list.co.uk/theatre Previews & Reviews | THEATRE
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MUSICAL SISTER ACT Edinburgh Playhouse, Mon 3–Sat 15 Apr
It’s 2009 and Craig Revel Horwood, sharp-tongued judge of Strictly Come Dancing, has a head full of vision. Recruited to choreograph a West End version of Sister Act, he’s all set to go when a sudden change sees the job whisked out from under him and handed to another choreographer. It was, he says, ‘frustrating’. But now, a brand new production of the musical is on the road, with Horwood both directing and choreographing.
‘I’ve had the show in the back of my mind for nine years,’ he says. ‘You prep yourself, you saturate yourself in the music, and then when it doesn’t come to fruition, it still stays with you because you’ve invested so much of your imagination in it. So it’s lovely for it to come full circle and to be able to actually do what was in my head.’
Watching that 2009 production, Horwood’s first thought was ‘well I wouldn’t
have done it like that’. Now he’s finally got the chance to do it his way, changes have been made – and with X Factor’s Alexandra Burke in the starring role (whom Horwood calls ‘the most incredible actress’), he’s far happier with the result. ‘The major difference for me is the truth in the story,’ says Horwood. ‘I wanted
the characters to be three dimensional, to take all the glitz out and replace it with a real church, real nuns' habits, to make it more realistic. So we’ve done that – it was only a few little tweaks here and there, but now it’s more believable.’ (Kelly Apter)
CLASSIC SATIRE HAY FEVER Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, until Sat 1 Apr; Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 5–Sat 22 Apr ●●●●●
Director Dominic Hill’s take on Noël Coward’s satire focuses on the insufferable Bliss family, manufacturing lunacy when they ensnare their guests in parlour games. With the cast disappearing in and out of a landscape backdrop by designer Tom Piper, and from doors at the side where they can be seen before making their entrances and exits, Hill draws attention to the artificiality onstage. There is a real sense of stretching the limitations of the script’s eccentricities. Excellent work from Benny Baxter-Young as pompous writer father David and his ghastly offspring Sorel (Rosemary Boyle) and Simon (Charlie Archer) is more than matched by hilarious, endearing Myra McFadyen as put-upon maid Clara.
For all the comic antics, Hill works the script’s more difficult themes: an
initially awkward scene between interlopers, uptight Richard (Hywel Simons) and bonkers Jackie (Katie Barnett) is pushed to almost intolerable levels of discomfort, nearly playing out in real time which provides a satisfying naturalism.
However, it is Coward’s women who dominate the action: the face-offs
between washed-up luvvie Judith (Susan Wooldridge) and vampish Myra (Pauline Knowles) are brilliant, symbolic of both the new-found freedom for women in the roaring twenties, and the desperation to cling to their youth. Despite being slightly overlong and dragging in the second act, Hay Fever is a spry and fun romp emboldened by Hill’s distinctive directorial flavour. (Lorna Irvine)
FESTIVAL MAYFESTO Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 3–Sat 27 May
Even when he isn’t directing one of his plays, Andy Arnold evokes Samuel Beckett. This year’s ‘mini-festival’ Mayfesto is inspired by the Irish absurdist’s struggles with language and sound, and his conclusion that ‘music always wins’. Beckett’s pessimism aside, Arnold’s curation suggests that ‘gig-theatre’ has established itself as a dynamic genre.
With Blood of the Young presenting Daphne Oram’s Wonderful
World of Sound (pictured), a study of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop pioneer, Alan McKendrick teaming up with the Smack Wizards to tell the story of a tour from hell, and A Band Called Quinn grappling enhanced interrogation, Mayfesto draws from rock’n’roll, experimental electronica and punk ferocity as much as the magic of the script.
Further work comes from Ramesh Meyyappan, an artist as restless as he is creative; his Off Kilter looks at being an outsider, with literal magic in the mix. Horse McDonald brings her Fringe hit play Careful to the Tron (see preview, page 100), and even Glasgow University joins the party, as academics and fledging superstars David Archibald and Carl Lavery roll out the latest episode of The Glam Rock Dialogues, a counterblast to punk-rock ‘authenticity’ and the belief that theory doesn’t have its own swagger.
If McKendrick’s Cadaver Police in the Electrocution Afterlife – as seen in progress during the Take Me Somewhere festival – hides a caustic sting inside its rocking metaphor of life on the road, A Band Called Quinn take on the ultimate sell-out. Based on the research of musicologist Dr Morag J Grant, Music is Torture considers the condition of a band when their songs are used by the military – with humour promised.
Mayfesto has always had a political edge. Despite the serious subjects and intense performances, this year’s theme ensures that the programme is a celebration of collaborative creation, and a battle between media that resolves not into a victory for music, but for imagination and audiences. (Gareth K Vile)
1 Apr–31 May 2017 THE LIST 103