IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

★★★★★

“brilliantly kinetic and breezy”

This year, we’re all round Doreen’s for an absolute cracker of a Christmas.

It’s the best of times and the worst of times but this fractious and penniless Islington family have no choice but to see it through, squeezed together in their council flat like overcooked sprouts at the bottom of a bin bag.

So who’s on the guest list?

There’s world-weary matriarch Doreen (Alice Selwyn), boozing away bad memories, proud of her girls but they drive her nuts.

And sisters Gemma (wryly mordant Nancy Brabin-Platt) and single mum Riley (Lois Tallulah, more on her later). They’re at each other’s throats, one Spurs, one Arsenal, which seems to sum up their forever frenemy feuding.

And then there’s teenager Jorja (a lovely, affecting turn by Ella Harding). She’s the odd one out. She has a different father to her sisters and a secret boyfriend who is perhaps pushing a little too hard for Jorja to grow up.

Together, they are all as sparky and temperamental as Christmas lights.

Hang on. Where are all the men? Well, they are close by. That’s because this rogues gallery of feckless losers is in Pentonville prison which is just over the wall. So near and yet so far.

The wall casts a long shadow. Sometimes it’s an obstacle, especially for little lost Jorja who misses her dad. And sometimes the wall is a last line of defence against an onslaught of deadbeat drug-dealing do-nothings. Prison reform is a theme here but not so much as to be intrusive. Besides, with these men, more prison seems like the answer, not less.

Who else is coming? There’s flush Trish, an old friend (boisterous Jennifer Joseph), spreading good cheer. And pregnant stranger Jamila (Nadia Lamin showing formidable comic chops). The sisters encounter her shouting madly over that wall at incarcerated hubby Christian to keep him updated. Because Jamila is very, very pregnant. And it’s Christmas so, er, hello? How’s that going to end, we wonder.

As the sisters build up to Christmas there are secrets to be shared, some of them very uncomfortable, but in director Isla Jackson-Ritchie’s brilliantly kinetic and breezy production, the traumas are brushed past quickly, being more effective for their handling.

Enough of this doom and gloom, declares sozzled Doreen, let’s have a lovely Christmas.

The Jack Studio’s compact stage is packed and lively – three rooms in one, including a working kitchen, fridge, Christmas tree – and people are always coming and going. The whole thing is thrillingly unstagey and natural, the connections between the women – perpetually frayed, never broken – are a breath of fresh air.

The script feels less written than lived in. Lois Tallulah who plays struggling Riley with a hard face and a soft heart is the writer (and also co-director). Wow, what a talent.

Despite the friction, the endless man problems, the heartache and the cheap plonk, we could have stayed at Doreen’s a lot longer – perilous though it is – if only to find out how it all works out for the sisters. They feel like family now.

With this production, you buy a ticket, but you get an invitation: spend the festive season with the girls. They’re a raucous bunch – brutal, brittle, drunk and teetering. But you’re gonna love ’em.

Joyous. Utterly joyous.

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed on 14th November 2024

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Tim Stubbs Hughes @ Grey Swan

Previously reviewed at this venue:

CAN’T WAIT TO LEAVE | ★★★½ | November 2024

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT | ★★ | September 2024

DEPTFORD BABY | ★★★ | July 2024

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★ | August 2022

RICHARD II | ★★★★★ | February 2022

HOLST: THE MUSIC IN THE SPHERES | ★★★★★ | January 2022

PAYNE: THE STARS ARE FIRE | ★★★ | January 2022

TRESTLE | ★★★ | June 2021

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY

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★★★★

“When the show reaches its climax, the performers let it all out and enter a superbly choreographed frenzy”

For those knowledgeable in the dance scene, the name Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, who’s been choreographing since 1980, is more than familiar: it signifies a whole principle that explores dance in its simplest form, which is none other than walking. In this exquisite performance, De Keersmaeker’s company, Rosas, take it a step further and seek to redefine dance, its source and what instigates it.

At first, there is a recreation of the tempest, evoked resourcefully by using an enormous see-through sheet and a fan, and a dancer that moves like they’re caught in it. Before long, the rest of the company joins and embarks on this journey of walking, moving and dancing in any way imaginable. Patterns are repeated, new shapes introduced and there is an interesting balance between group sequences and individual ones, without ever losing the sense of the collective and the company working together.

One of the aspects of dance that the audience are invited to consider is what we can dance to. Is it strictly a very specific type of composed music or can it be more than that? ‘Exit Above’ shows that there is no such limit and if dance can be created from simply walking, then what accompanies movement can be anything we want: acoustic guitar, songs, complex instrumental beats, bird sounds, even silence.

This show is the musicians’ as much as it is the dancers’, with Meskerem Mees, Jean-Marie Aerts, Carlos Garbin providing their respective experience and style to create an intriguing set of music that incorporates electronic beats, vocals and blues. Mees and Garbin not only are performing the music live onstage, but also participate in most of the sequences alongside the rest of the performers, creating a living organism in front of our very eyes. Mees’ voice fills the theatre with an eerie and haunting tingle that accompanies Garbin’s exceptional playing beautifully.

There is no set, except for the instruments used by the musicians, the parts used to create the tempest in the beginning and a set of colourful stripes taped on the floor (scenography by Michel François). The stripes overlap, creating different shapes and angles, and match the performers’ outfits (costume design by Aouatif Boulaich), which keep changing and evolving, like the show itself does. It’s a visual feast of shirts added, skirts shared, tops removed, even thrown towards the audience.

In terms of lighting (light design by Max Adams), for the most part of the show it’s kept quite simple, with parts of the backstage being visible. A single, wide spotlight occasionally moves around the stage in a circle, accompanying the path paved by the dancers themselves, like a gravitational force.

When the show reaches its climax, the performers let it all out and enter a superbly choreographed frenzy, though, at times, it feels like chaos takes over and the inventiveness diminishes due to overused repetition.

Without a doubt, this is an extraordinary collaboration that gave birth to a piece unlike any other. Even if the lack of tangible meaning may trouble members of the audience that are unfamiliar with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s work, the show’s variety of pace, movement quality and tone, as well as its daring nature make it a must-see for all.

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

★★★★★

“brilliantly kinetic and breezy”

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed on 14th November 2024

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Tim Stubbs Hughes @ Grey Swan

Previously reviewed at this venue:

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY

EXIT ABOVE at Sadler’s Wells Theatre

★★★★

“When the show reaches its climax, the performers let it all out and enter a superbly choreographed frenzy”

EXIT ABOVE at Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Reviewed on 13th November 2024

by Stephanie Christodoulidou

Photography by Anne Van Aerschot

Previously reviewed at Sadler’s Wells venues:

EXIT ABOVE

EXIT ABOVE