but they will be in many hearts and spirits now and forever - not just on the 30th anniversary of the tragedy.  A fitting well researched documentary theatre production tells the accounts honestly and with sincerity and that it pays homage to the 56 supporters.

A Memorial to the Victims