THEATREWORLD

No one goes to a Cheek by Jowl production expecting a standard reading of a text. And with ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore – perhaps the most sensationalist of the extreme genre that is Jacobean tragedy: the incest one – one could have expected the result to be startling.

Declan Donnellan gives us a 21^st century Annabella, an elfin teenager sitting on her bed with laptop and headphones, Nick Ormerod’s set adding posters for Gone with the Wind and True Blood, suggestive of the conflict between romance and brutality which is to follow. As the lights go down, her bedroom is bathed in red light and she breaks into a sinuous and passionate dance, in which she is joined one by one by the rest of the cast, who subsequently remain on stage for much of the time acting as observers or a chorus.

The quality of the movement in which the cast have been directed by Jane Gibson is astonishing, and the balletic interpretation of much of the action is clearly a central feature of Donnellan’s vision of the play. It is visually and audially very exciting, and the unbroken two hours of the performance go by very quickly, much aided by the excellence of the cast.

Lydia Wilson’s Annabella and Jack Gordon as her brother-lover Giovanni are not only physically and emotionally engaged, but also beautifully clear and precise in their delivery of the verse. Jack Hawkins gives Soranzo, Annabella’s ‘official’ suitor and husband, some authority, and Laurence Spellman makes his servant Vasques part-comic in his Essex-boy flexibility of morality.

The only casualty of the expressive and balletic ensemble approach is that it is sometimes less easy to follow the plot, partly because it is harder to identify with the individual characters. When Giovanni is sitting on his sister’s bed in the final scene, with her heart on his dagger – having killed her and cut it out so that it can never be anyone’s but his - I ended up feeling less tortured by the conflict between love and impossibility than warmed by the visual quality of the spectacle.

Nevertheless, it’s a quite brilliant performance.

Reviewed by Andrew Whiffin for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

Reviewed by Andrew Whiffin for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

THE NEW THEATRE

George Street

Oxford,

OX1 2AG

Ticketmaster: 0870 606 3500

Groups Hotline: 01865 723834

OLD FIRE STATION STUDIO THEATRE

40 George Street,

Oxford

OX1 2AQ

BOX OFFICE - 0844 847 2360

www.ofsstudio.org.uk

(occasional Reviews)

CHICHESTER festival THEATRE

Oaklands Park

Chichester

West Sussex

PO19 6AP

BOX OFFICE: 01243 781312

Website: www.cft.org.uk

Reviews by Margret Covell for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

CHICHESTER MINERVA THEATRE

BOX OFFICE: 01243 781312

Website: www.cft.org.uk

Reviews by Margret Covell for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

WATERMILL THEATRE

Bagnor,

Nr. Newbury,

Berkshire

RG20 8AE

BOX OFFICE: 01635 46044 or

Online at www.watermill.org.uk

Reviews by Ian Willox for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

THEATRE ROYAL

BRIGHTON

New Road,

Brighton

Sussex

Box Office 08448 717 650 (bkg fee)

Groups Hotline 08448 717 617

Access Bookings 08448 717 677 (bkg fee)

www.ambassadortickets.com/brighton

Reviews by Margret Covell for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

Brighton Theatre Royal has many concessions, family tickets and special offers - why not join their mailing list and reap those rewards - contact the Box Office 08700 606 650 for full details.

www.theambassadors.com/theatreroyal

NEW VICTORIA THEATRE

WOKING

The Ambassadors

Peacocks Centre,

Woking

Surrey, GU21 1GQ

BOX OFFICE 01483 761144

Website: www.theambassadors.com/woking

Reviews by Sheila Connor for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

THE MAYFLOWER THEATRE

SOUTHAMPTON

Commercial Road

Southampton

SO15 1GE

BOX OFFICE: 02380 711811

Website: www.the-mayflower.com

(occasional reviews)

EVERYMAN THEATRE

Regent Street

Cheltenham

Gloucestershire

BOX OFFICE: 01242 572573

www.everymantheatre.org.uk

Reviews by Rebecca Vines for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

BRISTOL - OLD VIC

King Street

Bristol

BS1 4ED

BOX OFFICE 0117 987 7877

www.bristol-old-vic.co.uk

THEATRE ROYAL

Bristol

Reviews by Richard Jones for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

STUDIO

Reviews by Richard Jones for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

BRISTOL HIPPODROME

St Augustine's Parade

Bristol

Avon

BS1 4UZ

BOX OFFICE: 0870 6077500

Website: www.bristol-hippodrome.co.uk

SAVE THE LAST DANCE FOR ME

Book by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran

Now playing at Bristol Hippodrome until 11 February 2012

Hot on the heels of Dreamboats and Petticoats, a musical set in the early 1960s and joyously telling of the angst of young love and based around youth club activities, comes Save The Last Dance For Me set more specifically in the summer of 1963.

In this the time is darker and the storyline more serious as naïve but savvy seventeen year old Marie deliciously and eye catchingly played by Megan Jones and her older more worldly sister Jennifer (Hannah Frederick) holiday together in a caravan at Lowestoft having been given a good talking to by their mother and father before leaving.

On the sea front they meet a US airman Milton played by former Bristol Grammar School Old Boy A J Dean who invites both girls back to the base to a regular dance night. Well brought up they might have been but Americans in uniform prove alluring and Marie falls for Jason Denton’s Barack Obama look-a-like. She is seventeen and he is black and only too aware that back in America such a relationship would not be allowed.

The songs feature the hits of singer/songwriters Pomus and Shuman amongst others and generally are more serious in tone than those featuring in Dreamboats. The title song for instance, on the face of it, refers to the practice of asking a girl to reserve the last dance of the night for you after which she could be escorted home!! More cynical youths would try this on to save money buying drinks all evening. The whole concept of the song becomes more poignant on knowing that the words were written by a man whose disability made him incapable of dancing with his wife in their wedding day.

The settings were simple but slickly achieved with the use of set pieces dropped in to create the caravan, a goal cell, Maria’s parents kitchen and of course the backdrop reverted to be the US base dance hall where a live band with multi-instrumentalists played the music for the songs. Interestingly in Dreamboats great importance was attached to the fact that all performance music was played and sung live on stage whereas in this show, from the same creative team, no such information was given.

The cast of seventeen were all committed to this production which whilst conjuring up a snap shot picture of 1963 did not have the innocent joyfulness of its sister show. But then moving away from the post war years life did ask to be taken more seriously as society in general started to question many of the hitherto traditionally accepted views.

Reviews by Richard Jones for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

TOBACCO FACTORY

Raleigh Road

Southville

Bristol

BS3 1TF

BOX OFFICE: 0117-902-0344

www.tobaccofactory.com

TOBACCO FACTORY THEATRE –THE BREWERY

Reviews by Richard Jones for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

YVONNE ARNAUD THEATRE

Millbrook

Guildford

Surrey

GU1 9UX

BOX OFFICE: (01483) 44 00 00

Website: www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk

THE KING’S SPEECH

By David Seidler

The World Premiere Production from the Yvonne Arnaud.

Now playing at Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford until 11th February 2012

In 2007, at Islington’s Pleasance Theatre, sixteen actors were nervously waiting on stage to give an unrehearsed reading of Seidler’s unproduced play to an invited audience. Quite by chance the mother of film director Tim Hooper was among the audience and later called her son with the words “I think I’ve found your next film”. On such quirks of fate are lives decided, and Hooper’s film, now worldwide, has won Academy Awards for best film, best director, best screenplay and best actor (Colin Firth).

Back to the original play, and the Yvonne Arnaud has assembled such a superb and prestigious cast and creative team that, in the intimacy of theatre, the audience becomes totally enthralled and it is as if we are watching the events as they unfold and not actors at all.

Written from the heart, by a man with first-hand knowledge of the demoralising effects of a stutter, the play mainly focuses on the developing, sometimes stormy, relationship between the then Duke of York and his Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue, but it also brings in more political content than was obvious in the film with discussions, arguments and sometimes confrontations between Winston Churchill (Ian McNeice) and Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Michael Feast). Apparent too is the terrifying thought that had King Edward VIII not abdicated Britain could well have been ruled by a puppet king under the dictate of Adolph Hitler. As a little ‘aside’ the slight manipulation of the time of King George V’s death in order to make the morning papers was a surprise discovery, and legendary octogenarian Joss Ackland proves he has lost none of his acting ability as the bluff, authoritative aging king.

Anthony Ward, who created the amazingly effective and complicated construction for Chichester’s ‘Sweeney Todd’, has here provided a deceptively simple set of a giant screen set on a double revolve. Sometimes transparent, this can show the action in two rooms at the same time revolving to concentrate on one, and also is the medium for showing footage of the time - the late king’s funeral and the crowds listening avidly to the royal speeches - and it is these obligatory speeches which are a nightmare for the stammering Duke, even before he is forced to become a shy and reluctant King George VI, very aware of his duty and obligations.

The contrast between the two royal brothers is emphasised with the fun-loving David (Daniel Betts) dancing a Charleston with his lover Wallis Simpson (Lisa Baird) while, on the other side of the screen, Bertie tries to come to terms with affairs of state.

Charles Edwards is the epitome of the Duke, his nervousness and anxiety so palpable that the audience is holding its collective breath willing him to get to the end of his speech without stumbling. The abrasive, down to earth Aussie (impressively performed by Jonathan Hyde) is probably the first man to treat him as an equal, insisting on calling him Bertie instead of ‘Your Royal Highness’ and this is not without its problems for a man used to deference and leads to a lot of comical interplay between the two men.

Adrian Noble directs with true feeling and the production is engrossing, touching and yet often very funny. Events progress right through to the coronation, where Lionel finally addresses the king as ‘Your Majesty’, but his hand is clasped with the words “My friend” a moment so moving it brought tears to the eyes, but what a wonderful, and true, story.

Reviews by Sheila Connor for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

THEATRE ROYAL

WINDSOR

Thames Street

Windsor

Berkshire

SL4 1PS

BOX OFFICE: (01753) 85 38 88

Website: www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk

REVIEWER REQUIRED – PLEASE CONTACT THE EDITOR: GPowner@aol.com

THEATRE ROYAL

BURY ST EDMUNDS