Good People

When: Wednesday 26th March

 

Where: Hampstead Theatre

 

Why: Imelda Staunton

 

This play really made me fancy a game of bingo. Seriously, I think I probably still have an old dabber pen from when I used to go with my grandma and the old ladies – I was tempted to hunt it out. Set in Boston, I didn’t think bingo was a thing in the states, but apparently so.

 

This new play by David Lindsay-Abaire (who also wrote the book for Shrek the Musical…) is tough and punchy, and offers an insight into class issues in modern day America. The incomparable Imelda Staunton as Margie is a chippy, dollar-store worker (until she’s fired in the first scene) with a disabled daughter and an unsecure lifestyle. As her life looks like it might be starting to unravel, she hears an old boyfriend (played imperiously by Lloyd Owen) is in town and seeks him out, ostensibly to help her find work. As she tries to crash his cancelled party, she realises the gulf that has appeared between the boy who made good and her own life (“How’s the wine?” – “How the fuck would I know?”), and a series of witty and gritty observations plays out. Some dark truths emerge and we see how we change even our own histories and memories, and everyone’s motives are questioned.

 

Imelda as ever was touching, nuanced and hilarious, bringing vulnerability to a complex character (and a damn good Boston accent, as far as I know…) Margie’s old dollar store manager played by Matthew Barker was also innocently funny as the unexpected hero of the piece, who is constantly teased and who everyone thinks is gay because he’s always at the bingo with them. This was a great example of a situation play that was done at such a high standard – it made me think of the sort of thing that a lot of the amateur theatre I’ve seen would totally destroy and drag into banality, and it could be easily done, but this was utterly at the top end of the scale.

 

Brixpig x

Broken Bells

When: Monday 24th March

 

Where: Shepherds Bush Empire

 

Why: James Mercer’s voice

 

When I rented a room in Three Bridges during an internship a few years ago, the first Broken Bells album was a godsend to me. I used to listen to it every day, usually when I was wandering along to the library or aimlessly roaming around Horsham town centre, pretending I was in a movie about a girl with a really boring life. (I could also only listen to the Sand Band’s album first thing in the morning at that time… I tend to get very set in my musical ways during times of upheaval). And when the second album came out, years later, it made my train journeys to another hated office job much funkier. Again, James Mercer’s voice was the hopeful backing track to dreams of a more exciting future involving less paperwork and Thameslink train journeys.

 

The second album, After the Disco, is a cracker – 80s, synthy, both retro and futuristic at the same time, with a couple of banging BeeGees-esque tracks (Holding on for Life is my absolute fave), it manages to be low-key and uplifting at the same time. Shepherds Bush was totally sold out, and the crowd could see their little faces projected onto the screen on-stage, staring back at their excited expressions and ready for a groove. The show began with Perfect World, the first track from the new album, and we found ourselves taking off from the earth in our psychedelic space ship, complete with huge silver globe and a stunning light show and visuals, on a nearly two-hour journey with our talented hosts.

 

Influential producer and musician Danger Mouse and the Shins’ James Mercer make up Broken Bells, and it’s fair to say that they’re a very understated presence on stage, personality-wise. Danger Mouse (more prosaically known as Brian Burton) remained stoic throughout, and it is hilarious how little Mercer speaks – not even a greeting to the crowd, but giving an occasional mumble of the upcoming song title. Having seen the Shins previously I knew what to expect, and somehow Burton and Mercer's seriousness and focus makes you take their whole enterprise more seriously and forces you to appreciate everything else they’re doing up there – their music speaks for them and is charismatic enough by itself. And Mercer’s soaring voice is just outstanding.

 

We landed gently back on earth, after some fantastic views and a euphoric journey, expertly piloted by two unlikely but impressive captains.

 

Brixpig x

Miranda: My, what I call, live show

When: Wednesday 19th March

 

Where: Newcastle Metro Radio Arena

 

Why: SUCH FUN

 

My darling brother bought my mum and I tickets to see Miranda for our Christmas present in 2012. The most forward-planned gift of all time, at 15 months in advance. I was so proud.

 

Miranda was a riot; a friendly stage-presence and gloriously wacky, as expected. Her stand-up was slightly more in line with the sitcom Miranda, and took a similar format of silly jokes and asides to camera, plenty of slapstick and singing. It was like the filming of an episode but with much more audience involvement. The front rows were treated to gins in tins and packets of crisps (“Take one and pass it along”) as this show was intended to be a party. We sang along to disco classics (I will survive), took part in some en masse posh party chit chat and did plenty of dancing. Highlights included:

 

- the incredibly awkward interval date, which left a 20 year old female audience member tolerating the brilliantly uncomfortable advances of a 17 year old boy in a ‘Parental Advisory’ t-shirt
- Miranda’s predatory lunge, resulting in her accidentally flirting with a 15 year old
- readings from her teenage diaries
- the football warm-up move (“These… are MY balls”)
- MOIST PLINTH
- “What have you done today to make you feel PROUD?”

 

The whole thing wrapped up with a delightful video encore and an epic Beyoncé inspired performance featuring hotpants and glitterball.

 

SUCH FUN.

 

Brixpig x

The Mystae

When: Thursday 13th March

 

Where: Hampstead Theatre (downstairs)

 

Why: Stephen Fry recommended it on Twitter

 

The Mystae was a new play by Nick Whitby, performed in the incredibly atmospheric (and cute) downstairs at the Hampstead theatre. The action is set in an off-shore cave which slowly gets cut off by the sea, and the intimacy of the surroundings downstairs, combined with brilliant crashing seaside sound-effects and shadowy, evocative lighting, set the scene perfectly.

 

The events take place over the course of one night in the cave, and are poised on the edge between hilarity and danger, childhood and adult life, cleverness and madness. The three teenagers played expertly by Beatrice Scirocchi, Adam Buchanan, and the brilliantly named Alex Griffin-Griffiths, have grown up in close-knit Cornish village and are straining to break free, and over a hallucinogenic cup of tea they display both their innocence and their secrets in a wildly eventful night. They use Ina’s Greek heritage and their shared intellectual interests to try to recreate the Eleusinian Mysteries, an ancient ritual of transformation which brings clear vision of the ultimate truth. Brilliantly staged with quick vignettes and jokes interspersed with real dramatic scenes, I was utterly gripped by the skillfully natural portrayal of young adulthood and the three friends’ adventurous spirits. Best Twitter recommendation yet.

 

Brixpig x

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

When: Tuesday 11th March

Where: Wimbledon Theatre

Why: FABULOUS

I’ve always enjoyed a croaky, out-of-tune man’s voice – Bob Geldof, Robbie Williams, Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia… But I reached my tipping point thanks to Jason Donovan in this show. He sounded absolutely knackered. He even looked a bit woozy, stumbling round the stage in his heels. He’s not a natural dancer, nor a natural transvestite, I can’t lie to you. Anything less elegant is difficult to imagine. Fortunately, he was carried by a great supporting cast and some proper good tunes. It’s the campest show I’ve ever seen, brightly coloured and pretty elaborate – and you know that although the plot is insanity, you’re going to enjoy yourself on the bus journey through Oz. The Divas suspended from the top of the stage were sassy and brilliant, and the sniping banter between the main three characters was sharp and often hilarious. It was an overall glittering assault on the senses and an enjoyable night out in Wimbledon.

Brixpig x

Ghosts

When: Friday 7th March

Where: Trafalgar Studios

Why: Love me some Ibsen

My trip to Ghosts was the final night of a week of epic evenings – on Monday AND Tuesday I’d seen Wicked (free tickets, thank you very much), Wednesday was London Grammar, and Thursday was Haim. So you can imagine I might have been thinking wearily of my own sofa and a chill-out on Friday night – but I was actually incredibly excited to see Ghosts, and my friend Charles of course, who had sorted us out with £10 day tickets.

I was excited as well to be in the bigger theatre at the Trafalgar Studios, which is comfily retro. I’d been before to Trafalgar 2 to see my friend Ben starring in Betwixt, and both times had experienced a brilliant celeb spot, with Sheridan Smith the first time and Stephen Fry the second (neither of whom I was permitted to speak to by my friends, at the risk of massively embarrassing them and probably myself… rude). The day tickets were incredible value and meant we were stunningly close to the stage, on the second row with a view only partly impeded not by a high stage or safety railings, but by a girl with a massive top-knot right in front of me. Despite this hairy impediment, we could see close up every nuance of emotion passing over Leslie Manville’s face.

This was a stunningly put together production, with impressive lighting and claustrophobic stage design which all added to the intensity of the drama, but it was the acting itself that was sublime. I was absolutely floating away on the performances, which were all of just the highest standard. It was a privilege to watch a play where the quality of the actors was just undeniable and impossible not to appreciate (and the Olivier Awards panel obviously agree). Despite being one of Ibsen’s most harrowing plays, this performance was pitched perfectly – it was dramatic but not melodramatic, subtle and engaging, and you could feel it slowly piercing your heart as it played out. I described the plot to my mum and it sounded horrendously depressing, but it wasn’t like that to watch. I wasn’t dragged down, but carried along. Leslie was perfection, and Jack Lowden as the son, Oswald, was also outstanding.

The performance is now on Digital Theatre and I suggest you download it immediately (I think you can still use the code ibsencollection to get 25% off if you buy it and A Doll’s House at the same time!).

Brixpig x

HAIM

When: Thursday 6th March

 

Where: Brixton Academy

 

Why: What do you mean, why??

 

I can now say that I have met a person in real life thanks to Twitter! Not like, forged a real-life friendship or met my future spouse or anything, but met a very nice man briefly near Euston to swap cash and Haim tickets. He couldn’t go because his wife was having a night out and so he was babysitting (as I say, he was a nice man), and I had spontaneously decided to try to get tickets as I was too short-sighted to book them months before when I didn’t really know Haim that well. So it was win-win.

 

My mate and I watched them from right up at the back of the Brixton Academy because we decided to do some pre-drinking at home, but such was the force of their stage presence (and literal volume of both sound and hair) that it felt like we were totally engulfed in the show anyway. Our position also provided comedy gold in the form of me sprinting up the little stairs with two last-minute pints trying to get back before they started, tripping over, obviously, and choosing to save the beer over my shins (you know you’d do the same). Fortunately the drinks helped to numb the pain.

 

The girls blasted onto the stage like gorgeous leggy yetis, and launched into Falling with their trademark long locks flying. I am so jealous of their hair and instantly regretted cutting mine short. I’m still growing it now and am months away from the Haimy majesty I seek. They followed this up with If I could change your mind, which is my favourite Haim track. My dancing was enthusiastic, put it that way – but so was literally everyone else’s in there. It was one of the most vibrant and purely enjoyable gig atmospheres I can remember.

 

There were some awesome covers of Beyonce’s XO and Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well, and they constantly demonstrated how massively talented they all are, switching around lead vocals and different instruments with sisterly ease. Their rapport and banter with the crowd was killer too, chatting away and sharing awkward stories like total legends (Este’s autocorrect fail had the whole crowd in hysterics). They ended on Let me go, all smashing the hell out of different drums and working the crowd up into an appreciative frenzy. They are so enthusiastic and slick, epic and inspiring and FIERCE and exactly what you want from a gig and a band and like life in general.

 

Brixpig x

London Grammar

When: Wednesday 5th March

 

Where: Troxy

 

Why: Good question

 

Wasting my young years. At this gig, I think I was a bit. It was certainly a few hours of my life that I’ll never get back. I returned to the Troxy for the postponed gig that got me my free Future Cinema tickets, and realised what a brilliant venue it is for music. It’s congenial and beautiful, with great bars and views even right at the back, and the little booths are lush. However, once I’d taken all this in, sat through the support (Dan Croll – good, bit Made in Chelsea but a nice presence), I was ready to be carried away and impressed. Instead I ended up lost and floating on an uninspiring, lukewarm sea of dullness. With currents of irritation carrying me along, thanks to the film crew constantly dicking about running backwards and forwards in my eyeline.

 

There is definitely such a thing as being too understated. It can verge on being not at all interesting. And having no stage presence. I have no doubt that London Grammar are all nice, inoffensive people, but that doesn’t make for a great evening of entertainment. Hannah Reid’s voice is genuinely good and has a powerful haunting quality, but it can get a bit unvaried after a while. The group were filming the music video for their song Sights, which meant that Hannah had to leave the stage for a three minute Lemsip session before they performed it, during which time the cameramen went into overdrive, practicing their runs up and down the stairs (see the long shot at the end of the video below and you’ll see what it was they were up to). I really think you should commit to one thing – either do a gig or film your video. Or accept that if you use your live performance as your video, it might be a bit ropey – don’t REPEAT it as your encore (that was the point that drove me out of my stupor to get up and leave). As a group, they really didn’t have the charisma to charm a crowd into going along with the whole video charade, to make up for the annoyance with their persuasive power and banter. The audience all just seemed to be having a good old rumbly chat throughout the entire gig. I’ve seen beautiful, dream-like performances hold an audience spell-bound (Beach House, I’m looking at you), so I know it is possible. But London Grammar definitely aren’t there yet.

 

Brixpig x

 

1984

When: Wednesday 26th February

 

Where: Almeida

 

Why: Birthday present (for someone else)

 

I’ll be honest, the only reason I went to see this was because it made a great birthday present for my best friend, who loves the book and anything dystopian. I probably wouldn’t have bothered otherwise, but I’m so glad I did. I hadn’t read it (what a pleb) but made sure I did before we went to the play as I’d heard it was a bit complex… It is, so well done me. Especially as the stage version places the book in the past and analyses it from (seemingly) outside of its context. Just to add another layer of complexity.

 

This setting was a daring move but it definitely worked, and was as thought-provoking an approach as any of the book’s original concepts. The ‘book group’ are analysing the story as we see it played out on stage, and this actively invites the audience’s own reactions to it as the themes of memory and truth are twisted and re-worked. Scenes are replayed with details altered – people are written out of the story (unpersoned) and our rebellious minds try to remember the ‘true’ version, along with Winston. I could also see most of the audience from my balcony seat which actually did add another dimension to the experience. Being new to the story I was still in an initial state of malleable excitement about the plot and the concepts surrounding it, and so was loving the innovative way it was presented and made me re-think everything I had just read.

 

The cast were impressive and slick – Mark Arends as Winston was the perfect balance of innocence and intent, and Tim Dutton as the interrogator O’Brien was intensely creepy and showed how disturbingly far into Winston’s wounded mind he could climb throughout the torture scenes. I found the torture to be a bit more bloody than I’d imagined – I had seen it all as internal pain, but it was nevertheless incredibly effective and horrifyingly well done. The moment where Winston’s world literally comes crashing down when his hiding place is discovered, to reveal the behind the scenes workings and the terrifying clinical whiteness of the ministry, was brilliantly done with some stunning set design and lighting. The sound and use of video screens was effective and fitting to the all-seeing nature of the story, and scenes such as the 2 minute hate were incredibly shocking when played out in front of you. This was definitely a play that will stay with me, and I’m so pleased it transferred to the West End so that more people could experience it (although I do love the Almeida – what a great theatre).

 

DOUBLEPLUSGOOD.

 

Brixpig x