Haunting Julia

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch

Reviewed – 3rd November 2018

★★

“a disappointing production, that neither scares nor moves, though Spencer’s performance is the saving grace”

The papers called her ‘Little Miss Mozart’ but twelve years after her death, where she was found having overdosed on sleeping pills at the age of nineteen, Julia’s father Joe, is still looking for answers. He has invited Julia’s last boyfriend, Andy, to the music centre that he has built around Julia’s bedroom, an unaltered shrine to her genius. Joining them is Ken Chase, a local psychic, so he says, though his connection to Julia’s life goes far deeper. It is both a ghost story and a psychological narrative of grief and loss. The weight of creative genius on a person, particularly from such a young age, is interestingly explored and commented upon.

However Haunting Julia isn’t one of Alan Ayckbourn’s best plays and, in this case, it isn’t helped by the overall production. Originally intended by its writer as a ninety minute piece, in longer form it is now a slow journey, repetitive and unengaging. It plods along, pedestrian-like, until the melodramatic ending which elicits more laughter than fear from the audience tonight.

Matthew Spencer delivers a strong and nuanced performance as Andy Rollinson, Julia’s boyfriend at the time, beginning the play as a sceptical non-believer, and ending the play shaken and moved. However he is flanked by two disappointing performances from Sam Cox and Clive Llewellyn. Cox is unconvincing, acting out towards the audience rather than towards his fellow actors, and the emotional complexity of this stifling, grieving father figure is not accessed by his performance. Both Cox and Llewellyn also struggle to deliver the notes of humour that pepper the script and are characteristic of Ayckbourn’s writing, causing the play to drag and stagnate over and over.

The set, designed by Jess Curtis, is functional and competently done, but it isn’t anything awe-inspiring, and the spacing of it contributes to the frequently bizarre staging of the actors by director Lucy Pitman-Wallace, which often makes the interactions between the characters feel unnatural and performative.

This is a disappointing production, that neither scares nor moves, though Spencer’s performance is the saving grace.

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Mark Sepple

Haunting Julia

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch until 17th November

Previously reviewed at this venue:

The Game of Love and Chai | ★★★ | April 2018

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert | ★★★ | May 2018

Abigail’s Party | ★★★½ | September 2018

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★★★½

“it doesn’t always feel like the comedy is intentional”

Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ is a classic horror text and Arrows & Traps Theatre present a lively and committed production of it just in time for Halloween. For those who don’t know the story, Count Dracula is a vampire who feeds off the blood of the living, a murderer and seducer who has just moved from Transylvania to London. He is pursuing Mina Murray, the fiancé of Jonathan Harker, a solicitor who has recently been to visit the Count and is now plagued with visions of terrible things. As time begins to run out, a small team led by Professor Van Helsing, must fight to stop him.

The set, designed by Francine Huin-Wah, works really well. Set over two levels, the theatre is covered in thick castle stone and hung with ropes. The multiple levels allow lots of scope for use of the staging which Ross McGregor, writer and director of the piece, uses for maximum effect. The interweaving narratives are placed alongside each other so that sinister characters lurk in corners of seemingly innocent scenes, foreshadowing what is to come.

The cast is consistently strong. Lucy Ioannou as Lucy, and Beatrice Vincent who plays Mina, are a strong and lively duo. Cornelia Baumann’s Renfield is both terrifying and moving in her performance. Christopher Tester’s Dracula is wonderfully classic, sexual and camp, dressed in the long black robes of the night.

The production does seem occasionally confused – part comic, farcical almost, part genuine horror. A particularly jarring moment of this involves a cover of ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears. Jump scares are followed by comic moments then another jump scare, and it doesn’t always feel like the comedy is intentional. There is a tendency at points towards melodrama but in this context the result is rather a fun one.

This is undoubtedly an entertaining and engaging evening delivered by committed and genuine performances.

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Davor Tovarlaza

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch

Reviewed – 3rd November 2018

★★

“a disappointing production, that neither scares nor moves, though Spencer’s performance is the saving grace”

This is a disappointing production, that neither scares nor moves, though Spencer’s performance is the saving grace.

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Mark Sepple

Haunting Julia

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch until 17th November

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Dracula

Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed – 11th October 2018

★★★½

“it doesn’t always feel like the comedy is intentional”

This is undoubtedly an entertaining and engaging evening delivered by committed and genuine performances.

Reviewed by Amelia Brown

Photography by Davor Tovarlaza

Dracula

Jack Studio Theatre until 27th October

Previously reviewed at this venue: