“. . . written in 2000 it has a theme that is perhaps more prevalent now than it was then – rising water levels and the subsequent flooding caused, we are led to believe, by global warming. There are serious, relevant issues, especially in the West Country where large swathes were seriously inundated last year. . . . a bickering middle aged couple, live in a house on the banks of the River Severn . . .”
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“Frank Capra’s classic Christmas screenplay, cleverly adapted for stage by Tony Palmero, doesn’t seem too out of place as we experience an unusually cold summer . . . Guy Retallack beautifully directs this heart-warming story of a kind, ambitious man who reaches the point where he believes everyone would have been better off if he’d never existed . . . This is an utterly charming and delightful production and refreshingly shorter than many plays, running at just under two hours including interval. Indulge and spoil yourself and go and see this evening of inspired entertainment. “
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“This year’s crop of BOVTS students are undoubtedly a talented bunch and within the obvious constraints of casting a play with diverse ages amongst a group with reasonably homogenous ages turn in a very entertaining performance of this once banned Soviet era play. . . This adaption by Deborah McAndrew of Nikolai Erdman’s 1928 play, The Suicide, gives the original Russian a non-specific, but metropolitan UK setting with characters drawn from all over the kingdom . . . This is a highly enjoyable production that will be a good stepping stone for all concerned.”
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Trevor Carter is the poet of the evening. Mark Darkside plays some amusing songs and Amanda Earthwren is a kind of narrator . . . they are the trio behind this strange piece of nonsense. . . Mark Darkside is a songwriter and wit who belongs to a different generation. His camp and saucy medleys satirize numerous targets from the language in Shakespeare and the lusty Wife of Bath to modern bankers and the internet . . . his songs are genuinely witty and performed boisterously.
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” . . . Anyone old enough to remember ‘Family Favourites’ on the BBC Light Programme will be familiar with most of the songs. The reason is simple: it is stuffed full of memorable tunes that were regularly requested by and for our lads overseas. As ‘feel good’ numbers go it doesn’t get much better than, ‘Oh What A Beautiful Mornin’, which opens the show . . . As a revival of the, ‘here’s one I made earlier and it’s perfect’ kind, this is a ‘whee ha!’ of a production that will have you coming up for air as the nostalgia washes over you.”
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“Here’s a question for all of us: why does theatre, which is labelled, ‘Children’s’, often involve greater freedom of creativity than other genres? It’s a question prompted having just seen Le Navet Bete’s new production of Dick Tracy. . . The great wonder of theatre is what you can get away with if done with conviction. It’s the great joy of companies like Le Navet Bete that they take our imaginations out for some vigorous exercise and they come back the better for it, having briefly rediscovered our inner child.”
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