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.”
www.keepcalm.me
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…
Library‘s U-turn in ‘terror’ Play Row
The music department at Birmingham’s Crescent Theatre is coming up trumps for our forthcoming production of THE BUS. Based on the motif of violin music mentioned in the play, a selection of songs have been recorded that will be played throughout each performance; what they are and how they fit with the action of the play you’ll have to find out for yourself by coming along between 14 and 21 March.
Then, next weekend, under the musical direction of Gary Spruce, a choir will be recording a piece of music for use in the final scene of the play. The choir has been rehearsing hard ahead of the recording and the music they produce will be truly wonderful. Below is a shot of the choir in action last night (Sunday, 1 March).
Rehearsals for THE BUS progress well. We’ve been running the play for the past week or so and really getting a feel of how the story twists and turns more than the postal bus between Lugano and Tirano (a journey I made 10 years ago and which still lives on in my nightmares to this day!).
There’s one more week in the rehearsal room before we hit the main stage at The Crescent for our tech week and dress rehearsals. Then the big opening night on Saturday, 14th March.
I’m happy to report that the production is shaping up just as I hoped it would: it’s a great play, full of surprises. I hope you’ll see it and agree.
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