June 2010

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2010.

Review: Everything Must Go at The Barbican

June 22, 2010 in Review, Theatre | No comments

This is theatre I love.

Everything Must Go is an original piece by Kristin Fredricksson that is nothing more than an homage to her father. Orginally written for both her and her father, Karl Fredricksson, to perform, Everything Must Go is a celebration of an extraordinarily complex, brilliant, funny and sometimes slightly insane man through theatre, multimedia, puppetry, dance and sound. It is, at it’s heart, a chronicle of his life and testament to the amount of love that  his daughter holds for him.

As a piece of theatre, Everything Must Go has flaws. It’s structure is a little muddled, with some sections going on for far longer than they should, and others getting the briefest of glances. There are moments where you question the narrative style chose for the segment, propped up against others where its a perfect synergy of theatrical styles. However, none of this matters much, as it feels as if this is intentional to mirror her father’s life. Some bits are only glimpses, whereas others are ran out until it’s exhausted. Also, the story itself is so heartfelt and charming that it smooths over the flaws in the piece.

Fredricksson as an actor isn’t the strongest I’ve ever seen, but nobody else could, or for that matter should, perform this piece.

It truly is a masterpiece, and no amount of adjectives on my part can do it justice. If you’re not a sentimental person, this might not be for you. However, if you are then this could just be the thing you’re looking for.

Everything Must Go is playing at the Barbican until the 26 June

Review: Welcome to Thebes – The National Theatre

June 21, 2010 in Review, Theatre | No comments



I have come to admire The National for their ability to put on a show with such effort, vigour and production values, that it can be easy to ignore the fact that the play is, quite frankly, crap. These are the reservations I came with when I saw Welcome to Thebes last Wednesday night. After all, it’s a new work, based on other works, which, if Nation is anything  to go by, doesn’t bode well.

Welcome to Thebes is a modern retelling of the story of Creon. However, you wouldn’t recognize it because playwright Moira Buffini has replaced Creon with his historically mute wife, Eurydice. She has also planted in some additional characters from the Theban backstory of Oedipus and some post-glory, post-story Theseus to mix it up a bit. Take all this, mix it in a blender and throw it up in contemporary, war-torn Africa and you have Welcome to Thebes. Surprisingly, it’s done quite well. The stories mix well and make an obvious parallel to African/Middle Eastern – American relations, commenting heavily on the notions of war, class and society. Buffini handles it all quite well, with a nice mix of humour and drama, even sneaking in the odd Oedipus joke.

The actors are all commendable, doing a good job with the characters. There are a few exceptions, with some far weaker than others,  but the overall quality more than compensates. David Harewood as Theseus, Nikki Amuka-Bird as Eurydice and Jacqueline Defferary as Talthybia are standouts. However, it’s Madeline Appiah as Megaera who stole the show for me. Her intensity, mixed with her brilliant talent for comedy, culminated into one of the most enjoyable and disturbing performances in the show. One interesting casting choice, as pointed out by a fellow blogger, was Alexia Khadime as the surprisingly mute Harmonia, better known recently as the much larger role of Elphaba in Wicked. Sure enough, by the end of the night they made full use of her voice with a few hauntingly beautiful melodies driftig above the action.

The production values, as always with The National, are fantastically high. The set, a crumbling African palace complete with stormy sky, worked beautifully, and the ‘appearance’ of a helicopter was brilliantly achieved, only bettered by Mr Mackintosh in Miss Saigon.

Overall, it was a rather enjoyable evening. The script was in need of slight editing, with the finale running on past the obvious closing point and providing a little too much closure, as pointed out by my theatre partner. Hopefully, considering this was preview week, they’ll work this out and make the relevent editing before it officially opens on the 22nd. Still, Welcome to Thebes is a welcome change from the oh so boring Women Beware Women.

Welcome to Thebes is playing at the Olivier Theatre at The National Theatre until 19 August.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Review: Come, been and gone – The Barbican

June 9, 2010 in dance, Review | 2 comments

Come, been and gone can officially be added to the list of things I don’t get. Michael Clark is seen as a visionary in the contemporary dance world, and this celebration of his work over the past 25 years has recieved rave reviews from some respectable critics. Some of the quotes have included “shockingly good,” “A thunderous electrifying evening of attention-seeking sound, stimulating visuals, and impressive fine-tuned focused dancers,” and “‘Come, been and gone’ blew our tiny minds“ . My take is that it’s a bloated, pretentious, wanky dance piece. I should also point out that I can only justify reviewing two thirds of the production as I left at the second interval.

Frankly, I was bored.

I think this comes down to the fact that modern dance and I seem to not get along. While some people see modern pieces of art, reflecting the harsh nature of existence in a postmodern, 21st century world, I see a lady in a mirror ball body stocking flailing around on stage. Sure, I can’t pigeonhole a very large, diverse area of dance, but it’s this arts for arts sake style of modern dance that I abhor. To me it lacks feeling and connection, and seems so hell bent on making a statement that they forget that they look like a pretentious bunch of twats leaping around the stage like idiots.

Sure, the dancers were clearly all at the top of their game. Hand selected as the best from Michael Clark’s company, they perform his work with the utmost precision. However, it’s not the dancers I had a problem with, it was the dance. Also, the sound designer deserved to be shot. In Swamp, the first section of the show, it sounded as if the composer/sound designer had just learnt how to use sequencing software and threw every effect at the track to make it sound like Aphex Twin, but failing. Terribly.The treatment given to The Velvet Underground was similarly shocking, with tracks pushed to the point of distortion with no other reason apart from the fact it’s ‘edgy’.

If you’re already a fan of Michael Clark’s work then you could possibly enjoy this. However, if you’re already a fan you’ve already seen it and stopped at the first paragraph. If you’re not then the show was beautifully summed up by my company for the night:

‘flicky leg, flicky leg. Chicken wing, chicken wing. Person dressed as a disco ball.’

Come, been and gone is playing at the Barbican until 12 June

Tags: , , , , , ,

Review: 66a Church Rd – New Players Theatre

June 8, 2010 in Review, Theatre | 1 comment

I chanced upon Daniel Kitson about 5 years ago at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and loved his brand of self deprecating, slightly offensive humour. Since then I’ve seen his stand-up shows a number of times and he’s climbed higher and higher up my favourite comics list. So, when I heard that a few years ago he had all but stopped his stand-up, and instead had started writing and performing theatre pieces that were basically an hour and a half monologues, I was a little worried. I finally got the chance to see one of these and suffice it to say, there was nothing to worry about.

66a Church Rd is the story of Kitson’s relationship with a flat in London (Crystal Palace to be exact) over the course of about ten years. From the initial renting period, to the long, drawn out attempt to buy the place, to the sad goodbye. With this subject matter, there could be a chance that this is about as exciting as watching paint dry. However, Kitson is a master storyteller, weaving in a good amount of pathos and humour to help an already interesting story along. It’s easy for most people, and I’m guessing everyone who goes to see him live, to relate to Kitson’s stories. They are every-day stories that could happen to anyone, but his delivery and the insights he offers inside his head raises this to something that feels familiar, but completely enthralling at the same time.

The brilliance in 66a Church Rd is how the story is constructed. When Kitson is speaking, he is talking solely about his connection and his time spent in his flat, and his relationship with his landlord. That is, he reveals little about what actually happened in the flat; the relationships formed and broken, the friendships grown and cultivated, his career and life otherwise. Instead, when the lights go down between the ‘chapters’ of 66a Church Rd, we are treated to small voiceover snippets of this personal history from his time in the flat. Completely out of context, and with no point of reference, they act as a crack, which you can peer through and get a fleeting glimpse of how he actually lived in the flat.

This is also where the brilliant set comes in.

Kitson is alone on stage, surrounded by a mountain of old suitcases. This, he tells us towards the end, is a fragment of his life after 66a Church Rd. He lived out of suitcases in various countries for a year or so, but never truly left Church Rd. During the voiceovers, small rooms are lit within these suitcases, revealing achingly beautiful miniature models of various rooms and aspects of Church Rd that act as a perfect metaphor for the tiny glimpse we are getting of Kitson’s life.

My only regret was not getting enough sleep the night before seeing this. Kitson’s voice and style of storytelling lull you into a relaxed state that can easily see you nodding off after 90 minutes. This was only remedied by Kitson himself almost fainting onstage and having to be revived with emergency Jaffa Cakes from the balcony.

While you don’t get to see the razor sharp wit that won Daniel Kitson the Perrier Award in 2002, 66a Church Rd is a slightly twee but remarkably enjoyable theatrical piece of storytelling. If you get a chance, I definitely suggest catching this before he heads to Edinburgh.

66a Church Rd is playing at the New Players Theatre until the 13th ofJune.

Tags: , , , , , ,