Although seemingly neither overly impressed nor phased by the traditional, “straight forward” production, Rogers reserves especial praise for the younger actresses who “impressed the most”: Kathryn Bellamy as Gwendolen and Sophie McLellan as Cecily.  Simon Atkins (Jack) and Chris Broadfield (Algernon) are “well suited” to their roles, John Horton and Pauline Lowe are “a divine pairing” as Rev Chasuble and Miss Prism, and — while Patricia Hobday’s crocodile-smile interpretation of Lady Bracknell does not quite seem to strike home for the reviewer — Hobday is nevertheless “certainly talented and spat many of wicked aristocrat’s lines out with pleasurable spite”.

The show closes Saturday night.

The full text of the article follows below.

The Blue Room, Swan Theatre, Worcester
May 2 2008
By John SlimAN ACTOR and an actress play five roles each in David Hare’s amoral merry-go-round.

There are ten scenes and the essential idea is that whoever the two characters are in any of them, they will be in bed before the episode is over and we shall thenceforth be regaled by sounds of appreciative excitement in the dark.

It is largely pretty earnest stuff that doesn’t really get anybody anywhere, which is why the amusing story involving the very theatrical actress and the playwright with a polysyllabic vocabulary is the one that comes as something of a happy release.

Emily Portsmouth - making her first appearance with the company - and Bob Churchill acquit themselves with distinction in each of their various roles. They take in their stride the need to appear in the altogether when the script demands it and he makes light of the surprising eyepatch that he is required to wear in his two appearances as Malcolm the aristocrat.

Wisely, Chris Jaeger’s production is supported by a pleasing jazz trio which enables it to avoid the silences that would otherwise descend between scenes. The action continues until tomorrow.

John Philpott writing in the former, appears to understand the themes, has his ideas about “the essential truth” of the play, and is congratulatory over Chris Jaeger’s “masterly brushstrokes” as director. But it would all be for nothing “without the right materials, and his [Jaeger's] artist’s palette must surely overflow with the talents of Emily Portsmouth and Bob Churchill”.

Catherine Phillips writing in the latter, however, is less effusive. She appreciates the “convincing” changes between different roles, but her dislike of the play itself and her opinions of the morals displayed by the characters appear to be a hang-up. She also discusses the amount of sex at the Swan (is it really so much, or does it just appear that way if sex is particularly salient to someone as they flick through the programming brochure?)

The text of both reviews follows below.

From the Worcester News:

The essential truth is men are hopelessly inadequate idiots
By John Phillpott [Friday 2nd May]

IT would be easy to jump to conclusions as scene one unfolds - street girl and cab driver, grubby exploitative sex and nothing more.

The next two settings appear to reinforce the victim theme, loveless liaisons that depress rather than titillate.

David Hare’s creation was forged in the white-hot sexual heat of earlier works, Arthur Schnitzler’s Reigen and La Ronde, a 1950s cult film classic. Each incarnation sends out the fashionable messages of the day, whether Marxist orthodoxy or feminist rant.

Yet director Chris Jaeger is possibly alone in recognising the essential truth of this piece - that all men are, on some fundamental level, hopelessly inadequate idiots. They stumble about like drunks, intoxicated on their own hormones.

But Jaeger’s masterly brush strokes would be as nothing without the right materials, and his artist’s palette must surely overflow with the talents of Emily Portsmouth and Bob Churchill. Despite a decidedly Edwardian demeanour, Ms Portsmouth effortlessly flits from uncouth hooker to posh married bint and from classy model to prima donna actress.

Meanwhile, Mr Churchill as the aristocrat and politician actually starts to sound like his namesake at times, with just a hint of Boris Johnson for good measure.

But what really hits home is all this laughable male vanity, delusion and pure stupidity laid bare - literally on occasion - for all to see.

It is not always a pretty picture, yet the so-called weaker sex somehow always manages to rise above it all.

The Blue Room is a bitter-sweet sideways glance at the human condition, neatly held together by some cool jazz sounds. It runs until Saturday and is well worth a visit.

And the Worcester Standard:

Blue Room shows sex in cold light
Catherine Phillips
02 May 2008

The Blue Room
Swan Theatre
Until Saturday, May 3

There must be something in the water down at The Swan Theatre.

Recently, their programme has featured Get Naked - The Boys are Back in Town!, a musical involving men dancing and singing in the nude, the sex and swear-word-filled Closer, and now David Hare’s The Blue Room.

Ten scenes featuring a circular story of sexual situations, many of which show a cold, callous desire for the action rather than any true feelings of love and devotion.

Two actors play all the parts: Emily Portsmouth and Bob Churchill, each with five characters from various backgrounds all linked by their last bleak sexual encounter.

The diversity of characters, and in particular their accents, was seemingly handled better by Churchill than Portsmouth who initially struggled with a cockney accent as The Girl and an Eastern European accent as The Au Pair.

However, when playing the Married Woman who embarks on a tryst with The Student before returning to her husband, The Politician, Portsmouth created the strongest character on the stage.

She also dealt with her numerous nude scenes with no embarrassment and the pair were convincing in their different roles.

The bare set leant itself well to the audience’s leap in imagination for the different locations while the sometimes lengthy costume and set changes were punctuated by a delightful live jazz band.

Hidden behind a length of material, I found myself looking forward to the musicians’ return.

However, the play itself presents a very cold view of sexual relationships and, perhaps because there is so much nudity and swearing, lacked any real warmth.

Maybe I am just too much of a romantic but I would have liked to have seen some genuine affection coupled with the betrayal and lust as they do not have to be mutually exclusive.

On the way out I was handed a leaflet for another production at the Swan Theatre, The Naked Truth, featuring pole dancing.

There is definitely something in the water.

The Blue Room starts at 7.30pm and tickets are available by calling 01905 611427.

The text of the review follows below. (Let us know if you can find a link to this elsewhere online!)

Closer
Swan Theatre Amateur Company
Swan Theatre, Worcester
VERDICT: ****

What a difference an approach makes. Patrick Marber has written a pretty foul play in which what is called love, interchangeable between its four characters, is animal passion - and he has included an internet chatroom scene in which graphic terminology leaves nothing to the imagination.

I have watched this scene presented in deadly earnest - but here it is an episode which a fine company plays for laughs. It is still vile but it takes the edge off it. You don’t necessarily squirm when it happens right there in front of you in its studio setting, which I did last time I saw it.

The play finds Alice (Suzie Davis) changing from an open, friendly girl into a calculating stripper, while Anna (Amber Bluck) faces her vicissitudes with an appealing gentleness, through which there bursts the temper and language of vituperative desperation.

The men in their lives are Larry (Jon T Scott) and Dan (Jim Ballard), both busy playing the field and prey to the anguish of jealousy. These are four excellent performances.

I shall never learn to love the play but Math Jones’s production is a small triumph over its unpleasantness. It continues until Saturday.

John Slim

Note: Only the opening of the Birmingham Mail review appears online at the moment — if anyone can update the STAC blog with more information or a link when it appears, please email via the Contact link.

The Worcester News says the set was “impressive”, that the production was “fresh”, “emotinally engaging” and “one of the most professional STAC performances I have seen”. The reviewer praises John Horton for a “superb” performance, Julie Nunn for a “suitably flamboyant” turn as Amanda, and notes Tim Watson’s “great comic timing” especially opposite the character Sybil Chase “played very well by STAC newcomer Kathryn Bellamy”.

The full text of the Worcester News review follows below, and the opening text of the Birmingham Mail review below that.

Impressive set and a fantastic production

AN impressive set helped the Swan Theatre Amateur Company (STAC) perform an outstanding production of Private Lives.

Noel Coward’s play, an overwhelming critical and commercial success when it was first staged in 1930, remains delightfully witty, honestly funny and heart-warming.

Possibly one of the most professional STAC performances I have seen.

Director Brian Burton was blessed with a more than capable cast.

John Horton was superb as the incredibly stubborn, recently remarried - but not necessarily in love - Elyot Chase. It was difficult to find fault with this show.

Chemistry is key and there was a plentiful supply between these actors.

Nunn’s Amanda was suitably flamboyant - at times a little wild - without being over the top. She and Horton were engaging without taking attention away from the script and interaction between other characters.

Tim Watson, playing the put-upon Victor Prynne, had great comic timing which meant the final scene between bumbling, sweet-natured Victor and the childish Sybil Chase (played very well by STAC newcomer Kathryn Bellamy) was all the better.

For me, Private Lives is a reminder of Coward’s talent and wicked way with words.

This production is fresh and emotionally engaging. STAC has done a fine job. The show runs at the Swan Theatre until Saturday, February 23.

And the Birmingham Mail…

Remarkable Julie in Coward classic

THE performance of Julie Nunn as Amanda in this Noel Coward classic is quite remarkable, in that it is deliberately theatrical and melodramatic and left me, for one, wondering whether to praise her for sustaining it so unfalteringly or to complain that it is too much for too long.

She has a wild expressiveness in her face, an armoury of extravagance in her gestures, a shrill delivery and the ability to change in a trice from a raging tigress to a repentent kitten or a silly little girl.

She is difficult to keep up with, but this is the demand she makes of the audience in Brian Burton’s …

However John Slim’s Saturday review of the show was excellent and his reference to the show flowing “without a hint of a hiccup” can only be a testament to the hidden but steady-handed and infallible stage management of Chris Harper and Steve Willis.

The text of the review is reproduced below.

Wonderful confusion
Relatively Speaking
Swan Theatre Amateur Company
Swan Theatre, Worcester

THIS is early Ayckbourn at its best — a joy of misunderstandings involving two young lovers and the girl’s older man friend and his wife.

Ann Moore’s production is a delight. It’s impeccably cast and it flows without a hint of a hiccup

The complications that are its essence are all down to the fact that Ginny is a convincing liar and that Greg and Sheila take a long time to catch on, while Philip, finding himself regarded by Greg as Ginny’s father, spends the action hoping that the truth will not out.

Miriam Knight, as Ginny, schemes insistently to try to keep control of the situation

Keith Thompson’s face, as Philip, is a particular bonus as it registers lugubrious bewilderment and desperate hope while he sees the storm clouds gathering. It’s a wonderful play and it runs until tonight.

VERDIT: [Four stars]

JOHN SLIM

The text of the article follows below.

Recipe for a great evening’s entertainment

TAKE a budding romance, throw in complications and you have this entertaining Sixties masterpiece by Alan Ayckbourn.

Add a talented cast with precise comedy timing and you get the recipe for a great evening’s entertainment.

Relatively Speaking was first performed in 1965. The concept is simple, yet the play is cleverly constructed, superbly written and very entertaining.

A young couple look to be on the road to marriage, but judging from the flowers and chocolates the girlfriend is receiving it seems likely that she has unfinished business elsewhere.

She sets off ostensibly to spend a day with her mother and father.

Without telling her, the boyfriend decides he will also make his way to Buckinghamshire to meet them. But are they really her parent?

Bob Churchill turns in a professional performance as the romantic and slightly old-fashioned Greg, who feels he needs his girlfriend’s father’s permission to marry her.

Keith Thompson is hugely enjoyable as Philip, the businessman who spiced up his life by having an affair with the much younger Ginny. Sue Hawkins’ Sheila is a delightful characterisation of the loyal wife, while Miriam Knight is impressive as Ginny.

The Swan Theatre Amateur Company and director Ann Moore are to be congratulated on staging a cracking play. It runs at the Swan until tomorrow.

BEVERLY ABBS

Tonight (Saturday 18th August) is the last chance to see Willy Russell’s One For The Road as performed by STAC.

The text of the article follows below.

Russell’s a laugh for amateursThe Swan Theatre Amateur Company has a good record when it comes to performing the works of Willy Russell.

Three years ago, when Michelle Whitfield gave a memorable performance as Shirley Valentine, the audience packed into the Swan Theatre studio space. Now, STAC is performing Russell’s 1979 comedy One For The Road and getting off to a good start by again casting Michelle.

She said: “Willy Russell is an absolutely marvellous playwright for actors to work with.”

One For The Road is about Dennis, fast approaching his 35th birthday and having what Michelle calls “a big male mid-life crisis”.

He feels trapped by domestic life and yearns for freedom and the open road. His friends have a different idea.

STAC’s production of One for the Road contains strong language and sexual references. It stars Math Jones, Amber Bluck and Alan Humphries and is in the Swan Theatre Sara Knight Studio until Saturday.

For tickets, £7.50, call the Worcester Live box office on 01905 611427.

Tonight (Friday 29th June) and tomorrow (Saturday 30th June) are the last opportunities to see STAC’s interpretation of this award-winning satire.

The text of the article follows below.

Satirical thriller hits target in the movies

The relationship between the Hollywood film industry and America’s gun culture is examined in Ben Elton’s thought-provoking satirical comedy thriller Popcorn.

Movie director Bruce Delamitri (played by the excellent Chris Isaac) returns home after receiving an Oscar for his latest ultra-violent film, only to find a pair of serial killers, Wayne Hudson and his sidekick Scout (the oustanding Bob Churchill and Rebecca Stait) in his Beverly Hills pad.

They have a plan to make Bruce accept responsibility for their murders and drag in his dysfunctional family into the proceedings.

The award-winning play explores the complex issues around why violence is popular entertainment and how far the media influences what people do. It runs as the Swan until Saturday.

DAVID HUDSON-WOOD