Murder on Air, Whitley Bay Playhouse

Three short Agatha Christie radio plays performed in a radio studio setting with live sound effects.

I’m a crime fiction fan so I went along for a guilty dose of Christie and to have a peek at the new Whitley Bay Playhouse.

These weren’t Christie’s finest works – short stories with the requisite twist in the tale,  coupled with a  less than convincing turn from Roy Marsden as Hercules Poirot in one segment (hard to accept Adam Dalgliesh as Poirot!!).

The highlight was the staging – the links from contemporary radio broadcasts set the period,  the sound effects from the foley artist and from the cast were amazing. These also added a comedic dimension…I won’t spoil the ‘plot’ but if sitting in the front row, beware the flying shards of cabbage used as a proxy for a human skull during a murder scene.

It was good to see the new Playhouse, but none too hopeful to see that I probaby helped to lower the average age of the audience, and that for one of the few national productions that this theatre has attracted, the house was less than full.

Portrait of a Lady, Bath Theatre Royal

Part of this year’s Peter Hall season at the Theatre Royal, adapting the Henry James’ novel about an American heiress in Europe, Isobel Archer.

The story was told largely in reverse with simple sets using back-projection to signify changes of time and location. Thus the starting point was the disintegration of Isobel’s marriage, then tracking back, via various suitors, to her arrival in Europe as an impressionable young woman. This device gave Catherine McCormack considerable scope to gradually strip away layers of her character, from frozen wife to enthusiastic girl.

 Some Machiavellian over-acting was evident in the performances of other members of the repertory company who had very little to do in this production, but all was forgiven for McCormack’s mesmerising central performance.

…also, not often that I get to go to the theatre and lower the average age of the audience by approximately twenty years!!!

For more see http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/jul/28/1

The 39 Steps, Criterion Theatre, London

http://www.love39steps.com/facts.html

The 39 steps – in summary 4 actors play over 130 roles in 100 minutes. It’s spell-bindingly fast, funny and inventive.

On one level it’s a ripping yarn – the story of the unfeasibly handsome Richard Hannay, suspected of murder and on the run from the police. It is also a funny and affectionate homage to the spy and thriller genres. Add in the incredible staging – one actor can typically be playing two characters on stage at any one moment – and the comedic value of playing upon the low-tech nature of the props – and you have a fabulous night at the theatre.

Brief Encounter, Haymarket, London

My second dose of Kneehigh magic in less than a month – a play performed in a cinema where the film (itself based on a play) was probably shown.

 

I wasn’t sure what to expect – the Kneehigh productions I have seen previously have largely been derived from fairytales or legends, whereas this was facing a piece of twentieth century iconography head-on.

 

I wasn’t disappointed – the most was made of the setting, with members of the cast being among the cinema ushers, the main characters appearing from within the cinema audience, spoof advertisements played in the intermission, and, with impeccable timing, the actors passing through a cinema screen to appear as part of filmed action.

 

Expected Kneehigh touches were there – audience interaction, comic characterisation, imaginative use of stage and props, impossibly talented performers who sang, played, danced and acted – but none of these detracted from the power of the main romantic thread. The two leads were amazing – who would have thought that seeing two lovers dress each other would be quite so sexy?

 

Rapunzel, Circomedia, Bristol

The luxury of an afternoon’s leave to go and see a matinee of Kneehigh’s production of Rapunzel at Circomedia in Bristol.

 Hard to describe to those who don’t know Kneehigh’s approach – music, dance, acrobatics, a fairy tale… a live rabbit, Rapunzel with dreadlocks, characters sliding down scaffolding poles, having eyes gouged out and fingers cut off… a free packet of seeds to take away at the end. What more could a girl want on a Thursday afternoon?

The fact that it was sold out for a matinee performance with an age range of 3 to 70 says it all about Kneehigh’s appeal. At one point, a small girl convulsed with laughter, caused a halt to proceedings as the rest of the audience joined her.

 The performance was in the round at Circomedia, a circus school in a converted church in Bristol – my first visit but I will certainly be going back.

 Looking forward to seeing Kneehigh’s other current show, Brief Encounter, in London in a couple of week’s time.