Tag Archives: Marc Brenner

HADESTOWN

★★★★★

Lyric Theatre

HADESTOWN at the Lyric Theatre

★★★★★

“Hadestown is the West End musical you’ll want to see this year. And next year. And the year after.”

Hadestown is that remarkable thing: an adaptation of a tragic Greek myth that isn’t an opera or a film, or a series of elegiac poems, but is instead a bluesy, jazzy, rock musical with an uplifting ending. Yes, you read that right. Anaïs Mitchell, who wrote the music, lyrics and book, promoted early versions of Hadestown from rural beginnings in Vermont for years before she found the right team to help bring her vision to Broadway. And after taking Broadway by storm in 2019, it’s now the turn of London’s West End. This production of Hadestown has found just the right venue. The Lyric Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue is big enough to enhance the energy of its multi-talented cast, yet intimate enough to create the mood of a jazz club in New Orleans.

Hadestown is not the first musical to adapt the ancient Greek story of singer songwriter Orpheus and his wife Eurydice, but this is a fresh take on an old story. In the original, Orpheus and Eurydice are newly weds, blissfully happy until Eurydice dies from a snakebite. Unable to accept her loss, Orpheus follows her into Hades’ realm, with only his musical talent for protection. But Hadestown is not just about Orpheus and Eurydice. It’s also the story of another pair of doomed lovers, Persephone and Hades, the King and Queen of the Underworld. Plus their part in the environmental destruction that’s taking place on the planet above them. There’s a lot of material to unpack, but Mitchell’s lyrics, music and book are satisfyingly complex enough to hold it all.

 

 

Mitchell and her team have made some changes to the original Greek myth. Orpheus is still the dreamy artist, too busy composing songs to notice the danger his wife is in. Eurydice is an orphan in this version, hungry and cold. When the King of the Underworld tempts her with a one way ticket on his train to hell, she gives up Orpheus for food and shelter in return. Her story is mirrored in that of Hades’ unhappy wife Persephone. Hades, the brutal capitalist, is too busy exploiting his workers to pay much attention to her. The irony is that Hades thinks he can chain Persephone to him with his profits in gold, silver and jewelry. In the Hadestown version of the myth, there are four unhappy people with much to give. Yet they keep making the choices that bring them all to hell. There’s a lesson there for all of us. Fortunately it takes the form of memorable songs, brilliant lyrics, plus a book that is unusually complex and thought provoking. With so much packed into Hadestown, it’s easy to forgive the length of this musical. And one or two spots where the action slows, and you waken, for a moment, from the dream.

The Lyric Theatre’s production of Hadestown has put together a fantastic cast, and a band of great talent to support them. Despite the formidable leading men, Dónal Finn (Orpheus) and Zachary James (Hades), this production belongs to its leading women. Gloria Onitiri as Persephone and Grace Hodgett Young as Eurydice fill the space with their powerhouse voices, and Melanie La Barrie (Hermes) is both a voice to reckon with as well as a sympathetic narrator. Fates Bella Brown, Madeline Charlemagne and Allie Daniel turbo charge the female power on stage. The rest of the cast are equally dynamic supporters, and there’s no question the musicians are up to the task of backing these voices. Trombonist Daniel Higham and Brad Webb on drums stand out as they add just the right amount of jazz club intimacy to draw the audience in. The choreography (David Neumann), costumes (Michael Krass) and lighting (Bradley King) echo the sense of nightclub ambience. Together with the vision of Mitchell, the direction of Rachel Chavkin and Rachel Hauck’s scenic design, the team keeps this version of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth paradoxically intimate, while seamlessly transferring the action between upper world to underworld, with assists from stage lifts and revolves.

Hadestown is the West End musical you’ll want to see this year. And next year. And the year after. Take your friends. This version of a classical Greek myth is something we can all relate to. Orpheus and Eurydice’s love story may have a tragic ending, but you’ll leave the theatre in an upbeat mood.


HADESTOWN at the Lyric Theatre

Reviewed on 21st February 2024

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Marc Brenner

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

GET UP STAND UP! | ★★★★ | August 2022

HADESTOWN

HADESTOWN

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

 

The Enfield Haunting

THE ENFIELD HAUNTING

★½

Ambassadors Theatre

THE ENFIELD HAUNTING at the Ambassadors Theatre

★½

The Enfield Haunting

“Unfortunately, The Enfield Haunting is a very bad play”

Between 1977 and 1979, the story of the Enfield poltergeist gripped the British public. A ghostly spirit had allegedly taken up lodgings in a council house in the London Borough of Enfield, creating havoc for the working-class family who lived there. The Enfield Haunting, written by Paul Unwin and directed by Angus Jackson, is based on these supposedly paranormal events, providing some potential answers for the still unresolved case. To inform his theatrical retelling, Unwin spoke with Guy Lyon-Playfair, a member of the Society of Psychical Research, who visited the site of the Enfield poltergeist 180 times.

Catherine Tate stars as Peggy Hodgson, single parent and matriarch of the family. The middle child, Janet (Ella Schrey-Yeats), has begun displaying strange episodes of behaviour – she convulses violently and speaks in tongues but then seemingly remembers none of it. Elsewhere in the house, objects and furniture appear to move on their own accord, fuses go out suddenly, and a haunting male figure is spotted lurking in the shadows.

Much to the family’s dismay, Maurice Grosse (David Threlfall), a British paranormal investigator, takes up near-residence in the house, monitoring the goings-on with his special equipment night after night. Clashing with neighbour ‘Uncle’ Rey (Mo Sesay) who believes these spooky happenings are merely pranks in collaboration with the other children, Margaret (Grace Molony) and Jimmy (Noah Leggott), the Hodgsons try and navigate their newfound national notoriety.

All sounds rather exciting, right? The source material is interesting and there is great potential to explore a long history of ‘hysterical’ young women and the mayhem they can cause. Unfortunately, The Enfield Haunting is a very bad play. The script is painfully weak – conversations and dialogue drag on for far longer than they need to. Rey delivers monologues of no substance that espouse the same points over and over again. Tate, a brilliant actress on stage and the silver screen, is pretty much reduced to saying the same two lines on repeat – ‘Please go home, Rey!’ and ‘I don’t know, Mr Grosse!’ – which is a tremendous waste of her talent.

“the tension is completely lacking”

Within its short 75-minute run-time (cut down by over 30 minutes from the previews), the play simply tries to cover too much. We are treated to not one but TWO twists which do not meld together at all. It is almost as if the production thought they’d try out both, see which gets the best reaction, and run with that. Unfortunately, both fall a bit flat, eliciting notable giggles from the audience.

Schrey-Yeats does well to bring some creepiness to this bland production. Molony is a good support as the eldest child, sufficiently vexatious in manner. Threlfall is given the richest character to explore, and he does what he can to bring some eccentricity and humour to the tale.

The set – designed by Lee Newby – is rather wonderful, a two-storey interior of the infamous house. The sound design (Carolyn Downing) is also strong – the music is atmospheric, the tension built well in these moments. Overall, however, the tension is completely lacking. The pacing is off. The recreation of the most iconic photo from the case – Janet seemingly floating in mid-air in their bedroom – happens so flippantly in the first 15-minutes that it is easily missed.

The illusions – led by Paul Kieve – are OK – a figure appears suddenly in the house before a sudden blackout allows him ample time to move. But nothing is unexplainable – except why the production team thought this play was fit for stage.

It is a great shame that something so well-informed has been unable to hit the mark and join the ranks of other great horror theatre. It is also disappointing that even with such a strong leading duo, such a feeble show is the result. Unless you are a serious paranormal fan, it is definitely one to miss.


THE ENFIELD HAUNTING at the Ambassadors Theatre

Reviewed on 10th January 2024

by Flora Doble

Photography by Marc Brenner

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

ROSE | ★★★★ | May 2023
MAD HOUSE | ★★★★★ | June 2022
COCK | ★★★ | March 2022

THE ENFIELD HAUNTING

THE ENFIELD HAUNTING

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page