Update. Things getting very busy at East Midlands Theatre.

As you can see from the side bar and @EM_Theatre  live twitter feed things have been very busy for me chez East Midlands Theatre! My original intention in the last blog post on this blog was simply to copy my reviews on to here. However, I have decided it would make much more sense, rather than duplicate, to feature the reviews through links and to add in some content about my great news items.

With one exception here are the reviews I have written and posted in the last few weeks.

A Streetcar Named Desire Leicester Curve Studio.

All The Little Lights - new play by Jane Upton at Neville Studio Nottingham Playhouse.

Hairspray - Nottingham Operatic Society at Theatre Royal Nottingham.

The Trocks Ballet - Royal Concert Hall Nottingham. Guest reviewer Alan Taygoe.

Pornography - The Nottingham New Theatre. Nottingham University.

The Duchess of Malfi- Nottingham Playhouse.

My East Midlands Theatre news items have covered various theatre based workshops open to the public, an interview with actress Rebecca Little and promotions for various small and big scale shows.

Don't forget to follow me at @EM_Theatre and @PhilLowe7

The theatrical calendar is looking so full in the next couple of months that I have even invested in a wall chart to track my activities!

Interview with David Longford re: The School For Scandal

Interview with David Longford - Creative Learning Manager - at Nottingham Theatre Royal.

As the historic Nottingham Theatre Royal celebrates 150 years of theatrical existence Phil Lowe visited David Longford -former professional actor – now Creative Learning Manager and director of the theatre's community theatre group's (The Royal Company) recent acclaimed production of The School For Scandal. David was keen to promote the theatre and especially the hard work and non-professional local talents that made the promenade show such a huge success with Nottingham's theatre going public in September 2015.

The School For Scandal performance echoed Sheridan's day in terms of text and costume but also the students of Nottingham Trent University's Theatre Design degree course had huge input with their cross referenced costume and wig designs that combined the fashions of the mid 1800s but added in very modern touches with wigs made from modern day gossip magazines. The props of the piece included mobile phones and contemporary branded shopping bags to carry the play's messages across to a modern day audience. The whole combination worked extremely well and was backed up with periodic pop music tracks that introduced the characters at points during the show.

David Longford director and the show's narrator picked up on how the show worked and on the history of recent amateur community shows that have had and, benefited from, professional input throughout the rehearsal processes.

David Longford

“I started here in 2001 and there was no educational community role whatsoever in the Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall. It was a brand new job and I had previously worked at the Mansfield Palace theatre as their education officer. Before that I was a freelance actor and director mainly working in young people's theatre. TIE has a real appeal for me. In the Nottingham Theatre Royal job I was lucky enough, in July 2001, to be employed full -time and to build everything up from scratch. My brief was, and still is, to work with all the visiting companies and to make the venue much more 'open' and publicly accessible and to get the community involved in our work. So, one of my first decisions was based on the thought that I wanted to set up a community theatre company so that we could engage with the public directly and within the spaces in the Theatre Royal and, as it turns out, also around the city of Nottingham.”

“The aim was for every one of the community projects to be a real 'in depth' process. Not just learning the lines but treating it with the seriousness and passion of a pro theatre project with as much professional input as chances would allow. I wanted to totally engage the participants by bringing in external practitioners in order to learn from them and bring a professional approach and discipline to the essentially 'amateur' actors experience and make them feel and grow from being really challenged. I always say to people as we go through the audition process – 'This is a big commitment – I will be asking a lot of you but I want to challenge you and I also want you to have some fun too.' We did a production here of the Government Inspector in 2002 and that was a promenade piece too. However it was not as extensive as The School For Scandal. We mainly used the foyer spaces. Our theatrical statement was that we wanted to do things differently and with local people involved. That went down extremely well and so The Royal Company was born.”

“My job includes working with Northern Ballet and Opera North (regular visitors to our theatre) and within my role with The Royal Company we often work alongside other venues such as when we did Fahrenheit 451 where we combined with the local amateur arts venue - Nottingham Arts Theatre. In 2005 The Royal Company show was held at Nottingham Castle and we rehearsed and performed Tony Harrison's version of The Mysteries, in a huge marquee, a very gritty and very northern piece. This version was originally done by the National Theatre in the 1970s and is all about working class folk putting together a passionate piece about the last days of Jesus Christ.”

 

 

“We have also done three productions on the Theatre Royal stage. One especially memorable one being Oliver Twist (2004) where we really used the Victorian interior of the Theatre Royal to best advantage with narrators in the boxes and the Nottingham Trent University Theatre Design course students who brought in their amazing talents. The shows we have done on the main stage have done extremely well, This is mainly because we have chosen sell-able titles and therefore they become commercially good sellers, but at the same time they still offer the all important challenges for the participants.”

“In 2006 we did our most successful production to date – 101 Dalmatians. We had one professional actress in that. This was Toyah Wilcox as Cruella DeVille. Toyah came into our rehearsals two weeks before the show opened and she was incredible. She had no qualms whatsoever working with a talented amateur cast. In fact the whole cast's theatrical outlook and performance level went up several notches with Toyah's presence. It makes me quite emotional thinking about the commitment those non-professionals put into the show to make it a piece to be hugely proud of. Once again there was a real physical theatre challenge about how do we create a world of dogs without having 101 people in cute doggy outfits!”

“Sometimes, I find when people ask what is the difference with working with professional and amateur community performers, and I think some of the performances in 'Scandal' were extraordinary high, I believe it is that confidence to 'play' within the rehearsal room to build on the role and its place within the play itself.”

“Generally, The Royal Company is an amateur company that is based at Nottingham Theatre Royal but doesn't limit itself to purely performing solely at the venue. We have even done schools tours in the past and some of our talented members have gone on to engage in professional theatre school training with the emphasis on a career in the theatre arts. Plus, we have encouraged the art of story-telling in a dramatic medium and our actors have gone out into the community to develop and show off their skills.”

“With the 150^th Anniversary of Nottingham Theatre Royal we felt that we needed to do the obvious production that was the inaugural production way back in 1865 – Sheridan's The School For Scandal'. It was cast by starting from a clean slate. We extensively advertised the opportunity to be involved through various local and national media and everyone, even people we had used before, had to audition with a single audition piece. Then we did group auditions and whittled it down. We had a lot of ladies audition so the production evolved with many of the male roles being played by women. This was so successful in creating a diverse, interesting and sexually charged piece that I almost considered having the whole cast as women! I loved the fact that Joseph and Charles were both played by young women and this was echoed through audience feedback too.”

“A practitioner called Gerry Flanagan came into the rehearsal process and helped with important clowning and physical theatre aspects of the play. Gerry is very thorough in his workshops and he really did push them. Interestingly we had three drop outs along the way but that doesn’t surprise me because in every single community show that I have done we have had a similar amount of drop outs. Sometimes people don't realise the hard nature of the commitment and sometimes they drop out for unfortunate personal reasons that no-one can predict. We just have to re-adjust and consider how to move on within the scenes. Each production is different and there were some extra pressures with this show because of the 150^th Anniversary and the promenade aspects. I kept saying to everybody that when we are moving the audience around the theatre to each different place – that is still part of the performance. Overall, I truly believe that all the potential playfulness of Sheridan's comical play encouraged all creative aspects of the final piece and brought out really professional performances from a talented group of non-professional or amateur performers. I can't wait for the next project but I am so busy with the Nottingham Theatre Royal's 150^th Anniversary celebrations that presently I have no idea what that might be.”

All production images are from The School For Scandal copyright Alan Fletcher.

 

All other images copyright author Phil Lowe.

For Phil Lowe's review of The School For Scandal click HERE.

Review. Much Ado About Nothing. Oddsocks at Nottingham Castle

To this reviewer's memory Shakespeare's sunny comedy Much Ado About Nothing set in sun drenched Messina has no references to rain in the text. So no 'the rain it raineth every day' no '… falleth as the gentle rain' no '… thunder, lightening nor in rain' and saddest of all no ' You say that you love the rain but you open your umbrella when it rains. You say that you love the sun, but you find a shadow spot when the sun shines'.

Thus so, it is down to the talented Oddsocks cast to add as many 'rain' and 'wet' jokes on their rain soaked stage as they perform their wacky version of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing at Nottingham Castle. The best of all must be Hero's (Lucy Varney) parting ad lib as she is jilted at the altar by Claudio (Peter Hoggart). Distraught and confused by Claudio's rebuff and abuse on her wedding day she storms off with her quip of annoyance “And it rained!” hanging in the air.

A slightly longer play than their gloriously funny Twelfth Night production playing as part of their summer season and, in some respects a slightly less zany show, Oddsocks' Much Ado retains much of Shakespeare's clever word play and yet is still as playful and inventive.

As the rain pours down on the wet but undaunted audience there are laughs a plenty and the verbal sparring between Benedick (Kevin Kemp) and Beatrice (Rebecca Little) is done with much wit. Actor Gavin Harrison constantly amuses as he quadruples up in the quick change roles of Don Pedro, Don John, The Sexton and Friar Francis. Peter Hoggart and Lucy Varney as loved up Claudio and Hero go for possibly the longest stage kiss in the history of theatre. Leonato performed by Andy Barrow is in turns hilarious and threatening and shares the same penchant as his Twelfth Night character Malvolio for revealing his under garments and this time his muscular torso as he wrestles with Claudio. Oddsocks style of adding in modern pop songs works particularly well in this version and the songs and music are delivered with panache.

Interval

Oddsocks always introduce their play with an outdoor theatre flourish and introduce each other by their actor alter egos with names only the totally daft pun based English sense humour could make up; Will Barrow, Miles Power, Penny Sillen, Doug Witherspade, Ophelia Rarse and Arthur Petesake.

 

An energetic, downright silly, utterly professional and totally inventive theatre company Oddsocks have a devoted fan base all over the country. That same fan base and newcomers to the Oddsocks scene all have one thing in common – well two things – they don't care about the rain if they are being royally entertained and – they really love it when the actors single them out and nick their cheese!

This rather damp evening the Oddsocks company even applauded the audience for staying to the end and as the final claps disappeared into the night air the rain finally stopped.



#BritpopBard
@Oddsockstweets

Review of Oddsocks Twelfth Night on tour at Nottingham Castle

Twelfth Night or What You Will is Shakespeare's only play with a double title and Oddsock's brilliantly funny touring adaptation coupled with the addition of live pop songs and utter silliness will have you doubling up with laughter and falling off your folding chair on to your picnic hamper!

The main plot is that Shakespeare's characters of Viola and Sebastian are brother and sister twins separated by misfortune at sea and the audience are required to believe that they could be misunderstood for each other. Countess Olivia is grieving over the loss of her brother whom she has sworn to mourn for seven whole years before considering any man as a lover. Viola meanwhile believes that her brother Sebastian has drowned after their ship capsized on the shores of Illyria. The main action of this play resolves this dual loss and a sub plot revolves around the haughty and prudish Malvolio – steward to Olivia. He is tricked in thinking that the woman he serves is secretly in love with him and the play finishes with him being further ridiculed and love eventually conquering all. Malvolio's last words are “I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you!” The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular and mature comedies and examines human urges including sex, food, drink and revenge and higher longings for justice and love. Well that is the story for the Shakespeare purists; the same purists who are not sat on the grass at Nottingham Castle thoroughly enjoying some great entertainment courtesy of OddsocksTheatre Company.

And now over to the real review...

As part of their nationwide summer tour Oddsocks are performing their completely daft and highly entertaining versions of Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing and from the 22^nd to 25^th July they are holding a merry court in the leafy grounds of Nottingham Castle. Their style is bordering on Panto and the packed grass seating area is full of families complete with their young children utterly enjoying the brilliantly comical nature of Oddsocks' story telling. How often do children in the audience of a Shakespeare play get a chance to pelt Malvolio with wet sponges? Well, they do in this one. The kids couldn't wait to get to on stage!

Such silliness prevails throughout the whole evening, the performers drop in and out of character, ad lib like crazy and even rail at a passing plane mid speech. The comic timing is spot on and all of the group sing and play musical instruments with Brit Pop Bard bravura. And that's not easy to say!

All of the cast double up in various roles with the exception of Lucy Varney as a sparky Olivia. A newcomer to Oddsocks, Varney appears to be having the time of her theatrical life and this infectious nature of fun is evident in all of the Oddsocks cast. Andy Barrow revels in his delightfully comical role as the droll and pompous Malvolio and encourages the audience to suggest an accent for his one line priest character. Peter Hoggart appears occasionally as the lost brother Sebastian and keeps the energy going as a black wigged rocking Lord of Misrule Feste the clown. The cost of the wigs alone in this production must be hair raising!

Taking the brunt of the action and songs is Rebecca Little as Viola and Maria and Viola's male alter ego Cesario. Little is no stranger to Nottingham audiences as she has been in the Nottingham Playhouse annual panto for the last sixteen years as well as reprising her roles with Oddsocks. Her pedigree shows in abundance as she delightfully sings and clowns her way throughout the show.

Gavin Harrison as Duke Orsino and Sir Andrew Aguecheek is charmingly bonkers (a dual requirement of performing with Oddsocks methinks) in both roles but particularly funny in his drunken scenes with show stopper Kevin Kemp as the perpetually playfully paralytic (not easy to say either) heavy metal loving Sir Toby Belch. Kemp's performance has to be several of the highlights of Oddsocks' Twelfth Night.

Well, say 'What You Will' Twelfth Night by Oddsocks is one of the funniest evenings this reviewer has ever spent watching theatre outdoors. I will definitely be returning on Friday for their Much Ado About Nothing!

Irritating habits of theatre audience members. To tweet or not to tweet?

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

As a writer, avid promoter of theatre and reviewer I find the use of Twitter to be of enormous value in spreading the news of a successful production minutes after the show. Equally it can be utilised as a means of drawing attention to my considered review or blog post. Imagine a scenario where tweeting from your mobile was allowed during the actual show. All those little screens lit up in the dark whilst the play was actually being performed. Ay there's the rub!

Some while back now I was invited to be a Tweet Seater in my capacity as a reviewer at Nottingham Playhouse. I don't have a modern mobile phone so I took along my tablet for internet access. Even as the days before the press night loomed I started to have reservations about sitting at the back of the auditorium tweeting my views live once it dawned on me what was involved. On the night I was seated with two other reviewers in special seats tucked away from the main body of the audience. I began to feel increasingly nervous about audience reactions to my screen lighting up in the darkened theatre. A tablet screen is much larger than a mobile screen.

As luck would have it I couldn't get access to the internet and so the proverbial glow worm of my screen remained in the dark. The two other reviewers were able to silently tweet away however. I started to consider how I felt in my capacity of reviewer where I normally give my full attention to the story unfolding on the stage. This notion that tweeting micro reviews as the play happened live felt decidedly wrong. I felt very distracted and disengaged with the play even though wasn't actually able to tweet. I believe the opposite is supposed to happen and that one's appreciation is heightened. I'm not sure I buy into that one.

At the interval two old lady members of the audience made their way across the back wall seating and pointedly asked the 'seat tweeters' what they were doing having their mobiles on during the play. The young women politely answered that they had been asked by the Playhouse to try out this new approach to theatrical promotion. The old ladies were not happy and proposed to complain to the management.

In October 2014 Daily Telegraph journalist Rupert Christiansen wrote a highly critical piece about 'tweet seating' a phenomenon that appears to have come from the USA. It was instigated to help flagging audience sales for plays that were not star led or big popular musicals. He considered the tweeters as sad souls who can't spend a second away from their smart phones for a nano-second and who want to send their Twitter followers a blow by blow account of the progress of the show. Further, he considered this as another 'concession to barbarity' and further evidence of a catastrophic decline in the etiquette of audience behaviour.

The reality of disengaged and disruptive behaviour at the theatre isn't a new phenomenon. There have been records of disruption in theatres through the ages, including actual fights taking place between audience members. However, for the last fifteen years, on top of people talking during the show and rustling their crackling bloody sweet papers, the mobile phone has added to the frustrations of genuine theatre lovers who go to be entertained and escape. Kev Castle, a fellow reviewer in Nottingham recently reported his disgust at five mobiles going off in the course of an hour during a new studio based one man show. One male member of the audience even answered their phone mid performance and loudly exclaimed “ I'm at some play. It'll be over soon. I'll call you back!” Imagine tweeting a mid show tweet about that! You would feel equally complicit and equally rude.

Even as far back as 2009 The Guardian's Ruth Jamieson was asking if we should be tweeting during a performance. She had the opinion that is was OK as long as there are no spoilers. My opinion is that whilst there may be eleven characters trying to tell a story on the stage should you be trying to distil theatrical intent into a Twitter led one hundred and forty character opinion? The use of mobile phones in the auditorium isn't just a young generational thing either. I have seen little rectangular beacons light up from all ages as people check their latest emails and such. Where is the respect for the play and the performers?

Apparently, by encouraging guests to discreetly tweet during live performances the venue can gain valuable exposure and marketing and by this token they claim to be able to bring in new younger audiences. Does this not then alienate, more appreciative, traditionally engaged audiences? Is it just sad gimmick that will eventually run its course? Could there be a certain cache in being chosen to be in a tweet seat during any performance? Opinions on a tweet please @PhilLowe7 #tweetseatopinion

Originally published in Sardines Magazine Issue 26 under the title 'Distracting tweets and Rustling sweets.'

 

A fun visit to an Oddsocks' rehearsal in Derby!

Today I was tremendously privileged to attend a rehearsal of 'Much Ado About Nothing'. It wasn't at the RSC. It wasn't at the National Theatre. It wasn't at The Globe nor Regent's Park. It didn't include bowing to Kenneth Branagh, Sir Kenneth Branagh,  or … or … those other noisy ones. It was much much better than that! Much better!  Much much better!! It was with the Oddsocks Theatre Company!!! (Expecting a super loud cheer now).

Their young producer Hope Ward-Brown took me into the hallowed rehearsal space on Green Lane, gave me a coffee and the cast and director welcomed me by name and with broad smiles (I checked my flies) and - bourbon biscuits languorously lathered with organic peanut butter. Yummy! It doesn't get better than that! It really doesn't. Forget your fancy welcoming buffet crudités and your false bonhomie of Londres. This is a real Derby welcome, duck, from a professional theatre company who take life from the fun side and make it even sunnier and funnier.

 

 

 

Throughout the two hours I stayed I listened with great interest as director Andy Barrow steered the cast members through their scenes and took on their suggestions as to how it might work 'Oddsocks style' and concurred with many of the performers' ideas. This is touring Shakespearian comedy brought up to date that will be performed with the emphasis on collaboration and most importantly a liberated sense of fun, musicality, grassy expanses and the occasional cosy indoor theatre.

"I can readeth my lines with mine eyes closed. Thank you. "

This is what the many admirers of Oddsocks enjoy so much when they tour: the honest connection with the original text (albeit cut ever so slightly), the energy of the performers clearly enjoying what they are doing, the inherent professionalism and their abiding love of entertainment.

Often the most entertaining values for an audience are those realised when the cast double or even treble up their roles. In Oddsock's 'Much Ado' and 'Twelfth Night' I learnt that we will have the pleasure of seeing director/actor Andy Barrow as Leonato & Malvolio, the versatile Kevin Kemp as Benedick & Toby Belch, the triple talented Rebecca Little as (drum roll) Beatrice, Maria & Viola, and the beautiful Ukulele proficient Lucy Varney as Hero & Olivia.

There's more folks. The many talented and handsome Gavin Harrison will be Don John/Don Pedro/Orsino and Andrew Aguecheek) and the lovely Peter Hoggart will impress as Claudio/Feste/Sebastian. All will be playing musical instruments in each show!  (Big round of applause for everyone please!)

I for one, and one for all, (different play Phil) will be looking forward to Oddsocks' tour this Summer where the bold, challenging and decidedly interactive company will be No Holds Bard (copyright Phil Lowe 2015)  with 'Much Ado About Nothing' and 'Twelfth Night' Check out the tour schedule HERETH.

Thanks for the invite Oddsocks  I hope that I have done you proud. Phil

Superbly funny Oddsocks production of Wind in The Willows

There are times as a reviewer that you see a production that is so alive with invention, humour and surprise that you are very conscious about spoilers. So I hope that I am not giving too much away when I say – expect the unexpected and expect to laugh your socks off at Oddsocks wonderfully inventive touring production of Kenneth Grahame's beloved story of riverbank folk Wind in the Willows. This fantastically funny version is adapted for the stage for Oddsocks by Andy Barrow and produced by Elli Mackenzie. Lucy Ward has been commissioned to provide the original music played live by the five performers.

 

 

Elli MacKenzie, Joseph Maudsley, Andrew McGillan, Dom Gee-Burch, and Rosamund Hine make up the small but beautifully versatile ensemble. They work so well together there often seems to be many more actors inhabiting the stage than there actually are. The delight they seem to share in performing the Oddsocks comedic style with each other and the audience is infectious. Wind in the Willows played by this daft and talented ensemble makes 'being silly' into an art form. Even their van parked outside the theatre bears the logo 'driven by laughter'.

 

All of the actors play different roles as the well loved characters, Elli MacKenzie as the easy going but shy Mole (loved the squeaks of terror in the Wild Wood), Joseph Maudsley delights as a very charming Ratty as well as playing four other parts including the funniest gaoler ever! Andrew McGillan is perfect as Toad, bright green wig, bandy legged and enthusiastically bound for trouble wherever he hops. McGillan's scenes where he steals the car are comedy classics. Dom Gee-Burch brings a gravitas to the play as the sensible Badger and even gently berates an audience member for getting up to go to the loo! Gee-Burch is also wonderfully believable as a horse pulling the caravan. Finally Rosamund Hind has a series of seven quick change roles and even pops up as the little seen Otter character. This is a production where all the players work extremely hard in keeping up the momentum and daftness but seem so laid back about it you relax with them.

Back projections help move each act to a new vista and I am not going to tell you how they row across the stage in a boat called Baby, drive a car down a country lane and crash it and bring a full size steam train into the tiny Guildhall Theatre on Derby's Market Square. If you want to grin all the way home and revel in Oddsocks inventive madness. Get along to the Guildhall this week (until 31^st January) but don't go via the Wild Wood! Aaaargh!

Wind in The Willows is touring until February 21st. Next stop The Gaiety Theatre Ayr (Feb 14th) 01292 288235 and then Alnwick Playhouse Northumberland 17th February - 21st February. 01665 510785. Catch it while you can!!!!

Production photos by Hope Ward – Brown.

Oddsocks Facebook Page

#windywillows

Promotional video for Greetings from The Trenches by Phil Lowe and Emma Brown

"Greetings from the trenches" promotional video made during rehearsals in Leiden Holland.

More rehearsal details in the forthcoming blogpost.

Nottingham Playhouse. Propaganda Swing. review.

Language is a fascinating and peculiar thing. The versatility of its nature; its power to shock, to educate, to impose doctrines, establish cultural values and to amuse continually informs our perceptions of human existence. The language of music even more so and in this production of Peter Arnott's Propaganda Swing – a co-production between The Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Nottingham Playhouse uses both to great effect.

 

 

In Nottingham Playhouse's Propaganda Swing we are introduced into a forbidden world of jazz and swing in the city of Berlin at the time of the so called phoney war. The then Nazi regime dictate that jazz music is a degenerate and hateful thing, culturally and ethnically impure and a target for their racist attitudes and comments. Over the years leading into the Second World War the jazz movement is driven underground and forbidden by the dictatorship. Unless of course it could come in useful as a weapon of propaganda by changing the lyrics to popular tunes and broadcasting them.

 

 

They say that forbidden fruit always tastes sweeter and those band members of the time that survived, many of Jewish origin, bravely carried on playing the sweet sounds of jazz and swing often literally – underground. Others like Charly's Band in the play found their musical talents perversely corrupted in order to generate propaganda through the airwaves. Human survival can drive people to strange perceptions of the right thing to do in extreme circumstances such as war.

 

 

In Peter Arnott's fascinating play we see the ludicrous racist ranting of William Joyce's Lord Haw Haw brilliantly portrayed by Callum Coates in one of the most authentic performances I've seen on the Nottingham stage. His character is at once laughable and chilling given that whilst the majority of the radio listeners of the time would have found his extreme attitudes untenable there would also have been those who were in accord with his anti-Semite and generally bigoted views.

 

 

This play engages on many levels. The multi-talented cast give their all through their acting, period dancing and playing of live jazz music and we are absolutely drawn into their characters lives as they live, love and try to make sense of a world that was at war. It is not without a great deal of humour throughout. The very human story has a various threads of humour woven into the fabric of its telling with a particularly strong thread of satire. In such a manner it reminded me of the musical Cabaret. The fabulous set designed by Libby Watson gives the show a stylish and cohesive whole and clear sense of place.

 

Most humorous of all was the warm portrayal of Otto Stenzl by Chris Andrew Mellon and his barbed stand up comedy routine, pin sharp and mesmeric is a highlight of the show. His defiant routine aimed squarely at the Nazis truly puts the camp into concentration camp.

The rest of the small cast were exemplary including Richard Conlon as Bill Constant the world weary American journalist and Miranda Wilford as romantically elusive jazz singer La La Anderson giving exceptionally strong performances as a couple destined never to fall properly in love.

 

 

 

 

 

An intriguing play highlighting a little known aspect of an era where just as you think everything has been covered you uncover a theatrical gem like Propaganda Swing that sparkles like a diamond glittering underneath a lamplight whilst buried in the dust and rubble of wartime Germany. Highly recommended.

 

 

Propaganda Swing plays at Nottingham Playhouse until 18^th October 2015

Photo credits: Robert Day.

Promotional video. Derby Theatre. The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.

Promotion video for The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at Derby Theatre by Jim Cartwright. Showing Friday 31st October to Sat 22nd November 2014. Directed by Sarah Brigham, designed by Dawn Allsopp and Musical Direction by George Dyer.

Cast:

Tracy Brabin: Mari
Rebecca Brierley: Little Voice
Kevin McGowan: Ray Say
Sue Vincent: Sadie
Tom Meredith: Billy
Ged McKenna: Mr Boo

Play rehearsal by Skype with Emma Brown

I don't know why I didn't latch on to the benefits of communicating by Skype before but I recently created an account for myself and Emma and I had our first Skype based rehearsal today.

Emma currently lives in Holland and I live in Nottingham in England so our regular rehearsals for 'Greetings from the Trenches' need to be actualised somehow. The Skype system turned out to be brilliant. With good web links the aural and visual communication were as clear as if we were sitting in the same room. Plus it is free and a great way to rehearse. Shame I couldn't make her a cup of tea online though and Emma, if the interruptive telesales woman selling Italian olive oil and sausages calls again please give her my number. Her sixty-two euro deal sounds a bargain.

We managed to go through the last twelve pages of script that have been written recently and in the practicing of reading aloud we agreed that two of her concerns about certain scenes do actually work theatrically. There may be a few other small things that need rephrasing or tweaking still plus considerations over songs and music. All in good time.

Rehearsal by Skype

Otherwise, Emma said that she thought the play was 'gorgeous' and would be a pleasure to do. I was thrilled to hear that good news and look forward to further rehearsals and what we can achieve from the piece destined for its premiere in early December at the Jakobus Theatre in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Poster for 'Greetings From The Trenches' designed by Phil Lowe

 

Sardines Magazine. WW1 Centenary feature and more!

I am proud to announce that I have written a World War One centenary special twenty-one page feature for Sardines Magazine (August edition - issue 23) plus an interview with John Godber, Joe McGann and Shobna Gulati. In the last issue Sardines published my interview with Warwick Davis (cover feature), a piece about myself as theatre reviewer and the twinning arrangement at Nottingham's Lace Market Theatre. It is an honour for me to be a contributor to this excellent
magazine.

 Paul Johnson - Sardines editor in chief - has done a fantastic job of editing my text and bringing the piece even further to life with some brilliant photo arrangements. Amongst the WW1 subjects (all to do with theatre) we feature the puppets from War Horse, an interview with Howard Brenton at The Globe theatre, insights into one production of Private Peaceful plus news and reviews from professional touring productions. Those include Northern Broadsides 'An August Bank Holiday Lark', Nottingham Playhouse's new play 'The Second Minute' by Andy Barrett and directed by Giles Croft and  Alex Gwyther's one man show 'Our  Friends, The Enemy'. Two amateur productions of 'Oh What A Lovely War' are seen in two very different ways and there is a great photographic compilation of pictures from many an amateur First World War play across the country. And much more...

The latest magazine - hot off the press - is chock full of articles that will be fascinating for any lover of the theatre and can be ordered through the Sardines website either as a single magazine or subscription or downloadable. Back copies can also be ordered through the same website.

The John Godber interview took place in the rehearsal rooms at the former Art College on Green Lane and I caught John mid-rehearsal with his production team and cast for a new touring production of his play April In Paris. He was a very straight talking and relaxed man in the interview and revealed some interesting thoughts on the success of his many plays and style of playing.

His actors, Shobna Gulati and Joe McGann were an utter delight to interview alongside John and were very amusing and insightful in their theatrical stories and tales of the rehearsal process.

Many thanks to Heidi McKenzie at Derby Theatre for arranging this interview. Also big thanks to Jo McLeish c/o Nottingham Playhouse and her own company The Media Room for her continuing support.

Well, that's a promotional flavour of my own contribution to this issue of the quarterly magazine - Sardines. I look forward to submitting more work and ideas in 2014.

Many thanks to Paul Johnson, Fariba and the Sardines team.

Phil Lowe

Twitter :PhilLowe7

New Street Theatre Company's production of Oh What A Lovely War

There are some theatre productions you know are going to be fantastic and full of energy before you even enter the theatre space. This is due to the pedigree of the director based on the reputation they have built through previous innovative shows and near professional productions with amateur casts. Meaning that the director cast and crew work with them to produce something exceptional. 'Run of the mill' is not in their theatrical vocabulary. I have a very strong feeling that this will be the case with Martin Berry and his New Street Company in association with Lakeside at Nottingham University. They are about to launch their production of Joan Littlewood's  Oh What A Lovely War playing from Tuesday 15th to Saturday 26th of July.

Their solid reputation shows in the fact that they have secured a double page spread in the local newspaper The Nottingham Post today promoting the play and the Nottingham connections during the First World War. Plus the cast have been performing live in the city centre Victoria shopping centre to great applause and a good increase of ticket sales.

 

 

To semi - quote from the article Martin Berry says that he was happy as a director to branch out from the more obvious musicals he has done in the past such as Sweeney Todd and Into The Woods. This time this piece is a play with songs rather than a musical and offers challenges in a good way and has been strongly embraced with gusto by the director and hand picked cast. Some of his previous talent have been chosen to join the OWALW team with some new talents from the cream of Nottingham's amateur players. They are all young, energetic and have a real dedication to the piece and what it might mean to a modern audience. The cast feel that they have been dividing their time between presenting an entertainment and honouring the people who died in the war. The piece is mainly presented as a comedy but has a serious intent and the laughs reveal some ugly truths about exploitation and mismanagement of the troops leading to thousands being slaughtered on all sides.

 

cast rehearsing a technical rehearsal for sound



Even the audience have an opportunity to take sides. The audience seating is divided between "The War Artists" situated in the traditional auditoria and "The War Poets" situated on the opposite side of the stage facing the War Artists. Each placing has equally good viewing I'm led to believe. Regardless I look forward to reviewing the show on the 15th July. Whoops there goes a Whizzbang!

 

Bookings can be made through www.lakesidearts.org.uk or telephone the box office at 0115 8467777.