Small Theatres – Page 3 – Live Art Alive

PROJECT DICTATOR

Directed and Written by Julian Spooner, Matthew Wells, and Hamish McDougall

HOME

Rhum + Clay delight in devising and delivering intelligent theatre that asks pertinent and challenging questions. Shows such as The War of the Worlds, TESTOSTERONE and award winning Mistero Buffo have all had critical acclaim. This production commissioned by New Diorama Theatre last year is dedicated to international artists living and working under authoritarianism. Project Dictator (Or: Why democracy is overrated and I don’t miss it at all) is whiplash smart with a meta script that opens as a farce masquerading as a state of the nation play which increasingly pokes fun at flaccid over-hyped politicians before descending into darker more sinister asides about tinpot dictators. The chilling conclusion dramatically shifts pace into a stark and disquieting nightmare that illustrates the perils and restrictions on artists working in oppressive régimes. This really is a case of whether a committed performer chooses to risk dying onstage or potentially behind the scenes.

The opening scene invites the audience into a cosy setting where the stage is set with opulent red velvet stage curtains and a smiling pianist who belts out seemingly endless cabaret tunes. A closer look reveals a palpable tension…the pianists’ eyes flutter nervously and her smiles are more unnerving rictus grins than genuine cheer. The playwright and star of the show within the show has the smooth confidence of an Alan Partridge who describes his character as Emmanuel Macron meets Jesus Christ without a trace of irony. Matthew Wells oozes the easy confidence of a politician with a Messiah complex on a campaign trail full of soundbites, babies and photo ops. Then there is his counterpart Jeremy Spooner, initially relegated to multiple small supporting roles or as the logo on his boilersuit states simply Everything Else. Spooner plays the absurdist buffoon, a comedic sidekick to Wells’ straight man.

This classic teaming allows for the entertaining initial farce before this political sketch is suddenly upended. Roles are reversed as Spooner challenges the narrative and what unfolds is a vicious political coup on stage. The comedy is cleverly ramped up as he crashes through the audience brandishing a baby monitor strapped to a megaphone and adorns himself with flashy epaulettes and a huge fake moustache. Suddenly the OTT charisma of this Ollie Reed/Freddie Mercury characterisation starts to dissipate as the sinister agenda becomes clearer. The smooth polish of an ineffectual politician with soundbites instead of solutions has been overthrown by a narcissistic dictator. As the audience is whipped into a frenzy so comes the uncomfortable acknowledgement that no dissent is allowed. The audience is now as unsafe as the performers as we start to turn on each other to save ourselves.

The political farce onstage is over and the nightmare really begins as the set reveals backstage. There the performers falter…suddenly vulnerable and wary as they clear away the props. Literally everything and everyone is stripped bare and all illusion is gone. They are now sinisterly hooded prisoners ordered to perform, deviating off script at their peril. Donning heavy clown make up and costumes the loop of performance begins only broken by hellish ruptures before the loop begins again. The performance starts to fragment until exhausted and traumatised each individual must choose their path. The powerful closing scene is full of pathos and pain as it alludes to the constraints and dangers for those artists producing work under authoritarian regimes.

HOME 20th – 30th September 2023

Rhum and Clay

CENSUS

Small Theatres

Written and Performed by Malandra Jacks

Commissioned by hÅb and CONTACT

CONTACT

Mancunion theatre company Malandra Jacks was formed in 2017 by Josh Wilkinson and Chloe Barlow. Both have their roots firmly based in North Manchester and create work with a strong social conscience so perhaps no surprise that CENSUS is a celebration of Moston. Three miles from the city centre and 20 minutes on the bus yet a world away in so many ways. The next 75 minutes is a riotous and heartfelt journey that introduces the audience to local people, landmark locations, a history of the area and the social problems facing this community as it navigates present day working class identity.

The staging design by Faz Barber is highly effective. The simple white set is clean cut and created on blocks that allow maximum flexibility creating bus rides, living rooms with fireplaces that become conference lecterns, or plain walls that suddenly have windows to chat through. All of this is enhanced and utilised to the maximum by Projection Designer David Hall who does a beautiful job of creating maps of the area overlaid by images and video footage that create a vibrancy and immediacy to the whole production. This is clearly a labour of love by Malandra Jacks, Dramaturg Kate Bradham and the whole creative team.

Josh and Chloe bounce unto the stage with energy and enthusiasm as they immediately whisk the audience unto a bus trip to their home town. This trip is peppered with stories of weary mums, combative women, the odd bloodied man to be either stepped over or aided…and of course the invaluable information that it is indeed possible to travel on the 117 bus with a double mattress. Once in Moston there are audio recordings and video footage of local people talking about the area and what home means to them. There is a lively visit to their terraced house where they both live with Joshs’ mum Sue. Both children of divorce in lower income families there are also the splashes of what make each of us special and unique. Chloe lived with her Grandma who was a classically trained singer while Josh was welcomed into the world like the baby Jesus of Moston with hospital visits by Caroline Aherne and the local Lord and Lady Mayors.

Josh Wilkinson and Chloe Barlow in CENSUS at CONTACT.
Image credit: David Hall

A jump back in time to a social chronicle of 1905 Moston Characters At Play by John Ward is a poignant reminder that this area has always been home to characters forged through hardship and shaped by grit and determination. A lively interactive game of working class bingo wins one lucky audience member a loaf of Warburton’s …there is no artisan bread just yet but gentrification of the area is looming and may yet produce a war amongst the locals regarding beans, cheese, or avocado on toast. The sobering aspect of this production is the attempt to analyse what is modern working class identity when there no longer are jobs. Newspaper headlines and statistics appear peppered across the stage like graffiti and some of the statistics are damning. However this is a story of a community who want to be seen and heard for the positives and not just the negatives

The core of this production is about what strong community values mean and how they enhance and are the very backbone of what makes an area viable. There is a focus here on community groups and local volunteers who maintain youth clubs and local hubs. CENSUS gives them a powerful and inspiring voice that celebrates how they support and enrich the lives of local people. The impact is tangible as we sit in CONTACT watching a show developed by local people who were themselves supported by Youth Zone, by CONTACT itself through CYC(Contact Young Company) and The Agency. The show closes on the sobering news that the latest round of funding cuts has closed yet another vital community hub, Whitemoss Youth Club. We can only hope that the positive and hopeful voices in Moston and the surrounding areas remain loud enough to be heard and CENSUS is an important part of that social agency.

CENSUS 13th- 16th September 2023

Malandra Jacks

Key Moston Statistics | SOURCE Manchester City Council’s Intelligence Hub

Pupils achieving 5+ in English and Maths: Moston 25.52%, versus 73.36% Chorlton and 40.10% national average

Universal credit claimants: Didsbury West- 614 (7.72%), Chorlton- 723 (11%) versus Harpurhey- 4383 (43.5%) and Moston- 3039 (35%)

Residents claiming unemployment benefit- Didsbury West- 250 (3.12%), Chorlton- 280 (4.2%), Harpurhey- 1135 (11.3%)

CRAVE

Small Theatres

Written by Sarah Kane

Directed by Chris Lawson

53TWO

CRAVE is the penultimate play by controversial playwright Sarah Kane. It was first performed shortly before her suicide at 28 and was dedicated to Mark Ravenshill writer of Shopping and Fucking. She was part of the 90’s movement In-Yer-Face Theatre and was known for her use of violence, unlikeable characters and shocking material. Unlike her other plays, CRAVE is written in a fragmentary style with no stage directions and 4 characters only identified by the initials A,B,C and M who may be elements of separate entities or simply aspects of one very troubled consciousness. Running at about 55 minutes, this is not an easy or comfortable watch but rather a murky and fascinating merging of cast and audience as the plays’ intensity seeps and swirls around the space. The staging in this dark, dank railway arch at 53TWO adds to the insidious horror of what can lurk in the real world and how it impacts the darker recesses of a troubled psyche.

Director Chris Lawson creates an almost prayer- like litany as his sensitive blocking allows for these fragmented beings to take form then fade off but never entirely disappear as another voice emerges. The lighting is highly effective in occasionally illuminating certain lines or characters yet sometimes plunging the stage into blackness leaving simply a disembodied voice. At times languid and poetic, then erratic and frenzied, the pacing sometimes shifts suddenly to laserlike focus such as the soliloquy by Jake Ferrettis’ A where its taut tenacity is truly haunting. Lawson has done a great job of allowing his cast to be equally vulnerable and repugnant while always utterly fascinating.

This is no mean feat for a cast dealing with sparse dialogue that is often just a single line. Although peppered with a strange sort of violent poetry, the dialogue is at times not enough in itself to fully carry and elevate this work. The cast are excellent as they give each other space and create a musicality rather like a well oiled string quartet. Always on stage, they all maintain a physicality that is arresting but never distracts from another character speaking. Matthew Heywood as B and Elizabeth Meadows as C are the younger characters and they both give raw performances vividly evoking the pain and trauma of abuse. Jake Ferretti as A is scarily intense as a moralistic paedophile whose piercing soliloquy lingers like a damp chill long after leaving the theatre. Etta Fusi as M is a study in languid regret and despair with the slow burn of her sensual physicality bringing real depth to her performance.

CRAVE asks is ecstasy just a lack of grief? This painful and ambiguous study delves into a mind at war with itself and the push pull struggle of redemptive hope against the eviserating pain of trauma and mental illness. When first performed in 1998 it was viewed as the most hopeful of Kane’s plays yet the writer saw it as the bleakest saying her earlier works were written by someone “who believed utterly in the power of love”. However it is interpreted, it is a potent reminder the power and range of human consciousness.

CRAVE was produced at 53TWO 31st May to 4th June 2023 by HER Productions

Too Much World At Once

Small Theatres

Paddy Stafford as Noble and Ewan Grant as Ellis. Image credit: Chris Payne.

Written by Billie Collins

Directed by Adam Quayle

HOME

The biggest things happen

In the quietest of ways

And we don’t even notice

Don’t even see it

Don’t make a fuss

Or a dance

Until…

Too Much World At Once is an impressive theatre debut for Billie Collins. This coming of age story has big aspirations; looking at themes around queerness, mental health issues and environmental disaster. There is a real lyricism in the writing and a strong feel for naturalistic dialogue. It’s no mean feat to write a fifteen year old boy who turns into a bird and readies himself to fly thousands of miles to his neurotic sister who is doing her bit for climate change by gathering data on albatrosses on a remote island in Antarctica. Meanwhile closer to home his Mum is struggling to connect and parent in a fractured family, while teaching and trying quite literally to hold the family home together. New boy Ellis is a breath of fresh air to both mother and son, bringing colour to their lives in ways that go beyond his nail polish and rainbow take on school uniform. It’s a lot to cram into two hours on a small stage but director Adam Quayle does a excellent job of bringing the writers’ vision to life. Quayle who is the Joint Artistic Director of Box of Tricks has made this ambitious debut look and feel authentic.

Alexandra Mathie, Paddy Stafford, Ewan Grant and Evie Hargreaves. Image credit: Chris Payne.

The staging by designer Katie Scott is really beautiful in its simplicity. The central dias is shaped like the Earth with a backdrop of decaying wood…orange boxes, simple wooden furniture, bare window frames and driftwood that look like they may have been washed ashore. Overhead hangs a chandelier of driftwood that is reminiscent of the sword of Damacles. This staging is compact but highly effective in driving the narrative of the play. It’s further enhanced by sensitive and imaginative lighting by Richard Owen. At times the soft spread of light looks like the oceans of Earth or the rich splatter shades of guano. The lighting effects are at times simply gorgeous as in the closing moments where the the cast are lit like a rich tableau that is truly memorable.

The four actors are all well cast and give good performances. Paddy Stafford as central character Noble embodies the withdrawn boy who has closed off from his mother and desperately misses his sister. He gives a highly effective performance as he transitions into a bird and the occasional delicate movements of his head evoke a curious, perhaps wary bird. Evie Hargreaves plays his sister Cleo, a research scientist on Bird Island who is pulsating with nervy energy, passionate about conservation but overwhelmed by the harsh reality of the task and her surroundings in Antarctica. Alexandra Mathie is Fiona, their mother and the local science teacher. She is utterly believable as a brusque Northerner who seems more sentimental over her crumbling family home than sensitive to the emotional needs of her children. The force of nature in the play is Ewan Grant as Ellis, a newcomer to the school and excluded by his peers due to his sexuality. Grant exudes the enthusiasm and openness of a Labrador puppy bringing an upbeat and humorous energy to the production. He is the perfect foil to this family who have lost their way and each other.

Collins writes with the confidence of a natural poet. There is an innate lyricism and a sense of magical storytelling in this piece. It will be exciting to see her work develop as a playwright. The central flaw within Too Much World At Once is precisely that…there is a lot of world and not enough about who the characters are within this world on stage. This is an exciting premise for a play but the characters feel underdeveloped at times. The mother has some back story and context yet it is frustrating to watch this woman who sits painting the nails of a boy her son barely knows instead of battering down the doors of the local police when her 15 year old child has been missing for days. A lot of the action in this narrative is driven by what has happened within the fractured dynamics of this family unit yet these are barely touched upon. What has happened in the marriage? A deeply depressed and highly anxious daughter…is she living out her mothers’ unfulfilled ambitions? Most frustrating is the central character Noble as he never feels fully fleshed out…but perhaps he is just a fledgling in a damaged nest.

Director Adam Quayle has done a lot to make a potentially tricky play come to life on a small stage. At times the production can seem unwieldy or too busy as the chorus moves around swooping like birds or moving chairs like they are being swept away in a storm. This would all probably lend itself more effectively to a larger stage. The sound design by Lee Affen adds additional charm as he works magic to bring the world of nature and the elements to life onstage. This is a big play on a small stage but perhaps aptly so…

And this is all I know…that it’s a good world to be small in. And there is so much here to love.

HOME 3rd March -11th March 2023

Box of Tricks Theatre tour

Bad Jokes About Men

Small Theatres

Written, Devised and Performed by Elise Gilbert

The Kings Arms

It is always exciting to see performers at the start of their careers especially if you are lucky enough to get to see students honing their craft as they study. Here in Manchester those opportunities arise at The Arden School of Theatre, now futher enhanced by their new purpose built theatre. A few years ago I saw the then third year students in a memorable production working with Figs in Wigs. Now graduated, Elise Gilbert is back in Manchester with her first solo show that has previously shown at Camden Peoples Theatre in London.

Bad Jokes About Men blends truly naff jokes with Gilbert’s unique blend of exuberant charm, queer politics, clowning skills and live journaling. The range of skits use her great comic timing and natural physicality to explore traditional jokes, verbatim comments made to other young females and her own personal experience of being the butt or boobs of just a big old joke. At one point she addresses her audience asking How long can a joke keep on going for? Like so many others she is clearly not amused by the ‘joke’ and this show is a determined attempt to turn the tables and see how funny men find it when they become the butt or with her help the balloon penis of the ‘joke’.

Gilbert is multi-talented using a range of performance skills to ilustrate her argument and she carries off the performance with aplomb. She has an easy confidence on stage and has a genuine rapport with her audience that is impressive for someone doing their first solo show. She is adept at using eye contact in the space to really get the audience onside whether she is looking wryly humerous at an individual, gurning, expressing her anger or her vulnerability to the crowd.

The use of multimedia is highly effective whether to perform as alternate characters such as ‘Rob’ who tells ‘his’ traumatic experience as a WMCSM (white middle class straight man) or to gradually reveal the messages received by a male ‘friend’. It is the latter that provides the final nail in the coffin to this long running joke on women. This slow reveal alludes to the confusion and discomfort of being on the receiving end of statements such as I had a wank over you last night. Gilbert uses journaling tools to perceptively outline the many ways this might not feel funny to a young, queer woman you know. The closing technique used to make her point is intellectually incisive and theatrically very satisfying.

The Olive Tree/HYENAS!

Small Theatres

The Olive Tree and HYENAS! Produced by Sugar Butties

The King’s Arms

The Olive Tree

Written and Performed by Jessica Forrest

The first of tonight’s double bill from Sugar Butties is The Olive Tree, a one woman show that explores how the loss of loved ones impacts how we value the pivotal moments in life whether big and small. Jessica Forrest takes us straight to Umbria in Italy…el centro del mundo…as she goes straight to the heart of her story of loss and solace. Forrest does bittersweet poignancy and wry humour extremely well. She has a flair for observational comedy and mimicry that makes for great storytelling. She regularly breaks the fourth wall to interact with the audience as she shares fragments of her life and invites us to note a fragment from our own lives on tags to hang on the olive tree. This is done with care and sensitivity; and nothing personal is shared openly during the show.

Forrest paints vivid images of her time in London as a nanny. They veer from the quiet pleasure and anguish of nursing your employer’s sleeping baby while trying to come to terms with an abortion to a wickedly funny parody of a Manhattan socialite describing giving birth. The frustration of a fleeting and unsuccessful sexual escapade with a devout Christian is vividly brought to life…I’m laid by a raging erection protected by St Peter and his fucking pearly gates! Her emotional escape to Italy brings new experiences such as when her friend Hillary makes mischief on what turns out to be a gynaecology appointment at an Italian Co Op. The poetry in the storytelling can be earthy and humorous but also incredibly delicate as she tenderly describes Hillary as a friend who tied purple ribbons around everything in life. The pain of living with grief is perfectly evoked by the thought of wearing another’s hat purchased from a charity shop…perhaps in donning a strangers’ hat we might temporarily have reprieve from our own memories. Forrest closes this accomplished first show by inviting her audience to sprinkle a little glitter on ourselves; perhaps a little of her creative magic dust will have been added to the mix.

HYENAS!

Written and Performed by Olivia Nicholson

HYENAS! is already a 2021 recipient of a Pick Of The Fringe Award at Edinburgh. This one woman show by Olivia Nicholson takes the audience on the hen do from hell in Marbella complete with a Mr and Mrs questionnaire that involves our participation, multiple trashy costume changes and a very unhappy bride. Nicholson a powerhouse performance while performing a range of characters at breakneck speed. Kirsty is the skinny and miserable bride obsessed with Instagram, Lauren is a cackling firecracker oozing backhanded compliments while inhaling cocktails, Sarah is a socially awkward wallflower while posh Tasha is a sexually voracious, emotional vampire.

There is nothing on surface level that is remotely likable about any of these women yet Nicholson manages to give each of them their humanity and a sense of their vulnerability. The bride may be desperately embarking on marriage to a coercive, abusive partner in an attempt to create a family having recently lost her mother. Sarah is a high school teacher on sick leave having just had a dangerously inappropriate meltdown in the classroom, Lauren is a loving mum who is hiding the heartbreak of a broken marriage and Tasha has just lost her best friend to cancer. Each woman is real onstage despite the comic caricatures, they all cover their pain with more than just thick layers of MAC. There is real skill in the writing and the performance as HYENAS! is a whirlwind comic assault that delivers a hefty emotional punch.

The King’s Arms 11th and 12th July 2022

MANCHESTER FRINGE FESTIVAL

Vice Versa

Contemporary Dance, Gig Theatre, Immersive Theatre, Performance Art, Small Theatres, Spoken Word

Written, Co-produced and Performed by Dorcas Seb

Directed by Emmy Lahouel

HOME

Wide eyed and smiling earnestly Dorcas Seb dances in a repetitive, slightly robotic style. The audience slowly start to fill 3 sides of the stage and sit while Seb continues to dance. The music shifts subtly as a more electronic hum starts to merge in and create a more ominous tension. The 3D effect set by Dylan Howells is strikingly beautiful with its neon blue and pink lights that flicker and flow across the floor and backdrop like neural pathways in an artificial brain or a strange simulation of the tree of life. By the time Seb actually starts to speak she has already created an absorbing, dystopian vibe that feels trance like and strangely calming.

Vice Versa was originally conceived as an E.P in 2018 but has been crafted into a visually arresting, evocative piece of performance art/gig theatre. Commissioned by Eclipse Theatre and HOME as part of the Slate: Black. Arts. World project in 2018/19, with development support from Unity Theatre and funded by Arts Council England. It is clearly a deeply personal project for Seb which explores the modern digital world and our increasing fixation and reliance on our phones and computer screens as a means of communication. The original ideas behind this piece in 2018 were to become even more sharply prevalent during the pandemic when our spoken words mainly flowed from our fingers and direct eye contact was via a Zoom screen.

Dorcas Seb is a confident and accomplished artist who creates an engrossing audience experience. The production feels genuinely immersive and the seating layout brings the audience so close to Seb it’s as if they too are awaiting induction into this new dystopian world. As a performer she seems to effortlessly move between dance, spoken word, song and some wickedly good characterisations. As she morphs into her Boss and gives a sassy, evangelical spiel to the new recruits, she really brings the character alive. There is a wonderful physicality to her performance and likewise when she sings her voice is rich and pure moving from spoken word to disco to RnB without flaw.

Dorcas Seb in Vice Versa. Image by Robin Clewley

Vice Versa takes us to a world where the Welfare State no longer exists and the Welt-exe state governs our thoughts and actions. Working hard and being a good citizen is rewarded with a repetitive bliss created by the experiences purchased when codes are currency and real dreams are a thing of the past. The world as perceived by Seb’s alter ego Xella is not exactly unpleasant in its familiarity and routine but her character is increasingly aware of her isolation and lack of human connectivity. 17 hour work days are interspersed with subway journeys, state infomercials and moments of joy when plugged into code REM where Xella momentarily can play Grandma’s Footsteps among the pixilated trees. It is during one of her journeys into artificial REM that the code glitches and her unwavering acceptance of this dystopian reality is challenged. Suddenly there are questions to be answered but no one to answer them…simply a quietly ruthless invitation to reboot or risk being ostracised as a crossed out.

Xella charts her own course and removes her digital collar to suddenly look up at the blue sky and the birds. Her redemptive journey is about connection and being in the moment. For the Crossed outers this may be an evangelical connection with Christ…for others it may be simply about living in the moment and being fully present with ourselves and others. However you choose to express your connectivity in the world Vice Versa is certainly a cautionary tale and we would all be wise to still connect to the digital world but start thinking about how we use it and not how it uses us.

HOME Theatre 1st and 2nd July 2022

Unity Theatre Friday 8th July 2022

OH MOTHER

Small Theatres

Abbi Greenland ,Helen Goalen and Simone Seales. Image by The Other Richard

Devised by Helen Goalen, Abbi Greenland, Penny Greenland and Simone Seales

Composed by Becky Wilkie and Simone Seales

HOME

Rashdash has been a hive of creativity and productivity in recent years. In the midst of Covid lockdowns they produced shows Don’t Go Back To Sleep about the pandemic and Look At Me Don’t Look At Me about Pre-Raphaelite artist and muse Lizzie Siddall. while also producing several babies. New show Oh Mother was originally in the making pre- pandemic but was delayed due to funding issues, covid and subsequent pregnancies. It seems oddly fitting that when it finally reaches the stage all three core members of Rashdash are now mothers.

Oh Mother is brimming over with ideas and creativity that spills out the like the vivid ball pit balls that litter the opening sequence. Fittingly the stage is initially hidden by a curtain haphazardly erected to screen the audience from the mayhem on stage. There are apologies from Abbi Greenland and Helen Goalen who both appear dressed like Grecian goddesses and whose studied poses exemplify the glorification of Motherhood in classical art. As the curtain falls away the disarray is all too visible. The gleaming, sleek stage is littered with plastic balls, toys and ikea beakers. As they frantically tidy up this unflinching look at motherhood also includes the tidying away of blood soaked maternity pads and disposable birthing sheets. Either side of the stage is a cello played by Simone Seales whose music flows and spikes like hormonal surges and a glossy dishwasher which is the subject of choral hymn. The glittering raised backdrop is a gorgeous light display of the word BABY which is used creatively throughout the show. The set design by Oli Townsend and lighting design by Katharine Williams are really striking and incredibly effective.

Helen Goalen and Abbi Greenland. Image by The Other Richard

The show is structured around sketches and songs and movement that all explore what it is to be a mother and to be mothered and the expectations and assumptions Society makes around what it means to have a vagina and be potentially capable of building another human being. It also explores mothering from the cradle to the grave as dementia means that many of us become mothers to our own mothers when they require the same care they gave us as babies.

Abbi Greenland. Image by The Other Richard

There are poignant moments as Goalen and Greenland reflect on those who don’t have their babies any more or who never got to meet them while recognising the vital importance of saying something rather than being silent on the subject. Goalen grapples with the tension between couples when a new baby redefines her relationship, while Greenland reflects on navigating friendships where one is now a parent and the other is not. Seales who is non binary experiences nightmarish sequences where they are under threat from a mother who has rigid stereotypical views of women and hilariously meets their own vagina in the form of Greenland dressed as a swashbuckling, baby demanding Don Giovanni as Goalen feverishly ejects baby dolls through the vee of the A in BABY. Interspersed are conversations with the unseen Penny Greenland who looked after her own mother Hannah for 7 years. The other performers play her and her mother giving a wonderful flavour of generations of wit, wisdom, joy and despair.

This really does feel like vintage Rashdash (even though I miss Becky Wilkie on stage) with witty acerbic songs on how to make motherhood sexy despite the shit under your nails and underneath your maternity pants being unwashed and unwaxed. There are golden cherubic babies strapped to bosoms, Daddy bear costumes, playful toddler games and desperate pleas to tyrannical babies who have left them feeling like dried out husks. There is undoubted strength as their dance trained bodies are still strong and limber as they move fluidity around the set. There is joy and adoration as these mothers embrace their new roles while still wanting to have the time to fuck around and leave a trail of beautiful men wondering what went wrong. If they can produce work like this with the infamous fevered baby brains then there is no doubt that these clever, witty women are just hitting their stride

Abbi Greenland and Simone Seales. Image by The Other Richard

Oh Mother is rather like a projectile vomit of creative ideas, it is gloriously messy and frantic and for some it may seem too busy with too much crammed into 90 minutes. Personally I loved the energy and passion. It perfectly summed up the cacophony in your head that is early motherhood when your pre-existing neuroses get magnified fifty-fold and you are chronically sleep deprived so fact and fantasy merge. As Greenland and Goalen acknowledge there is a lot going on…but perhaps just like their babies they have birthed something really special.

HOME 12th -28th May 2022

Tobacco Factory Theatres with MAYK Bristol 21 -25th June 2022

Soho Theatre 19th July- 13th August 2022

Between Tiny Cities

Dance, Hip Hop, Small Theatres

Aaron Lim and Erak Mith. Image credit Prudence Upton

Devised and Directed by Nick Power

CONTACT THEATRE

Between Tiny Cities is the creative vision of Australian hip hop dance artist and choreographer Nick Power. He has previously worked with Aboriginal communities, and his other productions have included works such as Two Crews which brought together Sydney’s Riddim Nation and from Paris, all female crew Lady Rocks. This interest in exploring diverse cultures, languages and geography through conversations in dance has culminated in the four year project that is Between Tiny Cities. This production brings together Darwin company D*City Rockers and Tiny Toones from Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

Dancers Erak Mith and Aaron Lim square up to each other in the centre of a circle surrounded by their audience. Will this be a classic hip-hop dance battle, a war of clashing cultures or miscommunication due to language barriers, a fight of masculine prowess or even some form of mating game? Will these two young men find a commonality within this dance space? Being in such close proximity to the performers means the audience get a real sense of connection to the dancers. We see up close the glistening sweat on their bodies and the wary looks that later warm and then become humorous and collaborative.

At one point the dance moves from street dance styles that are similar filled with young male posturing and impudent intensity to the commonality of two breathlessAt CONTACT Theatre 10th -12th May 2022CONTACT THEATRE 10th-12th May 2022, exhausted performers who simply sit down and share water. This shift in pace cleverly brings the men together as their breathing synchronises. This is also when Erak Mith steps out of the circle to briefly sit in the audience as though to say we are all one…we breathe and we need water to survive…these are universal needs.

The sound design by Jack Prest and lighting design by Brosco Shaw work perfectly with the choreography as the dancers change pace, explore each others style and learn from each other before merging and forming a new shared style. The spotlight focus on Lim and Mith highlights the differences and the similarities but as the lights warm and mute down towards the closing sequence. There is a dreamy quality as movements become increasingly obscured and finally it is simply two young men inhabiting and sharing the same space. As this piece moves through the rituals of their individual cultural experiences and their shared knowledge of hip hop dance culture, we witness a sharing of journeys and styles leading to a genuine appreciation of each other.

CONTACT THEATRE 10TH-12TH MAY 2022

Spinach

Small Theatres

Charlotte Linighan and Joe Parker as Kate and Joe.

Written and Directed by Janine Waters

Music and Lyrics by Simon Waters

The Edge

It’s not often you take your seat in the theatre by walking past an attractive young couple drugged and tied up in a hostage situation. Last night was certainly a first for me. As the show begins and its clear that every word of dialogue is sung and that halloumi kebabs rather than spinach are going to be integral to the plot…well its fair to say I’m experiencing a little trepidation. It wears off quicker than the drugs being administered on stage as I’m swept up in this rollicking yarn about kebabs, buses, romance and pharmaceuticals.

Janine Waters and Simon Waters debuted Spinach ten years ago at the Royal Exchange so it’s rather fitting that they are reviving the production to celebrate the tenth birthday of the beautiful boutique theatre The Edge in Chorlton which they established with Dom Waters. Spinach doesn’t fit any clear theatrical genre and feels quite unique, but all the way through it I kept thinking that Victoria Wood would rejoice at being in the audience for this production. The show exudes a playfulness and energy that perfectly reflect its co-creators. Fizzing with witty lines and confident direction Spinach is further enhanced by the scoring which is just delightful; this is feelgood theatre entertainment at its best.

The cast of four play off each other perfectly and each character feels well crafted and fleshed out. Fresh out of drama school Charlotte Linighan really shines as hostage Kate. She brings both sweet innocence and an impish humour that is wonderfully engaging as she plays off Joe Parker as Tom. The onstage chemistry between them is impressive given that a lot of their time on stage has them tied together back to back. Craig Whittaker and Rachael McGuinness are both perfectly cast and ensure that their characters Darren and Maureen are likely to be permanently etched in memory like any great comedy double act.

Spinach is a delightfully bonkers story about how we can find love in the most unlikely places. This is a confident production which really is a pleasure to watch. Perfect entertainment in a beautifully refurbished theatre that is quite simply a great night out.

The Edge 30th Nov – 18th Dec 2021