Phillip Money Archives - Page 21 of 34

★★

“I come away not really knowing what I have witnessed”

Two men dressed in flight suits enter the blue, dimly lit space and sit themselves down on armchairs at the front of the stage. They don’t introduce either themselves or each other but launch straight into a somewhat contrived chat. The packed Royal Albert Hall audience recognises British astronaut Tim Peake and treats his arrival with cheers fit for a national hero. If they don’t recognise show creator and music composer Ilan Eshkeri, they don’t let it show. For this is the first part – a Q&A session – of an “epic concert experience” created by Eshkeri in collaboration with the European Space Agency.

Tim speaks unassumingly of his time as an astronaut. We learn that he prefers The Beatles to The Stones, he’s a dog person rather than cat, and Marmite gets a thumbs up. But the questioning from Eshkeri doesn’t delve and we learn little of any import. There’s a big laugh when Tim says he is not allowed to answer whether he has seen alien lifeforms, followed by a collective intake of breath when he admits that he firmly believes such lifeforms do exist. Tim further states that it is impossible to describe in words what looking down onto the Earth is like, but he hopes the music of Eshkeri can do it in sound. I fear this may be asking too much of any composer.

And so, onto part two of the show. Projected onto three large screens are photographs of earth; images shot from space so that we see the earth through the eyes of the astronaut. Peake explains: Earth, home of humanity, is just a small blue oasis amidst the infinity of the absolute blackness that is space. Performing live against this backdrop is a twenty-five piece orchestra, a choir ensemble, and a rock band led by Eshkeri himself on violin, guitar, keyboards and piano, playing his own score written to augment the images. Synth-led – with important solo roles for cello, and soprano – the works of Philip Glass, Mike Oldfield and Ludovico Einaudi come to mind.

The images are stunningly beautiful: the moon, sun, and earth, the northern lights flickering their greens and yellows. But do we feel now what Tim has experienced for real – the Overview Effect – a change in outlook that astronauts admit to experiencing on their return to earth? I fear again this is one step too far for any sight and sound show to achieve. And after one relentless and impelling hour – but with no informative commentary or listed programme – I come away not really knowing what I have witnessed.

For the final track, Tim Peake is invited to the stage, electric guitar in hand, to join in with the band. It’s a nice touch with which to close the performance even if, amidst the coloured light show, our astronaut hero seems to not quite know what he is doing there.

Space Station Earth continues with a European tour featuring guest astronauts in their home countries.

Reviewed by Phillip Money

The Paradis Files

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Reviewed – 13th April 2022

★★★★

“a memorable piece”

Graeae Theatre Company presents a new chamber opera by Errollyn Wallen, libretto by Nicola Werenowska and Selina Mills, directed by Jenny Sealey, and conducted by Andrea Brown. The performance is a celebration of inclusivity with a mixed ensemble of disabled and non-disabled performers.

There are two sets of period furniture on either side of the stage (Designer Bernadette Roberts). A striking white harpsichord at centre stage turns out to be a model with a dummy keyboard. Illuminated cabinets provide an entrance to the action on one side and a costume rail on the other. A third illuminated cabinet suspended above the band is revealed as the surtitle screen. These surtitles, welcome despite the opera being sung in English, are displayed in stylish fonts on a parchment background.

The main characters are Hilde, the Baroness von Paradis (Maureen Brathwaite, soprano), and her daughter, the blind pianist and composer Maria Theresia (Bethan Langford, mezzo-soprano). The starting point of the opera may have been to bring out from obscurity Theresia’s successful life story against the odds. But the soul at its centre is the relationship between a mother and her daughter.

Composer Errollyn Wallen endeavours to evoke the sounds of both ‘posh’ and ‘street’ Vienna so the onstage band (musicians of the BBC Concert Orchestra) includes accordion alongside piano, violin, double bass, and drums/percussion. Wallen’s style for the piece is difficult to place; there are elements of the classical period (as befits the era of Salieri and Mozart) but also contemporary spikiness and other elements of jazz, swing and rock. A motif made up of piano scales and exercises represents the necessary practice at the keyboard for Theresia to make it as a musician.

An enterprising technique involving a quartet of Gossips (Ella Taylor, Andee-Louise Hypolite, Ben Thapa, & Omar Ebrahim) spells out what is happening in the plot – a form of musical audio description – and moves the action forward. Much of their onstage antics which includes playing air guitar in one scene and some comedic dancing in another is regrettably obscured from view behind the furniture.

Two stand out scenes are the visits of doctors to cure Theresia from her blindness – “binding, pinning, cutting, lighting” – the onstage action does not need to be graphic for us to understand the torture that goes on here. And the moment of enlightenment that follows as Theresia understands she can find a future for herself despite everything, “I know I am limitless”.

The importance of inclusivity within the production is highlighted with the integral roles of the two Performance Interpreters (Chandrika Gopalakrishnan and Max Marchewicz). Not only do they BSL sign the words throughout the performance but they take an active part in the action too. Ms Brathwaite may sing about slapping her daughter, but it is Chandrika who is doing the slapping. The whole company signs together as they sing ‘The Blind Enchantress’ – a nickname given to Paradis during the English leg of her European tour.

The opera is well played and sung throughout. Bethan Langford and Maureen Brathwaite are particularly excellent and provide the most moving moments of the performance. The ensemble combines well together despite some clumsy moments. Whether the libretto tells the story it intended to, I am unsure, but as a showcase of what is possible to achieve despite disability, Graeae Theatre have created a memorable piece of work.

Royal Albert Hall

Reviewed – 15th May 2022

★★

“I come away not really knowing what I have witnessed”

For the final track, Tim Peake is invited to the stage, electric guitar in hand, to join in with the band. It’s a nice touch with which to close the performance even if, amidst the coloured light show, our astronaut hero seems to not quite know what he is doing there.

Space Station Earth continues with a European tour featuring guest astronauts in their home countries.

Reviewed by Phillip Money

Space Station Earth

Royal Albert Hall

Other shows reviewed by Phillip this year:

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Reviewed – 13th April 2022

★★★★

“a memorable piece”

Graeae Theatre Company presents a new chamber opera by Errollyn Wallen, libretto by Nicola Werenowska and Selina Mills, directed by Jenny Sealey, and conducted by Andrea Brown. The performance is a celebration of inclusivity with a mixed ensemble of disabled and non-disabled performers.

Reviewed by Phillip Money

Photography by Patrick Baldwin

The Paradis Files

Queen Elizabeth Hall until 14th April then UK tour continues

Other shows reviewed by Phillip this year: