Excellent news that Relish Theatre and Norwich Theatres have organised a month-long East of England tour of the warmly-received play TIME AND TIDE by James McDermott and directed by Rob Ellis.
Set in a run-down cafe on Cromer pier, dreamer May dispenses advice to her “protégé” Nemo, a young gay man stifled by loneliness who’s leaving for the bright lights of London. But he’s torn between staying and going because of his feelings for his best mate, Daz. Is it love, or just bromance? But May also has some choices to make- in the form of amorous, lonely bread supplier Ken who’s running out of customers but is also looking for company – in May’s direction; however things are not as straightforward for any of this quartet as they might at first seem.
I’m delighted that this warm and touching comedy/drama which played to very busy houses at London’s Park Theatre in 2020 – is getting another outing. Another enthusiastic supporter is Stephen Fry, who was noted sitting next to us on the night we went. He wrote a delightful, positive and enthusiastic review. So if it’s good enough for Stephen Fry to get excited about, you should definitely see it for yourself!
The show plays a number of venues in September/October, opening and closing at Norwich Theatre’s studio theatre, and in between calling at Colchester, Bury St Edmunds, Lowestoft, Sheringham, Wells, Diss, Great Yarmouth, Thetford and Bungay.
I highly recommend that you make time to see this charming play which addresses issues we can all relate to, which will make you laugh and think.
You can find out more details and book tickets here
Read my four star review of the 2020London production here
Sky Arts, the TV channel dedicated to culture, arts and music, becomes available on Freeview and Freesat from today, September 17th.
Sky Arts was created in 2000 and was previously only available for paying subscribers to Sky and other pay-TV companies.
The 24 hour- a -day channel includes in its programming documentaries, movies, operas and more – all related to culture and the arts. They also have a number of shows based around competitions, which may or may not be your “bag”. Not being a Sky customer, I have not experienced the channel before, but I must say that I am naturally suspicious of / resistant to anything which has emanated from the diseased empire of the Murdoch clan.
The channel also has a large library of on-demand content, however this will remain exclusive to NOW TV and Sky subscribers.
On Freeview, you can find SkyArts on channel 11, and on Freesat, on channel 147.
SHAPING DUST – A work in progress from company Fancy Another? at the Tristan Bates Theatre (John Thaw Studio) at the start of September. Part of the theatre’s John Thaw Initiative Graduate Season 2019.
Are we still ourselves without our memories? Emma explores her past on her final day in her childhood home.
We open in the present day on Emma’s final day in her childhood home. Searching for a very important tea cup Emma is led through her house, discovering more and more of her memories until she enters an upstairs bedroom and encounters a memory that shakes her sense of self. Described as ‘magical realism on stage’, Fancy Another? uses puppetry, movement and hard-hitting naturalism to explore how identity is formed by memory and how our sense of self changes if we lose our memories.
Currently only 30 minutes long, this is an early incarnation of a work which focuses on Alzheimer’s and makes some interesting points about the specifics of memory loss, including a brilliant analogy about memories being books in a bookcase and dementia being an earthquake which causes the bookcase to shake.
There was a lot of good work in the show that we saw, with some interesting use of visuals. I think that once they have doubled the length of the show and further developed some of their ideas, then they will have a show I would be pleased to see again.
EITHER – a new play by Ruby Thomas and directed by Guy Jones, at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs
As we all know (or remember),
our twentysomething years are a time of discovering who we are, what we are and
what we want. And often we discover that those we thought we knew are more
complex than we might have originally thought.
EITHER introduces itself as “a
play about one couple …. who can be of any gender”.
EITHER is a story about two twentysomethings
looking for love. Or sex. Or something. The two characters who seem to be in
some developing, loose kind of relationship, are tested by the proliferation of
opportunities for experimentation. As one character says, “Having an
opportunity doesn’t mean that you should take it”
The two characters are played
by a total of six actors, who weave in and out of the two main characters, in a
sort of acting relay race. It’s intriguing for a while, and it certainly keeps
you on your toes, but it reaps diminishing returns. Further, it does also have
the downside of fragmenting character and making us rely more heavily on what
is said rather than a deeper understanding of the two characters involved. In
that sense it is rather unsatisfying.
The play weaves its way around lots of ideas asking more questions than providing answers. And it seems that an abundance of easy opportunities via technological distractions (dating apps, etc) makes it harder for these characters to define what they actually want from their relationships. The feeling from the play is that they are looking for answers from outside themselves, rather than looking inwards.
It’s undoubtedly an
interesting take on sex and sexuality, commitment, liberation and labels.
Gender-fluid and narrative-fluid as well as actor-fluid, this is a show which
keeps moving the goalposts to enable us to see things from different perspectives
and to encourage us to ask questions and challenge our assumptions. A late
focus on a discovery by one of the character’s fathers who has dementia reminds
us that every generation has their fallibilities.
Ruby Thomas’ well-observed dialogue (in her first full-length play) is very twenty-something, self-conscious and a little wince-inducing at times, but it fits the characters and their ongoing development. Guy Jones directs smartly on Bethany Wells’ clever minimal set design.
The two characters age several years though the play, finally returning to a similar conversation that opened the show, which perhaps signifies that they haven’t really got very far. Which sort of sums up how I felt about the play; although the journey was interesting and I am glad to have made time to see it.
ANNA BELLA EEMA plays at Arcola until 12 October. Details and tickets here
IN BRIEF Compassionate, urban fable highlights the many human costs of change and loss
“The life of a wild animal always has a tragic end” says reclusive Irene to her ten year old daughter Annabella. Holed up in their immobile trailer, the last one standing in a deserted trailer park, the outside world is a hostile place for them, as the approaching new interstate highway threatens their imminent eviction.
Annabella is a spirited girl, but is utterly left to her own devices. So she creates a friend out of the mud, who lives but does not speak. Anna Bella Eema, as Annabella calls her, is more than a playmate, she seems to be a harbinger of change, a volatile mix of threat and comfort. Annabella begins to experience bodily changes which preface her maturing and cause her much anxiety. During the girl’s dream-infested five-day sleep the outside forces surround the trailer and the showdown is a violent affair, leaving Annabella with a potent legacy.
Beverly Rudd’s hair-trigger Irene is fearsomely intense, at times deadpan-quirkily amusing and at others as savage as the wild animals that she relates to. She drifts in and out of fantasy and reality until their boundaries are blurred and then lost.
Gabrielle Brooks gives an engrossing performance as little Annabella, feisty but lonely and very much her mother’s child, shouldering the burden of being caught in the middle of opposing factions while dealing with massive life changes of her own; our hearts go out to her for her courage and determination. Both she and Rudd carry long passages of narration and monologue with skill and great assurance.
Natasha Cottriall plays well all the supporting characters of the outside world, as well as the Golem-like mud-girl, Anna Bella Eema, whose blankly smiling face and strange song-chants arouse our curiosity.
Lisa D’Amour’s script is highly descriptive, with long passages of narration punctuated by sound, song and small pieces of business. Investing the machinery of threat with animalistic predatory qualities, she vividly brings to life the ever-present fear of change and loss by circumstances beyond one’s control, and the primal power of mother-love. Dreams and visions are woven into the fabric of fear and unstoppable change, both in lifecycles and environment, to substantial effect. Having said this, the unreal and fantastical elements of the writing may lead to a variety of different takeaways from this show, which is a useful reminder that fables can have many different interpretations according to who tells them, and how they are told.
The eerie and sometimes siren-like songs are intriguing to an extent, but I did feel that the actual sound design (which was mostly very good) could have been further developed to support one or two of the long passages of text rather more than they did, to give it more texture.
ANNA BELLA EEMA is a slow-burning piece of storytelling which takes time to build but to its credit, it does not sag at all; as directed in Jessica Lazar’s production, it held the audience throughout its 100-minute running time.
ANNA BELLA EEMA plays at Arcola until 12 October. Details and tickets here
Until 22 September, there are over 100 theatre-related events going on across the country during Heritage Open Days. Most likely a theatre near you will be opening its doors to offer tours of the buildings. Intrigued? Then take a look at their website here where you can search what’s happening near you. Remember, this may be your only chance this year to see inside a building which interests you. Take advantage of the good weather now!
