Reviews - StageTalk Magazine

HANDBAGGED on tour

This was a case of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Each woman was confident in her position and status, arrogant even, and neither would yield to the other. Was this all about the long established British monarchy and the new political kid on the block – or was it just an excuse, a vehicle for a good comedy? The latter I suspect. Although the play took us chronologically through those eleven years touching on all the major incidents, the piece never let a fact get in the way of a good laugh.

RUSSIAN STATE BALLET & OPERA HOUSE at Cheltenham Everyman

by Michael Hasted

Nutcracker contains more well-known tunes per square yard than probably any other ballet and I suppose there is always the danger that familiarity breeds, if not contempt, then a hope that something new will be brought to the proceedings . . . this production manages to create something that borders on magical and, in places, almost surreal . . .

MEN IN THE CITIES at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol

by Mike Whitton

Chris Goode and Company’s avowed intent ‘is to make space for unheard voices’ and ‘to think out loud about who we all are in the hope we might catch a glimpse of how we might live better together’ . . . It is forthright in its graphic depictions of gay sex and certainly provocative in its use of the murder of Lee Rigby as a metaphor for a society full of alienated, angry, lost men. But Goode’s negativity is so relentless and all-embracing than one becomes weary of struggling to find a meaning in the darkness.

ETO’s PELLEAS ET MELISANDE at Bath Theatre Royal.

by Simon Bishop

I would argue that Claude Debussy’s dark meandering score for Maeterlinck’s original play, part fairy story, part symbolist essay, is one for the more academic, purist of opera-goers. A gloomy tale in a shady place, this is not so much an entertainment as a show of technical prowess for digestion. All credit must go to the impeccable skills of the English Touring Opera’s singers and orchestra who followed the composer’s complex pathways of discordant harmony with utter conviction, in sequences of self-possessed musical exploration.

Rambert’s THE THREE DANCERS at the Theatre Royal Bath

by Simon Bishop

The evening began with The 3 Dancers, a piece inspired by the 1925 painting by Picasso. Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman had been curious to see if she could apply Cubism to dance using light and layers of movement. Two groups of three dancers, one dressed in black, the other white, each began by striking mixed poses, spotlit in turn, giving a feel of kinetic animation, negative/positive visuals that mirrored Picasso’s original design . . . An uplifting and inspiring night, Rambert are alive with talent.

LOVE FOR LOVE at The Swan, Stratford upon Avon

by Derek Briggs

According to Shakespeare, the course of true love never did run smooth. According to William Congreve, playwright of Restoration England, by his time it had almost ground to a halt. And with Love for Love, his comedy of 1695, he had enormous fun satirising high society with that concept. The work has become a classic and in this spirited version, director Selina Cadell and a fine cast, add energetic lustre to its long tradition. As the vain fop Tattle explains, relations between the sexes are simple if you just remember that all well-bred people lie, and that a women should never speak what she thinks. No means yes, and the rest follows on.

HANDBAGGED on tour

RUSSIAN STATE BALLET & OPERA HOUSE at Cheltenham Everyman

MEN IN THE CITIES at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol

ETO’s PELLEAS ET MELISANDE at Bath Theatre Royal.

Rambert’s THE THREE DANCERS at the Theatre Royal Bath

LOVE FOR LOVE at The Swan, Stratford upon Avon

Pin It on Pinterest