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.
The Upstage Centre on Monkgate seems an ongoing hub of creativity. A lovely venue boasting something for all ages, talents and abilities, and offering what appears to be ‘the extra mile’ in terms of support and hospitality for its guests. It is currently hosting YSCP’s latest production of Travels With My Aunt – Giles Havergal’s adaptation of the novel by Graham Greene. As an adaptation, I thought it odd that the play itself remains entirely novel-esque. Throughout the script there is a constant stream of narration, which is not a bad theatrical device in itself but there is, what feels like, an unnecessary amount of commentary on the action. As an adaptation therefore, I found it a little uncreative, but as a story, and one that I am unfamiliar with, it is rather inviting.
The set was simplistic yet versatile, one of its strengths being the symmetry. During the first half, a map which was used to illustrate the travelling was creatively constructed with bulbs that lit up each destination as the journey progressed. And for the second half, we were greeted with a refreshing change to a red backdrop, and colours complementary to the arrival in Paraguay.
With regards to the performance, there is no doubt of the talent of this cast. The first note I made was that despite having the narrator split across four actors – a certain challenge (and one extremely well handled) for Director Jan Kirk – there was no sense of any of the performers trying to upstage the other. Each actor (Mike Hickman, Jamie Searle, Matt Simpson and Jacco Thijssen) was equally strong and consistent in the portrayal of Henry Pulling, and handled the cross-over between narration and dialogue incredibly well.
Sue Skirrow, playing Aunt Augusta, was strong, but I felt that there wasn’t enough of a ‘journey’, as pretentious as that sounds, throughout the performance. There were many moments that were skilfully performed, but it seemed to reach a limit, which left other more emotional moments, however few, feeling underachieved. If I were to nit-pick the performances, there were occasional discrepancies when it came to some of the other characters (again, played by the same four men). These appeared namely in Tooley (Matt Simpson) – an adolescent American pot-head, and O’Toole (Mike Hickman) – said adolescent’s father. Tooley seemed an uncomfortable character choice for Simpson, who I felt needed to bring more peace-loving femininity to the role, and O’Toole unfortunately seemed to lose his accent at one stage. This would have been less of a problem if it didn’t clash with one of his other characters: Detective Sergeant. That being said, the general skill of the cast is not to be belittled, and this was certainly a show worth seeing. The director clearly had a close working relationship with the cast and spent much time paying attention to detail, and picking apart the characters. How long the rehearsal process was, I am unsure, but Kirk clearly intended on getting the best out her creative team. I suspect that whilst this was her first production with YSCP, it won’t be her last.
Technically, the production was well put together with carefully sought out sound effects and well-plotted lighting to compliment the entire peace. It’s always good to see a cast appreciate their unsung technical heroes, who always seem to slip through the net when the job is well done. Particularly in terms of reviewing – Techies, you did a wonderful job!
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