Keep on Moving

The last performance in this season’s current Centre Stage programme was a musical drama about a Victorian fairground.  FairGame theatre company developed the play based on interviews with a traveller family who told them about incidents from their lives.  Playing multiple parts the small cast managed to create the impression of a whole menagerie of wild animals, facinated and at times intimidating crowds, rival performers and a variety of acts.  They also gave a vivid sense of what it was like to be a child or young person living as part of a performer family.  The play recreated a sense not only of the fairground but also of a life before travel and television when knowlege of animals, different human characteristics and crime was more fragmentary and disturbing.  The play challenged us to think about our changing attitudes to animals, disability and difference.

Happy Jack

Last Friday’s Centre Stage performance was a play: Happy Jack by John Godber.  John Godber is a well known playwright, originally from a mining family (this play is said to be based on the life of his grandparents), and with a longstanding involvement with the Hull Truck Theatre Company.  The play told the life story of a Yorkshire couple - Jack, a miner, and Liz his house proud wife.  We were given an overview of their life from courtship to retirement and then given vignettes of its highs and lows.  The epithet ‘happy’ was ironic.  Jack was at times angry, violent and withdrawn - but surprisingly also wrote poetry (including while his wife was giving birth!). 

The tone was bittersweet:  at times movingly painful, at other times making the audience laugh out loud.  The cast from the Ratatat Theatre Company played it brilliantly holding this tension which made the play feel a believable life story.

The Deadline

This new production from the Shifting Sands theatre company was an ironic tribute to film noir. There were lots of references (most of which I am sure I missed but for the record Rebecca, The Maltese Falcon, North by North-West, The Postman always rings twice … and stretching the genre a bit - The Seventh Seal?). There were flash backs and forwards, bits that didn’t make sense at the time, the glamorous flirtatious dame, the evil villains, the interior monologue about unexplained events and pending doom … This was combined with the promised clowning in the form of slapstick moving and collapsing doors and screens and mime in the form of the absence of props and effects for car chases, post office sorting office - and axe murders! The cast played multiple parts with enthusiasm and wit … including rounding up the audience from the cellar when they were ready to start the second half!!

Fair Trade

An extra event in our theatre programme brought to us as a result of Gerald Box’s generous sponsorship.  Mikron theatre (in their 37th season) performed their new play exploring the past and present of the Cooperative Movement, incorporating their usual mixture of humour and song.  This was a play within an (imaginary) film.  We saw the group discussing how to construct the film and then enacting scenes and commenting on them.  This encouraged the audience to reflect on what they were being told - and gave plenty of opportunities for comic moments as the cast commented on their performances and had fantasies about the exotic locations their story could take them to. 

We learnt about  the birth of the Rochdale Pioneers in 1844 when weavers opened a food shop at the end of the day with a focus on high quality, low priced goods.  It was interesting to learn that they banned credit, aware of the problems debt caused for workers, as well as the birth of the more familiar ‘divi’ whereby profits were shared in line with purchases.  The movement grew in part because of the hostility of other businesses.  They objected to their prices being undercut and refused to supply the coops - leading the business to expand into wholesale, shipping and agriculture.

The play also covered the birth of self-service supermarkets, the stagnation and later regeneration of coop stores, the recognition of the role of women members, the wider links to current interest in fair trade goods and Sean Connery’s first job!

Mambo Jambo

Pete and Frankie are Mambo Jambo and they provided great entertainment as part of the Live Friday programme. They played a range of Latin music from Cuba and Brazil as well as from the Southern USA and even nearer to home. So the style ranged from Samba, Bossa Nova, Bluegrass with singing in Spanish (and maybe even Portugese?). Pete played a range of string instruments including guitar, banjo and ukele. He also ‘played’ a suitcase which he admitted was better for carrying things than it was as a drum! Frankie was great on the saxophone - and also on the flute and a range of percussion instruments (my favourite was a plastic corn on the cob!). They had the audience clapping along, occasionally sing - and in one case dancing - to a range of familiar and new music.

Only one more Live Friday of the season: the Joni Mitchell Project on May 23rd - see you there!

Walk the Line

Walk the Line provided a great ending to this year’s film season. It was based on Johnny Cash’s authobiography and starred Jaoquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter. The film covered Cash’s life from childhood (with the tragic death of his brother and his fraught relationship with his father that was never resolved) but the core was his descent into drug addiction and the way he managed to rebuild his life through his relationship with June. The music was fantastic - and particularly impressive since it was performed by the actors.

The Film Club committee met a week later to consider suggestions for next year’s programme. Look out for the results of their deliberations on the events part of the main Sir John Moore website.

London Mozart Players Chamber Ensemble

Well our first classical concert and someone commented that Sir John was smiling! The acoustics of the hall - which make speaking hard work - certainly seemed to favour this type of music. Centre Stage are supporting this tour of the London Mozart Players Chamber Ensemble which features principal members of the London Mozart Players, the UK’s first chamber orchestra. They featured Maya Magub on violin, Tom Dunn on viola and Sarah Butcher, wonderfully expressive, on the cello. In the first half they played a Beethoven trio and, probably less familiar to most a trio for strings by Lennox Berkeley. The second half (following refreshments in the cellar!) they performed Mozart’s Divertimento K563. Sarah explained that while this term often signifies background music to be played in a social function this piece was definitely to be listened to.

It was great to see so many new people at this concert. We hope to see you again soon!

The Hut People

A wonderful evening of eclectic folk music as part of the Live Friday programme.  The Hut People - Sam on accordion (and feet!) and Gary on a vast array of percussion instruments.  These included Brazilian stringed gourds through to little wicker parcels with seeds in through to … well it’s all too difficult to explain and I don’t know their proper names …It appeared at first that we were in for a mix of folk from different parts of the world. It soon became clear it was something more inventive. Sam introduced one number as a traditional English morris dancing tune with a Latin rumba beat! As befits the digital age Sam cited itunes as his main inspiration: claiming he trawled through 30 second takes of anything a search for accordion music threw up! But when he demonstrated his mastery of Appalacian tap dancing learnt in a hall in Scunthorpe one suspected the joy of mixing different national styles went deeper. They played 3 sets in the main bar area and their enthusiasm, expertise, and relaxed interaction left everyone wanting more.

Volver

Pedro Almodovar is probably Spain’s most well known and internationally successful film maker, with a distinctive style and always original story lines. I wasn’t sure how his dark humour would go down with the film club members, but the reaction was very positive. The comments I heard from the exiting audience were ‘unusual’ and ‘not what I expected’. It didn’t attract our usual numbers, but I don’t think anyone regretted making the effort despite the sub-titles (which do deter many people).

Volver is a typical Almodovar film – shot in his usual primary colours, with his constant themes of female solidarity, mother-daughter relationships, life in rural Spain, death and continuity and, as always, a quirky and totally original (as far as I can tell) plot. The presence of a Hollywood star (Penelope Cruz) hinted at a more mainstream target, and it has been more successful internationally than many of his films. Despite its star attraction, it was still an ensemble piece, and, I hope, a good example to encourage a more adventurous approach to foreign language films next season.

Just one film left in our current season: Walk the Line in April.  Now that’s more predictable, and we know for sure the music will be great.

Madame Lucinda’s Wonder Show

An extraordinary piece of theatre operating on many different levels and playing to a packed hall. 

At the level of spectacle there were the costumes, make-up, the trapeze, the smoke (apologies to the fire brigade for a false call out!!), mime, dance and wonderful music - to say nothing of the ability to create a collective hallucination of grey elephants in Denmark (we worked out the algebra in the cellar bar afterwards …).   The feel was of a Weimar republic style cabaret (remember the film?) but with a psychological rather than a political theme.

Behind this were the stories of the cast of the circus who had made a Faustian pact to escape their normal lives and join the circus.  Sirus who escaped his office job as Mr Johnston to become the circus strong man; Lo-Lo who adopted her father’s role as the circus clown; and Svetlana the dancing doll (an extraordinary acting performance where she remaining immobile in whatever position the other characters placed her, including while being picked up, danced with and folded into her trunk, and only occasionally flashing her eyes at the action).  Yet none of them were able to find fulfillment in the circus and Sirus and Lo-Lo escape / are allowed to go back transformed to ‘normal’ life - leaving Madame Lucinda to seek new candidates for her circus from the audience.

If you missed this or just want a reprise try Rogue Theatre’s website or watch an extract on YouTube.