February the 1st in Theatrical History

(John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons in Macbeth as painted by Thomas Beach)

On the first of February 1757 John Philip Kemble was born. The son of Roger Kemble (b 1721 d 1802) and Sarah Ward (b 1735 d 1807) he was part of the theatrical dynasty the Kemble Family. John Kemble had several siblings being one of twelve children, out of whom 5 others became actors including the most famous female actor of the age Sarah Siddons. The family has its beginnings in the famous 'Ward Company of Comedians' run by John's grandfather John Ward and the union of Roger Kemble to John Ward's daughter Sarah solidified the legacy of the Kemble family. John Philip Kemble learnt his trade touring with his grandfathers company and ended up having great success on the London scene after debuting at Drury Lane in Hamlet. In 1803 Kemble left Drury Lane and joined George Frederick Cooke at the Covent Garden company with his sister Mrs Siddons joining him soon after. Tragedy struck five years later when Covent Garden was destroyed by a fire. Both Mrs Siddons and Kemble lost their vast wardrobes to the fire and chose to build a new theatre designed by the architect Robert Smirke, his most recognisable work is the facade of the British Museum, costing one hundred and fifty thousand pounds in 1809 which is the equivalent of nine million pounds today. This of course led to increases in the price of attendance which brought about the darkest part of Kemble's career when on opening night of the new theatre at Covent Garden the audience cried out for the old prices and continued until the police and military had to be called. For two months riots and disruptions continued under his regime at Covent Garden until he finally agreed to reduce prices to the old rates. Kemble would retire in 1817 leaving his share in Covent Garden to his brother Charles but by now the shine on the Kemble family had long been overshadowed by a new star Edmund Kean.



Ulysses is produced at Her Majesty's theatre in 1902. This play is a poetry play based on the ancient Greek tale and was written by Stephen Phillips. It was produced by the theatre company of Beerbohm-Tree and is speculated to have been part of the inspiration for James Joyce's later novel of the same name.

Morecambe the Stage Play at Worthing Pavillion 6 May 2010: Review

Well it was with great excitement that this evening LibraryGirl and I headed to the Pavillion Theatre, Worthing to see the much loved and critically acclaimed show ‘Morecambe’. My excitement stems from how wrong I was regarding the success of this show; long time readers and watchers of my youtube channel may remember my criticism of this type of show and in particular whether or not ‘Morecambe’ would have any future life following its much hyped debut at the Edinburgh Festival. I read the reviews for it in Edinburgh and was so pleased to discover it had a West End run- then the unbelievable happened- it announced a National Tour that would stop in our Seaside town of Worthing. I quickly snapped up our tickets, even before we heard of the Olivier announcement, and spent many a week thinking about this show.

When we entered the theatre and saw the set on stage, 3 pieces of set and a proscenium arch created in the background. Simple, clean and creative. The show began and I instantly started smiling, the energy that came straight out of Bob Golding was amazing. He came on stage bouncing with energy and it swept over the audience making us all feel comfortable. He quickly gave us a run down of the history of Eric Morecambe’s early life as a child music hall/variety act. This was very well received by myself and LibraryGirl, having not read the biographies of Morecambe and only knowing him from the repeats of ‘Morecambe and Wise’, as it gave us a good insight into Morecambe’s relationship with his mother and his love of comedy. It ran very quickly into the first meeting between Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise where we were introduced to ‘Ernie’. Ernie turned out to be a ventriloquist’s dummy and although that may sound like a simple solution for a single man show about a double act comedian (a dummy is technically a prop) the focus and sense of humanity Bob Golding invests in it raises it throughout the show to the point that you forget in many ways that it is a prop and it becomes a character in and of itself. It also is a very nice nod to the commonplace joke between Eric and Ernie about Ernie’s size. The way that Golding holds the dummy as well is a piece of design genius, Eric Morecambe, whilst a brilliant comedian in his own right would never have become as well loved on his own as he did with Ernie and the amount of focus and belief Golding puts into the dummy makes it a believable relationship. The props and set designer Julia Bunce did a fantastic job but it would be remiss to not mention the brilliant work from lighting designer Chris Davey. The lighting was very well used in the Pavillion; the disco ball used generally for dances at the theatre was used on occasions for the romantic interludes and the use of shadows which was very effective. The lighting very much focused on both Golding and the Dummy giving them both a level pegging in status until the story changed focus to something outside the double act. This was never more apparent than during the nightmare scene and heart attacks. The nightmare scene shone a crimson light over Golding casting dark shadows across the back of the set, the way the shadow broke up slightly because of the set proscenium arch made the shape of what looked to me like a Harlequin or a Peirrot now whether or not this was intentional I cannot say but it was very effective. The silent movie film effect for the recollection of the 1983 Christmas special’s Keystone Kops sketch was incredibly effective and it worked so well, the flashing washed out the colour on the stage and suddenly segued into the second heart attack. The way the heart attacks were lit, as well, was a great way of affecting the audience by showing how things can get derailed by a tragedy. The change in feeling when the attacks happened is enhanced very effectively by the lighting changes.

The story flowed really well and the storytelling by Golding was fantastic as he adopted voices of other characters, from agents to a brilliant impression of Bruce Forsyth, but always moving back to a very good characterisation of Eric Morecambe. The play flows incredibly well and feels like it is just naturally happening and time speeds by with plenty of belly laughs, small chuckles and smiles aplenty. The moments of high drama and touching reminiscence are beautifully written and very well handled by Golding. There are genuine moments of sadness in the play especially when he referred to his confidence taking a knock giving the audience an insight to the sadness behind Eric Morecambe’s enormous grin. Then as he talks about his father passing away, a funny story to be sure, it is not played for laughs and is chilling in the way it is linked to Eric Morecambe’s own last words. Golding’s retelling is treated with great care and thoughtful acting. His acting while describing his mother’s slow decline following his father’s passing is perfect and goes brilliantly with his setting up of their relationship earlier in the play, this is so well directed and acted there seems to be no weak part in the story telling. When we get to the end of Morecambe’s life a song begins indicating the end of the show as he picks up the Dummy he stops singing and pauses looking at little Ernie and it feels like forever before he leaves a long tearful lingering kiss on the puppets forehead- there cannot be many dry eyes in the house. The show ends on a high as the song finishes with both Eric and Ernie, another pre-dressed dummy, resplendent in their white tops and tails dance off as if these two friends are angels dancing off together.

Bob Golding is quoted in the programme as saying:

‘… nobody will ever come close to being anything like Eric. Nobody could match his timing, delivery, natural rhythm…’

I have to say that whilst it is true that nobody will be exactly the same as Eric Morecambe, Bob Golding is pretty much the closest we are ever going to get. His physicalization of Eric Morecambe is so brilliant that it had both LibraryGirl and me gasping at times because the veil had dropped over our eyes and we truly thought it was Eric Morecambe onstage. Golding had obviously studied Eric Morecambe very closely because he glides over the stage like him, stands like him and even moves when telling his jokes much like the man himself. Whilst he doesn’t really sound like Eric Morecambe Golding does very nearly match both his rhythm and his delivery and this is as close as I can believe an actor can really get to being another person. To me Golding embodied Eric Morecambe totally and drew me in so well that my disbelief was suspended to the point that I felt I was watching the great man himself on the stage showing just how good an actor Bob Golding is. The Pavillion obviously agreed with me as the audience gave Golding a standing ovation for his performance. I just wonder how good Aneurin Barnard must have been in ‘Spring Awakening’ to have snatched the Olivier away from Golding whose performance is definitely award winning.

This show had me smiling from the moment it began to the final curtain, something I have to say has never happened before in any show I have seen. It is a real feel good piece which is so entertaining it totally deserves its Olivier Award for best entertainment. A fantastic show in the perfect venue for it, a show that celebrates one of our last variety acts at an old Summer Concert Party venue where acts like Morecambe and Wise once entertained the tourists. Just a brilliant show, I wish I could go and see it again tonight.

In closing I just want to say that I have never been so glad to be so wrong and want to congratulate everyone involved in this production for just putting together such a feel good show which provides everyone with a real smile.

As ever please feel free to leave any feedback.

Xtofer

Studio Theatre's AKA Black Boxes and why I love them.

I have been incredibly lucky in my Theatre career so far in that I have performed at some very interesting venues with a variety of different stages; The Northbrook Theatre at STAC, The Assembly Hall in Worthing, The Nightingale Theatre in Brighton and many different alternative spaces in the West Sussex area. From your normal proscenium arch setup to Promenade pieces if it can be done with a stage I have generally done it. Now many people who know me and my tastes in the Theatre, which despite rumours to the contrary they have changed over the years, would probably believe that my preference would go hand in hand with the traditional staging that you can see in nearly all the major theatres the good old fashioned Proscenium arch. Sorry to dissapoint those people but after my first experience of the West End, the moment that showed me that I wanted to be an Actor, Starlight Express wasn't just a show it was a spectacle. The staging snaked around the entire auditorium with the rollerskaters racing on it and a huge bridge that descended from what seemed to be the heavens, to a ten year old whose only experience of the theatre was the panto at the good old Connaught Theatre this was mind blowing. It was there that I realised a raised platform with an arch isn't the only way to present theatre. Then when I started learning the ropes of the theatre with the Pilgrims Drama Group in Worthing we had to create our own theatre 'area' in a church hall with no in built staging. Generally this comprised of two folding tables each side of the acting area for the 'wings' with a sheet over each table with a basic backdrop painted on. It was only when the childrens group, of which I was a member, would work with the adults group to produce the yearly pantomime. Then we would borrow a mobile stage from my Middle School as well as their lights, and using members of the church's skills we would build our own set. It was a community and those small blocks of staging were my first taste of 'treading the boards'. Then my whole outlook changed when in 1998 we got the chance to do 'Ernies Incredible Illucinations' by Ayckbourne and Mavis, who ran the drama group, taught us about Alan Ayckbourne and his theatre in the round. I was instantly fascinated by the complexity and discipline required from being seen from all angles by the audience and having to act with every part of your body. I was hooked on this new idea and over the next few years through High School drama classes and productions, Blood Wedding by Lorca in particular, due to us only really having a drama studio I got to do lots of work in that style. What I didn't know was that I was participating in what is known widely as 'Studio Theatre' and how important this would become to my future development.

In 2002 I joined the Northbrook Theatre thinking I would get to be acting in the main theatre which was a classic proscenium arch style theatre which could be turned into a huge black box. Instead I found myself rehearsing and performing in rehearsal studios before getting my first chance at working in a real black box theatre in the play 'The Last Resort' by Chris Owen. The room was tiny and cramped, it seated approx 20 people once any sparce set was placed within it. It was amazing we had to sit to one side, everytime we went onstage the audience could see, everything was stripped back and showing. The lights and speakers were very obvious and you couldn't hide them but what struck me was the versatility of the space. You could do anything in there, as it was just completely black and it opened my imaginative mind. The exploration of the space when we performed 'The Last Resort' was minimal but being on top of the audience for a first year drama student was daunting enough. Working in there cut a lot of my bad habits out quickly, fiddling hands being the crime I was chastised for the most, and by the time our second show in there was put on I was ready. 'Taking Breath' by Sarah Daniels was our piece and for it we had a pretty audacious design considering the size of the space. The stage which was approximately 12 feet across and 8ft deep was split in two with one half being the first part of the story and the second was that of the final part of the story, we had to have a piece of set representing a tree home for enviromental activists and a hospital bed. The tree home was a pallet left in the top corner of the space on which the actors playing the activists had to sit and the bed was for the lead character who falls from the tree. This of course taught me all about the importance of the luxury of space and how constraining the amount of space an actor can use is a positive thing. The last time I performed in the black box space at Northbrook was for our production of 'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller. Now in this production I was very lucky in that I played two characters and in one scene I had to change costumes quickly and re-enter, now this was not just a challenge for me as an actor artistically but also logistically. There needed to be a place I could quickly change my clothes within a packed tiny little space, where the audience would not see me. They constructed next to the actors bench a tiny cubicle I could change in. A challenge met and it really inspired me to find solutions to spacial issues. The other thing that the Crucible taught me was that good design can sometimes alter percieved ideas of space. I remember when we first heard that we would all be in this tiny space doing a show we thought it couldn't work, and then when we were told it would be in the round I wasn't sure it could look clean and tidy, all those bodies in such a small space. However we ended up getting a stage which comprised of rostrum and had a good rectuangular space to play with. What happened was the claustrophobia of the space helped feed into the plays feelings of oppression and the trap that had been thrown up in the community. This was another revelation, if the play called for a small space or for a tight situation if used effectively a black box or small studio theatre can be a real boon.

In 2006 I got my first real chance at directing at the Nightingale Theatre in Brighton. Under the watchful eye of Prodigal Theatre's representative Thor and in conjunction with Lisa Perry my tutor at Northbrook I directed 'Don Juan Comes Back From the War' by Horvath. I won't go into too much detail as to what happened during this period as I have already documented it several times, however I was quite far out of my depth. The luxury however of having a beautiful space, in a luscious building within Brighton was not lost on me. I learnt more in that space about myself and directing/acting than I had done the previous 3 years of college. We used every little aspect of that space, from the bay windows to the fireplace. Every actor was on stage at all times, there were no breaks for them. We had them playing background characters to enhance the main scenes. The work produced was effective and the open to public performance went down well. It was an experience.

From then on I pretty much worked in a way that took the studio and in the round style as my main focus. It holds so many more opportunities to the performer and director who doesn't have or need an expensive set or intricate design. The final year of my BA Hons Course I was given many opportunities to direct and act and I found the studio and black box system simpler for my theatrical eye. I get it, I understood the way the mind works, how the fourth wall not being in place can truly lift a piece and allow the actors to bring the audience on a journey. When audience members can see each other across the acting space, keeping them focused on the performance is imperative and therefore everyone has to work much harder. However another thing I love about studio and black box theatres is the ability to focus on an image. My piece 'Love' which I wrote and directed in 2006 was a very simple idea and I believe verges on the line between installation art and theatre, I therefore dubbed it a piece of installation theatre (I know this is not the greatest phrase due to the lack of logic in the claim but I thought it sounded smart and good at the time) and had strict instructions regarding length of the piece and audience size. The black box and main theatre were not an option so we got a rehearsal studio and I blacked out the windows so there was no light in the room. Then we got our actress, Juline Pethig, to sit on a stepladder, which was covered by the white dress she was wearing and she held a heart shaped chocolate box. In the background there was a sinister heart beat pounding away very loudly and the bass on that track turned up. 10 audience members were brought in at a time, the lights were turned on and they were guided round the ladder and had only 30 seconds to see the piece before the light went off. When the light went off the heart sound stopped also. With no words and no action some people questioned my motives and justifications but if Samuel Beckett, and his avant garde theatre, could put on 'Breath' then my piece which was partly an homage to his artform was perfectly justifiable. It surprised my peers and tutors also who didn't believe I had that type of work in me.

My final performance at Northbrook, and a personal dream come true, was the adaptation of the Tempest that Jenna Stannard and I came up with from the original Shakespearian text and a Restoration version by Dryden. Faced with the opportunity to perform it in the traditional manor in the Northbrook Theatre, our set designer Scott Nimmo decided to put the piece in the round and create an island within the theatre space. We created an island in the Northbrook Theatre using two tonnes of sand... which blew most of our budget but I think it really helped the piece be effective. Judge for yourself.

Pictures courtesy of Kirsty Jeffery. Thanks Kirsty.

The other aspect of this was the great lack of space we had, the piece restricted where certain characters could or would go. My character Prospero would only move in his small corner of the island and it really gave us a bigger challenge. A normal set would have nullified a lot of the action in this piece and being in the round allowed us to really show off our talents.

Since leaving University and forging on with my own career I have been testing and trying my work in the round. Simply put I believe it is the most versatile work place for an actor. If you have never tried to perform in a town square in the round then you haven't had one heck of a funny experience. Last years fptheatreproductions living history piece 'The Worthing Tales' was performed in South Street in Worthing on a busy August Saturday morning. We were heckled, we were ignored, our space was walked through, we had the public come up to us during the performance and we had hundreds of spectators looking at us. It wasn't a typical piece of theatre for the town centre or even for the town but it was amazing having that public forum and was a true throwback to the days of the Medieval mystery play being done on carts in the Market place.

From left to right: Me, LibraryGirl, Charlotte Dunn, Richard Ford

However as much as I loved outside I crave a black box of my own to use and to cherish. After all with a black box you get a blank canvas, and all the basics you need to start painting the eventual masterpiece you want your work to be. That is why I love Studio/Black Box theatres, and it would take a lot to change my mind.

Xtofer

Just a Small One: Etcetera Theatre Camden

Etcetera Theatre is the smallest theatre in London. Situated above the Oxford Arms pub in Camden it is the same age as me and has been producing and presenting good quality work for the past 23 years. It has been used for many different uses from venue for the Camden Fringe to Edinburgh Fringe Previews, this is an embodiment of the true underground pub theatre spirit.

To find out more about the Etcetera Theatre Camden please look here.

My Study Text 'Theatre Studies' by Kenneth Pickering and Mark Woolgar

It takes a while to understand and really appreciate the subject you learn and to master it is near impossible, once you have your degree where do you go? Do you continue and work towards a Masters Degree? Then what? Move onto your PHD? Or do you go into the real world and leave the academic world behind? Well I chose to leave the University lifestyle and enter day to day life and consequently did what a lot of people my age did and still do, worked in a job sector completely unrelated to my degree. The result of this was that for the past 2 and a half years vital knowledge and information I pored over hungrily at College has begun to ebb away from my conciousness. This leaves me feeling a bit stupid because I did work very hard but I didn't keep it up outside of my Univeristy life and there are people who work in the Theatre Arts sector and not remembering certain things or having any knowledge of other aspects can sometimes be the difference between being taken seriously and seen as a joke. So to combat this LibraryGirl suggested I study at home a Drama Course which could easily be found in the... Library and the book we sourced together was 'Theatre Studies' by Keith Pickering and Mark Woolgar which is a book that covers all the subjects required by undergraduate and diploma courses in Theatre Arts. I have so far found it to be very helpful in its writing and exercises for reminding me how to do certain things and subjects that may have fallen to the wayside in my acting and directing technique. I am enjoying it a lot and its just nice to be learning something once again. I  feel better to be able to back up my own knowledge much like someone backing up their computer files. The biggest boon though has been some of the subjects I don't know about and resources it has thrown up for me to talk about on here. So yes there is a lot going on in 'Theatre From My Head' right now from our 'Just a Small One' series on small theatres in the UK to our 'Curtains!!! Project' so keep your eyes peeled for more updates.

Xtofer