Tag Archives: Venice van Someren

Hell Yes I’m Tough Enough
★★½

Park Theatre

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Hell Yes I'm Tough Enough

Hell Yes I’m Tough Enough

Park Theatre

Reviewed – 26th April 2019

★★½

 

“The satire gets lost in a mish-mash of absurdist comedy and sea-side slapstick, despite excellent performances from a talented cast”

 

Ben Alderton’s  story is about the political battle between Ned Contraband and David Carter, obvious caricatures of Miliband and Cameron. On the Labour side, Ben Hood plays Contraband as a lost soul, pulled between his hippy counsellor, Will, and tough talking advisor Sharon Slaughter. Michael Edwards is funny and convincing as Will, oozing charm as the exaggeratedly stereotyped yoga, energy healing, hug giving therapist, one of the only characters in the play who actually cares about anyone else. Cassandra Hercules, as Slaughter, is his polar opposite, hard as nails, ambitious and a little too shouty. Contraband is pulled one way and the other between them, seeming to lack any volition of his own. He is a weak character with no depth, and it is just not possible to see him as a real politician. This is in no way Hood’s fault, he does a good job, but what he has been given to work with is not fully realised.

On the Conservative side we have Alderton himself giving us a truly vile, self serving Prime Minister Carter. He bullies and towers above his flunkies, intimidating and unlikeable. Only Annie Tyson’s Glyniss can control, and occasionally dominate him. Glyniss is Carter’s campaign manager, and Tyson gives her a steely reality that only sometimes falls victim to the play’s one dimensionality. Nick Clog, played by James Bryant, is bullied by Carter to such an extent that he even cleans his shoes. Again, the stereotype is too much, but Bryant finds moments of humanity in the chaos, particularly in the second act. Venice Van Someren plays Poppy, a young Conservative, working on Carter’s re-election campaign and practically surgically attached to her Blackberry. Also in the blue camp is a young political consultant, Patrick. He is a fish out of water in the Tory shark tank, intelligent and clever. He is also the only truly human character in the play. He is written with depth and reality, and Mikhail Sen does an excellent job of showing Patrick’s disillusionment with the world of politics, and his eventual rethink about allegiance and ambition.

The final character, played by Edward Halsted, is an Obi-Wan Kenobi/Jeremy Corbyn figure, called Corbz, who appears from time to time, sweeping the floor and uttering profundities. His dialogue with Patrick at the end of the play is a rallying cry about not giving up, of finding a way to be honest and true in the political cesspool. It is impassioned and heartfelt, but unfortunately it is a little long, and feels like a bit of a tirade by the end.

It is in characterisation that Alderton’s writing fails to convince, and Roland Reynolds’ direction, which emphasises exaggerated performance, does not help. The essence of good caricature is its believability, and making such absurd stereotypes of the characters extracts their reality to such an extent that the comedy is often diminished, people seem one dimensional, and the power of the satire is lost. Often, instead of feeling the bite of satire as the two factions fight within and between themselves, it feels more like the playground, where kids yell ‘na na ni na na’ at each other.

The set is simple and effective, using a coloured strip which lights up red, blue or yellow, according to each political party, above a wooden sideboard and carpet tied floor, is enough to give atmosphere and locate the action. Isabella Van Braeekel is the designer, Alex Hopkins the lighting designer, and Julian Starr designed the sound.

Described as a political satire, Hell Yes I’m Tough Enough falls unhappily between two stools. The satire gets lost in a mish-mash of absurdist comedy and sea-side slapstick, despite excellent performances from a talented cast. It’s a pity really, because some of it is very funny.

 

Reviewed by Katre

Photography by Robert Workman

 


Hell Yes I’m Tough Enough

Park Theatre until 18th May

 

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:
Dialektikon | ★★★½ | December 2018
Peter Pan | ★★★★ | December 2018
Rosenbaum’s Rescue | ★★★★★ | January 2019
The Dame | ★★★★ | January 2019
Gently Down The Stream | ★★★★★ | February 2019
My Dad’s Gap Year | ★★½ | February 2019
Cry Havoc | ★★ | March 2019
The Life I Lead | ★★★ | March 2019
We’re Staying Right Here | ★★★★ | March 2019
Intra Muros | ★ | April 2019

 

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

 

Review of Dear Brutus – 5 Stars

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Brutus

Dear Brutus

Southwark Playhouse

Reviewed – 4th December 2017

★★★★★

“some sparkling verbal sparring, and delightfully funny moments from the very beginning”

 

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare

These words, spoken by Cassius in ‘Julius Caesar’ are at the heart of J M Barrie’s ‘Dear Brutus’. A group of people have been invited to stay with a mysterious old man in a country house. They do not know each other but they have something in common. The butler warns them not to enter the enchanted wood, should it appear, but most of the group ignore him and venture into the trees. Will the experiences they have there change them?

In the first act we meet the characters, Lob is the eccentric host and Lob, in Shakespeare and folklore, is also known as Puck or Robin Goodfellow, a mischievous trickster. He has made it clear that the guests must be present for Midsummer’s Eve and they don’t know why. We discover that relationships between some of them are not what they seem at first. Not everyone is behaving well. There is some sparkling verbal sparring, and some delightfully funny moments from the very beginning as we find out more about these disparate house guests. There is the haughty Lady Caroline Lacy, the ladies man John Purdie, his long suffering wife Mabel, the flirtatious Joanna Brimble, the elderly Mr and Mrs Coade and the unhappy Will and Alice Dearth.

In Act two we are transported to the enchanted wood. Anna Reid’s design, Peter Harrison’s lighting and Max Perryment’s sound create the scene with a simplicity that is charming and effective. All the people who enter the wood are changed for a while, the world is turned upside down. Their relationships and fortunes are very different from their normal lives, but will they learn anything from the experience? Barrie also uses the device of transporting people from their real lives to a fantasy realm in Peter Pan and the Admirable Crichton. Whether the setting is Neverland, the site of a shipwreck or an enchanted wood, the opportunity to challenge his characters to live different lives for a while is one he seems to have relished. Perhaps some of the characters are given the chance to live their dreams, however briefly, but what will happen when they get back to their normal lives? In Act three we find out.

The cast are superb and so is Jonathan O’Boyle’s direction. It is such a beautifully performed tight ensemble piece that picking out one or two exceptional performances is difficult. However Venice van Someren’s Margaret almost moved me to tears, having also made me laugh with her Alice in Wonderland innocence and archness. Her scene with Miles Richardson’s Will Dearth, a very different man in the woods, was in some ways the very heart of the play. Emma Davies, Josie Kidd, Bathsheba Piepe, Charlotte Brimble, Helen Bradbury, Simon Rhodes, Robin Hooper, Edward Sayer and James Richardson are the other cast members, and they all deserve huge credit for their parts this jewel of a play.

The quote from Julius Caesar tells us that it is not fate that has made us who we are, or created our experiences, it is ourselves who have done so. But it is Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ that has influenced this piece with it’s enchantments and mix ups. What do we see when we enter the wood? A better version of ourselves? A happier one? Things that might have been, possibilities and second chances? Maybe, if we pay attention, the enchantment can give us the power to change. I hope that you will go and see this beautiful, bittersweet, moving yet very funny play, there is more to JM Barrie than the boy who wouldn’t grow up.

 

Reviewed by Katre

Photography by Mitzi de Margary

 

 

 

Dear Brutus

is at the Southwark Playhouse until 30th December

 

 

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