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Michaelmas Term 2009 Productions
Animal Farm
The Crucible
Our Country's Good
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
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LUTG _ the Fringe 2009
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SCAN Reviews
2008-09
Reviews of LUTG shows from SCAN, Lancaster Uni's student paper
http://scan.lusu.co.uk/
Black Comedy
Michaelmas 2008
Review by Kathi Michaelis
Be nice! - that's how I was greeted by Michael Holt, Assistant Director/Stage Manager for this LUTG production, as soon as I entered the theatre. There was no need at all for him to be concerned - from the moment the lights went off (or rather on), I enjoyed every minute of this performance.
That's not to say that it wasnt challenging. To keep up with the plot took up so much of my attention that I totally forgot to be annoyed by the person behind me jamming their knees into the back of my seat. For those who missed the performance: Black Comedy tells the story of the poor artist Brindsley Miller, who is about to meet both the father of his fiancée and a German millionaire interested in buying one of his sculptures. To make a good impression, he borrows his neighbour's furniture while he is away for the weekend. So far, so good
That is, until a fuse blows and the whole scene is cast into darkness (so for the audience, the stage is lit up). The unexpected arrival of both Brindsley's neighbour and his ex-girlfriend further complicate the matter, as he has to (a) move all the furniture back without his neighbour noticing and (b) hide from his fiancée and her Daddy that his ex-girlfriend is still very much in the picture. What followed were 90 minutes of pure chaos - highlights included Brindsley's (played by Robert Cattell) facial expressions as he snuck around the room trying to avoid being heard, Stacey Norris' amazing performance as Ms Furnival, the drunk neighbour, or Colonel Melkett (played by Jamie Ward) falling off a rocking chair.
While some might have found Black Comedy too farcical for their liking, I thought it offered exactly what it said on the cover: light-hearted entertainment, a cast that really seemed to enjoy themselves, and just a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
On a completely different matter: One might think it a rather stupid idea to send the only German SCAN Arts writer to watch a play with two actors putting on a German accent. Can I just say that particularly Ross McNamara, as the electrician, probably managed better than I would have done. Although he did sound slightly Swedish to me.
1984
Scary. That's the first word that jumps to mind when dealing with George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Most people don't seem to be aware that the idea of Big Brother as developed in the book has little in common with the attention-seeking wannabe celebrities who submit themselves to 24/7 TV surveillance.
And scary was what the Theatre Group made this performance of 1984. Right from the beginning, when the audience scrambled into their seats, supervised by ushers wearing blank white masks, the issue of facelessness in a society where every individual is subject to absolute control and forced equalisation, dominates the piece. It tells the story of Winston and Julia (impressive performances by Olly Trumble and Charlie Hanson), two workers for the Ministry of Truth (Minitru). They both have doubts about the rightfulness of Big Brother's totalitarian regime, about the right of The Party to destroy or amend historical facts. Their fates are sealed when they fall in love and get married - a capital offence in Oceania. They join the resistance, only to be betrayed by their trustee, Comrade O'Brien - the rest is torture, brainwashing, more betrayal.
It was really a shame though that the audience knew quite early on what was going to happen - the evil laugh of Comrade O'Brien (Richard Moxon) was just a dead give-away. Nevertheless, really well acted by the whole cast, I believed every bit of it (apart from imagining Winston as middle-aged and not very good-looking maybe). At one point I was actually so enticed that I nearly got out of my seat to get a better view of what was happening on stage.
There were a few points where I felt the story moved a bit suddenly from one bit to another (like, for example, how Winston and Julia go from not knowing each other to wanting to marry practically without transition, or a few too many scene breaks later on in the piece). I wasnt sure about the music that was played in between the scenes - silence would have been a lot more oppressive, the music (which, for some reason, reminded me of the Bourne Trilogy theme tune) just seemed out of place and unnecessary.
Still, I feel like I'm being a bit too nit-picky even while writing this review - I thoroughly enjoyed the performance, and I found myself entertained and adequately freaked out.
And most importantly: I guess that in our world today, where it is impossible to walk through any city centre, even to get on a train, without being caught on CCTV, Orwells vision of the future is more topical than ever. It really gets you thinking as to how much surveillance and control are actually necessary in modern society. Might make you a little bit paranoid as well...
Othello
Review by Christine Wilde
From the little I knew of the multilayered themes of Othello, involving jealousy and deceit, I wondered how such a complex venture could have been assembled in less than a term. Being unfamiliar with the story and never having seen a performance by the Theatre Group, I was unsure what to expect.
But on entering the Nuffield Theatre, the scale of the commitment to the production became evident. Simple but effective, the hand-painted house front and the archways provided a versatile base for the performance, establishing the setting, leaving room for the actors to use the rich Shakespearean imagery to expand upon the details and allowing for audience interaction.
Though many traditional re-enactments of Othello focus on racial differences between the main protagonist and his peers, director Ben Bibby chose to approach the play from an alternative angle, using tribal tattoos to represent Othello's social and cultural differences instead. Initially, the difference was superficial, small designs across his cheeks merely drawing attention to his character. However, as Othello's character began to unravel and doubt broke his composure and his confidence apart, more tattooed skin was revealed, making the difference more marked until his entire torso was revealed to be covered with an intricate tribal design.
This subtle but powerfully effective motif worked well to emphasise the disintegration of Othello's character as well as the differences that make him the target of others' jealousy.
Rehearsed around lectures and deadlines, the work and commitment that went into creating the play was evident in the cast's professional performances. The main roles of Othello (Jon C Stanhope) and Iago (Paul Sellwood) were outstanding. Othello spoke his lines with confidence and emotion, making his anger heartfelt and the agony of doubt convincing. Iago too made the role his own and was a pleasure to watch. Humorous and dastardly, he crafted the villain believably as Othello's enemy disguised as his friend.
Often interpreted as submissive in the face of the untruthful allegations against her, Desdemona can be a difficult character for modern women to relate to. Despite this, Ellie Forrester did well to convey the difficult role of devoted but determined wife trying to preserve her dignity.
The roles were enhanced by a strong supporting cast, particularly Emilia (Sarah Pearce) and Cassio (Leo Patel). Though the actors managed the heavy Shakespearean language well, the speech occasionally became a bit garbled during moments of rapid, angry inflection. However, the tone of these scenes did not suffer.
Occasionally, I felt that the ambiguous context made it more difficult as a member of the audience to respond to the characters, as the lack of a specific value system (either Elizabethan or modern) meant it was more difficult to interpret their actions. However, the consistent individual performances meant that this did not impede greatly on the play overall.
Strongly acted, interestingly directed and emotionally engaging, I was immensely impressed by the quality of the performance. An enjoyable evening's entertainment.
The Perfect Gift
Lent 2009
Many a playwright has had their work realised on stage by the enthusiastic students of the Lancaster University Theatre Group. William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and George Orwell, among others, have been reproduced in Lancaster over the last few years for your viewing pleasure. But in Week 7 a new, not so widely known name joined their ranks as LUTG proudly presented their latest performance, The Perfect Gift, written by Lancaster student Tom Markham.
Filling the Brandrigg room in Cartmel, the sizeable audience waited in intrigued anticipation for the show to begin. It was an interesting experience for most of the audience, who were used to seeing the Theatre Groups better known plays performed, to witness this entirely original, completely student-centric production.
Confidently constructed and well performed, The Perfect Gift focuses on two sisters, Molly and Samantha, as they set sail for America with a precious box requested by their father. Unbeknownst to them, several other shady characters on board the ship, including gangsters, undercover agents, spies and assassins, are also after the box and its contents.
The play started well, introducing the multitude of characters in an efficient and humorous manner that swiftly established the unfamiliar story line.
Although some of the jokes were obvious at times, the playful dialogue and strong performances of the more stereotyped roles, such as the gangsters and the undercover policemen, got a lot of laughs while enhancing the characterisation of the more original central protagonists, Molly and Samantha, whose natural sisterly banter provided much entertainment. The set design was also impressively versatile and, combined with the effective costumes, provided a clear sense of the 1930s pre-war setting of the play.
However, the end of the play suffered a little from having such a large cast for its scale, as some scenes looked overcrowded due to the number of people on the small stage, making it harder to locate the main focus of the action. Also, though most of the individual character narratives were resolved, the overall ending of the play was less cohesive than might have transpired had there been fewer strands to tie together.
Aside from that, the play was successful. Well acted and entertaining throughout, it was encouraging to see a student's creative work showcased in all its glory.
Much Ado About Nothing
Whenever I go to see a Lancaster University Theatre Group performance, I'm always surprised at how many good actors they manage to unearth. And after watching Much Ado, I was even more surprised that there were any left over for the other plays of the term with a tight cast that was exceptional down to the very last role.
The play was rendered in a shortened version - no intermission, just less than one and a half hours - so it is understandable that the beginning was a little too abrupt. Often the snappy pace worked with the play rather than against it, but for members of the audience unfamiliar with Much Ado, joining in with the plot was not exactly made easy. Things did become clearer, however, after the first scene, and even though there were a lot of characters in the play, each actor managed to make their performance both distinctive and easy to follow.
The audience were not only kept on the edge of their seats by the quality of the performance, but possibly even more by the way the actors used us in the play. The audience involvement - being questioned by Dogberry, the inefficient and bumbling officer of the law; someones arm being used as a shield; Benedick (Olly Trumble) actually sitting on someones lap - made for some really good laughs. I have to say, though, I was really relieved I wasnt sitting in the front two rows!
However, I did find that certain parts of the play might have been a bit too intense, too sudden, if only perhaps due to the severely shortened length. For example, Leonato (Jon C Stanhope, in an otherwise very convincing performance) nearly killing his daughter Hero (Charlie Hanson) one second, then turning back into a protective father in the space of about five minutes. In other scenes, it was exactly that intensity in the actors renditions which made the performances so enticing only to mention Peter Holmes as the evil Don John, or Leo Patel as the good, but fatally misled Don Pedro. Beatrice (Sammi Searle) and Benedick (Olly Trumble) absolutely shone in their high-intensity scenes together, particularly on one occasion when Beatrice furiously chews over the limitations of her position as a woman in society.
One of the highlights of the play was Rory Poole's rendition of both Dogberry and Verges, the two policemen in Much Ado. Except that, in this performance, there was one policeman and a hand puppet. I dont know whether this feature resulted from lack of actors or a pure stroke of genius - anyway, it worked. The audience was in stitches. The only problem was that Dogberry was dressed more like a tramp than a policeman, and this resulted in some confusing moments at the beginning of his first scene, because we weren't immediately aware of who he was supposed to be.
Aside from minor issues like this, Much Ado had a strong cast, and it has to be said that there was more than one comic moment in the play. In fact, the entire performance was utterly entertaining. I'd be very much surprised if it didn't turn into a success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well.
Twelfth Night
Lancaster University Theatre Group's hottest performance of the year? Certainly, judging by the queues outside the Dukes Youth Theatre - or by the sauna-like temperatures inside. The discomforts of sitting with your elbows tucked in (so that as many people as possible could watch the sold-out performance), however, were soon forgotten.
The high expectations I had of the LUTG after last term's plays were not disappointed. Ive rarely seen so much energy on stage, and the fun that the entire cast seemed to have whilst performing soon infected the audience, too. The play made very good use of the small spaces that the Dukes Youth has to offer, and the constant moving around of the actors on stage kept the audience on the edge of their seats throughout the entire play.
One of the most mentionable performers was definitely Holly Sharp as the Fool - amazingly energetic, a perfect fit for the role. The cheeky roguishness she brought to the part impressed me a lot - helped along by the singing and dancing. The use of music throughout the play (mostly supplied by a guitar player sitting among the audience) was refreshingly authentic as it was live, not played from a tape.
The other performer that deserves a special mention, in my opinion, is Paul Sellwood. As Malvolio, he switched very convincingly from perfectly arrogant to madly happy, in order to impress Lady Olivia. He rendered both of these aspects of the character in an outstandingly funny way - nevertheless managing to make the audience sympathise with Malvolio when he is finally declared mad and locked away. His crowning achievement of the night, however, was his ability to keep a straight face whilst donning a pair of bright yellow tights stuffed with a sock or three.
The rest of the cast, however, were in no way inferior to those two. Michael Holt, Stacey Norris and Iain Black proved their comic talent as Sir Andrew, Maria and Sir Toby, plotting the downfall of arch-enemy Malvolio and entertaining the audience with mostly drunken (the characters, not the actors) follies. Ali Sheen (Viola/Cesario) and Hannah Mason (Olivia) also gave good, solid performances.
All in all, a well-rounded, very enjoyable play. Although, admittedly, I was glad I'd read a synopsis of the play beforehand - some of the speeches were delivered very quickly, and I could imagine that anyone who didn't know what the story was about would have found it a tad hard to follow.
Hamlet
Summer 2009
Despite the pressures of exams and revision, the Theatre Group still found time to draw this academic year to a suitably dramatic close with their latest production, Hamlet.
One of Shakespeare's most popular and frequently adapted tragedies, director Paul Sellwood nevertheless managed to give the play a fresh twist, creating a distinctive and successful performance.
While, to start with, some lines of dialogue were rushed and occasionally unclear, the delivery soon smoothed out as the actors settled into their roles. The unique entrance of the deceased King Hamlet bursting out of the floor to accost the startled watchmen provided an early highlight. The use of lighting, which suddenly washed the stage in brilliant red, and his ingenious costume and make-up, made this scene, and the character of the Ghost, much more foreboding than is often presented in adaptations of Hamlet.
This version of the play also varied from the norm as it focused more on the energetic dialogue and wit invested within Shakespeare's language to infuse some of the lighter scenes with greater comic potential. Though known primarily for its tragic finale and dark scenes of madness, grief, murder and despair, some skilful acting, particularly from Iain Black as Polonius/Gravedigger 1, lightened the tone of the play. His parts provided timely relief from the overall darkness whilst enabling the development of more credible relationships between the characters and drawing attention to the intricacies and flexibility of the language.
Depicting Hamlet's uneven state of mind well, Rob Cattell was passionate and contemplative by turns, linking the fluctuating moods well to give a fluid, even performance. Despite having to deliver the most famous lines of the play, the 'To be or not to be' speech, in Johnny Bravo pyjamas, Rob managed to give the speech the gravitas it deserved, presenting it in the poignant and thoughtful manner which such a crucial and well-known speech demands to keep it from sounding clichéd. Faced with the demanding job of commanding the attention and focus of an audience whipped into joviality by the previous episode of humour, Rob managed to recapture the audiences attention effectively and proceed with the darker, more serious aspects of the play.
A consistent, even and fresh portrayal of a Shakespearean classic, this performance was humorous where appropriate yet managed to retain the dark edge of tragedy for which the play is famous. This gave a well-known play a touch of unpredictability, making it well worth seeing.
The Complaisant Lover
Review by Richie Garton
I had to look in my dictionary for complaisant before seeing this play. It turns out it actually is a word, not just poor spelling.
The play is a lesser-known work from the author of Brighton Rock and The End of the Affair, Graham Greene, and its plot closely mirrors that of the latter novel. Victor and Mary Rhodes stale marriage is undermined by the charismatic Clive Root, who persuades Mary to run away with him. But before this can happen Victor learns of the affair and in his desperation strikes an unusual bargain with Clive.
The play treads the line between tragedy and comedy, containing ample amounts of both. The humour is sharp and witty, while the sad parts are harrowing. But even the tragic scenes were laced with a certain grim humour, masterfully blending the two genres. However, I am not reviewing the writing, but LUTG's production.
The play itself was performed in a wonderfully intimate space, which let the audience appreciate every nuance of the performance. Only a few props were used, but they suitably gave the impression of an authentic 1950s living room. Gentle 50s tunes made waiting for set changes less tedious.
Richard Moxon, who played the jilted husband Victor, left me wanting at first, but on observing the immense change that came over Victor upon learning of his wife's liaison I came to realise how brilliantly the actor dealt with such a broad range of emotions.
But it was the strength of the supporting actors that made the play such a hit. David Lewis, who rationally must be at least 18, never failed to convince me that he was a 10-year-old boy, while Leo Patel, who perhaps had only 14 lines of dialogue, raised great laughs in the farcical hotel room scene through stunning delivery and interplay with the other characters.
The whole polished professionalism of the show bowled me over, and the talent of everyone involved was obvious. Congratulations to the cast and crew, and to anybody who missed this: you missed an exquisite piece of drama.
Review for
A Spot of Murder
coming soon!
LUTG Oscars
At the end of each year LUTG members vote on our version of the Oscars.
Here's who won what for 2008/09's shows!
Best Actor - Olly Trumble
(Much Ado About Nothing)
Best Actress - Sarah Pearce
(The Complaisant Lover)
Best Supporting Actor - Tall Paul (Othello)
Best Supporting Actress - Sarah Pearce (Othello)
Best Comedy Performance - Richard Moxon
(The Perfect Gift)
Best Publicity - 1984 + A Spot of Murder
Best Music - Twelfth Night
(Leo Patel + Holly Sharp)
Best Costumes - Twelfth Night
Best Lighting - Hamlet
Best Set - Othello
Best Show - The Complaisant Lover
Best Director - Sarah Pearce
Thank you to:
Ryan Kent
Ben Robins
Abi Williams
Alex David Leonard
Ross McNamara
Rachel Clutterbuck
Jordan Klitzke
Francesca Beckett
for the photos.
