Tag Archives: Sasha Regan

Brass – 4 Stars

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Brass

Brass

Union Theatre

Reviewed – 6th November 2018

★★★★

“this moving piece about love and solidarity, humanises history and brings the forgotten to the foreground”

 

As Remembrance Sunday is coming up this weekend, with particular poignancy, as it will mark a hundred years since the armistice, Brass seems the most appropriate piece of theatre to watch this week in the capital. Originally commissioned by National Youth Music Theatre in 2014, Benjamin Till’s World War One musical now makes its professional premiere at the Union Theatre. Dramatising real life stories and people from the time, this moving piece about love and solidarity, humanises history and brings the forgotten to the foreground.

The war has been raging on France’s frontlines for a year. Alf, conductor of one of Leeds amateur brass bands, has decided it’s time for him to enlist. With not much encouragement, the rest of the band also agree to sign up, no man wanting to be left behind. After some very basic training, they are packed off across the English Channel, with spirits high, ready to fight the Krauts and become heroes. It doesn’t take long before the true horrors of war reveal themselves. The cheery days in the band seeming like a distant memory.

Back on home soil, the wives, girlfriends, and sisters of the men are left in Leeds to pick up the pieces, everyday, fearful of receiving the dreaded telegram reporting their loved one’s death. But these women aren’t sitting in wait; they bravely do their bit for the war effort, working at the Barnbow munitions factory. Through the correspondence sent between the men and women, the audience are transported back and forth between home and the ravaged front, proving the power of words in sharing love, encouragement, and reassurance.

The most refreshing part of this production is having a story that evenly tells of both men and women’s trials and tribulations during The Great War. As incomprehensibly horrific as being in the trenches must have been, seeing your friends killed right before your eyes, it is just as hard-hitting hearing about those treacherous times through the female perspective. With sensitive sophistication, Brass is a multi-faceted exploration of the devastation war brings to every member of the family.

Benjamin Till’s music ranges from haunting lamentations to raucous morale-boosting ditties, which help to bring light and shade into the show. Most songs are rather unmemorable, yet still excel at moving the story onward, offering the emotional clout needed. The power of the cast’s voices is exemplary, creating gorgeous harmonies that can be spine tingling. With just the Musical Director, Henry Brennan, on the piano, this basic set up gives space for the singing to take centre stage.

Highly moving and heartfelt, Brass compels you to reflect, and make sure that the lives lost to the war are not forgotten.

 

Reviewed by Phoebe Cole

Photography by Mark Senior

 


Brass

Union Theatre until 24th November

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Heartbreak House | ★★★★ | January 2018
Carmen 1808 | ★★★★★ | February 2018
The Cherry Orchard | ★★★★ | March 2018
Twang!! | ★★★★ | April 2018
H.R.Haitch | ★★★★ | May 2018
It’s Only Life | ★★★★ | June 2018
Around the World in Eighty Days | ★★★ | August 2018
Midnight | ★★★★★ | September 2018

 

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Iolanthe – 4 Stars

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Iolanthe

Iolanthe

Richmond Theatre

Reviewed – 16th May 2018

★★★★

“There is an assured originality to Regan’s take on the proceedings”

 

Following on from ‘HMS Pinafore’, ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ and ‘The Mikado’ Sasha Regan continues with the winning formula of an all-male cast with her revival of “Iolanthe”. The triumph of this concept is that it transcends the ‘gimmick factor’ of men trying to be girls. Instead, each member of the fine cast fully inhabits their character, irrespective of gender. While remaining faithful to the spirit of Gilbert and Sullivan, there is an assured originality to Regan’s take on the proceedings.

Torches flash in the darkness of the auditorium as a motley crew make their way to the stage as though breaking into an old schoolhouse. They discover an old copy of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Iolanthe”, from where the journey through the absurd and gloriously silly story begins. Twenty-five years previous to the action of the opera, Iolanthe, a fairy, had committed the capital crime of marrying a mortal. The Queen of the Fairies, however, commuted her sentence to banishment, on condition that Iolanthe leave her husband and never see him again. Her son, Strephon, now twenty-five has grown up in the mortal world despite being half fairy and is engaged to marry Phyllis – the ward of the Lord Chancellor. But being a mere shepherd, he is not thought worthy by Phyllis’ guardian. Further mayhem ensues when Iolanthe, who has not aged in the quarter of a century, has her exile revoked and is reunited with her son.

As haywire as Gilbert’s libretto is, it is juxtaposed with perhaps the most beautiful of Arthur Sullivan’s scores. This combination makes for a compelling evening. Musical Director, Richard Baker provides the sole accompaniment at the piano, a device that highlights the melodies and allows the voices to take centre stage. That said, though, there were moments that begged for a more varied sound track to stir up the dynamics. But what it lacked in light and shade was compensated for by the quality of the singers. Close your eyes for a moment and it is easy to forget that this is an all-male cast. There is a purity to the finely tuned falsetto that is genuinely moving.

Christopher Finn’s ‘Iolanthe’ has an extraordinary quality to his voice that stands him out, despite having a lesser share of the spotlight than the title character merits. But it is very much an ensemble piece; and each actor, whether in the male or female registers handle the harmonies and the quick-fire patter of the lyrics with ease. And all this marvellous singing is done with their tongues firmly in their cheeks. Only a top notch team can afford not to take itself too seriously in such a relaxed manner. Mixing a fairy story with political satire is always going to be a tall order but this show wins us over with its own eccentric mix of magic and mastery.

 

Reviewed by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Harriet Buckingham

 

Richmond Theatre

Iolanthe

Richmond Theatre until 19th May and touring

 

 

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