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[ Title of Show ]

Moors Bar Theatre

Reviewed – 7th August 2019

★★★

“This play does carry a strong message, which director Eleanor Felton expertly highlights”

The Camden Fringe promotes itself as a chance to see edgy, experimental and brand new theatre. To be invited to see a show called [ title of show ] therefore didn’t raise much of an eyebrow, although I do wonder how many people bypass the play due to the ambiguity of the title. I however was intrigued and turned up with an open mind, an open notebook and a slightly puzzled expression on my face.

It turns out that this is the story of Jeff, Heidi, Hunter and Susan, writing a musical about Jeff, Heidi, Hunter and Susan. They give themselves three and a half weeks to write a script and submit it to a festival with the ultimate hope that it might be a hit and end up on Broadway. Not having a specific idea for a plot, they sit down to write the first things that come into their heads and to document for inclusion, all conversations that they hold.

The small, square stage was decorated by four simple, wooden chairs. These were well used and effortlessly moved around. The simple lighting was used to good effect.

An original idea for a script, a lot of the obvious gags were used early on and the dialogue did at times become a little repetitive, although many of the ‘under the breath’ quips were very nicely done particularly by Susan. Writing can be a tortuous, lonely task and watching people struggling for ideas to move their piece on, didn’t always make for the most compulsive viewing, despite us being told that ‘Writing should be as easy as a monkey driving a speedboat’!.

But this is a musical and any show from this genre will live or die by its musical numbers. Fortunately, the four strong cast (William Tippery, Charlotte Denton, Kieran Parrott and Alyssa LeClair) are all blessed with equally strong singing voices, the harmonies were a highlight and filled the room with the most gorgeous sounds, all under the expert accompaniment of Robert Hazle who was so skilled, that at times you never even noticed his on-point playing.

Highlights, were the opening number “No Title”, the delightful “Stuck In A Role Playing Me” the cleverly written and well delivered “Who Is Heidi, Who Is Susan” and the amusing “Unwanted Photo-Shoot”. Oddly, my only real issue with the music was the finale. A cracking, uplifting number was belted out and drew whoops and applause, only to be followed by a downbeat, final number which took the wind a little out of the sails.

The show ran out of steam a little in its final third, “I want to have substance. not fluff” one of the actors cried, a small amount of editing and a little more substance would in my opinion, help the show to roll along at a better pace.

I have to mention the ‘Relaxed Performance’ that this company are putting on this Friday afternoon for adults or young adults with autism or complex sensory needs. A lovely idea and I wish them every success with this venture.

This play does carry a strong message, which director Eleanor Felton expertly highlights. Be inspired to take a risk and do the thing that you’ve been wanting to do, do it for three weeks and then show somebody. You may have a gem?

Thank you Plan Z Theatre for an interesting evening, if anybody wants me, I’ll be available in three weeks time…

Reviewed by Chris White

Pictures by Joel M Photography

[ Title of Show ]

Moors Bar until 10th August as part of Camden Fringe 2019

Previous shows covered by this reviewer:

Citysong | ★★★★ | Soho Theatre | June 2019

Little Light | ★★★ | The Tower Theatre | June 2019

Feel The Love | ★★★★ | Chickenshed Theatre | July 2019

Parenthood | ★★★½ | The Space | July 2019

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Parenthood

The Space

Reviewed – 23rd July 2019

★★★½

“just about every one of the songs was catchy, cleverly composed and brilliantly witty”

Nothing makes you feel more inadequate than parenthood. You have a successful day, go to bed feeling good about yourself and wake up to a child telling you that they’ve just stuck a marble in their ear. So going to see a musical revue all about parenthood, would either leave me in hysterical laughter at other people’s misfortunes, or bring back that nervous twitch.

This brand new original show has music, text and lyrics all written by Kent based couple Emily and Pete Moody, Emily also directs. The show comprises of about twenty five scenes delivered in either sketch form or musical number. The subject matter starts with pregnancy, moves rapidly to delivery and runs through notable landmarks up to when the children leave home for university.

The small stage at The Space was decorated with about a dozen large building block cubes, coloured sheets and a cot. The sheets were imaginatively used and the cubes provided good height when seating was required. Sound was well timed and all musical numbers were delivered to a backing track. Costumes were nicely thought out with bright primary colours and occasional bursts into fancy dress.

On this opening night, there were a few technical issues with feedback from a speaker and a few of the actors microphones seemed to stop working. This meant that they lost projection and the sound levels had balancing issues, I hope these are easily resolved. Scene changes I found to be a little clunky, with the stage going to sometimes prolonged blackout whilst blocks were moved and cast members changed, I feel it would be worth investigating if this could be done another way to add a bit more continuity to the piece.

A lot of this play is very funny and yet interestingly, I found that some of the spoken sketches fell a little flat, although the scene with parents reading a school report whilst a teacher translated what he really meant, was utterly hilarious. However, this show really comes alive with the musical numbers. Each of the nine strong ensemble had an excellent voice and just about every one of the songs was catchy, cleverly composed and brilliantly witty. Personal highlights were the school playground number, well observed, insightful and a lovely touch from the lone dad. An amusing song from a sleep deprived mother, a high-kicking pair of grandparents and a beautifully poignant song from a mum expressing her thoughts to her late mother, a lovely change of pace and delivered incredibly naturally.

I feel that Fluffy Top Productions are on to something here, it needs a bit of tightening up and a little re-writing, but it went down very well with the audience and has a lot of highlights.

I finally feel that a big shout-out needs to go out to all the cast for putting such energy into their performances on a quite frankly, absurdly hot summer evening.

Moors Bar Theatre

Reviewed – 7th August 2019

★★★

“This play does carry a strong message, which director Eleanor Felton expertly highlights”

The small, square stage was decorated by four simple, wooden chairs. These were well used and effortlessly moved around. The simple lighting was used to good effect.

The show ran out of steam a little in its final third, “I want to have substance. not fluff” one of the actors cried, a small amount of editing and a little more substance would in my opinion, help the show to roll along at a better pace.

I have to mention the ‘Relaxed Performance’ that this company are putting on this Friday afternoon for adults or young adults with autism or complex sensory needs. A lovely idea and I wish them every success with this venture.

This play does carry a strong message, which director Eleanor Felton expertly highlights. Be inspired to take a risk and do the thing that you’ve been wanting to do, do it for three weeks and then show somebody. You may have a gem?

Thank you Plan Z Theatre for an interesting evening, if anybody wants me, I’ll be available in three weeks time…

Reviewed by Chris White

Pictures by Joel M Photography

[ Title of Show ]

Moors Bar until 10th August as part of Camden Fringe 2019

Previous shows covered by this reviewer:

The Space

Reviewed – 23rd July 2019

★★★½

“just about every one of the songs was catchy, cleverly composed and brilliantly witty”

I feel that Fluffy Top Productions are on to something here, it needs a bit of tightening up and a little re-writing, but it went down very well with the audience and has a lot of highlights.

I finally feel that a big shout-out needs to go out to all the cast for putting such energy into their performances on a quite frankly, absurdly hot summer evening.

Reviewed by Chris White

Parenthood

The Space until 27th July

Previously reviewed at this venue: