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 thewriters’ home city of Birmingham as Queeley-Dennis bringstolifehis 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 deliveringsomehigh 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.
The Importance of Being Earnest at the Royal Exchange Theatre Image credit: Johan Persson
Written by Oscar Wilde
Directed by Josh Roche
ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE
Designer Eleanor Bull may have discarded the elaborate furnishings and overblown costumes usually associated with a production of The Importance of Being Earnest but the exaggerated fakery of the overhanging blossoms and the floofy pink fake garden shrubbery perfectly evokes modern style over substance. Director Josh Roche demonstrates a real love of and clear understanding for Oscar Wilde‘swonderful wit and razor sharp analysis of the human condition. Using a modern setting for this Victorian classic works remarkably well as the allusions to Instagram and our fixation with documenting and exchanging every emotional experience for likes from virtual strangers aligns with Wilde’s enduring satire about what is actually profound and what is truly trivial.
This lively satire has always been a perfect showcase for the verbal dexterity and quicksilver mind of Wilde but here stripped back from all the frills, flounces and posturing is a chance to really listen to the eloquence and depth of the man’s emotional and intellectual process. The first Act sets the scene for Algernon and Jack to establish themselves as the bored city fops who are now seeking something new. Parth Thakerar ably conveys the studied nonchalance and easy arrogance of Algie while Robin Morrissey is all gangly limbs and exudes the nice but slightly dim awkwardness of Jack. Into the mix enters the formidable Lady Bracknell as Abigail Cruttenden who delivers a masterclass portrayal of a character utterly devoid of empathy but terrifying certain of the validity of her every opinion regardless of how misguided or ignorant it may sound.
Abigail Cruttenden as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest at the Royal Exchange Theatre. Image credit: Johan Persson
It is Act 2 where the production really starts to fizz as the two young women who are central to this romantic caper finally meet. In a totally delicious face-off Cecily and Gwendoline oscillate between being “sisters in arms” and ferocious opponents as they both set their sights on marrying a man called Earnest. Phoebe Pryce excels as the initially diffident, decidedly beige daughter of Lady Bracknell whose laser like manic intensity for getting her Earnest is as funny as it is scary. Rumi Sutton as Cecily is every bit the pert, pretty and brattish teenager to win over Algernon. As the two women play a quickfire game of verbal table tennis it descends into thrusting mobile phones like rapiers as they duel for their men and quickly bond again like the Follow/Unfollow/Follow dance of social media relationships.
The other characters are all great foils to the central story and James Quinn playing several roles really ramps up the humour as he determinedly wields an especially noisy espresso machine or meanders across the stage with a leaf blower in the midst of a moment of heightened drama. This delightful romp is the perfect summer production to escape the dodgy weather and the the even dodgier politicians on the campaign trail. Wilde is rightly and gloriously celebrated in this production by Josh Roche, which may be a fresh take but retains all the joy of the original script.
Pooky Quesnel and Carla Henry as Tracey and Cynthia in SWEAT at the Royal Exchange Theatre. Image credit: Helen Murray
Written by Lynn Nottage
Directed by Jade Lewis
ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE
The ongoing cost of living crisis, the resurgence of strike action and current fears around the rise of AI in the creative industry is certainly having an impact on theatre productions across the North West. Currently Liverpool Everyman has The Legend Of Ned Ludd while the Royal Exchange Theatre has opted for a powerful piece by Lynn Nottage which was hailed by the New Yorker as “the first theatrical landmark of the Trump era” after it’s Broadway debut in 2017. SWEAT is a satisfyingly meaty production with strong performances all round that feels topical and relevant but Director Jade Lewis ensures never descends into earnest and preachy.
The play opens in 2008 with two young men attending their parole appointments. One is Aryan blond and boasts the facial tattoos of a white supremacist while the other is his apparent antithesis as a young black man carrying a bible. The play moves back in time to 2000 where we see these same young men are friends and workmates bonded from childhood through their mothers who are also lifelong friends and work colleagues all working in the same steel factory in Reading, Pensylvania. SWEAT zeroes in on the veryhumanstories that emerge when huge economic changes rupture communities, destroy established industries and the resulting fissures rip through friendships and inflame racial prejudice.
The young men are truly their mother’s sons. Of German descent Tracey is a feisty widow whose tough belligerent nature has served her and her son well in the gritty environment of the shopfloor in a steelworks. Pooky Quesnel is utterly believable in this play where all the scenes and dialogue are very naturalistic. She moves from warm and loyal friend to embittered and brittle when for her a lifetime of identity tied up in the workplace fragments into opiod addiction as the steelworks cuts costs by moving its operation to Mexico. Cynthia played by Carla Henry is more measured and like her son, looks beyond the shopfloor and has aspirations for a brighter future.
Kate Kennedy as Jessie with Carla Henry as Cynthia in SWEAT at the Royal Exchange. Image credit: Helen Murray
The other characters give the production warmth and texture. An always excellent Kate Kennedy brings humour and pathos in equal measure as the beauty and local lush who also also works on the shopfloor but dreams of lost opportunities. Jonathan Kerrigan is the kindly bartender who was maimed in an industrial accident at the plant and whose measured views give perspective on this complex narrative. The young Columbian bartender is American born yet like his father cannot get a union card so will only get a foot in the factory door by stepping over the picket lines and with horrific consequences.
The staging by GOOD TEETH is minimalist but effective and the bar setting works well as the social epicentre for the workers to come together to celebrate birthdays and mourn losses and disappointments. The huge concrete blocks that occasionally sway precariously or emit showers of sparks are like an ominous sword of Damacles looming over the factory, it’s workers and indeed American democracy. The use of steel throughout the bar framework is also a neat allusion to the brooding presence of the steelworks.
SWEAT has a steely thread that runs through its narrative. Friendships and community cohesion are at the core of industry… when it thrives so do the people. When those making the big decisions in air-conditioned offices take a wrecking ball to the stability of local industry then those local communities are decimated. SWEAT is a searing indictment of poorly conceived economic decisions and casts a haunting spotlight on the human cost.
Rowan Robinson as Jo and Jill Halfpenny as Helen in A Taste Of Honey at The Royal Exchange Theatre Image credit: Johan Persson
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.
Image credit: Johan Persson
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.
Lizzy Watts as Naomi in SHED:EXPLODED VIEW at the Royal Exchange Theatre.📷Johan Persson
Written by Phoebe Eclair-Powell
Directed by Atri Banerjee
ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE
SHED:EXPLODEDVIEW 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 facewithafork.
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: EXPLODEDVIEW 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.
Conor Glean and Shalisha James-Davis in Romeo & Juliet at The Royal Exchange Theatre Credit: Johan Persson
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.
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!!
Ntombizodwa Ndlovu as Maggie “The Cat” Image credit Helen Murray
Written by Tennessee Williams
Directed by Roy Alexander Weise
Royal Exchange Theatre
It’s rather apt that this new staging of this classic play about greed, lies and family rivalries opens at the Royal Exchange as the final series of Succession also hits our screens. Director Roy Alexander Weise is clearly fascinated by themes of family dynamics and the ugliness that may lie beneath the surface and bubble up to the surface at any family gathering. There is a powerful moment when the Pollitt family circle in and sing Satan, We’re Gonna Tear Your Kingdom Down (memorable from another family drama series Greenleaf). The stage and cast are bathed in blood red light and the violence of avarice and mendacity is palpable at what is, on the surface a family birthday celebration.
Patrick Robinson as Big Daddy. Image credit: Helen Murray
Weise subverts the classic text by casting black actors as the wealthy Plantation owning family. The themes of exploitation, greed, capitalism and pride look as authentically ugly here as in the original. They are timeless and not subject to any one race or creed. Patrick Robinson is a stylish suited and booted Big Daddy, his veneer of brute determination and utter self-belief is softened only by his adoration of his younger son Brick. Bayo Gbadamosi is a beautiful, detached Brick who is weary of his wife’s passion and vitality. He has checked out and no longer has an interest in anything but liquor and chasing the click. There is a potential issue in the modern day setting in that it is more tricky to understand his absolute avoidance of confronting his own homosexuality. Perhaps it is best contextualised in the setting of Brick as a sportsman and football player and his absolute emotional paralysis as that of a man broken by guilt and grief.
Bayo Gbadamosi as Brick. Image credit: Helen Murray
Ntombizodwa Ndlovu makes a memorable stage entrance and dominates the first Act. Her Maggie is as bootilicious as Beyonce and as lush as an overblown gardenia. She is all women and outwardly confident of her sexual allure but Ndlovu seamlessly also shows her vulnerability and frustration in this sexless, childless marriage. Alternating between funny and vicious, this cat on a hot tin roof is not to be trifled with. Jacqui Dubois is great as Big Mama choosing only to see what suits her and flitting away any inconvenient truths. Danielle Henry relishes her role as the fecund Mae, flouting her pregnant belly and constantly referencing her brood of would-be heirs or as Maggie terms them…no neck monsters.
Image credit: Helen Murray
Set in modern day, Milla Clarke hascreated a beautiful set with a sleek bedroom setting and loads of hidden alcoves secreting as many empty booze bottles and wigs as the family hide secrets and ambitions. The huge rumpled bed is a constant allusion to restless but sexless nights in this unhappy marital bed. High above the bed and constantly turning like time is a stylish suggestion of a child’s mobile taunting Maggie. Gold beaded curtains hint at the great wealth in this house but also suggest the binding, suffocating chains of gleaming greed in this luxurious prison.
The soundscape by Alexandra Faye Braithwaite and the lighting design by Lizzie Powell work brilliantly together to build the dreamy, slightly unreal mood of the production. Ethereal echoes of voices and music and flashes of far off lightening or fireworks in the grounds create a great illusion of the space and scope of this grand house beyond this steamy, claustrophobic bedroom. Overall Weise has created a gorgeously engrossing piece of theatre worthy of sitting back and binging on.
Gerard Kearns and Erin Shanagher in BEGINNING at The Royal Exchange. Image credit: Helen Murray
Written by David Eldridge
Directed by Bryony Shanahan
ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE
The first in a trilogy, David Eldridge wrote BEGINNING in 2015 and had a hugely successful run when it made its debut at the National Theatre in 2017. The play runs in real time over the course of an evening after a house warming party ends. Laura has a smart new flat in West Didsbury and the last guest left is Danny who is a newcomer to her social circle. Eldridge takes this boy meets girl drama and manages to subvert what one might expect by exploring the immediacy and intimacy of two vulnerable people navigating possibilities. The sheer simplicity of Laura articulating what she wants without any artifice creates a beautifully multi-layered drama as the play explores the complexity of what happens when two people caught in a moment reveal their back stories and how they impact on their choices.
The set design by Ty Hay is an estate agents’ dream with a sleek kitchen island complete with Smeg oven, dishwasher and wine chiller while the lounge furniture looks like an ad for LOAF. Surfaces are littered with the debris from the recent party and the designer rug has a fresh cigarette burn. Either side of the set loom street lamps and the stage gleams with smooth fresh tarmac. The overall effect is as subtle as the storytelling, allowing for lots of movement by the two actors as they at times literally dance around each other. The tarmac effect sleekly eludes to fresh starts and gleaming possibilities while the glowing street lamps suggest a voyeuristic feel to this production. Watching the actors for nearly two hours as they learn about each other feels very much as if we the audience are peering in on our neighbours in a gripping Will they/Won’t they scenario.
Image credit: Helen Murray
Laura is a 38 year old company MD with a new flat in West Didsbury while 42 year old divorced Danny is back living at his Mums’ house. Erin Shanagher and Gerard Kearns are perfectly cast as these wounded characters who are navigating points in their lives that they had not foreseen. Shanagher is wonderful as she makes quicksilver shifts from feisty to goofy to weary and anguished. Her Laura is endearing and brave in her vulnerability as she navigates the evening and propositions the uncertain and wary Danny with the possibility of sex, breakfast and a baby. Kearns gives a perfectly pitched performance in his laddish ordinariness and stained shirt and his Danny is a revelation as he opens up about himself. This is a man mourning being a dad who gets to be nothing more in his daughters’ life than a monthly direct debit and seems to have lost hope for his future. There is a single moment where Laura is dancing her heart out to a Bros track and Danny is watching and clearly amused…what tracks across Kearns’ facial expression is a dawning realisation that he could really fall in love with this woman…theatre at its best!
Beautifully crafted writing by Eldridge and mature and caring direction by Bryony Shanahan coupled with strong performances by Shanahan and Kearns make for a winning production. It’s a brave move to hope an audience can be absorbed in watching 2 people cook and eat fish finger Butties in real time, debate Strictly and the merits of a Ginsters and dance around a kitchen. Beginning draws the audience into routing for this burgeoning relationship despite there being more missteps than slick moves in this courtship dance. Utterly absorbing in its sharply observed take on loneliness and longing, this play is funny, poignant and exciting as the couple navigate the stepping stones and roadblocks peppering their first night together.
Pete MacHale and Rhian Blundell as Oskar and Eli. Photo credit Johan Persson
Stage Adaptation by Jack Thorne
Based on the novel and film by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Directed by Bryony Shanahan
ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE
To the uninitiated LETTHERIGHTONEIN might look like a typical Halloween vampire gorefest, but thankfully this production is so much more. The blood and gore may spurt in a plentiful supply, but at its glistening heart this a story about love, otherness and acceptance. A lonely young boy being viciously bullied at school and ignored by his alcoholic mother meets an ageless, sexless vampire hungry for more than just blood. This hugely successful Swedish novel has spawned numerous film, television and theatre adaptations. Director Bryony Shanahan takes this 2013 adaptation by Jack Thorne and creates an almost immersive audience experience in the round. As the tension builds and the exits are blocked the audience is trapped just like the victims, the peril of leaving the theatre blood splattered is viscerally real and the poignancy of such a macabre love story becomes painfully vivid.
Rhian Blundell as Eli Photo credit Johan Persson
The set design by Amelia Jane Hankin is highly effective in creating an early Eighties atmosphere that is versatile enough to function as the inside of a school sports facility, a bleak Swedish council estate, eerie woods and a Sweetie concession in a neon bright shopping mall. The ladders and platforms over the stage, and the climbing frame all give the production room to build the drama and a real kinetic energy; however the continual wheeling in and out of additional props is often as distracting as it is effective. The startling use of light by Joshua Pharo to propel and enhance the horror elements of the drama is stunningly good especially when coupled with the sound design by Pete Malkin. The overall effect is to create a real sense of nothing ever being quite what it seems or that permanence or security is fleeting and can vanish in a curl of steamy air or the sudden silver flash of a blade.
In the main this is a strong cast with some lovely character driven performances from Darren Kuppan and a bleak and intensely creepy Hakan delivered by Andrew Sheridan. The two central performances are uniformly excellent with the inspired casting of Rhian Blundell as Eli and Pete MacHale as Oskar. Blundell is utterly captivating as the centuries old vampire child. Her physical presence morphs like quicksilver between wary and tentative youth to muscular and visceral blood hungry creature, and then on to winsome innocent charm. MacHale as Oskar is sweetly awkward and geeky with a keen intelligence that comprehends the failures of the adults around him while his innocence is bewildered by his bullies and mesmerised by the sexless Eli who smells of death and stale blood. Both actors are utterly believable and allow for this story to rise above the usual teen vampire fare to become something much more emotionally satisfying.
Pete MacHale and Rhian Blundell as Oskar and Eli Photo credit Johan Persson
There are some problematic issues with this production but the overall feel is of a stimulating and satisfying night at the theatre. Director Bryony Shanahan may have sometimes allowed for overly busy scenes or in the case of the scene with Oskars’ father a somewhat redundant one, however overall this is a gorefully gorgeous production. Some of its most memorable moments such as the swimming pool scene were climactic on so many levels and a potent reminder of The Royal Exchange at its very best.
Live Art Alive 