8 November 2008

The Selfish Giant

By Anna Aldred, age 5 (nearly 6!) in her own words (and spellings...)

I liike it because I liked the songes and the chilren from the audience who made the trees came to life again. I thoucht it was magic!

20 May 2008

The Secret Garden

In the secret garden dreams come true, friends are made forever and families are reunited in this charming show. 

This ‘Family participation musical’ was great. The first thirty minutes involved some children from the audience learning parts and the rest of us learning the words and actions to the songs. The actors encouraged everyone to enter into the spirit of the occasion and we could soon join in with the songs.

So to the show. It tells the story of Mary, a ten-year-old whose parents died of cholera in India. Mary has to return to England to live with her hunchbacked Uncle Mr Craven.

Mary’s journey of discovery leads her to become less reliant on others, and discover things for her herself. Encouraged by servant girl Martha (played very believably by Catherine Nix Collins); Mary takes to the Manor grounds.

She discovers a Secret Garden, previously belonging to Mr Cravens (dead) wife. Mary tends to the garden, encouraged by new friend Dickon, and it strives, with rose bushes (played by some delightful Swindon girls) blooming.

Mary discovers invalid Colin Craven (Mr Craven's son), miserably bed ridden and estranged from his father. She encourages Dickon to bring some animals to Colin’s room to encourage him out of the house. The animals were played by the children from the audience, who were excellent, especially the cutest like lamb to ever grace a stage!

Colin is taken into the secret garden and breaths in new life, with help he gets out of his wheelchair and is healed. When Mr Carven hears this news father and son are reunited, in the enchanted secret garden.

This was a great show for parents and children alike, the audience participation brought it alive. My five-year-old daughter said, "I liked singing with the actors, especially the song ‘You don’t need your airs and graces’ because its fun singing and doing all the actions".

Well done to the Image Musical Theatre!

James Aldred

22 February 2008

Moths Ate My Dr Who Scarf by Toby Hadoke

I have to admit my only previous dalliance with Dr Who was getting Jon Pertwee’s autograph on the Aldbourne Village Green, although I didn’t really want it and pretended for that afternoon only to be a fan …. but that was before .. in a past lifetime … all that changed last Friday night at the Arts Centre when Mr Toby Hadoke showed me the way.

Toby took the very appreciative audience through a cleverly-scripted monologue of the history of Dr Who (not a stone unturned .. errm 26 years, 18759 minutes in fact  of ‘top’ telly) woven in with his own life experiences via excerpts from his Molesque diaries. He was the youngest of four boys whose father left when he was a baby.

His mother found it hard to cope so a charity stepped in and misguidedly paid for just ONE of the children to go to an eminent English boarding school… where he promptly developed terrible psoriasis and flaked over everyone. He was allowed home on Saturday nights to flake over the bosom of his own family, which coincided with the very cosy Sat eve showing of Dr Who which supplied him with fantasies, escapism, the beginnings of an interest in history and science and oh so much more …

He talks of the solace found in the wonderment of the Dr Who stories amid the perils of the thuggish, school bully, Dale Pike! Exterminate, exterminate …

On becoming a grown up and an actor, with a little boy of his own, he has carried this passion to the point of obsession – he has three video recorders set up for each episode and has every box set, mug and fridge magnet known to (cyber) man.

At half time I had a glass of wine amongst the always nice, slightly bohemian Arts Centre clientele and then mellowed more into this intellectual, self-effacing man’s wonderful command of the English language and witty repartee. He punctuates his piece with some fantasically gorgeous words like untenable, expeditiously, cadaver, and conundrum and the following day I found myself trying to casually fit them into my daily life.. “I’m just going out to expeditiously get the milk” … maybe not

There’s something so very English about monologues … I can’t help but drift to Thora Hird and Fondant Fancies. Not a rip-roaring, shaky shoulders comedy show, more piano concerto than Aerosmith …but there’s nothing wrong with that

Apparently you have to be 5’ 6” to be a dalek, and some other measurement to be a Neutron or something …. so that’s me out with my diminutive stature of 4’11”.. perhaps I could be Half A Dalek …?

Marilyn Fitzgerald

12 February 2008

Thea Gilmore

I’ve been a fan of Thea’s folk/rock since a friend gave me her album “Rules for Jokers” about five years ago, thinking (rightly) that I would enjoy it. Not quite what you’d call mainstream, Thea has just released her eighth album and is still not yet 30! Thanks to Bob Harris and Janice Long on Radio 2, she’s been getting a lot more airplay recently, particularly of her bluesy rendition of the Dead or Alive number “You Spin me Right Round” which is just brilliant.

This gig saw her perform a two guitar acoustic set alongside her husband, Nigel Stonier (also her support act). Despite suffering from a pretty nasty head cold, Thea seemed genuinely pleased to be in Swindon and immediately dedicated “God’s got nothing on you” to the town to a huge round of applause from the audience. Thea’s myspace page describes her as being “the kind of girl your mother warned you about” and, if you listen to her lyrics, you’ll know why.

Drugs have obviously played a huge part in her life and songs like “Contessa”, in which she describes a conversation between the cartoon devil and angel sitting on her shoulders, and “Juliet”, about a young girl’s battle with heroin, she admits are biographical.

Despite the subject matter, Thea has the sort of outstandingly clear and beautiful voice that you can’t help but just be carried away. The 70 minutes or so that she was on stage just flew by and the audience loved every minute of it. Included in the set were “Feaverbeats”, “Mainstream”, “Everybody’s Numb” and the aforementioned “You Spin Me Right Round” all of which transferred well to the acoustic setting and she rounded the evening off with a rousing rendition of “This Girl is Taking Bets” which, for me, was awesome as it was the one song that made me sit up and listen back in 2002.

I’ve seen many, many gigs at the Arts Centre but very rarely have I seen a standing ovation which Thea’s audience were only to pleased to give, and rightly so. It was a tremendous evening.

Jean Goodall

6 February 2008

Jason Byrne - Shy Pigs with Wigs, Hidden in the Twigs

I saw Irish-born, Jason Byrne at the Arts Centre on Friday night. On a cold rainy, Swindon night I thought it would be a bit of a tonic. I felt a bit guilty passing the weekly meeting of the Swindon Philosophy Society downstairs who looked seriously intent on their chosen subject … but they didn’t mind … took it in their stride …quite philosophical about it actually ….

To my dismay I found myself in the third row from the front so I spent much of the first half in some kind of dumbstruck terror whilst Jason proceeded to circle and pounce on his prey. Jason’s act is primarily based on ‘picking on the audience’ and although that can be tedious at times, his high-energy wacky mind, saves him. He has great comic timing and makes just the best funny faces. He worked on the ‘stay at home cake-baking mum’ and the woman who did her coat ‘up’ when she walked in the room and a guy who replied ‘as little as possible’ when asked what he did for a living ho ho, lived to regret those words.

"Go and rob stuff!"

Just before half-time Jason threw in a clever wild-card and challenged the audience to ‘rob stuff’ during the interval. Amazing how child-like we all are given the opportunity. I clocked a man trying to hide a large piece of artwork AND the hanging rods (!) under his coat, to much hilarity from his partner and myself. The mood of the theatre changed to one of drunken university students .. grown men were lifting drains from the toilet floor and cake-baking mum was wogging bins and ashtrays. The interval drinks became irrelevant … “QUICK .. there’s no time!” .. Believe me, if there’d been a shopping trolley …

Most of the second half Jason spent hilariously dissecting the swag and we all felt ‘ a bit naughty’ I can tell you. He did a great skit on an arty business card that had been thrown on the stage that had to have been off the cuff. Jason ended the show with the last of his only two actual jokes which was worth waiting for … it was an incredibly amusing wife gone off sex routine and his wife screaming “BACK ME INTO THE SHOWER” will stay with me I fear. His only other actual joke was based around the ridiculously precarious pursuit of scanning your own stuff at the supermarket (how mad is that?!) and was also excellent.

One thing kept bothering me .. one of his faces is the spit of the Irish nurse in Catherine Tate … is it Bridey, Brenda, Breda .. you know the one …. I even mentally checked their surnames in case they were bro and sis…did anyone else notice that??

A real, fun, juvenile night … just how I like ‘em.

Marilyn Fitzgerald

16 October 2007

Breaking the Silence Liz Rothschild

In 1962 the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring brought for the first time to public attention the long-term damaging effects of pesticides on the environment, and on the centenary of Carson’s birth, Liz Rothschild’s remarkable one-woman play provides a timely remainder of that warning.

Carson’s individual and professional uniqueness, and her quiet yet passionate nature, are glowingly brought to life in Rothschild’s performance as well as in the simple lyricism and gentle humour of her text. Addressing the audience as if from beyond the grave, Rothschild’s Carson talks of her Maine childhood, an early love of books, the shift from literature to biology at university, and of the painstaking career as a scientist that finally led her to conclusions she felt impelled to make public.

Alongside her working life we are also subtly told the story of her personal life: her passionate, though mostly epistolary, relationship with her great friend Dorothy; her attempts as an unmarried and childless woman to take over the care of her nephew.

Rothschild achieves in her performance a synthesis of Carson’s literary and scientific aspects, of her passion as well as her discipline. Embedded in the narrative of her life is an intensely lyrical and spiritual appreciation of the natural world that is often reminiscent of Richard Jefferies.

Breaking the Silence provides an absorbing theatrical experience of an important and remarkable woman.

Jill Sharp

10 October 2007

Puppini Sisters

After seeing the Puppini Sisters in GI uniforms on GMTV about three months ago, I was thrilled that they were attending the Arts Centre. I immediately booked front row seats, insisted my husband come along (he’s into heavy metal bands so it was pay back time) and looked forward to an evening of 1940’s and 50’s music. I was not prepared for such evening of musical variety!

The support duo were unique in their style of music, as they gave us a 30 minute musical portrayal of life during the war, when ordinary folk entertained each other during their terrifying and often long stays in their underground bunkers.

After the interval three very glamorous ladies dressed to the nines came on stage with a trio of extremely talented musicians. They went straight into Boogie Woogie Bugle Boys and from there the singing just did not stop. The harmonies were outstanding as they sang Wuthering Heights, Sandman, I Will Survive and many more songs from all eras. Interject this with the humour of all the performers and you had an evening of pure excellence.

I for one will be badgering Clarry Bean for the return of the Puppini Sisters and, guess what, my husband wants to come to!

Jane (declaring an interest as an Arts Centre employee!)

4 October 2007

Just really wanted to drop a quick line about an amazing night I had at the Art Centre last week with the Puppini Sisters. But to start with was "Patty Plinko and her boy" who, when they first took to the stage, I did wonder what I'd let myself in for - but how amazing were! They were unlike anything I'd seen before and would definitely like to see them again! From ear wigging in the interval the crowd were all positive and great to see that the act came in to watch the Puppin's afterwards, there's support for you!

Back to the Puppini's - wow wow wow, they blew me away, having already got their CD on a recommendation from a friend I have to say they are even better live and in a wonderful venue where you can see them, interact with them and have a damn good night! Shame on anyone who didn't find their feet tapping and desperately wanting to dance in the aisle. Really looking forward to hearing their new album and maybe another visit to Swindon...  please!!

Chelle

How to post a review

Have you seen a show at the Arts Centre recently? What did you think?

E-mail Arts Services web editor Joy Aldred with your comments and name, and the name of the show, and we’ll look at posting them on the web site.

We want to encourage all reviews. However, if a comment is likely to cause unreasonable offence to readers or performers then the web editor reserves the right not to include the comment on the site.

The web editor will not respond personally to comments and should not be expected to enter into correspondence with the reviewers. If you have specific comments or complaints and wish to contact the Arts Centre directly then please e-mail the box office.