The Snail House at Hampstead Theatre

I managed to bag a discounted ticket for press night for The Snail House at Hampstead Theatre. I'd heard good things about the play by Richard Eyre. It's about Sir Neil Marriott, a public health advisor who was knighted for his work during the pandemic. The setting is him hosting a birthday party for his family and staff. The celebration takes place in his son's former school, and we see intergenerational conflicts arise regarding politics, class and climate change. We also meet Florence, a member of the catering staff, who was previously wronged by Sir Neil, and this creates a powerful and unsettling dynamic within the family.

It's a good play and very realistically presented. The topical dialogue shows complex family relationships and a generation divide. The acting is strong, and I liked the style of the piece. However, it wasn't quite as dramatic as I thought it was going to be in the second act. I was still gripped throughout, so I recommend it as worth seeing.

A note about the theatre - Hampstead Theatre is a lovely theatre with a spacious cafe and two stages. The main house is on the ground and first floors and the studio is on the lower level. Worth noting that Row M at the back of the stalls is weird. The seat is not raised so you'll likely find a head blocking your view completely. The row behind (the very back row) has raised seating and gives a much better view.

Antigone at Regent's Park Theatre

Antigone by Inua Ellams at Regents Park Open Air Theatre was tremendous tonight. It was really powerful storytelling - modern, fresh, thrilling, poetic, topical and dramatic. The writer, Inua Ellams, takes the bones of  Sophocles' original play and sets Antigone and her siblings' story in modern-day England. In doing so, he shines a light on the plight of our minority communities, how our political system can be manipulated, and how power can corrupt. 

The play uses poetry, music and movement to tell the story in between powerful dialogue between the various characters who are often at loggerheads yet manage to avoid EastEnders style shoutiness. I found it both moving and thought-provoking. This one will stay with me for some time yet. There's a lot to process. 

Recommended. Find out more about the production here.

And we managed to dodge the rain too! (I can also recommend the veggie burger and chips which I enjoyed there before the show - tasty and a decent price.)

101 Dalmations at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

A fun night out in a gorgeous setting. It's my first visit to Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and it doesn't disappoint.

Excellent singing and choreography from everyone. The story has some clever tweaks to it to accommodate modern sensibilities. The whole cast is fab and the staging makes full use of the space available.

The puppetry is very good indeed and I liked the way they had puppeteers and actors protraying Perdi and Pongo. It was skillfully done. It was also delightful to see a young cast on stage playing some of the pups. 

Cruella is brilliantly evil and her two nephews are great fun. This is a light-hearted show that also manages to shed light on topical issues like celebrity, influencer culture, and even homelessness. It's a family show by design, but there's plenty in there for adults too. 

There are great views from every seat and the seats are comfy too even though they're outside. There are several restaurant choices on site too which are not hideously expensive and a huge bar. 

Recommended.

More information about the show including photos and audio tracks https://openairtheatre.com/production/101-dalmatians

Cast

Cruella De Vil - Kate Fleetwood

Casper - Johnny Weldon

Jasper - George Bukhari

Danielle - Karen Fishwick

Dominic - Eric Stroud

Creatives

Director - Timothy Sheader

Musical Director - Tarek Merchant

Book - Johnny Knight

Stage Adaptation - Zinnie Harris

Music & Lyrics - Douglas Hodge

Why Theatre is Important

 

Theatre skills don’t just get you a job in the theatre. The things we learn through theatre can be applied to so many different career paths.

This #NCW2021, we've got free resources to help you in whichever direction you’re looking to travel https://t.co/XUalfty73p

— The Old Vic (@oldvictheatre) March 1, 2021 

I just spotted this tweet from The Old Vic and it resonates so much with me. If I had a daughter, Mrs Worthington, I'd be putting her on the stage for sure - maybe not for a lifelong career but to learn all the skills critical for a career in business that you probably won't learn at school or university.

Grease by the Swan Youth Theatre, Worcester. Publicity shot.

I joined my local youth theatre in Worcester when I was 14 and stayed for 7 years. A friend of mine was joining and she suggested I come along too. I ended up loving it even more than she did and became totally committed to the group. We had a meeting every week where we either did improvisation and role-playing or we were rehearsing for our next show. We typically did one major show a year in the main theatre as part of the summer festival and a few other smaller studio productions during the rest of the year. We also had the opportunity to audition for roles in the main theatre productions too as and when they came up. I was lucky enough to be in a few of those including The Wizard of Oz and Once a Catholic, both directed by Tony Award winner, John Doyle. I also worked with Rufus Norris and Lawrence Boswell, amongst others, who went on to do great things in the theatre. But that's beside the point. I wouldn't be who I am today without those years spent in youth theatre working with professionals and learning by doing and by example.

Thinking back to our weekly SYT meetings, the thing I remember most is all the role-playing we did. We called it improvisation but it wasn't comic improvisation as we've come to know from shows like Whose Line is it Anyway. We were put into groups and given a theme or a scenario to imagine and to create our own scene from it. We got to play other people. We got to walk a little in someone else's shoes and imagine lives and experiences very different from our own. And a major part of this was being able to think on your feet and respond quickly to whatever was thrown at you in the scene, or being able to improvise your way out of a mistake. I don't remember there being any fear about doing these scenes. It all seemed completely normal to me and it was about collaborative effort and not about one person's ego. We were free to experiment.

That collaborative effort, and learning to tune into one another, is an essential part of teamwork to this day. I think that's one of the things I miss the most about my time in youth theatre. That sense of all being in it together and having one goal of getting the show off the ground is exhilarating and brings a team together like nothing else I know. Of course, we fought and argued at times. Who doesn't? But the camaraderie and support we had back then were amazing. And it's not that dissimilar to the great vibes you can get in a start-up business. The energy is catching if you get the team and the goals right. 

I learned all my entrepreneurial skills in youth theatre. I see being an entrepreneur as someone who makes something of nothing - creates a business from the seed of an idea. And that describes what we did. Our youth theatre director would have an idea of a show and we'd pull together to make it happen. We had a head start in that we had professional directors and crew to work with. And we had access to a space in which to put on our shows but we never had much of a budget so you quickly learn to muck in and to make things happen - costumes, backstage, on stage, lighting, front of house, dressing - we did all of it. We had to market and sell the tickets too so getting PR coverage in the local press was important. after all, when you have a 300 seat theatre to fill for 5 nights, that's a lot of tickets to sell. I remember for one show, a bunch of us dressed up in costumes from Godspell and joined the carnival handing out flyers. We really shouldn't have been there, but we got away with it with sheer chutzpah. And you need a bit of chutzpah when you're starting out in business.

In doing all of this, I also absorbed (it was more osmosis than learning I think) how to put on a show so it's not a great surprise that I've ended up hosting and running events as a large part of what I do. It's a great way to connect people, to bring them together. And it's an opportunity for learning. I also learned stage techniques too - to speak well, to not be afraid of speaking in front of an audience, to think about lighting and staging, to listen for cues, to improvise, teamwork, to take direction, to think on my feet and lots more besides.

So yes, I think experience in theatre, especially as a teenager, is terrifically important whether or not you end up having a career in theatre. As someone quite famous once said, "All the world's a stage and the men and women merely players". I think he may have had a point.

Originally published on Musings of a Mobile Marketer

Heartbeat of Home at The Piccadilly Theatre

Well, this show was a little bit special. A mix of rhythmic dance styles from around the world including American Tap, Spanish Flamenco and Irish Traditional Dancing coupled with lovely storytelling all came together to create a wonderful night of entertainment. All the dancers were great, with the flamenco dancers being particularly impressive. This is one show I wouldn't hesitate to revisit. So uplifting!

Mobile phone etiquette raises its head again..

I go to the theatre a lot and inevitably, at some shows, there will be a mobile phone that starts ringing part-way through the performance. You think you've turned your phone to silent but for some reason it isn't silent. Mistakes happen. I can ignore it. It happened once to me. A phone, for whom nobody knows the number (it has a US number), started vibrating in my bag. I didn't react because I didn't think it could be my phone as no-one knows the number so who would be calling me? It turns out it was my phone and it was some spammer bulk dialling and taking a chance on the number being live.

I must admit, I don't like it when I can see someone has their phone screen on during a performance. Those screens are really bright and when you're plunged into darkness in a theatre, if you're upstairs in the Royal or Upper Circle, you can see a phone light go on straight away. It's distracting. If there were a persistent offender sitting near me, I would probably have a word with them. In the same way that I would have a word if someone was talking during a performance. I don't have to do it very often, but I do do it.

Unfortunately, calling out poor etiquette can have consequences. Just last week, The Stage reports that there was an incident at The Old Vic in London. Adam Gale, a theatre producer from New York witnessed a woman using her mobile phone throughout the first half of a performance of A Christmas Carol and asked her to stop using it. I think that's fair enough. I would probably do the same in the same circumstances. Unfortunately for Adam, during the interval, the woman's partner punched Mr Gale and the couple left the theatre. The theatre confirmed that there had been an altercation between three people over a mobile phone.

It's not the first time I've read of tempers fraying in a theatre over the use of a mobile phone. Arguably, it's something that ushers should be dealing with more promptly. However, ushers are not particularly well paid and they're generally young people and potentially may be reticent to intervene in case it causes aggravation.

Some are calling for a zero tolerance policy for mobile phones in the theatre. In China, they use lasers to shame patrons using their mobile phones during a performance. Numerous examples of actors calling theatre-goers out when their phone rings or they can see the light from a mobile screen are noted here. Back in 2015, Benedict Cumberbatch made an impassioned plea to the audience about restricting their use of their phones to outside of the performance. The problem persists.

And there will be some cases where it's important for someone to be able to access their phone during a performance - a doctor on call, for example. Or, as I experienced this week, there was a reviewer taking notes about the performance I was watching and using his phone as a torch. He was using it as subtly as possible with the screen turned towards the page and we were both at the back so unlikely to distract anyone much. Once I could see what he was doing, I put it out of my mind. In both instances, I would ask in that people turn their screen brightness right down. It helps a bit.

Meanwhile, theatre desperately needs publicity about shows and performances that are best shared via mobile devices. They need the tweets, Facebook statuses and Instagram photos so that the word gets out about the show. Yet, theatres can be very tough with theatre goers about taking a photo of the stage on arrival, for example if you're checking in to Swarm or Facebook. That seems to me to be over-zealous. There's a big difference between a pre-show selfie and a mid-show recording.

Occasionally with shows, the audience is encouraged to get their phones out and take photos and video. They do this at the end of School of Rock and it's a touch of genius. It's at a point in the story where it feels most like a rock concert and phones are most definitely part and parcel of a rock concert. The genius part of it though is that the audience take hundreds of amazing action shots of the show and immediately share them with their friends and family telling them how fantastic the show is. (And it really is a fantastic show).

So there's a time and a place. And there's awareness of how your behaviour may affect others experience. And there's downright selfishness.

Zero tolerance is not the answer. You really don't know the reason someone has their phone on. There might be a valid reason. And there will always be fellow theatregoers who munch or talk their way through a show. I dunno. Maybe some relaxation of photography rules pre and post show coupled with a firmer stance from (trained) ushers during a show may pay dividends.

And let's not mention the annoying lights from a smartwatch or Fitbit...

Cross posted from Musings of a Mobile Marketer

McQueen at Theatre Royal, Haymarket

This dark play by James Phillips is beautifully done and is an interesting mix of spectacle, drama and dance. I particularly loved the choreography and the setting in Theatre Royal, Haymarket is apposite and adds to the glitz of the piece and gives it a better setting than its previous iteration at the St James' Theatre. However, it's not without flaws.

The play itself is an homage to McQueen, perhaps one might call it a hagiography. We don't get much insight into how he worked or who he was as an individual and that's an oversight. Stephen Wight is great as McQueen but is not given enough to work with.  We also don't see nearly enough of his specific designs, which is a shame. And yes, it's style over substance but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Maybe this is one for the fashionistas.

More about the play on Wikipedia.