collective reviews from Burnley Youth Theatre

The Drowsy Chaperone

Performed by the Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group

Review by Joe Heys (Aged 17)

The Drowsy Chaperone is a fictitious 1920s musical in the hands of a middle-aged agoraphobic theatre fan that plays it to ‘cure his blues’. As the audience enter, he gives an in-depth description of his love of theatre and apparent hatred of any ‘rustling crisp packets’ or mobile phones that take him ‘out of that magical world’. This theatre fan, described only as ‘The Man in Chair’, was cast brilliantly with his mannerisms mimicking the archetypal theatre obsessive perfectly. His presence for me was an absolute joy and his subtle sing-a-long actions as he observed the action from his arm chair were just like my own, as I watched the brilliant action and choreography unfold before my eyes.

The plot centres on the wedding day of oil tycoon Robert Martin and Broadway star Janet Van De Graaff, who plans to give up her career for married life. Naturally the ‘forces that be’ in the industry want her to remain in Broadway, and so a battle ensues between guests of the wedding that have much more sinister intentions, such as Feldzieg the director who is naturally missing the star of his show.

The characters were, in essence, what made the piece for me. All musical theatrical stereotypes were there, the over-zealous foreigner (Aldolpho, introduced through a comical musical routine) the titular drunken Chaperone (giving the fact the 1920s were in Prohibition, it made it more comical she waltzed around with a glass of vodka at all times oblivious to the legality of it) and the married couple, the theatrical Janet and the clean-living Robert, who made the show with their hilarious quips and fall-outs.
A single moment summed up the brilliance of the piece for me - when the record player jammed and the cast all repeated jerking motions to signal this whilst repeating the line of the song they had sung. It was a clever mechanism and showed off the true hilarity of the Man in Chair as he frantically rushed to stop the interruption.

The singing was brilliant and the inclusion of a small orchestra behind the curtain to provide the music instead of a speaker was welcomed. However it is notable that after speaking to several friends who sat on the left-front section of the seating next to the orchestra, sections of dialogue were overshadowed and blocked out by the loud musicality. I am sure this is something the EUSOG will hope to address for future performances, but it did not ruin what was a fantastic and memorable musical experience.

Breathing Corpses by Laura Wade Performed by Exeter University Theatre Company

Review by Kailey McGowan (Ages 19)

As you walked into the space a dark mood had already been created by the actors, everything was quiet and the body of a man lay on stage. Everyone sat down eagerly awaiting the drama that was to unfold. The play tells the story of three separate lives that later become linked in an unimaginable way.

The story was fantastic, it was not a linear structure but instead worked backwards, it had you "ooh"ing and "ahh"ing when the story began to slot into place.

The scene changes were quick and the use of set was clever, the bed at the start became a work bench and later a kitchen table top. The props would need to be placed into a large minibus or a van if it was to be toured.

The acting was incredible, you felt as though you were peering into their lives, it made you forget that you were sat in a church at the fringe festival and for the whole hour you were transported to the lives of three strangers, who at the end you felt you knew quite well.

I would recommend this show to anyone wanting to see a fantastic naturalistic play. I would happily watch it again and it would be fantastic if they toured the production around the country.

The Last Fairytale

Review by Adam Zaman (Aged 17)

Out of all the plays I saw at the Fringe, the one that stood out to me was The Last Fairytale which was performed by Atlas Theatre. The main reason this play stood out to me was the fact that is was almost flawless in performance as was performed in a very small room for about 30 audience members.

There were only 3 cast members and a voiceover. The two main characters were covered head to toe in blue body paint with patterns. They were a boy and a girl and were acting as puppets. I could see this by their physicality which was very slick apart from some moments in which the female puppet named ‘Leela’ tended to forget her character and take naturalistic human positions. The same cannot be said for the male character named ‘Thatcher’ whose physicality remained throughout.

The character that stole the show however was the unnamed cockney Ringmaster who was dressed in a circus style suit complete with white face make-up and white gloves. The reason for this character was to come out of after each scene to give his philosophical thoughts on the puppets situation and events that had taken place yet he did this by playing the stereotypical Ringmaster / Clown. He shouted at the top of his voice, making eye contact with audience members and even blowing in an audience members face. He broke the fourth wall by always addressing the audience yet he did it with such confidence and dedication that I was actually intimidated back in the 4th row!

The set was made to look like a puppet show with curtains closing at the end of each scene. The lights and tech were simple except for the voiceover of the storyteller.

Story wise the puppets were telling stories through movement but yearned to be free from their strings which ended up resulting in a tragedy.

Overall it was a very good play, the likes of which I have never seen before and for me the main reason to watch was the character of the Ringmaster.

The Madness of King Lear

Performed by CW Productions

Review by Rachael Perkin (Aged 19)

It was on a sunny Tuesday that I set out with two of my friends to see CW Productions’ show of “The Madness of King Lear” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. We booked the show because we had seen various reviews praising the show. The Guardian and Barefoot Review were among those saying the show was: “A must see”, “deeply moving” and “a master of their craft”. These were only some of the many accolades awarded to this production. The two performers were unknown to us but seemingly seasoned and successful. Leof Kingsford-Smith (‘Clownies’) and Ira Seidenstein (‘Cirque du Soleil’) had toured with this show to Edinburgh, Tokyo and Adelaide. Needless to say we had no doubts that this show would be an engaging and captivating adaptation of one of the Bard’s greatest tragedies. How wrong we were.

The flyer for the show said the production was about Lear and Fool reliving “events of their lives…Shakespeare’s words given a fresh and dynamic treatment.” It began with Smith wearing a smoking robe and Seidenstein a Chinese-style tunic. After a very long speech which included crude gesticulating and lots of prancing around from Smith, the first scene ended with a song that I can only guess was titled “Silence is Sexy” (as these were the only lyrics). Smith left the stage and Seidenstein did a sort of karate-style movement piece which was average at best and didn’t seem to have any relevance to the previous scene. The music played throughout did not add to the atmosphere of the piece or even the story.

As the play continued, Smith lost more and more clothing until at the end he entered in a vest and some small boxer shorts. At one point he proceeded to put his hand inside his shorts where it moved around rapidly for about a minute. Imagine our surprise as we had read that this show was suitable for ages “eight to eighty”. All in all the show consisted of many monologues from Smith. None were particularly engaging and while Smith is not a bad actor he failed to captivate and enthral the audience with this “fresh and dynamic” take on Shakespeare’s works. The best thing about the show was Seidenstein. His physical theatre was sub-standard considering his circus background but his Clowning was at times, quite good.

Whilst the flyer we received has been very misleading, covered in flattering reviews and recommendations it was correct about one thing. It promised that “whether you love or hate Shakespeare, this production will profoundly affect you”.

This, I must admit, is true.

I strongly advise against going to see this production or booking it for your venue. If you appreciate Shakespeare and value entertaining and thought-provoking theatre, then this show is not the show for you.

However, if you wish to be “profoundly affected” then please, see for yourself.

www.madnessofkinglear.com

Facehunters

Performed by The Hungry Bitches

Review by Tom Lund (aged 16)

Wow! The Hungry Bitches left me hungry for more. The beautiful lyrics, the skilful music, the brilliant costume matched impeccable acting in possibly the best thing I’ve ever seen at the Fringe! If the guy that wrote this doesn’t make it, none of us will! I was singing the songs for days! My personal favourites – ‘Take my Picture’ and ‘Juliet’ had me on the edge of my seat, the audience were in their hands. The closely knit cast and incredible ensemble worked together make me laugh, then cry, then laugh again. My only criticism would be the confusing ending, however that was only because I am not familiar with the story of ‘Dorian Grey’. The focus, the energy, the precision, the synth – every single cast member and musician were brilliant. Well done!

Fabled

Performed by Lois Tucker

Review by Joe Davis (aged 16)

After my experience in performing Three Words with Byteback Theatre, I learned how hard and physically demanding s physical, professional piece of theatre may potentially be and after watching the show Fabled, I was amazed.

With a practised cast of one (one actor on stage – various voice actors are used) and a running SFX track to pick cues from, the piece was, from my point of view, a very hard one to perform. To add things to the difficulty scale, the one actor involved never speaks a word. On stage she lip synched her voice on the running track. It was a nearly flawless experience certainly recommendable and for just an hour of your time it would be stupid not to watch.