Month: September 2018

CRIME drama has never been more popular or in more abundance than it is on our television screens currently and it is therefore quite a canny move for the REP to commission and produce a new thriller for the stage.

The choice of Ian Rankin’s ‘Rebus’ is also a good one – recalling the masterful Ken Stott in the role brings back many happy memories.

Long Shadows is a new play, adapted especially for the stage by Rona Munro from Rankin’s words. Add to this an award winning director in Robin Lefevre and some well-known actors it should sparkle. Sadly on the opening night it was like a glass of flat champagne.

Why? Well firstly, act one is very wordy and very static. Actors facing each other with hands in pockets, lines said upstage, dialogue disjointed and often inaudible particularly from Charles Lawson whose Scottish mumble does nothing to endear him in the early all-important scenes. Cathy Tyson is an actress of renown but sadly she puts in a performance that actually lacks depth and credibility.

The split-level set by designer Ti Green comprises a huge winding staircase representing the tenements of Edinburgh. This leads up to street level but creates a dead spot at the top where almost every word is lost. Come the interval there is little of merit to discuss.

Mercifully act one is short and act two is a much better piece all round. The story at last unfolds and actually becomes interesting. Best of all we have a tour-de-force performance from John Stahl who shows how to deliver lines, sell his character and involve the audience. He is big in statue and performance as the arch villain of the piece ‘Big Ger’ Cadety.

In essence the script could do with less words and more action – currently it seems more suited to the radio than the stage.

It lacks firm direction with some glaring staging mistakes not usually seen on this hallowed Rep stage. Even the small amount of fight business is badly executed.

It is here until the October 6, then goes on a long national tour so there are opportunities aplenty to put things right.

I’m sure with some rewriting, redirection and a cast sharing the energy that John Stahl exudes the champagne can indeed sparkle.

Visit https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/rebus-long-shadows.html for more information and tickets.

Review by Euan Rose.

‘PAINES Plough’ is renowned for both offering up new work and giving new takes on presentation.

In Anna Jordan’s ‘Pop Music’ at the Birmingham Rep they offer both.

Directed by James Grieve, it’s concept is simple – two drink-jaded people meet on the dance floor at the wedding of mutual friends and as they dance they open up to each other about their lives, as song lyrics and rhythms set off memories of the 80s and 90s.

‘G’ is played by Rakesh Boury and ‘Kayla’ by Katherine Kotz – both of whom are excellent in their respective roles – feeding off each other as the first one provokes a thought which sparks off a reaction in the other then the other returns the compliment.

It’s a bit like a closely fought tennis match set to music.

As the night progresses we discover they were at the same school – Kayla was a tough member of a girl gang who bullied G – G spent most of his time in solitude, hiding with only his orange earphones for company.

Naturally he remembers her far more than she remembers him. Equally naturally G has succeeded in life whereas Kayla has failed to fulfill any of her teenage dreams.

This is of course a well-used cliché but it is also more often than not a truism.

Most of the Silicon Valley billionaire computer company founders tell stories of being the school geek who was bullied and the best looking cheer leader who married the beefcake school football star often ended up being the sad, big fat obese couple when their crowns soon tarnished in the real world.

The clever bit in the writing is that there are several layers of depth to this cliché.

G despite being successful as a pop music engineer had not found happiness with either sex in relationships. In a way Kayla still manages to bully him by scratching at those wounds. Will they get together? Would it work out if they did?

The REP has long been pioneers in promoting new ways of making theatre acceptable to a wider audience through imaginative use of audio visual and human signing. In this production the signer – Ciaran Alexander Stewart gets equal billing alongside the cast of two actors and even a name – ‘Remix’.

He gets the best costume too and is more often than not centre stage and even joins in some of the dancing.

He is fact quite brilliant in the role – to me though I found this was at the cost of allowing G and Kayla to cross over the fourth wall to us between cast and audience. Our eyes were too often on Remix or the word screen.

The play runs at 75 minutes without an interval and seems just about the right length.

Paines Plough, and here’s a nice piece of trivia, got their name on the night the company was conceived, at the Plough Inn drinking Paines bitter – offer an original nights theatre once again.

It is well worth a trip into Birmingham for this – it runs until Saturday, September 22.

Visit https://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/whats-on/pop-music.html for more information and tickets, which start at £10.

Review by Euan Rose.

THERE were just four actors playing a myriad of parts when The 39 Steps was staged at the Crescent Theatre’s Ron Barber Studio.

In the plot, a night at the theatre turns swiftly into a complex cacophony of dastardly deeds, merry mayhem, murder most foul, sinister spies, lovers, lasciviousness and a barrel load of laughs.

The action zooms from a moving train to cars to Scottish Highlands and Lowlands to back where it starts in the theatre where only the knowledge of the famous ‘Memory Man’ can save our innocent hero from a trip to the gallows.

‘The 39 Steps’ started life as a novel by John Buchan, and then became a classic movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a radio play and a straight dramatic adaption before Patrick Barlow created this ‘whacky races on speed’ version.

It was a smash hit both on Broadway and in the West End running for many years and scooping lots of awards.

The Crescent quartet of actors give their all to the venture.

David Baldwin’s combination of innocence and arrogance make him a perfectly suave Richard Hannay, Molly Wood suitably flaunts herself in all the sexy roles whilst Niall Higgins and Katie Goldhawk take on seemingly hundreds of characters with great aplomb – all credit to them for remembering who and where they are.

The action takes place in the confines of the Ron Barber studio, which is set out in a panoramic style with the audience straight on.

The downside of this is if you are seated in the middle you are fine but if you’re seated to one side then you miss out on the action if it is appearing on the other.

In my opinion, it would have been more inclusive had it been set in the round or traverse.

That is to take nothing away from the company who with just a few benches as furniture take us with them on this breakneck journey.

The lighting design by James Booth is quite magnificent in its creativity, the sound well conceived and balanced by Roger Cunningham.

Director Sallyanne Scotton Moonga has worked in tandem with her actors with her touch showing like a fifth cast member at times.

Catch it before it closes on September 15– it’s great fun.

Visit https://www.crescent-theatre.co.uk/ for more information and ticket prices.

Review by Euan Rose.