Tag Archives: Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster

Beautiful Thing

Beautiful Thing

★★★★★

Theatre Royal Stratford East

BEAUTIFUL THING at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

★★★★★

Beautiful Thing

“The pair have an enchanting chemistry – they perfectly capture the awkward nervousness of young love”

Jonathan Harvey’s coming-out and coming-of-age story Beautiful Thing was first performed at the Bush Theatre in 1993. Now, 30 years on, a revival – directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike – has graced the stage of London’s Theatre Royal Stratford East. Strikingly relevant to today and beautifully told, we follow 16-year-old neighbours Jamie (Rilwan Abiola Owokoniran) and Ste (Raphael Akuwudike) as their gentle love story unfolds within the tightknit working-class community of Thamesmead. Jamie clashes with his no-nonsense mother Sandra (Shvorne Marks) and her middle-class boyfriend Tony (Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge) whilst Ste struggles against his abusive, alcoholic father. School drop-out Leah (Scarlett Rayner) and her absent mother complete the trio of houses on which the play focuses.

Owokoniran, a last-minute replacement for Joshua Asaré who dropped out due to personal circumstances, shines in the lead role. He is best when leaning into his young character’s sweetness – parading around in the glasses that Ste likes is a particular highlight – and when wittily sparring with Sandra. Akuwudike does an excellent job at rendering Ste’s cheery disposition as well as his hesitancy and frustration at his family circumstances. The pair have an enchanting chemistry – they perfectly capture the awkward nervousness of young love and are totally believable in it.

Sandra evolves throughout the show and Marks brings a great empathy to her. A self-reliant single mother with a string of younger lovers, she is hurting and craves her son’s affection. Blackwood-Cambridge is hilarious as Tony. His overly sexual movement and mannerisms – directed by Annie-Lunette Deakin-Foster – are excellent. He fully embraces the absurdity of his ill-placed character. He does, however, also deliver real tenderness in his final scenes, elevating his character beyond the clown with great skill.

“It is funny, uplifting and has real heart.”

Rayner provides a great brashness to the proceedings and does great in the play’s climax when her character has a bad trip. She is an effective foil for the other characters – her need to interfere and ask difficult questions drives much of the plot.

Rosie Elnile has designed a gorgeous set. We see the cream concrete exterior of our protagonists’ respective flats. Jamie’s – at the centre – is a rose between two thorns, a basket of flowers and a freshly painted door brighten up the otherwise nondescript façade. Characters enter via the flats or the right-hand side of the stage. The only interior to which we are privy is Jamie’s bedroom – a single bed that juts out from the exterior wall of his flat towards the audience.

Excellent lighting (Elliot Griggs) works wonders to enhance the set. Between scenes, colourful filters coat the set as characters dance and move rhythmically around highlighting the emotion or dynamic(s) of the previous scene. In addition, the lighting is used to grow and reduce the space, most obviously when we are in Jamie’s bedroom, his bed spotlighted, the rest of the stage dimmed to hone our attention onto the single room.

The sound design (Xana) is also thoroughly distinctive – funky, almost Seinfeld-esque beats play to transition us from one scene to the next. The musical stylings of Mama Cass also feature heavily. Her music drifts out from super fan Leah’s flat and her song ‘Dream A Little Dream Of Me’ is an anthem for Jamie and Ste’s acceptance of their sexuality.

Beautiful Thing is a thoroughly touching story of queer joy. It is funny, uplifting and has real heart. The cast bring strong and nuanced performances to their respective characters and the script is brilliantly quick. Time flies whilst watching this play and your cheeks will hurt from smiling at the charming tale. I could not recommend it enough.


BEAUTIFUL THING at the Theatre Royal Stratford East

Reviewed on 22nd September 2023

by Flora Doble

Photography by The Other Richard


 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

 

CAFÉ SOCIETY SWING   ★★★★★  June 2018

PYAR ACTUALLY   ★★★★  May 2018

SUMMER IN LONDON  ★★★★★  July 2017

TOMMY  ★★★★  June 2017

Beautiful Thing

Beautiful Thing

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Cock

Cock

★★★

Ambassadors Theatre

Cock

Cock

Ambassadors Theatre

Reviewed – 15th March 2022

★★★

 

“There’s conspicuous talent on stage in this revival, and a lot of well crafted technique”

 

Cock by Mike Bartlett, and directed by Marianne Elliott, has just opened for a limited run at the Ambassadors Theatre. This is a revival of a successful production at the Royal Court in 2009. The subject matter of the play addresses the conflicts and confusion that can arise over sexual attraction. Cock begins benignly enough as a lovers’ sparring match between two gay men, but explodes into a cage match during a dinner party between a gay man, a straight woman, and the man who cannot decide between them. Add to the mix an overprotective father who has come to support team gay son, and this is not a polite West End theatre dinner party play, that’s for sure. There are no winners in this match. Cock is a lively, energetic script, but whether audiences will warm to the overly simplistic characterizations of human sexuality, remains to be seen.

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To be fair, the playwright is aware of this. As Mike Bartlett points out in the programme for this 2022 revival, we’ve come a long way in thinking about gender and sexuality since 2009. He’s up front about the way in which we think about such matters now. John Mercer, the production’s Gender and Sexuality consultant provides a helpful glossary of definitions in the programme. Does this let Cock off the hook? Not entirely. The character of John, and the only one, ironically, to have a recognizable name, is the young man who cannot decide whether he prefers to stay with his gay partner, or leave to make a life with the straight woman he is also in love with. In 2009, this may have seemed like an either/or choice. But in 2022, there are so many more choices available to these three. Contemporary audiences may ask themselves why the need for drama? There are any number of ways these three characters could negotiate the situation. They could even live together and raise a family.

There’s conspicuous talent on stage in this revival, and a lot of well crafted technique. Marianne Elliott’s deft and experienced direction shows in the confident way the actors seize the space, designed by Merle Hensel. It’s a space for fighting, but also for love making. There is stage magic on the floor, and eye catching neon lights that ascend and descend on trapezes. It’s all very good looking in an austere way. Unfortunately, the austerity extends to the chemistry on stage as well. The actors who play John, W and M are almost too charming and too good looking. It’s hard to believe that they’ll actually get down and dirty to fight for their man (or woman.) And while Bartlett’s choice of language may be explicit, the words are spoken by actors who are often widely distanced on the stage as they speak them, and fully clothed in nondescript attire. (Costume supervisor Helen Lovett Johnson.) For Bartlett’s cock fight idea to work in a completely satisfying way, one has to believe that it’s all going to end in blood. And in this fight, it is the woman, predictably, who exits first. Jade Anouka as W shows her power—and one can see why John (Jonathan Bailey) finds that feminine power irresistible. The ongoing joke about John finding her “mannish” is unfortunate, to say the least. Bailey does a decent job playing the vacillating John. It is Taron Egerton as M who has the most difficult role in a way—he’s got to be likeable enough so that we see the bond between him and John, but also menacing enough to be a real threat when John, he and W come together for the confrontation scene. Phil Daniels as the Father enters rather awkwardly for this showdown dinner party. It’s an overly small role and hardly gives Daniels the space to show what he can do. The acting in this production of Cock is on the cerebral side. But then the script also fails to connect in its dazzling word play. It deflects from the action—the agony of sexual betrayal; of making inauthentic choices; the heart wrenching consequences of having to deny who you really are.

This revival of Cock is a mixed bag. By all means go if you enjoy Mike Bartlett’s talent for dialogue on noticeable display. There’s a lot to appreciate in the experienced acting, directing and design. But this play lacks depth. That might be because it’s now showing its age, and the subject matter needs a fresh, more complex look at a very contemporary topic.

 

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Brinkhoff Moegenburg

Cock

Cock

Ambassadors Theatre until 4th June

 

Previously reviewed by Dominica this year:
The Forest | ★★★ | Hampstead Theatre | February 2022
When We Dead Awaken | ★★★★ | The Coronet Theatre | March 2022
Legacy | ★★★★★ | Menier Chocolate Factory | March 2022

 

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