The fenlands of East Anglia are an unsettling area. The vast expanse of big skies and dark earth seeming somewhat unnatural to visitors. It’s an area that has undergone considerable change as man drained the land to create some of the most fertile land in the country. Dan Canham and Silent House have used interviews…
To begin at the beginning, so starts Dylan Thomas’s epic narrative poem Under Milk Wood, detailing 24 hours in the life of a small, fictional fishing village. It’s also an appropriate line in which to kick off Ipswich’s 12th Pulse Fringe Festival. Bristol-based poet Jack Dean has updated Thomas’s epic poem to his home city….
One of the pleasures of festival going is spending time beforehand perusing the line-up and picking out those events that you just can’t miss. Of course if you are reviewing it becomes a bit more complicated and you’re not really supposed to have favourites, however, some bits of marketing blurb just jump out at you….
You have you actors, you have your script, the costumes and set are ready, and the props are all sorted. All systems go then for your first performance? Forgotten anything? It may seem a simple thing but what about a cast list? How will people know what your show is about and, more importantly, who…
In a central Peterborough park people come and go. A man offering children sweets, children playing, a bride on her wedding day, fathers, daughters, joggers – all human life is here. Nicola Werenowska’s latest play, Standpoint, looks at the impact a chance encounter between two of these transient visitors to the park has on each…
The road to freedom is never easy; despite the best of intentions, there is always going to be setbacks. When you’re just 24, trying to follow in your father’s illustrious footsteps, and have the expectations of a nation on your shoulders, the road is going to be even more difficult. For Charles Edward Louis John…
Five dinner guests, hidden agendas, brutal honesty and what could easily be the dinner party from hell – no, not TVs Come Dine With Me but Future Ruins’ Exterminating Angel. It is difficult to write a definitive review for this piece as, within a pre-defined structure, the actors are free to improvise the dialogue. It…
Life is a Cabaret old chum, come to the Cabaret. Sally Bowles has never been to a Cabaret quite like Cabaret Whore though. Four of Cabaret’s most celebrated divas have been brought together on one bill to celebrate the splendours of the art form. Each has their own unique take on Cabaret, each desperately trying…
Lights, camera, action. Everyone loves the movie business but what happens when you have over run your budget and schedule, a rival producer is poaching your cast, the actors are fighting and/or drunk and the neighbours are shooting at you. For director Okafor, this is all part of daily life working in Nollywood, the Nigerian…
A show that is improvised from scratch each night is virtually impossible to review. The show on any given night will be so different that comparative notes seem irrelevant. One can, however, look at the concept, construction and ability of such a piece to entertain. Made Up, to mis-use the catchphrase of a well know…
Some of the most surprising journeys turn out to be the most fulfilling, and although the yellow VW camper van parked in front of the New Wolsey Theatre doesn’t leave the site, in Laura Mugride’s Running On Air audiences are taken on a journey of self discovery and immense charm. The camper van is both…
The morning after the night before. That moment when you try to remember who you are, where you are and, more worryingly, what exactly did you get up to the previous night? Party Piece, a first work by the New Wolsey Theatre Young Associates, a group of young people actively seeking a career in the…
In an age when family tree research has become a hobby of choice for thousands, are we able to connect all those names and dates for our ancestors with the historical context of the time? The past is never dead. It’s not even past – so quoted poet William Faulkner but, for many people, researching…
One man, a table, a chair and an audience gathered round to hear to separate stories, loosely linked by a theme of air crashes. Part literary reading, part performance poetry, Chris Thorpe’s High Speed Impact Test Number One, may just put you off flying for life. The intimate setting makes for a real connection between…
Leaving Only A Trace is a vivid performance that combines traditional Southern-Indian dance and music with a powerful premise. A young British Asian man, portrayed by Shane Shambhu, must leave behind his home and cultural heritage to seek a new life. In a world where cultures increasingly combine, it’s certainly topical ground. Bringing traditional dance…
The senses are powerful and infinite: that is the message given by Deaf Men Dancing’s latest performance, Sense of Freedom. This is apparent from the moment the performance begins. Without a prop in sight, we are hit with a quick succession of fluid routines set to the Pet Shop Boys version of ‘You Were Always…
Four writers, four plays, eight actors, four directors all in less than an hour. Authors have been challenged to create a play than runs shorter than most intervals in an average play. Not an easy task but the premise of Soho Shorts, collaboration between the Pulse Fringe Festival and the Soho Theatre. The teams have…
The 11th annual Pulse Fringe Festival is now well underway and, as we approach the middle weekend, it’s a good opportunity to reflect on the first week. During week one, 24 different productions encompassing dance, drama, comedy, and film took place across the Ipswich in a multitude of locations. Some were polished, finished work, others…
A shock title for a play can is usually a portent of unsatisfying things to come. It’s often as though the writer is over-compensating for a lack of substance within by packaging the piece in attention-robbing expletives. Is this the case for Greg McLaren’s Doris Day Can F*ck Off? Perhaps not – it’s clear that…
There’s an ethical problem posed at the start of Matt Ball’s one man show, Roy’s Wallet. Although the show looks at his grandfather’s life and memory. At 89, Roy’s memories are beginning to fade and he doesn’t know his grandson is doing this show. Ball plants the question in the audience’s mind asking is it…
There is always a quandary in reviewing shows in how much of the plot to give away. You need to give enough flavour of the piece without spoiling any plot twists or devices for future audiences. Holly Bodmer and Dot Howard’s Would Be Nice Though gives the critic even more of a headache. The entire…
In the Second World War, loved ones waited nervously at home, waiting weeks, months, or even years for news of their soldier’s fate while fighting overseas. Now in the digital age news reaches those families almost instantaneously. Email, text, Skype, blogs and mobile phones bridge the gap to home but is such immediate contact always…
Forget all your troubles, forget all you cares and go Downtown. So encourages Petula Clark in her seminal 1965 smash hit. If you go down to the New Wolsey Theatre for Paul T. Davies’ new play of the same name, however, you’re not going to get an ode to New York but rather a clumsy…
After the lights dim and the audience leaves what remains? In a deserted auditorium a ghostly singer, a musician and a solitary audience member run through one final cabaret performance, a performance that is likely to replay through eternity. In Empire, François Testory creates a dark, shadow world where the boundaries between reality and make…
In this age of super injunctions, the issue of privacy and what we actually know about celebrities and each other has renewed impetus. How do we really get to know someone? From their public image? From what we read or perhaps nowadays a radical approach – actually talking to them. The Others by Paper Birds…
Paris, the city of love. Scenes of countless romantic encounters, dreams, and even the odd broken heart. The city also represents a spirit of hope, never more in evidence during the darkest hours of the Second World War. Its 1945 and Christianne, a young Parisian girl is waiting at the Gare du Nord trying to…
What defines a life? At the end of our days what do we leave behind? What happens to those possessions when we die? Fifteen years ago Chris Dugrenier arrived in the UK. Now in her new one woman show Wealth’s Last Caprice, reflecting on composing her last Will and Testament, she decides to identify her…
In any conflict there are always forgotten victims. While military and civilian deaths and injuries make the news, the longer lasting effects on survivors often remain overlooked. Silent Shout’s first production, A Dream From A Bombshell, takes a look at the impact of the Vietnam War on its civilian population. The War has of course…
Space travel and loneliness are already becoming front runners for favoured themes for this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival. Hard on the heels of Captain KO and the Planet of Rice, comes another early work in progress, Escape Velocity (bye bye bye) by Barometric. The same dilemmas from the earlier show apply in reviewing a work…
Are buildings purely bricks and mortar or do they contain remnants of memories within their walls? Walk through any neglected or derelict building and you can often imagine past events that took place within those crumbling structures. In 2009 dancer Dan Canham visited a dilapidated theatre in Limerick. He made a film interviewing those with…
One of the joys of any arts festival is the multitude of events happening on any one day and those spur of the moment decisions that result in you seeing an unplanned show. On the first day of the Pulse Fringe Festival, theatre company Inspector Sands shared the first showing of their latest creation, A…
Browse any bookshop and you’ll discover a multitude of guides on how to improve your leadership skills, how to succeed in management, and endless other guides to the ‘rules’ of business. What about if you don’t just want to move up the office food chain but actually aim for world domination? If you are secretly…
Street theatre – the very phrase can strike terror into the heart. For every wonderful performance there is a plethora of dodgy mime artists, metallic spray clad statue artists and mishap jugglers. Bootworks Theatre, however, have reinvented street theatre and with their latest creation Babyboxes have dragged theatre out of its traditional home and out…
We’ve all been there, that moment at the start of any training course when delegates are asked to introduce themselves in one minute. What are the key facts that make up our lives and how do we condense that into a minute? Inspector Sands’ latest work, A Life In 22 Minutes, looks at that very…
Fringe shows always cause some conundrums for critics. Often works are in the very early stages of development. It is, of course, unfair to review them as finished products but the critical process can aid a show’s development with constructive comment. It is with that caveat that this is written. Captain KO and the Planet…
In 2002 John Osborne entered a competition on John Peel’s Radio 1 show. His prize was a box of records from the vast collection Peel kept in his shed. Osborne won and a box of disks was duly delivered from John Peel’s Suffolk home to Osborne’s Norwich flat. This seemingly innocuous event is the jumping off…
What is the future for regional theatres and how do they compete with London? A big question and the subject for The Big Debate, the opening event in this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival. Chaired by Rob Salmon, the New Wolsey’s Associate Director, an assembled panel an audience gathered on a newly created performance space on…
58 shows, 14 venues, over 17 days – Ipswich’s Pulse Fringe Festival 2010 was, as always, an eclectic mix of shows, some good, some bad and some indifferent. That’s what festivals are for, venues and audiences alike take a risk, some work and some don’t. Some are work in progress that need, and value, the…
The dispossessed spirits of Hinge and Bracket have crossed the Severn Bridge into Wales and the result is a drug fuelled, piano toting, cardy wearing example of care in the community gone horribly wrong! Sue is a (wo)man on the edge and in taking to her piano she takes us on an hour long musical…
A National Theatre of Greece and Cyprus Theatre Organisation production in association with British Theatre company Imitating the dog performed in French – confused? Tales from the Bar of Lost Souls is visually impressive but somewhat confusing. Using a mix of film, mime and a French soundtrack to follow the life of a dying man…
A National Theatre of Greece and Cyprus Theatre Organisation production in association with British Theatre company Imitating the dog performed in French – confused? Tales from the Bar of Lost Souls is visually impressive but somewhat confusing. Using a mix of film, mime and a French soundtrack to follow the life of a dying man…
If you go down to the woods, sorry basement of the Spiral Car Park, you’re in for a big surprise. Walking down the deserted underground car park at night howls of wolves echo through the lot and strange faces peer through fire escape doors. On arrival in the deepest section of the car park some…
If you go down to the woods, sorry basement of the Spiral Car Park, you’re in for a big surprise. Walking down the deserted underground car park at night howls of wolves echo through the lot and strange faces peer through fire escape doors. On arrival in the deepest section of the car park some…
What are you selling, who needs it and why? That’s the secret to business success according to one of the characters in Rain From A Dry Sky, a rehearsed reading as part of the Pulse Fringe Festival. It’s a question that should be posed to the production as well though, as it’s not clear what…
What are you selling, who needs it and why? That’s the secret to business success according to one of the characters in Rain From A Dry Sky, a rehearsed reading as part of the Pulse Fringe Festival. It’s a question that should be posed to the production as well though, as it’s not clear what…
Dec 8 1980, a date Beatles fans will never forget – the day Mark Chapman shoots John Lennon in New York. There have been countless books, dramatisations and conspiracy theories over what drove Chapman to kill Lennon but Richard Hurford’s new play Catcher takes us back a few hours to Chapman’s hotel bedroom and his…
Dec 8 1980, a date Beatles fans will never forget – the day Mark Chapman shoots John Lennon in New York. There have been countless books, dramatisations and conspiracy theories over what drove Chapman to kill Lennon but Richard Hurford’s new play Catcher takes us back a few hours to Chapman’s hotel bedroom and his…
Well it’s a first for me, a Christian comedy sketch show on the Ten Commandments –the Pulse Fringe Festival certainly offers a variety! Performed by the group Four Monks and A Nun (though strangely only performed by three ‘monks’ and a ‘nun’). Yazz Fetto, Kevin Moore, Shaninga and Helen Marasha take us on a comic…
Well it’s a first for me, a Christian comedy sketch show on the Ten Commandments –the Pulse Fringe Festival certainly offers a variety! Performed by the group Four Monks and A Nun (though strangely only performed by three ‘monks’ and a ‘nun’). Yazz Fetto, Kevin Moore, Shaninga and Helen Marasha take us on a comic…
When at the end of a show all you can hear is a minute of audience quietly sobbing you know you’ve just watched something special. Everything Must Go or The Voluntary Attempt to Overcome Unnecessary Obstacles is a deeply personal, deeply moving and utterly gripping examination of a father and daughters love. Through a seamless…
When at the end of a show all you can hear is a minute of audience quietly sobbing you know you’ve just watched something special. Everything Must Go or The Voluntary Attempt to Overcome Unnecessary Obstacles is a deeply personal, deeply moving and utterly gripping examination of a father and daughters love. Through a seamless…
It is always a dilemma how to review a work in progress, especially one in the early stages of development. You can’t really critique the staging or performances and the script you hear now is likely to change considerably by the time the production process is completed. It is with this dilemma in mind that…
It is always a dilemma how to review a work in progress, especially one in the early stages of development. You can’t really critique the staging or performances and the script you hear now is likely to change considerably by the time the production process is completed. It is with this dilemma in mind that…
Three playwrights penning one play could easily be a recipe for a muddled disaster but in True Love Waits Evan Pacey, Kenneth Emson and Marcelo Dos Santos create three interwoven monologues that gel perfectly. Unseen Daniel White, the ‘corporate killer’ is on death row in Atlanta. Three women pen pals are writing to him for…
Three playwrights penning one play could easily be a recipe for a muddled disaster but in True Love Waits Evan Pacey, Kenneth Emson and Marcelo Dos Santos create three interwoven monologues that gel perfectly. Unseen Daniel White, the ‘corporate killer’ is on death row in Atlanta. Three women pen pals are writing to him for…
There are occasional moments when reviewing theatre when a production just astounds you with its ability to convey the rawest of human emotions. Sus is one such production. In a current short tour prior to a run at the Young Vic Barrie Keeffe’s 2008 play receives a timely and powerful revival. Set on election night…
There are occasional moments when reviewing theatre when a production just astounds you with its ability to convey the rawest of human emotions. Sus is one such production. In a current short tour prior to a run at the Young Vic Barrie Keeffe’s 2008 play receives a timely and powerful revival. Set on election night…
Solo plays seem to be a developing theme through this years’ Pulse Fringe Festival. It’s an encouraging sign that writers are exploring the potential of small scale theatre. Let’s start with a confession, I have never heard of Roger Deakin or his novel Waterlog, so in some respects it was starting from a step back…
Solo plays seem to be a developing theme through this years’ Pulse Fringe Festival. It’s an encouraging sign that writers are exploring the potential of small scale theatre. Let’s start with a confession, I have never heard of Roger Deakin or his novel Waterlog, so in some respects it was starting from a step back…
Located about 21 miles of St Davids Head in West Wales is The Smalls Lighthouse. This remote outpost was to cause a change in policy that impacted all lighthouses until the recent remote operation made lighthouse keepers redundant. After events here, lighthouses would now require at least three staff. The reason for this rule change…
Located about 21 miles of St Davids Head in West Wales is The Smalls Lighthouse. This remote outpost was to cause a change in policy that impacted all lighthouses until the recent remote operation made lighthouse keepers redundant. After events here, lighthouses would now require at least three staff. The reason for this rule change…
Arriving at the Ipswich Council Chamber audience members are handed a white forensic suit to wear and a pair of paint covered goggles. So Reykjavik isn’t going to be your traditional theatre experience. Nor is it a play about the banking crisis or Eyjafjallajokull, but a powerful and emotional exploration of love and memory. This…
Arriving at the Ipswich Council Chamber audience members are handed a white forensic suit to wear and a pair of paint covered goggles. So Reykjavik isn’t going to be your traditional theatre experience. Nor is it a play about the banking crisis or Eyjafjallajokull, but a powerful and emotional exploration of love and memory. This…
Well after a few hours sleep I haven’t calmed down. Where to start? Well just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This offensive, obscene and badly conceived piece ranks as the worst show I’ve ever endured. Last night’s second Pulse Fringe offering was the excruciating debacle Sex Idiot by Bryony Kimmings, billed as a…
Well after a few hours sleep I haven’t calmed down. Where to start? Well just because you can doesn’t mean you should. This offensive, obscene and badly conceived piece ranks as the worst show I’ve ever endured. Last night’s second Pulse Fringe offering was the excruciating debacle Sex Idiot by Bryony Kimmings, billed as a…
Now under new management, champions of new writing Paines Plough are presenting a series of shows around the country asking local writers to examine their local environment. For the Ipswich leg of Come To Where I’m From we are treated to four short views on life in East Anglia. Perhaps worryingly for the East of…
Now under new management, champions of new writing Paines Plough are presenting a series of shows around the country asking local writers to examine their local environment. For the Ipswich leg of Come To Where I’m From we are treated to four short views on life in East Anglia. Perhaps worryingly for the East of…
A mad dash across town for the second show in this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival. The New Wolsey Theatre has been exploring the fusion of Circus and Theatre to create a new physical theatre style. Using the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice the team have created a multimedia 30 minute spectacle that holds attention throughout….
A mad dash across town for the second show in this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival. The New Wolsey Theatre has been exploring the fusion of Circus and Theatre to create a new physical theatre style. Using the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice the team have created a multimedia 30 minute spectacle that holds attention throughout….
Well I’m confused. When is a play not a play? For me a basic requirement is some form of dramatic progression or tension. For the opening show in this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival we are offered a rehearsed reading of The Siege (although we are told in the introduction that it is now called Bunny)….
Well I’m confused. When is a play not a play? For me a basic requirement is some form of dramatic progression or tension. For the opening show in this year’s Pulse Fringe Festival we are offered a rehearsed reading of The Siege (although we are told in the introduction that it is now called Bunny)….
The weather may be telling a different story, but with festival season upon us summer must be finally here. Here in (what will hopefully remain) sunny Suffolk we are gaining a reputation for our festivals. The long established Aldeburgh Festival has been joined by the Bury St Edmunds, High Tide, Latitude, Harvest at Jimmy’s and…
The weather may be telling a different story, but with festival season upon us summer must be finally here. Here in (what will hopefully remain) sunny Suffolk we are gaining a reputation for our festivals. The long established Aldeburgh Festival has been joined by the Bury St Edmunds, High Tide, Latitude, Harvest at Jimmy’s and…