IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

★★★★★

“brilliantly kinetic and breezy”

This year, we’re all round Doreen’s for an absolute cracker of a Christmas.

It’s the best of times and the worst of times but this fractious and penniless Islington family have no choice but to see it through, squeezed together in their council flat like overcooked sprouts at the bottom of a bin bag.

So who’s on the guest list?

There’s world-weary matriarch Doreen (Alice Selwyn), boozing away bad memories, proud of her girls but they drive her nuts.

And sisters Gemma (wryly mordant Nancy Brabin-Platt) and single mum Riley (Lois Tallulah, more on her later). They’re at each other’s throats, one Spurs, one Arsenal, which seems to sum up their forever frenemy feuding.

And then there’s teenager Jorja (a lovely, affecting turn by Ella Harding). She’s the odd one out. She has a different father to her sisters and a secret boyfriend who is perhaps pushing a little too hard for Jorja to grow up.

Together, they are all as sparky and temperamental as Christmas lights.

Hang on. Where are all the men? Well, they are close by. That’s because this rogues gallery of feckless losers is in Pentonville prison which is just over the wall. So near and yet so far.

The wall casts a long shadow. Sometimes it’s an obstacle, especially for little lost Jorja who misses her dad. And sometimes the wall is a last line of defence against an onslaught of deadbeat drug-dealing do-nothings. Prison reform is a theme here but not so much as to be intrusive. Besides, with these men, more prison seems like the answer, not less.

Who else is coming? There’s flush Trish, an old friend (boisterous Jennifer Joseph), spreading good cheer. And pregnant stranger Jamila (Nadia Lamin showing formidable comic chops). The sisters encounter her shouting madly over that wall at incarcerated hubby Christian to keep him updated. Because Jamila is very, very pregnant. And it’s Christmas so, er, hello? How’s that going to end, we wonder.

As the sisters build up to Christmas there are secrets to be shared, some of them very uncomfortable, but in director Isla Jackson-Ritchie’s brilliantly kinetic and breezy production, the traumas are brushed past quickly, being more effective for their handling.

Enough of this doom and gloom, declares sozzled Doreen, let’s have a lovely Christmas.

The Jack Studio’s compact stage is packed and lively – three rooms in one, including a working kitchen, fridge, Christmas tree – and people are always coming and going. The whole thing is thrillingly unstagey and natural, the connections between the women – perpetually frayed, never broken – are a breath of fresh air.

The script feels less written than lived in. Lois Tallulah who plays struggling Riley with a hard face and a soft heart is the writer (and also co-director). Wow, what a talent.

Despite the friction, the endless man problems, the heartache and the cheap plonk, we could have stayed at Doreen’s a lot longer – perilous though it is – if only to find out how it all works out for the sisters. They feel like family now.

With this production, you buy a ticket, but you get an invitation: spend the festive season with the girls. They’re a raucous bunch – brutal, brittle, drunk and teetering. But you’re gonna love ’em.

Joyous. Utterly joyous.

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed on 14th November 2024

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Tim Stubbs Hughes @ Grey Swan

Previously reviewed at this venue:

CAN’T WAIT TO LEAVE | ★★★½ | November 2024

MARCELLA’S MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT | ★★ | September 2024

DEPTFORD BABY | ★★★ | July 2024

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING | ★★★ | August 2022

RICHARD II | ★★★★★ | February 2022

HOLST: THE MUSIC IN THE SPHERES | ★★★★★ | January 2022

PAYNE: THE STARS ARE FIRE | ★★★ | January 2022

TRESTLE | ★★★ | June 2021

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY

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★★★★

“almost Shakespearian at times in the rhythm of the language yet peppered with modern profanities and anachronisms”

One always admires companies who tackle outdoor shows in the UK. They are always risky undertakings, what Oscar Wilde would describe as a ‘triumph of hope over experience’. The evocatively titled Midnight Circle Productions don’t shy away from the challenge as they take their devised adaptation of Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” around some of England’s most beautiful castles, manor houses and gardens.

As part of the tour, they have shored up in the West India Docks for two nights at the Crossrail Place Roof Garden in Canary Wharf. A haven of exotic plants and hidden pathways that lead you to the small amphitheatre that, in partnership with The Space Theatre, offers free events throughout the summer months. Asian bamboos to the left, ferns from the Americas to the right, the walkway follows the Meridian line, but it never quite feels like you have escaped the city. An artificial sheen hangs in the air, matched by the rather unatmospheric theatre space you eventually stumble upon. Planes, trains and automobiles provide much of the soundtrack while a featureless wall provides the backdrop.

The cast rise to the challenge and, although not always projecting as strongly as is necessary, they hold our attention throughout with their retelling of the Brontë classic. Told with wonderful clarity and constancy, it stamps its own individuality by allowing the characterisation to fill the spaces in the framework of the text. Director Nicholas Benjamin’s semi-improvised approach lets everyone take a writing credit. The result could be chaotic but here the narrative is a mix of soap opera and classical prose; almost Shakespearian at times in the rhythm of the language yet peppered with modern profanities and anachronisms. The fluctuating tempo of the staging is led by offstage percussion and sporadic bouts of music that tentatively wander into the playing space. An underused squeezebox shyly underscores while an under amplified guitar accompanies the folksy song interludes.

The story unfolds in flashback as Nelly (Jacqueline Johnson) relates it to Lockwood (Nicholas Benjamin), the new tenant to gruff, eccentric Heathcliff – the landlord of the remote Wuthering Heights. Transported back thirty years, Lockwood learns the backstory to the two families (the Earnshaws and the Lintons) and their turbulent relationships with the Earnshaws’ adopted son, Heathcliff. While the production doesn’t quite capture the Romanticism and the Gothic heart of the novel, it certainly draws attention to the cruelty, both mental and physical and the challenging issue of abuse, class and morality. Renny Mendoza’s Heathcliff is a rather unremitting thug, who sulks and shouts his way to his pitiless end, though a charismatic presence, nonetheless. Oscar Mackie’s Hindley Earnshaw, despite being the archetypal bully, fares better in the sympathy stakes. Less a drunkard, Mackie plays the alcoholic with a modern sensitivity. A similar modernism is given to Catherine Earnshaw (Niamh Handley-Vaughan) and Isabella Linton (Nadia Lamin). Both Handley-Vaughan and Lamin keep victimhood at bay with their strong portrayals of the tragic women.

The strengths of this show, however, are often lost in the surroundings. Subtle sound effects (of ghosts or of a wrenching cry) created by the company members themselves had to compete with layers of traffic and streams of curious, often vocal, onlookers. We are more than tempted to follow the play to its next location to feel the full impact of the performance – one full of respect for the original, but not afraid to give it a bit of a shake.

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

★★★★★

“brilliantly kinetic and breezy”

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY at the Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed on 14th November 2024

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Tim Stubbs Hughes @ Grey Swan

Previously reviewed at this venue:

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY

IN THE SHADOW OF HER MAJESTY

WUTHERING HEIGHTS at the Crossrail Place Roof Garden

★★★★

“almost Shakespearian at times in the rhythm of the language yet peppered with modern profanities and anachronisms”

WUTHERING HEIGHTS at the Crossrail Place Roof Garden then tour continues

Reviewed on 24th July 2024

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Roj Whitelock

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WUTHERING HEIGHTS

WUTHERING HEIGHTS