946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips - Kneehigh at Shakespeare's Globe

Kneehigh and the Globe. They do suit each other rather well, actually. Especially when it comes to a production like 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips (which I saw at the matinée on 28^th August 2016).

There’s something about the irreverence and exuberance of Kneehigh that suits the Globe space. I think perhaps it’s the way we can all see each other – audience, actors, musicians. The Globe has always encouraged a sort of conversation between the stage and the yard, and Kneehigh certainly live up to that in Adolphus Tips.

From remarking on the weather to getting the audience to sing and dance along – even beyond the performance, to a Q&A session after the show – the cast of Adolphus Tips really welcomed the audience as a part of that afternoon’s story.

946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips is an adaptation of a Michael Morpurgo book. I’ve not read the book (though I want to now), so I was coming to the story fresh. It’s a tale of war and displacement – of loss and sadness mingled with joy and love. There were big laughs and some wonderfully joyful song and dance numbers, but there were also some profoundly moving moments, and the girl standing next to me in the yard was sniffing away towards the end.

There are so many bits I want to mention. The puppetry. The motorbike. The way the sea battle was depicted – it reminded me a little of that wonderful Bristol Old Vic production of Swallows and Amazons, but it was also hugely moving. The moment when the cast played a tune by blowing across the tops of bottles. The touching scene when they all played recorders. The morris dancing. And of course the entirely unscripted moment when the heavens opened just as the vicar was lifting his hands to pray.

All of the cast in Adolphus Tips were talented multi-instrumentalists as well as actors. They sang, danced, swapped instruments, and operated puppets all with the same energy, and you couldn’t help being swept along with it all. I couldn’t single anyone out for praise – they were all brilliant.

And it was nice to see the cast onstage afterwards in an unexpected (by me, at any rate) Q&A session along with Michael Morpurgo and Emma Rice. It was a bit like the old Talking Theatre sessions at the Globe (do they still do those?) but on a larger scale. Michael Morpurgo was very funny, and it was interesting to hear Emma Rice and Mike Shepherd talk about Kneehigh and the Globe.

I’ve seen Kneehigh perform at their Asylum down in Cornwall, and – despite some obvious differences – there is something similar about the Globe. I love the Globe – it’s one of my favourite spaces. It’s fun to see Kneehigh here.

Romeo and Juliet - The Pantaloons

Everybody knows Romeo and Juliet. They’ve either studied it at school, or seen a film adaptation, or maybe some people have even seen it in the theatre. Most people probably don’t think of it as a funny play. But when you see the Pantaloons’ version (as I did on 19^th August 2016), you realise how much humour there is in Romeo and Juliet.

From the punning banter between Mercutio (Mark Hayward) and Romeo (Tim Phelps), to the affectionately teasing relationship between Juliet (Violet Patton-Ryder) and the Nurse (Caitlin Storey), the Pantaloons draw out and make the most of the comedy in the text.

And it’s great to see original Pantaloons Mark Hayward and Caitlin Storey back on the stage and flexing their acting and improvisation muscles again. The quick-wittedness and warmth of their interactions with the audience is a joy, and Caitlin Storey’s Nurse has the audience in the palm of her hand throughout (with or without the help of kitkats).

That’s not to say that the drama and tragedy are forgotten about in this production though. Romeo’s despair on hearing of Juliet’s ‘death’ was palpable, and I was particularly struck by Juliet’s speech before she drinks the potion that will make her appear to be dead, where she voices her fears about waking in the tomb. It’s not a speech that I’ve ever really registered before, but Violet Patton-Ryder’s delivery of it really made me feel the horror of what Juliet’s imagining.

The cast of just four in this Romeo and Juliet moved effortlessly between the drama and the comedy – and between the Shakespearean language and modern ad libs. I’ve written before about how the atmosphere changes at an outdoor show as darkness falls, and it was the same here. Romeo and Juliet does get darker as it goes on, and the fall of night only intensifies that.

I feel I must give a mention to the balcony scene. Previous Pantaloons productions of Romeo and Juliet have played on how well known certain lines are (“It’s the famous bit!”) – but in this version they take a fresh approach to the scene. I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, but I thought it balanced the humour and the romance of the scene nicely, subverting our expectations without diverting from the text.

And another special mention must go to the venue where I saw the play. St Mark’s College at Audley End had put together a Romeo and Juliet themed playlist for the incoming and the interval – Prokofiev, Des’ree, Dire Straits, Taylor Swift… I can’t imagine many venues put that much thought into setting the scene for a touring theatre company’s show. Nice touch.


The Pantaloons are on tour with Romeo and Juliet until 26^th August 2016 and then will be touring an indoor version of the production later in the autumn. Full details are on their website. I’m sure the autumn cast will be equally brilliant, but it’s well worth catching the summer cast if you can!

Avenue Q - Sell A Door Theatre Company

Avenue Q’s been around for a while now and it’s a show I’ve been meaning to see for ages. But I only saw it for the first time this week: the UK touring production from Sell A Door Theatre Company on its stop at Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre (5^th July 2016).

I really enjoyed it. A lot of it was a very funny take on the kind of twenty-something angst that I think a lot of people feel post-university. The opening lyric to one song was ‘What do you do with a BA in English?’. I have a BA in English, and it’s a question I still haven’t really answered satisfactorily, ten years after graduation.

Right now, my answer would appear to be: get a job to pay the bills – preferably one you don’t hate; read books on the commute to and from said job; write a blog about your occasional visits to the theatre.

Well, it’ll do for now.

And that’s what Avenue Q’s final message was. Yes, it’d be great to have a ‘purpose’ (a concept they explained Sesame Street-style on overhead TV screens), but actually most things in most people’s lives are pretty fleeting. Even Donald Trump is only ‘for now’.

So this grown-up Sesame Street, populated by unsentimental muppets who swear, drink, have sex, and sing songs about racism and internet porn, ends up being oddly reassuring.

Part pastiche, part glossy musical, part offbeat and a bit fringey – I know so many people who’d enjoy this show.

Catch it in Eastbourne until Saturday 9^th July!

The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk - Kneehigh

The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk was a small, intimate piece in the small, intimate setting of the Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on 2^nd July 2016. Lyrical is the best word I can think of to describe it.

Every movement in Kneehigh’s Flying Lovers is as carefully choreographed as the words are written. And this flowing movement, combined with the vivid live music, makes for an unusual, charming, and – yes – lyrical piece of theatre.

Just two main cast members, plus musicians, play out this tale of the artist Marc Chagall’s life with his wife Bella. I knew next to nothing about the Chagalls before seeing this. I was not familiar with his work or with hers. But that didn’t matter. Their work, their outward-facing lives, the historical context are all part of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, but also somehow outside of its gaze.

Above all, this is a tale of two people. Small and intimate. And I found it a very thoughtful exploration of an individual’s creativity, and how that interacts with everyday life, the wider world, and those you are close to.

Some years ago in Cornwall, I saw Kneehigh’s Midnight’s Pumpkin. There was aerial work in that – trapezes and such – and I was sort of expecting something along those lines in The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk. I suppose it would’ve been difficult in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, but it would have been wonderful to see these lovers actually take flight.

As it was, though, the movement was beautiful, and I was smiling almost throughout the whole piece.

Lyrical really is the best word I can think of for it.

Gulliver's Travels & The Canterbury Tales - The Pantaloons

This week I have been mostly watching The Pantaloons. Gulliver’s Travels in Eastbourne on 21^st June and The Canterbury Tales in Brighton on 22^nd June 2016.

Both were a lot of fun. Gulliver’s Travels was very silly generally, and full of fun little touches acknowledging the challenges of staging the outlandish story with no special effects. The Canterbury Tales was slick, pacey and hugely enjoyable despite the thunder and rain.

I’ve seen quite a lot of Pantaloons shows over the years (and I’ve written about a few of them on here), but before this week I’d never sat through a thunderstorm to see one. Mind you, I’d also never seen one performed beneath a rainbow, but at Canterbury Tales on Wednesday we had all the weather!

Actually, it kind of added to the experience. The thunder started rumbling just as we came to one of the darker tales, the Manciple’s tale told in the style of Edgar Allan Poe. And the Second Nun’s opera was accompanied by some well-timed thunderclaps. In the second half, the falling rain and sodden stage were incorporated into the cast’s performances to great comic effect.

We may have all got rather wet, and I may have seen them do Canterbury Tales before, but I’m glad we made it through to the end of the show. It’s a reliably funny adaptation of The Canterbury Tales, and with a cast full of confidence and enthusiasm, this is probably one of The Pantaloons’ best shows.

Gulliver’s Travels, by contrast, was indoors – so no weather worries there. (Though typically it was on a gloriously sunny day in Eastbourne). The challenges at this performance were more to do with managing the audience, who included stony-faced teenagers and good-natured hecklers. But of course the cast dealt with this with their customary humour and quick wit.

I enjoyed the Lilliputian finger puppets and their ‘close-ups’ – and the fight between the One Direction doll Gulliver and the giant rats was inspired. Just like watching children play with their toys. The yahoos were also fun – reminiscent of a memorable Sir Toby Belch in a previous Pantaloons production of Twelfth Night, and not all that dissimilar from a couple of characters in Canterbury Tales.

Both casts for Gulliver’s Travels and The Canterbury Tales are very strong: funny, shape-shifting, confident in interacting with the audience, and really rather talented musically.

And, in referendum week, both productions made reference to the EU vote. In the improvised tale at the end of The Canterbury Tales, an undecided dragon voter was defeated by a ‘Vote Remain’ poster. I bet the politicians wish it was that simple.

And on that note, I’m off to vote!


The Pantaloons are on tour with The Canterbury Tales and Gulliver’s Travels all summer – visit their website www.thepantaloons.co.uk for a full list of tour dates.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare's Globe

A new Globe season. The start of the summer. (Only a little rain). And a new artistic director – with A Midsummer Night’s Dream the first production under Emma Rice’s leadership, and also the first production directed by her at the Globe.

She’s come from Kneehigh, and there were some familiar Kneehigh faces in this – particularly Puck (Katy Owen), who was very funny as the young servant Robert in Kneehigh’s wonderful Rebecca last year. She’s equally funny as Puck in this – mischievous, naughty, dangerous and fun, playing gleefully with both the actors and the audience. And Bottom (Ewan Wardrop) was another familiar face from Kneehigh who became an instant Globe favourite.

There were also echoes of Kneehigh’s style in the music, dancing, aerial work, and general air of irreverence in this A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Special mention to the Changeling puppet, which was quite beautiful too.

I can see what this production is intended to be – a riot of fun and colour and wildness. I’m thinking something like a Baz Luhrmann film live, on stage, in the Globe space. But it needed to be pacier to really achieve that wildness. I dare say the pace will pick up as the run goes on.

What worked particularly well were the scenes with the lovers. I really like the male Helena – ‘Helenus’ – the gender switch brought something new to the dynamic. And all four lovers had great chemistry and comic timing. They were recognisably of our world and our time (the Hoxton hipster references went down well, and I enjoyed the Beyoncé dance).

In fact, all the dancing was fabulous – from the fairies’ slightly terrifying moves right through to the joyous Bollywood-inspired jig at the end.

But am I allowed one quibble, as someone who goes to the Globe a fair bit? I know I probably sound like a bore, but I found the amplification of the actors’ speaking voices quite disconcerting. I didn’t mind it for the music, but for the dialogue it seemed unnecessary and took away from the intimacy of the Globe space. When you’re standing in the yard, sometimes actors talk directly to you - or sometimes someone tall is standing in front of you and you can’t see who’s talking, so you rely on your ears to tell you where to crane to look. When their voices are coming from somewhere other than their bodies, neither of those things work.

In a production that was otherwise really proudly physical – with some imaginative and brilliant movement – it seemed strange that the voice was treated as separate from that physicality. The voice is part of the body too.

But hey, that’s a minor quibble. It’s exciting to see new things at the Globe. New ideas, new approaches, new faces. And I really enjoyed A Midsummer Night’s Dream (which I saw at the matinée on 21^st May 2016). It was naughty, irreverent, imaginative and fun, and – most importantly for a comedy – it was funny.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the season!

The Importance of Being Earnest - The Pantaloons

I always enjoy a Pantaloons show. I like their style – madcap, physical, and often slightly anarchic but not without depth and substance.

The Importance of Being Earnest is not an obvious choice of play for them – it has little depth and doesn’t lend itself easily to anarchy. But that didn’t stop the Pantaloons bringing their customary verve and vigour to it at the Underground Theatre on 7^th May 2016. With added songs, audience participation, and numerous un-Wildean interjections, they unashamedly turned the piece into a proper Pantaloons show.

Wilde purists may have been taken aback by the way the physical became just as integral to the humour as the words. Lady Bracknell (Kelly Griffiths), Doctor Chasuble (Neil Jennings), and Miss Prism (Alex Rivers), in particular, became much funnier through their physical characterisation than I have often seen them portrayed.

But a Pantaloons show is no place for purists. As they say in their programme notes, the company aims to “wrench these works from the closed world of theatrical and educational institutions and return them to the breathing, bustling world of the outdoors, telling contemporary stories in a contemporary way to contemporary audiences.”

So if you’re attracted by the title and only want to see a traditional production of The Importance of Being Earnest, then, I’ll be honest, this may not be entirely for you. But if, on the other hand, you’re ambivalent about the title because you think it’ll be the same old thing, then I’d urge you to give the Pantaloons a go. You’ll enjoy it more than you think, and it definitely won’t just be the same old thing.

And that goes for Earnest, their Shakespeares, and any of their other productions too. So if you’ve missed Earnest (it's on tour until 14th May), the Pantaloons are on tour with three productions over the summer months. Take a look at their website for details of Gulliver’s Travels, The Canterbury Tales, and Romeo and Juliet.

Henry V - Merely Theatre

Henry V is known for being quite a masculine play: all war and bravado. So what was interesting about Merely Theatre’s production (which I saw at Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park Theatre on Thursday 17^th March 2916) was its gender-blind casting.

In the performance I saw (and the line-up changes, show to show), there were four female cast members and one male. As is often the case with all-female, all-male, or gender-blind casts, this sometimes made me forget about the gender of the characters entirely, and sometimes made me focus on gender even more.

What I found most striking in Henry V was that it was where female actors were playing female roles that it felt most like a caricature. I don’t know if this would have been the same had I seen male actors in those roles, but as it was, it was noticeable that the women were performing being women in a way that it wasn’t so obvious that, for instance, Zena Carswell was playing Henry as a man.

This put me in mind of a lecture I had at university about the performativity of gender. We were shown a clip of Some Like It Hot, with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in drag – and then Marilyn Monroe sashaying along and putting on an unmistakeable performance of femininity.

It seems there’s something about men playing women or women playing men being juxtaposed with women playing women that makes you notice just how much of a performance gender is.

Aside from the gender thing, this production of Henry V had some interesting ideas around social class, some fine comedic acting, and some very rousing speeches (particularly the St Crispin’s Day speech). And that was just with the cast I saw – there’s a whole other line-up possible and I’m sure each version brings a different slant to it.


Merely Theatre are currently on tour with Henry V and A Midsummer Night’s Dream – see their website www.merelytheatre.co.uk for full tour details.