Category Archives: Cambridge Venues

‘Guide and Peek’ (Walking Tour of Cambridge)

Posted in 5*, Cambridge Venues by

“His tours are animated by Tim’s deep affection for his hometown, underpinned by his encyclopedic knowledge of the whos, whats, wheres, and whys.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Cambridge is unlike anywhere else. Nowhere else has so much history – ancient, medieval, modern – packed in so… errr… occasionally neat, but not exactly tidy. Cambridge’s history has many muddled and divergent threads. Economic, ecclesiastical, architectural, personal, public, grand and intimate. It takes a certain kind of genius to bring all those together and weave a narrative that’s even vaguely comprehendible. Fortunately, Tim Cook is just that kind of genius. His tours are animated by Tim’s deep affection for his hometown, underpinned by his encyclopedic knowledge of the whos, whats, wheres, and whys. Of course, Tim is working with great material – perhaps the best there is was or could ever be in terms of urban walking tours – but it is tailored with a style and with a flare all Tim’s own.

We meet near the Fitzwilliam Museum, the most accessible of the University’s many, many landmarks. Our small group consists of me and Daughter 3.0 (less than a year auld) plus two very dear EdFringe pals – she’s just been reelected to a senior political post stateside – these two know about putting a show on the road and keeping it pacy. There’s also a grumpy non-professional tour guide from my local history group who’s decided to play the part of Mr Awkward and keep Tim on his toes with a regular stream of questions and tangents. How does Tim do under the ultra-sharp scrutiny of these eagle sets of eyes? Brilliantly.

As we tour through the highways and byways, college chapels, sidestreets, quads and churchyards Cambridge is brought into focus. What impresses me most is how natural and spontaneous Tim’s delivery is. He is confident. He’s assured. He’s fun to be with. The facts fly like mortar boards on graduation day (in a place that has mortar boards). This isn’t my first walking tour of Cambridge but it is the best I’ve done, pitched perfectly for a party consisting of both I-don’t-think-I’ve-actually-been-to-Cambridge-before-ers and I-can’t-imagine-living-anywhere-else-ers. There is no one I would recommend more than Tim Cook to show off and showcase the treasure trove that are the streets of Cambridge.

Come for the tailored storytelling. Stay for details done classy and classic. Get your blazers and boaters on and get in some time with Tim.

—

Reviewer: Dan Lentell (Seen 15 November)

Visit The Edinburgh Book Lovers’ Tour homepage here.

‘The Bobby Kennedy Experience’ (Town and Gown, 7-8 April)

Posted in 3*, The Town and Gown, Theatre by

“…the biggest, boldest, and most successful choice – to revel unashamedly in the chaos and frantic pace of RFK’s final days.”

Editorial Rating: 3 Stars (Nae Bad)

The chroniclers of other people’s lives set out on their journeys to answer one question – who was so and so? Who was Robert F Kennedy, for example? There are several plausible answers. Politician. Younger brother. Junior partner. Unlikely folk hero. Trailblazer. True believer. Martyr.

In ‘The Bobby Kennedy Experience’ Russell Lucas (directed by Sarah-Louise Young) brings together (some of) these threads which made up the life of the most famous man not to be elected US President. The threads of Robert Kennedy’s life were violently cut short by an assassin in June 1968, a low watermark in that decade of high profile murder.

We enter to find the disorderly detritus of a campaign stop. The floor is scattered with red, white, and blue balloons. Quotations about the man himself -from luminaries including Bono, Carlin, and Obama – are projected onto the back wall. It’s been nine years since Russell Lucas played RFK in the National Geographic documentary, ‘JFK: Seven Days That Made a President.’ The look is there. The stump speaker in shirtsleeves. The slight figure struggling to fill big shoes. The occasional glimpse of a perfectly tailored US Naval Reservist echoing the pomp and circumstance which immediately followed the President’s death in Dallas.

This is still a very raw production, or rather preview of the production possibly to come. The big and little choices are still stark and unrefined. The slips into freeform dancing, for instance, do not work. RFK was in the sixties but he was arguably not of the sixties as remembered by the people who, ip so facto, could not have been there. It detracts from the biggest, boldest, and most successful choice – to revel unashamedly in the chaos and frantic pace of RFK’s final days. To see the good the bad and the ugly from inside the subject’s head as a cacophony of noise and motion.

Sometimes the presentation meanders, other times it skips. It skips over RFK the hater of LBJ, over Robert Francis Kennedy the devout Roman Catholic, past Bobby Kennedy the one-time thorn in Jimmy Hoffa’s side. Lucas, as a paid-up Kennedy nerd, needs to slaughter a few more sacred cows and beef up the content to match his insight and commentary.

In these pages, when interviewing authors of biographies, I often ask “when” a hero or villain was to be found in their lifespan. When did the individual most resemble our lasting impression of them? No person lives entirely static. We experience life as a series of transitions from being one thing to being another. ‘The Bobby Kennedy Experience’ breaks the mould of one-person shows to be more Plutarchian than Suetonian. It is as much an inquiry into the internal mind as it is a portrait of the external man.

Get your coats on. Come for the honest homage to a great man. Stay for the drama. Come away with a sense of the possibilities.

Reviewer: Dan Lentell

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‘Delivered’ (Town and Gown, 15-17 November)

Posted in 4*, Rated: Nae Bad, The Town and Gown, Theatre by

“Melia’s choices are excellent, she is an Alice through whom we experience this strange and skewed reality.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

Tabitha has received a liver transplant. She writes to thank her donor family, but her letters go unanswered. So she takes matters into her own hands, creating an algorithm that will allow her to independently track down the family who saved her life. Will Tim return the letters to sender, or is he ready to be delivered?

We enter to find the audience divided, like a chocolate bourbon, with the filling in the middle also divided between the realm of Tabitha on one side and that of Tim on the other. This is an ultra Fringy set, one that could quickly be taken down under the gaze of the most time-conscious festival venue manager. It speaks to the future ambitions the writer has for this most ambitious script. First workshopped at the Arcadia theatre all those eons ago in 2019, ‘Delivered’ is the debut play from the Town and Gown’s own Lisa MacGregor, inspired by her own family’s liver transplant journey.

As Tabitha, Jessica Melia breathes life into a role that provides numerous potential avenues, a rabbit warren of persona, personality, passion, and pain. Melia’s choices are excellent, she is an Alice through whom we experience this strange and skewed reality. Together with Adam Boyle (as Tim) MacGregor’s material is stretched out but not frayed or torn. The standing ovation and the tears of the audience speak to MacGregor’s skill as an authentic storyteller who really does make us laugh and cry.

This production is a young wine which could (and should) mature into a premier vintage in the right conditions. Whereas Melia’s performance as Tabitha is a skillfully placed shotgun to the heart, Boyle needs to improve his more shadowy sharpshooting. We know what Tabitha is thinking and feeling. Tim is a darker horse, a grieving widower as well as a young father with the parent’s job to do alone. Last night, Boyle seemed hesitant to fully illuminate the emotional rollercoaster his character is on. He hit all the right notes, but not as hard as he might have. Hopefully this will change as the number of live performances under his belt sharpen Boyle’s focus.

Get your coats on and go see this debut play from an author in the early days of a long and illustrious career. Come for a script that is deeply personal and darkly funny. Stay for two performances which are sharp and which will (hopefully) get sharper as the nights roll on.

Reviewer: Dan Lentell

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‘Bonny and Clyde’ (Town and Gown, 3-6 November)

Posted in The Town and Gown, Theatre, Written Interviews by

“Edge does authenticity like Sir Francis Chichester did knots. He’s intricate, solid, reliable – as perfect a pairing with Tapako-Brown as when gin met tonic.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

Go big or go home. Karl Steele’s gone big. Two tons big. Two tons of building sand delivered to central Cambridge and then wheelbarrowed, personalmente di persona, by The Town and Gown’s in-house director up, up, and up to the black box in which he has framed Adam Peck’s #notthemusical portraits of Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (b. 1 October, 1910 – d. 23 May, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut Barrow (b. 24 March, 1909 – d. 23 May, 1934).

Bonnie and Clyde are so famous that you know who they are even if you know nothing about them. You won’t have learned very much more as you exit this show. Peck’s script is thinner than what they fed to Oliver Twist while he was still at the orphanage. Least said soonest mended. So in brief, Bonnie and her beau are (presumably) in their hideout, (presumably) recovering from a recentish gun battle, (definitely) a bit nuts, (definitely) squabbling like only people in love can.

We enter to find Steele’s sand as the stage on which the drama will play out. It brings a depth and physicality to the piece that must be seen to be believed. Actors Sharni Tapako-Brown and James Edge are toe-deep in the stuff. Brooding. Bickering. Bullshitting. Tapako-Brown brings a Black Annis, banshee-ite energy that is ferocious, frightening, and full on. She walks softly while never letting go of the big crazy stick. Tapako-Brown glides across the sand more elegant than Audrey Hepburn juggling bottles of Chanel °5. Yet she’ll turn on a sixpence, 0 to 60 faster than a Bugatti Chiron. It’s a hell hath no fury performance that’s not to be missed by anyone who’s ever wondered what it might be like to watch a Hollywood star of the old school live on stage.

At the crease, batman James Edge must play over after over with (seemingly) no idea of what kind of ball will be bowled at him next. Bouncers, inswingers, yorkers, and then the deadly slower paced deliveries that really show off Tapako-Brown’s range and skill. Edge might have played defensively, given up the sandy ground to let his colleague strut her stuff. Instead he gives as good as he gets modulating his performance from sleepy lion to buzzed-up fox. Edge does authenticity like Sir Francis Chichester did knots. He’s intricate, solid, reliable – as perfect a pairing with Tapako-Brown as when gin met tonic.

Get your coats on. Come for the set. Stay for the performances. Despite the script, you won’t be disappointed.

Reviewer: Dan Lentell

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‘Ordinary Days’ (Town and Gown, 13-17 October)

Posted in The Town and Gown, Theatre by

“Lisa MacGregor utterly steals the show, stuffs it, mounts it, and hangs it in pride of place.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Four ordinary lives experienced through the inner lives of four typical New Yorkers. We enter to find one of them, Warren, hard at work distributing fliers like it’s the Royal Mile in August. His fliers are pop art. They feature words of wisdom and insight which (almost inevitably) go entirely unnoticed by Manhattan’s madding crowd. It’s an epically subtle hint that the dramas that are about to be played out occur in a time before Facebook walls and Twitter timelines.

The show’s lyricist/composer, Adam Gwon, is a Bostonian by birth but a New Yorker by choice. In his four person sung through musical, first performed in 2008, Gwon captures and distills the essence of what it is to be alone in the big city. It’s a powerfully big, yet graciously small, set of stories requiring strong, yet subtle, hands. Jason and Claire are alone in a relationship together, unable to break through an unseen wall between them. Meanwhile, the uptight grad student Deb is alone without the notes for her thesis which she has left on the subway. Warren is alone running menial errands for a much better known artist. 

Warren is not yet everything he could be – and that’s putting it charitably. He’s going with the flow rather than rising to his full potential. A character who might so easily have been played as comically trivial is given an authenticity, gravity, and dignity by Duncan Burt who brings to the happy go lucky Warren a pitch-perfect balance of the playful and the soulful.

As Deb, Dora Gee wryly captures most of the on stage laughs some of which are definitely at the expense of her highly strung, yet flaky character, her many, many hang ups and occasional pretensions. It is said that opposites attract, but to bring two such divergent individuals into alignment in a manner so captivating and real is a remarkable feat of theatrical artistry. Any producers out there scouting for talent with which to people the next hit TV sitcom should look no further than Burt and Gee for the leads.

As Jason and Claire, James Edge and Lisa MacGregor breathe life into two seemingly stuffy characters (is ‘basic’ too harsh a description?). Here are a couple entirely without the quirkiness of Deb and Warren. Many surprises – good, bad, Earth shattering – come out of a clear blue sky. But the final twist of the narrative, the moment at which Lisa MacGregor utterly steals the show, stuffs it, mounts it, and hangs it in pride of place – that moment is the result of a steady clouding over of the dramatic horizon in collusion with Edge. They’ve spent their time in the spotlight carefully laying down a thick fog that blankets us until we can see no further than the taxi cab in which we are stuck, snarled in traffic, and snarling at each other. Then everything changes.

This production is produced and directed by the Town and Gown’s own Karl Steele who first brought these four heavy lifting stars and this weighty script together at the Old Joint Stock in Birmingham. Though minimal, the staging and the lighting are a fringe theatre nerd’s wet dream. Simple yet essential. Maximising the minimal. Always a help, never a hindrance to the storytelling. If this is what we can expect from inhouse Town and Gown productions then the tickets will be hotter property than the contents of Colonel Thomas Blood’s overnight bag circa 9 May 1671.

Perhaps it was Nick Allen on piano who worked the hardest for the longest to make the magic happen. After what we’ve all been through in the past couple of years it’s easy to forget how much sheer bloody talent is required to do every aspect of great theatre well. Get your coats on and go see this show. If you can, try and sit near Allen. When there’s a lull in the action, watch him tickle the ivories without hesitation, repetition or deviation and thank Dionysus that it’s him working so hard and not you.

Reviewer: Dan Lentell

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‘Howerd’s End’ (Town and Gown, 15-17 July)

Posted in The Town and Gown, Theatre by

“An insight into genius, a glimpse of the dark matter cushioning every star, a sense of a love that dared not speak its name, but spoke instead in a quiet and gentle whisper.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Outstanding)

Full disclosure. My credentials as an impartial reviewer for anything connected to the brilliant Mark Farrelly are zero. I’m a huge fan. I’ve been reviewing him since EdFringe ‘12 when he appeared in Roy Smiles’ ‘The Lad Himself: A Celebration of the Life of Tony Hancock’. I’ve seen both his solo shows, and was part of the team that helped bring them into print. Earlier this year I urged the renaming of our little arts thing from Edinburgh49 to GetYourCoatsOn based on a throwaway comment Mark made in an interview with Karl Steele, manager of the Town and Gown. You have been warned.

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We enter to find Farrelly nursing a drink and a bevy of grievances large and small. Here is Dennis Heymer, the oh so secret other half of the late, great comedy legend Frankie Howerd. Remembered chiefly as an established mainstream mainstay, Francis Alick Howard, OBE (1917-1992) was the first in that line of non-conformist comics who progressed through the latter half of the previous century. Howerd was followed by the Goons, who were followed by Beyond The Fringe, who were followed by the Pythons, who were followed by Izzard. 

The great strength of this script is that one really doesn’t need to know very much about Howerd’s life to comprehend the drama. Celebrated comedian (40yrs) walks into a bar behind which is a sommelier (28yrs). A spark is kindled between them that will burn light and dark down the discrete decades together. Theirs was a romance set in a time when same-sex relationships, especially life long bonds, were still the love that dared not speak its name.

As Frankie Howerd, Simon Cartwright skillfully treads a tightrope in a performance that remains both recognisable and real without falling into simple caricature. His Howerd is a sympathetic, gentle giant, a little boy lost in a sexually-abusive past, adrift in a secretive and uncertain present, complacent about the Christmases yet to come. It’s a quietly powerful performance that grows louder in the remembering.

As Dennis Heymer and several other characters, Farrelly brings his A-game – that mix of pace and pathos of which he is a master. On stage he is a unique blend of considered spontaneity, obvious vagueness, and resolute indecision. Nobody else presents ultra real people on stage quite as well as Mark Farrelly.

There is a third presence on the stage in this two-hander. June Mendoza’s portrait of Howerd hangs above the mantelpiece throughout, a silent witness to the drama unfolding between the corporeal Dennis Heymer and the ghost of his dead soulmate. The pictures sets the sartorial standard which Cartwright’s costume follows exactly, from the cut of his lapels to the narrowness of his tie. This play is an animation of Mendoza’s capturing in oils of her sitter’s ambiguity, calm, and resilience.

This was an early performance of a production much delayed by the COVID crisis. There were faults and unforced errors. The scene of the characters’ first meeting is not blocked well. Farrelly’s impersonation of Peter Cook needs fine tuning and amplifying. A potentially pivotal final moment, in which the departing Howerd puts Heymer’s smoking jacket back on is lost to the audience by Cartwright’s physical bulk along with a chance to see Heymer reflected in Howerd’s eyes.

Farrelly fans, including this one, will not come away disappointed. They will leave with a trove of theatrical treasures that will shine alongside his past performances. They will gain an insight into his method through the addition of a second performer, one skilled and talented enough to more than hold his own alongside the chic sheik of the solo script. For those of us less familiar with Howerd himself, we will gain an insight into genius, a glimpse of the dark matter cushioning every star, a sense of a love that dared not speak its name, but spoke instead in a quiet and gentle whisper.

Reviewer: Dan Lentell

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Town and Gown, Cambridge – 2021 Season Interview: Paper Boats

Posted in The Town and Gown, Written Interviews by

“50% of prison leavers in the UK are reincarcerated within a year of their release, and two-thirds within two years. The show offers a fresh perspective on a social issue that has endured for decades but has become even more critical at a time when those who are marginalised in society are being pushed even further to the edge.”

WHO: Isobel Griffiths and Amara Heyland: Producer and Director

WHAT: “Standing on the side of a road, clutching a plastic bag in one hand and £46 in the other, staring at the future.

Like many prison leavers, Sam has just been released into the middle of nowhere. Miles from home, with no place to go and no way of getting there, there is nothing to do except walk.

In this brand new devised piece, Roadside Theatre offers a frank look at the reality of leaving prison in the UK through Sam’s eyes. Drawing on real-life testimony to tell unheard stories with humour and compassion, Paper Boats explores what it means to start again.”

WHERE: Town and Gown Pub & Theatre, Cambridge

WHEN: 27-29 September (times vary)

MORE: Click Here!

What does Cambridge mean to you?

We both went to university in Cambridge, and spent three years constantly amazed at how much culture, history, and passion a small city could hold! Roadside Theatre was founded in Cambridge, and we love the unique and diverse audiences that the city can offer. Paper Boats, in particular, comes from a crucial time for rehabilitative justice both nationally and internationally. The murders of two Cambridge graduates at a conference on rehabilitative justice leaves a legacy for this in the city, and adds an urgency to the issues we raise. We wouldn’t want anywhere else to be the site of the show’s debut.

Tell us about your show.

A devised one-hander making its debut at Cambridge’s Town & Gown Theatre, Paper Boats was inspired by the true stories of prison leavers and the struggle of being suddenly ejected from an institution in which you have spent most of your adult life, often into a state of homelessness. 50% of prison leavers in the UK are reincarcerated within a year of their release, and two-thirds within two years. The show offers a fresh perspective on a social issue that has endured for decades but has become even more critical at a time when those who are marginalised in society are being pushed even further to the edge.

Through cooperation with facilitators of The Forgiveness Project’s RESTORE programme, we have had the opportunity to interview ex-offenders and rehabilitation workers in order to gather real-life testimony about the experience of leaving prison in the UK today, from those who have experienced it themselves and those working on the frontline of trying to redress systemic failures. Creating a show which is gripping, dynamic and compassionate, we will shed light on a little-known aspect of navigating the prison system in this country; what happens when you leave?

What kind of art makes you ‘Get Your Coat On’ and go see it?

We like work that explores urgent social issues in a way that is dynamic and fresh. Thought-provoking art that is for the current moment is what makes us go out and see it. We have been inspired by the work of Clean Break, a female led theatre company who work in prisons and use theatre to raise the profile of criminal justice issues.

We also are inspired by Cambridge itself. We have always loved the local venues in the city: the ADC Theatre, the arts theatre, and the many local gig venues. That’s why we’re so excited to be performing at the Town & Gown, because it’s bringing fringe theatre to the forefront in Cambridge. We’re so intrigued by the work that’s being performed there, and are excited to be a part of the programme!

You’re the age you are now. What’s the one thing you wish you could tell your younger self? What’s the one thing you’d like your older self to remember about you now?

To our younger selves, we’d tell them not to fret about what career you’re going to end up in. You’ll realise that the arts are what you love, and even when you graduate into a pandemic you will still find a way to create. For our older selves, we want them to remember to be glad that we didn’t give up, even though being an artist in your 20s is really bloody difficult and while there may have been moments where you thought about sacking it in and working in Canary Wharf, you didn’t!

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Town and Gown, Cambridge – 2021 Season Interview: Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood

Posted in The Town and Gown, Written Interviews by

“My mum died from her own battle with cancer before she could see this show, and we lost Vic the same way. This month, I’m proud to have been named the 5th Ambassador for the charity, CabaretVsCancer.”

WHO: Paulus, The Cabaret Geek: Creator, Writer & Performer

WHAT: “Written and performed by Paulus Of TV’s All Together Now, ‘Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood’ is a homage celebrating the music of the late comedy genius and national treasure. This one-hour performance created for the 2020 Edinburgh Festival, features musical director Michael Roulston (Fascinating Aida; Julie, Madly, Deeply; Jess Robinson).”

WHERE: Town and Gown Pub & Theatre, Cambridge

WHEN: 31 July (3 & 8pm)

MORE: Click Here!

What does Cambridge mean to you?

To me, Cambridge evokes memories of my first ever corporate gig. I was business partners with a Cambridge Alum and he arranged for Michael and I and a guest singer to entertain some ”Old Boys’ in a very grand function room after a lavish dinner. They said they had a lovely time but suggested the lead performer (me) might benefit from a toupee!

We then had a HIDEOUS search for some food and a drink (this was before the days of Deliveroo et al!) which culminated in us collapsing in our digs at 1am with a bottle of wine which we could not get the cork out of as there wasn’t a cork-screw.

Tiredness – 1, Alcoholism – 0.

Tell us about your show.

I wrote this piece to celebrate the music and musicality of the late, great Victoria Wood. I was introduced to her via her 1985 sketch show As Seen on TV when I was ten. I watched with my mum and sister and remember clearly how Vic’s ‘look’ back then was very androgynous – mens trousers, jacket, tie, shirt – spiky hair and trainers (she came 2nd in Tie Man of the Year, 1982, beaten only by Trevor McDonald, you know!). I didn’t know it at the time, but her eschewing of fashion norms would influence me heavily. My mum died from her own battle with cancer before she could see this show, and we lost Vic the same way. This month, I’m proud to have been named the 5th Ambassador for the charity, CabaretVsCancer.

What kind of art makes you ‘Get Your Coat On’ and go see it?

I’ve spent a great deal of the past two decades working at Outdoor Arts Festivals as a Ringmaster/Compere. I love the mixture of artisanal crafts, interactive workshops and bespoke pieces of dance, drama and music that all mingle together to make a special day or weekend at a site specific event. I want to buy ALL the jams and brooches and cushions and yet my suitcase is full of costume, so its often very tough to decide! I am the self-confessed ‘Cabaret Geek’ and so anything that is intimate, informal and breaks the fourth wall will get my attention also.

You’re the age you are now. What’s the one thing you wish you could tell your younger self? What’s the one thing you’d like your older self to remember about you now?

Enjoy your hair while you have it; one day it will slip off the back of your head.

There is a different between making art and creating content.

Ken & Deidre were never ultimately meant to be together.

Buy ALL of that soap you like in LUSH because they are gonna discontinue everything you love.

Keep your vinyl.

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Town and Gown, Cambridge – 2021 Season Interview: Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

Posted in The Town and Gown, Written Interviews by

“The story, about the value of home and family, is one which everyone, regardless of age, can relate to.”

WHO: Charlotte Ellen: Creator

WHAT: “Fly away with Betwixt-and-Between’s magical stage adaptation of J.M.Barrie’s prequel to Peter Pan. Meet Mary and her father, George as they explore the origins of ‘the boy who wouldn’t grow up’. Introducing a host of new characters- from regal fairies to talking birds – with tons of imagination, ‘joyful playfulness’,* and five wonderful, original songs by Patrick Neil Doyle, we invite you and your family to join us in Kensington Gardens this summer to hear the story behind the legend and to remember that to live is an awfully big adventure.’

*This family show is recommended for children aged 5+”

WHERE: Town and Gown Pub & Theatre, Cambridge

WHEN: 18th – 22nd August (3pm)

MORE: Click Here!

What does Cambridge mean to you?

Daniel and Charlotte, who set up Betwixt-and-Between and perform in this play, met in Cambridge in 2014 whilst they were both performing at the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, it is a city with many happy associations for them – although they have both succumbed to swallowing too much water from the Cam during punting and let’s just say that is not a wise move when you are sewn into your costume the next day!

Tell us about your show.

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens tells the origin story of Peter Pan – back before he flew to Neverland to meet Captain Hook, Wendy or Tinkerbell – when he first flew away as a baby and lived in Kensington Gardens with the birds and the fairies! The story, by J.M.Barrie, has been adapted for the stage and our versatile cast of two, who play all the characters as they tell the story. It is a show with storytelling at it’s heart, full of imagination, play and five catchy new songs. The story, about the value of home and family, is one which everyone, regardless of age, can relate to.

What kind of art makes you ‘Get Your Coat On’ and go see it?

Favourite plays include ‘The Grinning Man‘ (Bristol Old Vic), ‘The Light Princess‘ (The National) and ‘Spillikin‘ (Pipeline Theatre). From my first experience of the West End at ‘The Lion King‘ (Disney) to the one woman ‘Animal Farm’ I saw at Loughborough Town Hall in 2001 (Lizzie Wort), I love ambitious, creatively rich theatre with soul which aims to tell stories in imaginative ways.

I have come to recognise I am often drawn to puppetry as a particularly potent form of what theatre is – making something imaginary, real – and am enchanted by the work done by Gyre and Gimble.

During lockdown ‘Flowers for Mrs Harris‘ (Chichester Festival Theatre) and ‘The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk‘ (Bristol Old Vic) kept me hoping and dreaming about the return to theatre.

You’re the age you are now. What’s the one thing you wish you could tell your younger self? What’s the one thing you’d like your older self to remember about you now?

At 35 I would like to tell my younger self to do, do, do – whatever feeds your soul – and not to wait to be ‘ready’; but to do things for their own sake not for outside approval or ‘success’. I think I’d like my older self to remember … well just to remember things would be good! I’d like to remember that this is the time that I took all my doubts and said, ‘come on and fly with me’ – even if that means falling with style!

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‘Adolf’ (Town and Gown, 4th & 5th June)

Posted in 5*, The Town and Gown, Theatre by

“Pip Utton is THE leading solo player strutting the boards in our time.“

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Nae Bad)

Among the most damning things that can be said about Adolf Hitler is that he was a politician. Perhaps the most damning thing that can be said about politicians is that Adolf Hitler was one. We know that Hitler was a politician first and foremost because at the end of his 12 year reign of terror and error, the Germany that he had promised to leave stronger, happier, healthier, and wealthier was in utter ruin. Its cities had been shattered. Its youth slaughtered (yet again) on the altar of bombastic statecraft gone wrong. Its minorities piteously tormented, robbed, and murdered under the smiling guise of due process. Germany had been conquered and was occupied by the very people and nations Hitler had spent his public career vilifying. Germany would not be a single, united state again for the better part of half a century. It takes a politician to make such a god awful mess of things.

Hitler was a narcissist, a liar, a user, an abuser, intellectually shallow, personally callow. His biography is a case study in how the divine spark of a rather ordinary human being was snuffed out by a violently tyrannical parent, an indoctrinating hate-fuelled school teacher, a world indifferent to his early self-delusions of grandeur, exposure to the soul-crushing loneliness of life as an urban vagrant and the horrors of industrial warfare on the Western Front. This hapless self-involved manchild, a figure all too familiar these days, was spun by the fates into the author of atrocities great and small from which the world may never recover. Hitler became what he was because instead of seeking therapy he sought votes. He wanted unthinking adulation when he needed unrelenting help. Why would anyone vote for such a sorry specimen of putrid, pusillanimous, perversion?

Pip Utton is THE leading solo player strutting the boards in our time. No one in the business is more respected by their peers for the sheer bloody effort they bring to each game, set, match and championship. When I first reviewed ‘Pip Utton is Charles Dickens’ at EdFringe in 2011 the master was appearing in no less than three separate solo bouts – as Charles Dickens, as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and as Adolf. It took a toll on the artist, but the art was all the more exquisite for his feat of endurance. Now, with the COVID-crisis having shuttered our theatre spaces, Utton is (naturally) among the first to return. It’s like hearing the purr of a vintage tiger moth or the growl of a perfectly maintained hurricane fighter coming out of a cloudless Duxford sky. A thing of not-so-quiet beauty. An engineering masterpiece roaring back to life.

Utton’s portrait of Hitler is pictured in the bunker in the final hours of that misspent life. Those wanting only a rehash of Bruno Ganz’ landmark and ultra-realistic performance in Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 2004 biopic ‘Downfall’ will be disappointed, as will those hoping for a return of the camp clown presented by Dick Shawn in Mel Brooks’ 1967 ‘The Producers’. Pip Utton’s ‘Adolf’ isn’t about Hitler. It’s about us.

The show is about how an expert performer can tempt us, lull us, draw us away from what we know to be right and sink us in a mire of half-baked half truths. It is sad to think how many people come away from their encounter with the ultimate politician believing that none of the health warnings apply to their own preferred pedders of political spume. Arguing that one politician is better than another is like claiming that one bucket of lukewarm vomit tastes better than another. As Dr. Ben Carson put it, “We’ve been conditioned to think that only politicians can solve our problems. But at some point, maybe we will wake up and recognize that it was politicians who created our problems.”

Given how many problems the politician Hitler created for so many people it is a feat of editorial genius that this show is as tightly packed as it is. If the production’s Director, the legendary Guy Masterson no less, were a tailor for M&S we would all be looking sharper than Sinatra on our way to the office. Masterson is a genius for getting even very heavy and cumbersome material to hang just right. For all that this is a dark tragedy, there is a light, even a breezy feel to this intense and intensely upsetting piece of theatre.

Aspects of the script are in need of a little updating. These days Prince Harry wears a mask, not a costume, and wants us all to know that he is woker than woke (and open for business). Utton is in better physical shape than any of us, so the line about a tubby little English actor is as discorant as Blackadder’s describing Hugh Laurie’s Prince Regent as fat. But what’s so impressive (if not altogether unexpected) is how well the script has held up over nearly 30 years of performance. It’s proof positive that we cannot hear its warnings too many times. Whether we choose to heed those warnings on the other hand…

Reviewer: Dan Lentell

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