Pollyanna Newcombe Archives - Page 2 of 2

Queer Trilogy:

A Sticky Season

★★★★★

Minor Disruptions

★★

Crystal Bollix presents The Bitch Ball

★★

Drayton Arms Theatre

Reviewed – 19th March 2019

“A less convincing second half dampens the impact of Donald’s piece, but remains fun nonetheless”

This enjoyable – if not a little odd – triple bill of shows at the Drayton Arms groups together three intriguing and original shows connected by the omnipresent spectre of the past, and how it shapes our understanding of our own personal present.

Jack Donald’s startling and poetic ‘A Sticky Season’ starts off the evening on a high that the other shows never quite reach. A lyrical, ‘Beat’-inspired monologue delivered by Donald himself, the story follows the musings of our narrator wandering through a forest in the summer of 2018. His journey takes him to Eighties-era San Francisco, where he watches Gaetan Dugas turn from club loving boy to the media’s AIDS scapegoat, and ends in Sixties-era Islington, where he witnesses the turbulent relationship (and ultimate murder/suicide) of Joe Orton and jealous lover Kenneth Halliwell.

The motif of fruit oozes through this production, infiltrating the stage design, lighting, and action. If ‘Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit’ and ‘Call My By Your Name’ had a child, it would probably look a like this. Marcus McManus and Rosie-Lea Sparkle offer necessary support for Donald, using movement and bodies to become at once other characters and Donald’s internal mindscape. Pollyanna Newcombe as director keeps these moments of movement solid and precise. If ‘A Sticky Season’ could be improved, it would be Donald allowing himself to relax with his audience and enjoy the comedic moments more. Riveting stuff that deserves a run in its own right.

A less convincing second half dampens the impact of Donald’s piece, but remains fun nonetheless. ‘Minor Disruptions’ introduces us to Katie Paterson’s take on childhood. Relying heavily on audience participation, Paterson’s one-person show is funny at times, performed with confidence, and showing skills in improvisation that match those of a stand-up comic. However, a drab finish and too much time spent (literally) in the dark makes the show feel unfinished. Some interesting moments, such as having audience members slopping sun cream and water all over the place, are overshadowed by the more tedious sections that neither reveal anything new nor drive along some semblance of a story.

The final show is ‘Crystal Bollix Presents The Bitch Ball’, a study of bitch-ness with Alexandra Christie’s alter-ego Crystal Bollix. Accompanied by deadpan and underused pianist Lena Stahl, Bollix takes us through a brief history of the word ‘bitch’ and their own relationship to it. The show relies, as advertised, heavily on lip-syncing and audience interaction, but both need to be turned up to 11 to make the whole thing more enjoyable. There needs to be more happening here to make watching someone lip-sync entertaining past the opening few minutes.

Queer Trilogy is a mixed bag of an evening, but worth it for ‘A Sticky Season’. Anyone who likes the idea of sharing a hamster story, or having their face plunged into whipped cream, will enjoy the second half too.

Reviewed by Joseph Prestwich

Photography by Lexi Clare

Queer Trilogy

Drayton Arms Theatre until 23rd March

Previously reviewed at this venue:

No Leaves on my Precious Self | ★★ | July 2018

The Beautiful Game | ★★★ | August 2018

Love, Genius and a Walk | ★ | October 2018

Out of Step | ★★ | January 2019

Th’Importance Of Bein’ Earnest | ★★★ | February 2019

The Problem With Fletcher Mott | ★★★ | February 2019

Staying Faithful | ★★ | March 2019

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

★★½

“The shift in tone is jarring, and the decision to alienate the audience from the things that had ingratiated them feels baffling”

If you saw the title for Eoin McKenna’s one-man play and thought ‘blimey, that seems a bit provocative’, you’d be right. Specky Ginger C*nt has very little to do with McKenna being ginger, and much more to do with the abandonment issues that an absent parent can cause. However, it’s difficult to say it’s even really about that in a show that’s nigh-on structureless and tonally disjointed.

The play sees McKenna recount his life and experiences so far to the audience, from growing up living with his mum in Lancashire through to his twenty-third birthday. He covers a myriad of topics, from drugs, to sexuality, to Catholicism, all arguably and tenuously linked to the more central theme of McKenna processing the effect of the absence of his father in his life, but it never really feels like it ties in meaningfully to these other strands. As a result, the script seems to aimlessly wander from event to event without really providing a basis as to why, and consequently lacks any sense of pace as there’s no grasp of a progression or journey.

For the first half of Specky Ginger C*nt, though, this issue didn’t seem prescient as it felt more like stand-up comedy than a play – and actually worked very effectively. McKenna’s sense of humour is sharp, witty, and deliciously dark at times, and the laughs are relentless on a number of occasions. If this style had carried through the whole play, the lack of an arc would have been forgivable, but the second half instead strips away the humour and sees McKenna attempt to come to terms with his father’s absence in more emotionally-charged writing and under icy blue lighting. The shift in tone is jarring, and the decision to alienate the audience from the things that had ingratiated them feels baffling. Moreover, the content of this half feels more amateurish as McKenna repeatedly labours the point of how much he suffers, which diminishes the extent to which the audience can sympathise.

Where the writing is disappointing, however, McKenna takes huge strides to compensate with an outstanding performance. Directed by Pollyanna Newcombe, his comic timing is impeccable in the first half, reeling off snappy deliveries with the perfect blend of light and shade in confidence and vulnerability. In the second half, McKenna lets that vulnerability take centre stage to wring as much pathos as possible out of the lacklustre script; in doing so, nuance disappears and the audience is smothered in just shade.

Reviewed by Tom Francis

A Sticky Season

★★★★★

Minor Disruptions

★★

Crystal Bollix presents The Bitch Ball

★★

Drayton Arms Theatre

Reviewed – 19th March 2019

“A less convincing second half dampens the impact of Donald’s piece, but remains fun nonetheless”

This enjoyable – if not a little odd – triple bill of shows at the Drayton Arms groups together three intriguing and original shows connected by the omnipresent spectre of the past, and how it shapes our understanding of our own personal present.

Queer Trilogy is a mixed bag of an evening, but worth it for ‘A Sticky Season’. Anyone who likes the idea of sharing a hamster story, or having their face plunged into whipped cream, will enjoy the second half too.

Reviewed by Joseph Prestwich

Photography by Lexi Clare

Queer Trilogy

Drayton Arms Theatre until 23rd March

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Katzpace Studio Theatre

Reviewed – 19th November 2018

★★½

“The shift in tone is jarring, and the decision to alienate the audience from the things that had ingratiated them feels baffling”

Reviewed by Tom Francis

Specky Ginger C*nt

Katzpace Studio Theatre

Previously reviewed at this venue: