★★★★

“This is a story of flat cap versus top hat, the salt of the earth against the posh and toffee-nosed and it’s firmly on the side of the underdog”

Falling firmly in the middle of the off-season with only the European Championships for football fans to keep an eye on, is a tour by The Long Lane Theatre Company of their own devised work all about the beautiful game. And it’s an excellent 90 minutes plus added time of entertainment.

This is the little-known story of Darwen FC from Lancashire and how they became the first team of working class lads to play in the FA Cup, then the prerogative of the privileged classes. Three memorable and bloody matches played at the Kensington Oval against the mighty Old Etonians are re-enacted and much is claimed for this little club including first use by the press of the term Giant Killers (100 years before Sutton United, this), first use of a substitute, and first involvement in a game by professional players (disputed!).

This is a story of flat cap versus top hat, the salt of the earth against the posh and toffee-nosed and it’s firmly on the side of the underdog.

Written in the style of narrative storytelling, the cast of four are equally excellent. Central to everything is Lucy (Eve Pearson-Wright), the beautiful, potty-mouthed publican who unofficially runs the football club and is in constant argument with her player brother and self-appointed Captain of the team Billy (Graham Butler). Robert Kirkham (Andrew Pearson-Wright) is a prodigal son returning to Darwin after a time away in Scotland where he has picked up controversial new ways of playing the game but is now looking to woo the love of his life. And posh-speaking James Ashton (Nicholas Shaw) is the son of the local mill owner, an old Harrovian who gets a say in the running of the team because he has bought them a set of shirts.

Designed for national tour (Designer Kevin Jenkins), the set is necessarily minimal: some cleverly designed cabinets boast hidden drawers, even a window, that open up to enhance different scenes, and ingenious use of moving benches provide a variety of options around the stage. But the actors’ movements are rather linear and at the stage edges sometimes are caught out of the light. Only when the football starts in earnest at the end of the first half and the forestage is brought into use is there any visual depth. But then things really work. Pearson-Wright and Butler especially excel in their high-octane match commentary and physical prowess. Slo-mo replays of an exhilarating dribble and shot on goal, or a goalkeeper’s save have the audience gasping and cheering (Movement Director Emily Holt).

This is a story with a lot of heart, superbly told. In a moment of tragedy Graham Butler beautifully sings a poignant Abide with Me, a funereal anthem with its own FA Cup connection. A couple of sub-plots involving rioting townsfolk and striking cotton mill workers could have been made more of but the premise that people that come together can achieve a common goal is uplifting and clearly made.

THE OPERA LOCOS at the Peacock Theatre

★★★★

“The show is impossible to compartmentalise – part operatic revue, part vaudeville – and total pleasure”

Five sensational opera singers share the stage in this hard-to-pigeonhole musical entertainment presented by Spanish company YLLANA (Artistic Directors David Ottone & Joe O’Curneen).

If any clue is in the title (locos = crazy), the gaudily colourful costumes confirm that this show is going to be wild. Alfredo (Jesús Álvarez, tenor) enthusiastically introduces us to the ensemble dressed in a fetching bottle green fat suit. Carmen (Mayca Teba, mezzo soprano) looks like an extra from the musical Cats, Franelli (Michaël Koné, counter tenor) is straight out of a Prince pop video. The men’s faces are painted white so that they resemble commedia dell’arte characters and all is enhanced by powerful lighting in dramatic reds and blues.

The five performers are part of an operatic troupe and we see them on stage and behind the scenes. Enrique (Enrique Sánchez-Ramos, baritone) gives singing lessons to Franelli, encouraging him to sing more manly whilst evading his amorous advances. Ditsy Maria (Maria Rey-Joly, soprano) has a crush on Alfredo and we watch their tentative steps in courtship. But Alfredo has troubles of his own, considering suicide as he acknowledges his fading talent and his enlarging waistline.

There is no dialogue at all. Intentions and feelings are portrayed through operatic aria, gesture, sighs, mime and more than a little clowning. The performers sing live to a recorded orchestral track and over the course of the show we hear hits from all the operatic greats: Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Bizet et al. But the gimmick here is that interspersed into the mix are bits of popular music too. Who knew that Rossini could segue so well into Mika’s Grace Kelly? Or Carmen into Whitney? One doesn’t need to know all the sources of all the tunes, but certainly it increases the fun when you’re able to recognise something and enjoy the a-ha moment.

All the singers get their moment in the spotlight and everyone nails it. Enrique’s Figaro is the highlight of the evening, although Maria’s Queen of the Night runs him close. And it’s fitting that the climax of the story should culminate in everyone’s favourite aria, Nessun Dorma from Alfredo.

Love, of course, will win out. Alfredo overcomes his inner demons with a lusty rendition of My Way and accepts the love of Maria. Enrique comes out of the closet to pair up with the pop-loving Franelli. Only Carmen remains uncoupled until she consummates her flirtation with a gentleman in the front row by bringing him onto the stage for the encores.

For me, the English language pop megamix which ends the show seems tagged on, and without the subtlety of what has gone before, but it brings the house down.

This multi-talented cast not only sing superbly but also act, mime, clown and boast expert comic timing. The show is impossible to compartmentalise – part operatic revue, part vaudeville – and total pleasure.

THE GIANT KILLERS at Wilton’s Music Hall

★★★★

“This is a story of flat cap versus top hat, the salt of the earth against the posh and toffee-nosed and it’s firmly on the side of the underdog”

THE GIANT KILLERS at Wilton’s Music Hall

Reviewed on 27th June 2024

by Phillip Money

Click on image below for tour dates

Previously reviewed at this venue:

THE GIANT KILLERS

THE GIANT KILLERS

THE OPERA LOCOS at the Peacock Theatre

★★★★

“The show is impossible to compartmentalise – part operatic revue, part vaudeville – and total pleasure”

THE OPERA LOCOS at the Peacock Theatre

Reviewed on 8th May 2024

by Phillip Money

Photography by Lighuen De Santos

Previously reviewed Sadler’s Wells venues:

THE OPERA LOCOS

THE OPERA LOCOS