Quick Round-up: Theatre

In the last 4 weeks I've managed to fit in 5 trips to the theatre, two as a volunteer at the Playhouse and three as paying punter at The Grand. Back on 15/03/12 was Chess (The Grand), a musical by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (i.e. the BB in ABBA) and Tim Rice written during and set within the context of the Cold War. Happily I didn't need to know anything about the rules of the boardgame to enjoy the plot, which centred around clashes between the US and Soviet chess champions and some tricky political shenanigans, but it helped that I had an understanding of the historical context. The company, LAOS, handled the staging well with a central chess board/dance floor that changed colour and acted as a playing area for the characters to scheme around. The voices of the female cast were particularly impressive, and I discovered that 'I Know Him So Well' has its origins in the show. The show has made me want to visit the original concept album that preceded the West End musical. 

We returned to The Grand on 23/03/12 for Travelling Light, a new play written by Nicholas Wright, a name I'm not familiar with, although I was pleased to see he'd authored some of the excellent yet short lived The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. The main draw for this drama was the fact that it was about the early days of cinema, a subject I have become more and more intrigued about. It also starred the talented, attractive Damien Molony, who we were enjoying so much in Being Human at the time - it also turned out we'd seen his professional debut in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore last year, so we've now seen all of his work. (Sir) Antony Sher also starred as the jovial Jewish merchant who funds Molony's nascent efforts at making a movie in their Eastern European shtetl - he was much better here than in the awful production of The Tempest we saw back in April 2009. The whole production was gripping from beginning to end, from the subject matter, setting and characters to the unexpected plot developments and semi-history lessons about movie making outside Hollywood.

The day after Travelling Light I flew solo (left Andrew at home) in order to volunteer at Swallows & Amazons (24/03/12). Unfamiliar with the story, I wasn't expecting much, particularly as I believed this would be a show for the kids. I was happily suprised to find that this semi-musical drama was actually rather fun and very inventive in the staging. A family of 5 'jolly hockey-sticks' type middle class kids in inter-war Britain go on holiday to an island and have a fantasy adventure as the Swallows, a gang of explorers who are out to defeat the nafarious pirate captain and rival sisters, the Amazons. It's a good natured affair, utterly inoffensive with a smattering of toe-tapping songs that didn't linger too long in the memory. Leaving aside the one black child among the siblings, an inclusive gesture that came across somewhat token (and the fact the character's named 'Titty'), there was nothing to gripe about. The scenery movers and props people provided many (intentional) laughs with their ways, like flicking water at the cast to simulate moving through a storm, or holding up toy boats within circles of cardboard to represent telescope sights. A fun, free night out, musn't grumble.

Helen Edmundson, co-writer of Swallows & Amazons, was also responsible for Mary Shelley (28/03/12), showing in the Playhouse's other theatre. This was a more adult show that delivered a biographical drama about the woman who, at the age of just 18, write the massively influential Frankenstein, along with her poet husband Percy Shelley and her famous family. The female-weighted cast delivered bravua performances that brought each family member alive and worked to show how Mary's experiences informed her signature novel. It was a play that I appreciated greatly as I watched, but one that hasn't stuck around in my head long afterwards. 

Finally, on 04/04/12, we had a group outing to see Sister Act, a musical for which I had high expectations, based on how much I enjoyed the movie and it's soundtrack (none of which was ported over into the stage version), and because of the potential for camp exuberance. I can almost say that I found the musical to be even more fabulous than the film! Set in the late seventies, the music was a soul/disco mix that never hit a bum note, and the expansion of the plot from the original's murder-witness-hides-out-in-a-convent, with bigger roles for the bad guy Eddie and an added love interest in cop Curtis, were beneficial and created a show that can comfortably inhabit the same world as the movie without feeling redundant. I'd go so far as to say the sheer joy that Sister Act engendered in my whole being puts it up there with The Lion King and Hairspray as a favourite musical. The 'star' names, Denise Black (seen before in Bedroom Farce) and Michael Starke (the narrator in Rocky Horror) were competent but the real star was Cynthia Erivo in the lead role of Deloris - she fairly belted out infectious numbers like Take Me to Heaven, Fabulous Baby!, and the beautiful Sister Act. She was ably supported by a host of singing nuns on show-stoppers Raise Your Voice and Spread the Love Around. I can't wait to get the soundtrack!