Cyrano - Derby Theatre

Northern Broadsides theatre company are at Derby Theatre this week with a touring production of Cyrano.

It's probably a story you're vaguely familiar with -you know, the guy with the long nose who's hopelessly in love with his cousin Roxanne, while she's in love with Christian, a handsome Cadet, and also fending off the attentions of a middle-aged married suitor.

 To describe it briefly, I'd say it's a wonderful romp of a show - a mix of farce, romance and tragedy with a song or two thrown in for good measure. It opens with singing and dancing, full of exuberance and life, poetry and swashbuckling,  and fabulous 17th century costumes full of frills and lace. After the interval the second half takes a more serious turn as events move to the siege of Arras (be prepared for noisy cannon fire) and the final scene fourteen years later in a nunnery near Paris.

It was fab, fun and, oh, so sad.


We all really enjoyed it and the only thing to disappoint was the audience - I know we went on a mid-week evening but there weren't many folk there, and (one of my pet gripes) hardly anyone thirty!

Betrayal at Derby Theatre

Earlier this week I was tempted out to see  Derby Theatre's latest production - Betrayal by Harold Pinter. If you're not familiar with it, it's basically the story of a love triangle; Jerry (played by Philip Correia) and Emma (Kemi-Bo Jacobs) had an affair, but Jerry was also best friends with Emma's husband Robert (Ben Addis). As the story moves from the present, two years after the end of the affair, and 'rewinds', scene by scene, to its beginning seven years earlier, you begin to wonder who was most betrayed?


The characters start out as successful, bordering on middle-age, and more than a little awkward with each other, but as the years peel away, so does a certain level of veneer, and their real selves emerge. The actors were all brilliant, getting younger with each scene, while the 'perspex box' set gave the impression of them being constantly in the public eye even when they thought they were private, but the outstanding aspect was the innovative idea of projecting images of the actors onto the backdrop.

I always feel there's a difficulty about staging a play like this, which for the main part is just two people talking to each other - awkward or passionate, bored or angry, every nuance of emotion needs to be portrayed by the actors, and seen by the audience. It feels like staging it would work best in the intimate setting of a tiny Fringe production where the audience can see every flicker on the actors' faces, or on TV or film, where the director has the option of close up camera work. As it is, first time director Lekan Lawal has come up with an excellent way of creating that intimacy in a large theatre; cameras on stage projected larger than life close-ups of the actors onto a backdrop above them, with the additional twist of the image being that seen by the other actor, rather than the audience.  For example, Emma turns away from her husband's questioning, and faces the audience, but the projected image is of her turned back as seen by Robert. It's like seeing the scene play out from both of their perspectives and even if it sounds a little confusing, it isn't; it's brilliant and I loved it.

Educating Rita - Derby Theatre

Last weekend, as a vaguely birthday-treat outing, we all went off to Derby Theatre to see Educating Rita. It's a play I'm familiar with from the Michael Caine/Julie Walters film but I've never seen it performed live, so I was curious how it would compare.

We booked a little on the late side, and ended up nearly central but almost at the back; even so Derby's single tier, banked auditorium gives a good view from anywhere as I think you can see from this shot I took before the performance started.

David Birrell played Frank, a university lecturer forced into taking on an Open University student (Rita, played by Jessica Baglow) for the extra cash. He's not looking forward to it at all, but Rita proves to be a breath of fresh air wafting through his sheltered, blinkered academic life. She's looking for something more to life than hairdressing and having children - an idea that doesn't go down well with her husband.
Although there were obvious similarities with the film  - after all it's give or take the same script, Rita is always Liverpudlian and Frank on the slightly posh side -  it didn't in any way feel like just a stage version of it. The most noticeable aspect was staging - the film gets to play around with a variety of locations; the play takes place in one, Frank's university study/office - but I was also struck with how it seemed funnier. The lines are the same, Peer Gynt still looks best on the radio, but Birrell and Baglow put their own twists on the delivery and timing, and of course there was packed house laughing at them,which you don't get sitting at home watching a dvd. It's awhile since I've been to the theatre and I don't think I could have found a better play to lure me back.

I found an extra surprise when I got home and read the programme. Rita's favourite book Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown is an actual book. I'd never heard of it and always assumed it was a title dreamed up by Willy Russell to illustrate a point. I think I now need to read it!

Look Back In Anger (reaction not review) - Derby Theatre

It's a wet Sunday afternoon sometime in the late 1950s and Jimmy Porter is angry - oh my, is he angry! - about what he reads in the newspaper, about the weather, about not being able to get a pint on Sunday, about his wife's rich background, about the fact that no one will argue back at him, about his wife ironing while he wants to have fun (or at least an argument). He may feel frustrated, thwarted in his ambitions, and held-back by his working class roots. Maybe he wants to change the world  - but taking out his anger on the people closest to him isn't really the way to do it ..... and to be honest, after a while, Jimmy starts to come over as not so much an angry young man as a stroppy teenager.
.....and I haven't started on his attitude to women, both generally and towards his wife, Alison, specifically... Ok  Jimmy is a 1950s man, and the roles of men and women have changed a lot since then, but he's prepared to sit around while his wife does housework, expects her sympathy with his tiniest grievance but offers her none, and, for all his claims, doesn't really seem interested in her opinion on anything. He talks openly about the lovers he's had before he met his wife, and when she leaves him he's quick to find another. What he really seems to want is a woman who'll unconditionally adore him, agree with him all the time (no matter how quickly he changes his standpoint) and somehow magically get the housework done without upsetting his day.

Are we actually supposed to sympathise with this guy?

Look at things from his wife's point of view ....while Jimmy's having his little tantrum, she's working away, getting the ironing done. Nothing remarkable in that maybe, but Alison is a middle class educated woman - doesn't SHE feel frustrated by how her life has turned out? Did she expect to end up living in a one room bed-sit-style flat, with a husband who seems to complain day in day out about everything? Even so it's hard to sympathise with her - maybe because it's difficult to put oneself in Alison's 1950's shoes, but she does come over as rather too meek and mild, prepared to put up with whatever Jimmy says or does. She presumably still loves him and for any woman to leave her husband at that date wouldn't be as easy a decision as it would be today but I can't believe there was ever a happy ending in store for them.

The 60th anniversary production of Look Back In Anger at Derby Theatre is accompanied by a modern piece, Jinny, showing a modern woman full of unfulfilled dreams ..... I'm off to see it in a couple of weeks, so I'll wonder how she'll compare to 'old' Jimmy.

Blood Wedding - Derby Theatre

Olivia and Edward are getting married - hopefully. Olivia, though, still has feelings for her ex, Leonardo, and to complicate things further, Leonardo's uncle was responsible for the deaths of Edward's father and brother. Edward's mother Agnes is not one to let bygones be bygones but thinks that a real man would be seeking revenge, not planning on asking the 'enemy' along to the wedding! What could possibly go wrong for the happy couple?

Wednesday night, we were back at Derby Theatre for the second time in a week! Monday evening's visit was to a one-woman show in the Studio; this time we were back upstairs in the main theatre to see a co-production between Derby Theatre, Graeae theatre and Dundee Rep of a new adaptation of Lorca's Blood Wedding.
This turned out to be a surprising performance in a couple of ways - at first because of  the seamless way in which disabled actors were integrated into the cast. This isn't a play about disability, like say Children of a Lesser God, but one in which some of the characters just happen, coincidentally, to be disabled, as any of our family and friends might be. It's unusual but after a minute or so I found myself ignoring the disability and just concentrating on the acting and developing plot.

The greater, longer-lasting surprise was to discover that Lorca could be funny! I'm not certain but I think I've only read his plays before and not actually seen them performed, and I've always imagined them as tales of doom and death, full of passion and fire, but not big on light-hearted comedy. This adaptation by David Ireland brought out a lot of humour - some, though not all, of which must have been there in the original; sometimes it's just the way a certain line is said that makes the difference between a serious moment and a comic one. Tragedy still stalks the wedding though, almost personified in Agnes who dresses in her mourning clothes even for this joyous occasion!

All in all another excellent evening of entertainment from Derby Theatre - enjoyable and thought-provoking!

Penelope Retold - Derby Theatre

Last night we were back at Derby Theatre for Penelope Retold - Caroline Horton's one-woman dramatisation of the life of Penelope, the wife Odysseus left behind when he went off to the Trojan War. This was first performed alongside the Derby Theatre production of The Odyssey last year but I never got round to seeing it at the time so was delighted to see it back for two nights.

 It all felt a little cloak and dagger as the audience assembled in the main theatre foyer and then was escorted downstairs and across the car park to a secret door leading to the Studio - what we didn't realise as we filed into our seats was that Caroline was already in place on 'stage', in the bed, the one Odysseus made from a live tree, that took up most of the performance space.

It might all sound a little quirky but the performance itself was spellbinding. Horton took Penelope's story from the Greek myth, mixed it with input from present day military spouses, added in a little audience participation, and brought it wonderfully to life. We shared the highs  - partying at her wedding - the lows  - as Odysseus left her for war (again) - and the determined cheerful face she showed the world. I just wish it could have lasted longer than 50 minutes!

Solace of the Road - Derby Theatre

Holly is 14, just about to turn 15, and after an argument with her foster-parents she's setting out on the road to Ireland to find her mum. All she's taking with her is her special 'lizard' bag, a glamorous blond wig which turns school-girl Holly into older, more confident Solace and a lot of hopes and dreams.....

On Saturday I had tickets for the preview of Derby Theatre's latest production - an adaptation by Mike Kenny of Siobhan Dowd's novel Solace of the Road. Despite being based on a book for teen readers and although the central character, Solace, is fourteen turning fifteen, don't be fooled into thinking this is only going to appeal to youngsters. It's a vibrant, funny and moving piece of theatre, and I was so immersed in it that by the time it ended I'd forgotten what time of day it was!

It's packed with great performances from all the cast. Having seen Rebecca Ryan previously at Derby Theatre in A Taste Of Honey, I'd expected good things, but she was outstanding as Solace - a believable 15 year old, full of anger, pain and youthful optimism - and the rest of the cast, each playing three maybe four characters, was equally brilliant.

Derby Theatre seems to get better every time I visit and I've probably said it before but I love having great theatre like this on my doorstep!

Antigone - Derby Theatre

Derby Theatre's autumn season opened on Friday night with an amazing production; a modern version of  Antigone, with Sophocles' tale unfolding in the urban setting of street gangs and nightclubs.

When Antigone's brother Orrin is killed, gang boss so-called 'King of Thebes', Creo, refuses to allow anyone to touch, cover or bury the body, leaving out in the street for the dogs. Tig (Antigone) won't accept this. She's angry and defiant, a feisty heroine sticking up to the bully to do what she believes to be right. The battle of wills between Tig and Creo is complicated further by the secret love between Tig and Creo's son Eamon - and even without knowing this is based on a Greek tragedy, you can tell there's no happy-ever-after ending in sight.

Now sometimes, these modern adaptations can fall flat - the only changes being to costume, and the plot holding little relevance to today's audience - but having seen Derby Theatre's reworking of The Odyssey, I was keen to see what Antigone would be like. Absolutely brilliant is the quick answer! The storyline fits well within its new setting and the themes of family loyalty, acting on one's beliefs and showing respect for the dead are all as valid today as they were for the Ancient Greeks.
There were wonderful performances from all the cast but especially Savannah Gordon-Liburd as Tig - from her tender moments with Eamon to banging on the bars of her cell, she was stunning.

This production is a joint affair with Pilot Theatre and Theatre Royal Stratford East, and when the Derby run finishes will be off on tour. It's rather exciting to be able to say I saw the first night!

A Taste of Honey - Derby Theatre

Derby Theatre's latest offering is a revival of Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey co-produced with Hull Truck Theatre. When I first flicked through the spring brochure from Derby Theatre, this was the production that caught my eye so when I was offered tickets, I jumped at the chance.
It's a complete change of mood to the last performance I saw at Derby Theatre - The Odyssey.  Set in late 1950s Salford, A Taste of Honey is a real-life, 'kitchen-sink' drama that tells the story of Jo (Rebecca Ryan) and her man-hunting mother Helen (Julie Riley). When Helen goes off with yet another man, Jo turns to black sailor Jimmy for comfort. His shore-leave over, Jimmy has to return to his ship and Jo is left alone ...... and pregnant....  
For a play written over 50 years ago, it feels remarkably up to date and as relevant now as then. I almost felt that if the setting and clothes hadn't been so obviously from the 1950s that it could have passed for a modern piece.
My first introduction to A Taste of Honey was many, many years ago at school, as one of a series of films, along with others such as Cathy Come Home, shown to interest us in current affairs and spark debates over the topics raised. So I've always rather seen it as a drama-documentary dealing with the 'issues' of single motherhood, homophobia or racism. Watching Derby Theatre's co-production with Hull Truck Theatre this last week I realised it's about much more - each and every character is looking for that elusive thing "love'. Do they find it? Well, go along and find out.
The cast are all excellent, particularly Rebecca Ryan and Julie Riley; it moves quickly from laughter to tears - and back again; and is great entertainment while still giving you something to think about.

The Odyssey - Derby Theatre

We're all more or less familiar with Homer's story of Odysseus who, after 10 years fighting the Trojans, spent another 10 years trying to make his way home. On this dreadfully long journey, at each island they land on,  he and his crew encounter new obstacles and temptations - a plant that makes you forget everything, a one-eyed man-eating monster, a witch who turns men into swine, the god who controls the wind  - quite a challenge to present on stage! Well, director Sarah Brigham and the set design team at Derby Theatre faced up to it and have done a marvellous job with this modern interpretation, written by award-winning playwright Mike Kenny.

The mood was set by a huge curtain representing crashing waves that billowed  in front of the stage while the audience took their seats - and was 'sucked' away to reveal an exhausted Odysseus washed ashore. From that moment, I was spellbound. There are some plays that no matter how good they are, still leave time for eyes to wander and attention to drift - not this one! It's fast-paced, bursting with energy, and absolutely brilliant from start to finish. The first half tells of Odysseus' journey and the weird and wonderful encounters along the way. The second tells his homecoming - and touches on the difficulties faced by soldiers returning to 'normal' life, both then and now.
Wole Sawyerr's Odysseus is outstanding - dominating the theatre with his presence and booming voice. The rest of the cast pop in and out of various roles; playing handmaidens and soldiers, sheep and pigs, Circe, Penelope or the simple but effective Cyclops.
The set changes quickly from ship to shore, from cave interior to palace, while the story continues around it - so there's none of those awkward scenery-shifting pauses.

Following on from the Derby Theatre production of Kes, The Odyssey proves just how good regional theatre can be. Who needs London?
I loved every minute - and might even sneak in a second visit.

Kes at Derby Theatre

Set in the 1960s, Kes is the story of 15 yr old Billy who longs to escape his depressing world of bullying at home and school, where there's nothing to look forward to beyond a life spent down the pit. His only brief glimpse of freedom comes when out training and flying his kestrel, Kes.

Now, plays that are adapted from books aren't quite my kind of thing   - I always feel they're in some way a cheat, cramming the whole experience into a couple of hours, a lazy way of absorbing a story without making the effort to read it. So, normally, I wouldn't have gone along to see Kes but I did - as one of my daughters was in the Young Company playing Billy's schoolmates - and it was brilliant!
 Actually it was so great that I don't know where to start!

Sam Jackson in the lead role was amazing - I seem to be the one person in the world who hasn't seen him in Skins, so I had nothing to compare this performance against but he really captured the teenage attitude and mixed-up turbulence of Billy's emotions. 
There was great support from the rest of the cast particularly Jimmy Fairhurst playing his drunken bullying brother, Thomas Pickles lightening the mood with his tadpole-wellies and one of my local favourites, John Elkington. I've seen him in all sorts of things from panto to Chekhov - this time he played Billy's only  sympathetic teacher, a role that seemed to fit him like a glove. And  I mustn't forget to mention the Young Company's wonderful performance even though I may be biased.

At the time of writing, there's about another fortnight left of the run, so catch it if you can!

The Seagull at Derby Theatre

 Surprisingly this is the first time I've seen a Chekhov play performed 'live' - I've read a lot of them and seen quite a few on TV but never live and to a certain level I'm 'right familiar with Chekhov' just like the heroine of Educating Rita. Maybe there's a feeling that Chekhov is too hard or irrelevant for today, I'm not sure, but when I saw our local theatre were producing The Seagull, I thought it was time to take the plunge. A little conferring with my ex-drama student elder daughter, confirmed my suspicion that The Seagull was one of those Chekhov plays about thwarted ambition, set in the countryside and in which everyone desperately wants to go to Moscow  - this is a bit of a family standing joke, so I nearly burst out laughing when one of the characters started talking about needing to go to Moscow!
Anyway, it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening. The cast were great - and included one of our favourite 'locals' John Elkington who we last saw in Of Mice and Men at Nottingham Playhouse. My only quibble would actually have been with Chekhov himself - I would have ended the play with the dramatic off-stage gunshot, but then I'm not a famous Russian playwright.


This production of The Seagull was a co-production between  Headlong Theatre, The Nuffield, Southampton and Derby Theatre.