Large Theatres – Page 4 – Live Art Alive

JUNGLE BOOK

Based on The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

Direction, Set and Lighting Design Robert Wilson

Music and Lyrics CocoRosie

Co-produced by Factory International with Théâtre de la Ville

THE HALL, AVIVA STUDIOS

Acclaimed Director and Designer Robert Wilson is collaborating once more with Factory International having previously brought several productions to Manchester International Festival. This time the avant-garde Wilson has joined forces with American composers CocoRosie to give their unique “family friendly” take on the classic The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. The result is visually sharp and stylised with a suitably vibrant score. The story is somewhat fractured and evolves in a rather staccato manner which may challenge anyone expecting a more traditional retelling. Vivid and crisply architectural in form, the scenes unfold like the pages of a very minimalist pop-up storybook.

Aurore Déon as Hathi The Elephant and Dira Sugandi as Mowgli. Image credit: Lucie Jansch

Wilson’s trademark style of elaborate lighting and projections and shadowplay with a use of deliberately artificial looking landscapes is very striking. The vivid costumes and makeup reminiscent of Japanese Noh theatre add to an otherness in the characters and the landscape they inhabit. Each animal is highly stylised and the performers inhabit their animal personas rather than don obvious animal costumes so they straddle the world’s of man and beast just as the “man-cub” Mowgli did. Roberto Jean as Shere Khan exudes part Tiger part, Studio 54 snake hipped rock star. Aline Belibi as Bagheera is clad in sleek, vampish black velvet and smoulders and purrs like a glorious Eartha Kitt. The whole story is narrated by Hathi The Elephant who is clad in a white colonial style dress which alongside her grey ear headdress looks like an otherworldly Bjork.

The soundscape swathes the theatre in slightly off-kilter animal and jungle sounds that both enchant and disarm. The original music and lyrics by American performance artists CocoRosie are lively and vibrant with impish lyrics punctuated by dreamy ballads. The performers all sound great and a few including Dira Sugandi as Mowgli are particularly memorable. The overall feel has a decidedly French vibe and one scene change is used to employ the trademark coloured spotlights to shine on each of the musicians in the pit with great effect.

This production celebrates otherness and is intended as a plea for tolerance and understanding. The use of The Jungle Book as a base text is fitting as these varied creatures demonstrate “the law of the Jungle” as they struggle and strive to come together and try to move between the different worlds in an ever changing climate. There are issues in this production if you expect a smooth narrative flow but if you can sit back and enjoy the music and appreciate this as a montage of striking tableau scenes then there is much to appreciate. Absolute moments of striking beauty, a quirky sense of artful play that is present throughout and scenes that look like a Banksy mural brought to life are all present in this punchy piece which also includes some clowning and aerial work. It may not be the Disney rendition realised on stage but that was clearly never the intention.

AVIVA STUDIOS 27TH – 31ST MARCH

A Taste Of Honey

Large Theatres

Written by Shelagh Delaney

Directed by Emma Baggott

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE

This revival of the classic kitchen sink drama A Taste Of Honey by Director Emma Baggott is clearly a fan girl love letter to Shelagh Delaney and her beloved Salford. Impassioned and vibrant, the women that Delaney wrote at age 19, burst unto the stage unapologetically flawed and unflinchingly forthright. The men here are secondary whether callous or kind, they are merely there as supporting roles in the women’s stories. Over sixty years on and this story of impoverished, working class women still has the capacity to shock. Today there may be more choices and acceptance around homosexuality and race but the cost of living crisis is still leaving families on the breadline, reproductive rights are under threat and sky rocketing rents and greedy landlords have families living in accommodation every bit as grim as this Salford maisonette.

Designer Peter Butler has really accentuated the dreamy realism of A Taste Of Honey. There are all the authentic looking furnishings of a sparse, shabby rented flat with few touches of homeliness but suspended above the bleakness is a vast construction that can illuminate the space with fairground bulbs. Like a skeleton of a carousel it looms over the stage with echoes of the Salford gasworks and when illuminated by Lighting Designer Simisola Majekodumni there is the sudden warm glow of endless possibilities in this usually drab environment.

Jill Halfpenny epitomises all the restless dissatisfaction of Helen with her casual disregard of her teenage daughter Jo and her unflinching focus on her own survival. She is a she wolf with scant maternal instincts incapable of loving either wisely or well. Halfpenny oozes the kind of tough, gritty sensuality reminiscent of the great Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street. She truly is an overblown rose ripe for the picking and full of thorns as daughter Jo is just blossoming and already sprouting her own defensive prickly thorns.

This thorny relationship is harshly devisive as both women battle for survival and supremacy. Rowan Robinson gives Jo moments of vulnerability fitted to this child woman who finds herself pregnant and repeatedly abandoned by those who could and should do better. Recognising a mother who had so much love for others and none for me she fleetingly tests love and rejects it. Robinson is the sparky and stroppy teenage girl capable of giving as good as she gets but there are moments in certain exchanges such as when she flirts with her new stepfather that can seem slightly off kilter. Scenes with an excellent David Moorst as Geoffrey are beautifully executed as she plays house with this young gay man and seems destined to play out the patterns of her own deeply flawed Mother.

Rowan Robinson as Jo and David Moorst as Geoffrey in A Taste Of Honey at Royal Exchange
Image credit: Johan Persson

Moorst gives an intense and brittle performance that perfectly encapsulates the grief of a young gay man in The Sixties who realises he will never get the family life and children he craves. Andrew Sheridan as Peter is his polar opposite as the younger man who thinks he can buy love and then casually discard it like a sweet wrapper in the gutter.

There is much to love in this production but like its characters there are flaws. There are moments when performers are hard to hear which is less due to them and more about the staging. The positioning slightly off stage of the bed for instance allows for a very intimate experience for certain seats but means that a few scenes occur with quite a restricted experience for much of the audience. Overall it is rich and vibrant production pulsing with all the passion Delaney imbued her original script with. The arrangement by Alexandra Faye Braithwaite and the use of Nishla Smith as the jazz singer who weaves in melodies such as Dirty Old Town written about post-war Salford by Ewan MacColl are perfect. The silent observing of every scene by Smith punctuated by her glorious etheral singing is the glue that pulls together this collection of lost souls. Her vocal is the only taste of honey that does not lose its sweetness or turn sour.

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE 15TH MARCH – 13TH APRIL 2023

DARK NOON

Immersive Theatre, Large Theatres, Uncategorized

Director and Scriptwriting Tue Biering

Choreographer and Co-Director Nhlanhla Mahlangu

AVIVA STUDIOS

It is great to see AVIVA STUDIOS showing a big explosive production fresh from Edinburgh Fringe 2023. Award winning Danish company Fix+Foxy unite with a cast of South African performers to open the history books that celebrate the birth of the American Dream and gleefully rip it up and rewrite the story. Film and Television endlessly celebrate the first settlers, the brave battles protecting “their” land from the Native American tribes, the thrill of the Gold Rush and the romance of the cowboys riding out on the frontier plain. DARK NOON exposes the mythology and is a darkly funny and brutal reimagining.

The Warehouse plays host to a vast bare stage depicting the rich red soil of the Wild West. The audience sit on three sides of the stage with the fourth dominated by a massive screen on which many of the scenes play out in close up. Somehow the cast of seven seem to fill the space with action from the onset. At times props appear as small vignettes are played out as chapters of history. The first settlers take their perilous journey from Europe starving, sick and often drowning. Its a powerful reminder of what migrants are suffering right now as they seek their own to fulfil their own dream of a better future. Finding and claiming land they protect it fiercely from the indigenous population. At one point the stage becomes a sports stadium where the live commentary is broadcast as the Settlers play the Natives with brutal consequences.

The props on stage grow almost imperceptibly, first a little house on the prairie appears, a railway track is built by Chinese immigrants signalling the arrival of a saloon bar, a church, a gold mine and a barb wire enclosure for the Native Americans. All is deftly done with a fluid , muscular choreography and the pace of the action never falters. Audience members are interacted with and frequently immersed into the performance as slaves in the auction, churchgoers or incarcerated prisoners.

Throughout the frequent costume changes the performers reapply their white-face make up and blonde wigs as they poke fun at the imperious settlers who now seem as misguided and out of touch with reality as the current contenders for the next American presidency. Writer and Director Tue Biering has zeroed in on the terrifying reality that a mass historical psychosis where violence becomes the acceptable norm is not the dream but a living nightmare. DARK NOON lays bare uncomfortable truths and pulls its audience quite literally unto the pages of a terrifying pop-up storybook that is still being written today.

AVIVA STUDIOS 6th-10th March 2023

Work It Out

Large Theatres

Written by Eve Steele

Directed by Sarah Frankcom

HOME

Work It Out shines a light on the week to week experience of a disparate group of vulnerable individuals as they start to form bonds within a dance fitness class they have been prescribed at their local Community Centre. The naturalistic setting and the format of weekly sessions allows writer Eve Steele to deftly explore the journeys that each of her characters experience as they attempt to change their lives. It also gives Steele a perfect platform for an unashamedly polemic rant about a broken Britain where the most vulnerable in the population are increasingly isolated and unsupported. This could be a hard hitting, grim litany of despair but instead Steele imbues her characters with sufficient warmth and humour to ensure there is also a sense of hope as her characters re-engage with a love of life and all its possibilities.

The motley crew are all dealing with their own demons. Pensioner and Grandma Marie is both feisty and vulnerable with her anxieties masked by brusqueness and antipathy. Eithne Brown embodies this elderly hoarder with compassion and humour as she gradually opens up to the group and starts to regain some confidence. Raffie Julien plays her deaf granddaughter who having fallen out of love with music and dance has retreated to a world where her primary social engagement is with her phone. This is a beautiful performance and Julien shines as the prickly young woman who starts to regain joy and freedom in dance as she also makes new friends. The use of BSL throughout the production is seamlessly blended and works especially well within the fluid choreography of the whole production. Compulsive eater Colette initially tries to blend into the nondescript walls but Eva Scott blossoms on the dance floor as she connects with her repressed emotions. Writer Eve Steele is Siobhan, a heroin addict attempting to beat the drugs and the System while trying to get her daughter out of Care. Her character is both frustratingly disruptive in the class yet also acts as a catalyst for change in others that tragically she can sustain for herself. As always Steele is utterly believable as this chaotic and desperate woman who has suffered multiple traumas since childhood.

Dominic Coffey as Shaq and Raffie Julien as Rebecca in Work It Out at HOME
Photo credit: Chris Payne

The men here are interesting characters who despite their issues seem readily at ease amongst the predominantly female class. Aaron McCusker as Rab is a recovering alcoholic finding solace in acerbic one-liners and reiki. There is a bleak stoicism in his determination to live despite his own child wishing him dead. Dominic Coffey as Shaq has been through the care system and his burgeoning dance skills compete with his tics and stimming. The seemingly perfect class teacher played by Elizabeth Twells unites these characters but is woefully unprepared for the issues that erupt and she soon reveals herself as equally vulnerable and just as in need of a support group.

There is much to like in this production. Jennifer Jackson has done a brilliant job with the movement and choreography which is very impactful especially in scenes such as Coffey’s solo dance to a great version Creep by Radiohead. Katie Scott has created a set that embodies every detail of a down at heel community space. For Eve Steele and Director Sarah Frankcom this has clearly been a labour of love and the naturalistic direction feels like a homage to the wonderful Annie Baker. There are however issues with the overall length of the play and the pacing. The first half feels too long and risks losing its momentum on several occasions and there are occasions where the dialogue is hard to hear during some dance sequences. Overall Work It Out is a well written piece with a big heart. It celebrates the redemptive quality of kindness and the vital importance of community in our increasingly fractured world. It also highlights the hidden tragedy of those who are often better at helping others than knowing how to truly help themselves.

HOME 1st – 16th March 2024

FRANKENSTEIN

Large Theatres

Inspired by the writing of Mary Shelley

Co Directed by Andrew Quick, Peter Brooks and Simon Wainwright

An Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse Co Production

Quarry, Leeds Playhouse

Frankenstein was written over two hundred years ago by the nineteen year old Mary Shelley. The themes of the book have resonated through the centuries as we humans continue to grapple with the concepts of birth, life and death and what it essentially means to exist. Inspired to compete with her husband Shelley, the poet Byron and John Polidori to write a horror story, she wove together a story of a creature formed from the gruesome parts of cadavers stitched together and sparked into life by the principle of galvanism. The full tragedy is that this creature willed into life is destined never to be loved by his creator Frankenstein. This new rendition by Imitating The Dog splices together this Gothic romantic masterpiece with a story where a young couple grapple with coming to terms with a pregnancy and its implications in an uncertain world.

Georgia-Mae Myers and Nedum Okonyia in Frankenstein at Leeds Playhouse
Photo: Ed Waring

This latest production by Imitating The Dog is a creative departure from their work of recent years as they abandon their trademark use of live camera projections used so effectively in work such as Night of the Living Dead–Remix, Dracula:The Untold Story and Macbeth. This new work blends story telling with digital technology and movement. The result is visually glorious as Video Designers Davi Callanan and Alan Cox make every use of the strikingly simple set design by Hayley Grindle. The staging comes alive as violent weather patterns erupt across the stage, snowy blizzards and terrifying thunderstorms encompass the characters and beautifully compliment the radio broadcasting of the original text. There are other gems as set props illuminate with video images such as embryos, sonograms and birds that are reminiscent of a Damien Hirst installation or a Victorian laboratory.

The overall impact is highly effective as it allows the drama of Frankenstein, the claustrophobia of Walton’s ship and the beauty of the polar landscape to come alive. Composer James Hamilton has created a glorious score that weaves through the piece and creates a perfect alchemy with the rest of the staging. The score also brings additional powerful to the taut, muscular performances of the two leads. The choreography by Casper Dillen has an urgency and desperation that channels that of Victor Frankenstein and his Creature while also illustrating the push/pull of the young couple deciding what to do regarding the pregnancy.

Georgia-Mae Myers and Nedum Okonyia give their all to this production. Utterly invested in the characters they bring to life from the book and in the modern day embodiment of a couple wrestling with a momentous decision in an uncertain world. It is frustrating that the naturalistic dialogue employed for the modern setting seems to get lost when in translation when up against the writing of Mary Shelley. On occasion some of the parallels drawn, such as between the Creature and the shouty man outside the couple’s flat can seem heavy-handed and unnecessary. The couple come alive during the movement sequences but perhaps would have benefited from stronger dialogue to give them more depth so that ultimately an audience could care and invest in them as much as with the characters in the book.

There is much to enjoy in this production and the themes of Frankenstein will remain relevant as it continues to astound as to how Shelley’s vision of a man sewn together from discarded body parts and galvanised into life could ever be fully realised in anything but our imagination. Yet two hundred years on we think nothing of using defibrillators to breathe fresh life after a heart stops beating and use organ, body and skin implants to give loved ones hope and a new lease of life. Imitating The Dog have used their unique set of components and galvanised their own vision of Frankenstein and it seems to be a pretty successful rebirth!

Leeds Playhouse 15 – 24 February 2024

FRANKENSTEIN Tour dates

SHED: EXPLODED VIEW

Large Theatres

Written by Phoebe Eclair-Powell

Directed by Atri Banerjee

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE

SHED:EXPLODED VIEW by Phoebe Eclair-Powell won The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2019. A brutal yet deeply intimate exploration of domestic violence, love and isolation inspired by the work of artist Cornelia Parker whose installation Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View literally shines a light on the domestic debris remaining after a explosion. The global pandemic meant a delay in the staging of this production and also spiked a horrific rise in the statistics for domestic violence making this urgent play even more powerful.

Three couples interact over a thirty year period in this nonlinear play. Time shifts back and forth denoted by each year displayed on a monitor above the stage. A highly effective minimalist set by Designer Naomi Dawson features moving concentric circles that the performers chalk scene titles onto. As they slowly move around or are smudged during the performance they subtly allude to the fragmentation and blurring of time and memory. The exposed skeleton frame of a shed is suspended over the stage and illuminated by a single huge bulb of light. Lighting Designer Bethany Gupwell uses a bank of lights to anchor each scene from home to exotic honeymoon beach or NYE fireworks and the splintered, crackling light effects on the stage are used for maximum shock effect in the scenes of violence.

Wil Johnson as Tony in SHED: EXPLODED VIEW at the Royal Exchange Theatre 📷Johan Persson

The six performers have literally nowhere to hide on stage. Occasionally some sit on the sidelines on hard wooden chairs and observe scenes with the audience. On Stage sometimes they interact with the other couples, other times their words overlap as if time itself is blurring or merging past and present. The oldest couple Lil and Tony are on second and third marriages hoping to get it right this time. Naomi and Frank are newly weds who seem unsuited from the start and the seeds of disappointment and resentment are already in situ. Abi and Mark meet as students and momentarily look like they may just break the cycle and write a different story. Each couple viewed through a prism of hope could be envied and aspired to. The elderly couple holding hands…is that a lifetime of domestic bliss, love second time around or one holding the other’s hand to anchor them in this world as reality and memories splinter and disintegrate? Or the couple with their young daughter… playing happy families or desperately clinging on to the fading dream of a stable marriage and home life? The new lovers who laugh and drink together yet secretly knowing that for every time his hand tenderly holds her hair back from her face if she’s sick may also be the hand that stabbed the meat of her face with a fork.

It is the women in this piece who are drawn most vividly and drive the narrative even when they are sometimes seemingly passive. Hayley Carmicheal is quite wonderful as Lil, she initially appears to have a birdlike fragility but age and bitter experience has given her a steely core and a warrior spirit. This is a tiny woman who can tend to the vulnerable yet could potentially eviserate a hulking abusive husband. Lizzy Watts as Naomi gives a subtle performance that grows as her character ages and finishes with a blistering portrayal of grief and rage. She deftly moves from a young wife trying to please a sullen bridegroom, to a weary, anxious parent who learns to dance with her feisty daughter, navigate a difficult marriage and emerge from tragedy with a fierce sense of purpose and her own worth. Norah Lopez-Holden as Abi is always utterly invested in her character whether as a curious child, a testing teenager or as a young woman desperately attempting to redefine her deadly reality.

Norah Lopez-Holden as Abi in SHED: EXPLODED VIEW at the Royal Exchange Theatre 📷Johan Persson

The two younger men feel more generic, Jason Hughes as Frank is an resentful, embittered man who seems unwilling to take responsibility for his own choices. Michael Workéyè as Tony exudes a discomforting blend of boyish charm and casual cruelty as he belittles and gaslights Abi. Wil Johnson as Tony has the most satisfying male role and gives a compelling performance as the flawed but wiser older man gifted another chance at love. His scenes are beautifully written especially as his story becomes increasingly poignant and Eclair-Powell gives a really touching insight into the strains of dementia on patients and carers at home during the pandemic.

Director Atri Banerjee deftly ensures that the many small fragmented scenes that unfold or collide come together to build a cohesive story that satisfies and intrigues just as the art installation that inspired the writing of this production. There is something incredibly powerful about examining moments in time or splinters of objects. In my day job as a Psychotherapist I often witness how a single statement or recollection can be a light bulb moment that crystallises a vital realisation for a client. As a child growing up in Northern Ireland I witnessed bomb explosions and remember my parents taking me into the aftermath of a bombed village shop to help make it ready for business as usual. Everyday objects scattered everywhere and coloured nail polish splattered on the red tiled floor amidst shards of glass and warped metal shopping baskets. The detritus of everyday life spread out telling stories of the ordinary, the extraordinary and the fragility of life especially in the face of violence. On so many levels I love the bravery and structure of this piece. It was and remains a worthy Bruntwood prize winner. SHED: EXPLODED VIEW is a sensitively rendered howl of rage and frustration that should rally us all to call out any signs of abuse and urge loved ones, neighbours, colleagues or strangers to run at the first warning signs. RUN…and don’t look back…RUN… even if it’s over broken glass.

Royal Exchange Theatre 9th Feb – 2nd March 2024

OLIVER!

Large Theatres, Musical

Books, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart

Adapted from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist

Directed by James Brining

Leeds Playhouse

Christmas is certainly the time for nostalgia and sitting back rewatching old movies and indulging in familiar traditions such as Pantomime or a juicy epic from Charles Dickens. Leeds Playhouse have opted for the later and have thrown all the festive bells and whistles at this gloriously indulgent production. The classic Lionel Bart musical adaptation Oliver! has been a crowd pleaser for over 70 years. Director James Brining has taken his personal childhood memory of starring as a hungry urchin boy in a school production and lovingly celebrates this theatrical gem with a diverse and highly talented cast.

Set and costume Designer Colin Richmond has made brilliant use of the main stage in The Quarry by staging in the round with a range of elaborate platforms and bridges which allows for maximum drama and loads of very naturalistic movement on stage. The costumes are lovingly detailed and evoke every echelon of society that Dickens describes. London street markets come alive with the hustle and bustle of traders, shoppers and pickpockets. The grim workhouse filled with pallid hungry children desperate for gruel but dreaming of Food, Glorious Food is powerfully contrasted by the laden tables of food carried to gluttonous Victorian besuited men who frequent the same hallowed private clubs still entered by Tory politicians today who seem equally unconcerned by today’s food banks. Scenes in the funeral parlour where Oliver is sold as a tiny coffin follower are gleefully macabre as gloomy coffins open in the floor or a white faced child emerges from another to a sea of black clad mourners with quirky steam punk dark glasses. The overhead bridges and walkways work very well in allowing a large cast to move around on stage with freedom and give great scope to the clever choreography of Lucy Hind.

Felix Holt and cast in Oliver! at Leeds Playhouse. Image credit: Alastair Muir

Oliver! at Leeds Playhouse.
Image credit: Alastair Muir

Fagin’s base is filled with colourful pocket squares and eccentric bric a brac that allude more to the Victorian eccentricity of a born entrepreneur than the darker antisemitism of the original Fagin in Dickens. Steve Furst as Fagin is wily and has a certain Bohemian seedy charm but is also reminiscent of Wilfred Brambell in Steptoe and Son. The real brute is of course Bill Sykes played with real thuggish menace by Chris Bennett who is genuinely scary on stage. The feisty performance of vocal powerhouse Jenny Fitzpatrick makes for a striking and moving contrast as her Nancy feels robust enough to have no time for the thuggery of her lover. When she sings As Long As He Needs Me it is incredibly emotive as the complexity nature of love in a violent and coercive relationship is perfectly evoked. There are some great performances from all the main cast with a standout comedic turn from Minal Patel and Rosie Edie as the ghastly Bumbles.

The children in the Young Company are consummate professionals throughout this lengthy and demanding production. The young Oliver and The Artful Dodger are played by a rotating cast of young actors befitting modern child labour legislation. The press night production had Nicholas Teixeira playing Oliver and his clear diction and strong, pitch perfect renditions of Where Is Love? and Who Will Buy? were very impressive. Felix Holt was perfectly cast as the impudent but charming Artful Dodger.

This is a lush, exuberant extravaganza of a production that is memorable for all the right reasons. Every aspect feels well thought out and lovingly attended to. It’s truly encouraging to see large scale theatre productions in the North West that are worthy of coaxing London theatre goers to come North and hopefully remind Arts Council England that money allocated outside of London is a sound investment. If nothing else it might help keep Northern theatres from potentially resorting to pick a pocket or two to survive!!

OLIVER! at Leeds Playhouse 24th Nov 2023 – 27th Jan 2024

AFRIQUE EN CIRQUE

Circus, Large Theatres

KALABANTÉ PRODUCTIONS

The Hall, AVIVA STUDIOS

The latest extravaganza to mark the launch of Aviva Studios in the city is The Welcome a series of events curated by local people across Greater Manchester selected as part of The Assembly. Many of these events happening between the 11-19th November are free to the public and others are affordably priced. Afrique en Cirque celebrates everyday life in Western Africa as it zeroes in on coastal village life in Guinea. Devised by Montreal based circus Kalabanté Productions this is an unadulterated expression of joy and physical prowess that is at times as mind bending as it is literally body bending.

The staging of an African village looks invitingly beautiful and the lighting is gorgeous. Village huts are peopled by musicians while the front of the wide stage of The Hall lends itself perfectly to the endless series of tumbling routines that blend with tribal inspired dance, juggling, hoop and human pyramids that erupt on stage without anyone appearing to ever draw breath. This might be a show that casually started on African time but once it gets going it’s exuberance and high energy is unrelenting.

Afrique en Cirque. Image credit: Wendell Teodoro

Yamoussa Bangoura established this circus company in 2007 to celebrate African culture and circus. There are no high wires or safety equipment other than crash mats and the performers seem gleefully unbothered by the very real risks involved in much of their routines. One strides around with another performer casually standing on their head while the contortionist bends in ways that can have seemingly scant regard for their own body in 10 years time. The ensuing result is an extraordinary exhibition of human skill and endurance that also paints a vibrant image of village life. Routines are developed around market bartering, fishing expeditions and storytelling that all play out with colourful costume changes and live music from the live band. Afro jazz style music is performed with guitar and saxophone blending with traditional West African percussion and the beautiful kora.

There are some gorgeous moments such as the dreamy balletic hoop routine with the spinning cyr wheel. There is cheeky humour in a routine involving hard hats and a human pyramid that is an impudent nod to The Chippendales/ The Full Monty. The sheer athleticism and energy is invigorating and the performers are multi talented as they also take on some of the percussion and singing as well. The music and singing is utterly infectious and has numerous young children dancing in the aisles in this relaxed performance. The audience is involved and encouraged to engage in callbacks as we learn little bits of the Guinea dialect Susu…I now know that naani is four and suli is five thanks to a playful juggling routine.

This is a production that has played all over the world and in doing so is a reminder of what a rich and varied culture exists in Africa. It’s also a lovely reminder that communal joy and gasps of awe can be universal whether in Manchester, Manéah or Montreal.

The Hall, Aviva Studios 11 -15th November 2023

BROWN BOYS SWIM

Large Theatres

Written by Karim Khan

Directed by John Hoggarth

CONTACT THEATRE

Two Sixth Formers hang out together and chat about girls, pecs, beards, Uni plans and their favourite sweets. This coming of age story features two equally likable mates who have known each other from primary school. One has the unbridled enthusiasm of a labrador puppy and is obsessed with his appearance and fitting in with the cool kids. The other is more serious and cautious…heading towards a good Oxbridge degree and a successful career that will support a wife and family. On surface level these boys are chalk and cheese, on a more significant level they are both Muslim boys living in Oxford watching their peers punting on the river while neither can actually swim. Karim Khan has written a perceptive, poignant and funny play that address the experience of many young Muslim men as they try to carve out their own identity in multicultural Britain today.

Winner of a Fringe First and the 2022 BBC Popcorn Writing award, Brown Boys Swim has had sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and more recently at Soho Theatre. This tour features lead performances from two recent graduates who are both excellent as Kash and Mohsen. Kashif Ghole and Ibraheem Hussain are very natural in their roles and complement each other beautifully whether teasing and sparring or holding up a mirror to each others personal struggles. There is a lot of charm and humour in their exchanges as they play off each other. The darker elements are subtly shaded in as a trip to buy swimming trunks results in a security guard assuming they are shop lifters or a much looked forward to invite to a pool party is based on the assumption that they will provide drugs rather than Hahal haribos. The most poignant touch is the knowledge that Kash never learned to swim because in primary school he was having special needs teaching instead of swimming lessons with the other kids simply because English was not his first language. None of these aspects of the story are preachy but each gently touches on the slow drip drip of everyday racism. The final dénouement is so sudden that it almost risks losing the potency it should have but it is still a painful reminder of wasted potential and a life curtailed by cultural ignorance and unhelpful stereotyping.

This a beautifully staged production with clever and inspired design by James Button, lighting by James Bailey and a soundscape by Roshan Gunga. They combine to bring a leisure centre poolside and its changing rooms vividly to life. This is incredibly effective and gives the whole production a real sense of energy and drama. There is a great deal to enjoy in this production but there is also a reminder that growing up and finding your path in life is hard for any of us in any culture but we owe it to all our children to do better and be kinder.

CONTACT THEATRE 25th – 28th October 2023

The Rep Birthday 31st Oct – 4th Nov 2023

Romeo & Juliet

Large Theatres, Shakespeare

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Nicholai la Barrie

Royal Exchange Theatre

This 400 year old tale of star-crossed lovers hits the rainy streets of modern day Manchester and as young love burns bright it reminds us all what a heady and dangerous drug it can be. This is no desolate, grimly passion-fuelled tale of doomed romance but rather a celebration of hope in the darkest moments where the human spirit always finds a way to flourish and defy even in death itself. By placing Shakespeare in Manchester and celebrating local people Nicholai la Barrie brings a fresh and urgent energy to his words. The dark and wickedly sly retorts of a Manc on form are perfect for Shakespeare. Even when some sobering lines sound like they are played for laughs it feels more resonant of the local people and their capacity to wield a rapier sharp retort as easily as a Stanley knife. This works especially well with David Judge‘s perfectly pitched Mercutio and Gemma Ryan‘s slovenly Nurse.

There are some great performances with changes to the original script that now see Lady Capulet (a suitably steely Kate Hampson) as a single mother and a gritty Northern matriarch overseeing her clan. The most sweeping change might have been to save Mercutio and allow for for more of David Judge on stage but that may have sent Shakespeare spinning in his grave! He gives a compelling performance and his fresh twist on Shakespeares’ poetic words land perfectly sounding like a Manc street poet as he raps out his lines. Geoff Aymer is excellent as the meddling Friar Lawrence. There are some striking casting touches with Ashley O’Brien as a intimidatingly tooled up Tybalt while the tics and twitches of neuro diverse actor Adam Fenton give additional menace and edge to his Benvolio.

The two central character feel fresh and energetic in their roles as Romeo and Juliet. Initially Conor Glean did not feel like a Romeo I could get on board with but as his scenes develop there is real depth to his Romeo. Impetuous and foolhardy he may be but the depth of feeling he has for Juliet is never in doubt…even in his initial flinch at the prospect of marriage there is also an openness and generosity of heart to ensure he gives his Juliet what she needs from him. The raw pain he exhibits as he cradles a dying Mercutio is absolute and throughout the second Act he continues to grow in the role. Shalisha James-Davis makes for an vibrant Juliet. She brings a fresh look at this girl and fleshes out her ageless appeal…not just a pretty innocent girl but a feisty and spirited young woman with a passion for life and love that more than meets that of her Romeo. When she insists on marriage this is less about convention and more about knowing her own worth and valuing herself.

Shalisha James-Davis as Juliet
Credit: Johan Persson

The sparse staging is more scorched earth than Northern cobbles but the speakers littered around the stage certainly feel like old rave parties or Moss Side carnival. In the Royal Exchange it would be easy to imagine a balcony scene staged from the circle but instead designers GOOD TEETH have the balcony descend from the heavens. The party scene becomes a rave party with a feisty confident Juliet at its core on a raised platform that defiantly marks out Capulet territory. The music ramps up and five disco balls create a kick ass party where a supernumerary cast fill up the stage and audience members are joining the dancing throng. Later the funeral scene for Juliet sees a sea of black umbrellas providing shelter from the driving rain as the heavens weep to the sound of Elbow‘s Lippy Kids. Some might see possible dramatic overkill whereas I hope it was a homage to L.S. Lowry and to the Manchester music scene.

Director Nicholai la Barrie pulls out all the elements of this timeless tale that still feels fresh and relevant. Whether it is in Verona over 400 years ago or modern day Cheetham Hill there will always be impetuous young lovers and opinionated parents trying to steer their children a certain way. Sparring or killing whether with rapiers or flick knives will always result in devastated families and wasted young lives. The enduring resonance of Shakespeare is however his use of language. Whether in Received Pronunciation or in a Manchester accent it is his ability to capture and summarise the human experience in such a perfect and beautiful manner will always bring joy. This Romeo & Juliet certainly brings the joy.

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE 20th Oct – 18th Nov 2023