Creative Arts East - Arts Events | Rural touring theatre

Review of Rogue Theatre's 'The Family' By Bob Starling

Friday 12^th February 2010

Hammer Horror hits Wymondham with magnificent and hilarious results. Rogue Theatre gave an amazing night of live music, dance, movement and comedy. The group is made up of five actors and musicians, who work together amazingly for the perfect performance. It was an explosive evening, where all of the audience were transfixed and then couldn't stop buzzing afterwards. We were engaged throughout the entire performance, just how a great performance should be.

The set was the interior of a house, with the back raised and stairs either side leading to the back door, a fireplace in front. Stage left was set up for the music, with a drum kit and piano. Stage right, the controls for the lighting and effects, this way it was all included into the performance. Their stage was a typical proscenium arch, this way they didn't need to use blackouts, by closing the curtains but still speaking, they kept the performance moving forward and kept the audience hooked. At the ex-serviceman's club they had cabaret seating, and this worked very well with the Hammer Horror style performance. The audience can connect with the actors more, and it felt beautifully intimate.

The lighting was very basic, they had two chandeliers which hung onstage, complimented by basic lighting keeping it all the same all the way though, only changing at the end to bring in red light. They used loads of effects, magic and trickery; I am still wondering how they did it! These included a ghost disappearing in front of our eyes, the gasp from the entire audience showed how well this had been pulled off, building to a dramatic end, and finishing with a bang.

The mise en scene of the piece was dark, the back drop a heavily decorated deep red wallpaper, with four portraits of the actors hanging at the back, creating the impression of an old traditional house. The stairs curved up to mirror a large manor house. No expense was spared on the costumes designed by Tracy Dawn Stevens. They grabbed your attention with bold patterns and heavy embroidery, heavy appliqué and beautifully detailed decoration reflecting riches. All the costumes were very opulent, including gold rings, velvet, satin, sequins and were all very over the top.

The time and effort that had gone into directing the performance is extraordinary. They had perfectly timed movement pieces put with live music. All the performers worked brilliantly together, showing great teamwork and making it wonderful to watch. They were all full with so much energy and excitement making it stunning to watch.

All the actors performed very well, always staying in role. They worked amazingly together; they felt comfortable adding in extra lines, staying in character and easily hiding a slight mistake from an unaware audience. This confidence shines from them, and left the audience very impressed by their superb talent.

I especially loved how they included dance and music into the performance. It was so wonderfully different to the average musical; it was part of the performance. 'The Family' was Stanislavskian in style in how they kept the audience connected with the characters. However incorporating inspiration from other practitioners: such as Brecht by having the music, lighting and effects on the stage, and Brooke by making their performance available to everyone. Rogue Theatre is part of the 'Night Less Ordinary' scheme, this aims to get young people back into the Theatre by giving out free tickets to under 21s.

Wendy has an amazing voice, and played the role of Millie very well with a great contrast to the other three. Angelina also had two songs in the performance; the first of which she had been drinking and was annoying the others by jokily singing about what she could have been. The second was later on, and built her character by singing on the same theme, but being more serious. Angelina played and sang both of these very well, her character being deliberately exaggerated and disgusting (at one point talking with her mouth full spitting food across the stage); and I really enjoyed meeting her character. Ollie had a dance; I believed it showed his character going mad, and it livened up this scene a lot to have a fast dance showing his anxiety and panic.

The actors really proved themselves in this piece; they stayed in role throughout and played more than one role with ease. The theatre tricks they pulled worked very well; it was truly amazing. I would recommend 'The Family', or any Rogue Theatre production, to people of any age. It was an explosive night, and every scene bought new ideas that kept my mind racing, it was solid entertainment from start to end. It is possibly the best performance I have ever seen. It has made a massive impact on me as a performer, and it is a performance I will always remember. Thank you Rogue Theatre!

Elvis Still My Heart was an extremely interesting and engaging contemporary dance piece that not only incorporated subtle body movements and complex theatrical techniques but had a good helping of comedy and Elvis! The narrative with simple enough, three strangers brought together that slowly reveal the horrendous truths of their pasts, but always with this sadness came exciting movement. A gentle laugh at each other's expense and the revealing of their lives leads to a climax of emotions that seems to release the tension in the audience when the Elvis shrine is finally unveiled!

It was funny, different and involved dance, which are all winners in my opinion, the narrative was good and there were definite connections made by the characters to the audience, who on the whole received this performance well. There was an overall enthusiasm and appreciation for the piece; however I do feel it was lost on the few younger people in the audience, who didn't relate to dance as a communication media and also did not hold a connection to Elvis. At the end of the performance the dance company discussed other projects and it was interesting to hear about their work in schools, where it was not only a performance but highly influenced on participation of the young people, a way in which I think they can appreciate this art more.

The performance itself was brilliant, but I felt there were a few problems with the organisation of the event. Although the seating had been arranged in a fashion that enabled everyone in the audience a good view, I felt they had not left enough space for the movement of the performers, as sometimes the dancers seemed to call for just a bit more space.

There was ample parking, once I had eventually found the school and then the car park. I am sure that this performance is aimed at local people as that is the nature of Village Stage events, local events for local communities. However, that does not say that people from surrounding areas would not come to view this performance, or even that local people know their way around the high school, so the signage was extremely disappointing, as I did not see anything directing me to anything?! I have been informed that there were small signs in the town, and a very large one outside the school, but they were not lit, and certainly were not sufficient in numbers, so in one aspect it was not an enjoyable experience in that I could not find where I wanted to be!

As I mentioned before it was a Village Stage event, so the publicity would not need to reach far and wide, but like above, I saw no mention of the event in town, as there was no signage, so I feel they could have sold more tickets on the door, as there were a few seats free if publicised a bit better on the night.

Overall the quality of the performance was excellent, and this was enabled by very good technical support in the sound and lighting. The refreshments had a good choice of beverages and there was plenty of parking. But as i mentioned before the lack of any signage and the small space for the performance did let the event down as a whole. I would have also liked to have seen more information about Village Stage and the other events going on around Norfolk, but there did not seem to be anything.

Bright Sparks

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