Ajaxpost Plays: Beyond The Game

A day of contrasting experiences at the theatre on this day Before The Lockdown: in 2015 I've hated musical films for as long as I can remember - all thigh-slapping gusto and ludicrously overt smiling and screwball choreography. No, I wanted realism and emotional depth. But, since I started going to the theatre regularly, I've come to appreciate that there is a place for stories told through music and they're not all madcap song and dance fests. However, Oklahoma! was surely a perfect example of all the things I hated about 'traditional' musicals but I thought I should at least give it a chance. It wasn't overly expensive and I really should base any opinion I have on fact, so I handed over the money and went along to the Theatre Royal Bath. Somewhat annoyingly, I did actually rather enjoy it! The characters were believable, the story arc made sense and the whole production was very polished. Sure, the songs were cheesy, but once I settled into the rhy...

A couple of quite different plays on this day Before The Lockdown: in 2007 Through a couple of TV and film appearances I'd become aware of Ben Whishaw and Maxine Peake as two relatively new actors with considerable talent and capable of quite distinctive and eye-catching performances so when both were cast in Leaves of Glass at the Soho Theatre in London... well, it was a no-brainer. Sadly the mists of time have obscured much of my memory of the play but I do recall a sense of considerable violence in a family tormented by past trauma that they have been avoiding for too many years. Although both Ben and Maxine had already accrued many plaudits, they have certainly continued to make more great work across TV, film, and stage. in 2017 Meanwhile, ten years later, it's off  to the Theatre Royal Bath to see a couple of very well established, dare I say 'veteran', TV favourites; Anne Reid and James Bolam. A very topical environmental activism piece called Fracke...

It was all about truth and perception on this day Back Before The Lockdown: in 2016 I was in the main house of the Theatre Royal Bath to see The Truth . In the preceding years I had seen two plays from the same author, Florian Zeller, and translator, Christopher Hampton; the brilliant The Father and The Mother both of which had their UK premiere in the smaller Ustinov studio before heading to London's West End. Buoyed by those successes this one started in London before coming out to Bath and attracted a much larger audience, hence being on the main stage. Although sharing a similar fascination with perception, reality, and truth this new play was significantly more comic in style, using many of the familiar tropes of a farce in it's depiction of romantic deceits and misdirections but all with a modern twist that made it feel fresh. Even so, after the two previous powerfully emotive productions this one was inevitably more light-weight and so, for me, less impressive,...

Suspenders at the ready on this day Before The Lockdown: in 2003 Oh dear, this is rather embarrassing! I loved the film, it's iconic and a standard reference point for all of us who do not believe in conformity. Yet. I've only seen the stage show, on which the film was based, once. What is even worse is that I remember so very little of the Rocky Horror Show when I did get to see at the Wimbledon Theatre in London! It must have been fun, how could it not be? But no, I recall nothing. 😢 For some reason, I do not have a programme for this show, and I am almost fanatical in getting programmes! so the image here is one I have found on the Internet and, as far as I can tell, is correct for this particular tour An interesting side-note to this is that when searching for that image I discovered that at the time this show was running Wimbledon Theatre was in severe financial difficulties and did, in fact close for several months until it was rescued by the Ambassador Thea...

Politics is drama, and drama is very often political. So it was on this day Before The Lockdown. in 2015 The Absence of War , at the Theatre Royal Bath was a fictionalised interpretation of the conflicts within the Labour Party in the lead up to the 1992 general election. However, although taking it's cue from those events it does ask a much more universal question about our politics. Do we want politicians to be true to themselves, to be honest about their flaws as much as their skills and abilities? If presented with a choice of an open, honest, and transparent candidate in opposition to one who taps into our media-fed prejudices and expectations would we ever choose the former. The party in this play could never trust the integrity of their idealistic leader so instead tied him to 'accepted' truths and the rules of the game that had been followed for generations before. In this case, as in the actual general election, they lost because denying the possibility of ...

It appears that I like to spend the 5th of May in Bath, for example on this day Before The Lockdown: in 2001 At the Theatre Royal Bath to see Rent for the third, and so far final, time. This was mostly a new cast and the key character was played by, then hot TV property, Adam Rickitt coming straight from the famous cobbles of Coronation Street. There are good songs throughout and some powerful and affecting scenes but these don't necessarily feature the lead character. Having a popularly recognisable name on the poster is great for getting people into the theatre, they're not always the best actors in the cast. So, as with Joe McFadden in the earlier London production,Adam was fine and did a perfectly respectable job but it was scenes with the other characters that you remember. Interesting side note; one of the swings on this production was Daniel Boys in, I believe, his first professional role. I've seen him again perhaps only twice but he is now one of our bu...

A mathematical conundrum Before The Lockdown in 2013 There are many reasons for why I might enjoy a particular play but I never thought mathematics would be on that list! The conceit that is at the centre of Proof , which I saw at the Theatre Royal Bath, is the death of a mathematical genius and the discovery of a new world-changing mathematical proof amongst his unpublished papers. Around this swirl issues of family loyalty, guilt, thwarted ambitions, and mental health. In this production, as well crafted and performed as it was, the emotional bonds and needs that should have been at the heart of the play weren't quite as clear as they needed to be so I left thinking that it made valid points about sexism in intellectual circles and how guilt can fester within families but I didn't feel the story, which is what I particularly enjoy about good theatre Interestingly, a few years later I saw an amateur presentation of the play and enjoyed it a whole lot more.  Whether i...

Another day, much the same as the previous and, I dare say, very similar to the next. Yes, staying home, staying safe and protecting my community. Speaking with friends regularly, watching some of the new online theatre broadcasts (must admit to being surprised that they can, actually, work rather well) and doing my weekly stint as a volunteer in our community shop. But in previous years on this particular date ... in 2014 One of my favourite theatres is the Ustinov Studio, part of the Theatre Royal Bath, a small studio space (obviously!) that has an enviable reputation for quality productions. For their Spring 2014 season they put on a series of excellent American plays that had seldom, if ever, been staged in the UK. One of which was A Steady Rain . Taking inspiration from a real-life incident where two Milwaukee police officers returned a distressed young run-away to Jeffrey Dahmer, this two-hander explored issues of morality, trust, loyalty, corruption and betrayal. In...