Tag Archives: Cam Harle

21 Round For Christmas

★★★★

Park Theatre

21 ROUND FOR CHRISTMAS at the Park Theatre

★★★★

“There is an ease to the performance that disguises the daunting task of being alone on stage for an hour and a quarter”

There are plenty of theatre shows that pop up at this time of year that like to describe themselves as an ‘alternative’ Christmas gig. Not all live up to the accolade. “21 Round for Christmas” is one that does. Its originality sneaks up on you like the punchline of a shaggy dog story, hiding for much of the time behind the kitchen sink drama of a meandering monologue that, at times, veers as far away from ‘festive’ as the Grinch on speed.

Tracy is holed up in the kitchen, attempting to prepare Christmas Dinner, while a motley crew of assorted members of her extended family are making merry (a loose term) across the hallway. The turkey (and various substitutes to cater for multiple dietary demands) is, literally, left on the back burner. She blames us – the audience – for distracting her and allowing her to unleash her candid and foul-mouthed reminiscences while mother-in-law’s vegan tart burns. She often addresses a photograph stuck to the fridge door – a snapshot of her absent, best friend Jackie. It is the past escapades of the two of them that comprise the bulk of the narrative, the humour and occasional moments of pathos. The anecdotes gush forth, but too often they have little connection to the dramatic frame around which they are structured, and they become off-the-shelf recollections that could fit any scenario.

Cathy Conneff, as Tracy, is brash, profane, unashamed, and wonderfully charismatic. Her natural affinity with the audience gives the character an unaffected authenticity. There is an ease to the performance that disguises the daunting task of being alone on stage for an hour and a quarter. One of a kind, Tracy is also ‘everywoman’ as she unwraps her regrets and throws them onto the pile of spent joys and tribulations like unwanted gifts.

“She has the makings of becoming a seasonal staple”

Conceived in lockdown as part of the Hope@Home series of monologues, writers Matt Ballantyne and Toby Hampton (Hampton also directs) display a sharp insight, but the script is a bit unbalanced. Some yarns are stretched too far while others are left hanging. Alex Forey’s lighting cleverly transports us to past locations in Tracy’s mind while in the here-and-now the set (Hampton, again, with Laurel Marks) evokes the class-defined, London suburban kitchen with precise detail. There is a film maker’s eye at work here, enhancing the realism that Conneff already provides in abundance. Unfortunately, Emily Rose Simons lifelike sound design, that conjures up the rabble next door, doesn’t match the naturalism; which could probably be rectified by a re-jigging of the venue’s sound system.

There are bound to be comparisons to Willy Russell’s ‘Shirley Valentine’, which is no bad thing. Like the eighties’ forerunner, “21 Round for Christmas” (a clumsy title I have to say) has an existential quality, and Conneff skilfully manages to reveal the depth beneath the froth. We are teased in this respect, wanting to know more about Jackie who we learn is lying in a hospital bed at the Royal Marsden. The comedy is dished up loudly and haphazardly, but garnished with intimate detail that almost goes unnoticed. Something in Conneff’s eyes betrays a crisis unfolding. No wonder Tracy ends up hurling the roast potatoes. Her defiance, steeped in humour, has more than a double edge.

We come away feeling like we’ve caught up with an old friend. A bit of a black sheep. Flawed, but somebody we love. In small doses perhaps. For about an hour or so maybe. See you next Christmas, Tracy. We hope we do. She has the makings of becoming a seasonal staple. She can’t please the twenty-one people she has round for Christmas – but she certainly pleases her audience.


21 ROUND FOR CHRISTMAS at the Park Theatre

Reviewed on 11th December 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Cam Harle 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

The Time Machine – A Comedy | ★★★★ | December 2023
Ikaria | ★★★★ | November 2023
Passing | ★★★½ | November 2023
The Interview | ★★★ | November 2023
It’s Headed Straight Towards Us | ★★★★★ | September 2023
Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea | ★★½ | September 2023
The Garden Of Words | ★★★ | August 2023
Bones | ★★★★ | July 2023
Paper Cut | ★★½ | June 2023
Leaves of Glass | ★★★★ | May 2023
The Beach House | ★★★ | February 2023
Winner’s Curse | ★★★★ | February 2023

21 Round For Christmas

21 Round For Christmas

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TWO SUPER SUPER HOT MEN

★★★★★

VAULT Festival 2020

Two Super Super Hot Men

Two Super Super Hot Men

Studio – The Vaults

Reviewed – 13th March 2020

★★★★★

 

“an award-worthy piece that is pointedly political while being warmly hilarious and wonderfully entertaining”

 

Climate change is one of the burning issues of the moment. Some protest to try to bring about global action while others deny it.

The very daft, but utterly engaging “Two Super Super Hot Men” is a small play asking big questions from the perspective of people who might not ordinarily expect to be concerned by its impact. This is drag king comedy with a conscience.

Saying as much in 50 minutes as David Attenborough has in dozens of TV documentaries over many years Alan and Ron (the clownish alter-egos of performers Rosa Garland and Alice Boyd) give a thought-provoking and extremely funny perspective on global warming, the dangers of being ill-informed (and of blaming everybody else in a crisis), and a plant called Carol.

It is a knowingly ridiculous take on the issue as the two geeky middle-aged foley artists stuck in a small UK studio provide the sound effects for documentaries about climate change and begin to experience the shocking realities of the problem for themselves. Butter becomes sand, milk goes off in a warm fridge, water turns into stones as the pair get involved in increasingly absurd offshoots of the seriously-voiced factual programme.

Ron (Garland) regularly makes good strong Yorkshire tea and removes a collection of gaudy Hawaiian shirts while commenting on how hot it is; Alan (Boyd) has an alarm go off on his watch when it is time to tend beloved plant Carol, with whom he develops an interesting relationship and finds leaves sprouting from parts of his own body.

The two performers (who are also artistic directors and writers of the project) don’t put a foot wrong playing the two well-observed men, sprinkling the show with some terrific examples of mime, clown-like buffoonery and a working relationship that is spot on, particularly in some fast-fire conversation gags.

The humour begins the moment the audience arrives with the pair asking members to give them something that will make an interesting sound, then one does something with the item close to a microphone. So we get jangling keys (“that could be soft rain”), an opening and closing wallet (“sounds like a bat taking wing”) and a crinkly sweet wrapper (“that has to be a small squirrel”). We are cleverly misdirected into the duo’s world where the presence of a universal threat to life can be comfortably ignored.

An oft-repeated mantra is “If I didn’t do it and I didn’t do it then what are we worrying about!” – the cry of thousands who think the environmental crisis is only happening elsewhere in the world or is just a problem to be tackled by the next generation.

This is an award-worthy piece that is pointedly political while being warmly hilarious and wonderfully entertaining. It will be playing at the Brighton Fringe in May but deserves to be seen in theatres big and small, in schools and on street corners.

It’s one of the best examples of how Fringe theatre can tackle a contemporary concern with comedy and devastating directness. Let’s hope Alan and Ron can shine similar light on other significant environmental concerns in the future.

 

Reviewed by David Guest

Photography by Cam Harle

 

VAULT Festival 2020

 

 

Click here to see all our reviews from VAULT Festival 2020