SPANGLEGUTS. To 13 January.
London
SPANGLEGUTS
by Jonathan Petherbridge
Albany Douglas Way Deptford SE8 To 13 January 2007
Mon-Sat 2pm no performance 25 Dec 1,3,8 Jan
7pm Thu-Sat & 27 Dec
BSL Signed 29 Dec 7pm
Runs 2hr 10min One interval
Tickets: 020 8692 4446
www.thealbany.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 December
New-minted story with familiar elements makes a fine Bubble show.
London Bubble have produced several fine pantomimes in South London. This year, at Deptford’s Albany, they present a fine non-pantomime. It’s staged with bravura on a central platform-ring, recalling the circus more than a theatre – no bad thing, as it’s likely to be a friendly association for many young people.
And it provides an arena where the story, based on a traditional tale ‘The Crystal Casket’, comes over forcefully in its spare theatricality. So, when a door is manoeuvred around the acting-space by 4 actors it’s ingenious physics and spotlights in its deliberate care 2 visits to young Esmerillina which are focal plot points.
It’s here the story runs closest to ‘Snow White’. Yet the malicious Witch who brings deadly presents is an emanation of a divided mind. For the Teacher who marries her pupil Esmerillina’s father, then is jealous of her step-daughter, is divided between good and evil. Sophie Russell gives her a calmly-played surface, while suggesting subterranean emotions. If Spangleguts has a shortcoming it’s in the lack of space for this character to develop.
The comparative passivity of Nicole Charles’ sweet Esmerillina (the title refers to the name her fairy protectors give her), including spending much of the second act asleep, is proper. She is innocent, a receiver of others’ positive or negative attentions. And her long sleep takes place during an act different in tone from what’s happened before.
For it introduces a comical royal family, including a drag queen (so to speak) whose fondness for the racing pages seems more familiar than her liking for war. Anyway, Prince Martin (Amit Sharma aptly low-key, suggesting qualities royal life doesn’t bring out) finds enduring love even for an Esmerillina reduced to doll-like stillness.
At first the multiple references to storytelling seem offputtingly self-conscious. But Bubble’s justification is to link them to the company’s participatory work on story-styles. And Esmerillina’s childlike request for bits of all 4 narrative genres on offer from the talking eagle (yes, there’s magic in the air) comes home to roost (so to speak) by the end of Jonathan Petherbridge’s lithe, energetic and resonant production.
Witch Woman/Milly/After 8: Li-Leng Au
Esmerillina: Nicole Charles
Father/Sour/Bernie/Flunky: Daniel Copeland
Teacher/Kate: Sophie Russell
Murray/Prince Martin: Amit Sharma
Trebor/Eagle/Yeoman: Nick Shorney
Queen/Everton: Simon Startin
Director: Jonathan Petherbridge
Designer/Costume: Pip Nash
Lighting: Neill Brinkworth
Composer: Sayan Kent
Video: Hannah Mason
Movement: Sabina Netherclift
Assistant director: Hannah Pantin
2006-12-18 11:31:47