Sizwe Banzi is Dead

Small queue leading into the auditorium and I'm suddenly confronted with two signs stating 'Non Whites' which are to take the left side and 'Whites' to enter via the right hand side with a white rope barrier separating the two entrances. This I have never witnessed in my life so instantly made me want to know why the separation.

I was sat among the non whites and witnessed a few whites in the area and also there wasn't any barrier as opposed to the whites section being cordoned off with a large white rope. I was still intrigued to why this style was introduced so I sat patiently and waited for the piece of theatre to begin.

Enter a man wearing sun glasses grinning from ear to ear at the audience and greets us. He begins telling a story and impersonates every single character from his story. This varied from young and old male and females to the white manager who owned the townships. Tonderai Munyevu's energy was amazing, he kept the audience intrigued, sustained and entertained through much laughter. I have to admit I did find some of the stories he told to be offensive, especially when a Banana drops from above the stage. I for one didn't find that funny as some of the audience did, but looking back I can see it was the character Tonderai Munyevu played the audience found amusing as he was very funny.

Set was covered with many large planks of used wood with spray painted numbers on to give you a real sense of poverty and township surroundings. Centre stage parked a small cabin which opened up into a small photography studio, with a brightly coloured scenic blue sky backdrop. 

Enter a man in a suit, requesting some photos to send to his wife, and let the true dual comedy commence. This was a brilliant piece of comedy for me as it allowed the photographer to experiment and mould his client into the star behind his camera juxtaposed with the other man looking slightly confused and uncomfortable with the photographers directions.

Another amazing piece that stood out for me was Sibusiso Mamba huge monologue from a drunken Sizwe who questions why we are defined to a National Insurance number and a passport? It's a very interesting and thought provoking monologue that gets you thinking for yourself and agreeing with what is said during the monologue. In addiction the way he strips his clothes off to his boxer shorts adds much more power and meaning to the speech.

I have to fully congratulate both actors for each of their performances. They both kept their energy high, volume was always projected and the correct emotions came across lovely and organic. I do have to give extra congratulations to Tonderai Munyevu for capturing an audience for 40 minutes all by himself. That in itself is a great achievement any actor could dream of accomplishing every night in a theatre.

So the big questions; does the segregation work? What was the purpose of it? Have we now passed that stage now we are into the 21st century? Personally I think if it's the directors decision we have to respect that as theatre is there to experiment and try new innovative ideas out. However, the strong actors who were cast so well and performed an extremely powerful piece could've held the audience with or without the segregation in place. I guess it's not a matter of; whether you agree with it or not, you generate conversation about it and become more intrigued as to why, resulting in going to see a great piece of theatre. I'd say its a win win either way.

The Bodyguard, Adelphi Theatre, Covent Garden

Bang! The sound of a shotgun is heard while the house lights dim simultaneously. A very dramatic opening but one that captured the audiences attention immediately.

A very typical loud American showbiz style number begins with the immediate realisation that Rachel Marron wasn't played by Beverley Knight. I must admit this was a slight disappointment as had travelled from Sheffield with the expectation Beverley Knight was performing. Nevertheless Joelle Moses did a fantastic job with the opening number, her vocals were strong, brilliantly projected and her dance moves were on point.

Credit where credit is due has to go to the set designer, Tim Hatley, a superb, creative, innovative set design. The stage itself was smaller than I had expected for a west end theatre so I have to applaud Tim for managing to collate such ideas and portray them on stage. The scene transitions felt film like with many carefully moved backdrops, I'm almost certain there was anew one each scene. One that stood out for myself was when the stalker was writing a letter. We saw the stalker stage right almost mid air with many backdrops covering him so we only saw him writing a letter sat on a chair leaning on a table from a birds eye view. You have to see this to truly know what I am talking about but it was truly amazing. Much theatre today doesn't shock me, but OMG that certainly did.

Costumes throughout we're contemporary, modern and bright. The last musical number the costumes were very smart almost formalwear with a hint of glitz and glamour.

I am not the biggest fan of musicals as I prefer performances with less jazz hands but organically natural where we are able to see a thought process from the actors. However, watching The Bodyguard has made me more likely to give musicals a chance and spectate more often than usual. This didn't feel like a typical musical as the musical numbers seemed very much in context as oppose to breaking out in song every 2-5 minutes. I felt the songs were sung at appropriate times such as; concerts where Rachel Marron performed, as well as awards ceremonies and bars. There were musical numbers performed in house like settings. One that stood out for me was the gentle but powerful duet with both sisters; Rachel and Nicki Marron. The two singers together blew me away and was a truly beautiful moment and a wonderful end to Act 1.

Some amazing techniques used throughout the play which were very similar to whats used in film enhanced via editing software. This what makes theatre so real that such techniques can be transferred on stage without the fancy editing. A fight scene took place during one of Rachel's PA moments in a club and this was an exceptionally perfect piece of choreography and sheer excellence from sound. As we hear Rachel sing at her concert, the music slowly backspins and we see punches thrown in slow motion contrasted with the music turned back to its original speed and Rachel picking back up the musical notes. This gradually repeated itself until a full on brawl took place all in slow motion with guys bending over backwards into the famous Matrix move. 

I have to congratulate Joelle Moses on her performance as Rachel Marron I couldn't fault any of it and so what if it wasn't Beverley Knight performing I still enjoyed The Bodyguard. I sincerely hope to see Joelle playing the main role in another west end play as think she has excelled herself and should no longer be an understudy. A full standing ovation from the theatre with each and everyone on their feet dancing to "Dance With Somebody" with Joelle hitting each and every note and dance move was a brilliant ending, with myself dancing out of theatre upon exiting the auditorium. I rarely give standing ovations as it has to absolutely perfect, but as soon as The Bodyguard ended I was instantly on my feet which has been my first standing ovation of the year so great stuff and thank you to all performers, cast and creatives.

Cleopatra by Northern Ballet

A dramatic powerful contemporary style of ballet roars on stage to take set at the Lyceum theatre.

 A stone Egyptian set, with the use of multiple projections to highlight different rooms within the palace. We see Cleopatra centre stage performing a lovely solo piece later joined by Wadjet an Egyptian god in the form of a snake. His contemporary Mohawk hairstyle and a tight tie dye all in one captures the audiences attention immediately. A great contact improv scene takes place with soft mellow music accompanied by the orchestra. Many costume changes occurred throughout the performance of Cleopatra many containing the males in short wrap around skirts with a sash situated central to the pelvis giving a real sense of what Egyptian men wore from around 60BC onwards. The women's costumes mainly consisted on long brightly coloured dresses some with bells on to add light sounds as they moved across the stage. This very much reminded me of costumes used within belly dancing.

The display of sibling rivalry is evident between Cleopatra and Ptolemy with a fantastic conflict contact duo scene taking place centre stage on two blocks of raised stairs. Thus, resulting in the death of Ptolemy plunged in the bath tub by his own sister. Cleopatra is most definitely not a woman to take a fight lying down!

The lighting consists much general state with warm yellow washes and pink, blue and purple washes for many of Cleopatra's sequences.

The most powerful scene that stood out for me are; the boarding of the barge to sail the river Nile. This to me was where you see a versatile static set add props to really set a scene. We see a powerful projection of waves under a large sail, following two dancers elegantly attaching a blue satin cloth stage left to right and one dancer fixing an ore centre backstage and voilà we are now embarking on a journey with Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.  Nevertheless, the love making scene was cleverly done with a white sheet placed centre backstage to the front of the stage with Julius and Cleopatra both taking turns to dominate the missionary position while they roll in the sheet. The best part has yet to come as low and behold a baby is born as the white sheet is rolled in a oval ball to symbolise this.  Baby Cearsarion has entered the world.

The death of Julius Caesar was slightly prolonged but brilliantly choreographed with a very powerful orchestra to compensate the long dramatic death as the senators encircle him with various slow forces of dance movements to imitate the copious amount of stabbing Julius encounters.

While the dancers were aesthetically good and could not fault any moves technically, I did at times think there was less ballet and more dance theatre displayed. This occurs much throughout Act 2 where facial expressions and playing the role overshadowed the essence of ballet.

I applaud Northern Ballet's take on Cleopatra as it is fresh, modern and vibrant and clearly moving with the times; keeping it current yet certain pieces kept traditional.

Afterplay by Brian Friel

A two handed play set in a cafe in Russia with a running time of 50 minutes, How is it possible for such a static play to hold their audience. I did wonder before entering into the auditorium.

Fear not as I walked into a small intimate studio theatre surrounded by many windows of all different sizes but similar designs with a table and two chairs placed centre stage. I almost felt like the cafe was not big enough to accommodate the amount of us in the audience.

Enter Sonya with a few books, papers other miscellaneous stationary items and of course her satchel and takes a seat scribbling notes. So I instantly thought oh dear there's going to be many unecessary silences during this play. However I was proven wrong when Andrey enters with a bowl of cabbage soup, bread and a violin accompanied with great energy and remembers Sonya from the previous night they both chatted in the cafe. Bam! The play has begun, all within 3/4 minutes of it starting.

As the play progresses you almost become attracted to Andrey; simply out of pity as he really lives in an artificial world but everything he says is for good cause as that's the man he has always wanted to be. He boasts to Sonya about playing in the orchestra for La Boheme while sitting with his violin and explaining how musicians have to do certain exercises to aid their posture. We become attracted to Sonya purely for her charming naivety she displays while Andrey entertains her with his small fables and when he exits, her sneaky ways of smuggling out her secret bottle of Gin.

Watching two people in a cafe on stage made me feel very nosey as it did very much feel like I was intruding on their conversation as they kept it as naturalistic as possible with yet some fantastic organic comedic moments dropped in.

I must admit I was very surprised how funny the play was as I know Three Sisters very well and that is not funny at all rather the opposite not to mention Andrey's character is not amusing nor very interesting. I can only think he was not in good company and possibly his sisters and wife had much bigger personalities hence his lack of confidence. Sonya also is very funny but you expect it from her as she does have a certain aroma of charm about her and this heightens throughout the play especially the more Gin she consumes while later sharing it with Andrey.

The ending of the play was a surprise as throughout the play we are very intrigued to see how this relationship develops but I will say no more as do not want to give all the good bits away! One could also argue that the ending is very open so your not dissapointed. Either way it's worth going to see but if you prefer musicals and all that Jazz then I wouldn't recommend.

A massive pat of the back to Niamh Cusack and Sean Gallagher for a fantastic 5* naturalistic performance. Stanislavsky would be most pleased!

The Comedy Of Errors Vs A Midsummer Nights Dream (Propeller Style)

Both plays begin in the same format like many of Propeller's performances. The actors on stage, setting the scene from before the auditiorium doors open. A modern set with tall metal shutters stage right and upper stage filled with random graffiti, seaside fairy lights hanging above the stage and most of the actors dressed in summer wear, ranging from sombreros, bright coloured trousers and football shirts. I felt like I had immediately been taken on a summer holiday journey as The Comedy of Errors opens at the Lyceum Theatre.

A minimalist but detailed approach from A Midsummer Nights dream set with an object covered with a white sheet centre stage, set upon a netted backdrop with a life guard stlyle high chair stage left and right covered with a grey voile, which we later see the king and queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania spring from. In one sense you could say chairs play a very important part of the set with a dozen attached to each other in mid air on stage. Silver chains with a harmonica attached and all white costumes and a blue wash light set on stage the audience are immediately invited to an evening with all male fairies.

The comedy in The Comedy of Errors during Act 1 was extremely slapstick with many over exaggerated hand gestures and mixed responses from the audience, but nevertheless a few laughs were made and in no time it was the end of Act 1. This is quite possibly the shortest act of any play I have seen not to mention a Shakespeare play. I can safely admit this is by far the shortest play to be written by William Shakespeare.

Ultimate comedy flows throughout Act 1 for A Midsummer nights dream with Puck opening the play centre stage coming out of a box and taking us on a journey through a very witty and funny version of swan lake with dancers humming and sounding each harmonica as the fairies prance around Puck. Dressed in a tutu with red and white pinstripe braces and tights to match, your instantly drawn to the witty wacky way comedy is portrayed by Propeller.

The fourth wall is completely smashed at the beginning of Act 2 when an American police like man with an acoustic guitar captures a female member of the audiences eye. Strumming on his guitar as he gazes into her eyes, he asks "will you marry me?" In an awful Spanish accent, sure did set the scene for more comedy moments to come at the expense of other peoples embarrassing misfortunes. Then the Cabernet begins with Playboy meets drag act to further then encounter disco diva meets Sister Act provided a very amusing and uplifting scene with high energy. This reminded me of scenes from the Itv drama Benidorm and had me in fits of laughter. 

Bottom's role by far stands out for me as the award winning comedic character within the play and certainly this performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream. Chris Myles fantastic comedy timing is spot on sending the audience to carry through a great deal of belly laughter not to mention the Ass' costume which had me laughing for a very long time. I won't explain what the costume is as I think one needs to see to believe this hilarious hype.

Propeller are known for many things, the obvious being an all male theatre company but also for their impromptu musical number during the interval. This surprised me during The Comedy of Errors as they performed nothing. As this is Propeller they never fail to surprise as they retreated back to their infamous ways of giving the audience a run for their theatre ticket money by performing popular mash up numbers with cast members singing and playing a variety of instruments in a bid to raise money for Genes for Genes charity.

Typical Shakespeare to do a play within a play gives the players performance yet more comedic clarity as we see an outstanding performance from the players with Bottom/The Ass taking centre stage with his amusing never ending death, possibly due to the fact his sword was a plunger! A lovely moment arose after the players had performed their play in which all characters watching the play then became players accompanied with folk dance sequences as an array of string, woodwind and percussion instruments were played. A beautiful way to get the audience involved clapping in time to the beat and even a tap of the feet if you are really feeling the beat!

1 week 2 Shakespeare plays deserves an outstanding round of applause to a brilliant, focused, connected cast with everyone proving they have the comedic flair not to mention impeccable timing. This makes it clear as to why Edward Hall chose to do The Comedy of Errors and A Midsummer Nights Dream because each actor is simply funny as fudge! 

The Nutcracker (Moscow City Ballet)

So for my first Blog of the year I thought why not write a review on having seen a ballet for the first time ever so here goes..... It's quite odd for an audience to clap before the curtains come up but as you do in the theatre you have that sheep factor and applaud when the audience applause, we'll at least in this instance I for sure did. Aside from the applause the orchestra went on to play a wonderful interlude to open and set the scene which fell upon a minimal set with a very detailed backdrop of a spacious mansion with a tall elegant Christmas tree and a chaise longue situated lower stage right. And now the ballet has been set bring on the dancers and Oh My they came one with such a strong presence in their traditional period costumes and my face lit up like a child in awe in a candy shop. From then on I had a permanent smile on my face throughout Act 1 as it felt truly magical and very much like Christmas despite having taken my Christmas tree down a couple of days ago! I certainly wasn't expecting to laugh out loud during a ballet, but to my surprise many comedy elements had been added in for heightened affect, especially the male dancer dressed as Santa with a sack on his back and still moving so blissfully. A beautiful backdrop ascended before the end of Act 1 consisting of many pine trees with trickles of snow, giving a real pretty feeling across the stage and quite possibly the auditorium too. I can not fault the dancers in any shape that's for sure or form. They all had the extreme wow factor in their moves and stillness. I must admit I was quite shocked at how long they could stand with one leg in the air and not even see their lungs expand or abbreviate. The all male sequences I found very dramatic with the aid of a powerful orchestra, however upon landing the males had much of a louder landing than the females. I thought this added more of a dramatic dark affect with lighting dimly lit to further add affect, not to mention adding a slight hint of machoness to contrast men in tights! To juxtapose this the all female sequence once again made my smile stretch to my ears and my head tilt as I was fully in awe during Act 2 with all the women in white to portray purity and elegance. This particular scene very much reminded of the style used by synchronised swimmers. The solo pieces in Act 2 were just phenomenal and you have to see it to know what I mean I had stopped scribing and watched each dancer take centre stage and just capture my attention as if spell bounded by the roaring force of ballet. The backdrop in Act 2 was very colourful with pastel but metallic coloured flowers which matched the dancers costume very beautiful and bright too. I must admit I had lost the narrative during Act 2 but can't complain as the dancers took stage of how flexible and technical they all dance. Personally Act 2 for me was more about ballet dancing in itself not to mention all the classic numbers played from the greatest composer himself Mr Tchaikovsky. Even if you don't like classical music you will find yourself swaying to some of the numbers the orchestra played due to them being so popular among many commercials, TV Dramas and radio. So how was it seeing my first ballet? Absolutely tremendous and I have been inspired to get back in shape and will be heading to the gym tomorrow, but don't think I will be as fit, flexible and healthy as the dancers but one can aim high aye! If you haven't seen a ballet yet please do go see you won't be disappointed and I would rate this 10/10 and a huge well done to all dancers, musicians, crew and choreographer of the Moscow City Ballet. Jasly