★★★★

“a wholesome and welcoming atmosphere which continues into the bar after curtain-down”

Theatre has long benefitted from pop stardom. Whether by using featured artists to draw in the crowds, or more directly providing the soundtrack to the drama. Hits & Pieces from Matchstick Theatre Company draws on this happy relationship by asking four writers to create a 15 minute piece related to a pop song.

Previous selections have included Sisqo’s Thong Song, Don McLean’s American Pie, and Meat Loaf’s I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That). This time, the song of choice is the Spice Girls iconic hit Wannabe – scientifically proven to be the most recognisable and catchy pop song of the last 60 years (look it up!).

Each writer can interpret the cue in whatever way their heart desires – leading to some quite surprising results. Matchstick Theatre Company member, writer and director Mark Daniels also acts as MC for the evening, creating a delightfully homespun atmosphere.

‘Gotta Get with my Friends’ written by Sophie Underwood kicks off the proceedings with a totally whacky, conceptual take on the theme. We meet a couple in crisis, played by Emma Read and Aaron Phinehas Peters, who need a shock to get the blood pumping in their relationship again. But her suggestion of an orgy with her best friends is not the most outlandish idea she has to get them to open up to each other. Kooky in theme and performance, including the bizarre use of vegetable props that are very visibly not what the actors are saying they are, it’s a bold start to the night with a very left-field interpretation of the piece’s title.

‘Ginger’, written by Annette Brook and performed by Roli Okorodudu, is a gear change towards a dose of realism. Okorodudu plays a woman who stumbles upon a queue of other women waiting for their chance to audition for a Spice Girls tribute act. After being assumed to be there for the part of Scary Spice, she muses on why she can’t be Ginger who aligns more with her own conception of herself, rather than just how she is perceived as a black woman in the world. It’s a confidently relaxed and laid-back performance with Okorodudu’s dry delivery enhancing Brook’s wittily written script.

After a short break Emma Read is back, this time as writer of ‘Tomorrow Land Tomorrow Land Tomorrow Land (It Never Ends)’. It’s a brilliant piece of comic misdirection, skilfully performed by Niall Hemmingway and Aisling Groves-McKeown. Groves-McKeown is a highly strung TV producer trying to capture Hemmingway’s experience of being part of a cult, but things aren’t quite as they seem. You’d be hard-pressed to see the link to the song choice of the evening with this one – but that does at least mean the night benefits from variety.

The final piece of the programme is the only one that really deals in the 90’s nostalgia one might have expected. However, writer Mark Daniels takes a unique perspective in the piece ‘Friendship Never Ends’ – that of a pencil case. Ails Duff and Zahra Jennings-Grant are Pencil and Rubber, two items in a woman’s Spice Girls themed pencil case that has been left in a cupboard for twenty years finally being taken off the shelf. Their personification and memories of a well-spent youth will delight any Toy Story fans – as well as the pencil case themed puns.

Matchstick Theatre Company does well to create a sense of community in this short evening of works. The involvement of various Company and cast members as writers, directors and actors, creates a spirit of collaboration for this cabaret-style entertainment. Coupled with audience engagement through polls and suggestions for future song-themes, it’s a wholesome and welcoming atmosphere which continues into the bar after curtain-down with a 90’s themed playlist. You’re gonna ‘Wannabe’ at the next event to check it out.

THE THREEPENNY OPERA at the Cockpit Theatre

★★★

“A promising opening, that isn’t quite sustained throughout.”

We walk into the ‘Factory of Plays’. A kind of warped bandstand sits centre stage, with mannequin torsos circling it; grotesque and absurdist, some attached to rope like an umbilical cord. Or a hangman’s noose. The front rows of the auditorium are littered with musical instruments. An accordion, trombone, trumpet, cello, clarinet. A banjo here, a Hawaiian guitar there. The space feels abandoned as though some frenetic activity has been interrupted. The truncated figures, like a troupe of mute Frankenstein’s creatures, waiting to be brought back to life. Enter two inventors, in white lab coats, followed by a cast of actor musicians in high-vis jackets.

This is the premise behind the OVO Theatre’s interpretation of the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill ‘play with music’. Translated by Robert David MacDonald (dialogue) and Jeremy Sams (lyrics), it adopts many ‘Brechtian’ characteristics. There is no fourth wall whatsoever here as we witness the action being created in front of us. Characters step out of the narrative to talk to us. A phone is borrowed, a beer bottle grabbed and swigged from (oh, how far we have thankfully moved on from the specious sensitivities of the pandemic), scenes are interrupted by metallic tones and bizarre announcements. We are never quite sure where we are. There is something Orwellian. Dystopian. Yet grounded in present day politics. A Clockwork Orange meets Boys from the Blackstuff. A promising opening, that isn’t quite sustained throughout.

Macheath appears, chimera-like from within a cage to the strains of his signature tune. It is uncertain whether he is being created or born. He emerges savvy and streetwise, but with a menace that is too soft at the edges. Peter Watts is clearly enjoying the role, initially channelling Harold Steptoe but then allowing his natural charisma steers him into more dangerous territory. However, the sense of true danger is never quite realised in Adam Nichols’ staging. He allows the slapstick to overshadow nuance.

“Musically it is spot on”

Mark Carlisle’s Peachum has a gravitas as Macheath’s nemesis, aided by Annette Yeo’s feisty Mrs Peachum. Their tentative hold over the beggars of London is challenged when their daughter Polly (Emily Panes) marries Macheath. Panes dresses Polly in innocence – a veil that is easily torn by Macheath’s unscrupulous womanising, allowing her to reveal the dormant steeliness. Panes has one of the stronger singing voices. Although the cast comprises an all singing, all playing company, they don’t always meet the musical challenges. Harmonies and tuning are further loosened by conductor Lada Valešová constantly ducking and diving, like an itinerant beggar, around the playing space. Song introductions suffer from a slight delay while she locates the various musicians, and vice versa. This stop-start stodginess permeates much of the first act, and it is only after interval that the flow finds its true course.

Musically it is spot on, avoiding the pitfalls of some modern interpretations of jollifying the compositions. And Brecht’s intentions are duly honoured. The absurdity is in plain sight and the surrealism defies theatrical convention. But rather than neatly slotting into the narrative, frustratingly some choices are just a touch too bizarre and random, and we disengage as our understanding gets muddied. Nearly a hundred years ago when it opened in Berlin, the work was a radical critique of the capitalist world. It is indeed just as relevant today, and doesn’t necessarily need modern anachronisms, especially ones as clumsy as slipping in references to William and Kate into the libretto, or offhand allusions to Boris Johnson. The themes are more universal than that and Brecht and Weill deserve more respect.

What cannot be avoided is the original disjointed ending, which this production does manage to pull off cohesively and with an emotional commitment that makes sense of the satire. This is largely due to Watts’ performance, his rendition of ‘Call from the Grave’ one of the highlights. Society hasn’t really changed much since “The Threepenny Opera” first premiered. The moral messages are just as raw. OVO’s interpretation retains that rawness – and the genuine grit, even if it doesn’t always grip.

Tag Archives: Cockpit Theatre

HITS AND PIECES #5 (SPICE GIRLS)

★★★★

Cockpit Theatre

HITS AND PIECES #5 (SPICE GIRLS) at the Cockpit

★★★★

“a wholesome and welcoming atmosphere which continues into the bar after curtain-down”

HITS AND PIECES #5 (SPICE GIRLS) at the Cockpit

Reviewed on 14th April 2024

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Natasha Vasandani

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE THREEPENNY OPERA | ★★★ | September 2023

MY BODY IS NOT YOUR COUNTRY | ★★★ | August 2023

END OF THE WORLD FM | ★★★ | August 2023

999 | ★★★ | November 2022

LOVE GODDESS, THE RITA HAYWORTH MUSICAL | ★★ | November 2022

THE RETURN | ★★★ | November 2022

L’EGISTO | ★★★ | June 2021

HITS AND PIECES

HITS AND PIECES

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

The Threepenny Opera

★★★

Cockpit Theatre

THE THREEPENNY OPERA at the Cockpit Theatre

★★★

“A promising opening, that isn’t quite sustained throughout.”

“Musically it is spot on”