Our official reviewer was engaged at a family party – the Online Admin filled in for this review.

The second night of the Easter Festival presented White Cobra Productions with Scaramouche Jones by Justin Butcher. Scaramouche, a pale-faced child named after the stock clown character of the Italian commedia dell’arte, steps out of the circus ring to enthrall his audience with the tale of his extraordinary life. Butcher is known for his works of social commentary, especially around the subject of war and Scaramouche touches on some of the darkest episodes of the 20th century.

Scaramouche is a one-man show with many tales of comedy and tragedy, relationships and reinvention of the self. The many masks of Scaramouche punctuate his life and are shed in order to reveal the truth of the character. Richard Jordan plays the title character, directed ably by Kate Billingham.

The curtain rose on an extremely engaging set, all the accoutrements of a circus dressing room were there – costumes, a podium for circus animals, a costume table with the traditional mirror surrounded with bulbs (though a few not working and in different colours to show the imperfections of time), suitcases bursting forth with more costumes and a joke squirting flower which particularly stood out as a simple but effective scene setter. It was a sight to behold and as the production progressed, offered up more and more as items were skillfully used to create the many scene from all over the world. A favourite was the easy transformation of a chair to a camel – engaging one of the most enjoyable parts of theatre; suspension of disbelief. The ropes and podium created height visually and physically for the actor at times, the coloured backdrop created a lovely traditional circus tent and circus posters either side added to the scene setting – though I thought there could have been more of them and they could have been a touch larger to make it clearer what they were for. However, the whole stage was engaged and gave interest and excitement, really well thought out.

The Lighting and Sound, undertaken by Philip Welsh, was a masterclass in timing and subtlety. Never overpowering, always complementing and enhancing, the sound effects which set scenes such as markets and naval battles were brought in and tapered out with great skill. The lighting moved from cold to warm with each changing emotional tale and at one point I almost didn’t notice the light draw to a single spot on our character as the tale drew to an emotional pinnacle, such was the connection between the lighting and the actor. My only note was that the music at the end stopped abruptly in the middle of a bar which jarred a little for me – I realise that it was necessary to end it abruptly and the actor was in control of when he felt it was the right moment, however possibly a rethink on the choice of the section of music for me would help the denouement. A tiny point and the ending was still hugely powerful.

When I heard there was a one-man show in this years festival I was hugely excited – tackling such a feat in entertaining an audience for 90 minutes without interval and alone takes a courageous actor. I had already seen White Cobra Productions a few years ago with their excellent performance of The Days of Wine and Roses which won the festival that year, so I knew they had the talent within their group. As Richard entered the stage he cut a lonely and sad figure, surveying the stage and expertly allowing us time to take in the amazing set and his understated mood. The costume and make-up was perfect from the nose, clown feet and white face paint, to the simple suit with suspenders, a waistcoat and the choice of a bare chest, which communicated to me his openness; his heart was on show, he was there to share himself.

As he began his story it was clear that this actor is adept at dealing with a large theatre, his projection was flawless and I didn’t miss a word. His pace and tone varied appropriately for each story he told and kept the audience enthralled and eager to hear more. The adjudicator did mention that his pace was a little fast at times and while I appreciate this comment, I do feel that it was far better to err on the side of a little fast than a little slow. His clear familiarity with the text enabled a full belief in the lifelong role as storyteller that Scaramouche embodies and the adjudicator complimented that as far as he could see Richard kept true to the script, which I can imagine is hugely hard when trying to elicit a truthful performance. The sheer amount of lines should also be highlighted, this is not a play that goes easy on the actor with many breaks in dialogue. The pauses that were employed were well used and really allowed the audience to take in those poignant moments of high emotion. I will mention again that I thought the moment right at the end could have been a few seconds longer and more timed with the music but it’s such a small point, my tears for the clown came in any case.

The physicality of the role was significant, the actor needed to create so many different worlds for us and though ably assisted with sensitively chosen props, additional costumes and furniture – the story must emanate from his performance and not rely on material things. The snake was a particular highlight and the police station beating suitably visceral and not overdone which could have been a danger. All the other characters in the many stories also had to be brought to life and as the adjudicator said, Richard can certainly handle a wide range of accents. Each character was sensitively thought out with changes to physical movement also supporting those accents.

The direction was flawless – the adjudicator mentioned what a fantastic collaboration between the pair there must have been to create such a show and let us in on the fact that they are partners, as well as theatrical collaborators. I had the benefit of speaking to them at the Green Room following the show and this is clearly a production close to their hearts as their company is named after the snake so vividly portrayed in the play. The adjudicator did feel that the mime at the end of the show was a little too short and some more moves to mark the changes of scene would have benefitted the story – I think again these points would enhance future productions but were minor and didn’t detract from this performance.

It was a great shame this production did not have a larger audience, it was gripping, emotional and brought a great deal of people to their feet in a standing ovation at its conclusion. To have such a skillful team that brought all the elements of theatre together to make a truly fantastic show, I felt so fortunate to have been able to see it. As I shouted when I jumped to my feet at the end – bravo!

• Vanessa Williams, Online and Social Media Admin

Last night MADF had the pleasure to welcome Bejou Productions to the stage to present their production of Betrayal by Harold Pinter. This play is inspired by Pinter’s own extramarital affair with TV presenter Joan Bakewell from 1962 to 1969. Pinter presents a play about middle-class adultery and guilt. However, it is rather more about subtext rather than text as the playwright not only tells a story of an affair, but highlights the many betrayals that occur through life, emphasising the self-betrayal that reoccurs throughout marital deceit, as well as alluding to time as a betrayer.

Betrayal is ultimately a story of middle-class adultery told as a web of betrayal. Pinter’s plot incorporates many transformations as time moves largely, but not entirely, in reverse chronological order starting in 1977, 2 years after the end of the affair, back to 1968 when the betrayal began. Emma (Joanna Mitchell) is married to Robert (Robb Stow) but is having an affair with his ‘best friend’ Jerry (David Streames).

As the adjudicator, Mike Tilbury, said Pinter’s drama needs “restraint, understatement and precision”, something which I believe the actors executed extremely well throughout their performance. The waiter (Michael Binder) simply highlighted this restraint through the excusing of Robert’s outbursts during the restaurant scene. Binder played this cameo role with great authenticity and he did not distract the audience away from the main action of the scene. Overall, the group of actors held a good pace throughout the production, however the pace did need to vary in Scene 1 just to ensure they held the audience’s attention. They had a brilliant use of pauses, holding them to their advantage to captivate the audience. The performance also showed an excellent group dynamic, you could clearly see that all the characters and the director had a good understanding of the play which shone throughout their show. Some scenes felt quite static and in particular the lover scenes in the flat lacked any real movement. These scenes came across very constricted because of the big table confining Jerry’s movements specifically, a point the adjudicator mentioned strongly. But, there were good contrasts between characters in various scenes, in particular Robert and Jerry in the bar scene and also Robert and Emma in the Venice scene. In the bar scene Stow’s Robert held a dominant presence and delivered the dark, comic lines of the scene with great timing. This contrasted well with Streames’ Jerry as he excellently portrayed the restless and neediness of the character, highlighting the irony of the betrayal Jerry feels. The Venice scene was another brilliant scene of Stow’s Robert with the good pause at the beginning, then building the pace towards the reveal of the affair, he rightfully dominated this scene. Another good contrast was portrayed by the characters in this scene, Emma was fear stricken and Mitchell played this role exceptionally with brilliant facial expressions and body language really forcing the audience to understand the character’s feelings. There was a strong performance from Mitchell throughout the show.

Clearly great thought went into Mitchell’s costume changes showing the change in period through the different outfits, however I believe that the men’s costumes could have varied more. To further enhance the change in time I think there should have been a more creative use of the set, perhaps different furniture and small props that epitomise the year could have been used.

However, the director, John White created a clever set design with the use of the rostra and the spaces around the stage to separate different scenes, this spacing and added level gave interest to the piece and allowed the audience’s eye to travel around the stage with the action. Furthermore, Richard Foster’s (Lighting/Sound) purposefully invasive lighting created an unsettling and personal surrounding for the domestic arguments and added to the separation of the scenes and spaces. Set changes were covered by thoughtfully chosen music, but the last costume change lacked any sound and the adjudicator advised the team to add background music to maintain the captivating, intrusive atmosphere that they had created.

Although the team could make some improvements on varying intonation, some more movement in some scenes and set design representing the change in time, I believe that Bejou Productions’ Betrayal was a “faithful interpretation” of Pinter’s work, something the adjudicator mentioned he was looking for in all our plays this week. The cast of four had a brilliant group dynamic, evident in the scenes I have mentioned previously, all of them acting with “truth and sincerity” another must for the adjudicator, creating a remarkable, naturalistic performance. Last night they set a high standard for the rest of the Easter Festival and the group made it a very pleasant, enthralling and striking experience.

• Megan Rossiter, MADF Official Reviewer

Our GoDA Adjudicator, Mike Tilbury and Michael Lees were interviewed this morning on Ben Hartley‘s show, The Radio Café on Manx Radio.

The adjudicator gave some lovely insight into how he approaches adjudication and ensures it’s not a matter of personal taste, highlighting the most important point –

“Be objective, not subjective.
Judge the performance, not the play.”

He talked about the importance of diplomacy when adjudicating productions and the need to review the entire package including elements such as; costume, make up and staging, as well as the performances themselves.

Being his 130th festival, Mike mentioned that he is quite picky now and only goes to the really good festivals! He complimented the wonderful Gaiety Theatre and the good strong plays the festival attracts.

A lovely start to the festivities – Mike is also the guest speaker at the Easter Monday lunch at the Empress Hotel and will surely share more insights with festival supporters then.

• Vanessa Williams, Online and Social Media Admin

I was given a fantastic opportunity to engage with some of the island’s media this week ahead of the Easter Festival.

Manx Radio were really welcoming. Bob Carswell and I had a great conversation which you’ll be able to hear today during his show Shiaght Laa between 6-6.30 pm or listen On Demand on the Manx Radio website.

MTTV also interviewed me and this time on camera. Paul Moulton put me right at ease and I’m looking forward to seeing the result this weekend. It’s fantastic to have such support for our festival – please do tune in online!

***Update – you can see the MTTV interview online here!***

• Clare Austen, Chairman

MADF and the Isle of Man Arts Council have decided that young drama students on the Island should be able to see the Easter Festival of Full Length Plays for free!

The MADF Chairman will be contacting schools tomorrow to relay this message.

Having grown up on the Isle of Man and then gone to University to study Drama, I feel I really missed out on the excellent opportunities MADF offered with its festivals simply because I didn’t know they were there. If I had attended the Easter festival, even just during my GCSE and A-Level years, I would have seen 28 plays – many of which would have been classics that I could have referred to in my course essays and seminars in the future. Not to mention if I had attended the One Act Festival which presented 14 adjudicated performances this year alone!

Not only this but the nature of the amateur festival is that you get to watch a range of productions adjudicated by GoDA accredited Adjudicators. This is not something professional productions offer so readily – you may get to read a short critique in a newspaper, that does not however offer the same sort of learning as watching a trained professional breakdown what goes into each production and present their opinions on direction, acting, sound, lighting and staging in such a detailed way.

To make the most of University courses in theatre, film and performance – the ability to express your opinion and to have a wide knowledge of your subject is invaluable. To be able to talk with passion and experience about productions you have seen can open doors. So many students out there are yearning to have successful careers in the performing arts, but fail to make the most of chances that are around them to immerse themselves sufficiently in that world.

This year we have plays by Harold Pinter (who should need no introduction and will be on any Uni reading list), a famous play named Scaramouche Jones (which I heard referenced many times at University). One Man, Two Guvnors which was a massive hit in the West End from 2011 to 2016, the Pulitzer Prize winning Night Mother and The Flint Street Nativity an adaptation of the British Television Comedy.

Coming from a small, albeit wonderful Island can mean not having the access that people who can pop along to the West End any time they like have but we do have such a fantastic wealth of talent, opportunities and one of the most beautiful theatres anyone could hope to visit which we should be shouting about and utilising whenever we can.

Please encourage all the students you know to make the most of this fabulous festival!

• Vanessa Williams, MADF Online Admin

– Are you a budding critic or journalist?

– Are you intending to study theatre at University?

– Are you available in the evenings from Saturday 26th to Wednesday 30th March 2016?

The MADF Easter Festival organisers are looking for a keen young wordsmith to review the plays during the Festival and Young Actor of Mann Final and write a daily blog post with help from the Online and Social Media Admin.

You will receive two tickets for the festival so you can bring a parent or friend.

Benefits:

• You will see 5 full length plays and their adjudication by a GoDA accredited adjudicator – a great opportunity for anyone going on to study theatre at University.
• Your posts will be featured on madf.im and publicised via the MADF Facebook and Twitter accounts and the newsletter sent to all subscribers.
• You will get to meet many people who are interested in the theatre, so it’s a great networking opportunity.
• Universities love to see extracurricular activities on applications, so this would be a great chance to get your writing in print and be a part of a long running Manx festival.

Click here to read the synopses of all the plays in the festival and for more festival details.

Please email onlineadmin@madf.im or facebook message to express interest by 6pm on Wednesday 23rd March.

*If you can only come to some of the performances we would still be very interested in hearing from you!

The MADF Easter Festival of plays 2016 will be a compact 5 day run, full of fun and bringing with it a veritable roller coaster of emotions. This year each team is providing very different material to both intrigue and possibly perplex the audience! We, as a committee, are delighted to have two local groups able to compete and hope this sets a new trend for years to come.  We look forward to greeting old friends from 3 returning teams from across.  They love the island as much as the locals!

As you may be aware the programme usually runs over 7 days.  This is regrettably not possible this year due to a variety of reasons, the main one being that some of our usual entrants from across are running plays this season with a large cast, which makes it too much of a financial burden for teams being of an amateur status, even with the generous financial assistance provided by MADF and much appreciated support from the Isle of Man Arts Council.  In order to prevent this reoccurring, we will be looking into ways to make sure all eligible theatre groups are aware of our annual competition and expect to receive more entries than performance slots next year onwards, so get your entries in early!

We hope all rehearsals are going well and look forward to an exciting 2016 festival!

• Clare Austin, Chairman

The Isle of Man – The Gaiety Theatre. Well what can I say? You don’t often get the opportunity to perform in such a fantastic theatre and amdram groups should be clambering over each other, gouging each other’s eyes out to play there. The MADF Easter Festival of Full Length Plays is a jewel in the calendar. It’s also a huge learning exercise for any budding performer.

My memories of it start back in 2009. I directed a show called Girl’s Night which was a lot of fun and I remember thinking during the show that I should most definitely like to stand on the stage and look outwards.

The deal is that they give you £1000 to perform and that money needs to get all the actors, backstage crew, production and set to the Isle of Man. The Romiley Little Theatre (RLT) routine over the last 7 years or so is to arrive on the day before, catch the previous night’s show and move into the theatre after the show. Try and get a good night’s sleep despite tingling butterflies and then rehearse all day and then maximum energy at 7.30pm showtime. A small-ish cast and a simple set is preferred from a financial point of view. Also, “something good”. This is a festival after all and the audiences are discerning, so you cannot get away with producing rubbish. Also what sometimes works in your home venue with a following wind, does not always cut the mustard here. Volume should not be an issue, some actors will need reminding that they need to project. The intention should be to put on the best writing you can find with your best players and crew, to achieve your very best performance – it really is that simple.

RLT have performed 7 times at the Gaiety, good years include Girl’s Night, Blackbird, One Big Blow, The 39 Steps and Frozen. Average years include Hound of the Baskervilles and a poor year saw Love and Understanding (hugely criticised, perhaps a little harshly… but I would say that wouldn’t I!).

I was lucky enough to be the lead in perhaps the two most successful plays (excepting the two-hander Blackbird which was also excellent but sadly due to sudden illness to a cast member required a professional actor to stand in with script in hand so wasn’t eligible for awards) and also in the worst two received plays! The order of this was an important part of my journey if you like as insights gained ref your personal performance are from all sorts of places and not necessarily the most obvious places. Specifically, at the Gaiety Theatre, there are three ways that you can get feedback on your performance. Firstly, from the GoDA Adjudicator who within minutes of your show stands on the stage and delivers a measured, professional assessment. Secondly from audience members whom one bumps into and thirdly and perhaps the most interesting are participants and supporters from the different societies aka ‘faces’ who come back to the festival year after year and that you gradually get to know in the Bar post show. This is by some distance the most interesting way to pick up things and learn. Being a full week of plays, it can be expensive and hard to find the time to spend the entire week there, but to get to watch at least 1-2 other plays is advised to assess the standard and meet some people which is always a good idea.

Love and Understanding was panned by the Adjudicator and although I agreed with it in parts, thankfully some of the ‘faces’ disagreed with his comments. We subsequently had a return to form with The 39 steps, a well written farce which was highly technical and has been running in the West End for years. We picked up a lot of awards for this one, including the coveted Best Play and we were invited to the All Winners Festival but due to a cast member moving away and us having sold the set to another amateur group, we could not attend. It was a big step up from Love and Understanding, so we then tried to repeat the formula with The Hound of the Baskervilles; this was a romp in the same vein as The 39 steps and had gone down well at our home theatre. However… it did not really hit the mark and personally I was well aware both on-stage and after that it was not quite right. A couple of memories really highlight this. I was watching the show the night before ‘Hound,’ casually sitting in the Gaiety Theatre and I by chance got talking to a lady who said that she was really looking forward to watching the RLT production as they had so enjoyed The 39 steps the year before. Confusion and modesty instantly conflicted within me and oddly I remained quiet, when I could have informed her that I had played the lead in that show. Perhaps based upon the average response we received afterwards, I made the correct decision.

Later that evening I was chatting to one of the faces in the bar, he  said that RLT generally did good things at the festival but had got into a rut. He felt Hound was a poorer play than The 39 steps and he had noticed from my performance that I had felt much less comfortable. He suggested that RLT should choose a different genre and come on a different night of the week. He had noted that we tended to prefer the last Friday. Though I left feeling a little chastised, I also found myself agreeing with him about some of the feedback and constructive criticism that he gave me that night. Again a benefit of having to opportunity to hear from one’s peers and grow as a performer. It took two years but we finally managed to pull together a good show, that was very different to The 39 Steps/Hound and we even changed night.

Frozen won Best Play and we walked off with Best Actor and Actress that night too… myself receiving Best Actor. We then took this show to the British All Winners Festival in July and came runners up by 1%. The All Winners was a lot of fun but sadly a small audience – an issue all theatre groups are all too aware of these days.

Playing the Isle of Man Gaiety Theatre is, by a large distance, the biggest thrill I have had on stage. I’m now Chairman of RLT and maybe we’ll get to win the British All UK Winners at some point… but regardless we hope to keep on playing the Gaiety as it is a crown jewel which one always wants to touch, even if only for one night a year!

Simon Cove
Chair – Romiley Little Theatre