The Comedy of Errors (NT Live) Review

The Comedy of Errors

(Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, London - National Theatre Live Screening)

The National Live season continues with the National Theatre's production of The Comedy of Errors. The play is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays and although one can easily see a few holes in the plot, I always look forward to seeing how a production will approach the mishaps and hilarity that occur during the play. This was also a chance to see Lenny Henry demonstrate his acting abilities after his success in Othello.

During the introductory trailer before the production started, Director Dominic Cooke said that because it was one of Shakespeare's first plays, The Comedy of Errors has a simpler story than his later plays. His intentions were to expand upon a number of issues and themes within the play.  One was to give a darker tone to the play, and it was certainly the case during the first scene, where Egeon was interrogated by the Duke in a dark room. Changing the setting to London also gave a gritty look to the production. Another issue that Cooke used was immigration, by showing that the twin brothers from Syracuse and their natural and adoptive father were of Afro-Caribbean descent, and that they go travelling to far off lands to find their missing relatives. It was interesting seeing the travelling brothers cope in a different country. Lenny played Antipholus authentically with a strong Afro-Caribbean accent, and throughout the production he and Dromino would react to several aspects of a foreign society with wide-eyed confusion whilst enacting chants to ward of these supposed "liberties of sin". However, in the end the play is a simple comedy and as soon the chaos takes over these themes are soon forgotten about. The exception comes at the end, where everything comes to a resolution that was bordering on emotional.

Lenny Henry and Lucian Masmati were the highlights of the production, both because of Lenny's acting abilities and the way their ethical backgrounds are portrayed. The other brothers are very good, though less interesting because they did not need to use particular accents like Lenny Henry. Claudie Blakley and Michelle Terry played the wife and her sister as Essex girls, which was very good though I thought Claudie over did it climbing on a pool table seductively when she first finds Antipholus of Syracuse.

Despite the efforts to change the setting the scenic designs did feel a bit static in the end, which undermined the comedy in the play. At first, it was nice to watch twenty first century Londoners react to the events of a late sixteenth century play, but as the production progresses the stage becomes empty. The Brothers of Ephesus' house consists of a balcony and the main door into a block of expensive apartments, which takes away some of the intimacy of the scenes that are set there. The front door scene for instance is basically boiled down to the Ephesus brothers shouting through an intercom, which constricts what movements they can achieve in the scene

Furthermore, what makes this play fun to watch is seeing the residents of a town cope with the incidents that suddenly occur once these strangers appear. For instance when both sets of brothers are being hunted down because of their supposed madness, the whole town is meant to get involved and I always look forward to seeing what unorthodox methods will be used as they struggle to stop them. The advantage of this production was the scale of the set, which was an entire block of buildings from which the brothers would dart in and out during the chase. Yet I never got a sense that the whole of London was involved. Instead the brothers were being hunted down by the equivalent of the NHS and Metropolitan Police, and it is not rocket science guess how these characters would be stopped. Elsewhere, it is clear that the use of band is a sign that the production was riding the One Man, Two Guvnors bandwagon, and although they were another example of immigration by having them sing in a different language, it felt unnecessary.

In the end this production is hilarious in some places but never reaches farcical heights. Also, although they were interesting to observe, the issues that Dominic Cooke brought up soon got lost as this comedy progresses. On the other hand some of the performances, like Lenny Henry, where entertaining to watch. The scale of the set meanwhile enabled some enjoyable moments, though some scenes either felt empty or lacked intimacy. This is worth a low Bargain.

Sister Act Review

Sister Act

(Tour - The Mayflower Theatre, Southampton)

After seeing South Pacific I needed to see a more energetic musical, and what better than Sister Act. Based on the Whoopi Goldberg film, the musical premiered a few years ago at the London Palladium and is now touring around the country. I had previously seen some of the film. I am also familiar with the cast recording and enjoy a number of the songs. I therefore went in expecting to be entertained by this musical.

Deloris Van Cartier (Cynthia Erivo) is a singer with ambitions to become a Diva. However, she sees her boyfriend, a gangster called Curtis Jackson (Cavin Cornwall), shoot an undercover cop. She escapes and with the help of a police desk chief, Eddie (Edward Baruwa) who happens to be an old school friend of hers, she enters the witness protection programme and is sent to a languishing convent. Here Deloris struggles to accept life as a nun under the disdainful eye of the Mother Superior (Denise Black). However, she finds a way to use her singing talent to revamp the convent's choir, which revives the convent's popularity.

Overall the songs that are sung by Deloris, with and without the choir, are the best moments of the musical. It is thrilling watching her and the nuns sing the biggest ensemble pieces during the production. Elsewhere Curtis' henchmen provides some comedic moments, such as the song 'Lady in the Long Black Dress', whilst Eddie has a touching moment telling us of his desire to impress Deloris during 'I could be that guy'. However some songs were cut from the musical, such as 'It's Good to be a Nun' and as a result some of the characters feel less rounded. It did feel as though the characters came under two groups,  the gangsters and the nuns, and most of them never stood out.

Cynthia Erivo as Deloris is the driving force of this musical. She has a strong voice and I enjoyed watching her play the role. The same can be said for most of the cast, despite the cuts, and Julie Atherton, Laurie Scarth and Jacqueline Clarke played sisters Mary Robert, Mary Patrick and Mary Lazarus with vigour. So too did Michael Starke as Monsignor O'Hara. Cavin Cornwall was charismatic as the leader of the small mob, played by Gavin Alex, Daniel Stockton and Tyrone Huntley. However I was looking forward to seeing the Mother Superior, after listening to Sheila Hancock singing Here within these walls, but I felt that Denise Black struggled with her songs. I would have preferred to have seen someone older in the role, like Sheila Hancock.

The sets were very good, especially during the ensemble and dance sequences. A number of the monastery scenes though were a bit uninspired, as they were shown against the general background of the monastary. A lot of effort was given to the colourful costumes and lighting, especially during the updated choral songs. Also, with the use of a sound system the music was much clearer than that of South Pacific. This was a relief and I was pleased

This was a big step up from South Pacific. Although the story is not coveered as thoroughly as in the the original production, and the set designs were occasionally average, I was entertained by the whole musical. This is worth seeing at a high Bargain.

One Man, Two Guvnors Review

One Man, Two Guvnors

Adelphi Theatre, London

Due to work I am publishing the next few reviews a while after I saw these productions, and my first review is on One Man, Two Guvnors with James Corden. I remember seeing an open air production of Servant of Two Masters by a local company, The Maskers, and quite enjoyed it. I love a good farcical play, and although I have not seen one for the last few years I am a sucker for pantomime, which is based on the plays style Commedia dell'arte. Therefore, this critically acclaimed adaptation, One man, two guvnors, suited me perfectly.

After her brother gets killed by her lover Stanley Stubbs (Oliver Chris), Rachel Crabbe (Jemima Rooper) decides to dress up as her dead relative. She then goes to collect the money that was going to be inherited by her brother from Charlie Clench (Fred Ridgeway), the father of the girl, Pauline Clench (Claire Lams), who was betrothed to the sibling,. She would then use the money to escape with Stanley. However, since the death of Rachel's brother Pauline has been engaged  to Harry Dangle (Martyn Ellis), and when Rachel arrives as her supposedly living brother, tensions arise. Meanwhile Stanley Stubbs, whilst on the run from the law, turns up in town un-beknowest to Rachel. Amongst all this Rachel's servant, Francis Henshall (James Corden), desperate for food decides to work for Stanley Stubbs as well. Whilst serving both masters without them knowing, he finds every opportunity to eat and earn some extra wages.

The play follows the same story as Servant of Two Masters, the exception being that it is not set in 18th century Venice, but in 1960s Brighton. Instead of playing stock characters derived from 18th century characters like Harlequin, the actors play stock 'British' characters, from the received pronunciation speaking gentleman to the cockney mobster.

James Corden was certainly the heart of the show, as the overweight, Harlequinesque, Francis Henshall. A number of time he would broke the fourth wall to speak and ad-lib to the audience. Some offered sandwiches when he asked for one (though he added that it was not an actual question). He even brought some audience members onto the stage to help him carry a heavy box indoors and hide some food for him to eat later. He was a force to contend with at times, but he acts the innocent man child to the point where he can easily be forgiven for any of this.

But James Corden is not the only crowning point of this production. Both Guvnors are such a joy to watch. Oliver Chris is the Hugh Laurie of the play as the jolly and gullible Stanley Stubbs. Jemima Rooper gives her all playing Rachel Crabbe, who succeeds in fooling everyone disguised as her short tempered brother. As someone who is short in height her performance was very believable. With these two personalities it was fun seeing Corden take advantage of Stubbs whilst putting up with Crabbe's outbursts.

Some of the supporting characters were enjoyable to watch. However if there was a downside to the transfer of Commedia Dell'arte to 1960s Britain, it is that the cockney mobster stock characters felt a bit jarring, especially when these characters were the followers of Charlie Clench, the updated version of Pantalone from the original text. The dilemma between Pantalone, his daughter Clarice (Pauline Clench in this production), and Silvio (Harry Dangle), played a large part in the Servant of Two Masters and because of that I did connect with them.

However the characters that represented them in this play spent less time on stage, due to the ever present storyline between Henshall and his two Guvnors, and therefore I was un able to sympathise with them. It did not even help when Pauline Clench is meant to play the damsel in distress like Clarice, to which it is assumed she must be presented as dumb. Combined with her accent, hearing her say "I don't understand" half a dozen times soon got annoying. At first I liked the way Harry Dangle was portrayed as an actor, which allowed him to act the romantic hero of the play. However the fact that he is only seen a few times meant that there was no way to expand upon his character.

The production did a great job showing Brighton on a set that reminisces with trompe l'oeil scenic design, whilst the colourful costumes made the characters largr than life. Another high point, or points, were a number of acts that took place between each scene, a number of which were performed by The Craze. This talented group was very entertaining and gave a musical edge when one would assume that the production could not get any better.

I am finishing this as the 2012 Olivier Awards are coming to an end, and it looks as if I must eat my words in thinking that One Man, Two Guvnors would win Best New Play. However, I did see Collaborators last year as part of NT Live and I would say that both plays are equally great. However, I still remember the pure hilarity and entertainment of One Man, Two Guvnors two months later and I would give this a low Top Price.

Les Miserables filming in Winchester



Here is a couple of photos taken during filming for Les Miserables at Winchester. The scene that was shot was not the most exciting, just a horse drawn carriage going through an archway. But the place was done up well for the period during the early 19th century in which the musical is set.