INTERVIEW - William Belchambers in Love's Labours Lost and Much Ado About Nothing, Theatre Royal Haymarket

TWO years ago William Belchambers was working at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon where he grew up. He was playing both Lord Longaville and Conrade in the RSC’s two productions, Love’s Labours Lost and Much Ado About Nothing respectively.

Now more than 24 months later following successful runs at Stratford and latterly in Manchester and Chichester, he and the cast and crew are bringing the shows to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, just over the river from where he now lives in New Cross Gate.

It has, William tells me, been a journey in more ways than one but one that he is clearly enjoying.

And despite having to learn lines for not one but two plays, the 35-year-old says it was a no brainer to be part of the team, not least because it was a chance for him to work again with its director Christopher Luscombe.

“I’ve worked with Christopher for a number of years now and have a great working relationship with him,” he says.

“It’s always fun to be part of his projects so when he asked if I’d like to be part of these two shows I jumped at the chance. 

“I also love the RSC and to get to play not one but two great roles is fantastic.

“The characters I play are both very different - Longaville is one of three friends to the King of Navarre. He’s a good guy, studious, geeky and wants the best for his friends. He is also loyal and faithful to his friends, has a strong moral compass and wants to do the right thing.

“Conrade by comparison is the polar opposite and very much the bad guy! He’s come back from fighting in the war and has clearly had some really bad experiences. He’s a slightly embittered and twisted man and doesn’t have much happiness in his life - he’s not a nice guy at all. 

“To play two such contrasting characters has been a lot of fun and a fantastic challenge for me,” he adds warmly. “I love playing Longaville. He’s a lovely guy and Love’s Labours Lost is a great story - it is fast paced, a lot of fun and a bit of a juggernaut in that it’s a laugh a minute and once you get going with it it doesn’t stop.

“However, being Conrade has been a challenge in that it has really stretched me because he’s so far removed from who I am - but it’s always great fun playing a baddie!” he adds chuckling.

The other draw for William was that not only was it an RSC production, starting out in his home town of Stratford, but Christopher set it in Charlecote, just outside Stratford, an area William also knows very well.

“I loved the idea that Chris set it in Charlecote,” says William. “It was a conscious decision because he wanted it to be set in a recognisable stately home so those who saw it when it was first on in Stratford would know it.

“He’s also set the plays either side of the First World War which cleverly ties them both together and in so doing makes the ending of Love’s Labours Lost less ambiguous. 

“If you get the chance to see both you see how well they work being staged together, back to back, and how in many ways the story in Much Ado follows on from that of Love’s Labours Lost.”

Much Ado, one of Shakespeare’s best known and much loved plays, features the bickering couple, Beatrice and Benedick who are weary of love and resistant to each other. However, they are pushed together by their friends Hero and Claudio who in turn fall for one another - although the course of their love is equally rocky.

Love’s Labours Lost concerns the King of Navarre and his three friends who abstain from having fun or taking part in any guilty pleasures for three years. Things seem to be going well until the Princess of France turns up with her three friends. They all fall in love and much hilarity ensues.

Of course it wouldn’t be Shakespeare without a comic sub plot, in this case it involves a crazy Spaniard, Don Adriano de Armado who’s in love with country wench, Jaquenetta. 

William admits Love’s Labours Lost is perhaps the least well known of the two, not to mention one of the most frustrating given its ending with the lovers all parting company - perhaps a reason for it being less frequently performed.

However he maintains it’s a “fantastic and funny” play and audiences should give it a go.

“When you look at Love’s Labours Lost you realise Shakespeare is exploring all the different facets as a writer with a bit of prose, sonnets, humour, wit and sorrow - he’s ticking all the boxes and showing off in a ‘look what I can do’ way.

“But the ending is ambiguous. Four men and four women going their separate ways but promising to come back to one another - it is a poignant and touching ending but doesn’t really make sense.

“That’s why I think what Chris has done by setting it just before the war is genius - most of those who went away to fight thought they would be home for Christmas, so promising to come back was normal.

“However that of course didn’t happen - it was a brutal four years of conflict and when those who did survive came back, they were war weary and shell shocked. The idyllic world they left behind was also gone.

“And you see this very much in Much Ado - the men coming back from fighting, absolutely shattered.”

William’s obvious enthusiasm and passion for Shakespeare is clear and says he believes the great man would have liked the versions they are staging.

“He was so forward looking and such a radical that I think he would definitely approve of what we have done,” he says.

“He was incredible really when you think about it - he wrote 36 plays and they are all really clever with some of the best speeches ever written. It’s a joy to be speaking his words.”

In fact William began his career with Shakespeare. Whilst at Warwick School he joined a local drama group and before long was offered a role in the RSC’s The Beggar’s Opera at the Swan Theatre in Stratford.

He then took on the role of Prince Edward in Richard III and by the time he was 13 he had done three shows for the RSC. So he says it was no surprise that he pursued the idea of being an actor as a career.

“By the time I was 16 that train was already running much to my parents’ annoyance!” he laughs. “I left school, went to drama school and have been acting ever since.

“I have done a lot of theatre and would love to do more film work - I have a huge passion for European film and would love to do more of that - but I love the variety of the job and fortunately it’s a career that has treated me kindly.”

And for now he tells me that he couldn’t be happier to be back in London and bringing the productions to the Haymarket for the four-month run.

“I’m so flattered that we’ve had the success we have had with these two plays,” he says warmly. “We’ve all had a lovely time so to be able to bring it to London and keep the journey going is fantastic.

“I live in New Cross Gate, an area I love so it’s also great for me to be back home. Since moving to London I’ve always been south of the river. I trained at Rose Bruford in Deptford and have lived in and around the Peckham, Deptford and New Cross area ever since. 

“It’s such a great place, I love Telegraph Hill, the Brockley Market, the cafes and the green open spaces. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else so I daren’t leave!”

That said, he does admit to having an adventurous streak and a yearning to do some travelling - and tells me a road trip to Portugal could be in the offing once the run at the Haymarket has finished.

“I’ve never been but have always fancied going to Lisbon,” he laughs. “So my idea is to go on a motorbike to Portugal via as many other European countries as possible and find my way back to London - and then maybe make a documentary about it. 

“That would really be fun!”

Love’s Labours Lost and Much Ado About Nothing are on at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until Mach 18. Tickets from £15. Visit www.rschaymarket.com or call the box office on 020 7930 8800 for full listings.

REVIEW - A Christmas Carol, Vaults Theatre

FOUR STARS

Charles Dickens’ classic tale, A Christmas Carol has been given a bit of a theatrical makeover thanks to a new adaptation of the story by the Fitzrovia Radio Hour.

Set in the 1940s and staged deep underneath Waterloo Station at the Vaults, the five strong cast enact the story as a live radio broadcast with us as their studio audience. The actors even do their own sound effects and intersperse radio ads for gin into the mix. 

But it’s not quite as straightforward as that. For there is a nasty undercurrent as one of the cast has done the dirty on his rival and caused an accident that has resulted in said rival being taken to hospital - we are told he might not make it. Cue gasps!

We are also told as a result of the accident the stage at the Old Vic, where the broadcast was due to take place, is now a crime scene, hence the underground bunker of the Vaults.

It is all very silly and it really adds to the acting out of the proper story they are there to stage for us. 

The injured actor, Stanley De Pfeffel, had been due to play Scrooge for the 18th year. Instead he is replaced by Ernest Andrew, looking for all the world like Laurence Olivier, and sneeringly delighted he’s finally got a chance to ditch Tiny Tim and be Scrooge.

Ernest wastes no time in ingratiating himself with his fellow cast members who are all devastated at the news of Stanley’s accident - none more so than Stanley’s lover Gretchen Haggard.

They start the show and it all seems to go swimmingly until they get to the bit where Marley’s ghost visits Scrooge. And then all manner of spooky things happen - from lights flickering to voices echoing and lights collapsing from the ceiling.

In the end of course, Stanley emerges from his hospital bed to take back the role he was meant to do, to the horror of Ernest and the delight of the rest of the cast. Much merriment ensues as the two rivals battle it out on air.

It is brilliantly done, with some clever touches, very funny and silly and the cast are spot on with their cut glass accents and dexterity at the sound effects table, not to mention the pushing and shoving that goes on between the two rivals.

And what’s more at about 80 minutes straight through, it’s a show that is entirely suitable for children aged from about 12 and up.

A Christmas Carol is on at the Vaults, Launcelot Street, Waterloo until Saturday, December 31. Tickets cost from £20. Visit www.ChristmasCarolLondon.com or call the box office on 020 7183 5942 for full listings.

INTERVIEW Nick Holder, Love at the National Theatre

Nick Holder as Colin in LOVE. Credit Sarah Lee

THIS Christmas more than 50,000 families in London will be spending the festive season in temporary accommodation. In the UK as a whole, 120,000 children will be waking up homeless this Christmas Day.

These stark figures, released by housing and homelessness charity Shelter in November from official government data, also reveal that the number of families living in emergency B&B and hostel rooms has risen by 18 per cent in just a year, as local councils battle to find homeless families anywhere else that is stable or affordable to go. 

Not only that, many families are being forced to live in one room and share bathrooms and toilets with other residents in the building. 

Officially people classed as homeless should only be in temporary accommodation for a maximum of six weeks. However as playwright and theatre maker Alexander Zeldin found out, this can often last much longer.

It prompted him to write a play exploring and showing the issues faced by those forced into temporary and emergency housing. Now, a year after he began the process, LOVE has just opened on the National Theatre’s Dorfman stage.

The play was written through a devising process with the cast and focusses on three families who find themselves without a home - a middle aged man with his elderly mum, a young family with a baby on the way and a newly arrived woman from Sudan.

They are all strangers but they are forced together in a building in which they have no personal space and no privacy.

Among the cast is Nick Holder, who has appeared regularly on stage at the National Theatre over the past 26 years.

The Honor Oak-based actor says that far from being a work of fiction, this is very much the reality for thousands of people across the country.

And he is unapologetic when it comes to being angry about the situation which he describes as a “scandal”.

“We are living in a first world country in the 21st century and yet here we are with thousands of people living in temporary, shared and squalid conditions,” he says.

“And not only that, most of these people are there through no fault of their own and at the mercy of greedy landlords forced into living in one room, sharing a bathroom and paying over the odds for it. 

“It’s a national disgrace.”

I speak to Nick in a break from rehearsals in which he tells me they are still working on the play, tinkering with it and refining it for its month long run at the National before it goes to Birmingham.

He tells me it took a year to write and has been a “long haul” to get to the stage, not least because the subject matter is harrowing, and emotionally and physically tough to act out, but also because they wanted it to be true to the testimonies of people they spoke to and met during the research period.

“Initially we were given a document from Shelter which contained first person statements about the lives of those in temporary shared accommodation,” he says.

“It made for shocking reading. People are made homeless for all manner or reasons - whether it’s the delay in a benefits payment, being made redundant, being kicked out of your home by your parents or other reasons.

“By law, people are only supposed to be put into temporary accommodation due to homelessness for six weeks but we found many were there for up to two years and left waiting for something more permanent.

“That started our investigation into who these people are and how far away are we from being those people ourselves. In many cases it’s just one month’s salary.”

It was from this starting point that the cast alongside Alexander got together and began to write and devise the work through rehearsals. They also went out across the country meeting and speaking to as many people as they could who had been forced into temporary accommodation and seeing first hand the conditions in which they were living and recorded hundreds of hours of video tape testimonies. 

It was, says Nick, a “complete eye-opener” and one that was far more harrowing and shocking than he had ever imagined.

“I come from a working class background and I was appalled by what I’d seen,” he says. “You do think there is a welfare state that at some point would provide a soft landing but there is nothing there for some people. It’s terrifying and Kafka-esque.

“Thank goodness for Shelter who are trying to address these issues.”

In the piece, Nick, who was last seen at the National earlier this year playing Mr Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, plays Colin who is 51 and lives in one room with his 80-year-old mother. And it’s a situation Nick says is more common than people may think.

“On our travels we met one family which comprised an 80-year-old woman living in one room with two grown up sons,” he says. 

“One had severe special needs and the other had addictions. They had been chucked out of their home by the council and put into temporary accommodation while the council tried to find something more suitable for them. What they were left with was two mattresses on the floor and a sofa.

“And this is not an isolated case. Elsewhere we found a family living in one room and sharing a bathroom with other people, some of whom were drunk or drug addicts and where the mum had to get up at 5am to clean the bathroom so her children could use it. 

“What’s more people end up languishing in these places for months and sometimes years on end. It’s shattering.

“The cramped, dirty and dreadful conditions these people find themselves in are utterly Dickensian and yet here we are in 2016. This year is also the 50th anniversary of Ken Loach’s brilliant and seminal film Cathy Come Home. You would think that things have got better since then but actually what we have seen is that austerity is worse now than it was then, people are poorer and there is less work - it’s terrifying.

“It’s dehumanising, utterly appalling and it’s happening now.”

Throughout our chat Nick speaks with passion about the issues and it’s clear it’s been a project he’s not only proud to be involved with but that he’s proud of the National for staging it.

“I’ve worked here for 26 years and I’ve never felt the building be more alive,” he says. “It is all as a result of the programming by [artistic director] Rufus Norris.

“They are making work that reflects society - it’s the nation’s theatre and they are being more diverse and inclusive and representing the society in which we live. It’s not elitist, it’s hugely diverse and exciting and staging this play proves it.”

Indeed he says LOVE aims to hit audiences, showing them the reality of what is going on in the country around them - in the next street, the next borough and the next town. And he says that while it doesn’t pull any punches it does aim to see if it’s possible to maintain a connection or love or humanity when someone feels out of control and in this kind of situation.

“It’s going to be quite electric,” he says. “We have a government pushing through all these austerity measures and blaming people for being poor. It’s a conscious cruelty being inflicted on those who don’t have a voice by those who have the ability to stop it.

“Everyone can read the stats. What we are really trying to do is show the effects of that brutality on human beings. How do they react and respond to it and how do we in turn respond.

“During our research we met so many people who aren’t able to help themselves due to their circumstances - whether it’s being born into poverty, having mental health issues or an accident of birth.

“Some do manage to maintain their dignity and we try and show some of that but most find themselves stuck in these places not knowing how to access people with a voice to help them. They either die in these places or end up on the streets.

“So, yes it will be hard hitting and hyper naturalistic and a lot of it is in real time so we want people to come and bear witness to things we hear about on the news. And as there is no interval, once you are in there is no escape!” he chuckles.

“There is also some humour in it - it’s not all misery porn! People find humour in situations and being pushed together it creates really interesting scenarios.”

I ask what he’d like audiences to take away from the play and his answer is genuine and heartfelt.

“I would like people to be really really angry and realise that talking about it on Twitter won’t do anything,” he says.

“People are dying in these rooms, poor, cold and hungry. What’s important is action, giving a few quid to Shelter or going in and helping these people.

“I wouldn’t get involved in something that’s tokenistic. But the fact is people are dying every day and all we need to do is build houses and give them jobs.

“Ideally we would like to take audiences into the temporary accommodation shelters we have been to so they can see it first hand as these people will tell their story better than we can but it’s not possible so we are doing it here.

“It’s not been an easy process getting it to the stage. It’s been emotionally draining and we are on our knees with it, but it’s a story that is worth telling - and tell it we must.”

LOVE plays in the National’s Dorfman Theatre until January 10, 2017 and is produced in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre where it will appear between January 26 and February 11, 2017. Tickets cost from £15. Visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or call the box office on 020 7452 3000.

FIVE STAR REVIEW - She Loves Me at the Menier Chocolate Factory

FIVE STARS

Lyricist Sheldon Harnick’s declaration of praise for Matthew White’s production of She Loves Me must have been music to the ears of the cast and crew.

Indeed the 92-year-old, when invited to the stage on press night, said the production, at the Menier Chocolate Factory was “maybe the best I’ve ever seen”.

And although I’ve not seen another version, I must admit, this one is pretty special. Indeed it is colourful and vibrant, full of wit and humour, fizzing with energy and with a strong cast who deliver all the songs and the story beautifully.

Set in the 1930s, was written in the 1960s and concerns the staff of a Budapest parfumerie with a love story that has echoes of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Cyrano De Bergerc and the film, You’ve Got Mail.

It is owned by Mr Maraczek, a lovely performance from Les Dennis, whose manager Georg has been writing love letters to an anonymous woman for a number of weeks after contacting her through a lonely hearts column. 

Into his life comes Amalia Balash, recently let go by a rival parfumerie who wows Mr Maraczek with her selling technique of a music box and gains herself a job - much to the disgust of Georg.

She too has been corresponding with an unknown man - and it doesn’t take much to work out who it is. However, face to face, the two get off on the wrong foot and spar verbally with each other.

However, things take a turn when they agree to finally meet each other’s letter writer at a local cafe - and things don’t go according to plan not least thanks to Georg being let go by Mr Maraczek who mistakenly believes him to be carrying on with his wife.

And here lies the first of two subplots - Mr Maraczek seeing his wife seduced by another man and the other being that of Ilona, the beautiful but unlucky in love sales assistant who has fallen for colleague Kodaly - a cad and a bounder if ever there was one. But she is made of strong stuff and in a fit of pique and after being spurned once too often she decides to go to the library and amongst the books finds herself a better man.

It is a delightful show and full of wonderful and very funny moments including a glorious scene with Cory English as the waiter who insists his cafe has a “romantic atmosphere”. Katherine Kingsley is hilarious as Ilona with her sideways glances and one liners and Dominic Tighe as Kodaly is suitably roguish.

But the night belongs really to Scarlett Strallen as Amalia and Mark Umbers as Georg who shine and sparkle like lights on a Christmas tree - and their falling in love despite themselves is a joy to watch.

She Loves Me is on at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Southwark Street until March 4, 2017. Tickets cost from £45. Visit www.menierchocolatefactory.com or call the box office on 020 7378 1713 for full listings.

FIVE STAR REVIEW - The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales

FIVE STARS

The last 10 days or so have seen some of the coldest nights this year prompting concerns about those who sleep rough.

And their plight is brought home with the story of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Matchgirl. It is this tale of the young girl who sells matches to make a few pennies but ultimately succumbs to the severe winter weather that has inspired the Globe’s artistic director Emma Rice in her first production at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales is a show for our times. Set in the warm and cosy confines of this glorious theatre it has been adapted by Joel Horwood and features a group of Vaudeville actors from Ole Shuteye’s troupe who enact stories for the little girl.

With a strike of a match, these stories - Thumbelina, The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Princess And The Pea - are played out using puppetry, verse, music and song and enchant and delight both the girl, herself a puppet, and the audience.

Some of the stories are sad and melancholy of course, with the Princess rejecting the Prince for testing her rather than believing her royal pedigree and seeing well fed and warm people sing Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody around a Christmas tree while the match girl watches from outside in the cold is enough to bring tears to your eyes.

But it’s not all misery - indeed there is plenty of cheeky humour especially when the Emperor struts out in next to nothing and the Shuteye troupe sing and dance.

It is a beautiful production, wonderfully staged and acted by a top notch cast including Paul Hunter as Ole Shuteye and puppeteer Edie Edmundson who manipulates the match girl puppet. 

And there are some nice touches including Ole’s sly aside that “candles are much more atmospheric than boring old electricity”, a nod to the recent controversy over Emma Rice’s use of modern lighting in the main house.

But it’s when we leave the auditorium and step out into the chill winter air that the folk and fairy stories we’ve been watching become so relevant to our times - child poverty and homelessness - they are all around us.

The Little Matchgirl and Other Happier Tales is on at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Bankside, until Sunday, January 22. Tickets from £15. Visit www.shakespearesglobe.com for full listings.