Dominica Plummer Archives - Page 53 of 87

★★★★★

“that good, old-fashioned thing—an entertaining, relaxing evening in the theatre”

Waterloo East’s latest production is a delightful revival of Maltby and Shire’s Starting Here, Starting Now. This musical revue, first produced in 1976 in New York, is an economically staged three hander that has lost none of its relevance in the past forty five years. Not surprisingly, its subject is that perennial favorite — love. But it’s not a loose collection of songs about love, or even a story about a star crossed pair of lovers. Instead, Maltby and Shire group their songs by theme. The evening starts off with a collection of songs about the joys (and frustrations) of looking for love in the city; moves on to the sorrows of those unlucky in love, and concludes with eternally hopeful lovers looking for a fresh start. The revue opens and ends where it began — with a spritely rendition of the title song, “Starting Here, Starting Now”. Even without an overarching story to this revue, however, audiences will still relish the dramas that unfold in each song. They range from the ironic to the tragic; from triumph to loss as the seasons turn. There’s even a song about more mundane matters, such as the way in which crossword puzzles can drive a couple apart.

But what makes Waterloo East’s revival of Starting Here, Starting Now worth seventy five minutes of your time is its powerhouse performers. Director Gerald Armin is to be congratulated for putting Nikki Bentley, Noel Sullivan and Gina Murray on stage together. Their combined experience, together with that of musical director Inga Davis-Rutter, means the audience can sit back and relax, knowing that they are in very good hands. Nikki Bentley, last seen as Alphaba in Wicked, is particularly good at the torch song numbers, but she can also be sly and funny, such as the makeover song where she promises to make Gina Murray “beautiful like me.” Gina Murray’s acting chops, in addition to her lovely voice, are seen to great advantage in this show. Good examples are her comic foil to Noel Sullivan’s overconfident suitor in “We Can Talk To Each Other”, and the way in which she packs the small stage with energy in “Watching the Big Parade Go By.” Sullivan, by contrast, doesn’t have quite the range of his fellow performers, but we’re talking about a seriously talented cast here. All three work well together as an ensemble, and together with Inga Davis-Rutter on the keyboards, move effortlessly through the evening.

Starting Here, Starting Now is that good, old-fashioned thing—an entertaining, relaxing evening in the theatre. Perfect for date night, and as an added bonus, you are getting a West End experience at Fringe prices. I call that a very good deal.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Gareth McCleod

Wild Card

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Reviewed – 25th June 2021

★★★★

“Everything is carefully designed to overturn any preconceived ideas”

Christopher Matthews’ curation of Wild Card: my body’s an exhibition is a medley of sensory experiences that begins the moment you step into the lobby at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre. You quickly find that you have been invited, not so much to a dance performance, but a series of carefully curated events in which you, the audience, are performers as well. The act of self-guiding yourself through the entire theatre, including backstage, with the assistance of some friendly signage, purple balloons, and the staff of Sadler’s Wells, becomes an act of performance. But this perspective is just the easiest way of accessing the show. Christopher Matthews specializes in the art of queering, and in their own words, characterize the show as “a dialogue between performer and viewer and those roles are not stable. At times flipping the experience of the audience from being the spectator to being on display for the objects themselves, [is] in a sense queering the theatre or theatrical experience.” In the notes accompanying the show, Matthews is quick to explain that they have no judgement on whether a person is ‘queer enough’. “Queer is about openness, and relies more on questions than definitions.” You are warmly invited to share, and to be part of, this queer performance.

As you move through the exhibition there is irony around every corner. Everything is carefully designed to overturn any preconceived ideas. Disembodied limbs are reassembled into randomly placed collages. Polaroids are encountered, tucked coyly into stairwells. Tiny stickers, with tiny print, instruct you to push or pull on the door in front of you. You walk up and down a lot of stairs, with friendly messages inviting you to continue, “hun”. Choices have to be made about when (and where, and for how long) to sit. Mirrors are encountered which serve to guide, confront, and yes, block your passage. (It would be unsafe for you to continue.) And mirrors are also where you have to confront the reality of your body (not the dancer’s ideal). But this experience is also fun. There are disco lights and music and darkness to soften the sharp realizations, and Matthews’ own words to reassure. Because Wild Card: my body’s an exhibition is also autobiographical. The artist is describing their own journey— from feelings of rejection because they failed to meet the dance world’s uncompromising assessment of what a dancer should look like—to a conscious creation of art that takes this judgement and turns it on its head.

But of course, the walk through the Sadlers Wells Theatre is just the warm up. Further investigations reveal that Matthews has taken the title for this show from a lyric in Janet Jackson’s song Feedback (2008) “my body’s an exhibition, baby”. There are a lot of pop culture/club culture echoes in this show. Matthews has brought together a truly diverse group of people, some dancers, some not, and each piece in Wild Card reveals something of their queering process. Particularly noteworthy is the work of Fenia Kotsopoulou who plays with the “normative codes of the feminine” in Purple Dance (in the Foyer) and Self Portrait: Deviant. Their filmwork plays with the normative codes of performance, as well. In “Self Portrait:Deviant” it is the camera that does the dancing around the dancer. As spectators we are drawn into a complex multiplicity of perspectives that don’t just challenge what we see, but how we gaze. For Songhay Toldon, to take another example, the performances are about nostalgia and joy—memories of club dancing to a techno beat. In the exhibits featuring live performance, we encounter comparisons—in my body’s no.1, are these two dancers so different from one another? (It turns out that the plinths each is standing on in the vast open space behind the curtain at Sadlers’ Wells, plays subtly with perspective. They are closer in height than it appears.) Art versus sport? Not for Matthews. Two Adidas clad athletes create their own dance that uses technology and social media (via Instagram) to create a work that is constantly changing and never ending.

There are twenty four installations in Wild Card: my body’s an exhibition, and a constant stream of sensory input as you move from one to another. If I have one criticism of this show, it is that there is too much to take in, really, in just one viewing. (Matthews also comments on the part his ADHD has played in his work, and people familiar with that perspective on life will feel right at home here.) But others may find themselves wishing they could return to it over and over again, much like visiting a museum. Then again, perhaps the point of this show is to capture a particular moment in time—a dance history, if you like—while waiting to see what Christopher Matthews produces next. Recommended.

Waterloo East Theatre

Reviewed – 1st July 2021

★★★★★

“that good, old-fashioned thing—an entertaining, relaxing evening in the theatre”

Starting Here, Starting Now is that good, old-fashioned thing—an entertaining, relaxing evening in the theatre. Perfect for date night, and as an added bonus, you are getting a West End experience at Fringe prices. I call that a very good deal.

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Gareth McCleod

Starting Here, Starting Now

Waterloo East Theatre

Five star shows this year:

Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Reviewed – 25th June 2021

★★★★

“Everything is carefully designed to overturn any preconceived ideas”

Reviewed by Dominica Plummer

Photograph – Myrid Carten (Ireland) for Christopher Matthews’ Wild Card

Wild Card

Sadler’s Wells Theatre until 26th June

Other shows reviewed by Dominica this year: