Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
Children disappearing. A rabbit hole. Willy Wonka? Panorama appears to be a mix of journalism and fairytales. Magical realism with a humourist element? Modernization of fairy tales like Alice in Wonderland? Mix this once more with Lada Gaga, Willy Wonka and a fair bit of Wizard of Oz and you have a vague idea of what’s going on. Or you don’t.
It is indeed a combination of the three fairytales: Alice in Wonderland, Willy Wonka and the Wizard of Oz, however the parts are differentially weighted, so the emphasis lies mainly on little Dorothy’s story. While this mix of fairytales from quite different time periods might easily have turned quite bizarre, Panorama actually managed to find an interesting balance by connecting the three with the topic of representation through journalism and also by approaching the whole thing with a great sense of humour. By portraying the combination of different fairytales also throughout costume and music - for example, by combining older and newer pieces of music and using modern journalist clothing and a vintage-like dress for Dorothy - the pieces from different time areas fit together quite nicely. Meanwhile you have the journalistic search for the actual story as a background, forming the piece’s framework. While the story was definitely interesting and quite clever in its approach to fairytales and combining pre-existing and newly-written elements, it still has more potential than was actually realized. If you have seen it, you will probably agree with me when I ask: What happened to the man in the elevator? Wasn’t he one of the funniest characters on stage? Didn’t he make us laugh more than a few times in his scenes? Well then, what happened to him in the end? And what about the missing children? You know, only the reason everyone seemed to be investigating? And what about Alice? She was the protagonist in one of the main fairytales? Didn’t she make the audition?
Moving on from the plot, I have to praise the casting: some amazing people were cast, and they worked well for their character parts and also contrasted each other quite nicely since each of them seemed quite distinct on stage. However, even though the singing was, apart from some slippages, rather good, the different audibility of the singers was quite irritating. Some were almost a bit too loud and some of them were drowned out by the band’s sound. Whilst that is not necessarily a bad thing, considering that the band offered a flawless performance, it is quite tedious if they offer you valuable plot information but you can’t help but wish you’d done that lip reading course the University offered you ages ago.
Two other things that I feel I need to mention are costume and lighting. I wish I could say something different than I already did throughout this review, but again I need to say: I liked it - but! Some costumes were excellent, but what I found bothersome was a minimalist approach to the trees in the magic forest, while everything else around them is supposed to be magical and colourful. If one goes for a minimalist approach to a magical play, it can work but only if one keeps the same aesthetic throughout; this mix between rich colouring and minimalism unfortunately is the one mix that did not work in this play. Also, although the lighting was reasonably well exercised, it could however have been used a bit more effectively to enhance the play’s magical themes.
In conclusion I can say that I did enjoy the play and while the flaws I described do make an impact it is not such a massive one. It is a play with a lot of potential, some realized, some unrealized. Willy Wonka, Alice and Dorothy? If you view them with Panorama it is definitely news worth watching!
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