Archive for the ‘Stage’ Category

It is often difficult to convince people to attend amateur dramatics. The prospect of stumbled lines and monosyllabic delivery is not a big draw. However, every now and again there is an anomaly that becomes a reminder for why one does attend. Waiting For Lefty is this anomaly, and despite being performed entirely by students, is a truly captivating and enthralling production.

The play follows the social dynamics of a workers association in the face of low wages and potential job cuts, attempting to analyse the circumstances and emotions that lead workers to strike. While the play is too short to fully achieve this, the audience are presented with some beautifully acted scenes that continue to resonate after the final curtain has been drawn.

Sid’s (Folarin Akinmade) relationship with Florrie (Lucie Walker-Davies) is on the edge, as is Joe’s (Martin Leonard) marriage to Edna (Faye Merralls). The interactions within each of these relationships are impressive in their ability to draw in the audience.

While the cast is without a weak link, the performance of Akinmade stands out as exemplary. His portrayal of Sid is dynamic in its ability to capture both the light-hearted front of his character and the painful, angry emotion that lies beneath.

Such strong performances from the whole cast serve to overpower the more dubious aspects of the production. An originally American play, the students from Kings College London have made a slightly muddled attempt to fit the script into a British setting. Set in the 1930’s it is difficult to accurately ally the script to history and much of what is presented is more reminiscent of Britain in the 1980’s. Well, it would be if it wasn’t for the emphasis being on taxi drivers threatening to strike.

However, as previously mentioned, these details are subsidiary to the quality of the performance and do not stop Waiting For Lefty from being well worth seeing, even when lined up against professional competition.

Waiting For Lefty is produced and performed by The King’s Players, a Drama Society at Kings College London.

The English National Opera appears to have a penchant for the modern opera. Last year saw the appearance of Doctor Atomic, produced by Penny Woolcock, an eclectic modern piece dealing with the rise of the Atomic bomb. While some found it intriguing and entertaining, I found it quite frankly bizarre and a tad flat. By the second half, I found remaining alert was proving remarkably difficult and, when the curtains closed, the comments around me revealed that I wasn’t the only one.

This year we have seen the staging of Tosca and Idomeneo. The latter presented an interesting twist to a greek mythological tale composed by Mozart, with ultra-modernist settings of characterless furniture and decor, dull office-esque colours and an atmosphere of stifling formality to contrast an otherwise epic and passionate tale. While the contrastive affect was impressive in its own unconventional way, it was nonetheless somewhat jarring.

And now we are treated to yet another transported classic: The Pearl Fishers, a 19th century French piece by Bizet, also produced by Penny Woolcock. Here it was to be staged in a modern era, and one was somewhat apprehensive of the result for fear of discovering yet another beautiful opera forced into the stifling pantyhose of a modern era at the cost of spirit and impact. However, I was very pleasantly surprised. In a world of ‘high’ entertainment that often reads essentially as the more costly distractions from the World’s realities, this modern rendition of The Pearl Fishers presented itself as a piece that worked remarkably well, not merely for its quality of production but for its consciousness of context. The play
is a 19th century French orientalist piece, portraying a ‘Far Eastern’ village of Pearl fishers and presenting the vibrant culture and eligious/superstitious ways of its inhabitants. The original piece reflected the attitudes and ideas of its time: colonialism and discourses of the Other. In this modern rendition the play is staged in a context of climate change; a pivotal issue of modern times. The setting reveals itself to be a village of presumably Sri Lanka as the original was set in Ceylon, but most likely in Bangladesh, as the programme
appears to indicate. Both the realities of poverty and the complexities of survival before the uncontrollable entity that is nature are skilfully encompassed in a stage that is as vibrant as it is realistic. One is presented with rickety homes built from corrugated iron sheets, wooden beams, and similar cheap and insecure materials, which are perched on the  characteristic bamboo stilts of the region to withstand the frequent floods.

As with the stage the plot also accurately reflects a region struggling to survive in the face of climate change. The living of pearl fishing and the battle to survive entailed forms a central theme; reflecting the complexity of existence in an ever destabilizing ecosystem. A priestess from another village is brought to pray day and night as the villagers go fishing to
ensure they return home to safety. Wrongdoing brings with it tumultuous changes in weather as storms are provoked when the priestess violates her vows. Their very actions directly affect changes in weather, just as our actions today are directly impacting global changes in climate. As the original play was produced for its time, so the new play has been skillfully
adapted to its. Bangladesh is the ‘ground zero’ of Climate Change; a poor and densely populated country that is in danger of 17% submersion by the year 2050, threatening to leave 20 million homeless. Woolcock deftly brings this reality to life, allowing the audience an opportunity to in some way experience the lives of those affected. In a quirky twist, she introduces a Western tourist couple at alternative moments, snapping pictures and weaving a trail between the villagers as they observe in amusement and wonder – a symbol of the London audience upon the stage itself; experiencing the plight of the villagers yet somehow still alien and unaware.

However, if there was a point of criticism, it would be in the performance of the actors. While Nadir was well performed with vocals of evocative power, there was little magic to be found in that of princess Leila or Nourabad. Freddy Tong, drawn from Monty Python to play Nourabad, was an unconvincing jealous lover and appeared ill-placed for the part, while Hanan Alattar proved an unexciting and tedious Leila. It was also amusing to find that while the village was apparently Hindu, both Nadir and Leila had distinctly Muslim names – although I daresay that should be put down to Bizet’s own colonialist confusions and not Woolcock’s production. Furthermore, a stage full of individuals, accurately South Asian in attire yet distinctly English in appearance did little to contribute to realism.

Penny Woolcock’s version of The Pearl Fishers is an engaging opera, presenting pivotal concepts with energy and vibrancy. And while some aspects may not have been brilliant, it remains both an entertaining and important piece.

That is the daunting question being asked by Dutch composer Michel van der Aa in his latest opera, After Life, which has its UK premiere at the Barbican on 15th May.

Based on the 1998 film of the same name, the opera’s characters are at a midpoint between heaven and earth. Before they leave their earthly lives behind, they are allowed to relive only one key moment in their life, which they can then take with them to eternity in the form of a film.

Every week, a new group of dead people enter this midpoint between heaven and earth, and have to sift through their memories to choose one, decisive moment.

“It such a humanistic story,” says van der Aa. “Something that we all can relate to. Everybody has one or several moments that they like to think about – but I haven’t picked one yet.”

For the University of London students we surveyed, decisive moments were mostly orientated – perhaps unsurprisingly – around family and friendship. Answers included:

Euro-trip last summer, watching fireworks with my family on New Year’s Eve, getting a coursework question in last week’s exam, first day at university, family vacation to Alaska, my first graduation, and – for one enamored student – valentine’s day.

To help the audience answer this philosophical question, van der Aa hopes to awaken their imagination by combining live stage action with film, music and an electro-acoustic sound. A series of mini-films have been recorded by the cast and will be projected onto the stage while the opera unfolds. “It’s a very natural extension to my music and a very natural extension to my vocabulary – stretching my vocabulary in a way I could cope with more ideas,” van der Aa added.

Since its world premiere in 2006, Van der Aa has developed and perfected the composition of After Life: “Back then I decided I wanted to compose a very sparse musical material because there are so many things happening on stage, but I think in being that careful the music turned out to be a little too sparse. So this is one of the things I immediately thought I had a chance to change.”

The UK premiere of After Life at the Barbican is performed by ASKO/Schoenberg Ensemble conducted by Otto Tausk, who also premiered the work in 2006.

More details on the website: http://www.barbican.org.uk/afterlife/