24:7 Madness Sweet Madness 25/7/15

Madness Sweet Madness by Georgina Tremayne was a play concerning a mysterious night in the lives of Grace (Sophie Harrison) a widow struggling with the loss of her husband, and her brother in law Vesuvius (Matt Aistrup), exhausted by her bizarre and compulsive behaviour. Into this mix comes two mysterious 'detectives' (Sarah MacGillivray and Matt Holt) who may be a product of the imagination of one or both of the central characters.

I'm afraid this play did not engage me at all. The plot I suspect was meant to be quirky and intriguing, but personally I found it dull, verging on the self indulgent, and the 45 minute running time dragged. 

There were some engaging performances, but coupled with a weak narrative, an obsession with omelettes, and a set device of a glowing shed that made no sense, instead of dragging me in and making me think, which was possibly the idea, it just left me feeling frustrated and somewhat annoyed that this was the play I was ending my 24:7 Big Weekend on.

Venue was lovely though, the Cosmo Concert Hall at the Martin Harris Centre is beautiful (determined to end on a high!!!!!) 

24:7 Gary: A Love Story 25/7/15

This interesting and absorbing two hander, written by James Harker, is a play exploring the complex relationship between two brothers, Andrew (Reuben Johnson), and Gary (Craig Morris) 

As Andrew works his way through evidence boxes surrounding him on stage, he recalls  snapshots of the brother's lives together. This play is in turns complex, coarse, touching and shocking as the flashbacks built up into a record of two lives that could have had a different ending had a better support system been in place. Both of the actors do an excellent job portraying their roles, the complexities of their characters are  evident. Whilst Gary is the 'bad boy' who gets into trouble constantly and Andrew is the 'gifted student' both have more depth than that.

Gary, possibly with some mental health problems, longs for acceptance from his brother and searches for friendship and companionship, albeit often misguidedly. Andrew cares about his brother but cannot acknowledge it and loses sympathy for his extreme behaviours. Ultimately Gary is very lonely and scared, putting trust in the wrong places, but you do feel that with better support structures once he entered the criminal justice system, the outcome could have been very different.

Whilst Andrew is intolerant of his brothers actions, his shocking death affects him deeply and the heart of the narrative is him trying to make sense of the series of events that led to it and his conflicted feelings towards his brother.

Ultimately, this is a tale about love, as its title suggests. Well written, strongly performed and deeply affecting, this was one of the highlights of the festival for me. 

24:7 We Are The Multitude 25/7/15

What happens when two office workers, polar opposites who tolerate each other as part of daily office life, are thrown together in a situation that they might not get out of? Might they discover they have more in common than they thought? This funny and touching play by Laura Harper explores how events unfold.

Simon (Andy Blake) is the radical intellectual who keeps himself aloof from the rabble and appears to see his life in the University's finance department as somewhat beneath him, bubbly and over the top Lisa (Amy Drake) is obsessed with cats, celebrity gossip and recording every perceived slight in her 'bullying diary'. Whilst both are initially drawn as extremes of the kind of characters you might meet in office life, as they become trapped in their workplace, which the 'multitude' are threatening to blow up as a protest, their characters and backgrounds are revealed to have much more depth, as we discover both are lonely, isolated and hiding secrets, and, through the exchanging of a few home truths, a connection  is formed.

I really enjoyed this play. The humour is well played by the two leads, Drake in particular has some hilarious non verbal moments as she reacts to events, but both actors deliver excellent comedy performances and spark off each other well. The more touching elements are also nicely judged and there is some thoughtful detail, and the pace of the piece works well, the one hour running time flies by. The plot device of the multitude is maybe a little unrealistic, but it serves it's purpose in throwing these two seemingly disparate characters together and forcing them to communicate openly with each other.

Great comedy blended with touching detail, well delivered by a strong cast, I'm really glad I got a chance to see it.

24:7 The Plant 25/7/15

Two men are imprisoned in a mysterious small cell. To speed the passage of time one, Leon (Alex Phelps) starts to weave a narrative, with frequent interjections from the other Keith (Jonny Cordingley). As the tale moves on it becomes increasingly complex and darkly comic, and the lines between narrative and reality of their situation become blurred as we find out more about the brooding Plant that looms over the town that no one can escape from. Oh, and there is a brave duck called Rodney! 

I really enjoyed this clever piece of theatre. The writing, by James Kerr, was engaging, in turns funny and slightly creepy, and the two talented actors did an incredible job in bringing the story to life. I wasn't entirely surprised when I saw the name of Michael White in the playbill as movement associate, as the seamlessly smooth physicality of the performance had definite echoes of pieces that I have seen from Square Peg Theatre. Although the reality of the two inmates stories was never fully resolved, I liked that as it left me imagining more. 

All in all I felt this was an accomplished and clever piece of theatre, tightly directed and excellently portrayed. Definite highlight and deserves to be seen more. 

24:7 Theatre Festival - Big Weekend

24:7 has been one of the highlights of my theatre going year for a while now. A festival of new theatre writing, in the form of one hour plays, rehearsed readings and various other events, it has often provided unexpected thrills and has introduced a lot of new talent to the artistic world. Sadly this year it lost its Arts Council funding, something I find quite hard to understand when a ridiculous amount of public funding has been allocated for another large arts venue that Manchester doesn't really need at this time. I'm not sure whether this is connected with why 24:7 has decided to retire it's festival after this year, or whether they feel it has run its course as we do have an embarrassment of theatrical riches in the North. However 24:7 will live on in other guises, but the thrill of a week of theatrical adventures in the heart of the city courtesy of the festival will be sadly missed by many, myself included.

Luckily, the festival decided to bow out with a bang, putting on a Big Festival Weekend with four new plays, rehearsed readings, a children's adventure, a promenade production of monologues inspired by Manchester Scientists and workshops for writers and actors. It was all based around the Martin Harris Centre, a sparsely signposted but excellent venue on the University campus. I was limited for time this year so could only spend one day down there, but, clutching my lovely 24:7 Goodie Bag (as I had taken part in a crowd funding to support the festival earlier in the year) I managed to see all four of the main shows.

So it only remains to say - 24:7 Theatre Festival thank you. You have delighted and surprised me over the years, I've seen so many new plays, some of which still stay with me to this day,(and only one that I detested - that's not a bad hit rate), I've discovered new venues, made new friends, cried and laughed. You will be very much missed.

The Play That Goes Wrong, Duchess Theatre, London 19/4/15

There's not a lot for a theatre obsessed person to do on a Sunday in London. A few of the crowd pleasers have matinees, but a Sunday evening in Theatreland tends to be very short on theatrical diversions. However, The Play that Goes Wrong, bucks this trend with not one but two Sunday performances

At the Lowry this Christmas I saw the extremely funny Peter Pan Goes Wrong by the same people behind this play, Mischief Theatre Company, and I did wonder if it would just be more of the same, but, whilst elements are shared - collapsing scenery, increasing on and off stage chaos, and a very real danger that the audience will do themselves an injury from laughing, they are actually very different productions and can both be enjoyed individually. 

The play bills itself as Noises Off meets Fawlty Towers and the roots of this piece are definitely in good old fashioned slapstick and farce. The action concerns the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society's attempt to stage a 1920s murder mystery Murder at Haversham Manor, but whatever can go wrong does, with increasingly chaotic results. 

An energetic and extremely hard working cast deliver hilarious performances from the outset ( in fact from before the outset so don't be too tardy getting to the theatre). Whilst it may look chaotic, it takes a talented set of performers and a lot of work to deliver that level of chaos precisely and without serious injury! 

The play won an Olivier this year for best new comedy, and it is well worth checking out if you want a couple of hours of sheer entertainment and fun. Highly recommended.

Currently booking through to February 2016 with plenty of reasonably priced tickets and discounts for early bookings. 

The Ghost Train, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester 30/5/15

The latest production at the Royal Exchange sees theatre company Told by an Idiot return with their take on Arnold Ridley’s Ghost Train. Ridley, who many will remember best as Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army, enjoyed considerable success with this play, when it first opened in London in 1925, where it played for over two years. The plot of this comedy thriller revolves around a group of passengers stranded at a remote country railway station overnight, having ignored the station master’s dire warnings to leave as a ghost train haunts the line bringing death to anyone who sets eyes on it.

Having seen and thoroughly enjoyed Told By An Idiot’s previous two productions,  You Can’t Take it with You, and Too Clever by Half,  in the main space at the Royal Exchange, I was looking forward to the same brand of eccentric humour and riotous laughs from this production, but for me, despite some fun and inventive elements, and good performances, I found it unengaging and slow.

There are plenty of chuckles throughout. Javier Marzan as a drunken Miss Bourne being a particular highlight, and the talented cast work extremely well together to deliver the piece. Timing is precise, and there is some fun and cheeky interaction with the audience.  There is innovative use of set and sound, I particularly liked the opening sequence as the train was brought to life by the cast. But, whilst other productions have been lively and well-paced, the first act of this play felt terribly slow and disjointed, and takes over an hour to get to the pivotal moment. I hoped that things would pick up in the shorter second act but even though the story moved on considerably, the pace still felt stilted and sluggish.

At times I felt like I was watching rough draft of a play, talented actors and good moments but in need of editing. Whilst there are amusing characterisations and fun elements, it verges on the self-indulgent at times. Just because you have some mildly amusing ideas you don’t need to put them all on stage and lose sight of the need to also move the action on.

Despite my reaction to the performance, and my disappointment in the production for not living up to my hopes for a riotous afternoon of comedy and / or chills, there were plenty in the audience who would disagree with me and seemed to enjoy themselves immensely.

Mildly amusing in places, but no real scares, talented cast and nice staging, but for me it never lived up to the sum of its parts and was a frustrating and disappointing production.