Theatre – Live Art Alive

THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE

Based on the novel by C.S. Lewis

Based on the original production by Sally Cookson

Directed by Michael Fentiman

Leeds Playhouse

I still have all The Chronicles of Narnia books from when the they were given to me as a child. I remember being told the famous writer came from Northern Ireland and Narnia was inspired by our local landscape. A child’s imagination paints their own rich and unique vision from the words on the page. This theatrical adaptation directed by Michael Fentiman certainly delivers on both an epic and touchingly intimate level. The setting of the stage in The Quarry Theatre works beautifully. The opening scene is a lone soldier clad in his great coat and steel helmet quietly playing piano below a huge clock face. As the cast slowly gather on stage to the strains of We’ll Meet Again, the scene is set to meet the four siblings being evacuated during WWII who are heading for not only an unknown place in Scotland but a magical trip through a wardrobe that will lead to Narnia.

The four adult actors who play the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve do a good job of evoking the children. Joanne Adaran and Jesse Dunbar exude decency and earnestness as the elder Susan and Peter. Bunmi Osadolar gives Edmund all the sullen intensity and greedy spitefulness of an angry young boy while Kudzai Mangombe really shines as the pure hearted Lucy, The Bringer of Light.

Alfie Richards charms as Mr Tumnus the kindly fawn, and Ed Thorpe and Anya de Villiers are excellent as Mr and Mrs Beaver helping to lead the resistance in Narnia. Stanton Wright is the noble human face of Aslan the lion and Kraig Thornber is wonderful as the wise and benevolent Professor. The star of the show is Katy Stephens who is magnificent as The Snow Queen. Every second on stage she oozes imperious cruelty as she tries to hold her power over Narnia. As Aslan returns bringing Spring and her power starts to ebb away, she ramps up her evil ways shearing the mighty lion and wearing his pelt as a war trophy.

The set and costume design by Tom Paris is gorgeous. Sumptuous costumes for the Snow Queen create drama and some spellbinding moments especially when she rises up over Narnia floating with gauze robes descending ethereally across the stage as the snow falls steadily. Set changes are so smooth and fluid that they ramp up the magic as one moment Lucy is in the cosy woodland home of Mr Tumnus and the next she joins her siblings at a the dining table for kippers with The Professor.

The puppetry by Toby Oliver and Max Humphries gives Aslan an ancient feel as this is no cuddly lion but a rather an ancient creature that almost seems like a terracotta warrior. Schrodinger the cat has the mangy look of an elderly beast and is imbued with all the character of a wise old family cat. The puppetry merges seamlessly with the human performances and the magic and illusions by Chris Fisher to give the production all the wow factor to be expected from a big West End production. Many of the cast are multi instrumentalists and the music by Barnaby Race and Benji Bower has a folky, whimsical feel with elements that feel like klezmer music.

The overall feel of this production is just beautiful. The deeply Christian and moral background to this story by C.S. Lewis is always present with its battle of good over evil and the redemptive journey for Edmund coupled with the willing sacrifice by Aslan and his subsequent resurrection. They may hark back to a better, possibly more noble era but as we approach another Christmas and a beckoning new year there is a certain comfort to be taken from being reminded that good can overcome evil if we unite together like the beasts of Narnia.

Leeds Playhouse 18th November 2024 – 25th January 2025

Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz

Theatre

Nathan Queeley-Dennis
Image credit: Mihaela Bodlovic

Written and Performed by Nathan Queeley-Dennis

Directed by Dermot Daly

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE

In 2022 I watched an excerpt from this winner of the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting at the Royal Exchange Theatre. It felt fresh and vibrant and the words seemed to come alive in the space. Receiving the award was actor and first time playwright Nathan Queeley-Dennis who also seemed to bounce unto the stage with an unbridled joy and enthusiasm. Two years on via a highly successful reception at the Edinburgh Fringe and midway through a national tour Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz revisits this stage and owns it with all the surety and panache of a worthy winner.

This one hour monologue celebrates the writers’ home city of Birmingham as Queeley-Dennis brings to life his local barbershop, the call centre where he works and his favourite rum bar via dark Techno clubs and rooftop vistas at dawn. Watching this performance in the round is like witnessing a masterclass in how to deftly work the room as an accomplished stand up comedian. Fluid delivery and perfect timing ensure that every carefully crafted line lands exactly as intended. There is a vivid poetry in scenes that describe his almost erotic connection with his barber or his cautious stepping into the world of his beloved Techno which has been appropriated and whitewashed. Dotted through this monologue are carefully placed options in his life that include picking from a trio of emergency barbers or a trio of emergency toilet states. They all in their own way allude to a sense of anxiety or otherness at odds in this seemingly happy well adjusted guy in his mid twenties.

Nathan is an Arts graduate working in a call centre and trying to date but this is a man whose passion to create is being increasingly dulled by his workplace environment. His serial dating is not that of a heartless predator but a man on a mission to find the “one”…or at least the one who shares a name with a member of Destiny’s Child and has well moisturised elbows. His forays into the world of dating are both painfully funny or bittersweet and at times involve placing his heart in the hands of emotional terrorists. When he finally lands a date with a woman who might just be perfect for him, the audience are routing for this charming young man but the sudden shift in pace suggest his happy ending may not be on a rooftop overlooking his beloved Birmingham but may indeed yet be as a Brummie Basquiat.

Under the care of Director Dermot Daly who clearly relishes every word of this well crafted script, Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz sings on every level. Whether in the cleverly placed soundbites of songs from Destiny’s Child or Queeley-Dennis delivering some high energy rapping or musing on the nature of strawberries and owls to the faint trace of Stan Getz there is a musicality to this production that will play in your head long after leaving the theatre.

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE 28th-30th October 2024

National Tour dates

WRESTLELADSWRESTLE

Theatre

Created and Performed by Jennifer Jackson

Outside Eye Sarah Frankcom

HOME

Theatre 2 in HOME is pulsing with energy during this new production devised by Jennifer Jackson with the assistance of fellow performer Simon Carroll Jones (Head of Movement at The Arden). The stage is piled up with thick wrestling mats which are later moved to reveal a full drum kit on which Isobel Odelola punches out a mean beat. Jackson was the under 50kg British Judo Champion at age 15 and seems to have lost little of her energy and prowess. Mixing dance movements and judo moves, the narrative weaves strands of storytelling from Jackson’s childhood involving a racist event and a scenario involving a drunken incident at a taxi rank with segments of teaching self defence Judo moves to an actual girl gang. The result packs a punch as the production explores racism and oppression while asking why women continue to be so unsafe on the streets and in their homes that they still need self defense classes to protect themselves.

Jackson is a gifted storyteller who vividly evokes 1980s Coventry and transports the audience to the sales queue in C&A as she and her petite Bolivian mother wait their turn. Loops of this scenario repeat sometimes featuring a red-faced angry man and eventually an angry white woman with the young Jackson witnessing her Mother being subjected to a racist attack. At times the scenario involves the performer challenging this unprovoked oppressive behaviour with a samurai sword or verbally making the aggressor see the error of their ways and apologise or sees the child get away with some ribald swearing in defence of her mother. The more prosaic actual truth of standing in silence and shame in the store queue has clearly shaped Jackson as a person and was also the catalyst to having judo training as a young girl. The other incident is also told from a range of perspectives. At times it is a funny story of fighting off a drunken woman trying to jump the queue at a late night taxi rank. In one instance she is celebrated as a feisty woman who pours a pint over the other woman and taunts her that she is a judo champion but when the tale loops again it has a darker edge suggesting the other woman’s vulnerability and desperation to get in a cab just to get home safely.

There are some lovely pieces of movement involving Jackson and Carroll Jones that see judo moves blend with elements of traditional Bolivian dance and Old Holywood dance routines which at times shift into an insidious violence of choke holds. The petite Anglo-Bolivian theatre-maker spars with her rather Aryan looking partner and teaches judo moves with clear instructions to her girl gang and the audience. The energy and pace of the piece is propelled by the drum beat and hi energy moments such as when Jackson wrestles a sex doll and pummels every inch of air out of it so it resembles a ragdoll. It presents as entertainment with the girl gang braying encouragement but as with so many implied undercurrents in this production there is something deeply unsettling about the casually discarded limp body lying on the stage.

By the end of the production the stage is filled with women all capable of felling the hapless judo assistant Simon. This is clearly celebrating safety in numbers and pure girl power as Jackson is surrounded by their communal embrace. There is a lot to like in this production and WRESTLELADSWRESTLE also benefits from some punchy captioning by Sarah Readman and live action video design from idontloveyouanymore that add a cartoon element to the work with all the BEEPS and GONGS flashing up onscreen. There are however some staging issues such as although the drum kit is raised up and highly visible, the piece also features a lot of floor work which is not always easy to see unless sat in the very front rows. Overall Jackson delivers a message of self defense training as empowerment and a worthy alternative to standing silently in a queue if no one comes to your aid.

HOME 3rd – 12th October 2024

I Bought A Flip Phone

Theatre

Written and Performed by Panos Kandunias

HOME MCR

Charlie is a thinker, in fact Charlie is an over thinker with time on his hands to get lost in a vortex of thoughts and possibilities. Do we really need a deluge of social media, chat groups and notifications coming at us through our smart phones? Do we really need to see another one person theatre show examining their quarter century angst? Writer/Performer Panos Kandunias sits centre stage on a low stool and sets the bar high for answering these questions amongst others in a mere 60 mins. This ambitious premise may partly account for the rapid fire delivery throughout the production but thankfully Kandunias is an assured and charming performer who keeps his audience thoroughly engaged.

Charlie is planning his 27th birthday party on a Nokia Flip Phone while admitting to not having had a party since his 13th birthday when he had food at Nandos followed by a sleepover. He has a long gone dick of a dad, a neurotic but well meaning Mum, a best friend called Phoebe and a potential new boyfriend called Tate and a demanding job as a corporate assistant. It all sounds pretty fine and perfectly normal yet there are all the signposts leading to a crossroads where Charlie finds himself depressed, lonely and dissatisfied with his life. His rejection of his smartphone is an attempt to self soothe by avoiding screen time watching his friends and acquaintances lead seemingly perfect lives on social media. Charlie is feeling lost and adrift in a world where we text or scroll because it’s less scary than chatting on the phone or God forbid actually meeting in person.

The production is stripped back to literally a bloke and a phone but it’s a highly effective directorial decision as it brings the humanity into sharp focus. Alone on stage Kandunias can dance perfectly to Dua Lipa and be a bitchy, slightly petulant, pretty boy but can equally be vulnerable, lost and scared as he navigates his late Twenties. I bought a Flip Phone neatly and poignantly illustrates many of the issues and life stressors that bring so many people of this age into therapy. Charlie might have ditched his smartphone but he is still just as addicted to every ring and ping of the old phone beside him and what they tell him about his value to himself and the people he cares about. Friendships often change or flatmates move cities, expectations of where we should be in life are nudging our psyche like an incessant notification alert and we may have expected to have found “the one” only to find that we can’t even locate a dating app we want to stay faithful to! This short, bittersweet production neatly sums up quarter century angst and as Charlie’s voice cracks a little as he chats to his Mum about his favourite childhood food, it reminds us all of the importance of real human connection.

HOME 11th – 14th September 2024

ROBIN/RED/BREAST

Headphones, Immersive Theatre, Theatre

Adapted from Robin Redbreast by John Griffith Bowen

Writer Daisy Johnson

Co-Creators Maxine Peake, Sarah Frankcom and Imogen Knight

Director Sarah Frankcom

NORTH WAREHOUSE, AVIVA STUDIOS

ROBIN/RED/BREAST continues the highly successful collaboration between Factory International and Maxine Peake, Sarah Frankcom and Imogen Knight which began in 2013 with The Masque Of Anarchy. Last year’s Manchester International Festival saw Peake in a reading of the dystopian 70’s novel They which further cemented her artistic reputation as an accomplished actress and a beguilingly natural storyteller. This time the artistic team behind the new production company MAAT (Music, Art, Activism and Theatre) re-examine Robin Redbreast which first featured on the BBC in 1970 as part of the iconic Play For Today series. This piece of folk horror is uncomfortably pertinent as women are once again having to fight for their bodily autonomy and the right to make our own reproductive choices.

For any of us who grew up in a rural community there is an absolute normal in the strangeness of folklore and ritual. Cures handed down by the seventh son of a seventh son and sneaked into hospitals by desperate relatives or teenagers spat on and then blessed by a total stranger living in a remote house up the mountain as a cure for chickenpox were not at all unusual…or perhaps my upbringing was not as mundane as I have presumed. The Seventies produced a plethora of folk horror stories focusing on rural rituals especially around fertility and sacrifice which coincided with huge social revolutions for women around contraception and abortion. In this production Norah played by Maxine Peake is an independent woman who feels confident about her own choices regarding relationships, family and career. Choosing to opt out of city life after a relationship breakdown she finds herself alone in a cottage seeped in history where the rustling of mice and the whirr of wasps seem to open up crevices in time through the ancient walls. As we listen on headphones to Norah’s thoughts it is clear her sense of her own identity may be being threatened by sinister elements in the community around her.

Maxine Peake and Tyler Cameron in ROBIN/RED/BREAST at AVIVA STUDIOS.
Photo credit: Tristram Kenton

The staging by Lizzie Clachan is stunning in its simplicity. Walking into the cool dimness of the North Warehouse with its huge ceiling, the wooden frame of the cottage nestled on a rich earth floor feels like magically coming across a forest cathedral. All pathways leads toward it and staged in the round with audience on benches it exudes the feeling of a natural amphitheatre. The audience don headphones and are immersed in the sound of birdsong, scuttling mice and the thoughts that come racing through Norah’s mind as loneliness, lust and looming fears begin to creep in like the bindweed that invades the sanctity and safety of her cottage walls. When the febrile dancing abates and the cottage is suddenly ripped away there is nothing left but the dank, rich earth of Mother Nature merging with the prone form of Norah asleep on the forest floor.

The music by Gazelle Twin blends beautifully with the dreamy poetry of writer Daisy Johnson who has also worked on Viola’s Room, the latest immersive production by Punchdrunk. There is a very surreal feel to this production further enhanced by elements such as a female brass band who silently observe Norah and are clad in vivid red and white band uniforms that may evoke a group of Robin Redbreasts yet also a female army who may or may not protect Norah from impending threat. The langorous choreography by Imogen Knight adds to the atmosphere as we observe Norah like a character from a fairytale awaking in this cottage, going about her chores and coupling in the woods with a handsome forester.

Maxine Peake draws in the audience as she moves around her cottage home, suitably vexed as she scrubs menstrual blood from her bedsheets and later perplexed as her contraceptive cup has seemingly vanished. Listening to her flurry of thoughts through headphones makes for a potent connection to the character so when she finally speaks aloud to the audience it feels like we might really know Norah or indeed perhaps Maxine. This could be any woman and that is where the true fear lies…rising like the torrent of water that threatens to wash away homes, hopes and security like a deluge of miscarriage blood or the tumultuous waters that may drown a mother or her child in a flimsy refugee boat.

Peake is at her very best when speaking directly with an urgent softness that evokes inclusion and intimacy. Huddled in a circle on blankets the young women silently listen as she speaks of abortion choices, miscarriage traumas and the brutality of the lottery that occurs everyday in a maternity unit. Women bleed whether they abort, miscarry or give birth. They do not know if they will love unconditionally or struggle to feel anything or veer between fierce love and the overwhelming desire to put him down…whatever that may mean at any one time. In such a lottery of joy and despair it is terrifying enough to be a woman without additionally fearing others may try to enforce their choices and beliefs on us.

AVIVA STUDIOS 15th – 26th May 2024

The Legend Of Ned Ludd

Theatre

Written by Joe Ward Munrow

Directed by Jude Christian

LIVERPOOL EVERYMAN

The Legend Of Ned Ludd is the first of three homegrown productions celebrating sixty years of the Liverpool Everyman. Joe Ward Munrow, as a graduate of the theatre’s playwright programme, delivers a confident, \ exhilarating piece of theatre. This is a play about people, the work they do and the impact of automation. The story pivots around Nottingham in 1816 and The Luddites who sought to destroy the first machines of the industrial revolution as they witnessed the decimation of their working lifestyle as they had known it. In this production the workers/actors are at the mercy of a machine which randomly selects most of the scenes from a possible 256 permutations. The three actors on stage have to respond to whatever is thrown at them, necessitating quick fire moves through the centuries and across the globe.

The staging by Hazel Low has a suitably stark, industrial feel with the central structure containing the tubes through which flow the balls that determine scenes…a bit like the old National Lottery show. The bright blue and yellow is suggestive of IKEA and the brown cardboard boxes of props and costumes relative to each scene roll down conveyor belts allude to an Amazon warehouse. Larger props rise up through the floor aided by the invisible unheralded workers in the pit of the theatre. As the scenes evolve through the production the numbers of balls in the perspex boxes silently grow and by the end of the play’s run may well overflow.

Menyee Lai and Reuben Johnson in The Legend Of Ned Ludd at Liverpool Everyman
Image credit: Marc Brenner

Tonight’s show opens in Detroit in 2016 where a multinational is slashing wages and staff are holding yard sales and fearing bad weather will render them unable to get to work as they don’t earn enough to repair their car. Next up is Liverpool 1985 where a painter and decorator tries to embue his apprentice with a sense of pride in a job well done. Paris 1844 shows Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels discussing the politics of labour and the human condition. Other vignettes include a prison in China where one inmate who is a writer has mysteriously disappeared, another alludes to a possible trans identity and his poignant desire to just be pretty. The enforced work is relentless and includes gaming to earn gold coins for the Prison Overseer…automation means these prisoners do mind breaking work unlike the old chain gangs who endured backbreaking labour. A school in Lagos 2018 has school children reflecting on a shift in history from BC to AD that is now about BI to AI that is After Internet rather that artificial intelligence.

Some vignettes are more substantial than others but together they build a sense of the worldwide human experience. The THEN/NOW piece is very powerful where the rhetoric becomes robustly poetic and Reuben Johnson delivers this piece with real passion and an innate sense of beat and rhythm. The production is interspersed with pieces about The Luddite movement in Nottingham 1816 where the machine breaking is gathering pace and the risk to life for the protesters is becoming ever more real. The closing scenes are beautifully evoked and the final moments are perfectly pitched and incredibly moving. Each actor like a good team of workers bring their individual skills to the production and complement each other. The three actors play multiple characters that include Menyee Lai as an exhausted, keening prisoner to Shaun Mason as a despondent worker with limited options struggling to make ends meet and Reuben Johnson as an articulate working class man at the heart of the Luddite movement driven to suicide by cop.

Emerging from this production, work is suddenly everywhere from the words of the playwright whether composed with pad and pen or by fingers flickering across a laptop to the choreography on stage, the actor’s sweat and passion, to the staff at the Everyman lighting the stage or pouring the interval drinks, to the Uber driver picking up theatre goers after the show, to the reviewer noting down their thoughts. Some work is poorly paid or unpaid, some is fair and some may well be obscenely overpaid. Work can bring satisfaction and a sense of achievement or simply be a means to an end or be enforced drudgery but by its very nature it can hopefully also help bring structure and give us an identity and autonomy. As the play gathers momentum one corner of the back of the stage slowly starts to fill with the detritus of used and discarded props from past scenes giving a subtle sense of our growing landfill problem from our throwaway culture caused by an increasingly mechanised world and a growing surplus of sweatshop workers desperate for and reliant on a pittance wage. If the eponymous Ned Ludd was here today and could access Google translate he would probably say Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Liverpool Everyman 20th April – 11th May 2024

Little Women

Theatre

Written by Louisa May Alcott

Adapted by Anne-Marie Casey

Directed by Brigid Larmour

HOME in association with Pitlochry Festival Theatre

HOME

First published in 1868 this well loved American semi-autobiographical classic tells the story of four sisters who are navigating their teens as they each grapple with what it means to become Little Women. Set during the American Civil War the story unfolds as their mother Marmee holds the home together while their father is off to war and this genteel family adjust to becoming impoverished.

Anne-Marie Casey keeps faithful to the original text while managing to include the main events of the original and its follow-up Little Wives. The focus is firmly on Alcott’s main themes of domesticity, work and true love as the sisters navigate supporting each other financially within the constraints of New England society while deciding if it’s ever possible to marry both for love and financial security.

This is a great piece in that it puts women at its forefront with a range of interesting roles. In this adaptation it is stripped back to just eight actors with six of them women. The ever wonderful Susan Twist does an inspired turn as Aunt March. Imperious and acidic, she is a force to be reckoned with as this elegant patrician attempts to maintain standards for one of New England’s finest families. Kacey Ainsworth is a fine actress who looks perfectly cast as Marmee but at times feels under used and constrained by either the script or Brigid Larmour‘s considered direction. She exudes love and patience as she tries to be a good mother and a dutiful wife and neighbour while worrying about the financial future of her brood.

Susan Twist and Rachael McAllister as Aunt March and Jo in Little Women at HOME.
Image credit: Chris Payne

The sisters are led by Jo who sees herself as rough and wild. She is the aspiring writer who wants home and hearth to remain unchanged forever and her character is based on Alcott herself. Rachael McAllister plays her with passionate enthusiasm giving free rein to Jo’s impetuousity and bad temper as well as her fierce love of family. However there are times when her gauche clumsiness and mulish ways veer too much towards the huffiness of a difficult child and get in the way of taking her seriously as the writer and woman she is attempting to become. Jessica Brydges as Meg seems less conceited than in the original text so her journey to contented marriage with the impoverished but honourable John seems less dramatically interesting. Meg Chaplin is utterly believable as the delicate and docile Beth and her piano playing and singing add a lovely additional element to this production. The youngest and traditionally least likeable sister is Amy who has the most growing up to do. Actress Julia Brown really shines as she delivers a performance that allows her character to grow from a petulant and vindictive child to a worldly and emotionally wise young woman who is ultimately a much better wife for Laurie than Jo could have ever been.

Daniel Francis Swaby gives Laurie plenty of charm and a laconic wit. He has a winsome energy and at times an emotional intelligence that sometimes seems at odds with his attachment for Jo but make for a vibrant addition to the pacing of this production when he is on stage. Tom Richardson plays John Brooks and Professor Bhaer giving both men real decency, compassion and humour. He is especially good as he mentors Jo in New York as the exiled German Professor who passionately believes in the power and importance of The Arts.

Daniel Francis Swaby as Laurie in Little Women at HOME. Image credit: Chris Payne

The set design by Ruari Murchison is visually striking as the tall fine birches of New England stand strong whether in snowy woodland, winter ice skating or in the March home or streets of New York. The staging is simple but ambitious and effective. However the use of several main props so close to the front and sides of the stage may make for tricky sight lines for some audience members. The stage is beautifully lit and the subtle use of sound such as the ticking clock, crackling of ice on a lake or the peal of bells as war ends is a genius touch by Niroshini Thambar.

The script and the thoughtful direction by Brigid Larmour makes for an enjoyable production peppered with moments of warm humour, a depth of love and genuine pathos and despair that reflect real family life both now and in the time Alcott was writing about her Little Women. There are times when the slow pace can be frustrating but as a well rendered piece of nostalgia for the stage this production has much to recommend it.

HOME 8th – 23rd December 2023

FIND YOUR EYES

Dance, Photography, Theatre

Concept,Direction, Photography and Text by Benji Reid

Dramaturg Keisha Thompson

MANCHESTER ACADEMY

Part of Manchester International Festival

It is always good to see the work of local artists showcased at Manchester International Festival. It is absolutely brilliant when you see one of those local artists produce work that is so exciting and memorable that it easily becomes a highpoint of the Festival. Such is the case with FIND YOUR EYES as self-styled Choreo-Photolist Benji Reid skillfully blends the artforms of choreography, photography and music together in this new work. Set in a music venue this show is simply breathtaking on every level. At barely three minutes in there is a palpable feeling that this is something really special and when it ends 90 minutes later the standing ovation is immediate and resounding.

Benji Reid was originally a highly successful hip hop and popping dancer who worked with Soul II Soul before establishing his own dance company Breaking Cycles. His extensive dance knowledge and choreography skills are evident in this new work which showcases his skill as an award winning photographer. The focus of his work is primarily the Black British experience, Black masculinity and mental health and this production takes a deeply personal and unflinching look at abortion, suicidal thoughts and other family traumas.

It is absolute magic that abounds through this production. The audience is literally looking over Reid’s shoulder as he works softly coaxing expressions or poses from the performers. The imperceptible click of the camera shutter as resulting images appear on the screens. Lights are moved, fans blow, foil crinkles to make light dance or prism…the trick of his trade are unveiled and it feels awesome and exciting. The palpable thrill of being so intimately connected to this artform as the work emerges is genuinely thrilling.

The show opens with Reid tooling up with camera equipment, his back to the audience with vast projection screens either side of him. A bell rings once and so it begins…three Acts featuring intimate portraits, dancers showcasing everyday objects such as charging cables elevated to futuristic headpieces, a pole dancer morphing into a human kite and a deus ex machina bringing salvation to a pain ridden mother. The set design by Ti Green opens out with every Act to bring new possibilities like a box of magic tricks.

The three performers on stage embody grace and strength and fluidity. Slate Hemedi and Salomé Pressac are wonderfully present in every tiny movement they make whether it is being gently molded to hold a seemingly untenable position or to soar with balletic grace. Dutch Pole Dance champion Yvonne Smink adds to this otherworldly imagery by appearing to literally soar and fly off the pole. The whole performance is peppered with moments that make the audience gasp in wonder.

Benji Reid and Dramaturg Keisha Thompson have worked together in 2017 when he directed her one woman show Man On The Moon. The trust relationship is evident in the very personal natural of the text and content of this work. Moments when he speaks of his own trauma and that of his Mother when her body is devastated by a stroke are rendered here with sensitivity and tenderness. The whole feel of this production is of exploring the ritual of dance and photography in a way that feels prayer like and redemptive. The magic of animating life-force, building a moment and capturing it as a permanent image. This work like so much of the artists’ soars, Reid says of his work…”it’s like – not how do you fly, but why? Ask me why I’m flying.” FIND YOUR EYES is a beautiful exploration of human spirit whether we fly by choice or simply when we are momentarily untethered in this world.

Manchester International Festival 12 -16 JULY 2023

BENJI REID

The Faggots And Their Friends Between Revolutions

Musical, Theatre

Music by Philip Venables

Wtiting and Direction by Ted Huffman

Based on novel by Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta

HOME

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions achieved cult status since Larry Mitchell self published in 1977. In a world where acceptance and compassion can flow generously and hopefully then quickly appear to ebb away again, this new production feels timely as LGBTQIA+ rights and safety seems to be worryingly under threat. The blending of a wide range of musical styles, instruments and voices are a carousing anthem for unity and change. A high point of this performance is Kit Green breaking the fourth wall to bring the whole audience together in song. There is a palpable sense of unified passion as everyone literally sings from the same hymn sheet. The word Faggot is cherished here and used with real love in this celebration of queerness and the revolutionary attitude to male patriarchal society required to achieve self-determination.

This is the third collaboration between Composer Philip Venables and Writer/Director Ted Huffman. This new opera commissioned by Factory International is one of the touring productions which premieres at HOME before going to festivals in France and Austria. Previous work includes a highly disturbing opera production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis which apparently induced panic attacks in some of the audience members. Here there is a warmth and generosity in the music that is playful and highly engaging. The Faggots are alongside the faeries, the faggatinas and the women who love women. The music here has opera sitting alongside baroque, bossa nova, and club music. Fifteen musicians, singers, dancers and actors play multiple instruments from lutes and accordions to violins and viola da gambas. The score vividly evokes the sexually charged urgency as magic cock fluid is ejaculated, the folky sense of campfire singing in a Commune and the euphoria of a drug fuelled club night.

The history of the patriarchal society is told as a subversive fairytale. This story flips the history books and slyly suggests it’s the power and paper hungry men who are the aberrations in Society and its the Faggots and their friends who are the original people. All the performers have their moment in the spotlight with some beautiful virtuoso performances. However it’s the inimitable Kit Green and dancer/choreographer Yandass who primarily tell the story. They are a perfect foil for each other with Green all laconic, fluid elegance and pithy delivery whereas Yandass is a powerhouse of taut, passionate energy.

The stage at HOME looks like a vast black box creating a wonderful sense of looking back in time and seeing these performers in a stripped back way where there are no other visual distractions…they have to be seen…and they are seen…as extraordinary, gifted and ultimately human individuals who will carry on and survive whatever Revolutions are yet to come.

HOME 28 JUNE – 2 JULY

Manchester International Festival 29 JUNE – 16 JULY

NO PAY? NO WAY!

Farce, Theatre

Katherine Pearce and Samantha Power.
Image credit: Johan Persson

Written by Dario Fo and Franca Rame in a new version by Marieke Hardy

Directed by Bryony Shanahan

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE

We are in a cost of living crisis with strikes becoming our everyday norm and inflation seemingly spiralling out of control. Our NHS is haemorrhaging staff and needing more than just life support. Post-Brexit Britain is a joke in the eyes of our European cousins and on the World Stage. Our current government is utterly self-serving and increasingly more fascist. So no time like now for our Royal Exchange to stage the anarchic farce that is NO PAY? NO WAY! Written in the Seventies by world renowned Italian playwright Dario Fo and his wife Franca Rame; this new version by Marieke Hardy was first performed in Sydney in February 2020. Bryony Shanahan could have opted for her last production of this season to be something earnest and sensitive but in choosing this gloriously silly and madcap farce she has struck the perfect mood for so many of us. This a production that celebrates the ridiculous and the absurd while packing in a powerful political rallying call against poverty and injustice.

Cécile Trémolières has created a high energy, hugely entertaining set filled with bright colours, divided up by orange pipes with exits and entrances composed of bright yellow slides and round metal tunnels. It evokes a sense of childlike exuberance that is reminiscent of a scene from Super Mario Brothers blended with the playfulness of early Eighties French cinema. Everything has a cartoonish element from the costume design with actor’s roles spelled out on t-shirts to the fun packaging of foodstuffs. The periscope adds to the sense of industrial workers living in the underbelly of society despite being the very foundation of the economy.

Katherine Pearce as Margarita.
Image credit: Johan Persson

The cast of five work as a tight unit making the slapstick, madcap humour flow seamlessly. They hit all the right beats and keep the pacing of the original play while balancing the new writing in a manner that celebrates Dario Fo while staying fresh and relevant in all its topical references. Samantha Power as Antonia delivers a powerhouse performance as she fizzes with the thrill of revolution and liberating bagfuls of groceries from the local supermarket. Her deft wrong footing of her beleagured hubby resembles a Premier goalscorer as she deflects his concerns and persuades him into believing the most ludicrous suggestions. Katherine Pearce delights as the younger, initially more reticent wife who ends up having to fake a pregnancy to hide the stolen groceries. She really hits her stride in the second act as her character grows in confidence and her anger and desperation yields a polemic speech that ricocheted through the theatre.

The male characters pontificate loudly but in the hands of Marieke Hardy and Director Bryony Shanahan they are as easily outwitted by the women as they have been molded by management. Roger Morlidge gives a gorgeous performance as Giovanni providing a solid foil to Antonia. His eye rolling and hapless brandishing of a fish slice during the birth scene are joyful. The chemistry in the scenes with Gurjeet Singh add to the Chaplinesque qualities of the production…none more than the physical comedy when they are on the non existent travelator and breaking the fourth wall. Anwar Russell flounces through multiple roles delineated by t-shirt logos, a selection of comedy moustaches. His posturing and camp asides are a real pleasure as he gives a hi-octane performance filled with playful charm.

Roger Morlidge and Gurjeet Singh.
Image credit: Johan Persson

Anwar Russell.
Image credit: Johan Persson

This production feels like a real labour of love. The lighting design by Elliott Griggs is playful and adds to the cartoon elements of the humour. The repeated breaking of the fourth wall allows Shanahan to ramp up the comedy and ingeniously add big drama elements to the production including large scale lorry crashes and helicopter swoops which are eluded to but are comically conveyed by responses to supposed theatre staff strikes. It’s a clever twist in this madcap frolic but also deftly illustrates all the theatre staff working behind a big production who sweep up or climb rigging and whose part in creating the magic on stage is usually unseen and unheard. This fun filled production packs a mighty punch as it eviserates those responsible for an unfair and unjust system. There is a system…The system is broken. Thankfully the only thing broken in this production is the fourth wall!!

ROYAL EXCHANGE 12th May – 10th June 2023