A festival of incredible hip hop dance and project in association Sadler's Wells. Breakin' Convention brings the best and the brightest from around the globe and also from around the corner. The level as to which all the performers displayed through dance was immense, a diverse and all-inclusive show that entertains audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
This was the first full length play written by an established playwright that I have thus far had the privilege of reviewing for the students of The Arden School Of Theatre; as indeed this was who performed this play.
With a huge cast of 25 actors, many of whom play multiple roles; and with the actors themselves changing at certain performances, the programme looked more like a railway timetable than anything. It was also an exceedingly brave and also very odd choice of play to bring out of the school and into the public arena.
The studio space at The Lowry Theatre may not have been the most obvious choice to watch a bike race, but 2 Magpies Theatre’s production of Ventoux did just that, telling the story of Marco Pantani (Tom Barnes) and Lance Armstrong (Alexander Gatehouse) as they struggled with the toughest stage in the Tour de France. Recently, of course, Lance Armstrong has admitted to being a part of the doping culture of competitive cycling, making his frequent motivational monologues all the more poignant.
Great Scott is the latest production by the Gonzo Moose Theatre Company which was established in 2000. According to their website, they specialise in "improvisation, physical theatre and clowning".
Tonight's show was about Captain Scott and "the TRUTH" about what really happened...the 'truth' being that there were aliens at the South Pole who Captain Scott defeated single handed and saved the world.
No literature was provided at the theatre tonight to allow me to know who were playing which roles tonight. However after a bit of digging on the World Wide Web the three performers tonight were Mark Dawson, Alys Torrance and Ben Whitehead. These three performers each play several roles and deserve praise for that aspect alone.
Last night I was treated to a double bill of performances at HOME, Manchester, part of the theatre’s First Birthday Weekend celebrations. Despite the order of billing it was Eggs Collective, in their performance of Late Night Love, who ventured forth first, armed with interesting black morph suits and boxes of Milk Tray. They were followed, in a calmer and softer atmosphere, by Liz Richardson performing as part of The Conker Group, speaking frankly yet gently about her experience with ulcerative colitis with the wonderfully titled Gutted. The performances, despite being sold together and viewed one after the other, could not have been more different, and it remains a struggle to understand why the two were put next to each other in the first place.
Avant Garde Dance and The Place present Fagin’s Twist, a reimagining of the classic Dicken’s story, Oliver Twist. From the beginning the twist came musically, and choreographically, with passion and intention as seven performers entered the stage dressed in white, wrestling with a box. Their motion in tight unison and in canon fusing together contemporary modern dance and hip hop style movements; powerful, engaging and intense. Their manoeuvres directing attention to the lone figure that had been standing on the balcony from the moment the audience arrived, the figure that we would come to know as Fagin. This was an opening that predated the traditional Oliver story and it used contemporary sounds, movements and lighting - no Lionel Bart song and dance here.
Being a teenager isn’t easy - you have to try and fit in with the crowd, while trying to discover who you are. ‘1972: The Future of Sex’ by Wardrobe Ensemble tells the story of 8 teenagers / young adults in the 70s and their discoveries of sexual arousal.
This play certainly has it all; a crossdresser, a girl fancying a man old enough to be her father, a lesbian couple and a girl frightened at the prospect of losing her virginity that she watches porn.
Presented by students from the Arden School of Theatre's degree course, 'Theatre And Performance' ( hence the TAP in the title), this was a mini festival of student devised works both cinematic and theatrical. In a very cleverly worked -out programme and timetable, and using the whole of Salford's King's Arms (except the bar), punters were able to see as much or as little as they liked, but could in fact, do just as I did, and manage to see everything in just three hours.
In the pub's snug the films were being shown on a continuous loop throughout the whole day, and since they were each only a few minutes long, you could easily watch one or two in between your visits to the respective performance areas. There were six short films in total, and all were very professionally edited and shot, even if the storyline or subject matter was a little weird. There was one showing a young man wearing a horse's head going about his shopping and daily life in the centre of Manchester; and there was one showing the face of a girl in the bath with the water from the bath partially covering her eyes, and cutting away several times to show different eyes.. As well presented as these films were, I didn't understand what point they were trying to make with them.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Oscar Wilde’s infamous words might have given one hope, inspiring us to never give up and to always aim higher, even in our time of struggle. But to Bev these words seem to have lost their effect. After having been made redundant, she now goes through the repetitive weekly meetings at the job centre where she is spoken to with little respect by Carol, a worker at the centre. But it’s not only Beth who is looking for work. Bev’s son Adam, who never has had a job and in his mother’s eyes has always been seen as lazy, is struggling to set up a life for himself and his new family. Both family members are challenged at a time where opportunities are limited and the stars seem so very far away.
Cell is an ingenious production that raises awareness of motor neurone disease. Motor neurone disease (MND) is a devastating and fatal disease that can affect any adult at any time, yet few people really understand what it is or what it does. MND attacks the nerve cells (motor neurones) that send messages from the brain to the muscles. As these motor neurones die, the muscles stop working. In the UK alone, some 5,000 people are living with the disease at any one time. Life expectancy is just two to five years. The cause is unknown and there is no cure.
This is a play that stays with you long after the final bow. It had such a depth of performance, such intensity that I am still processing the full extent of its impact.
The Oddity, from Out of Nowhere Theatre, is a fusion of the ancient Homer poem, The Odyssey, and a modern day story of Tilly, a girl who is coming to terms with the changes in her home life - her single parent mother has a new boyfriend moving in.
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