Saturday 28 February 2009

The Curve, Leicester

As You Like It. 27th February 2009

Take two middle aged parents and a couple of twenty year olds and pour them into a brand new theatre, stir in some Shakespeare and what do you get? A memorable evening's entertainment.

The building is impressive. Discard any idea of the traditional layout of main entrance into a foyer leading to an enclosed auditorium and imagine an egg. The yolk is the auditorium, the translucent white the public area and half the shell is quite transparent. In fact all that separates the white from the pavement outside are huge sheets of glass. Beyond the patterns on the paving and the sparkling rotating bollards is the old theatre, now, judging by the swankily dressed people at the entrance, a top class venue for black tie events.

Inside the auditorium our eyes adjusted to a sloping stage, which created an effect of perspective as much of the action was set in the Forest of Arden. A loud strike of a drum started the action and drew attention to a single musician who created all the atmospheric music and sound effects on a variety of percussion and strange, unidentified stringed instruments.

I've not seen As You Like It before, but it involves siblings at loggerheads, best friends, gender changing, a fool and of course, love. My husband was happy, because it all ended happily. I shall have to reclaim my copy of the programme to give names to the lead characters, but all played well and the leads, Rosalind and Orlando fairly steamed with barely controlled passion - much needed to illuminate the meaning of the archaic language on occasions. The fool may have been the Paul Merton of his day, but I was a bit baffled by Elizabethan humour.

Whilst we were enjoying the spectacle, next door in the Studio theatre, Marc Warren (Hustle on TV) was in Pillowman. Acoustic walls between the two theatres can be raised to make one huge theatre and the enclosing walls lifted so that the public can see productions being prepared. Windows in perimeter rooms open on to workshops. The public, walking past, dropping in the the booking office or visiting the cafe, become spectators of the whole work in progress.

Dorothy Leiper

Wednesday 25 February 2009

"Oklahoma" visit

Bridgnorth Players members and friends visited Bridgnorth Musical Theatre Company's production of "Oklahoma" on Friday 20th February.
What a spectacular show! The music and songs were delivered with confidence, verve and enthusiasm and the lead singers were captivating. The scenery was stylish and expertly painted (loved the woodland walk). The costumes were typical "western musical" style, with leather chaps for the men and swinging skirts for the women, creating a wonderfully colourful effect.
From start to finish the cast kept up the pace and they looked as if they were having a great time. We in the audience were. It's difficult to pick out the best bits from such a well- known and well-loved musical, but the dream sequence was cleverly staged. The contrast produced between this dark and threatening sequence and the rest of this bright and breezy show was quite unsettling.
Well done to everyone involved. I'm looking forward to next years show already.
Pat Lowe

Theatre visit to Spider's Web

Bridgnorth Players' theatre trip 18th February 2009

On Wednesday a small group of us went to see Agatha Christie's SPIDER'S WEB at The Grand, Wolverhampton.The performance was put on by The Agatha Christie Theatre Company. There were several familiar faces from TV and film - I recognised Bruce Montague (Leonard in Butterflies and much else).

The action is set in 1952 and the period was convincingly portrayed by the Christie characters, their names, dialogue, expressions, manners and assumptions - the stepdaughter schoolgirl was constantly hungry and supper was cocoa, chocolate biscuits, chocolate mousse and something else equally sugary - no concerns about 5-a-day or other dietary issues here - although who was eating when they shouldn't have been was one of the clues. And the '50's atmosphere was further captured by the set and outfits. I would love to have gone backstage and had a closer look at the clothes - especially Clarissa's roses dress - very Lulu Guinness.

All the acting was very strong, but I'll sketch a couple.

Melanie Gutteridge played the heroine Clarissa who is nothing if not a paragon of virtue. But so very sunny and engaging you can't help but like her. She's the glamorous champion and essential chum of Pippa her schoolgirl stepdaughter and possible manslaughter 'victim' played by Karen Elliot. Karen Elliot is a grown-up in real life - in her early 20's which I found amazing - but as Pippa looks and acts (1950's style) 12-13 years. Plaits, woolly socks, woolly dressing gown and consoled with a dish of chocolate mousse. Cool! No teenage breaking out here or getting on Facebook.

Jeremy Warrender (TV - Soldier Soldier) plays bad Ben Nealon who .......

A thoroughly enjoyable evening and those who didn't come missed a treat. Perhaps next time we'll organise a charabanc!

Maggie Allen

Friday 13 February 2009

Bridgnorth Players on tour at The Belfrey

Anyone who missed our 2 one-act plays in November, "Last Tango in ...." by David Tristram and "Gosforth's Fete" by Alan Ayckbourn can catch them at the Belfrey Theatre in Wellington on
Friday 6th and Saturday 7th March
.
Curtain up is 8pm and tickets are £6 from the Belfrey box office 01952 222277.
The Theatre is in the Belfrey Arts Centre on Princes Street, off Mill Bank in Wellington, postcode TF1 1JG.

Thursday 5 February 2009

Summer Plans

February's monthly meeting went ahead despite the snow. We read Act 1 of Alan Ayckbourn's "Taking Steps" and discussed how this could be staged. It is set on 3 levels in an old, reputedly haunted house, has a few items of furniture and minimal props, but does need some nifty footwork as the actors nip in and out of rooms and up and down stairs. Members were keen to offer help in putting this, or another production on, but after some discussion it was decided to leave a full length production till later in the year and do something less demanding in the summer.
Liz H came up with the idea of a "Murder Mystery", short plays in 3 acts, with intervals for supper - main course and pudding. I have heard of similar plays being put on very successfully in village halls. They are intended as light entertainment and involve a bit of audience participation, and are good fund-raisers. We shall do a read through of one of the options before doing it for real in June. See www.murderplays.com for more information.
The likely programme is one evening at a Bridgnorth venue on the 12th or 13th June and one at Ditton Priors on the 19th or 20th.
Next meeting 4th March.

Wednesday 4 February 2009

Rehearsed Play Reading done and dusted

The Rehearsed Play Reading on Saturday was far from a polished performance, but a very creditable "production", bearing in mind that we had only 4 read-throughs, including one where we pencilled out swathes of text, and that the rehearsal space was my living room. 25 of us entertained, or were on the receiving end of, the combined efforts of Mark Youngs and Liz Reeves, Liz Herdson as an ott mother, Geoffrey (you'd never think I was nearly 60) Speechly, Dorothy Leiper trying out a Yorkshire accent, Jan Hudson looking gorgeous in a long blond wig and Dave Kelly being convincingly menacing. Maureen Callon kept us all in order.
Supper was served in the interval, washed down by byo's and everyone went away happy.

We must try it again later in the year, in the summer perhaps. Meanwhile, outside the snow is melting and traffic moving again.

Stagefight Workshop

Three Bridgnorth Player members joined a couple of school pupils and a real actress at the Edge Arts Centre at Much Wenlock William Brooks School for a stage fight workshop on 23rd January.
Olly Crick of the Fabulous Old Spot Theatre Company took us through our paces and we quickly learned that it is the "victim" who controls the action in stage fights. He combined technical know-how with entertainment, showing how the victim responds to attack, whether a "poor female", a heavywieight thug or a panto clown.
We stamped, slapped, pulled hair, punched, kicked and felt all the better for it! Two hours well spent and excellent value at £3.
Thanks to Olly, to the school for providing the mirrored rehearsal room and Arts Alive for supporting the event.