BP News

Big Spirit Doobries

(That’s what Rory called it, honest! Ed)

Well I hope you all came to see the great musical that was Brenda Bly – Teen Detective? The whole youth theatre (all 31 of ‘em) sang and danced and acted their young hearts out. And my - did they love doing it! Even in the most ridiculous costumes they strode onstage like troupers and belted it all out in a suitably musical-theatre style, which always owes more to pantomime than Stanislavski. Good – that’s banished all the stage nerves that usually bedevil new actors. The more experienced were in their element, of course, and the likes of Amy (as the eponymous Brenda), Peter, Becky and Ellie grabbed the limelight like the old pros they are and positively shone, nay dazzled. Even the girl in the group who could give Eeyore a run in the pessimism stakes conceded ‘well I enjoyed it more than I thought I would’. And that ain’t hay - as Micky Rooney once said. Actually there’s a lovely collection of one-liners and little incidents collected during the run which I’ll share with you in the next newsletter.

Big Spirit alumni have featured this month too. I went along to see Craig Vye in To Kill a Mocking Bird at the Rep Theatre in Birmingham. What a fabulous theatre, by they way – if you’ve never been, it’s worth an evening out. Well guys I was blown away by the production and Harper Lee’s great tale never came over more powerfully. A lovely understated performance by Duncan Preston as Atticus Finch and a strong physical performance by Craig as his son, Jem led to a standing ovation at the end and a tear in my cynical old eye, dear reader. Craig of course was as humble as ever and asked if I enjoyed it because, as an audience, we were so quiet. ‘Quiet? No we were listening’ I said. Apparently they had had so many school parties in (it’s a set book) that they had got used to acting to a noisy house and thought we must have fallen asleep! No chance.

Talking of noisy houses, we experienced one when Sally got up a party to see Ben Hull at the Richmond Theatre in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee William’s masterpiece. Now this is a notoriously difficult piece to perform and I had heard that they had had problems getting to grips with the long duologues. Bah – humbug! It was brilliant! Ben Hull is nowadays truly a great actor – and I don’t say that lightly. His strong physical presence onstage had the schoolgirls swooning and he held the problem scenes together, revealing so many shades of meaning and changing emotional direction so deftly that I was gobsmacked. It was a good company too led by William Gaunt who was suitably impressive as the bullying but crumbling Big Daddy.

Finally back to the current group – and our next Big Spirit show. After the fluff of Brenda Bly we bring you the gravitas of Sophocles with a new version of Oedipus & Antigone. Expect impressive physical theatre, great ensemble work and, if you have a heart, prepare to have it broken. Lots of work and workshops in prospect – so let’s get on with it!