Tag Archives: Joe White

The Little Big Things

★★★★

Sohoplace

THE LITTLE BIG THINGS at @Sohoplace

★★★★

The Little Big Things

“The script may read like a Hallmark greetings card at times, but the show has all the hallmarks of a major hit.”

Being challenged in life is inevitable, but being defeated is optional. So runs one of the tag lines for Henry Fraser’s inspirational memoir published in 2017. Fraser was just seventeen years old when a tragic swimming accident on holiday in Portugal crushed his spinal cord. Paralysed from the shoulders down, he challenged and then conquered the unimaginable difficulties and, in doing so, has inspired others and taught invaluable lessons in how to seize life and adapt to a new way of living. But central to the story is the fact that he was never alone. The repercussions, reactions and unblinking support of his family and closest friends are unavoidably swept into the tidal wave of the drama. A real-life drama transformed into an uplifting, larger-than-life musical drama by Joe White (book), Nick Butcher (music and lyrics) and Tom Ling (lyrics).

The piece revolves around a dialogue between the two Henry’s: post-accident (Ed Larkin) and pre-accident (Jonny Amies). It is a love-hate, symbiotic relationship. A tug-of-war where the two are simultaneously struggling to teach each other how to look backwards and forwards. The chemistry between Larkin and Amies is unfeigned and naturally heartfelt; the necessary conflicts yielding much of the show’s humour and pathos. But the rest of the cast have their fair share too. Crucial to Fraser’s rehabilitation is physiotherapist Agnes, played with undisguised relish by Amy Trigg. Occasionally a little too pleased with the audience reception, Trigg is nevertheless a charismatic tour de force, graced with some of the best lines. Linzi Hately and Alasdair Harvey as the mother and father respectively both touch on the agony and the ecstasy inherent in the narrative. Particularly Hately as she looks back on her son’s early life during her standout solo number. ‘One to Seventeen’. The lyrics border on sentimentality but are pulled back by Hately’s honest and raw performance of the number.

“Fay Fullerton’s costume design is given its own catwalk during a gloriously surreal nightclub scene”

Elsewhere the score is uniformly upbeat, almost relentlessly so as if the messages need to be drummed home with a four-four backbeat and rousing chorus. The show stopping “The World is Waiting” heralds the interval but feels like the grand finale. One wonders where it can go from here, but the second act does open with therapeutic doses of comedy. And Fay Fullerton’s costume design is given its own catwalk during a gloriously surreal nightclub scene with a ‘Monopoly’ fancy dress theme. Later, as the characters race towards the dependable denouement, primary colours are the order of the day. It is brash and it is bold, and undoubtedly stirring, but we see the vivid rainbow of colours without really understanding the unseen shades of the spectrum. All of a sudden Henry Fraser is opening an exhibition of his artwork – painted just by using his mouth – yet the narrative airbrushes out the sweat and tears that were shed to reach that achievement. Fraser’s story is one of extreme triumph and hardship, but too often here it seems to be given an easy ride.

Nevertheless, it is a triumphant production. Luke Sheppard’s staging is impeccable, eschewing any kind of set, relying on lighting (Howard Hudson), innovative choreography (Mark Smith) and, above all, outstanding performances. It is a celebration of life. There is absolutely no room for negativity. At the heart of Henry Fraser’s hard-won philosophy is his belief that every day is a good day. The script may read like a Hallmark greetings card at times, but the show has all the hallmarks of a major hit.


THE LITTLE BIG THINGS at @Sohoplace

Reviewed on 15th September 2023

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Pamela Raith

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Brokeback Mountain | ★★★★★ | May 2023

The Little Big Things

The Little Big Things

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Blackout Songs

Blackout Songs

★★★★

Hampstead Theatre

BLACKOUT SONGS at the Hampstead Theatre

★★★★

 

Blackout Songs

“the ending is strong enough that the audience’s slight loss of attention is whipped back into submission”

 

Alice and Charlie have both found themselves at their first AA meeting. Lingering by the coffee table, avoiding taking their seats, Alice persuades Charlie that he needs a drink for medicinal purposes, and off they run. This is the beginning of a tumultuous, toxic, hopelessly sincere love story. Or at least, that’s how one of them remembers it.

Scenes are presented as fact, later disputed or questioned, with no resolution; specific details and conversations repeat themselves in various parts of the story, and the audience experiences the desperate, failing attempt to recall things as they happened. It reminds me of Florian Zeller’s The Father, where we experience dementia first-hand, except in this case, neither witness is reliable, nor does it really matter. The fact is they love each other.

Anisha Fields’ design appears, at first, almost non-existent: stackable chairs line two sides of the stage, and that’s about it. It’s possible that’s just how the auditorium looked pre-rehearsals. After a while, though, despite their avoidance of AA, the chairs seem to suggest that the whole play is taking place at a meeting, someone trying to set the record straight, finally. Alice is dressed like Penny Lane from Almost Famous, in a fitted Afghan coat, large sunglasses, and a little slip dress. The comparison is perfect: Alice has performed as herself for so long she’s become the performance, and what appears false initially is actually just who she is now. She seems so ridiculous on first meeting that I’m worried Rebecca Humphries just isn’t very good, or the script has let her down. But the opposite is true: her façade is ridiculous, but her insecurities bubble just under the surface.

Alex Austin’s Charlie is scrappy and dopey and his near lack of costume- baggy top and jeans- reflects that. He’s the antithesis of Alice, always himself, always honest about how he feels. Austin appears as a nervous puppy, so ready to be loved, and it’s completely endearing and, ultimately, heart breaking.

Sound designer Holly Khan and lighting designer Christopher Nairne do a lot of the heavy lifting: masses of reverb when they’re in a church, a thudding heartbeat timed so perfectly with the on-stage tension, you can’t recall when it started; sickly florescent tubes double as unflattering lighting at the AA meeting, and artful strobes, denoting the strange experience of time, and the eponymous blackouts.

There is no dead space in this script, but writer Joe White does have a problem on his hands. Because despite the fact that there are no scenes to cut, it’s too long. Ultimately it doesn’t matter; the ending is strong enough that the audience’s slight loss of attention is whipped back into submission. But the script is so nearly perfect, it’s a shame it’s not ever so slightly pacier.

 

 

Reviewed on 10th November 2022

by Miriam Sallon

Photography by Robert Day

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

 

The Two Character Play | ★★★★ | July 2021
Big Big Sky | ★★★★ | August 2021
Night Mother | ★★★★ | October 2021
The Forest | ★★★ | February 2022
The Fever Syndrome | ★★★ | April 2022
The Breach | ★★★ | May 2022
The Fellowship | ★★★ | June 2022
Mary | ★★★★ | October 2022

 

 

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