Tag Archives: Assembly Rooms

Friendsical

Friendsical

★★

Assembly Rooms

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Friendsical

Friendsical

Assembly Rooms – Music Hall

Reviewed – 15th August 2019

★★

 

“it becomes an over the top, pantomime of character traits and gestures”

 

“How YOU doin’?” Not great! After seeing my favourite 90s American sitcom Friends has been turned into a confusing musical parody.

Friendsical disappointingly misses the mark in many ways. Branding itself as a parody but it is clearly a failed attempt to recreate a condensed version of David Crane and Marta Kauffman’s original hit show with a few beige musical numbers thrown in for good measure. Iconic colourful umbrellas in hand – the cast of Friendsical take to the stage, singing a second rate adaptation of the “I’ll Be There For You” theme song. Although their umbrella-ography by Darren Carnall is slick, and energetic that is about the only thing worth note in this ninety minute “romp”.

The premise for the show as Ross Geller (Jamie Lee Morgan) explains to the audience is that he has decided to make a “musical spectacular” to celebrate their ten years of friendship together but particularly commemorating his relationship with Rachel (Charlotte Elisabeth Yorke) and so he has cast his friends to play themselves and re-enact their own memories through song in this live performance. Get it? No? Me neither.

Miranda Larson’s writing makes excuses from the beginning when Ross explains that the ‘timelines’ might get mixed up but the audience just have to allow it in the name of “theatrical license”. This prerequisite allows Larson to cram the rest of the show with word for word re-creations of moments such as: ugly naked guy, the wedding dress scene, Janice and Chandler’s break up and out of context catchphrases in the hopes that we won’t notice the lack of any real substance.

These are the characters we know and love – as if they are on acid. The actors do a great imitation of each of their parallels with clear in depth research in physicality and voice. In particular, Sarah Goggin’s up-tight, control freak Monica and Thomas Mitchell’s snarky and awkward Chandler couldn’t BE anymore spot on. However, once the novelty of seeing these imitations wears off it becomes an over the top, pantomime of character traits and gestures.

Anthony Lamble’s set design is one of the things this production got right. With the iconic purple door, the huge bay window and the neon Central Perk coffee sign. Lamble has recreated in great detail the famous locations of Manhattan life, generating an overwhelming sense of nostalgia which this show is definitely lacking.

In truth Friendsical doesn’t feel like a lovingly made homage to the sitcom with 236 episodes which we have all rewatched at least ten times. It feels like a ‘play by numbers’ venture, riding off a multi-billion dollar brand to get hyped fans bums on seats. This ambitious remake is a steep price to pay for fans with not much given in return.

 

Reviewed by Liz Davis

Photography by Dale Wightman

 


Friendsical

Assembly Rooms – Music Hall until 25th August as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019

 

 

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In the Shadow of the Black Dog

★★★

Assembly Rooms

Reviews, , , , , , , , , ,

In the Shadow of the Black Dog

In the Shadow of the Black Dog

Assembly Rooms

Reviewed – 15th August 2019

★★★

 

“the authenticity of the content shines through in the script”

 

Masculinity has been under the lens more than ever in the past few years. What it is to be a man, the dangers of toxic masculinity and the male stigma of expressing emotions are all topics that are explored in Daniel Hallissey’s new show. ‘In the Shadow of the Black Dog’ is based on Hallissey’s real experiences, and the authenticity of the content shines through in the script.

The story centres around Alquist, who loses his best friend and has several near death experiences himself. After this turn of events, he is left questioning how to deal with grief and essentially what the value of his life is. The script contains several gut-punching lines such as: ‘Where do men go to grieve?’ Alquist is lost and we follow him on a journey of misjudged impulsive decisions. He speaks of his emotional illiteracy, as we see first hand his inability to deal and cope with his feelings. Whilst this all sounds fairly heavy, there are moments of dark humour that lift the piece. At moments, you felt like laughing and crying at the same time. Hallissey’s writing and performance do not shy away from the character’s faults, making audiences relate to this flawed Everyman. By far the strongest element of the piece was Hallissey’s ability to flit between past and present, as he re-enacted scenes with intensity. A particularly strong example of this was the recreation of him getting chased by a bunch of motorcyclists who were trying to kill him. Despite there only being one actor on stage, it truly felt like another might pop out and attack at any moment.

The honesty of the storytelling was helped by simplistic set and lighting design (Pete Butler). Soft lighting changes and the utilisation of the whole playing space moved along the action. The sound design (James Nicholson) was effective in displaying the play’s themes as it used text message sound effects between scenes to show Alquist’s continuing search for communication.

In the Shadow of the Black Dog had an important message and delivered it clearly. Hallissey practised what he preached: through his vulnerability we saw his strength. The directorial decision (Conor Neaves) to get the actor to talk to audience members in the pre show was strong, as it invited us to share experiences too. Ultimately, the whole show felt like an intimate chat with your best mate. It shone a light on the difficulties of navigating complex feelings when this has been conditioned out of you from a young age. There was room for development of this work as the pace dropped at times, but overall it was a thought provoking and exciting piece of theatre.

 

Reviewed by Emily Morris

Photography by Elizabeth McCafferty

 


In the Shadow of the Black Dog

Assembly Rooms until 23rd August as part of Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019

 

 

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