Tag Archives: Tom Ratcliffe

Velvet

Velvet

★★★

Above the Stag

Velvet

Velvet

Above the Stag

Reviewed – 4th October 2019

★★★

 

“As a monologue, it feels, at times, too much like someone reading a short story aloud”

 

Transferring from a successful Edinburgh Fringe run in 2018, ‘Velvet’ is an engaging, raw, and realistic portrayal of a young actor falling victim to someone willing to misuse their position of power. Written and performed by Tom Ratcliffe, it’s a complex and riveting engagement with the #MeToo movement, countering the usual newspaper narratives by showing a young gay man’s perspective.

Fresh out of drama school, Tom is a young actor looking for a break. His boyfriend Matthew is supportive, but ultimately waiting for Tom’s dreams to die. Tired of unstable “money-jobs” and unsuccessful auditions, Tom gets to know a casting director on Grindr who offers the actor a big break. Whilst we are all screaming “NO DON’T DO IT”, Tom finds out the price of being given a chance to star in a huge Hollywood film, and suffers the fall-out once that price is paid.

Ratcliffe gives a likeable performance as Tom, shifting between characters with comic speed and precision. With an intensely likeable character such as this, it’s truly sad seeing him treading a familiar but ultimately doomed path. By setting the majority of the action just before the #MeToo movement started, we see how vulnerable young people in the industry can be, and we understand the power of how that movement changed the way society and characters such as Tom view themselves.

Luke W Robson’s set design is lusciously simple. Chess board floor feels like a potent visual metaphor for actions having swift and irreconcilable consequences. A pinkish-red velvet chaise-longue becomes a zone of fake intimacy. On a screen at the back, we see the Grindr and WhatsApp conversations playing out in real time, with Ratcliffe having terse conversations with a deep, mysterious voice coming from the heavens. I loved these moments of “chat”. They felt filled with tension, both sexual and dramatic. I was less convinced by Tom’s more direct address to his audience. As a writer, Ratcliffe is a real talent, and his ‘Circa’ at the Old Red Lion this year was superb. This feels like a story in need of other characters, other actors, to flesh it out and give it the dramatic finish it deserves. As a monologue, it feels, at times, too much like someone reading a short story aloud.

That said, it is a rollercoaster of a story for Tom. Director Andrew Twyman draws out a nuanced performance from Ratcliffe, but again, the final moments feel a little rushed through, despite a nicely unexpected framing device coming back in for the final scene. Recommended certainly – and hopefully not the last we see of this intriguing play.

 

Reviewed by Joseph Prestwich

Photography by Lidia Crisafulli

 

Above The Stag Theatre

Velvet

Above the Stag until 27th October

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Title Of Show | ★★★★ | February 2019
Goodbye Norma Jeane | ★★ | March 2019
Romance Romance | ★★★★ | March 2019
Queereteria TV | ★★ | April 2019
Fanny & Stella: The Shocking True Story  | ★★★★ | May 2019
Happily Ever Poofter | ★★★★ | July 2019

 

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Circa

Circa
★★★★

Old Red Lion Theatre

Circa

Circa

Old Red Lion Theatre

Reviewed – 7th March 2019

★★★★

 

“filled to the brim with truth, emotion and wit”

 

Good ideas stick, great plays take time, and Tom Ratcliffe’s ‘Circa’, first seen in London two and a half years ago, has benefitted from having a long gestation period. Ratcliffe, together with director Andy Twyman, has constructed a nuanced, honest and touching story of one man’s journey through life, love, relationships, and sex.

From an insecure young man moving to London to broaden his artistic and sexual horizons, through the trails and tedium of middle-age and the quest for monogamy and a family, to an older man coming to grips with how technology has terribly altered his search for companionship, ‘Circa’ charts one man’s life through his relationships. Simultaneously intimate and epic, we are introduced to recurring characters, one-night-stands, rent boys and first loves, all linking together to show how past experiences inevitably press on present concerns.

To reveal more would spoil the journey. Ratcliffe has developed a wonderfully entertaining play that leaves on a poignant note. In the context of gay life, where is community to be found? Loneliness emerges as a key theme, and methods of finding love and sex remain illicit and clandestine in a play that places gay men’s lives in the context of a straight man’s world.

Three actors play our lead character in the three iterations of his life, and all five members of the ensemble play multiple roles throughout (with the exception of Jenna Fincken, sadly underused representing the protagonist’s only attempt at heterosexuality). The whole cast is on top form throughout, but more work is needed to physically differentiate one character from the next. Twyman’s direction keeps the story precise and clear, with Ted White’s sound and Luke W. Robson’s lighting working beautifully to express the passing of time and closing of scenes. Robson’s set, resembling the sort of thing you’d see in a contemporary art gallery, is a cool blank canvas for any situation to be projected onto.

Whilst last year’s ‘The Inheritance’ dealt with the legacy of gay history, ‘Circa’ addresses the legacy of one person’s past relationships. As a synecdoche for many gay men’s stories, Ratcliffe has it spot on. This play is filled to the brim with truth, emotion and wit. As entertaining as it is moving, ‘Circa’ is unmissable theatre for anyone interested in queer stories, and, indeed, anyone interested in love.

 

Reviewed by Joseph Prestwich

Photography by Lidia Crisafulli

 


Circa

Old Red Lion Theatre until 30th March

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
Welcome Home | ★★★ | August 2018
Hear me Howl | ★★★★ | September 2018
That Girl | ★★★ | September 2018
Hedgehogs & Porcupines | ★★★ | October 2018
Phantasmagorical | ★★★ | October 2018
The Agency | ★★ | October 2018
Indebted to Chance | ★★★★ | November 2018
Voices From Home | ★★★½ | November 2018
Anomaly | ★★★★ | January 2019
In Search Of Applause | ★★ | February 2019

 

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