King's Head Theatre Archives - Page 24 of 52

★★★

“While the show is undoubtedly entertaining, it’s difficult not to wish for more thought behind the jokes”

We all know Timpson, the high street shop for your shoe-repair and key-cutting needs. But few know how the company came to be. The true story isn’t all that interesting: William Timpson and his brother-in-law Walter Joyce decided to go into business together. So Gigglemug Theatre have “invented a new one instead” (as their opening number goes): a musical Romeo and Juliet spoof, set in Victorian London, featuring Monty Montashoe and Keeleigh Keypulet as young lovers from two warring households.

Written and directed by Sam Cochrane and Chris Baker, Timpson: The Musical is pure slapstick. It’s a creative premise and an hour of sophomoric silliness that’s heavy on camp but unfortunately short on wit. The show’s humour is based on randomness rather than cleverness, which will work for some, but not others. ‘Keys are tiny saws!’ ‘I invented a dog door-flap, but for people! A people-flap!’ Someone runs screaming across the stage for no reason (something I’ve seen executed more successfully before). There are mimed punches and pratfalls. While the show is undoubtedly entertaining, it’s difficult not to wish for more thought behind the jokes. Some freshness of perspective would lift the comedy. Charlie Chaplin once said that the better joke is not the woman slipping on the banana peel; it’s the woman stepping over the banana peel and falling down a manhole. Timpson is a regular slip on a banana peel.

Although none of the songs are particularly memorable, they’re fun, and the singing is very well done all around. It’s a high-energy musical, and the actors give one hundred percent. Sabrina Messer is likeable as Keeleigh. James Stirling and Rachael Chomer are solid as Master Keypulet and Lady Montashoe. Alex Prescot (Man 1) deserves special commendation for his parody of multi-roling. Cochrane (Man 2) and Madeleine Gray (Monty) have impressive stamina. However, somehow, in a musical that is unmitigated camp, Gray’s performance is noticeably hammy. She pulls faces and leans heavily into physical and verbal jokes that are not sound enough to hold the weight. The exaggeration could use some dialling back. Regardless, the performers are all on full-force. This is not a show that will have you surreptitiously checking the time.

The audience last night exemplified the divisiveness of Timpson’s humour: one section never missed a cue to laugh, while in mine I may have heard a cricket on several occasions. A good litmus test is this: if you find the thought of keys being ‘tiny saws’ very funny, go see the show. If not, be warned that incredibly this joke is the crux of both the comedy and the story.

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography courtesy Gigglemug Theatre

Gently Down the Stream

Park Theatre

Reviewed – 17th February 2019

★★★★★

“deeply personal, yet universal; beautifully crafted, yet natural and full of love”

There are some extraordinary theatrical experiences that move you so much that you want everybody to share them. This is one of them. Gently Down the Stream is written from the heart with such genuine feeling and soul that it gets inside you, taking you on a journey full of laughter, tears and hopeful joy.

Martin Sherman wanted to write a play that looked at the changes in gay lifestyle during his lifetime, but couldn’t figure out how to go about it until, one day when shopping for groceries, he got the idea of setting the story around an intergenerational relationship. The play takes place in West London over a thirteen year period, from 2001 to 2014, starting at the beginning of the relationship between sixty two year old Beau and twenty-eight year old Rufus. Rufus’ desire to learn about Beau’s life and his experiences on the gay scene take the audience on a voyage from New Orleans, where he grew up, through New York, Paris and London, from the forties on. As the love between Beau and Rufus develops they deal with their own personal demons, against the background of memory and history, until Harry arrives in their lives and changes everything.

Sherman says “I would write about a generation of gay men – my generation – that was brought up to believe they weren’t allowed to love, who now had to deal with a young generation that had no doubt but that they had every right to love.” His writing is deeply personal, yet universal; beautifully crafted, yet natural and full of love.

Jonathan Hyde’s Beau is touching and very funny. Beau’s life story takes us through iconic moments in gay history and intensely personal memories, and Hyde thoroughly inhabits the role. If his accent seems, at times, to slip, it doesn’t matter. He is outstandingly real and believable. Rufus is played by Ben Allen with energy and charm. He breathes new life into Beau, showing him new possibilities as he learns about the past. Harry Lawtey brings humour and a delightful freshness to the role of Harry, changing the relationship between Beau and Rufus, and opening the way for other kinds of love.

Director Sean Mathias is a long term friend of the writer, and he has worked with Sherman and his cast to produce an unforgettable piece of theatre. The set, designed by Lee Newby, is a living room with a stairs leading to an upper hallway, a perfect home for Beau, giving a sense of his character through his furniture and possessions. Jamie Platt’s lighting and Lex Kosanke’s sound design meld together, adding to the atmospheric background of the play.

Gently Down the Stream is an important piece of work that tells a story that we need to know. A story of how gay men have come from a world where their lives and loves were illegal, to a world where they can marry and raise children together. There is still homophobia, there are still battles to be won, but this journey through a history that includes Stonewall and AIDS, is a triumphant one. In this play, that is universal and deeply personal, Beau, Rufus and Harry show us how love has many forms, and is at the heart of a life well lived.