HMS Pinafore, Manchester Bridgewater Hall 18/3/12

A sunny Sunday in Manchester saw a Mother’s Day trip out to the Bridgewater Hall to see a concert performance of HMS Pinafore. This production was initially meant to star Russell Grant in the role of Sir Joseph Porter. Unfortunately due to an urgent knee operation, he had to pull out of the part a couple of weeks before. Whilst he had taken pains to communicate this to his fans on social media, the promoters, Raymond Gubbay seemed to have been a little slow at following suit, still billing him in press adverts and on their website as the star a week before the concert. Consequently there were a few disappointed people arriving at the venue and seeing the small sign announcing the substitution.

This was my first proper visit to the Bridgewater Hall and it’s an impressive venue, it’s light and airy, and the back of the hall is covered in the pipe structure from the organ and looks like some kind of art installation. And once the wonderful Manchester Concert Orchestra started up it was clear that the acoustics were excellent, you felt like you were surrounded by the music. I’m told that no matter where you sit in the hall the sound is just as good. The main performers were miked, and there was the odd issue with sound at times with them, but this was minor and didn’t really detract from the overall performance.

On the stage were the Orchestra, the chorus and the main performers. Whilst a degree of latitude had been given regarding the age appropriateness of some of the casting, they all gave fabulous performances. My favourites were Simon Butteriss, who made a fabulously camp Sir Joseph Porter, bringing a lot of giggles to the stage, Oliver White, as the dashing deckhand Ralph Rackshaw, combining a very good characterisation with a great voice, and Louise Crane as the incorrigible Cousin Hebe.

Overall, this was a great show, it didn’t take itself too seriously, the music and performances were excellent, and by the rousing reception at the end from the audience, any disappointment at the last minute casting change had been more than made up for. A lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Yes Prime Minister, Buxton Opera House, 17/3/12

Not my normal choice of play this one, but I do remember the television series with fondness, and it was a treat for my Dad’s birthday. Buxton Opera House itself is always a gorgeous theatre to visit, its beautiful inside and has a really varied programme, I’ve seen all kinds of entertainment there over the years.

The first thing that strikes you as you enter the theatre is the impressive set, a book-lined wood panelled room at Chequers taking up virtually the full height of the stage. Considering this is a touring production that’s quite an achievement.

The actual play was a bit of a mixed bag for me to be honest. The action has been updated to the modern day, and there are a lot of very clever pieces of dialogue that are satisfyingly close to the kind of things that go on in politics today. I particularly liked the concept of the standard answers that could be used for any external official comment and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a similar folder exists somewhere at Westminster. But the plot could have been tighter, and the middle section especially, where the key players are trying to decide how to respond to a somewhat unusual request from the Kurmanistan diplomat, was dragged out way beyond its natural life.

For this performance the role of Sir Humphrey Appleby was taken by the understudy, Simon Holmes, and I thought he played him excellently. His delivery of Sir Humphrey’s lengthy responses to questions, erudite whilst at all times completely avoiding answering the question asked, was a particular highlight and earned him well-deserved applause from the audience.

However, Graham Seed as Jim Hacker the Prime Minister was, for me, a bit of a disappointment. There was a bit too much mugging for my liking, if the farce had been toned down a little I think it would have made for a much better performance. He also stumbled over quite a few lines and cues, possibly because of his, in my view, over energetic performance.

Despite my personal reservations about elements of the plot, some performance decisions, and the pace of the show, there was a lot to enjoy in it and some very clever satire at times. And judging by the reaction of the packed audience a lot of people would disagree with my minor niggles.

No Sleep For The Haunted - The Studio, Lowry Theatre Salford 9/3/12

Now this one had me intrigued, a new musical by Geoff Page consisting of three ghost stories. It seemed like such a strange concept and one that I just couldn’t imagine, so I toddled off down to the Lowry to see how on earth they were going to make it work.

The piece is part of The Lowry’s ‘Developed with’ strand in The Studio, a programme which works with new writers, artists and companies, helping them to develop and showcase new work and hopefully sending it out into the big wide world to flourish. The show is billed as ‘a new musical in development’ and this is made clear to us at the start, in fact we are all given feedback forms before we even enter the auditorium. Personally speaking, as an audience member there is something quite exciting about knowing you are in on something at the start and may be able, even in a small way, to influence how it develops in the future.

The show centres on three ghost stories – The Judge’s House by Bram Stoker, The Signalman by Charles Dickens, and A Warning to the Curious by M.R. James, and they have been linked together in quite a clever way with the character of Long (Darren Southworth) leading us through the first two tales and being a part of the third. The small cast is completed by Fred Broom and Ryan Greaves who portray a number of characters through the stories.

The Judge’s House starts us off, and although this felt to me to be the most under-developed musically, it was arguably the creepiest, and possibly the reason why I am typing this right now with the lights on rather than sleeping!

The middle tale, The Signalman, was excellently played and seemed the most mature musically. Looking at the programme notes this is unsurprising as it is the piece that has been around the longest, having originally been staged in 2010 as a 30 minute musical as part of a workshop at The Lowry. The only thing that didn’t work for me in this piece was the decision to break for the interval mid-way through which did dissipate the tension a little

The third tale, A Warning to the Curious, whilst perhaps not quite as mature as its predecessor, had some of the most memorable tunes, Fred Bloom’s rendition of ‘Stuff and Nonsense’ being a particular highlight for me.

The cast are excellent, fine voices all, and bringing an energetic mix of scares and humour to the stage. The set is simple and cleverly used, allowing for seamless transitions between the various settings, and the lighting and sound worked well to compliment the piece (although the rats did threaten to drown out Mr Southworth’s fine voice at one point)

All in all this was a really exciting and original thing to experience and hopefully it will develop further in the future. And it’s really opened my eyes up to the breadth of things that go on at the Lowry, and the incredible value for money that The Studio productions offer. I have a feeling that they are going to be seeing a lot more of me in the future!

Two, Royal Exchange Manchester, 18-2-12

I deliberately arranged a trip to the theatre for my first weekend back in the UK in a hope that it would chase away the post – holiday blues, and it didn’t disappoint.

Two, by Jim Cartwright opens in a pub, where a landlord (Justin Moorhouse) and landlady (Victoria Elliott) are bickering their way through another night’s service. We then meet a number of other customers, all played by the same actors, and see snapshots of their lives, many funny, some heartbreakingly touching, with a few shocks thrown in for good measure. We also gradually learn more about our hosts and the unspoken pain and regret that drives their current animosity.

The play is energetically paced, with the many exits and entrances making full use of the Exchange’s multiple access points and each scene leading seamlessly into the next. And the set design is extremely clever, a circular bar making good use of the performance pace, with an extremely striking chandelier constructed of tier upon tier of real bar glasses suspended over it.

I last saw Justin Moorhouse in Zack at this theatre, a part that he was well suited to, but one that was not that far removed from his personality and comedy roots, and I have to admit I did wonder how he would fare in a more varied role. However, he more than did the part justice, both in the comedic, and the darker elements. He has a great ability to create a rapport with the audience and this was used to great effect. And in the performance that I saw, he dealt very well with getting tangled up with an audience member’s handbag and dragging it halfway across the stage, only the minor corpsing on the stage giving the game away that it wasn’t a deliberate part of the show!

Victoria Elliott showed herself to be a fantastically versatile actress, truly inhabiting each part she played. On more than one occasion I was having to look very closely to convince myself that the part hadn’t been suddenly recast! Her comic timing was spot on, but the detail she put into each of her varied characters, including the extremely touching conclusion to the play, was quite stunning.

All in all an excellent antidote to the post holiday blues.

(I wasn’t able to take a picture of the amazing chandelier, but the Exchange’s Education Officer, Liam McCormick, has been kind enough to provide me with one of his taken from below which will give you some idea of its splendour!)

Sleepyhead, Blue Room Theatre, Perth Fringe Festival 8-2-12

My second bit of Aussie culture blogging whilst on my jollidays (slightly delayed, blame the readjustment to real life!)

Sleepy head was a play being staged at Blue Room theatre which is an intimate performance space seating around 70 in the environs of the Perth Cultural Centre. Written by a western Australian playwright, Nathaniel Moncrieff, and first performed in Melbourne, it formed part of the Fringe festival programme.

It was a strange play, a dark tale about two sisters, Eleanor and Genevieve, living in the Australian outback with their abusive drunk of a father and follows events of a few days as the father abandons his daughters for a while, the threat of a dangerous stranger, and the appearance of a frightened, blood-soaked girl. All the main characters have been damaged in some way by their lives, the girl’s mother has died, although the full details of her death are not immediately clear, Genevieve is disabled after a traumatic event and spends most of her time wheelchair bound, taking solace in her dolls and her ‘imaginary companion’. Ellie is rebelling against life and her family, the father is struggling to cope.

Most of the play concentrates on the two sisters Gen (Louise Cocks) and Ellie (Amy Murray). They have a complex relationship, at times Ellie shows great compassion towards her sister, and at others she can be intolerably cruel. Both actresses gave strong performances of such complex roles, and I was particularly impressed with Louise Cocks as Gen.

This was an interesting play, and I think with a bit of fine tuning it could be excellent. The set was simple and the use of lighting and sound conveyed the oppressive heat and sinister threat brilliantly. However, the scene changes were unnecessarily complicated and clunky and broke the tension of the piece. And I found the character of Ellie slightly overworked which made it hard to invest in her character, or believe in the horrific events later in the play. But it was very dark and thought provoking and was well played by the small cast. And it was a great experience to see some ‘local grown’ theatre on the other side of the world.