FROM A JACK TO A KING. To 15 September.
Hornchurch
FROM A JACK TO A KING
by Bob Carlton.
Queen’s Theatre To 15 September 2007.
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 6,15 Sept 2.30pm.
Audio-described 15 Sept 2.30pm.
BSL Signed 12 Sept.
Captioned 5 Sept.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.
TICKETS: 01708 443333.
www.queens-theatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 30 August.
From a nerd to a knave, and always in the groove.
This raid on the 1960s songbook plunders multiple tracks to tell the story of a Shakespearean tragedy. Which tragedy can be deduced from characters like 3 Witches, MacDuff and Eric – though that isn’t very helpful until you learn his full name’s Eric Glamis. He’s an awkward youth wandering Soho till pop promoter Duke Box (geddit?) picks him for a band fronted by one Terry King, renaming Eric, for reasons seeming natural at the time, Thane Cawdor.
But Bob Carlton’s piece does more than mangle lines from Macbeth while re-locating and re-ordering events. It also loots passages from Romeo and Juliet, Richard III and many another canonic part.
And the seedy Soho setting somehow includes Chandleresque cop MacDuff, trying to keep the mean streets from becoming over-parsimonious. How he fulfils this despite the drug-fuelled prophecy seeming to offer Eric invulnerability needs to be heard to be believed. And Carlton has Eric lose his liberty rather than his head, an ending that might have tempted Shakespeare had ‘Jailhouse Rock’ been available for a rousing finale in the 1600s.
Similarly, the existence of motor-bikes allows a bit of re-engineering to do for peroxide pop poser Terry. “Is this a spanner I see before me?” muses Eric, as such a giant implement indeed dangles before him. But “Who would have thought the bike to have had so much oil in it?” Queenie later agonises.
Like Carlton’s Tempest/B-movie-derived Return to the Forbidden Planet this mix of rock and roles is more artfully constructed than might at first appear. And the author, who doubles as Queen’s artistic supremo, has anointed associate director Matt Devitt to revive the piece here at Carlton’s castle. No pressure, Matt, honest.
Devitt’s done a devastating job. As Mark Walters’ set swings in to create a seedy street, or moves apart creating spaces for song and action, and Richard Godin’s lighting sharpens the often night-time city-scene, the actor-musicians hurtle through the evening in seriously tongue-in-cheek, high-energy fashion, glam meeting sham in a dark, supercharged world where every point’s acutely made. In this field, Carlton and Devitt are truly leaders of the pack..
Joe MacDuff: Simon Jessup.
Queenie: Hayley J Langwith.
Laura: Maria Lawson.
Terry King: Jonathan Markwood.
Witch 3: Jane Milligan.
Duke Box: Stuart Organ.
Witch 2: Wendy Parkin.
Eric: Philip Reed.
Witch 1: Steve Simmonds.
Director: Matt Devitt.
Designer: Mark Walters.
Lighting: Richard Godin.
Sound: Nik Dudley.
Musical Director: Carol Sloman.
Choreographer: Liz Marsh.
2007-08-31 10:17:31