Review - 'Shakers'

The Tea Bar, Basingstoke, 26 - 27 March 2014

Written by John Godber, Directed by Ross Harvie

The final week of March saw Basingstoke town play host to two spring shows from The Proteans’ dramatic company –the all -female ‘Shakers’, at the Tea Bar, and the all-male ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’, staged at the Creation Space. If the latter was a somewhat darker, cynical piece of theatre, the former proved a nice contrast, not only in terms of gender, but for its lighter, comedic tone.

Director Ross Harvie created a hugely enjoyable two hours of theatre, adapting John Godber’s 1985 script into the parameters of an actual cocktail lounge. ‘Shakers’ proved an appropriate choice for four new female members of The Proteans – (Lydia Thompson, Charlie Thomas, Emma-May Williamson and Jodi Heath), who all evidently had great chemistry together on stage in their guises as cocktail waitresses, in addition to a miscellaneous swathe of questionable clientele, both male and female. Thus we were treated to a group of posh, over privileged men out on the town (a particular highlight), Essex girls on a hen ‘do’, and various other loutish drunkards.

The music played a key component throughout the whole production. The use of Eighties electro pop was used to breathtaking effect, no doubt evoking memories amongst the more mature members of the audience! I must confess that I have always enjoyed a favourable bias for this genre and era of music and thus I was humming happily along to the sound of the Human League and a-Ha throughout the evening.

The costumes gave the whole show an air of genuine authenticity, each of the girls employing punk hairstyles and a variety of garish, multicoloured frocks (one of which I have on very good authority was bought and worn in 1987 and remains in impeccable condition). Incidentally all four actresses should be applauded on the speed with which they initiated their many costume changes, no small feat considering the tightness of the venue.

Indeed, the locality itself was precisely the element which worked most effectively for this play. By staging it within the unusual set up of The Tea Bar, it acted as proof that great theatre should not simply be confined to a traditional auditorium or studio, but works just as effectively within the context of a night out on the town.

‘Shakers’ made for a highly refreshing evening and succeeded theatrically as an amusing and visually stunning production.

Liam Elvish

Review - 'Timon of Athens', National Theatre (Olivier Theatre) - Directed by Nicholas Hytner

“Methinks I could deal kingdoms to my friends, And ne’er be weary ...”

As I glanced around the auditorium during the commencement of the final act, there was an overwhelming sense of dramatic irony in the witnessing of an uprising against the Establishment, here in the Olivier Theatre of all places, in which three quarters of the audience were broadly representative of this social circle. Perhaps only the National could make a statement so vivid and powerfully embodying of stark convenience.

Nicholas Hytner’s RSC production of Shakespeare’s rarely staged epic was a tour de force in topical theatre. Performed as part of the World Shakespeare Festival, itself a part of the London 2012 Cultural Festival, this was surely an artistic highlight of this eventful Summer for the capital. Set in present-day London, not only did Hytner succeed in remaining as faithful as possible in the interpretation of the Bard’s text, but also delivered in ensuring that a play over four hundred years old was supremely relevant to the modern world in the wake of the current economic crisis.

Simon Russell Beale was the ultimate Timon, evoking a timeless and universally emotional quality which reached out tow e in the audience on so many levels. From the opening scene as a charismatic entrepreneur, evoking a softness of charm and warmth as he greets and dines his willing acquaintances, members of the elite City gatherings, to the final moments as a penniless ‘chav’, filling the air with physicality and still retaining the humorous mannerisms. The realisation of blatant sycophancy on the part of his former ‘friends’ in hindsight is played out with devastating desperation. The sheer concentrated depth of Beale’s performance as Timon was a theatrical delight, whose speaking of the verse alternated with sudden, fiery rapidity and tempered elongation, reflecting the impassioned frustration and anguish of the character.

The rest of the cast delivered brilliant performances in their respective characterisations. Hilton McRae was particularly effective as the maverick Apemantus, whose accurate foresight of judgement was played out with great skill, owing much to his considerable stage presence. Nonetheless, this was Beale’s moment of greatness, shining from his initial low-key entrance right up to the thundering applause of the standing ovation which supplemented his final bow.

Visually the production was stunning; the sets being especially excellent, Timon’s chambers and those of his elite circle were beautifully simplistic, evoking a grandness of scope, wealth and formality whilst making a statement on the vulgarities of post-modern interior design. The clinical whiteness of the elaborate void contrasted bitterly with the dark, bleak, gritty world of the underclass in which Timon finds himself residing.

And thus we were presented with a universal declaration on the nature of man and wealth, as applicable to today’s world as it was to ancient Athens, and to the Elizabethan England in which it was written.

At just two hours and twenty minutes this seemed refreshingly brief and focused for a Royal Shakespeare Company production, traditionally associated with staging the better-known and lengthier works, and

Timon of Athens was a masterpiece of British theatre; engaging, intelligent and real; just what the National do best.

Liam Elvish

August 2012

 

Proteus Creation Space - Official Launch

Pictures from the Big Launch on the 11th October, where we were officially opened by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Maria Miller, MP, and the Mayor of Basingstoke, following a speech from Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Mary Swan.

After drinks and cake (we in The Proteans were granted the privilege of cutting it!) , visitors were treated to a special open rehearsal of 'Alice in Wonderland'.

'The Merry Wives of Windsor'

http://www.proteustheatre.com/?page=NewProductionPage-1294


 Dress rehearsals going well (in spite of the ominous weather) for our Summer Shakespeare show, ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'', at The Walled Garden, Down Grange, as part of the Basingstoke Festival.
Tickets selling fast, but some still available online or via the Proteus Creation Space.

The marquee is up, the bunting is hanging, and the lights are shining for a colourful, fun-filled, musical jaunt through contemporary Windsor with Sir John Falstaff (Andy Ball) and company.

Poetry: Vatican City

The recent announcement of the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI prompted me to find this piece, which I wrote during a college trip to Rome in January 2010.

Behold, behold, archaic sites;

Eternal sweeping columns and

Adjacent arches far and wide.

These floorboards for the heavens

Jut artistically erect aside

A marble statue; and another; and another.

 

Crafted from the hands of men

Whose presence still remains

Within these Roman confines,

These superficial walls.

 

The guards, the ones who stand for order,

Receiving admiration proud;

Their blue and yellow livery

Drenched by the January sunshine.

 

Then come the governors,

The priests with their intricate capes,

Majestic swaggers, all

Ennobled with embroidered gold.

 

Figures of a higher place;

These robed men who speak the word of God

And, masked, with upheld heads and stiffened postures,

Declare themselves Divine.

 

Amongst the crowd of pourers,

Dazzled by such grandeur,

There comes a calling, a message perhaps;

Which ignorance forbids the notice of my peers.

 

A sight so stark and clear to me

That, by the push of instinct,

A deeper field of thought appears

Without consult to reason.

 

 For, in view of my still gaze I see

A pitiful beggar crouched upon the ground;

Invisible

From a world passing so swiftly through him.

 

Withered and detached, emitting

No expression, there or here

In this void of elaborate whiteness which

Would rather see him disappear.

 

Not one hand I see extended

To this homeless creature on display;

To see desperation mended,

To bring halt to this decay.

 

The governors hover vast and loud

Performances delivered timed.

Immortalised routine address;

Immortal as compassion mimed.

 

Behold, behold, archaic sites;

Casting shadows in the Winter sun.

I ask myself,

In this holiest of cities,

‘Where is God?’

For I see and I feel none.

 

 

 

(C) Liam Elvish

2010

Poetry: Ancient Distress (or A Distempered Spirit)

Ancient distress, ancient distress,

Re-awaken my weariness;

Bring up that heavy, throbbing pain,

That pressure built upon my brain.

 

Forget the smiles; laughter fades;

The misery of woe pervades.

Subdue me to the point of tears,

The bitterness of all the years,

 

And fear of happiness emerges true,

For fear of disappointment too;

And, lest the angst of shock sets in,

Prefer to wallow than joy should rise to dim.

 

Ancient distress, ancient distress

Re-awaken my weariness;

The brightness of my temper turns to rain;

The thunder beats upon the brow again.

 

 

 

(C) Liam Elvish, 2010

The Lost Etchings of William Blake : Harriet Staff : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation

The Lost Etchings of William Blake : Harriet Staff : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation