Tag Archives: Northampton

Review – The Mayflower, Clock In Theatre, Flash Fringe Festival, University of Northampton 3rd Year BA Acting Students, Northampton Playhouse, 31st March 2023

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This is how The Mayflower is described online: “Our story follows the lives of two young people during the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Set in The Mayflower, a local karaoke pub, we follow our two protagonists though the highs and lows of adapting to adult life and the ever growing pressure of a looming epidemic.”

Maggie has lost her parents, and all she has now in the world is the family pub, The Mayflower, which she continues to run as an LGBT venue. One day a first year student, Adam, plucks up the courage to go in but he’s really uncomfortable. Maggie convinces him this is a safe space, and over the months he grows in confidence and self-awareness, and the two have a great friendship. But Maggie is concerned about the stories of this unexplained virus that’s been affecting people in America; she specifically wants Adam to stay safe. But Adam thinks it’s all a load of nonsense. The pub is losing money, and Adam is drifting apart from Maggie because of her constant worrying. Will there be a happy future for all three of them?

A strong story, superbly told, with two likeable actors playing two highly credible characters. Kira Garner is excellent as Maggie, capturing all her “mother hen” aspects, and the slow rising fear that AIDS might come to Britain. Charlie Franklin plays Adam with a wonderful feel for both the humour and the pathos of the character. They work together extremely well, with word-perfect heated exchanges, and some nicely re-enacted shared karaoke moments. I really appreciated that the choice of music was fully in keeping with the implied era of the show – nothing later than 1985!

It’s a witty, sensitive and emotional piece of writing that completely holds the audience’s attention. You smile and laugh with the characters, but are also fearful for their future. The highly emotional ending was extremely well portrayed. Definitely one of the best Flash Fringe shows this year!

Review – Bound by History, The Yesteryear Assembly, Flash Fringe Festival, University of Northampton 3rd Year BA Acting Students, Northampton Playhouse, 30th March 2023

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This is how Bound by History is described online: “After several years apart, a group of friends reunite and travel to Bulgaria to complete their Professor’s historical research when his health suddenly declines.”

Old friendships and rivalries are renewed as four ex-students of archaeology, devoted to their Professor, who is now in a dementia home, agree to travel back to Bulgaria to find a hidden artefact in a dig before homes are built over the site. But there’s no guarantee that the artefact is there. If they find it, their names will go down in archaeological history. If they don’t, a lot of time, energy and money will have been wasted.The four were obviously thick as thieves back in the day, but a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Can they keep their rivalry and personal issues at bay long enough to find the treasure?

This is an extremely well imagined story, in that it takes the fairly standard situation of a reunion of old friends and workmates to see if they still get on, but transports them into the highly original setting of an archaeological dig in Bulgaria. With jobs, businesses, and parental responsibilities to contend with,it’s unsurprising that they get tetchy at times and have to juggle their lives, sometimes at the expense of the others. But it’s a good examination of a group of people working together at close quarters in a controlled environment.Sadly, though, the play did feel a little long, and I thought that many of the conversations lacked depth and drama.

That said, from the acting perspective, I thought this was the best intertwined ensemble performance of all the Flash Fringe shows I’ve seen so far. The four actors – Meg Mayers, Ellis Reynolds, Luis Dias and Katie Blundell – dovetail together beautifully and perform with great trust and understanding of the others. In particular, I thought Mr Dias and Ms Blundell gave first class performances, with superb clarity of diction, stage presence and perfectly placed confidence. That stage punch that Mr Dias dealt out to Mr Reynolds was a stunner!

Review – You Me and Her, Flash Fringe Festival, University of Northampton 3rd Year BA Acting Students, Northampton Playhouse, 30th March 2023

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This is how You Me and Her is described online: “Obsession, envy and desire… These all have one common denominator – love. What lengths would you go to for that one person?”

Meet April. She seems very nice – if a trifle infatuated with the guy she keeps meeting in the coffee shop. She feels certain that they’re destined to be together. Why, they even order the same type of coffee! Now meet Imogen. She’s also very nice. She’s been with her man for the last three years and they are devoted to each other; she thinks. Although he’s not certain he wants to move to Burgundy, and she doesn’t care for Rom-Coms. April loves Rom-Coms though, and she’s quite prepared to be a temptress to get her way. And who knows what Imogen is capable of to prevent her?

Very well written and constructed, this nicely sets up an atmosphere of suspicion and infidelity, but also conceals from the audience certain elements of the story so that we too are left dangling. Did he and April sleep together? Did Imogen end up committing an unimaginable crime? In the end I was both impressed and infuriated that one final scene that would have tied up all the loose ends deliberately didn’t appear!

The production boasts three good performances from its main characters; Ruby Watkinson plays April with quiet determination and demure aloofness, Caitlin Such is excellent as the spoiled and suspicious Imogen who lets things get out of hand, and Brandon Mayfield is also excellent as the object of their desires, giving in to temptation just a little bit, knowing right from wrong – but only when it suits him. No programme means I can’t remember the name of Mr Mayfield’s character – but there’s only one lead male role. The cast of three were nicely supported by second year students Richard and Kitty in a variety of roles – I look forward to seeing them do more next year.

If I have a criticism of the performance it would be that for such high emotional tension between the characters it might have been appropriate for their to be more physical contact between them; for a life and death situation, Imogen and her man barely touch, which gave the production a slightly more mental than physical feel. But that didn’t prevent the power of the story coming through, and it’s a gripping story concisely and clearly told. Great work!

Review – Parable, Joshua Rowlett, Flash Fringe Festival, University of Northampton 3rd Year BA Acting Students, Northampton Playhouse, 29th March 2023

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This is how Parable is described online: “James is an average student at University number 1179. However, his world is turned upside down by a series of unexpected and increasingly outlandish events.”

Those unexpected and increasingly outlandish events stem from James waking up one morning and hearing voices. Primarily it’s the voice of his conscience – but for the purposes of Parable, it’s also the Narrator. Or Steve, for short. An unwelcome intrusion at first, James eventually starts to follow the Narrator’s bidding, including starting a friendship with a sword on his table.

Joshua Rowlett has constructed an extremely surreal one-man, but multi-voiced, play, with an internal monologue that gets more and more out of hand with the ridiculous events that the narrator and the sword create for him. Although relatively short, it’s a very ambitious piece that relies on split second timing as Mr Rowlett’s words and actions have to dovetail into the pre-recorded soundtrack that provides the other voices we hear. And on the whole it worked pretty well, with just one or two occasions where the timing didn’t quite work – but the nature of the play means we move on rapidly and any errors are quickly forgotten.

It’s very funny and provides several laugh out loud moments for the audience. Does it contribute to our understanding of the human condition and the future of society? Probably not. But it does offer twenty minutes of entertainment and comedy surprises!

Review – Blue Baby Blue, Shark Theatre Company, Flash Fringe Festival, University of Northampton 3rd Year BA Acting Students, Northampton Playhouse, 29th March 2023

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This is how Blue Baby Blue is described online: “In their cosy one-bed flat in Essex, Lewis and Anna find their world turned upside down when they unexpectedly become a little family. Follow them as they embark on this new journey that’s full of ups and downs and the harsh reality of young parenthood.”

Indeed, Lewis and Anna cannot believe their luck – which includes whether it’s good luck or bad luck – when Anna gets a positive result on her pregnancy test. They’re both very young and just starting out in their careers. Lewis instantly has cold feet and suggests an abortion; Anna, on the other hand, feels adoption would be better. But as neither solution suits the other partner, they have the baby and settle down to being a household of three. But when the all-night crying sessions start, and Anna finds she cannot cope, the baby blues set in – full-scale post-natal depression which debilitates their relationship and endangers the baby. Is there any way out for the three of them?

Sensitively written, but never scared of addressing the true issues, this is a moving and frequently upsetting play that examines the effects of post-natal depression on both parents, and the potential harm that the baby risks. Vicky Dunbobbin and Archy Mackillop turn in two excellent performances as the unwilling young parents, beautifully interweaving their words and actions with each other, from the early, heart-warmingly funny days in the past to the bitter, angry present.

Precisely acted, and with a mature understanding of the condition beyond their years, it’s a powerful and convincing two-hander that keeps you thinking long after curtain down. Its bleak and uncomfortable ending shows that there is no easy solution to this common problem. Ms Dunbobbin and Mr Mackillop make a great team and have an excellent chemistry on stage, and can clearly turn their hands to top quality writing too. Great work!

Review – Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Jonny Russo, Flash Fringe Festival, University of Northampton 3rd Year BA Acting Students, Northampton Playhouse, 28th March 2023

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This is how Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place is described online: “a solo comedy play exploring the theme of marital divorce from the children’s point of view. It is set as a mountaineering incident gone wrong and as Frankie awaits his fate, his thoughts cast back on the events of his life.”

Frankie is indeed “on the edge”; after an accident that separates him from the rest of his mountaineering party, he has turn to his inner resources to survive, and depending on what happens he could be facing a life or death situation. They say your memories come flooding back to you when you die – and maybe that is what is happening here. Certainly, Frankie takes us back through his school life, his inadequate and unhelpful experiences with counselling and therapy, and his imagination of what his parents’ happy wedding day would have looked like (had he been there). But, in the end, there’s only him – and will he survive?

This delightful one-man performance by Jonny Russo is a joy to watch. In complete control of the stage, he holds our attention through some laugh out loud moments and others when you can feel your breath tighten in your chest. He delivers the piece with absolute conviction, never for a second breaking out of character, allowing his (and/or Frankie’s) personality to shine through at several moments, making it even more believable. He has a sure-fire way of delivering off-the-cuff remarks to their maximum comic effect, but also a piercing gaze that lets you see straight into his soul.

If I have a criticism, which is of the play rather than the performance, I felt there were one or two of Frankie’s relived moments in the past that could have been pushed even further for even more character insight. But that is a quibble. Mr Russo is obviously going to be One To Watch. The audience all loved it.

Review – One Day Son, Full Circle Theatre, Flash Fringe Festival, University of Northampton 3rd Year BA Acting Students, Northampton Playhouse, 28th March 2023

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It’s a pleasure to be back watching the University of Northampton 3rd Year Acting Students present their Flash Fringe Festival plays! This year they are taking place at the little Playhouse Theatre on Clare Street, as well as at the Creative Hub on the Waterside Campus. If all goes well, I hope to see all ten plays that are at the Playhouse.

This is how One Day Son is described in the programme: “A naturalistic play where 2 families must battle tragedy: both the ordinary and the extraordinary. This piece presents a world identical yet very different to our own, and we learn as our characters do that not everything is at it seems.”

It’s a suitably intriguing description for a distinctly intriguing play. Written by cast member Dylan Morris, it’s a neatly structured, thought-provoking and highly emotional piece. Teenage friends Ashley and Izzy suspect that their fathers – who work together felling trees – are not telling the entire truth about the nature of their work; but if they question them, Ashley’s father Marcus clams up and Izzy’s father Eli gets angry. Marcus’ wife Rose is expecting another baby, but their happy plans turn to a nightmare when the birth is premature. Can some kind of external pressure lead the way to a successful birth?

Mr Morris has a great ear for domestic conversation, and how sometimes the important message within a conversation is left unsaid. I enjoyed how our understanding of the unfolding situation grew with each scene, so that what is deliberately confusing at first becomes clear as a bell at the end. The play doesn’t shy away from grappling with some very difficult subjects, and its themes of trust and betrayal, and the nature of “playing God” is very well handled.

Simply, but well staged, the play also boasts some excellent performances; George Hastrup as Eli has terrific stage presence and performs with great assurance and authority, and I really enjoyed the emotion-packed performance of Stephanie Eva Radcliffe as Rose, sorrowfully trying to keep her family together in the face of the most unexpected adversity.

It was a shame that the camera that Marcus uses to capture his training video with Eli still has the lens cap on – that took away from what had otherwise felt like a very realistic production. Nevertheless it’s a good production of a great piece of writing, which absolutely held the audience’s attention throughout. And yes, I did shed a tiny tear at the end!

Review – Screaming Blue Murder, Underground at the Derngate, Northampton, 24th March 2023

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Second comedy gig of the week, and back in the familiar environment of the Underground at the Royal and Derngate. Our genial host was, as usual, Dan Evans, mining his comic brain for witty rejoinders with the front rows of the audience. This week they included Chris the Floor Fitter, the staff from the Pytchley pub in West Haddon, and a battle of wits to gauge whether or not an MA in Counselling would beat a PhD in Cancer Research – we basically decided the PhD would always win. Dan on terrific form as per usual.

For the second time this week, all the acts were new to us, which is fairly extraordinary given the number of comedy gigs we’ve been to over the years! First up was Kelli! Taylor – the exclamation mark is a vital part of her name, rather like the musical Oklahoma! – a delightful character spoof of a hair stylist from Hull, whose salon is called Hair Body Her Choice. Kelli! takes us into her confidence as she backstabs about all her clients, from the tissue paper thin skin of the elderly to the vajazzling of the more daring. It’s the comedy of bitchiness and gossip, and it works very well. It maybe took a little while for the Northampton audience to cotton on to how the act was going to work, but once we got there, we all really enjoyed it. Very clever!

Our middle act was Amir Khoshsokhan, a quietly lugubrious chap who delivers his material with care and forethought but with a hugely wicked twinkle in his eye. He’s another of these supremely gifted and brave comics who adopt a slow pace but with such authority that no one thinks of heckling. Extremely funny material, with a re-enactment of a conversation with his (now) ex-girlfriend about going out late, a lovely sequence regarding sex role play (Gerald and Vivienne) – which leads to tremendous callback later, and the trials and tribulations of being a failed vegetarian. He had us in the palm of his hand and we all loved him. Definitely One To Watch.

Headlining was Stephen Grant, an ebullient fellow who bounds onto the stage enthusiastically and gets down to work with energy and likeability. He’s got a quick brain and terrific verbal dexterity, and I loved how he took some easily recognised and well-known topics, like IVF, or marital breakdown, and toppled them on their heads with fresh and funny new material that inevitably all ties up nicely at the end. He has great material about his natural tendency to pedantry, and closed with a superb sequence about how you can sum up a person and their age from their first name – thank third row Graham for that contribution. Savagely inventive with hecklers too! He was the perfect end to an already great night of comedy.

Three shows so far this year, and each one a sell-out. Screaming Blue Murder is on a roll! Next one is on 28th April – and it’s already sold out!

Review – Comedy Crate at the Waterside, University of Northampton, 21st March 2023

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A new venue for us, the Waterside Bar and Restaurant at Northampton University, and it’s a very welcoming environment. Great sightlines, excellent well-priced wine and a friendly atmosphere. Of course, what can make or break a comedy gig is the subtle blend of venue and audience; and, on last night’s experience, the right blend just wasn’t there. We knew for a fact (they told us many times!) that the acts were expecting a much more studenty crowd than the demographic who had bought tickets; representing the students, there were only wannabe sports coach Jake (19) and his unnamed girlfriend (20) present. The rest of us were of indeterminate older age! Maybe, because it was held at the university, some of the regular Comedy Crate crowd didn’t feel that it was the right venue for them and so stayed away. <RANT>But comedy is comedy, gang! You can have just as good a laugh at a uni venue as you can in a pub or theatre. So have the confidence to book tickets! </RANT>

All four comics plying their trade last night were new to us – something that very rarely happens nowadays, so that gave the evening an additional frisson (for us anyway). Our host was Ross Smith – and a very capable pair of hands he is too. Very welcoming, he instantly put us at ease as he delved into the private lives of those in the second and third rows (including us). Often, when you get targeted by a comic to answer lots of personal questions, something inside you clams up and you just wish they’d go away. Not so with Mr Smith; he has a very engaging personality that invites you to open up and tell things to a perfect stranger (indeed a room full of them) that you wouldn’t normally. He controlled the evening with a true lightness of touch, he’s clearly got a quick comic brain, and I’d really like to see him do a longer set. So far, so good.

Our first act was Michael Mannion, and I can’t pretend it went well. Thrown a) by the fact that we weren’t students and b) from the lukewarm response he received to his opening material, he lost his way somewhat and found it difficult to get back on track. I felt that he sensed that his set was going worse than it actually was, which was an early punch in the stomach of his confidence. He self-deprecates before we’ve had a chance to assess whether he deserves to, describing himself as a c*** several times, too early into the act and without real justification. As a result, when he actually asks the audience at one stage, don’t you think I’m a c***? which, presumably, most student audiences do, we were left thinking no you’re not, just a well brought-up nice young man, in a slightly patronising way. His act is very much based on his appearance and personality rather than its verbal content, and there just weren’t enough well-delivered punchlines for the act to go better. Oh, and, no Michael, we weren’t all 100 years old, despite your muttering it!

Things took a terrific turn for the better with our middle act, Jacob Nussey. A very dour, wry persona, with a quiet but totally authoritative delivery, the audience quickly attuned to his material and pace. He had some wonderful observations about working for Amazon, and a brilliant sequence about casual racism which really turned the subject on its head. Self-deprecating in just the right way and extremely funny. He was perfect for this gig, as all his observations and material were relatable to people of all ages.

Our headliner was Erika Ehler, with a larger-than-life personality and terrific stage presence, but she too was sideswiped by the lack of students in the audience. She has some great material and delivers it with style and conviction, but the majority of it didn’t land. After a while she started to tell us that we wouldn’t like her next lot of material because we were the wrong audience for it; and she was right! A shame because I’m sure under different circumstances she would be a big hit.

The key to success for comedy at this venue is to get more bums on seats! We can’t make the next gig here, on 18th April, but you should – Ross Smith hosting again, and Josh Pugh is topping the bill. Should be great!

Review – Comedy Crate at the Charles Bradlaugh, Northampton, 9th March 2023

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Hurrah for another packed house upstairs at the Bradlaugh to see the next Comedy Crate extravaganza – with Tom Toal hosting three great acts for us all to enjoy. Tom was excellent at getting to know everyone in the front few rows, including regular updates on how Gemma’s mum was doing (not well apparently), the green suit man who’s into pet insurance, and all the girls who work at Giggle Café. He’s got a bright and lively style about him and put us all at our ease to enjoy the show.

Unusually for us, all three acts were new to us, so that made for a fascinating evening of comedy! First up was Finlay Christie, a 23-year-old self-styled posh boy, with a set all about being a young Generation Z chap. I loved his material about seeking out older women for a relationship and his observations on the class system. He’s a terrific comedy craftsman, with a superb ability to hold our attention. His final joke (and an incredibly funny one) took a long time to deliver with lots of vital pauses and silences; many a comic would have had the crowd growing restless under such circumstances, but he had wound us around his little finger and were glued to our seats to hear the punchline. This young man will go far, Mark My Words.

Next up was Ricky Balshaw, a naturally funny guy whose act centres on his life with cerebral palsy, and he’s not afraid to go into detail. Some of that material can be a little hard to take, but it’s his life and his reality, so if anyone is entitled to address it – it’s him! Blessed with excellent comic timing he has an excruciating tale about diarrhoea which had the entire audience squirming in hilarity. Good comedy should sometimes challenge the audience – and this was very good comedy.

Our headliner was Helen Bauer, who had the audience in the palm of her hand from the word Go, with terrific material from the point of view of an assertive woman, including her conclusions about Supersize v Superskinny, how life changes at 30, why German is sexy, and the incremental benefits of drinking three bottles of wine at a sitting. Full of attack, and with observations that never fail to hit home, she had us in hysterics the whole time. Apparently, she is returning for the Comedy Crate’s Summer Festival – where she will be a must-see.

Our next Comedy Crate gig will be at the Waterside Bar on the University of Northampton Campus in a couple of weeks – looking forward to it!