The Last 5 Years - Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds

It is a welcoming trend to see local companies tackling new musical material. Sure, classics such as The Sound of Music and Oklahoma! have their place but there is a wealth of new material out there that deserves to be seen.

Jason Robert Brown’s The Last 5 Years is one such jewel. A one-act, two-hander musical that looks at a couple’s short but tempestuous relationship. He is an up an coming writer, she a struggling actress. They fall in love, argue and split up. All sounds pretty standard musical fare but Brown’s witty score has a twist. We follow Cathy’s life in reverse chronological order while we follow husband/ex Jamie’s story in a more conventional order. Story arcs briefly overlap in the middle while they marry but, apart from that, they wend their separate way.

It’s not an easy plot device to pull off but one that Half Hour Call’s production manages with aplomb. Simple staging, complete with onstage band, focuses attention rightly onto the couple and provides an effective frame for Brown’s song cycle. Think Lloyd Webbers Tell Me On A Sunday meets Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along and you get the idea.

Comic numbers mix with soul-searching ballads to create a musical map of hope, love and despair as the balance of power shifts in the couple’s relationship.

At the heart of the piece are two impressive performances from Birgitta Kenyon and Christopher Longman. It’s a tough call to hold an hour a half show with just two performers but it’s a challenge the duo rise to admirably, delivering the complex score with deceptive ease.

Credit should also go to Paul Schofield’s musical direction of the onstage band. Played with passion and energy the rich score soars through the Theatre Royal.

The Last 5 Years has gained something of a cult following since its premiere and this spot on production shows why.

Jason Robert Brown has shown that big is not necessarily better and that musical theatre can be topical and fresh. With this production Half Hour Call show they are a company to watch.

King Lear - Donmar Warehouse

King Lear is giving Hamlet a run for its money as play of the moment right now. We’ve have a rush of Danish princes and now it’s the turn of mad Monarchs as a raft of Lears take to the stage. Much like the Hamlet productions it is unfair to compare wildly different interpretations, how ever strong that temptation proves to be.

In Michael Grandage’s Donmar Warehouse, King Lear, this heaviest of Shakesperian tragedies, seems to virtually fly by. Only a few minor nips and tucks have been made to the script but the show is played with such pace that is seems like much more radical surgery has taken place. This fast pace, however, works well, allowing the audience to be swept along on a tide of emotion. Played against a simple wooden plank set, this is a timeless production, evoking period while never defining it. It does allow, much like Peter Hall’s Twelfth Night at the National, a closer focus on text, turning this epic tragedy into a devastating chamber pieces.

At the heart of any production of this play is of course the performance of Lear himself and Derek Jacobi joins the list of great Lears. This is a performance that reaches deep into the troubled King's emotions and lays them bare for all to see; from the beginnings of insanity to the blood chilling howl at the death of Cordelia, Jacobi’s performance is utterly mesmerising. In the midst of the storm his voice drops to a whisper as he shares his darkest thoughts with an engrossed audience hanging on every word. Rarely has the complexity of this usurped King been so vividly portrayed.

Of course King Lear is more than a solo show and this is a fine ensemble production. Justine Mitchell’s initially restrained Regan shows her true colours as she revels in the blinding of Gloucester, while Gina McKee’s Goneril balances sensuality with a rod of steel as she manipulates both her husband and Edmund. Pippa Bennett-Warner’s Cordelia balances the manipulation of her plotting sisters, playing her with a direct honesty.

While for young actors Hamlet may be the challenge to face, for our more senior actors it's Lear that provides that emotional and mental challenge. King Lear isn’t, nor should it ever be, easy viewing but in this production Jacobi and company manage to make it fresh, gripping and relevant.

You may leave emotionally shaken but this is a Lear that will stick in your memory for many a year.

The Skriker - Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds

You don’t go to a Caryl Churchill for an easy ride. Her trademark is to use complex structure and dialogue that require an audience to work to follow plot and character.


Her 1994 piece The Skriker is perhaps one of her most surreal works. Outwardly it seems that a malevolent spirit is causing havoc with a pregnant woman. There’s also some sub plots regarding mental illness, parenting and possibly even child abuse. I say possibly because the plot is so complex it is never clear what the message here is.

It's an ambitious play to pull off by any company, an even more ambitious feat for a youth theatre group to try. Such bravery should be applauded however the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds Young Company never quite pulls the challenge off.

Written originally as a three-hander, the Company has expanded the role of the title spirit into a multicharacter chorus. While this does give scope for some wonderful over the top creations it does make it even more difficult to follow Churchill’s rapid fire, free falling word association dialogue.

A mix of theatrical devices; movement, mime, mask work and circus also serve to distance engagement. Sometimes less is more and the expansion into a larger scale piece, while innovative, doesn’t serve the piece well.

Despite the confusion, however, there are some nice performances from the young company who admirably manage Churchill’s rapid fire dialogue. While some more focus on diction, character, and stagecraft would benefit, overall the company work well together.

The Young Company should be congratulated on their brave programming choice; lets hope that future productions are equally bold but ones that allow the obvious talent more opportunity to shine.

Twelfth Night - Cottesloe

Sir Peter Hall’s 80th birthday present from the National Theatre was the opportunity to direct his Daughter Rebecca in Twelfth Night. It’s a piece Hall has visited four times in his long career but in this production more than ever he focuses on the text over staging.

Staged on an almost bare stage in the Cottesloe, with only an autumnal canopy and miniature houses as backdrop, this is easily a production that could equally work well on radio than on stage. Each line tends to be a master class in Shakespearian delivery, every inflection and nuance carefully considered and delivered.

Rebecca Hall, as separated shipwrecked twin Viola is a delight. In the intimacy of the Cottesloe hers is a highly detailed performance, saying just as much with silence and the slightest movement as she does with her lines.

There are also Shakesperian comedic delivery master classes from Simon Callow as a wonderfully over the top Sir Toby Belch and Charles Edwards as the foppish Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

Simon Paisley Day’s Malvolio is perhaps darker in tone than often played but his fall from grace and torment is powerfully achieved here.

Other characters fair less well. Marton Csoka’s delivery as Orsino seems out of place with the remainder of the production while Amanda Drew’s Olivia seems oddly detached from any sexual tension.

There are moments, especially in the first half, when the focus on text and delivery does slow the pace down painfully, threatening to derail the comedy. There also seems to be a spark of passion missing in this tale of mistaken identity and lust.

Overall it looks and sounds beautiful and the textual focus does allow the beauty of the language to shine through. It may not be the most engaging Twelfth Night ever staged but it does show that Sir Peter Hall is one of our leading experts in understanding the nuances of the Bards text.

Tiger Country - Hampstead Theatre

After the success of her previous works Rabbit and Tribes, a new play by Nina Raine was always going to be something of a theatrical event. Add in that she is also directing and making her debut at Hampstead Theatre and the expectation grows. Sadly, and perhaps because of the anticipation, her latest offering Tiger Country doesn’t quite hit the mark.


Set in a London hospital, Tiger Country is a look at the pressures faced by NHS staff. Multiple story strands interweave as patients and staff battle both themselves and the system.

The NHS like any large organisation has its own social structure and pecking order and Tiger Country looks at staff on various levels of the ladder. Emily is an up and coming SHO who is still new enough into the role to fret over each decision, Mark is an ambitious surgeon who thinks his supervisor Vashti is bullying him. Vashti herself feels held back as she’s not seen as a team manager and Consultant John is battling his own medical problems.

This interwoven, fast paced structure works well to convey the hustle and bustle of a real hospital and the pressure its staff face but it also means we never fully engage with the characters, as soon as we begin to relate to the particular problem another gurney is wheeled onstage and another character emerges.

It is all very well staged and acted, with some nice moments from the large, multi role playing cast. The traverse staging allowing for fast scene changes and the feeling of constant flux. Projections of scans, endoscope views and cardiograms onto the walls of the theatre add to authenticity – all that is missing is that smell of hospital disinfectant. The show also seems better equipped than many struggling hospital wards with a vast selection of medical equipment being wheeled on and off stage.

At the end of the day though it does feel like you are watching a stage adaptation of Casualty rather than any real examination of the issues facing the NHS. It’s highly watchable (if you are not squeamish over a bit of blood) but given the challenges facing the NHS in the current financial environment is there not a stronger story to be told here. The moments in the play when it looks like the system fails are swiftly bypassed and as such it ends up as a rose tinted look at an idolised NHS system.

Nina Raine obviously has talent but on Tiger Country needs to dig deeper into the wilderness to come up with a truly gripping play.

Becky Shaw - Almeida Theatre

Despite what TV shows such as Friends would have us believe, life for 30-something American’s doesn’t always end happily ever after. Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw arrives at Islington’s Almeida Theatre after success off-Broadway, and while the comedy may be American it transfers well to a UK audience.


Here is the ultimate case of happy families gone wrong. Newly weds Suzanna and Andrew seem an unlikely pairing. Wannabe writer Andrew would rather be working the bohemian life in a coffee shop than his current office manager role. Wife Suzanna had a wealthy upbringing that has come to an abrupt halt with the death of her father. Her outspoken mother does her best to fuel the flames by embarking on an affair within months of her father dying while her adopted brother and financial advisor Max, adds to the complexity by having a incestuous infatuation with Suzanna.

Enough drama here to last anyone a lifetime you would think, but to add to their woes the whirlwind of the title character enters their life. Becky is desperate to escape her stalled life; having dropped out of University, been dumped by a string of men and cut off by her racist family. Her set up blind date with Max ends in disaster but proves to be the catalyst for some sort of resolution for this dysfunctional family.

Gionfriddo’s scipt is packed full of dark humor and wit with many lines not just dripping, but positively oozing, acid. None of the characters are portrayed with sympathy and on first glance it is difficult to like any singular character. It is a clever device, even the initially weak and vulnerable Becky proves she is adept at manipulating others for her own needs. By the end of the piece we get the feeling that this group of damaged people are welcome to each other.

Peter DuBois’ direction is fast paced and fluid, making full use of Jonathan Fensom’s clever revolving set to convey a range of locations across the Eastern seaboard. Performances are strong throughout the company. David Wilson Barnes as cold, calculating Max, Haydn Gwynne’s caustic mother Susan, Anna Madeley as lynchpin daughter Suzanna and Vincent Montuel as deceptively week Andrew. As the title character Becky however, Daisy Haggard excels. Suitably underplayed she avoids the trap of playing the role as a blond bimbo, showing instead a cool calculating brain that isn’t as dumb as first thought.

The ending may seem somewhat unsatisfying but Becky Shaw is a wonderful acerbic look at the outwardly rosy, but inwardly tumultuous American family life.

Matilda A Musical - The Courtyard Stratford Upon Avon

For the last 25years the RSC has been reaping financial rewards from the commercial success of Les Miserables. While never going to be on this scale, Matilda could prove to be an equally rewarding production as its life beyond Stratford seems assured.


Matilda A Musical may be aimed fairly and squarely at the Festive family market, however it’s a remarkably grown-up offering. While younger members of the audience will enjoy the anarchy and slapstick humour, adults can revel in the complex music and lyrics.

Dennis Kelly’s book and Tim Minchin’s music and lyrics take Roals Dahl’s original story of a young girl tormented by both her parents and a monstrous headmistress and give it their own dark twist.

Minchin’s score has enough runs the whole spectrum of musical theatre genres; we have moving arias, exuberant chorus numbers and even nods to Sondheim and Lloyd Webber. It’s a show that moves swiftly from over the top comedy numbers to gut wrenching self analysing solos. To pull off such musical complexity in any show would be impressive, but with many of these numbers performed by a young cast it is even more impressive, and I make no exception for the young company. They're as pro as it gets.

Kerry Ingram (one of a rota of three Matildas) gives an incredible performance that belies her tender years. Here is a five-year-old Matilda going on 45. Both incredibly fragile but tempered with a steely determination, it is a performance that totally mesmerises.

Despite the impressive skills of the children, the adults just about manage hold their own. Josie Walker and Paul Kaye work well as Matilda’s grotesque parents, milking every single comedic drop from their vile characters. It is, however, Bertie Carvel’s transgendered Miss Trunchbull that almost steals the show away from Matilda. With echos of Alistair Sim's St Trinian's Miss Fritton, Trunchbull, the English Hammer Throwing Champion of 1969, is a child hating harridan who thinks nothing of swinging a girl by her pigtails or locking small children in cupboards. Carvel’s performance is a delight, building into a full gymnastic routine in an energetic The Smell of Rebellion.

Matthew Warchus’ direction is spot on while Peter Darling’s choreography adds plenty of youthful exuberance.

Matilda’s sold out run in Stratford may be coming to an end but her journey is far from over.

All the world's a stage - just don't try and book for it online

It has not been a good couple of days for the Bard and the new fangled interweb. Perhaps the ghost of Will Shakespeare has been haunting various theatrical servers, but for good or for bad it does show that the lad from Stratford still has huge box office draw.


Friday saw the RSC open priority booking for its Full Members and Friends for its 50th Anniversary Season. As soon as the appointed hour approached word began to spread online that all was not well in the state of Denmark Startford. The RSC website soon crashed under the weight of traffic. Those that did manage to access the site reported problems with seat selection and checkout with ticket purchases taking over an hour, not much help when ticket selections expire after a 30min time limit.

By the middle of the afternoon the RSC had published an apology online, however with a growing number of RSC members venting their anger online the damage had already been done. Facebook, Twitter and discussion boards such as Whatsonstage all carried calls to join a concerted membership cancellation. By the end of the day a limited booking service seemed to have resumed, although problems still continue, and many members seem appeased to have finally got their tickets.

As Saturday dawned, and Shakespeare fans woke content in the knowledge of securing their RSC tickets, the restless spirit of Will went to mischievous work again. As David Tennant and Catherine Tate appeared on BBC Breakfast TV it soon became clear that their much rumoured Much Ado About Nothing was confirmed. This news seemed to catch box office staff at Delfont Mackintosh slightly by surprise. The lucky few customers who raced online quickly secured their prized tickets. Things soon turned sour though as the website crashed, again under the volume of traffic. For most of the day the site returned error messages saying the ‘Delfont Mackintosh is currently unavailable’.

False hope dawned on several occasions as bookings progressed only to crash at the final checkout. Again tales of the carnage spread online as tales of success only fuelled the anger of those still stuck in online limbo. Personal callers to the Wyndham’s also reported problems; customers being dispatched for cash as credit card systems crashed.

In the grand scheme of things it’s only a theatre ticket and as things calm down today it looks like there are still seats available for both the RSC and Much Ado.

It does show however though that organisations do need to look at their IT infrastructure and have some back up plan in place should it all fall over.

If the ghost of Shakespeare is causing havoc online the good folks over at The Globe must have their fingers crossed that his mischief making has worn itself out by the time their season opens for public booking on Valentines Day.

Get Santa! - Royal Court Theatre

Ok, the fact that the Christmas tree was decorated with bacon should have been a sign that Get Santa! wasn’t going to be your normal traditional Christmas show. Given that it’s being staged at the Royal Court and written by an author better known for his hard-hitting works it shouldn’t be a surprise that, while there is much to delight the children, it is in fact a much darker and more surreal offering that may appeal more to adults than the younger demographic.

10 year old Holly hates Christmas. Each year she writes to Santa asking for the one true present she really craves but instead gets mountains of toys. This year will be different; Holly plans to kidnap Santa until he arranges her to meet her estranged dad.

Ok so far that all sounds fairly normal but then things head off into the bizarre. To give to much away would take much of the fun out of the piece. Suffice to say Holly’s step father is a dog, her teddy walks and talks, Santa’s son has amnesia and Santa himself has blocked the toilet after eating far too much Christmas cake. Already strained family relationships are driven to the brink by being forced to relive Christmas Day over and over again ala Groundhog Day.

It’s also very surreal and, for a children’s show, surprisingly dark. The musical interludes may feature festive clad carollers but listen to the lyrics carefully and there’s a much more adult theme. It is perhaps in these musical numbers that the show falls flat. While lyrically clever they seem incongruous to the madcap action.

At the centre of the piece is a wonderfully feisty performance from Imogen Doel as 10 year old Holly. At once both childish and perhaps the most mature person in this mad household, it is a captivating performance.

Anthony Neilson directs his own play with pace, letting the madness stay just the right side of pantomime send up. It’s not a perfect piece, Holly’s brashness become wearisome at times and the ending seems just a bit to surreal but there is enough black humour here to keep adults and even children amused in the post Christmas blues.



Photo: Imogen Dole and Tom Godwin  in Get Santa! photographer Alastair Muir

2011 highlights

To balance the look back to 2010, it is now time to look forward to 2011. Well to be fair the first half of 2011, as though there is some detail for later in the year, in reality shows come and go quickly so I’m sure there are more delights waiting to be discovered.


In no particular order some of the things I’m looking forward to in 2011

Frankenstein – National Theatre
Danny Boyle’s return to theatre with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternating the lead roles.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Headlong Theatre on Tour
Headlong can always be relied on to create innovative theatre so the Bard’s most magical play should be ideal territory for them

Matilda – Courtyard Stratford
The RSC’s latest musical has received great reviews and is surely being considered for a London transfer but seeing it in the wonderful, and soon to close, Courtyard Theatre in Stratford will be special.

Twelfth Night – National Theatre
Play, casting and director and short run in tiny theatre make this one of the hottest tickets of the year. The fact that I’m off to a very special performance makes it even more of a highlight.

Company – Southwark Playhouse and Crucible Sheffield
Last year my trip to Sheffield Crucible to see Hamlet suffered after seeing the National production first. Lets hope the same doesn’t apply to Company though Daniel Evans casting does seem to allay those fears.

Vernon God Little – Young Vic
Missed last time round but comes highly recommended. The Young Vic is on a roll at the moment, sure that run will have to end sometime but can’t see it happening soon.

Anne Boleyn – Globe
Again missed last time round but was on my 2010 wish list so fingers crossed for 2011.

Cardenio – Swan Theatre Stratford
A lost Shakespeare in the refurbished Swan theatre? Well if you insist!