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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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In rehearsal: Bella Bailey as Apollo and Keya Sharma as Pan with Herbie Oldershaw's Bachus urging them on in the music competition Tales From Ovid Stage2 Youth Theatre The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham ***** Stage2 has never been afraid of taking on a challenge and this collection of tales of the ancient gods, based on Poet Ted Hughes' Tales from Ovid, is certainly that, and, to their immense credit the young cast rose to the task quite splendidly. Hughes based his collection of 24 tales on a selection from Roman poet Ovid’s master work Metamorphoses, his 11,995 line poem chronicling the history of the world and the myths of the gods written some 2,000 years ago. So, we open with the king and queen of the Roman Gods, Jupiter and Juno, played with a regal air by Sebastian Parker-Duber and Deeksha Sharma. The moral of this tale being don’t upset Juno Tiresias, played by Sean Domanski, a mere mortal, is given the task of deciding who is better off, the men or the women. To help in his deliberations, he is changed into a woman to get a feel for the other side and, perhaps seeing the way Jupiter was causing the wind to blow, declares women are better off, which pleases the king no end but infuriates Juno who promptly blinds him – but it’s not all bad as Tiresias immediately finds a new career as a clairvoyant narrator helping to tell the next tale. The next tale being Narcissus, who is portrayed by Tabaarak Pathan, giving us a real poser if ever there was one, the most beautiful son of the nymph Liriope, Kadie Sowsbery. His beauty, pouting, checking hair is in place, sees Echo, played by Shivani Gohel, fall in love with him. . . with him . . . with him . . . fading in the background . . . But Narcissus has only eyes and love for himself slowly dying beside the unrequited love from his own reflection, melting into the earth to be transformed into the narcissus flower. This gives us Jupiter again and his, should we say, free use of his subjects, having got a mortal, Semele, played by Loaira Carvalhido-Gilbert in a somewhat ungodly family way. That does not go down well with wife Juno, and we already know you don’t mess with her, so old Semele ends up bursting into flames and the foetus is inserted into Jupiter who gives birth to Bachus, God of wine, fertility, and revelry, played in a vine bedecked costume with a permanent look of fun and mild inebriation by Herbie Oldershaw. While Bachus enjoys his somewhat hedonistic and slightly sozzled lifestyle; Tiresias, the blind one, remember, warns the King of Thebes, Pentheus, an edgy performance from Rudy Hudson considering, that Bachus will destroy him. He ends up talking to Acoetes, an accomplice of Bachus, given full rein by Nora Bownes as she tells the story of how she met Bachus. The king flies off in a rage, goes mad in the mountains and gets killed by his mother who mistakes him for a wild animal.
Then we have the invention of spiders when Hannah Rust’s Arachne decides to take on the Goddess of Weaving Minerva, woven by Phoebe Preston. Big mistake. Arachne wins, but you just don’t upset Gods, they always win, even when they lose, Arachne ends up weaving forever as . . . a spider, so at least we now know where we get arachnids from. Hughes and Ovid then change pantheons of Gods from Roman to Greeks, aided by our storyteller Elliot Perrett, with Midas of Phrygia, here transformed from King to Queen in the shape of Eve Hack-Myers, turning Bachus who had been mortalised, back into a God . . . it’s complicated, don’t ask, so he grants her a wish that all she touches will turn to gold. In theory great, in practice . . . well you can’t eat golden apples or even golden burgers. So, miserable and starving, she pleads to be turned back, washing herself in a magic river which is why we find gold nuggets in river beds. You learn something every day. Next up is the most violent tale, one that reads like a pilot for Titus Andronicus. Still in Greek myth we have Procne, given a real vengeful airing by Iris Baguley, and Philomela, lost in the depths of despair in the hands of Indigo Perrett. They are sisters, daughters of King Pandion of Athens, a rather unwitting father in the capable hands of James Woodman, with no idea of what he is about to let his daughters in for. Procne married Tereus, king of Thrace, a villainous portrayal by Krish Gohel, the clearest baddy of the entire play. Tereus lusts after Philomela, ravishes her then cuts out her tongue to silence her. Philomela unable to speak tells her sister by tapestry, which seems to be an early form of text, and the pair plot revenge. Procne kills their son, Itys, and serves him up to his father, her husband in a less than romantic candlelit dinner. Tereus vows his own revenge but the Gods step in and turn the trio to birds, nightingale and swallow for the sisters and exotic show off Hoopoe, a real foppish dandy of a bird, for the murderous king. Finally we have Bella Bailey’s Apollo, straddling both Greek and Roman myth, in a sort of ancient battle of the bands with Pan, the Greek God of shepherds and nature, played with a hint of being ready for a fight by Keya Sharma. Pan claims Apollo, the Greek God of music, is plagiarising her melodies,setting in train a contest, a sort of early Duelling Banjos, Pan flute and Lyre in this case, with Tmolus, played by Alonzo Holbrook, the mountain God, as the judge. He went for Apollo, a judicious choice considering Apollo’s parentage of Zeus and Leto, but Bachus disagreed, choosing Pan, who did play her flute quite beautifully, to be honest while Apollo gave us a well sung solo with a lung bursting final note.
Hence Bechus ends up sporting a set of donkey ears, courtesy of Apollo. Bachus still needed a haircut though, so, asked the barber, Lewis Grego snipping away, to keep the ears quiet, not realising barbers are like radio stations, so everyone knew within moments. A forerunner for A Midsomer Night’s Dream, perhaps . . . The eight separate tales run on as a flowing narrative with a superbly organised Greek chorus, speaking in unison, sometimes in parts, sometimes as individuals, without faltering once and no one on stage is static, each is a character with a life of their own, rather than scenery. Wherever you look there is interest, even among the ensemble. Director Roni Mevorach has created some wonderful tableau effects with the large cast on stage, sometimes static, sometimes with co-ordinated movement to create constant visual interest. We have seen Roni grow as an actor for more than a decade at Stage 2, and she is now taking on the mantle of director as Projects and Performances Manager and has made a more than impressive job of it. The dialogue in this adaptation by Tim Supple and Simon Reade, is not the easiest, hardly normal conversation, yet this young cast managed it without faltering and clear as a bell. It is not enough for an actor to merely remember the words, they have to be heard as well and that box was clearly ticked. The music was composed and played by another Stage 2 stalwart, Amit Mevorach with some impressive four part harmonies in songs in what is a well rounded and engrossing musical performance. It is a bold retelling of ancient myths, merging the age old art of storytelling with elements of classical Greek theatre and the more dynamic style of modern theatre. The Gods are hardly kind to humans and the myths question the use of power as well as justice and punishment along with the more human emotions of love and hate. It is a brave choice of a play you would more likely expect to find at the RSC, who performed it in 1999, or the National Theatre, but Stage 2 have pulled it off quite magnificently in a powerful and pleasing production. As well as actors playing main character parts, who also join the animated Greek chorus , actors with other parts and the main body of the chorus included Mark Smith Alonso, Kitty Bateman, Clara Smith, Hiyaam Mahmood, Alice Heyes, Taya Bishton, Andrew Micdan, Kadie Sowsbery, Aleksander Hamey, Akshara Sunjay, Pearl Gunn, Lewis Grego, Rei Thronicker-McCormick, Molly Oldershaw, Evie Mumford, Molly Oldershaw, Rose Gilliam, Marianne Holland, James Woodman, Ono Mazaheri Hester Hawley and Asia-Lei Waller. All playing a part and all adding to a wonderful performance. Full marks too for the splendid costumes from the team of Bella Bailey, Akshara Sunjay and Mark Smith Alonso. Ovid’s tales will be told to 12-04-25 Roger Clarke 10-04-25 |
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