Tag Archives: Kate Newman

FABULOUS CREATURES

★★★

Arcola Theatre

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FABULOUS CREATURES at the Arcola Theatre

★★★

“Ismini Papaioannou’s costumes are brilliant, part cabaret part drag, they bring a vibrancy to the characters”

A hand snakes out from behind a glittering starry backdrop. Out slithers a performer, wrapped in glimmering metallic pleather – both mysterious and monstrous. ‘I am Charybdis a creature from the depths…’ their demeanour shifts, ‘and your host for the night!’

This is our chatty, flirty (and monstrous) MC (Hannah Van Der Westhuysen). They are joined by ‘Siren’ (Jazz Jenkins) and ‘Scylla’ (Kate Newman) to perform a series of musical numbers retelling and reclaiming their stories – ‘we used to kill and now we cabaret’. They are hopeful about rewriting history and no longer ‘being a step on a hero’s journey’. These are just some of the pithy and clever lyrics from writer and lyricist Quentin Beroud.

It’s entertaining, a little simplistic maybe, but a fun idea. But from a story perspective, it’s hard to know where it could go from there. This must have been a struggle for Beroud and writer/director Emily Louizou. The second act sees a more narrative driven story, where a mortal visits these monsters to ask for their help. At this point the energy changes, but the sombre tone and character led narrative have not been earned. A beautifully performed speech from Newman as the mortal feels a little hollow, in comparison to the campy caricatures of the beginning. The monsters, who’ve been caught in their dressing room, have shed some of their costume, which ruins the illusion. It is as if with their costume they’ve shed their extreme selves, and are much more human. It makes sense that there would need to be some story, but it clashes with the earlier tone and brings the whole energy down.

This is not the fault of the performers, all of whom are charismatic and complex. Jenkins has an incredible voice, Newman shows stark emotional range, and Van Der Westhuysen has a captivating stage presence.

Ismini Papaioannou’s costumes are brilliant, part cabaret part drag, they bring a vibrancy to the characters, and may be my favourite thing about this show. Scylla is imagined as a dog/human hybrid in an outfit made of wigs, Siren in an underwear as outerwear lingerie moment, with feathers and taloned boots. As mentioned, Charybdis is in skin-tight pleather, part seaweed part scales.

I’m not sure who the audience for this is. Retelling Greek myths is always popular, they’re great stories, and spinning them as tales of female empowerment and subjugation should work well. But this isn’t bringing anything new to the stories, apart from some great tunes (Irene Skylakaki) and joyous choreography (Ioli Filippakopoulou). While perhaps that is enough, the whole show feels strangely empty.


Reviewed on 28th May 2024

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Sophie Giddens

 


 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE BOOK OF GRACE | ★★★★★ | May 2024
LIFE WITH OSCAR | ★★★ | April 2024
WHEN YOU PASS OVER MY TOMB | ★★★★★ | February 2024
SPUTNIK SWEETHEART | ★★★ | October 2023
GENTLEMEN | ★★★★ | October 2023
THE BRIEF LIFE & MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF BORIS III, KING OF BULGARIA | ★★★★★ | September 2023
THE WETSUITMAN | ★★★ | August 2023
UNION | ★★★ | July 2023
DUCK | ★★★★ | June 2023
POSSESSION | ★★★★★ | June 2023

FABULOUS CREATURES

FABULOUS CREATURES

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Northanger Avenue – 4 Stars

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Northanger

Northanger Avenue

White Bear Theatre

Reviewed – 22nd March 2018

★★★★

“Jack Saville’s darkly comedic script is satirically sharp”

 

English teacher Tom (Chris Born) has found a spare room online and turns up to meet his potential new housemates. There’s Sam (Rob Oldham), the trainee vicar-cum-DJ on ‘Preach First’ who spins techno remixes of Jerusalem; Jenn (Flora Anderson) the hedge fund intern with a passion for graphicly violent illustration; and the alpha-housemate Sarah (Kate Newman) who is a freelance ‘writer-slash-editor’ promoting clickbait for a living who sees the Guardian as the biggest threat to the British Left. Tom’s first encounter with the housemates suggests they might not be his cup of chai tea, but with rent at only £400 a month how could he say no? It’s only after he’s moved in that he starts to think that maybe he hasn’t been told the full story about the last housemate’s sudden departure.

Writer and Director Jack Saville’s darkly comedic script is satirically sharp, poking fun at the metropolitan, millennial, liberal elite. As a self-confessed ‘paranoid millennial’, Saville has taken the sage advice to ‘write what you know’; creating characters that are exaggerated without being unbelievable. As someone who discomfortingly fits this demographic myself, I recognised plenty of friends and acquaintances in each of the housemates, resulting in many laugh out loud moments that hit close to home.

The whole cast bring this original piece to life with nuance that avoids caricature. Rob Oldham as the bumbling, pill-popping vicar has the play’s most laugh out loud lines delivered with an arresting lack of self-awareness. Kate Newman on the other hand brings a chill to the stage as the frosty Sarah, who artfully manipulates the other housemates into her submission. Flora Anderson’s Jenn’s eccentricity appears to mask insecurity whilst Chris Born as Tom is the voice of reason, and the character the audience can most sympathise with.

Set and production design by Danny Tompkins and Lucy Murray Willis is thoughtfully detailed, with empty cans of Kronenbourg and bottles of gin stood next to a carton of chocolate soya milk; and bookshelves stacked with Orwell, Owen Jones and Lonely Planet guides to the Middle East giving an insight into the characters we can expect before they even enter the stage.

Writing like this has the brilliant power to acutely mock the everyday, but the self-reference and in-jokes can be quite exclusionary. Whilst much of the comedy is universal; the unease of your early twenties; the sad realities of ‘generation rent’; if this is not your milieu, the writing will not have the same bite.

 

Reviewed by Amber Woodward

 


Northanger Avenue

White Bear Theatre until 24th March 2018

 

 

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