Sioned Jones Archives - thespyinthestalls.com

★★★★★

“pretty darn perfect; hilarious and surprisingly moving, performed by a cast at the top of their game”

Well, that was a treat! Definitely the best thing I could have done to dispel my election result blues was to go and see this gem of a play. This year is the twenty-first anniversary of the play’s first production, which won it the Pearson Best Play Award for playwright Charlotte Jones. Jones’ best known play is ‘Humble Boy’, and ‘Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis’ shows the same genius for comedy, and the same humanity and understanding of family dynamics. This production, directed by Robert Wolstenholme, is pretty darn perfect; hilarious and surprisingly moving, performed by a cast at the top of their game.

Josie, beautifully played by Kellie Batchelor, is a bored dominatrix, not excited to be turning forty. Batchelor’s Josie in immediately likeable, matter of fact and funny; not what you would probably imagine a dominatrix to be, she can’t even be bothered to dress up any more. Lionel, a regular client who has become a friend, decides to throw her a birthday party that she doesn’t want. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty, it turns out! Lionel has taken on quite a task, and Andrew P Stephen, after a laugh out loud appearance as Josie’s client, is charming as he attempts to make everyone have a good night, topping up glasses with his ‘catastrophe’ cocktail mix and determinedly trying to make the evening fun. Josie’s dreamer of a daughter, Charlie Bence’s Brenda-Marie knows she has learning difficulties and has built a fantasy version of herself as an ice-skating champion. She has some great interjections and Bence keeps the warm heart of the play beating, even while everyone is falling apart. Martha is the cleaner, a good Irish catholic with numerical OCD. Sioned Jones is splendid in the role, cleaning, counting, worrying and disapproving, and always very, very funny. The Chinese Elvis of the title turns out to be Timothy, Vietnamese, and very new to the Elvis business. He has been hired by Lionel to entertain Josie, a huge Elvis fan, at her party. But finds himself in the middle of a bizarre family drama that includes the appearance of an unexpected visitor. I don’t want to give the game away, so I will just say that Jessica Forrest plays the surprise arrival with honesty and feeling, bringing in the darker moments of the play. Timothy is played by Matt Lim, and he is a sweet Elvis, posturing, not knowing the words and trying gamely to do his job in the midst of utter chaos.

I loved this play, with its lightning repartee and belly laughs, its compassion and wit. The cast don’t put a foot wrong; it’s tight and zippy, gentle and fierce. Brilliant. The audience loved it. There were moments of spontaneous applause during the action and a standing ovation at the end. Highly recommended!

Reviewed by Katre

Photography by Lidia Crisafulli

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Arundel and Ladbroke Gardens

Reviewed – 25th June 2019

★★★★★

“this setting could have been made for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Tatty Hennessy born to direct”

Stepping into a normally locked, private garden a few long days after the Summer Solstice is the perfect entry to Shakespeare’s fantastic interplay of human passions and fairy spells. Arundel and Ladbroke Gardens supplies a cluster of trees and shrubs, to be adorned with bunting and soft lighting and it’s not long before this Shakespeare in the Squares production transports you sufficiently to block out the Notting Hill noise beyond the hedge.

This is Tatty Hennessy’s third production with the company, her last being a 1970s Music Festival setting for As you Like It, an interpretation that played better than most because it followed the cultural, fashion and musical spirit of the work rather than indulging a historical theory. Indeed, the idea of a 1920s Midsummer Night’s Dream initially suggests some convoluted connection being made, between two eras of post-war fallout. Thankfully, it is again the decade’s cultural resonances that are reflected, with costume (Emma Lindsey) and music (Richard Baker) bringing out the play’s themes of attraction, love, magic and bacchanalia with effortless aptness. The aesthetics of burlesque and 1920s Music Hall are a fine fit for the lusts and jealousies of Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena, just as suited to the Mechanicals’ ham-fisted style of entertainment and afford the fairy characters a louche, decadent manner whether carelessly casting spells or settling back with popcorn to enjoy the emotional carnage they’ve caused.

The casting for this troupe of players, most of whom must double up as musicians and singers as well as other characters, is a triumph of talent logistics. Paul Giddings trisects Theseus, Oberon and Quince, bringing a quizzical authority that plays differently but superbly to each. Gemma Barnett’s combination of delicacy and bravery works as well to fair Hermia as to the Fairy as to Snug’s hilariously pathetic lion. Yet the versatility comes with no loss of individual stamp as Hannah Sinclair Robinson elevates Helena to a point where she competes for notional title of Comedy Lead with James Tobin’s left eyebrow, which cocks winningly as it brings some drag queen insouciance to Puck.

Ensemble playing is hearty and energetic with the cast’s movement (Yarit Dor) reaching into and around the audience, enhanced by the cast’s ad libs and some witty design details (Emily Stuart with Eleanor Tipler). If sometimes laughs are pursued too ardently it’s an understandable side-effect of the show’s mission to help even a child in the back row enjoy Shakespeare.

Finding new ways to access Shakespeare never grows old and, aside from the Portaloos and sirens, this setting could have been made for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Tatty Hennessy born to direct.

Park Theatre

Reviewed – 13th December 2019

★★★★★

“pretty darn perfect; hilarious and surprisingly moving, performed by a cast at the top of their game”

Reviewed by Katre

Photography by Lidia Crisafulli

Martha, Josie And The Chinese Elvis

Park Theatre until 4th January

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Arundel and Ladbroke Gardens

Reviewed – 25th June 2019

★★★★★

“this setting could have been made for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Tatty Hennessy born to direct”

Finding new ways to access Shakespeare never grows old and, aside from the Portaloos and sirens, this setting could have been made for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Tatty Hennessy born to direct.

Reviewed by Dominic Gettins

Photography by James Miller

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Various London Squares and Gardens until 11th July

Last ten shows covered by this reviewer: