The Youth Theatre are back in the Rob Barber Studio this Friday and Saturday with the cautionary tale of ‘The Terrible Fate of Humpty Dumpty’. Tickets are always popular to see the Crescent young actors so make sure you book this promenade performance soon.
Lots of nice comments from audience members who have seen ‘Festen’ already. We’ve taken a selection from those kind enough to post their comments on Facebook.
“It was extremely moving and is a tremendous production with performances that will haunt for a long time. I don’t know how to recommend it highly enough. This is a must see Crescent production and I look forward to watching again next Saturday. Have a great run.”
Jo Mason
“”..one of the best plays I’ve seen full stop. Brilliant cast, amazing direction. Just fantastic. You HAVE to see it. You’ll be sorry if you don’t ”
Leasa Clarke
“Saw the most amazing play last night at The Crescent Theatre called ‘Festen’ - if you don’t watch anything else this year I would suggest you watch this - it is just unbelievably haunting, haven’t stopped thinking about it all day. Was good it finishes early as i needed those stiff drinks after!” Katie Edwards
“Thought Festen was brilliant. Well done everyone. Spellbinding” Craig Deeley
“Saw Festen at the Crescent and thought it was wonderfully harrowing. Brilliantly done by an excellent cast.” Andrea Stephenson
“Gobsmackingly superb in every way! Not just a must-see. In my case it’s a must-see twice. I’m going again and just you try and stop me! Congratulations to everyone involved.” - Andy Jones
Finishes on Saturday. Don’t miss ‘the best play of 2004′! (Click on the picture for more production images)
In today’s Birmingham Mail John Slim has praised Kerry Murdock’s production of Talking to Terrorists, describing it as a piece delivered with precision and confidence. A massive Congratulations to all involved, myself, the Terrorism team and the rest of the marketing team are all seeing it tonight.. can’t wait! I urge anyone who who has not yet booked tickets to do so now!
“presented with confidence and precision. It does not falter. It hardly raises its voice, but defies you to look away”
John Slim, Bimringham Mail
Wednesday April 8th 2009 page 15.
This is the second five star review in a row for The Crescent Theatre company, so we must be doing something right!! It is brilliant to get such support from the press and to receive this glowing review for a play exploring such a controversial topic. The mini-season has been insightful in many ways and a tremendous success that has been enjoyable and challenging.
Great start to the day as Metro have included our production of Talking to Terrorists in their weekly “Critic’s Choice: Stage Shows Worth Seeing”. Of the show it says:
“Starting out at The Royal Court, this affecting piece came about from interviews with people directly affected by terrorism as hostages, journalists or victims. Spoken verbatim by the actors of The Crescent Theatre the result is a hugely powerful piece of theatre.”
The Halesowen News features a quick interview with Crescent actor Alan Marshall about his involvement in the upcoming Talking to Terrorists play. You can read it online here.
Actor John Whittell and director Kerry Murdock are likewise featured in the Solihull News here.
Following hot on the heels of the 5-Star Rated Terrorism, Talking to Terrorists promises to round off our Terrorism mini-season in fine style.
With a welcome Full House expected on Friday our first dress rehearsal guaranteed high pressure. Sunglasses and suitcases, nakedness and knickers, dancing and death all dominated proceedings to made for a highly charged and exciting performance.
Using a deliberate colour theme of red, white and black to single out individuals while simultaneously emphasising uniformity meant for superb lighting effects to take place. Chilling silhouettes and haunting red lights added to the menacing presence of the cast onstage. The Dress was quite simply chilling yet poignant, dark yet funny, moving and brilliant.
Seeing the choreography between scenes finally work as tightly as it promised to was a delight. Despite the music that is used being catchy and upbeat each song captures the mood of the play perfectly. The visual impact is quite something.
The heat was most certainly on with Karl who had to get naked for the first time in front of cast and crew. I think Wanda had booked a central seat on the front row… Not only did Karl have to deliver his lines expertly, he had to grapple with a big white sheet, a very sultry Sarah and of course timing his movement to the sounds of a creaking bed. Phew!!
The set, albeit simple, commanded its own level of pressure. With blocks and suitcases forming the entire set, each has to be positioned with strategic refinement. When each suitcase is as precarious as it promises to be stacked up high and full of ladies’ stockings and file paper, getting it right was critical. Fear of pulling a muscle or knocking them over was banished from the radar. It worked brilliantly! And looked amazing.
After an exhausting technical week during which my hand was rarely free of a paintbrush and the cast and crew worked tirelessly through several rehearsals, THE BUS finally opened on Saturday and we got to see what the audience would make of it.
It’s fair to say that the play itself has divided opinion, although everyone appeared stimulated by it, intrigued, and the discussion about it continued well into the early hours of Sunday. Exactly what I hoped for!
Here are a few snippets of feedback received:
“There are some really good performances … notably from Paula Wall and Ben Rigby in the central roles of Erika and Hermann. The staging … is also well attuned to the play’s abstraction.”
“I enjoyed THE BUS on lots of levels … I thought the cast was amazing, some really fantastic performances.”
“Well done, I thought you made the massive ideas really accessible … particularly enjoyed the ‘trees’ design wise too … good going designer!”
“Thank you for a thought provoking evening last night. Can’t pretend to say I truly understood it but was dead impressed at some of the performances … loved the setting, so great to see the stage opened up like that … bravo for being different.”
THE BUS runs till Saturday.
THE BUS has just completed its first dress rehearsal, and here’s a sneak preview of how it will look. There is still some work to do on set, lighting etc., but all will ready for the big opening night on Saturday. Hope to see you there!
Yesterday’s Birmingham Mail ran a story about one of the issues we’ve had in promoting our forthcoming mini-season of plays on Terrorism…
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