Tuesday 26 June 2018

Theatre Review - THIS IS ELVIS - DARLINGTON HIPPODROME





This could be as close as you could ever get to seeing Elvis on stage, Steve Michaels is an international award-winning tribute artist who has played alongside Elvis’ iconic bandmates, including D J Fontana and Jerry Scheff. He is about the best you can get so it is obvious why he was chosen for this new musical from Bill Kenwright.

With 40 tracks crammed into the show there is little space left for a story, which is why the story only focuses on a small part of his life. Act One opens in the NBC Studios just before the famous Comeback Special broadcast in 1969 and it ends at The Showroom of the International Hotel, Las Vegas.



During the first act we see the insecure side of Elvis, he is avoiding calls from Priscilla, keeping away from his manager and feels that he may have had his day it would help if he had a Liverpudlian accent. The musical highlight for me during the first act was Bridge Over Troubled Water.

The second act is just pure music from start to finish with some great hits including In The Ghetto, Burning Love, Suspicious Minds and Jailhouse Rock. The audience loved it especially two audience members who spent most of the second act dancing discreetly at the side of the auditorium. At one point he truly became Elvis. It was just a shame that many other audience members felt it was acceptable to talk loudly or use mobiles to film or photograph part of the show.

For me this is not a musical in the way we think of musicals, as the story wasn’t the strongest element, the music however, thanks to Elvis and Steve Michaels, makes it an enjoyable nights entertainment.

Theatre Review - TWO BY BECKETT - FOOTFALLS and KRAPP'S LAST TAPE

The Irish playwright Samuel Beckett is not for the fainthearted. Works from his later period where he dispenses with realism and plot can be particularly challenging for both theatre makers and audience members. Indeed, his most popular play, Waiting For Godot, is a play in which nothing happens.



Two By Beckett, performed by the Elysium Theatre Company and directed by Jake Murray as part of Durham Festival of the Arts, is a double bill of Footfalls (1976) and Krapp’s Last Tape (1958). Both are minimalist one-act plays from Beckett’s late and middle period respectively; together they are poetic meditations on love, loss, longing and memory.

Footfalls is in four acts, each separated by a single bell. The play features May (Felicity Dean), wrapped in tatters, pacing back and forth like a metronome, on a strip of bare landing while engaging in conversation with the disembodied voice of her dying – or dead? – mother (Karren Winchester). May paces ever more slowly as the play progresses, and the light dims so that by the fourth and final scene there is no trace of her.



Beckett was exacting about how he wanted his plays performed and his detailed stage directions, with attention to pauses, silences, slowness and lighting, are as important as the actual words. The text is minimal and stark, and just like the text, the set also conveys this starkness – a strip of board at the front of the stage lit from each end.

Beckett’s text is extremely precise and performing his work well requires an accomplished actor with technical mastery. Felicity Dean delivers this excellently, maintaining the precise physical beat of the scene with her feet, and producing detailed vocal changes. No matter what you think of the actual play, she is completely mesmerising.



Krapp’s Last Tape could be described as self-reflection by tape recorder. Each year on his birthday Krapp, a writer, listens to recordings he made years ago and reflects on his past life before starting a new recording about his present self. His younger self is idealistic and hopeful, if a little arrogant, whereas the older man is more cynical and critical of his youth.

Krapp sits at an old wooden desk surrounded by cardboard boxes full of tapes, lit by naked light bulbs; a drinks trolley lurks in darkness at the rear of the stage. There’s a little comedy with a couple of bananas at the start of the show but the mood soon turns reflective.

There’s not a lot for the present Krapp to say in this play and the characterisation is in how the actor chooses to portray Krapp’s responses and gestures. Krapp was played by Edmund Dehn who revealed a bitter and belligerent old man, angry about the pomposity of his youth and the choices he made. Along with angry regret, he successfully caught Krapp’s gentler side particularly when listening to his younger self describe a romantic day with a woman in a punt, visibly reliving the memory. 

Krapp’s Last Tape is the more accessible of these two plays, coming at the start of Beckett’s minimal period, however it was perhaps less engaging than the more abstract and mesmerising Footfalls

Ultimately this is a thought provoking evening offering the theatregoer much for discussion. It’s certainly a welcome change from some of the more mainstream theatre that can dominate the region.

Dance / Theatre Preview - TRAPPED at KILLHOPE MINE




PRESENT
‘TRAPPED’
the dramatic underground dance/theatre show
June 28th 29th 30th at Killhope Mine, Co. Durham www.killhope.org.uk
4 shows per day.  Tickets £12 from: 01388 537 505




TRAPPED is a unique dance/physical theatre show performed entirely underground by Experiential Dance Company at caverns and mines around the UK.  The show next performs at Killhope Mine in Co. Durham on June 28th, 29th and 30th; there will be four shows a day and limited capacity of 15 audience members per show.  Wellies, underground lighting and guides will be provided!

TRAPPED was created by Experiential Dance Company’s Artistic Director, Rachel Johnson.  It’s performed by a highly trained physical theatre cast: Joseph Delaney, Luke Rigg, and Alex Rowland.  The original music is by composer/singer Hayley Youell, with filmed footage created by Rachel Johnson.

TRAPPED was inspired by the true story of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped miles underground for 69 days in 2010 when the San Jose copper goldmine in northern Chile collapsed on top of them.  A massive international rescue operation was watched on TV by millions of people around the world as the miners were eventually winched to safety.



Says Artistic Director Rachel Johnson (right): “In addition to the breathtaking TV coverage, I read the book ‘Deep Down Dark’ by the Pulitzer prize winning journalist Hector Tobar.  It captures this unique drama so vividly; from the conflicts and the emotions that enveloped the men during their first fortnight underground when death by starvation loomed, to the subsequent weeks when they managed to make contact with the outside world. 
“We’ve designed miniature lighting rigs which sit on the front of the hard hats worn by each member of the audience; they go on a journey with the performers, imagining a tiny shred of what it must have been like for the San Jose miners.
“For the shows at Killhope Mine we’re partnering with Northern Heartlands who share our passion for County Durham’s beautiful landscapes and the belief they are the perfect setting for telling an inspirational story.  We’re working with Northern Heartlands to deliver filmmaking workshops to create a film that can be viewed before TRAPPED is performed at each show. 
We’ll also be handing out wellies!”




Audience reactions:
 “It was unlike anything I’ve experienced before!  Inspirational, thought provoking; a fascinating insight into the power of human behaviour.”
“It was great being up close and personal so we could see the facial expressions of the performers.”
“I felt really immersed in the miners’ world, getting a tiny insight into what they must have gone through.  It was eerie and amazing at the same time.”
“I loved wearing a miner’s light and being part of the show – the performers do a cracking job of combining the miners’ camaraderie with the desperate struggle to escape their situation.”
“Very atmospheric – I was able to imagine what the miners felt when they finally saw daylight.”








Sunday 24 June 2018

Theatre Preview - THIS IS ELVIS - DARLINGTON HIPPODROME


DARLINGTON... ELVIS IS IN THE BUILDING




Darlington Hippodrome is set to get all shook up later this month when This is Elvis - Burbank and Vegas hits the stage for one week only from Monday 25 to Saturday 30 June.

This is Elvis – Burbank and Vegas celebrates 83 years since Elvis’ birth and marks 50 years since his televised ‘Special’ aired on NBC Television, which later came to be known as his ’68 Comeback Special. The musical follows the true story of this very pivotal period in Elvis’ life and career, charting his journey back to stardom and his return to success as a stage performer.

It’s 1968 - the major musical event of the year was the first live TV special for Elvis Presley, drawing phenomenal ratings and almost half of the viewing audience. This event re-established Elvis as the major entertainment star of the decade, and twelve months later Elvis stars at the International Hotel in Vegas, performing live for the first time in seven years, securing his place in history as the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll!

Direct from the USA, internationally renowned and award-winning tribute artist and actor Steve Michaels will star as ‘The King’. Steve Michaels has an incredible likeness to Elvis, from his outstanding voice, hair, side burns, piercing eyes and even his mannerisms have garnered him extraordinary global success.

Steve Michaels’ masterful performance and remarkable renditions of the King have garnered him worldwide attention. Steve’s exquisite styling and ability to successfully capture an authentic portrayal of Elvis Presley has endeared him to audiences everywhere across Canada, United States, India, Thailand, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Philippines and Australia.

This is Elvis recreates all the drama leading up to the comeback as well as staging the monumental concert. It then proceeds with The King to his Vegas debut. Featuring Elvis’s greatest hits including Trouble, Heartbreak Hotel, Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog, Love Me Tender, All Shook Up, Jailhouse Rock, One Night, It’s Now or Never, Are you Lonesome Tonight?, Can’t Help Falling in Love, In The Ghetto, Suspicious Minds, American Trilogy, Just Can’t Help Believing to name but a few.

This Is Elvis runs at Darlington Hippodrome from Monday 25 to Saturday 30 June.

To book call 01325 405405 or visit www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk