Tag Archives: Dominic Gettins

Leopardess

Leopardess

★★★½

VAULT Festival 2020

Leopardess

Leopardess

Studio – The Vaults

Reviewed – 29th January 2020

★★★½

 

“The show’s concept and originality cannot be faulted, the performances of the two Rosies consistently and bracingly daft”

 

It seems bad form to take comedy too seriously and the sillier the comedy, the sillier it may appear to dwell on seemingly trivial matters, like Facebook posts being rendered unreadable due to their projection onto the deep folds of curtains. But these were probably good lines, possibly vital to understanding the ornate ending of this funny, often brilliant, obscurely named, occasionally puzzling, two-woman, possibly three-woman, show.

The idea of using a funeral service as a device to tell a person’s story is promising. Performers Rosie Abrahams and Rosie Frecker (using their own names as character names) showcase an array of characters, each of whom takes it in turns to remember the life of Sarah M Anson who died in a bizarre incident in a cave. Anson, too, exists in real life as part of a co-writing team with Máirín O’Hagan as Queynte Laydies. O’Hagan is the originator of this particular piece having not only been credited with a version as far back as 2015 but before that having written a similarly themed and even more delightful sounding work, ‘Bereavement. The Musical.’ This rendition is probably adapted for VAULT Festival to suit the copious comedic and vocal talents of its two stars.

Rosie and Rosie begin proceedings dressed in black as the two half-sisters of the deceased and each other, born on the same day to different mothers, impregnated around 25 minutes apart by Darren, a father absent from his daughter’s funeral due to a previous engagement at a christening.

This sets the scene for the further unravelling of Sarah’s tragic backstory, first by a manically upbeat Reverend Ro Hooley, an inappropriately high-energy Aussie priest, then by Simon, Sarah’s droning upper-class ex, both the creations of Rosie Abraham, who brings a West End gusto to all her characterisations. Rosie Frecker’s characters are slightly more modulated. One, a frustrated, flouncy female pastor speaks as Simon’s mother and is particularly well realised. Others include a 4-year-old recorder player, a church hanger on and toward the end, a surgeon with some important revelations that seem hurriedly devised to extricate the plot from its predicament.

The show’s concept and originality cannot be faulted, the performances of the two Rosies consistently and bracingly daft. There are outstanding moments in the writing, but they are betrayed by a rushed production and a few self-inflicted wounds. In concocting a complex story, the creatives seem to get side-tracked by their own running jokes and the enterprise ends in a bit of a squidgy mess. However, it’s a good-natured mess, and from what we can tell, it’s what Sarah would have wanted.

 

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

 

VAULT Festival 2020

 

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Candy

Candy

★★★★

King’s Head Theatre

Candy

Candy

King’s Head Theatre

Reviewed – 19th January 2020

★★★★

 

“Waller’s technique of confiding in us, seeking affirmation from individual after individual in the audience is effortless and effective”

 

Tim Fraser’s ‘Candy’ benefits from an intriguing story idea. Will, a regular guy from a regular Northern town, falls in love with his best friend’s drag persona, Candy. The power of a good premise is evident in the work’s origin, picked out from around a thousand submissions to be staged at the Bunker Theatre in 2018, and here it is, playing to a full house at the Kings Head Theatre, in a new, full-length version.

The play’s second asset is the character of Will himself, tongue-tied in real life but possessed of a sparkling and relentless internal monologue delivered with stamina and charm by Michael Waller. As Will tells of his angst, his dreams, of his fury at the lies sown by his Aunt’s romantic comedy collection, his contemplation of anatomy in the matter of attraction and the alienation he feels amongst his heteronormative friends and colleagues, Waller’s technique of confiding in us, seeking affirmation from individual after individual in the audience is effortless and effective.

Admittedly, from its promising springboard, the tale doesn’t get far. Will doesn’t grow, his besotted state seems neither lustful, nor part of a greater transformation. There’s no sense that Bill, the quirky, indeed wilful, mate from school that went down to the Big Smoke and created Candy, is the real connection he’s striving to make. Instead, the hour’s narrative is pithily summarised by Will himself in an anticlimactic moment of revelation, when he simply confesses, ‘In short, I’m confused.’

The production, devised by the performer himself, never escapes the confines of Will’s head, but Nico Pimparé’s direction keeps things lively with strategically placed folding chairs and a microphone stand for Will to stroll and cavort between, while Stephen Waller’s original music conveys a far-from raunchy drag act as the object of Will’s confusion and elsewhere builds atmosphere unobtrusively.

If, as programme notes hint, a film adaptation may be in the works, Tim Fraser has his work cut out. The idea of a Northern English town with no understanding of drag culture is quaint, and despite Will’s candour and hilarious male logic, nothing quite happens. There’s almost a breakthrough when Will realises that his toad-like Aunt was herself a very different persona in early life…but no, no epiphany, no insight into the social construct of identity, no realisation that love is deeper than a moment of boozed up infatuation. On his mother’s advice, Will retreats to the embrace of Aunt’s sofa-indentations and resigns not to meet Candy, or Bill, again. However, if a second or third act is forthcoming, perhaps one day we might.

 

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Photography by Faidon Loumakis

 


Candy

King’s Head Theatre until 20th January

 

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:
Margot, Dame, The Most Famous Ballerina In The World | ★★★ | July 2019
Mating In Captivity | ★★★★ | July 2019
Oddball | ★★★½ | July 2019
How We Begin | ★★★★ | August 2019
World’s End | ★★★★ | August 2019
Stripped | ★★★★ | September 2019
The Elixir Of Love | ★★★★★ | September 2019
Tickle | ★★★★ | October 2019
Don’t Frighten The Straights | ★★★ | November 2019
The Nativity Panto | ★★★★ | December 2019

 

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