Review – Arrivals and Departures, The Ayckbourn Ensemble, Oxford Playhouse, 6th February 2014

Posted on February 10, 2014 by therealchrisparkle

You know that thing when you’re having a conversation with someone, but actually you’re hardly concentrating because you’re wrapped up in other thoughts about other problems – and you hope the person you’re talking to doesn’t notice; well, has it ever occurred to you that the person to whom you are talking is also not concentrating because they too are immersed in their own thoughts and daydreams? No, me neither. But that is the central tenet of Alan Ayckbourn’s 2013 play, Arrivals and Departures, his 77th, would you believe; I was going to call it his new play but I see that there’s already a 78th opening in Scarborough this summer.

This very inventive and rewarding play is set at a London railway station and, from reading the programme notes, you get the feeling Ayckbourn has always wanted to set a play in a railway station. Observing people in transit, people waiting for others to arrive, and the people who work at the station, and so on – I think this has been an ambition. For Arrivals and Departures, it’s almost as though he has taken the ideas for two separate plays – a “train station” play and a “memory, obsessed with one’s own thoughts” play, and very successfully woven the two together.

Maybe there are even traces of a third play here too – in the actual plot, which is way beyond the boundaries of your average domestic comedy. When the play starts you are a little confused as to the set-up, but you quickly realise that you are watching the preparations for a military security operation, an attempt to ambush and capture a terrorist on the train coming down from up north into London. This doesn’t feel like typical Ayckbourn territory, but then he has written about so many subjects now that I don’t think there is such a thing anymore. As the rehearsals for the ambush team progress, we meet Barry, a well-meaning but over-talkative Yorkshire traffic warden, who is the one person that has met the terrorist and would be able to recognise him in a crowd – so he is there to confirm that the guy they capture is the right one. We also meet Ez, (not Esme, as she will frequently point out) a somewhat wayward and unconventional soldier whose job it is to protect Barry, should it come to that particular crunch.

As we await the arrival of the train containing the terrorist, code name Cerastes, we see flashbacks in Ez’s mind as she recollects her childhood and the difficult relationships with her mother, and how, as a result, she finds it hard to commit to a relationship with Rob, a seemingly decent soldier type, which has its own unfortunate consequences. Her conversations with Barry get in the way of her thought processes, but his good nature starts to break down her resistance; and when the terrorist does finally appear, she successfully manages to protect Barry, although Barry is convinced they’ve got the wrong man. Here comes the interval.

I won’t tell you what happens next, but it’s absolutely not what you were expecting. Suffice to say, this is a “time” play, so expect Ayckbourn to manipulate the usual conventions to make his point. I was kind of dreading a rehash of his play “Improbable Fiction”, which was the last Ayckbourn we’d seen at the Oxford Playhouse, and which had a hilarious first act but (for us) a totally stupid, useless, surreal and not at all satisfying, second act. I needn’t have worried. Arrivals and Departures is a supremely better play, which opens up a lot of loose ends before neatly tying them all together. I do have one criticism though – the structure of the play requires a certain amount of repetition in the plot and dialogue, and I did think that this detracted a little from its overall dramatic intensity. However, there is also the fun for the audience of working out where there will be repetition and where there will be new material – you can’t always second-guess it. The plot climax definitely moves the action forwards, and is one of the most touching conclusions to a play I’ve seen in some time. To be honest, the lady on the other side of Mrs Chrisparkle sobbed her heart out.

Kim Wall plays Barry and it’s a complete star performance. I’ve told you before how I first came across Mr Wall, so I won’t bore you with that story again; however, he remains one of my favourite actors, and I wonder why he has never really hit the big time. Barry’s vocal mannerisms, the way he doesn’t like to let a silence go unfilled, his potential to be really boring, his underlying total kindness, his dignified but positive response to the cruelty of life and his complete lack of regard for his own safety, are all beautifully brought to life in Mr Wall’s performance. Equally good is Elizabeth Boag as Ez, uncomfortable, soul-searching, reserved, but with the possibility of allowing the ice in her heart to thaw. Mrs C pointed out how extraordinarily well she conveyed anger (Mrs C has a great dislike of the default position of “anger = shouting” in some productions we’ve seen). There’s a brilliant scene between Ez and Barry, where she loses her cool with him and tears an unnecessarily sharp strip off him – her gradually changing reaction as she realises what she has done is superbly conveyed.

It’s an excellent ensemble performance throughout, with the cast of eleven playing thirty roles. In the performance we saw, the role of Quentin, the leader of the security operation, was played by Peter Halpin and he was superb; a vain, self-absorbed little Hitler if ever there was one. When his operation comes to a not-entirely-satisfactory conclusion, all he can think about is himself. It’s a very clear depiction of someone who isn’t actually as good at their job as they think they are, or indeed ought to be. In all the memory scenes, I particularly enjoyed Sarah Parks as Ez’s worrisome mother, and James Powell as the young Barry, all 70s suit and ineffectual bonhomie; but all the cast give an excellent account of themselves.

I would have liked to see the other productions that are in repertory with this play, all performed by this Ayckbourn Ensemble company; namely a revival of 1992’s Time of my Life, and two one-act farces combined under the title Farcicals, which sound like an antidote to the serious themes of Arrivals and Departures. However, as Mrs C often tells me, “you can’t see everything”. The plays are on at Warwick Arts Centre this week, and then go on to Cambridge, Cheltenham, Bath, Watford and Windsor. If Arrivals and Departures is anything to go by, these audiences are in for a treat.

Review – Sleeping Beauty, Derngate, Northampton, 12th December 2013

Posted on December 13, 2013 by therealchrisparkle

For eleven months of the year, when you take children to the theatre you always remind them to be quiet during the show; if they have any questions to save them for the interval; not to fidget or kick the seat in front of them; and never to take a fluorescent windmill into the auditorium and set it whirring for two hours. During the other month, however, all bets are off, and you encourage them to shout, chat, jump up and down, and whirr. No wonder some kids grow up confused.

Any children you take to see Sleeping Beauty at the Derngate (on till 5th January 2014) will be in for a real treat. All the usual perfect panto components are there: a dame, a villain, a village idiot, and a fairytale prince and princess. There’s competitive singing, a messy kitchen scene to include porridge down the underpants, a high-tec ghost, loads of “oh yes there is, oh no there isn’t”, a considerable chance of getting water sprayed on you, and some actual real magic too.

The real stand-out moments of this production though are the two 3D sequences, one in each half. They are completely spectacular. The last time we saw 3D in a panto was at Birmingham about four years ago. I can tell you the 3D aspect of this show absolutely knocks spots off that production. It’s vivid, scary, exciting and funny; and the live action of the cast at the same time integrates perfectly with the visual spectacle. Through the 3D specs, the stage looks so huge and the actors appear so tiny in comparison, it really gives an incredible feeling of power and adventure. I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you what’s in store in 3D-land, but it’s really thrilling. To be honest some of the younger kids found it a little bit scary. I was sitting next to a little girl who up till then was incredibly confident, chatting away to me and finding the show hilarious; but as soon as the 3D came on she fled for the safety of her mother’s lap. There was a little boy sat in front of Mrs Chrisparkle who was so shocked by the 3D apparitions she thought the poor lad was going to need hospitalising. It’s really impressive technology and great fun. They’re comfortable 3D specs too; it was very easy to wear them over my normal glasses. I can only think that the audience must look hilarious from the stage during these sequences though, as we scramble around in our seats reacting to what’s in front of us!

If I have a small criticism of the show (and I guess I do), it would be that perhaps the script was not quite as funny as some of the other recent pantomimes we have seen at the Derngate. It was thoroughly entertaining for the kids but we felt there could have been just a few more of those clever lines that appeal to the adults as well. Having said that, there were some great up-to-date references to Joey Essex and Nigella Lawson to which you give a sharp intake of breath at their irreverence; and the show is performed with such a sense of fun and attack that you still have a terrific time.

Linda Lusardi as the wicked fairy Carabosse makes a great villain; perhaps the glint in her eye is more knowing sexiness than evil witch, but, on the whole, that’s Not A Bad Thing. There’s a sequence where she’s going to try to make one of the male characters fall in love with her: “oh yes I am”, “Oh no you’re not” scream 1000 kids; “Oh yes I am” she says as she flashes a glimpse of fishnet beneath the gown”; “Oh yes you are” I assert, resisting the peer-pressure of 999 fellow audience members. There’s a lot of fun to be had with knowing that Miss Lusardi is married to Sam Kane, who plays Oddjob, with his nausea-stifling, child-like repulsion at the prospect of a spot of Castle Forest intimacy with her. He and Andy Jones as Muddles make an excellent double act – Mr Kane the straight man and Mr Jones the buffoon. Whether it be challenging each other to a duel, or a splattering of custard pie goo down the trousers, they clearly have a lot of fun doing it, and we have a lot of fun watching it.

Shinead Byrne is a rather stunning Princess Beauty with a superb singing voice, and Mrs C assures me that Alex Jordan-Mills as Prince William also scored high on the eye-candy rating. Together they’re going to have the most beautiful children. They sang together really well too – achieving lovely harmonies well in excess of the standard that you might otherwise expect in a panto. Phil Hitchcock is an endearing King Stephen who brings real magic to the stage with some brilliant tricks – I’m always a sucker for magic. Even though we were fairly close to the stage in row E, I couldn’t see how any of his illusions worked. It’s a nice touch to have the wicked fairy defeated by the power of good magic too – very appropriate!

Kim Wall appears as Nurse Dolly. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the programme to read that he was playing this part as he has long been a favourite actor of mine. He was superb in Laurie Sansom’s Ayckbourn season at the Royal in Northampton in 2009 (before I started blogging); and actually, way back in 1979 when I was a first year student I was invited to watch a rehearsal of a production by a young professional company of Steven Berkoff’s “East” in Oxford so that I could write up an article and review for a student newspaper; and it was a young Mr Wall who played the part of Les. I remember being so impressed by his attack and charisma in that play. I’m not sure if he has played a Dame before, but he looked superbly hideous, had a warm connection with the audience and was full of fun and flirtatiousness.

It’s all backed by a happy looking bright ensemble of dancers and singers, and the children from the Mayhew School of Dance were a delight. It’s a really entertaining show, with some great performances and amazing effects. The production values in the show are top quality, from the sets, to the band, to the costumes and of course the superb 3D. Don’t miss it, you’ll love it! Long live panto!