★★★☆☆ Combining the music and lyrics of Ray Davies with Joe Penhall’s biographical book of the singer songwriter, Sunny Afternoon tells the story of The Kinks getting their break in the music business and their subsequent travails with managers, money men and unions, on an upward but sometimes tempestuous trajectory to rock’n’roll fame.
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★★★★☆ My instinct was to compare stage and film versions, having loved the movie directed by Alan Parker back in 1991. The staged version remains true to all the main characters, but has a tendency to fast forward the more subtle interchanges between them. With 10 more songs than feature in the film to get through, relationships tended to be sudden, rather than evolve, in order for the production to push on to the next foot stomping hit.
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★★★☆☆ The Record, one of nine pieces 600 Highwaymen have created since 2009, veers towards being a kinetic art installation, brought to life by 40-plus Bristolians of all ages, sizes and backgrounds. Theatre it certainly is too, but with more of an existentialist, minimalist approach that can, at times, be both hallucinatory and mesmerising . . . Strangers on stage, strangers in the audience, we find ourselves contemplating each other as souls looking for connection.
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★★★★★ With Bourne’s work cresting with his current production of Red Shoes, following his stunningly successful interpretation of Sleeping Beauty, it feels entirely appropriate to revisit the original crystals sparkling in the crucible of Bourne’s modus operandi.
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★★★★☆ Non-conformists everywhere, here is a show dedicated to you! . . . The RSC have recently gone into collaboration with Intel to produce high-end computer generated graphics to enhance their latest production of The Tempest. Carpet and Llewellyn prove that a cardboard box, a hand-written sign and an antique keyboard can make just as effective theatre. It’s the storytelling that counts.
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