Ajaxpost Plays: Beyond The Game

A very dark place was the subject on offer on this day Before The Lockdown in 2018 I only have vague memories of the 2005 production that I saw with three already well established and respected actors (Jonny Lee Miller, Aiden Gillen, and David Threlfall) apart from the brutality of the scenario and the sense of optimism that the three characters strove to maintain. So when the students of Bath Spa University included Someone Who'll Watch Over Me as part of their SparkFest contribution to the Bath Festival I was keen to reacquaint myself with the piece and see what these these fresh young acting students would do with it. This story of three westerners chained up in a dark middle-eastern cell was suitably enhanced by being performed in the compact cavern-like space of Burdall's Yard. These three young men didn't have the depth of experience that the 2005 cast had to call on but the strength of the writing certainly gave the cast, and audience, plenty to get t...

Two very different shows in very different venues on this day Before The Lockdown: in 2011 What can you say about Avenue Q ? This time at the Bristol Hippodrome, having previously seen it in London five years earlier, and it was still wonderfully joyous, poignant, uplifting, and celebratory. I think Avenue Q  would have been the first time I'd seen any show that used puppets as characters and the wonder of it was that you very quickly forgot that they were puppets. Even, as in the case of Avenue Q when their handlers are there on stage visibly operating them. They believed they were real and were so unashamedly 'real' that you couldn't not believe in them as well. Tackling very real issues, that are to our shame still real issues today, including racism, homelessness, anxiety, sexual identity all with a warmth and humour that engages with everyone. A wonderful, wonderful show. I really should see it again. in 2019 Burdall's Yard is described as an ...

A pertinent question was asked on this day Before The Lockdown: in 2019 Among the many interesting amateur groups putting on productions in Bath are the creative students of Bath Spa University's Theatre Society. On this day I saw their presentation of Mike Bartlett's 13 at the Mission Theatre in Bath. Apparently wondering whether a shared social conscience, in this case an apocalyptic nightmare, in response to genuine political turmoil can be harnessed by a 'visionary' to effect political change. It's a challenging piece in that it tries to explore multiple individual stories to find some common ground between them and then link that to the political process. The individual stories and each one's relationship with the 'visionary' was interesting but I'm not sure it actually came together sufficiently to pose a coherent question or offer any real insight into personal or political motivations. That, though, was not due to the production bu...

This was a bit of  a killer day at the mission Before The Lockdown: in 2018 From mid May to early June Bath enjoys a cultural explosion with a full on Festival, a Fringe and something called SparkFest a curated selection of delights from students on the creative courses at Bath Spa University. For my first show from the SparkFest list I chose Infamous which was put on at the Mission Theatre in Bath. A short devised pieces which wonders what might happen if five (in)famous assassins, from John Wilkes Booth to Andrew Cunanan, were to meet in some sort of afterlife. Would they compare notes, would they fight amongst themselves to take the title of being the most infamous? As with many student productions it delivered an intriguing concept put together by a team of talented people ready to take up a creative profession in 2019 Bath's Next Stage Theatre Company celebrated it's 25 year anniversary in 2019. To my shame I only discovered them in 2014 but they, and the Mis...