I Bought A Blue Car Today

Alan Cumming
Musical Director – Lance Horne
Vaudeville Theatre

Reviewed by Rachel Sheridan for the British Theatre Guide

He was in Sam Mendes highly acclaimed production of Cabaret and yet still one doesn’t automatically associate Alan Cumming with the musical world. He’s an actor (an incredibly fine one) and a comic, but a singer?

Well you can decide that for yourself as his one man show I Bought A Blue Car Today takes the audience on a journey through his last ten years in New York and is punctuated by musical numbers which relate to his experiences or have had an impact on him during his time in America, or that he just plain likes and doesn’t really have any other reason for singing them.

So the big question is, can he really sing? It certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. Sure Cumming can carry a tune and it’s no surprise to see several comic songs pop up such as Victoria Wood’s “Thinking of You” and “Taylor the Latte Boy” by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler. However they are weaved in alongside of power ballads like Cyndi Lauper’s “Shine” and Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye” and even a few self-penned numbers. Performing these songs with an almost desperate sincerity, Cumming is clearly anxious about performing these songs well and you can’t help but feel a little nervous for him. He lacks the effortless ability of a natural singer and at times falls a little flat through his eagerness to communicate the song.

His witty repartee about his experiences in America, although a little self-indulgent are quite the contrary. Despite the nerves he discusses, his banter is easy and casual as if talking with old friends. As Cumming says; this is like a party; it’s just that we had to pay to come!

His tales of his life Stateside, mixing with the stars and performing at the Tony’s are fabulous and yet they are extremely personal as he discloses that he was sobbing in the shower just before meeting Whoopi Goldberg backstage at Cabaret. His stories although at times a little boastful are endearing and he’s really just a Scottish lad, excited by his life Stateside. Although it is interesting that he has become a citizen in a country which he had to leave in order to get married as they don’t recognise same sex marriages. He talks a great deal about his partner and friends and at times gets quite sentimental, although there is always a mischievous grin and a naughty twinkle in his eyes.

Whether he is the greatest singer in the world is almost neither here nor there. His sensual, dirty version of “Mein Herr” from Cabaret proves that you don’t have to have the strongest belt for a song to make an impact and whilst this isn’t the case for every song; it really doesn’t matter all that much. It’s Alan Cumming and even a story about buying a blue car today is entertaining when he’s telling it.

Stockwell

By Kieron Barry (edited from the court transcripts)
Directed by Sophie Lifshutz
Tricycle Theatre
Playing until September 20th 2009

Stockwell – an intense and thrilling courtroom drama; except rather more disturbingly this isn’t a drama, it is real life. A piece of verbatim theatre taken from the transcripts of the Jean Charles de Menezes inquest, this is a story that needs little explanation as we all followed it in the news in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings in London, reading with shock and disbelief that an innocent man (who was believed by intelligence to be a terrorist) had been shot nine times by the police on a tube at Stockwell tube station.

As the piece begins eight actors superbly take on the role of thirty people (lawyers, police, surveillance officers, eye witnesses and family and friends). It initially fells like a staged documentary, repeating that what we already know, however as the piece unfolds and you listen to the facts of the case in this 90-minute drama, you are drawn into this incredibly tense and disturbing piece of theatre.

It was two specialist firearms officers who fired the shots that killed de Menezes, however there were an abundance of mistakes that led to that moment, placing the blame on many heads. Why hadn’t the surveillance team watching the property where de Menezes lived realised it was a block with a communal entrance rather than a house with a private entrance? They thought it suspicious when he got off the bus by Brixton tube station only to get on another bus to Stockwell. What they failed to notice was that Brixton tube station was closed that day. Communication between C019, operation room staff and surveillance officers was completely shambolic as messages were misinterpreted and in some instances not even received. And probably most shocking of all is why when the firearms officers boarded the tube did they not state that they were police, leaving eyewitnesses momentarily thinking that the police were the bad guys (I know it’s ironic isn’t it?)

Of course as the firearms officers and other members of the police point out that when it is broken down it is easy to point out the many mistakes occurred but this operation took place at a frenzied pace. However as the confused counsel for the de Menezes family, Mr Mansfield (Jack Klaff) questions in his deliciously dry and patronising manner, why was it so frenzied and not a more slick and controlled operation?

This production is simply and sensitively handled and whilst you leave the theatre in no doubt that the police are entirely to blame for this wrongful killing (even though they remain resolute that the mistakes weren’t theirs) you can’t help but feel empathy for the two men that fired the shots and what they’ll live with for the rest of their lives. Of course the greatest sympathy lies with Jean Charles de Menezes and his friends and family who speak of how he’d previously praised the police and was completely trustful that the police would keep him safe.

The York Realist

By Peter Gill
Directed by Adam Spreadbury-Maher
Produced by Good Night Out
Riverside Studios
Playing until 11th October

Reviewed by Rachel Sheridan for the British Theatre Guide

A story of a forbidden love is always going to have its tensions and complications, especially when the protagonists are male and it’s set in the early 1960s in a small farming community. A sort of a Brokeback Mountain set in Yorkshire; Peter Gill’s Olivier Award nominated, The York Realist is ultimately a very lonely tale.

Two men; George (Stephen Hagan) who lives with his mother in a small labourer’s cottage and John (Matthew Burton) an assistant director up from London working on the Mysteries Plays in which George gets a part. George’s family brushes over the fact that he still lives with his Mother and is not interested in any of the local girls. Completely clueless, his close-knit family have no idea of his extra curricular activities. Interestingly it is he, rather than cosmopolitan John who is at ease with his homosexuality. Not that it’s something he can parade in front of the local folk, it is 1961 after all but behind closed doors he is very comfortable with himself. Much like Brokeback Mountain after their summer of love (or winter as is the case in this play) is over and John has to return to London, they are both left to face the reality of their situation.

Adam Spreadbury-Maher’s production is nostalgic without being stuffy. Home baked apple pie, several pots of tea and an elderly mother doing all her son’s laundry create a warm and cosy feeling within. Meanwhile the rug is being pulled out from under your feet with an overwhelming feeling of loneliness. A family that chatter endlessly about nothing in order to avoid what really needs to be said, they remain oblivious to George’s inner turmoil. This impressive cast take a very London audience out of the city and into Mother’s front room. It’s all very claustrophobic yet well meaning and there’s no chance of missing anything either as they all talk in that slightly too loud way of speaking to each other, to be sure that everyone in the front room can hear even though they are all sat around the same small table. Stephanie Fayerman as Mother gives a tender and moving performance of a woman whose son is the apple of her eye and Sarah Wadell as the well meaning neighbour, Doreen whose heart is sadly wasted on George adds some light humour whilst avoiding the trap of being the caricature religious do-gooder.

Hagen and Burton have a natural chemistry as these two men from very different worlds who find a mutual love and respect for each other. Hagen is adorable as the slightly simple George but still rivers run deep and his rivers are at times heartbreaking. Burton turns in an equally brilliant performance. He’s middle class without being pompous and whilst he may not wear his heart on his sleeve like George, his pain is just as palpable. The sexual tension between these two men is made all the more unbearable as Spreadbury-Maher’s direction allows us to think everything but see very little.

This really is a traditional love story like many others (although probably not the sort of love Mother had imagined for her boy). Two people meet and fall in love and have to overcome various obstacles that will either make them stronger or break them….ah they don’t make ‘em like they used to.

Catwalk Confidential

Catwalk Confidential

Robyn Peterson

Directed by: Tony Abatemarco

Arts Theatre

Playing until 3^rd October

Reviewed by Rachel Sheridan for the British Theatre Guide

Robyn Peterson is bringing a touch of glamour to the Arts Theatre as the swaps the catwalk for the stage. Well in actual fact she hung up her platforms quite some time ago as it was back in the 70s and 80s that she was the “IT” girl working with prominent photographers Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin and infamous fashion designers such as Dior, Valentino and Yves Saint Laurent. In her hey day she graced the covers of Vogue and Elle and appeared on catwalks all over the world.

One of the first supermodels, Peterson shares her experiences of life behind the flashing lens in her one woman show, Catwalk Confidential about a girl who certainly lived and now a woman who has no intention of stopping anytime soon.

Less Lilly Cole (her early photos bare an uncanny resemblence) and more Cybil Sheherd these days, Robyn Peterson is still utterly georgous and oozes sex appeal as she strutts her stuff down memory lane. Screens behind her flash with images of her home town Miami, Paris where she spent her formative modelling years and various magazine covers to suggest time and place. Peterson’s stories are sexy, funny, shocking but nothing that we’ve not really heard before from the bizarre and wonderful world of fashion. Her one woman shows covers a period of ten years from the age of 16, when she landed in Paris and started booking jobs to the age of 26 when still barely a woman she would already be considered past her prime.

Peterson speaks with confidence to the audience but lacks the natural ease of a trained actress. Her performance is very much a memorised speech and though these are her own personal stories, due to the nature of her delivery she seems detached from what she is saying. Having said this she is still incredibly alluring and succesfully charms the audience (although it should be noted that this was a fashion crowd and I’m unsure how much tales of a make bag weighing 15 pounds will translate to a less couture-savvy audience).

When comparing to stories of other models from the 70s and 80s such as Gia Carangi, Peterson’s story lacks the same substance. Rather than dealing with hard hitting issues such as drug addiction (although of course she had her dalliances) and bipolar disorder, hers is more of a story of how she catapulted to fame through stealing a wrap around bikini off another model for a catwalk show to become the talk of the town and an overnight sensation. Not to demean Peterson’s story in any way; it’s great to see a woman emerging from the modelling world so vivacious, rather than crippled with insecurities, it’s just that her story is a little on the light and fluffy side.

However her 80 minute show still manages to entertain with her dry sarcasm; “You don’t compete with brunettes, you kill them” and her sense of humour about the world of fashion; “Have you ever seen an outfit so perfect that it literally stops time”. If anything it’s a shame the show comes to an end when it does with her at the age of 26 as judging from the woman we see onstage I suspect it was after her modelling years that the story gets really interesting.

The Assault

The Assault

(Part of Brazil X 2)

Directed by Victor Esses

Written by Jose Vicente

Produced by Alter Ego Productions

Old Red Lion Theatre

18^th August – 5^th September

Reviewed by Rachel Sheridan for the British Theatre Guide.

The Assault is in fact, just that; not just an assault on the characters but also the audience as you are forced to confront the seedy truth about power, money, desperation and homosexuality in Sao Paulo in the late 1960s.  At only an hour and twenty minutes, there is no beating around the bush with Jose Vicente gritty two hander.  Vicente’s exploration of class divisions is anything but black and white and is instead a rather murky shade of grey.

Victor (Steven Farah) a lowly bank clerk and Hugo (Jade Willis) a cleaner earning half the minimum wage are confronted with one and other as Victor locks Hugo in his office and essentially terrorises not only Hugo, but also himself.  Farah’s performance as this lonely, nebbish accountant is intensely unnerving.  Crippled by his closeted homosexuality and feelings of worthlessness within a corporate jungle, he is desperate to assert his power over someone; anyone.  As his obsession with Hugo reveals itself , Farah’s twitching mannerisms and frantic ramblings contrast beautifully with Jade Willis’s mild mannered Hugo who has become accustomed to being used and abused but has learnt best how to manipulate it to his advantage.  Willis’s cool exterior initially remains unaffected; however, even he underestimates the twisted nature of Victor’s desperation.

Inspired by de Vicente’s experiences of military dictatorship and his own personal homosexual repression, the brutal nature of his writing cuts right through any sense of political correctness to take an intensely personal look at how mankind react when faced with extreme repression.

Victor Esses’s production of this award winning play really is hard hitting stuff which stays with you long after you’ve left the theatre.  As part of a double bill with Rodrigo de Roure’s The Last Days of Gilda, The Assault whilst capturing Brazilian culture in the 1960s, continues to speak volumes today about social class structures and repression to a modern London audience.