BREVIEW: Fantasia – Rosie Kay Dance Company @ The Patrick Studio 25.09.19

Words by Charlotte Heap / Pics courtesy of Rosie Kay Dance Company

What is it that makes dance beautiful to watch? The choreography, the costumes, the lighting, the music?

Rosie Kay’s Dance Company’s new show, Fantasia, which premiered at Birmingham Hippodrome’s Patrick Studio on 25th September, promised to use art and science to ‘make a work of pure joy.’

Rosie Kay Dance Company is a West Midlands based organisation headed by the eponymous Rosie Kay, a Birmingham Hippodrome Associate, and established in 2004. The company has a number of acclaimed productions in its repertoire, including MK Ultra, (which I’ve reviewed during its original run in 2017 and after its revamp in 2018), The Wild Party, Supernova and 5 Soldiers – the latter of which was performed in a real barracks. More recently, Kay was a Commonwealth Games Handover Ceremony choreographer.

Rosie Kay has developed a reputation for developing shows which challenge the audience on complex issues, without compromising on the dance experience. In researching for her new piece, Fantasia, Kay worked with neuroscientists at Denmark’s Center for Music in the Brain to explore how dance can trigger pleasure and fulfilment in the cerebrum. Kay fine-tuned her choreography for Fantasia, using this knowledge, in an attempt maximise the audience experience.

Fantasia is a performance in three parts: three female dancers explore emotions, from love to loss, through linked group and solo dances representing the sun, the moon and the earth. Composer Annie Mahtani and Kay worked with familiar pieces including Purcell, Beethoven and Bach for the show, delivering a clever contrast between classical music and modern choreography.

Dancers Shanelle Clemenson, Harriet Ellis, and Carina Howard were, at times, breath-taking: performing barefoot ballet with power, athleticism and raw emotion. The composition coupled with the intimacy of The Patrick Studio meant we could hear the dancers breathe emotional exhalations, a deliberate choice by Mahtani and Kay which added to the immersive feel of Fantasia.

The most joyful moments were enhanced by clever staging; Louis Price and Sasha Kier brought the tutu back, but exaggerated the form and added tribal prints. Under the bright light of the ‘sun’, the pirouetting dancers resembled spinning parasols on a windswept beach.

Fully-fringed silver catsuits swished and shone hypnotically in the ‘moonlight’, although a nitpicker may say that the costume change here was a few seconds too long – an empty, unlit stage does not spark joy. It was for the merest of moments, however, and Mike Gunning (Lighting Director) otherwise created dreamy reflections and shadows on the studio stage, replicating and twisting the dancers’ moves like a hall of mirrors.

The dancers weaved through a range of feelings for the audience; modern moves, frantic and frenetic, confronted us and induced discomfort as well as delight. Irreverence in dance may not please the purist – but some endearing and even cheeky moments (literally, as each dancer playfully lifts their dress to flash their bottom during the final act) brought levity and laughter from this opening night audience. Occasionally, a size disparity between the dancers caused synchronicity to slip and this dampened the fantasy – but only slightly.

Fantasia sets out to be ‘an exquisite performance of pleasure, beauty and finesse’, subverting conventional ballet to reach the audience scientifically as well aesthetically. Kay has used her signature innovation to bring ballet into the 21st century’; Fantasia isn’t pure joy but more a reminder of the scope of human emotion, and that in itself is joyful to watch.

Fantasia – Rosie Kay Dance Company

Rosie Kay Dance Company is currently touring Fantasia across the UK, running until 21st November. For more on Fantasia, visit www.rosiekay.co.uk/project/fantasia

For more from the Rosie Kay Dance Company, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.rosiekay.co.uk

For more on the Birmingham Hippodrome and The Patrick Studio, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com/about-us/the-patrick-studio

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NOT NORMAL NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To learn more about the NOT NORMAL NOT OK campaign, click here. To sign up and join the NOT NORMAL NOT OK campaign, click here.

If you have been affected by any of the issues surrounding sexual violence – or if you want to report an act of sexual aggression, abuse or assault – click here for information via the ‘Help & Support’ page on the NOT NORMAL NOT OK website.

BPREVIEW: Pepperland @ Birmingham Hippodrome 26-27.03.19

Words by Helen Knott / Production pics by Mat Hayward

Choreographer Mark Morris presents Pepperland, his take on The Beatle’s classic album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, at Birmingham Hippodrome on 26th and 27th March.

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Tickets are £15-£29.50 (concessions are available) from Birmingham Hippodrome’s website. For direct show information, including venue details and links to online ticket sales, click here.

Pepperland premiered in Liverpool back in 2017, as part of a festival marking the 50th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper. Since then, Mark Morris Dance Company has performed the show around the world. It has picked up glowing reviews wherever it goes, with The Telegraph awarding it five stars and gushing that it’s a ‘truly joyous, celebratory work of art… a brilliant homage to one of the great rock albums’.

Indeed, it’s a tough ask to pay ‘homage’ to one of the best-loved albums of all time, while presenting a fresh take on something that is so familiar to so many of us. And Sgt. Pepper is a notoriously eclectic album, juxtaposing songs influenced by India with twee pop and with the pioneering techniques of album closer ‘A Day in the Life’. Some unpicking and careful thought is needed to make a cohesive piece of dance based on these raw materials.

It’s a challenge that Mark Morris, a choreographer often praised for his musicality, is uniquely placed to rise to. The New York Times describes Morris as ‘the most successful and influential choreographer alive, and indisputably the most musical’, and his long and varied career has seen him choreograph work in a wide range of different styles, including ballet, contemporary and even to accompany country and western music. Morris is an innovative, and sometimes even controversial, figure.

In Pepperland, instead of taking the seemingly straightforward route of creating a piece of dance to accompany the original Beatles tracks, Morris works with long-time collaborator Ethan Iverson to create a score inspired by the album. So, you’ll hear a group of live musicians play new arrangements of songs from the record – including ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’, ‘A Day in the Life’, ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’, ‘Within You Without You’, and ‘Penny Lane’, mixed with some original compositions inspired by the album.

If the glowing reviews are to be believed, Pepperland is set to be a joyful, fun celebration of one of The Beatles’ best albums. How exactly will this masterwork of 1960’s pop spark the imagination of one of the best choreographers of our generation? Birmingham will get it’s chance to find out on at the Hippodrome on the 26th and 27th March.

Pepperland runs the Birmingham Hippodrome on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th March. For more information, including venue details and links to online ticket sales, visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/pepperland

For more on Mark Morris Dance Company and Pepperland, visit www.markmorrisdancegroup.org/the-dance-group/works/2018-2019-Season/Pepperland

For more from Birmingham Hippodrome, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To learn more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK campaign, click here. To sign up and join the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK campaign, click here.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this feature – or if you want to report an act of sexual aggression, abuse, or assault – click here for information via the ‘Help & Support’ page on the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK website.

BREVIEW: The Full Monty @ Hippodrome until 10.11.18

BREVIEW: The Full Monty @ Hippodrome until 10.11.18

Words by Ed King / Promo pic by Matt Crokett, production pics courtesy of the Hippodrome

The Full Monty – an expression born from a Field Marshal’s penchant for a hearty English breakfast, but one that has come to signify ‘the works’. To leave nothing out; to include everything. To bare all. But etymology be damned, the Hippodrome’s audience tonight have come for a show. And flesh. Make no mistake about that.

Simon Beaufoy’s screen play was the ‘sleeper hit’ of 1997, directed by Peter Cattaneo, balancing the depression of a disenfranchised unemployed – in this case those left to rot after the closure of the Sheffield steel mills – with the repressed comedy of proud alpha males subjugating themselves for cash. Cue the probing eye of defensive superiority, comradeship, the class stratification table, feminism by proxy, male pride, and the shadows of Thatcher’s Britain. Or what’s left of it. Or what’s left of any of them. But the film’s narrative struck such a successful balance that it made Beaufoy’s script a silver screen smash. A £200million smash. And that’s hard to ignore.

The inevitable stage show was, well, inevitable. But The Full Monty, despite being an on paper paint by numbers success, has not had the easiest time on stage – with the 2013/14 production pulled by its producers, and the current 2018/19 billed as its last. Seems an odd way to milk a potential cash cow, but I’m far from being Cameron Mackintosh.

We open with a spot lit TV playing appraisals about the ‘jobs for life’ offered by Sheffield’s steel mills, an economy we now know proved to be false. The stage is set as per the inside of the now derelict steel mill where our male protagonists used to work, from crane operator to canteen staff, and continues with this backdrop until the final razzle dazzle.

Our introduction is a comedy of errors, as our central character Gaz (Gary Lucy) and the man behind the male striptease idea, is joined by Dave (Kai Owen) his jokingly henpecked best friend, as the pair try to steal some steel from their previous place of employment.BREVIEW: The Full Monty @ Hippodrome until 10.11.18 Gaz’s son, Nathan, is along for the ride – bringing in an important, but somewhat under developed, subplot of parental responsibility.

The northern accents are a little think and the script a little thin, as we are reminded of the desperate times that were left in the wake of the steel mill closures of the 1980’s. For what it is, it’s delivered well – with confident performances from all characters and ages. And somebody somewhere really wants this to be ‘authentic’.

But the promise of gritty social commentary meets the humour of human endeavor, wrapped up in the comradeship of combined struggle, falls a little short. The odd scene under a neon signed ‘Job Club’ doesn’t sum up the communities ripped apart by Sir Ian MacGregor’s scythe wielding approach to the steel industry, and nor should it. Likewise, when the troubled Lomper (Joe Gill) sees his only option hanging at the end of a rope we get a well delivered run down of alternatives from Dave and Gaz – “have you thought about shooting yourself in the head?” – in a scene that makes me laugh out loud, but perhaps a little too much.

The rest of the first half moves through the plot points of a script that arguably relies on its audience already knowing its outcome, drip feeding both the idea of male stripping as a source of quick cash and the men who eventually disrobe for the grand finale – each replete with nickname, back story, and for want of a better expression their unique selling point.

There are with some noticeable steps up on stage once Gerald (Andrew Dunn) and Horse (Louis Emerick) get their teeth sunk in, and as the ensemble grows so does the camaraderie between the cast. But whilst each actor is confident throughout, and increasingly believable, the script jumps from serious to silly without allowing either side to fully breathe.

BREVIEW: The Full Monty @ Hippodrome until 10.11.18Shock value is a heavy attribute too, as women wee standing up and a pantomime penis brings the interval curtain down, leaving the midway audience engaged but unchallenged. The Full Monty brochure has a double page spread on ‘The Changing Landscape – a time line of British politics’, alongside a repeated ‘back to its Sheffield roots’ mantra from the promotional rhetoric, but not too much would have been lost so far if the story was still set in Buffalo.

The second act opens with the fledgling troupe rehearing their dancing, from the fumbling first attempts to the simple stripteases that sees each actor undress. Wolf whistles and cat calls surround our poster boys in the buff, but soon enough the audience is whooping at every man on stage.

It is here that the magic of this show, the latest run of a production that has danced these steps a few times before, begins to work itself through the theatre. We care. And not just about the nakedness of the men on stage, but for the vulnerability and fight that they begin to represent. The audience ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ and Gaz explains the love for his son, we applaud and laugh as Guy and Lomper address their sexuality, and we stand silent in solidarity as Dave confesses his body dysmorphia.

As we rush to the final curtain, both ours and theirs, there is – to end on an adage – a lot of love in the room. This is down to the actors, who could have been given about 20mins more dialogue to help them shape their characters but who play their cards with increasing aplomb.

And by the time we are finally given The Full Monty, the applause comes from an honest desire to see everyone on stage succeed as opposed to what’s under their hat. Birmingham’s opening night closes to a well deserved standing ovation, for a production I suspect will get better and better on as it’s final run progresses. It’s just a shame it will eventually close for good. But as the play’s premise declares many things have to, or are forced to, and who knows what we’ll see next from this very capable cast.

The Full Monty – 2018/19 UK production

The Full Monty runs at the Birmingham Hippodrome from until Saturday 10th November, For direct show information, including venue details and full online ticket sales, visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/the-full-monty-2018

For more on The Full Monty 2018/19 UK production, visit www.fullmontytheplay.com 

For more from the Birmingham Hippodrome, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

BPREVIEW: The Full Monty @ Hippodrome 05-10.11.18

BPREVIEW: The Full Monty @ Hippodrome 05-10.11.18

Words by Ed King / Promo pic by Matt Crokett, production pics courtesy of the Hippodrome

Running from Monday 5th to Saturday 10th November, The Full Monty comes to the Birmingham Hippodrome. Simon Beaufoy’s screen to stage adaptation is out on tour for the final time, playing at theatres across the UK until May 2019.

Tickets are priced from £18-92.50, depending on the day/time of performance and position in the theatre. For direct information, including venue details and full online ticket sales, click here. For full details of The Full Monty’s final UK tour, click here.

Best known for the smash ‘sleeper hit’ film, released in 1997, Simon Beaufoy’s story of Sheffield steelworkers turned striptease troupe has been a phenomenal success – the original cinematic release cost under £3million to produce, a relatively small amount for the big screen, and went on to gross around £200million in worldwide sales.

Beaufoy first adapted his screenplay for the stage back in 2012, premiering at Shefffield’s Lyceum Theatre in February the following year. The Full Monty went on to tour theatres across the UK, before being picked up and adapted for a North American audience – exchanging the Sheffield background for Buffalo in upstate New York.

Now back to its North England roots, The Full Monty is once again being toured across the UK – following the ill-fated West End run, somewhat dramatic (if you’ll excuse the pun) cancellation, and subsequent rebirth in 2014.

Gary Lucy returns as Gaz, having played the role since September 2014, and is joined by clothes removing cast members including Andrew Dunn as Gerald, Louis Emerick as Horse, Joe Gill as Lomper, Kai Owen as Dave, and James Redmond as Guy.

Fully dressed, The Full Monty also presents Liz Carney as Jean, Amy Thompson as Mandy, Bryonie Pritchard as Linda, and Keeley Fitzgerald as Sharon. Other cast members include Andrew Ashford, Stephen Donald, Alex Frost, Fraser Kelly. and Lee Toomes.

The 2018/19 production is directed by Rupert Hill, who previous played the on stage role of Guy in the 2014/15 run of The Full Monty.

Further crew credits include design by Robert Jones (National Theatre and RSC), choreography by Ian West (The Blues Brothers, The Play What I Wrote), lighting by Colin Grenfell (theatre award winner for Blackwatch) and sound by Luke Swaffield (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime).

The Full Monty – 2018/19 UK production

The Full Monty runs at the Birmingham Hippodrome from Monday 5th to Saturday 10th November, For direct show information, including venue details and full online ticket sales, visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/the-full-monty-2018

For more on The Full Monty 2018/19 UK production, visit www.fullmontytheplay.com 

For more from the Birmingham Hippodrome, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

BREVIEW: Evita @ Birmingham Hippodrome until 24.03.18

 Madalena Alberto as 'Evita' and Jeremy Secomb as 'Juan Perón' / Pamela Raith Photography

Words by Eleanor Sutcliffe / Production shots by Pamela Raith

I adore Birmingham Hippodrome. Granted, I’m not the most well-versed theatre critic, however there is something rather decadent about settling yourselves into the plush red seats ready to absorb an hour or three of theatrical roguery.

Hurling ourselves into the world of 1940s Argentinean politics, it is the opening night for Evita – the long running musical written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, that focuses on the life and untimely death of Argentinean political and social icon Eva Perón.

Church pillars and weeping mourners set the scene as Eva Perón’s casket is brought onto the stage. It is during this opening sequence that we meet the three key performers for the evening. Che, played by Gian Marco Schiaretti, is our narrator; sporting a black flat cap, he ponders the true motives behind Evita’s charity and her rise from poverty to political aristocracy. Next is her husband, Juan Perón, who is brought to life with military precision by Jeremy Secomb.

Gian Marco Schiaretti as 'Che', Madalena Alberto as 'Evita', Jeremy Secomb as 'Juan Perón' / Pamela Raith PhotographyAnd finally, silhouetted against a portrait donning the church walls, is Evita herself. Madalena Alberto has had plenty of practice in this role since her critically acclaimed performance in the West End revival of Evita back in 2014, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. As the lead role, Alberto is simply captivating throughout the entire production – from the sprightly 15 year old who runs away with tango singer Agustín Magaldi to Buenos Aires, to the blonde, sophisticated flame of Juan Perón, her impeccable acting skills pay tribute to the late First Lady with class and demeanour I could only wish to have.

The first half shows Evita’s lust for power, as she slowly makes her way to the top of the social ladder in Buenos Aires. At a time where sexual promiscuity was considered sinful and wretched, watching Evita manipulate various lovers to obtain social power was truly entertaining, especially when coupled with the song ‘Goodnight and Thank You’.

Chorus and Gian Marco Schiaretti as 'Che' / Pamela Raith PhotographyThis rise to stardom results in her colliding with Juan Perón at a charity concert, and after seducing him with the promise of becoming an asset to his career they soon become an item. The stage glides to and fro as balconies are pushed forwards and backwards for different scenes, from the staging of a military coup using musical chairs during ‘The Art of the Possible’ to the energetic choreography of ‘Eva, Beware of the City’, the cast make use of every inch of the Hippodrome stage with minimal props.

Following an interval (and a glass or two of wine) we returned to the reveal of Juan Perón’s successful election as Prime Minister, with Evita delivering a powerful speech as the First Lady bedecked in a glittering white ball gown. The second half passes in the blink of an eye, as we witness Evita embark on her renowned ‘Rainbow Tour’ of Europe without her husband, and her resulting ill health. Despite this, she seemingly perseveres with her saintly actions, setting up a charity and literally showering her supporters with money.

This is where Che truly comes into form – stripping back the glamour that Evita covers herself with, he reveals a woman spurned by political aristocracy who has carefully moulded the Argentinean people into supporters for her husband. Sombre and lonely, he narrates Evita’s life as she tirelessly works to prove herself as a saint not only to Juan Perón and her critics, but to the people of the world. The scenes surrounding her demise and following death are truly heart wrenching – the performances given by both Secomb and Alberto are harrowingly beautiful as Evita laments for the life she could have lived, had she not pursued fame and glory.

True, the production is somewhat lacking in what my mother would describe as ‘fancy stuff’. But that is the beauty of a theatrical piece such as Evita – it simply is not needed. Props and lights could never replace what this cast deliver, which is a highly emotionally performance guaranteed to resonate, to some extent at least, with anyone who is lucky enough to see it.

Evita runs at the Birmingham Hippodrome until Saturday 24th March. For direct show information, including a full breakdown of dates, times and online ticket purchasing, visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com/calendar/evita

For more on the Birmingham Hippodrome, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com