Tag Archives: Nicky Allpress

SISYPHEAN QUICK FIX 

★★★

Riverside Studios

SISYPHEAN QUICK FIX 

Riverside Studios

★★★

“The performances by Paris and Tina Rizzo remain as strong throughout”

No one who is actually fine says ‘I’m fine’. A line we hear often in life, and more than once in Bettina Paris’ play “Sisyphean Quick Fix”. So, when London-based struggling actor, Krista, asks her sister how their father is – and she responds with a shoulder-shrugging ‘he’s fine’ – we know that’s not true. The sister, Pip (Tina Rizzo), still lives in Malta where they grew up. Krista left to pursue her dream, which is on the cusp of being attained although she is currently a penniless, stressed barmaid. The siblings have comparisons and contrasts. Pip is a career woman, dresses smartly and has the luxury of slowly chewing over a marriage proposal. Krista meanwhile is unlucky in love and life but unbound by expectations. What they do share, however, is a strong childhood bond. And an alcoholic father. The feelings of responsibility are equal, but what is contentious is each other’s share of the burden (especially as Krista lives far away). The play steers through the minefield of emotions as their father’s illness deteriorates.

Paris herself plays Krista and, apparently, the subject is based on real life experience. She has a natural onstage presence that puts us at ease. The opening scenes are light-hearted and full of expressive and witty dialogue that firmly establishes the sisters’ strong bond and affectionate rivalry. Nicky Allpress’ slick and intuitive direction creates two separate worlds that eventually converge into one. Initially, Oliver McNally’s lighting separates these worlds, bathing Pip’s Malta in a rusty glow while Krista’s London has the cold, hazy hues of the ‘Big Smoke’. A middle ground is found when Krista travels back to Malta.

Unfortunately, it is in the middle ground where the writing starts to get too comfortable. And the stakes don’t feel quite as high as they should. The performances by Paris and Tina Rizzo remain as strong throughout, but the offstage characters come to us second-hand without really coming to life. They wonderfully show us the effects their father has on their lives, yet the complexities of the causes remain underexplored, weakening the heart of the matter. The focus is still very much on Pip and Krista. And a wonderful, honest portrayal of their relationship it is. But although we get a sense of the sacrifices they make, we don’t feel the force of the circumstances that drive their decisions.

Ubiquitous questions surface: ‘could we have done more?’ or ‘we’re going to be okay?’ – the latter weighed down by its oversized question mark. Admittedly there are no definitive answers but in this play the questions seem a touch unearned. The title alludes to the Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was condemned to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top – repeating the action for eternity. In contemporary culture, tasks that are considered laborious or futile are described as Sisyphean. “Sisyphean Quick Fix”, however, is quite the opposite. Played out in short, fractured scenes there is an effortlessness to the staging that deals with an important, pertinent and universal topic. Which paradoxically also creates the problem – we don’t fully grasp the real struggle. The finely crafted writing needs just a few more sharp edges for it to cut through beyond the skin.



SISYPHEAN QUICK FIX 

Riverside Studios

Reviewed on 19th March 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Marusia Makhmutova

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

SECOND BEST | ★★★★ | February 2025
HERE YOU COME AGAIN | ★★★★ | December 2024
DECK THE STALLS | ★★★ | December 2024
THE UNSEEN | ★★★★ | November 2024
FRENCH TOAST | ★★★★ | October 2024
KIM’S CONVENIENCE | ★★★ | September 2024
THE WEYARD SISTERS | ★★ | August 2024
MADWOMEN OF THE WEST | ★★ | August 2024
MOFFIE | ★★★ | June 2024
KING LEAR | ★★★★ | May 2024

 

 

SISYPHEAN QUICK FIX

SISYPHEAN QUICK FIX

SISYPHEAN QUICK FIX

OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR

★★★★

UK Tour

OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR at the Theatre Royal Windsor

★★★★

“A multi-talented cast of Pierrot-style performers … give their all in this satirical rollercoaster of a show.”

As one of the UK’s leading touring companies with a commitment to theatre that ‘entertains, provokes and inspires in equal measure’, Blackeyed Theatre are continuing their anniversary tour of Joan Littlewood’s pioneering ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ with a stop in Windsor.

The piece was developed in an improvisatory style by Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop in in 1963. Her vision was to break the fourth wall that separates audience from performer, challenging elitism by taking theatre to where it was most needed as part of her proud boast that she was a ‘vulgar woman of the people’.

A multi-talented cast of Pierrot-style performers, most of whom trained on the Rose Bruford School’s Actor Musicianship programme, give their all in this satirical rollercoaster of a show. Director Nicky Allpress acknowledges the complex challenges of the piece which she describes as ‘a beast’ to rehearse – but her vision shines through.

Projections designed by Clive Elkington detail the heart-rending cost of the so-called ‘war to end all wars’ that pointlessly took the lives of tens of millions of young people whilst their unfeeling commanders remained indifferent to their struggle from a position of relative safety behind the lines.

An atmospheric backdrop is created by a circus tent inspired set (Victoria Spearing) evocatively lit by Alan Valentine. The cast play percussion, trumpet, double bass, accordion and more. They sing the old battlefield songs with a mad intensity which seemed to escape the audience member to my right. He sang along gleefully until the fierce cost of the conflict began to appear. Then he was silent.

Even before the show opens, Pierrots lounge in a box and interact with the audience in surprising ways. There are a number of stand-out scenes, including a poignant re-creation of the moment when soldiers met in no-man’s land on Christmas Day. But there’s no false sentimentality here and the satire is brilliantly sharp in a number of key scenes that depict the officer ‘donkeys’ who ordered the British lions into destruction. Naomi Gibbs has designed some clever costumes that at one point permit the cast to play both officers and wives in a viciously entertaining ballroom scene.

The company demonstrated a brilliant command of different voices, and their take on the indifferent drawl of the officer class was particularly impressive. Tom Benjamin sparkled as the MC and Harry Curley and Euan Wilson gave equally strong performances. The other members of the cast  shone equally in this non-stop cavalcade of a show.


OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR at the Theatre Royal Windsor as part of UK Tour

Reviewed on 2nd April 2024

by David Woodward

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

CLOSURE | ★★★★ | February 2024
THE GREAT GATSBY | ★★★ | February 2024
ALONE TOGETHER | ★★★★ | August 2023
BLOOD BROTHERS | ★★★★★ | January 2022
THE CHERRY ORCHARD | ★★★★ | October 2021

OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR

OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR

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