| Theatre and Gig Reviews THEATRE
REVIEW
Ducktastic
By Edel O’Connell
While Londoners are being threatened with an outbreak of the deadly avian
flu, the city’s Albery Theatre is under siege by ducks with a deadly sense
of humour.
Billed as a comedy spectacular, Ducktastic is the latest offering from
comic duo Hamish McColl and Sean Foley who penned the hugely successful
Morecambe and Wise send-up — The Play What I Wrote.
And the two writers are also the stars of the show.
The play follows the hilarious antics of these two under-achieving magicians
who create a make-or-break routine inspired by Siegfried and Roy — the German-born
magicians who’ve been entertaining Las Vegas audiences for more than 30
years.
However whereas Siegfried and Roy have built their act around white Siberian
tigers this show is built around ducks.
The magicians may be the stars but it is the play’s fowl thespians that
definitely steal the show.
The plot is as minimal as it is corny and centres around Christopher
‘Ursula’ Sassoon (McColl) — a washed-out Vegas performer back in London
after a break-up with his wife.
In need of a partner in crime he finds one in the gangly form of Portsmouth
pet shop owner Roy Street (Foley) who gets plucked right from the audience.
The show is a lot of fun and is essentially an outlandish send-up of
the tacky conventions of showbiz.
And those who like this genre of theatre will be falling from their seats
with laughter.
It lacks any serious dramatic depth but that is clearly not its purpose.
There are some great magic tricks and illusions where people and ducks appear
and disappear with amazing regularity.
Audience members too are pulled on to the stage which serves to add to
the wonderful chaos.
The dialogue is very clever, very funny, very silly and often very suggestive.
This zany magical extravaganza is truly unique and ends in a sparkling
song and dance number, fireworks and lots of ducks, with Daphne the Duck
as the star. It is very entertaining but if you’re looking for some serious
drama your goose is cooked.
Starring Hamish McColl and Sean Foley.
Runs until July 15, 2006
Box Office: 0870 145 1163.
THEATRE PREVIEW
Bronte
By Grainne McLoughlin
London’s Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith plays host to Polly Teale’s darkly
passionate tale — Bronte.
Exploring the real and imagined worlds of the three Bronte sisters —
authors of revered literary classics Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights — audiences
are transferred to the Yorkshire moors.
In 1845 their brother Bramwell returns home in disgrace after being plagued
by alcohol and drug addiction and having been dismissed from domestic service
after an affair with the mistress of the house.
As Bramwell continues his descent into alcoholism and insanity, bringing
chaos to the household, his sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne write.
Director Peale depicts in the play the three Bronte sisters writing their
novels in the depressing Haworth parsonage, while the various characters
— including Heathcliffe, Cathy, Mad Bertha, Rochester and Jane — which appear
from their books come to haunt them.
Focusing on Charlotte and Emily and the huge differences in their characters,
audiences will be exposed to the various elements that drove the sisters
and their work.
Diane Beck stars as Emily, Catherine Cusack as Anne and Fennella Woolgar
as Charlotte.
Starring: Diane Beck, Catherine Cusack and Fennella Woolgar.
For further information and tickets contact
www.lyric.co.uk or
08700 500 511.
GIG REVIEW
Robert Plant, Corn Exchange, Edinburgh
By Richard Purden
There was a timeless atmosphere of rock ’n’ roll anticipation before
Robert Plant took the stage.
The more youthful members of the audience looked like extras from Cameron
Crowe’s Almost Famous and wouldn’t even have been born when Percy was in
his full pomp with Led Zeppelin.
On the whole this crowd was far from looking like ageing rockers with
an eclectic array of ages and trends arriving at the venue.
There was no doubt that Plant can still pull off a full-on rock show
with big hair, soaring voice and frontman gravitas as he launched into the
rather brilliant Shine It All Around from his return-to-form new album Mighty
Rearranger.
It is his best work since the Zep and its amusing to watch the two guitarists
live out their ultimate Jimmy Page fantasies on stage.
A riff-laden rework of Black Dog followed and soon air guitarists were
plucking invisible riffs with tightly-clenched eyes.
Things slowed down a notch with another Led classic Going To California.
“I hope I didn’t keep you from having your nap tonight,” joked Plant.
This old number sent the ecstatic audience on a nostalgic journey back
to the early ’70s.
Plant kept it full on with What Is And What Should Never Be, Gallows
Pole and Four Sticks. But the best was yet to come. After a solid hour of
Zeppelin classics, solo gems and covers of Hey Joe and Seven And Seven Is
he returned to the stage with the ultimate rock masterpiece —Whole Lotta
Love.
The old Top of the Pops theme collided into Muddy Waters’ Hoochie Coochie
Man. As the riff to end all riffs boomed out in all it’s majestic splendour,
Plant took control of the stage and the audience in a way that would leave
other frontmen half his age in the shade.
Rock ’n’ roll with splendour, ceremony and full on; the way it should
always be.
|
