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

Posted on March 30, 2023 by therealchrisparkle

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

Posted on March 30, 2023 by therealchrisparkle

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

Posted on March 29, 2023 by therealchrisparkle

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

Posted on March 29, 2023 by therealchrisparkle

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

Posted on March 28, 2023 by therealchrisparkle

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

Posted on March 22, 2023 by therealchrisparkle

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 18^th April, but you should – Ross Smith hosting again, and Josh Pugh is topping the bill. Should be great!

Review – Loveplay, University of Northampton 3rd Year BA (Hons) Acting Students, Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 29th May 2021

Posted on May 30, 2021 by therealchrisparkle

The third play performed by the University of Northampton final year actors is Loveplay by Moira Buffini, described as two thousand years, ten scenes, thirty-two characters, one location and one essential question – what is love? – all packed into ninety minutes of hard-hitting comedy drama. Directed by Tobias Deacon, the production also credits Esther Bartholomew and Daniel Hubery as Assistant Directors, both of whom gave excellent performances in their final year plays at Northampton University back in 2018/19.

I’m not sure the play really asks the question what is love – more like an exposé of sex throughout the centuries. It starts from the slightly odd viewpoint of sticking to that one location, which enables the later stages of the play to be affected by ghosts of the past – which comes across as a bit hokey, to be honest. Nevertheless, it’s a very good play – very funny, occasionally shocking, often thought-provoking and always entertaining.

And the final year students do a cracking job of presenting us this show. The range of playlets and characters gives them the opportunity to play at least three roles each, and they seize them with terrific enthusiasm. It’s a clear and crisp presentation, impeccably and faultlessly performed, and full of amazing performances. From the start, Elle Dudley delights with her hilarious portrayal of the early sex worker Dorcas, rejecting the affronted Didi Stocker’s Marcus’ Roman coin as payment for sharing her virtue. Beautifully performed and very funny. She’s also extremely funny as the upright Miss Tilley being taken from underneath on the lap of the master of the household whilst attempting to impress him with her verses.

Elsewhere, I loved the Age of Enlightenment scene between Katiris Cooper’s Roxanne and Oliver Lawrence’s Man, where she wants to inspect his body from a scientific perspective – her ever-so-slightly naughty curiosity was brilliantly conveyed in contrast with his passive acceptance of what an educated woman might want to discover. Mr Lawrence, though, excelled in the Age of Empire scene as the decadent artist De Vere, manipulating his straight-laced friend into a compromising position – all in the cause of art of course. Ms Cooper also came back as one half of the Age of Innocence scene in another extremely funny performance as the sexual cynic Lynne, dismissing her lover – and life in general – as totally useless. Here she was accompanied by Harry Delacey in a fine performance as the sex-weary Gwyn; he had also stood out as the hilariously stagey Llewellyn in the Renaissance scene, which probably offered the most laugh-out-loud moments of the whole show.

Other performances that I particularly enjoyed included Marina Mikeilla as the petulant and posing dating hostess Anita, Rebecca Alice as the nun-with-a-secret Hilda, Georgia Siân Clarke as the assertive actress Helen, Kai Beavers’ outwitted Rev Buttermere, and Matthew Keeroy’s hard-to-please rapist Eric (yes, that’s the scene that made everyone feel uncomfortable).

Brisk, funny, punchy and with superb performances throughout, this was probably the big hit of the three student plays this year. Congratulations to all on a terrific show!

P. S. The Martin Lawrence Awards are presented every year to the best actress and actor. Mrs Chrisparkle and I went into a judgely huddle and agreed to whom we would award our own Best Actress and Actor of the year. I’ve also chosen runners-up (because I can). My Silver Medals go to Robyn Isabelle Edwards (The Wolves) and Jimmy Ericson (Road); and our Top Dogs are Katiris Cooper (Loveplay) and Oliver Lawrence (Loveplay). Tremendous actors all – but so are many of the rest of these gifted casts. Well done to all!

Review – Road, University of Northampton 3rd Year BA (Hons) Acting Students, Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 28th May 2021

Posted on May 29, 2021 by therealchrisparkle

The second of the three shows to be performed by the final year acting students at the University of Northampton this year is Road, Jim Cartwright’s highly praised 1986 play about the lives of people on one road in an unnamed town during the Thatcher years. Directed by Séan Aydon, we’re led by our narrator Scullery, who introduces us to various houses and locations in the road to meet the locals, observe their lives, share their laughter and their tears. I’d never seen this play before so I was particularly looking forward to seeing whether it merits its reputation and if it has stayed relevant today.

This is very hard to assess because I’m afraid the play did absolutely nothing for me on a personal level. We get little snippets of people’s lives but hardly any insight into anyone’s progression, so there’s no sense of development and the play feels very static. Those characters that we do meet more than once, at the end of one long hard night, haven’t really gone anywhere. Scullery is the same optimistic cheeky soul at the end of the evening as at the beginning. Old Jerry is still padding around in his slippers, dreaming of his lost love. The girls who have gone out early evening to get wrecked have successfully got wrecked at the end of the night – no surprise there. Eddie and Brink go to the pub and come back with Carol and Linda, although their evening ends on a surreal note – as does the play.

The one time that the play does soar is when it goes out of time-synch and shows us what Scullery portentously calls The Story of Joey – a likeable lad who has locked himself away, descending into depression, refusing to eat, or come out of his room, and his friend Clare who joins him and stays because she loves him. It feels genuinely tragic; and when, fourteen days of self-starvation later, they come to take their bodies away you get an enormous sense of wasted life. The scene was also enhanced by having what was probably the best two performances in the play, with Jimmy Ericson as the frustrated and furious Joey, and Liz Millward as the sad and supportive Clare.

The play also feels very uneven because there are several very short scenes and a couple of inordinately long ones. In the final, very long, scene, Eddie and Brink attempt to get the girls very drunk, which then turns into three minutes of character silence – nothingness really – whilst they dance, at first inanely then later recklessly, to a record on the turntable – and that whole experience seems to turn them all into amateur philosophers. I’m afraid it felt disappointingly pretentious. As some of the other residents of the road come out to gaze affectionately at the young people and the lights go down, we were wondering what significant thing it was that everyone else understood but we missed.

True, there were some more good performances there, with Liz Millward again as Linda, Miclaire Nkoy excellent as Carol, Shane McCormack as Eddie and, with a very subtly threatening performance, Elliot Andrew-Murray as Brink. Mr Andrew-Murray also turned in a very confident and strongly performed vignette earlier as the meditating Skin-Lad. Other performances I enjoyed came from Elliot Innes as the rather wacky Professor and the aggressive Barry, Dana Sergejevo in a number of roles, but best as the rather plastered lady trying to seduce the drunk soldier (another very good performance by Jimmy Ericson) and Ida Sade as the combative Brenda.

It’s a tough play to keep the energy levels up, because some scenes feel very slight in comparison with others. There were a few times when it sagged, and it occasionally annoyed me by what I felt was a shallowness; we only scratched the surface of these people’s lives and often what we saw made us more confused about who they were rather than enlightened us. Nevertheless, the cast made a good job of conveying the seedier and more depressing aspects of 1980s life, and I only wish I could have seen them perform something that would have allowed their talents a greater opportunity to shine through!

Review – The Wolves, University of Northampton 3rd Year BA (Hons) Acting Students, Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 27th May 2021

Posted on May 28, 2021 by therealchrisparkle

It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to see the great performances by the final year actors at the University of Northampton again; one of the many treats which we’ve all missed out on due to the wretched COVID. This year they have three productions for us, each with two performances, all performed on the mighty stage in the Derngate auditorium.

And the first is The Wolves, Sarah DeLappe’s play that was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Set somewhere in the United States, nine teenage girls play for The Wolves soccer team, each of them only identified by the number or position in which they play. We see their fitness warm-ups, stretching exercises, team talks, private anxieties, public dramas, jealousies, fights and all the angsts that you would imagine nine teenage girls would share between themselves. As the season – and the drama – progresses, ambition turns to fury which turns into tragedy, and in the final scene the girls are left to pick up the pieces despite an awful event which leaves them stunned. Nevertheless, they play on; and although this is a relatively short play – 75 minutes – all human life is there, and it’s not only a great slice of life experience, but a perfect choice to showcase the cast’s excellent talents.

Director Nadia Papachronopoulou has created a superb ensemble team who interact with each other seamlessly. The exercise routines are choreographed precisely and performed with immaculate timing – it’s incredibly entertaining to watch the players move from exercise to exercise as if it were second nature, never having to reference what element of their routine comes next. The overlapping dialogues, where two or even three conversations might take place between the players all at the same time, are delivered with equal accuracy and clarity. Kicking footballs on stage is a potential nightmare – one false move and you could take out the front row – but the football passing is done with great control and accuracy yet still gives the impression of “proper playing” – so that’s a terrific achievement. And the individual cast members bring out all the humour and sadness from their characters’ personalities – to the extent that it doesn’t matter that (for the most part) we don’t know their names.

I can’t name everyone in the cast, but some performances really stand out. Nadine Hamilton is brilliant as the sassy striker #7, totally self-assured, delivering her wisecracks and derisory asides with terrific comic timing; and her performance builds to a savage but highly credible argument followed by a beautifully emotional climax. Ali Paterson also gives a strong performance as the team captain #25, conveying superbly how difficult it is to tread that fine line between being one of the girls but also the boss.

I really enjoyed the performance of Robyn Isabelle Edwards as new girl #46, taking us on her character’s journey from being the outsider who won’t be let into the team huddles, to being the insider who gains the respect of the others by her sporting ability. There’s an excellent scene where she rounds on the rest of the team for taking the mickey out of where she lives; not only does it show how the use of mocking language can be hurtful, it also strongly depicts how fragile mental health can be. The audience is on her side from the start, and you really will her on to succeed despite the cruelty of the others.

There’s a hugely enjoyable performance from Andrea Muresanu as the questioning and analytical #11, dourly refusing to accept factual inaccuracies, and delivering her nuggets of observation with a beautiful feel for the throwaway line. I loved Shaye Thompson’s characterisation of #8, enthusiastically channelling a Legally Blonde-like omigodyouguys attitude, and Kristina Luksha is both funny and emotional as the perpetually throwing up goalie #00. But everyone puts in a terrific performance and it’s a testament to the enjoyment of the show that those 75 minutes absolutely fly by. Great work from the whole team – they definitely deserve to win the league!

Review – Escape Route, Kyla Kares, Fringe Festival, University of Northampton 3rd Year (BA) Acting and Creative Practice Students, The Platform, Northampton, 5th May 2019

Posted on May 7, 2019 by therealchrisparkle

Many of the shows at this year’s Fringe Festival came with trigger warnings. This show warned that it contained discussion about depression and suicide. I think, to be fair, that I also ought to give this blog review post a similar trigger warning. If you’re affected by suicide, or suicidal thoughts, please take care and breathe deeply before reading on.

Suicide. It’s a subject we have to talk about. The less we talk about it, the more people take their own life. As Kyla Williams tells us, in her bold and beautiful show Escape Route, suicide is the greatest killer of men under 40, but the statistics only tell us half the truth; although more men die at their own hand, many more women attempt suicide than men, which, it follows, means that many fail, maybe to be permanently injured or disabled as a result of their suicide attempt, or at least to continue to suffer the mental tortures that led them to trying suicide in the first place.

It’s a subject I’m willing to talk about, at length if need be; my friend’s sister took her own life many years ago by overdosing on paracetamol. There’s a sequence in Kyla’s performance where she describes the horrors of a “successful” paracetamol overdose, and I can confirm every word she says about how it causes a long, lingering, ghastly death. Two of my other closest friends have tried (fortunately, unsuccessfully) to take their own lives and I’m aware of the benefits of offering regular contact, and the open invitation to talk about anything. Just being there can save a life. Depression is a nasty business.

Whilst there are a number of shocking, sad, even gruesome moments in the show, there are a number of elements that are wryly amusing – even thoroughly entertaining; for example, Kyla’s rendition of Peggy Lee’s classic Is that all there is? which I have to say was pure class. There are several extracts from verbatim accounts about how people live with depression which she invests with great character and emotion, using a wide range of voices and moods. She has a wonderful stage presence, and delivers her material with great conviction and commitment; and never has a red scarf been used for so many purposes with such creativity, subtlety and elegance.

Kyla makes no secret of the fact that this show is borne from much of her own experience, and it has been a difficult and sensitive journey bringing it to fruition. I can only say many congratulations to her for creating a very moving, powerful and honest show that may act as a catalyst to her and to her audience. And, always remember, keep an eye out for your friends.

The Real Chrisparkle

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