Went to Jamal’s for dinner on Corportation Road with Lizzie and then went to see Iron, the first production by Company TSU – a new theatre group in Middlesbrough.

The official description:

“Unsettling in its opinion and unflinching in its language IRON is inspired by Nigel Williams’ play ‘Class Enemy’, re-imagined and brought to life by Company TSU.

A group of pupils rail against their lives. Angry and disillusioned they wait for a teacher, some answers, some direction but mostly they just wait for the bell to go.”

The play was performed in the round and the performances were excellent. There were video bits integrated into the play that worked well and added to the performance. (Minor quibble is one of these pieces set to the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen, felt long in terms of the length of the play.)

Lizzie was distracted by some of the language in the play, (a fairly constant patter of among other words the “c” word).  I don’t know if I am desensitized as a native NYer – I find it easy to filter.

Would love to see these performers again as they gain experience – they did a great job and there was some great potential on offer.

It needs to be said, Venue 2 at Middlesbrough College is another awesome space to watch theatre (in addition to the larger Hazel Pearson Theatre at the College, where we went to see an excellent production of The Laramie Project.)

Iron was performed in the round and it made you want to see more theatre groups creating productions for this amazing space.

Mayor Ray Mallon attended the performance too and reviewed it here.

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Will post a proper post at some point but for those who are interested in the list of performers from last night – I believe i have chased up all the names:

Robin Ince – Stand-up plus host

Martin White – Did the attempt at a random catchy tune – DaNgErous! (Helen Arney helped with keyboard)
Helen Arney – Also performed songs on ukulele
Marcus Chown – Did awards show for scientists (author of We need to Talk about Kelvin)
Matt Parker – Standup maths on homeopathy and ancient civ of Woolworths
Joanna Neary – Did the two characters (olde worlde housewife diary and psycho children’s entertainer)
Darren Hayman – Did the protons and neutrons song
Simon Singh – Bit on Katie Melua song
Helen Keen – It is Rocket Science – satanists andnazis oh my!
Baba Brinkman – Rap on creationists….for the people in the room who couldn’t understand what he was wanting you to respond with (like someone I was with) – it was “We off that”

Is there anyone I missed?

This is the program we caught one late night on TV that made us want to go:

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Went to see Lotty’s War at  Middlesbrough Theatre, on Friday,  a play on the theme of the German occupation of Guernsey. I recently read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on the same subject and the news was full of the  story of people from the island of Jersey getting honoured for helping people during the Holocaust so I decided to go on a last minute whim. Kev and I went with Laurie and Nora.

First, Middlesbrough Theatre was easy to get to (Laurie served as satnav) with free parking available right near the theatre. The seats were surprisingly comfortable. Appropriately enough to the evening’s performance, Middlesbrough Theatre was the first architect-designed theatre to be built after the Second World War.

The concession stand sells delicious ice cream from Jersey – we had chocolate and a toffee caramel flavour.  I need to find out the brand it was -  delicious (even better than the ice cream at the Sage). I definitely want to return, which is good since some people from work want to go see Alfie. It’s a reasonably priced night out.

I realised on the way over that it was actually my first time visiting a small regional theatre.

Now for the play.  Lotty’s War is by By Giuliano Crispini. Directed by Iain Davie. Set design by David Crisp. Costume Design by Susannah Tidy. Produced by Giddy Ox. Katie Howell as Lotty, not sure the names of the actors who played General-Major Rolf Bernburg and Ben.

Lotty is 17 at the start of the play, we meet her and her best friend and romantic interest Ben as carefree and playful youths. Her mother and sister leave to England before the occupation and when Guernsey is attacked and her father is killed, she is left alone in her house which is taken over by Nazi General-Major Rolf Bernburg. While other people are referenced by the characters these are the only people in the play.  All the action takes place in Lotty’s kitchen.

My companions were amazed by three actors being able to hold their attention for that long and tell a complicated story. There are loads of positive reviews kicking about, calling this a brave play at a time when Britain is occupying two countries and also commending it for exploring a little-known part of history…I wanted it to be better.

This review pretty much sums it up for me though I would blame the writer and the director more than the actors who do what they can with what they’re given.

The first half feels long. At the end of the play it made me question whether, in a meta way, they were trying to give me a little taste of the long years of occupation. There are some interesting ideas in the play about the psychological toll of long term occupation, the ability to identify or understand or love one’s captor, the requirements placed by one’s people or country, and just rewards in the face of survival.

Time going by is marked by the radio news. Unfortunately there are no visuals to back up the sense of time passing so the transformations in the characters can sometimes seem abrupt.

I was concerned that this would be another warm fuzzy Nazi story. While I don’t require that stories about WWII should resemble old school Westerns with a villain in a Black hat and a hero in a White ten gallon hat, and I accept that many Nazis were people in difficult situations, who compartmentalised their lives, I don’t want to ever forget their victims or turn them into bigger victims by the stories that get told.

I also felt that the power difference between a 17 year old girl and a Nazi general in his 40s/50s or so was not written sharply enough. He is civilised and they are portrayed as near equals with equivalent power. (Though in a discussion with a friend he pointed out that in those years that may have been a more reasonable age gap between men and women.)

Overall, I felt there were some interesting ideas and in Neil McEwan’s words in his review they “failed to match ambition to delivery.” I was left wanting a strong editor / director to shape it.

On an amusing note, the Nazi and I, as foreigners shared something in common in the middle of the play.  Neither one of us had seen a panto.

Promo video of stills from the play below:

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Kev and I went to see Video Games Live at the Sage – Northern Sinfonia performing music from video games.
Possibly the only time we will see Northern Sinfonia at the Sage decked out in Threadless Gaming T-shirts.
Kev was wearing:

I was wearing:

Would have been just as happy wearing:

Some photos from the evening:

The show was good fun.  Multi-generational audience. Our only lament was that we weren’t seeing it in the US or Japan where it would have been sure to sell out and more people would have been dressed up.

Jack Wall was the conductor, Tommy Tallarico was the MC. It turns out he composed the music to one of the games I used to play Earthworm Jim (also loved the cartoon). Martin Leung the video game pianist also performed including a rendition of Super Mario blindfolded. There was also a skype video chat with Marty O’Donnell.

You can watch a good chunk of it with the youtube playlist below.

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Signed playbill

Going to see Waiting for Godot with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan in Newcastle.

Have previously seen it at the Classic Stage Company in NYC starring John Turturro, Tony Shalhoub and Christopher Lloyd.

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