★★★

“As a vehicle for the youth theatre to show their chops, Rapunzel is a very charming production”

Theatre Peckham sits just a stone’s throw from the thoroughfare of Rye Lane, with its bustling array of salt fish sellers, street-preachers and salon owners. Their Christmas show this year, Rapunzel, seeks to bring that vibrant atmosphere to life in an original take on the fairytale.

Under the direction of Suzann McLean, also artistic director of the theatre, Rapunzel is a world famous hair-dresser at vibrantly pink and glitzy Peckham salon Barnet Magic – but things were not always so. When she was just a baby her mother’s jealous cousin Cassie secretly kidnapped her, to use as ransom for an inheritance Cassie was denied. Locked in a tower for 18 years, Rapunzel is none the wiser as Cassie profits from her niece’s hairstyling prowess and continues to disadvantage Rapunzel’s mother Maddy.

It’s an overly long and convoluted plot with jumps in time necessitated by the involvement of a large youth company, outnumbering the adult cast more than three to one. One or two of the young cast surely have a future on the stage, full of energy and goofy charm and clearly having the time of their lives. Jazz Deer-Olafa’s choreography is engaging yet simple enough for everyone to be involved. There are even opportunities for some of the most unassuming cast members to have their moment in the spotlight and it is heartening to see the passion that has gone into the work of the show.

The adult performers are a bit of a mixed bag. Scarlet Gabriel as Maddy and Kellah-M Spring as Rapunzel come across as rather flat and low energy. At the other end of the scale, Jade Leanne Benjamin as the evil Cassie is over the top, particularly in the way she constantly adjusts her various wigs. Montel Douglas provides some light relief as both a distracted detective and Rapunzel’s saviour, Dignity Jones. But Marcus Ayton as Mama Bea is standout with his lilting Caribbean accent and aphorisms on point.

Original musical numbers by composer Jordan Xavier and lyricist Geoff Aymer do well to use elements of pop, R&B and afro-beats to reflect and appeal to the largely local audience. The lead performers seem to have a hard time hearing themselves over the music and there are some weak refrains that are repeated ad nauseum. It also feels like there is a missed opportunity in bringing out the ‘rap’ in Rapunzel more strongly.

As a vehicle for the youth theatre to show their chops, Rapunzel is a very charming production. It has community appeal in its hyper local setting and plot of triumph over adversity. Viewed through this lens, there’s plenty to come away from the show smiling about.

GARRY STARR PERFORMS EVERYTHING at Southwark Playhouse Borough

★★★½

“an hour of squirm-inducing silliness you’ll want to bring all your friends to”

Recently barred from the Royal Shakespeare Company, Garry Starr is on a mission to save theatre from the pretentious establishment who make Billy Shakes boring. To achieve this, he has under an hour to pack in as many genres as possible, to show, solo, how they should really be performed.

It’s a high-energy romp and a quintessential fringe comedy show. One hour of intensely physical theatre best enjoyed after sinking one or two pints. Both to more heartily laugh at the silliness of it all and to more readily volunteer as Garry’s co-star.

Garry, the creation of Damien Warren-Smith, is endearingly eccentric with his lack of self awareness leading to comic error rather than arrogance. He is full of malapropisms – those who don’t understand the theatre are phallustines; we are told about Starr’s semenal work; and introduced to Placeidon – the god of the sea and after birth. Dressed in Elizabethan ruff and too-tight, knee-length leggings-come-breeches, Warren-Smith as Starr gives us a rendition of what Act 2 Scene 2 of Hamlet would have sounded like in Shakespeare’s day. Then, stripping down to a very small and well-stuffed jock-strap, prances about to show us contemporary dance. It is telling that the piece ends with Garry’s take on Cirque Nouveau – for this show owes more to clowns and jesters than it does to Ibsen or Chekhov.

Acclaimed director Cal McCrystal, responsible for directing an early show for The Mighty Boosh and the physical comedy in One Man, Two Guvnors, is an excellent fit for Warren-Smith’s slapstick. But the audience interaction, general lack of clothing and, at times, full frontal nudity, felt like it owed a lot to shows directed by Dr Brown, like Natalie Palamides’ Laid and Courtney Pauruoso’s Gutterplum. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given both Dr Brown and Damien Warren-Smith, the man behind the character, both trained at the Parisian clown academy Ecole Philippe Gaulier.

The show suffers from the Nanette-ification of comedy, where a set is not complete without its final act reckoning with the struggles that forged it. Here it feels contrived and out of kilter with the rest of the outrageous silliness of the rest of the show. Some comedy, particularly clowning and physical theatre, can just be unashamedly funny.

Nonetheless I was stunned when the show ended that an hour had already gone by. I would happily have kept watching whilst Starr took on kitchen-sink drama or Gilbert and Sullivan. Garry Starr’s high energy dramatics hold up a funhouse mirror to theatre making for an hour of squirm-inducing silliness you’ll want to bring all your friends to.

RAPUNZEL at Theatre Peckham

★★★

“As a vehicle for the youth theatre to show their chops, Rapunzel is a very charming production”

RAPUNZEL at Theatre Peckham

Reviewed on 6th December 2023

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Lidia Crisafulli

Some recent reviews:

Rapunzel

Rapunzel

GARRY STARR PERFORMS EVERYTHING at Southwark Playhouse Borough

★★★½

“an hour of squirm-inducing silliness you’ll want to bring all your friends to”

GARRY STARR PERFORMS EVERYTHING at Southwark Playhouse Borough

Reviewed on 4th December 2023

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Jeromaia Detto

More Southwark Playhouse reviews:

Garry Starr Performs Everything

Garry Starr Performs Everything

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