The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes Review

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes

Chapterhouse Theatre Company

Bridport Arts Centre

Chapterhouse Theatre Company's quick witted production certainly did not disappoint, giving us thrilling fast pace adventure and mystery at every twist and turn of this gripping tale of Sherlock Holmes. As well as being their third production exploring Sherlock's adventures this is also Chapterhouse Theatre's sixteenth year of touring wonderful outdoor theatre in idyllic settings all over the country. Bridport Arts Centre is a wonderful community venue, however it was a great shame that the weather forecast meant performing here instead of at the Millennium Green. Chapterhouse are a theatre company that specialize in outdoor theatre. Therefore having to adapt to performing inside at short notice must have been a challenge. A lot of the opening dialogue was delivered outwardly and exaggerated, something the production would have needed had it been outdoors to reach every audience member. However this needed to be toned down for the arts centre. This was not their only set back, unfortunately a cast member could not perform which meant actress Amy Spencer stepped in to play the role of Elissa. Although she had her script present throughout most of the play, she did a superb job under the circumstances.

Set in a convent in the countryside of East Anglia, this murder mystery had us all scratching our heads trying to figure out who the culprit was and wondering if nuns and monks could really have that many secrets. Sherlock Holmes is an extremely well known character and it is very hard to follow such memorable performances from the likes of Robert Downey Jr or Benedict Cumberbatch. He is known for his wit and fast dialogue, however I think some of that may have been taken to much to the extreme in this production. A lot of their comic timing was off because of this and jokes that should have had us in stitches only received a few chuckles here and there.

Stand out performances were from Graham Hill and Luke de Belder playing Dr Watson and Brother Benjamin, their comic timing during a scene involving a tooth being removed was brilliantly executed.

Having seen this company before performing outdoor theatre at its finest, I would definitely recommend watching their next production A Midsummer Night's Dream at Athelhampton House on the 28^th of August.

Acting Student Notes: As an actor you need to be able to adapt quickly in certain circumstances, these actors were able to change their performance to cope with the arts centre space and even take on a role at the last minute without hindering the other actors performances. I recently performed in an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at University and we had to come up with another plan of action for the last night in case it rained and the amphitheatre wasn't suitable. Preparation and being adaptable is key, you never know what is going to happen on the night and as they say... the show must go on!!

The Magnificent Three Review

The Magnificent Three

Miracle Theatre Company

Maumbury Rings

Dorchester Arts Centre

Maumbury Rings, by far one of my favourite theatre venues in Dorset. Why spend your evening cooped up in doors watching the same predictable, repetitive TV programs on your (yes... probably extremely comfortable but socially restricting) sofa? When you could be enjoying a picnic and Pimms in the sunshine with family and friends, before watching some exciting live entertainment in this local idyllic setting. Last year Dorchester Arts Centre were one of many small, but wonderful, organisations to lose their funding. They are still standing a year later showing just how much they are valued in this community.

Miracle Theatre Company, are based in Cornwall and have been making innovative engaging theatre for 16 years touring almost 60 shows. With the help of Bill Scott's brilliant writing and directing; local companies and generous supporters, Miracle Theatre has become the renowned and fast expanding company that it is today. This production was certainly the "toe tappin', side splittin'" experience we had all been promised. Hannah Stephens and Ben Kernow gave particularly memorable and hilarious performances as Esmerelda Fabiola la Falsa, the mysterious Mexican medicine woman with the surprising back story and Jed Carter, the dim-witted Deputy Sheriff whose underestimated talents amused us all.  Ben Dyson gave his fair share of witty side comments too, making us roll about laughing in our already unsteady picnic chairs (depending on what you'd been drinking).The first 10/15 minutes were quite slow and possibly unnecessary. I think the audience would have understood the back story (a father passes away leaving his son and daughter the land, however the son abandons it) as the dialogue after the son returns was quite self explanatory. Their comic timing was almost perfect throughout with the exception of a couple of jokes falling flat because they missed the beat. I particularly enjoyed their slapstick, stylized, slow motion fight scenes. Miracle's comical and imaginative use of props made the production even more entertaining and captivating. Who would have known a step ladder could make such a believable stubborn horse. When you think of the Wild West, gun fights and cowboys spring to mind and like most theatre, western stories are mostly based on the men of the era. However it was wonderful to see that the main characters in this western comedy were strong heroines. Two of the Magnificent Three were in fact female. I had a really enjoyable evening watching this exciting comedy and it was great to see a piece of theatre being enjoyed by all age groups and showing just how much theatre can bring a community together.

My acting student notes:

This production has helped me see the importance of being able to improvise and use the audience and surroundings. Mid fight a wayward flaming bottle landed just off of the stage. The blunder could have easily set fire to the stage with the actors still on it. However a member of the audience got up and quickly tipped her drink over it extinguishing the flames. Mid fight actor Catherine Lake used this and congratulated the woman whilst still in slow motion making the audience roar with laughter. I have just completed my second year of training and our final production was an outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I learnt just how important it is to project when outdoors and battling with the elements. Most of the cast of The Magnificent Three were projecting well apart from the first five minutes when I struggled to hear a few of the lines.

Father Dagon Review

Father Dagon

Dread Falls Theatre

The Basement @ The Island

Dread Falls Theatre, led by writer and director Victoria Snaith, carefully wound this mysterious and ghostly story through the gloomy, prison like hallways and rooms of the basement of The Island arts centre. It was the perfect location! This eerie tale, left its audience members feeling disturbed and on edge for their walk home through the dark streets of Bristol. Dread Falls Theatre have taken the terrifying tales of famous horror author HP Lovecraft and devised a truly captivating performance sure to chill you to the bone. 

Immersive theatre as an art form can go one of two ways. It can be stripped back to basics where the audience have a completely free experience of what they can do, the most famous example of this being Marina Abramovic's Rhythm 0 in 1974, in which she stood silently for the duration as audience members were allowed to manipulate her using the good and bad props provided. Or it can be structured to tell several different story lines for audience members to choose, such as performances from companies like Punch Drunk who have been experimenting with this since 2000. Immersive theatre in its most basic form will always push the audience to think about their experience and give them a clear message. When telling a story through immersive theatre, I strongly believe each storyline/strand that the audience is able to view needs to be strong and make sense on its own and in the context of the overall performance. I loved the concept of this performance. However, due to projection issues with a few of the actors it was hard to hear some of the dialogue over the eerie and extremely effective sound scape from sound and sculpture artist Andrew Page. I also felt some of the dialogue too literal and over explanatory considering the style of the piece. Some memorable performances from Robb Wildash and Katheryn Brown (Assistant Director) their strand of the storyline was very strong and compelling, with some lovely use of contact improvisation and physical theatre. I look forward to seeing more from this company in the future and recommend seeing their current tour of Father Dagon.

My acting student notes:

I think a lot of their plot issues could have been solved with better projection, there was dialogue throughout, I just couldn't hear some of it. Good writing only refers to things if it is absolutely necessary to the storyline, there were a few names referred to by the actor playing Lovecraft but I struggled to hear why he was talking about them. I have since researched these names and now understand. However that didn't come across in the piece. I LOVE SOUNDSCAPING! Yet another production I have seen recently that has benefited massively from its use. 

Shop of Little Horrors Review

Shop of Little Horrors

Pickled Image

Bath Spa University Theatre

Horrifyingly brilliant? Or hilariously disturbing? All words I did not think I'd be using to describe a performance in a POSITIVE way. I spent half of the show wrapped around my friend for security like Scooby Doo and Shaggy when seeing a m-m-m-monster! Pickled Image really excelled themselves in this comical twisted tale. My previous encounters with puppetry performances were lacking, the most memorable one being Avenue Q (how do you live up to that expectation?) but I was far from disappointed. I do not know how they managed to make us feel sorry for and root for a psychopath! Its an achievement and a wonder in its self!  An amazing piece of comedy that I would definitely recommend going to see. 

My Acting Student Notes:

Another performance proving the more skills and training you acquire the better. Puppets are awesome!

The Story Giant Review

The Story Giant

Marine Theatre Lyme Regis

By Shanty Theatre Company

Shanty Theatre are well known in Dorset for the ease in which they combine music with narration making their productions quirky, interesting and easy to follow. This is the third production I've seen from Shanty and as you can probably tell... I'm a bit of a fan! Everyone in their cast can play at least one musical instrument! In this particular production one of their actresses played four instruments as well as using vocals to create the music. Apart from one occasionally dodgy american accent these performers really excelled themselves in this family friendly production based on the book by Brian Patten.

I would definitely recommend this if you have small children. They are performing at the Marine theatre in Lyme Regis until August 28th and will also be coming to Poole and Dorchester Arts Centre later on in the year. 

My actors notes:

Another performance proving you should acquire as many skills as possible to become more appealing as an actor. They also used digital theatre well in this production. Using dicta-phones to playback as though their thoughts were being said out loud was a really clever way of getting into the characters minds in a comical way. Something that film has been able to trump theatre with for years. ACCENT WORK IS SO IMPORTANT AND LEAVES A LASTING IMPRESSION.

King John Unplugged

King John Unplugged

The Egg, Theatre Royal Bath

By Hammerpuzzle Theatre Company

Its no secret that Shakespearian drama's can be confusing for even the best of us, I strongly disagree with famous Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellows when he boldly insinuated in an interview recently that to understand Shakespeare you have to 'have had a very expensive education like his own'. Audiences all over the world, even in none English speaking countries, have been able to enjoy Shakespeare's plays. I was excited to see this adaptation to see the kind of productions I could be working on in a few years time, as two graduates from my own University were involved. The production was easy to follow and its strong use of music and puppetry made it entertaining for children keeping their attention. The use of costume and puppetry also made it easier for a smaller cast to stage this production while allowing the audience to be able to keep track of the characters. As well as having a few musical instruments in the piece the cast also used their voices to make musical interludes during scene or costume changes. This really helped the play run smoothly.

My actors notes: This performance proves to me that the more skills you have acquired the more appealing you are as an actor, every cast member played an instrument or could sing which added to the performance. The more adaptable the piece the better, I could quite easily see this as a street performance or at an outside venue. I am currently reading Peter Brooks 'The Empty Space'. He confirms for me that you don't need an expensive education or even to be English speaking to understand Shakespeare, he talks about touring with the Royal Shakespeare Company's cast of 'King Lear' in Europe and that the best received performances were in Budapest and Moscow where most people had little knowledge of the English language. 

Fallen Angels Review

Fallen Angels

By Noel Coward at The Theatre Royal Bath

Last summer I had the wonderful experience of seeing Private Lives, a Noel Coward play, starring the incredible Anna Chancellor and Toby Stephens on the West End. When I heard that another Coward comedy, Fallen Angels, was set to come to The Theatre Royal Bath I booked my ticket straight away. This quick witted comedy did not disappoint! Despite a slow start and an oddly placed curtain (for a scene change) that left us wondering after half an hour "Is it really the interval already?" this comical script soon had us back at the edge of our seats waiting for the catastrophic, punchline reveal of the characters old secret lover Maurice. The first production of this play was staged in 1925 and was deemed 'vulgar' and 'shocking' by critics due to it's storyline heavily involving female promiscuity and drinking. Despite all it's bad press it proved to be a hit and had a long run on the Globe stage.

The chemistry and sisterly bond between actresses Jenny Seagrove and Sara Crowe makes this performance an easy watch.  Yet another of Cowards plays proves to be timeless! Though it is set in the 20's (even then it was ahead of its time) it is easily related to modern day problems and life.

My student notes: The Theatre Royal Bath is an amazing theatre and I would love to work there one day. The comic timing and chemistry between Seagrove and Crowe was outstanding. At one point there was a loud sneeze from an audience member and the actor, Robin Sebastian, who was on stage with Seagrove at the time decided to acknowledge it with a 'bless you' in the middle of their scene. He did so in character and the audience was roaring with laughter. However Seagrove then followed this by saying out of character and directly at the audience 'you see what I have to work with here' from watching this I think when breaking the fourth wall in a play where the fourth wall is always there it should only be done in character so it does not take away from the scene. New aim in life: to play tennis with profiteroles.