Just to confirm what a great week it’s been at the theatre this week, here’s John Slim’s 5 star review in The Birmingham Mail of the other show in The Crescent Theatre’s double bill.
Monthly Archive for May, 2009
There are only a few performances left so boogie on down!
Still alarmingly haunted by Rosie’s song By the Bog of Cats, it has taken me a couple of days to write this. I wasn’t sure what to expect prior to seeing the play and walking in to the dimly lit studio, I still wasn’t sure. Against a backdrop of tatty old caravan, a line of children’s clothing drying in the bleak wind and a knackered set of garden furniture, the atmosphere was haunting, spooky and poignantly sad. Automatically you knew this was going to be a dark play with sorrow and tragedy from the outset. Before even a word was said, Sarah and I were in tears. The opening song was truly beautiful.
Katie who played Hester Swaine was marvellous. As a deeply troubled young woman trying to do right by her daughter, the audience was overcome with understanding for her plight and sympathy for her heartbreak. And Rosie who played Josie, Hester’s daughter, was beyond talented. I was bowled over by how real her innocence was, she was magnificent. For a young girl working with such difficult subject matter, you might imagine her resolve to falter somewhat but no, she made you believe, she enveloped you in her childlike innocence and eagerness to please. She was truly captivating. This of course made the ending so much harder to bear and so much more real.
However there was some light relief ever so periodically with the wonderfully played Granny Kilbride. The speech delivered at The Wedding was superbly executed and wonderfully funny. It offered the much needed respite from the rest of this deeply distressing play. Norman’s portrayal of the sozzled priest again provided some gentle comic relief and made for such a great Wedding scene.
Each character, from Caroline to Simon, the ghost to Catwoman, Josie to the deadBlack Wing made for a truly excellent play full of deep sorrow, conflict and misery. If I can stomach more emotion, I shall see it again but for all of those who haven’t seen it, make sure you do but take some tissues…
Graeme Braidwood took some amazing photos at the Boogie Nights tech yesterday. There are more on the Facebook event and on the Crescent main website but here are a few I particularly liked.
By the Bog of Cats – Interview with Katie Edwards
Katie as Hester
We interviewed crescent member Katie Edwards on what we can expect from By The Bog of Cats, which opens next week.
Q - How would you describe the play in a sentence to those of us who don’t know it?
K - It’s a bit of a mix of old Irish superstition, mysticism and the actions of a wronged woman which ends in horrific tragedy.
Q. You play the leading lady Hester Swaine (previously played by Holly Hunter & Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonio at the Donmar in London) how would you describe the journey of your character ?
K - Hester was abandoned by her mother as a child of about 11. A ghost fancier comes to collect her soul at the beginning of the play but he has come at the wrong time, bit like a grim reaper but more normal spirit (Colin Simmonds). There is mystical significance with her and a black swan who has just died and she is very close to, it had been predicted that she would live as long as the swan.
On top of this Hester has been dumped by Carthage (Simon King), the father of her 11 year old daughter, and she has never gotten over this and is desperate to get him back.
Basically people are trying to get her to leave the Bog of Cats as the land that she lives on in her caravan and house are owned by carthage and Caroline now as she was forced to sign over any hold on the land when she was in a vulnerable state.
Hester is a bit clairvoyant too and is visited by the ghost of her dead brother which gives us further insight into her tragic and somewhat shocking past.
Playing Hester has proved to be extremely challenging and it took me a while to get inside her head. She is a very complex person ho seems to be emotionally underdeveloped and although being extremely worldly in some ways, she is a lost little girl in others. As a result, she deals with situations she can’t cope with in a very destructive way.
Hester is constantly on the brink of some kind of situation and so in that respect I am unable to ‘chill out’ at any time throughout the whole play. There are so many characters who have some kind of grievance with Hester, or vice-versa, and because of this, the action develops into a car crash that seems inevitable.
Q- Blimey, how do the other characters fit into the play, we heard a rumour about Jo eating mice?
Well Caroline’s Dad (Les Stringer) is a bit of a git and it is hinted at that he may have abused caroline before and been responsible for the death of his own wife and son. Cathage’s mum (Pat Dixon) is a mean woman who is always being nasty to Josie, Hester’s daughter, and hates Hester.
Jo, not eating mice
Catwoman (Jo Thack) is a clairvoyant and yes eats real mice, but you have to watch the show to see if she does this live on stage! She is also blind, and she tries to warn hester to leave as she knows something awful is going to happen and like Monica (Chrissy Griffiths) they desperately try and reason with hester to leave.
Thanks Katie that’s fantastic, I can’t wait to see it. With such a gripping plot and a formidable cast I fully expect to be blown away!
Check out the new huge Boogie Nights poster spandangling itself outside the theatre!!
Looking very funky!
Full of economic doom and gloom, mass job cuts and blundering MPs claiming back money for their eyeliner, pizzas from Asda and under-floor heating, the start to 2009 has been a bit tough. So what better way to cheer yourself up, stir those seventies senses and quite frankly get your groove on? Well come and get down on the action with Boogie Nights!!
With Deano your supersonic DJ Machine, you can be guaranteed to sing long to at least 50% of the songs throughout the performance! The dance routines will get you ‘boogieing’ in the aisles with the person sitting next to you or just on your own. The smiles will stretch for miles!! With eye-catching colours but eye-watering heights, the platforms will have you hooked, the flares will have you wistfully retuning to the 1970s and the dodgy moustaches will make you want one!!
With so many wonderful and daring costumes taking an airing, the rehearsals are proving to be quite interesting. With some of the characters having up to ten different costume changes, working out how much time they have to actually get into them is imperative!!
Sunday rehearsal provided the opportunity to sing with live music – drums, guitar, bass and the keyboard – as opposed to Gary trying to bash out a big 70s disco classic on an electric piano!! It made the atmosphere feel really alive with vibrancy and vigor!
The early stages of the set are coming along nicely too. The cast has been pretty lucky having been able to have two run-throughs on the main stage already. With the band coming in again on Thursday, there will be the chance to rehearse with live music again with mics and some of the set changes.
It’s fabulous, flare-fuelled fun and simply not to be missed. Get involved, sing along and relive the seventies!!!
Boogie Nights is in the last couple of weeks before it opens on 22nd May with a Friday night preview so here are some rehearsal clips to give you an idea of what the cast have been working on for the last couple of months.
Here’s the whole cast (plus, briefly, the director and PAs!) rehearsing the Act 1 finale; if you think the cast look good in jeans and T-shirts, wait until you see the frocks!
And this video was shot over several days showing how a number progresses from early note-bashing to setting the movement. Now multiply that by 20 and you’ve got some idea how much work goes into making a show like this look easy!
“Casting is sometimes talked of as being 75 per cent of the director’s job,” writes Stephen Unwin, “and certainly if you don’t understand how important casting is, your work is bound to fail.”
As Arts Manager at The Crescent Theatre I have to sign-off casts lists for each production. As I only feel comfortable doing this having seen who has auditioned, I sit in on as many auditions as possible. There purely to observe – not to interfere – I find more often than not that directors use me as a sounding board as well as a source of information on how committed actors have been to previous productions and so on.
As an observer it has been interesting to see just how seriously directors take casting and how often they agonize, literally, over the process. Decisions can often be especially painful when they involve close friends or even relations. I am happy to say, however, that I’ve not met any nepotism as yet and all decisions have been based on what’s right for the production; if they weren’t I would intervene.
So what do directors consider at casting? Well, I guess the list is a long one, but includes looks (does X look like the character I have in mind, and will X look right against the other actors?), sound (will the voice fit the character?), temperament (is X a team player or a prima dona?), movement (can X purvey the feeling of the period through movement?). The list goes on and on, and certainly makes casting a very important, if not the most important, task a director undertakes.
On reflection, I’m not sure it’s 75 per cent of the work, but it’s certainly a good 50 per cent and not a task to be envied. To all of you who have ever auditioned and been turned down, spare a thought for the director. He or she does not make decisions lightly or without regard for how those decisions will be perceived, they do, though, have to make decisions with the very best intentions and for the good of the production. So this time you didn’t quite fit (and you may violently disagree with a decision), but don’t let it worry you and keep auditioning!
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