REVIEW - Iphigenia in Splott, National Theatre

Sophie Melville as Effie. Photo credit Mark Douet

FIVE STARS

IT is not often that a stage show has such a profound effect on me that it reduces me to tears but that is what happened when I saw Iphigenia in Splott at the National’s Temporary Theatre.

I am not sure why this happened exactly. But what I do know is that it was an extraordinary performance by Sophie Melville as Effie, a 20 something Welsh lass with a story to tell.

She comes strutting onto the stage in her trainers, peroxide blonde hair, lycra leggings, crop top and hoodie, full of attitude and gobby to boot.

She settles herself down on one of the three chairs on the stage that is surrounded by strip lights and announces to the audience that we “owe her”. What we owe her isn’t immediately clear but over the next 80 minutes or so she weaves her story with such clarity and emotion that she has us all captivated and totally absorbed in the palm of her hand.

So much so that when the end comes it is as though we are wacked in the face by the sheer brutality of it.

Of course I should have seen it coming but that’s the beauty of the writing. It gripped me from the off and by the time it was over I was sobbing quietly as I left the theatre.

Written by Gary Owen it is based on the Greek myth of King Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter. In Owen's piece it is set in Wales - though it could have been anywhere - and is a commentary on Britain today.

Effie rages against the system, men, the drink, drugs and the decisions that are made in her name.

At the beginning she is like any other disaffected young person, angry and fed up – no job, seemingly no prospects and living with flat mate Leanne and sleeping with her on off boyfriend Kevin. Trouble is she’s not happy. She uses drink and drugs to get through the week until one day she goes to a club and meets a nice man – or at least she thinks he is.

He’s a war veteran, having lost half his leg in an IED explosion. Spending the night with him for the first time she doesn’t feel alone. She feels loved, safe, secure and happy and while she doesn’t say so it’s clear she’s fallen for him completely – she could be in love.

However, while she thinks it's something more, he clearly only wanted a one night stand. Their liaison triggers a series of events including what happens when Effie finds out she’s pregnant with his baby.

It is heartbreaking, sad, funny and emotional. In fact going through it all is like being on a rollercoaster as Effie shows us her vulnerability railing against the under-resourced NHS, the loss of society and the Government's austerity measures. It is a swipe at the loss of what gives people reason to live.

I won’t spoil the ending, save to say that it packs a powerful punch and I challenge you not to leave the theatre touched deeply by what you have seen.

Iphigenia in Splott is on at the National's Temporary Theatre, South Bank until Saturday, February 20. Tickets cost £15. Visit www.nationaltheatre.org.uk or call the box office on 020 7452 3000.  

Sophie Melville as Effie. Photo credit Mark Douet

Butternut squash, lemon and almond muffins

These are great especially if you have kids who are fussy eaters and who are not great at eating your veggies.

You will need a muffin tin lined with paper muffin cases. You can also use gluten free flour and probably if you are allergic to nuts you could probably substitute the ground almonds with flour. I also don’t bother with the almond on the top even though my kids love almonds. I also drizzle the honey on the top of the muffins when they come out of the oven rather than heat in the pan. It’s up to you!

300g squash, peeled and diced weight.

125g unsalted butter, softened at room temp

125g light brown soft sugar

3 eggs beaten

1tsp almond essence

Finely grated zest of two lemons

125g self raising flour

150g ground almonds

1tbsp clear runny honey

12 whole blanched almonds, toasted in a deep frying pan until lightly golden,

Steam or boil the diced squash for 15 minutes until very soft

Drain, leave to cool, then mash with a potato masher

Preheat the oven to 200degC.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale, light and fluffy.

Gradually beat in the eggs.

Stir in the almond essence, lemon zest and squash.

Gently fold in the flour and ground almonds.

Spoon roughly equal measures into the muffin cases.

Bake for five mins then turn the heat to 180degC and cook for about 20 mins until golden.

Leave to cool

Gently warn the honey in a small pan and then brush a little over the top of each muffin and top with an almond.

Michael Woods at the Ministry of Sound

He produced Example’s only UK number 1, had a few top number 20 hits with tracks like Warrior, is currently based in the US with a Vegas residency, runs Diffused Music via Armada, has more than 500,000 followers on social media and is coming to the UK for a gig tomorrow.

Michael Woods has certainly been around the block on the music front! And now his legions of fans can see him in action at the Ministry of Sound tomorrow night.

He’s based over in America these days for his Vegas residency, but he’ll be down in London to spin his vast catalogue of tunes.

His new track Sleep has just been released on Armada – the track boasts a Michael Jackson feel, exploring the world of disco-house, something which is totally different to his last track London Baby which was a much grittier, bass heavy tune.

So what can we expect from the gig?

"I always look forward to playing at London's Ministry of Sound because it always attracts a really cool crowd who know and love their music," says Michael.

"I expect to be playing a lot of my own material both new and old, as well as some recent remixes just completed.

"I always like to mix it up and don't like to be pigeon-holed into one sound. There will be some surprises but if I told you what they were it wouldn't be a surprise!"

It's not the first time he's played at the venue and he says he's looking forward to being back.

"I've played there a number of times, and each time seems to get even better than the last," he says.

"I love the state of the art sound system there which they've painstakingly tweaked to deliver the best sound experience.

"The audiences in London are the best people to showcase new material to as they always seem open to new music.

"This is great for me as a producer because I'm always testing out new material. Vegas on the whole prefers to hear top 40 music.

"It's also a great feeling to be able to play your own music to a crowd of people and feels even better when you get a really positive enthusiastic response."

Michael says his musical inspiration comes from his dad and Michael Jackson, not to mention the dance music of the early 90s.

"My father had taught me music from a very early age so it was always in my blood – it’s a tough industry to get into but I've had a lot of helping hands along the way," he says.

"I used to love listening to Michael Jackson growing up. These days it's just anyone who makes good music.

"In my career, I've gotten to work with some great artists - working with Neyo in LA on a track for Shakira was probably one of the highlights. Neyo is an incredible artist, singer and songwriter, it was incredible to watch him work.

"I'd love to collab with Calvin Harris and Armin Van Buuren one day!"

Until then he's pleased to be back in South London and if you miss this gig he says he hopes to be back in the summer.

"I've got lots of music planned for 2016, a lot of it already written and produced so I'm really looking forward to getting it out there," he says.

"There's lot of gigs planned too with tours in Asia and Australia as well as the usual USA and UK shows."

Sleep - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCRLpM4XWd4

London Baby! - https://soundcloud.com/michaelwoods/sets/michael-woods-london-baby

INTERVIEW - Alex Wright talks about Fable, now on at the Vault Festival Waterloo

A WRITER'S chance encounter with a small but close knit community in the Scottish Highlands was the inspiration for a play about what we believe in, what we stand for and what we can change.

Fable tells the tale of what happens when Blair, a man in his late 30s, meets J, a woman in her mid 20s on the end of a pier.

The pier is at the end of the road in a tiny village called Ardfern, which just happens to be the same village which inspired the play in the first place.

The pair talk and get to know each other and end up changing each other and their lives forever.

Written by Alex Wright, for his theatre company The Flanagan Collective, and co-produced by Greenwich Theatre, it was first staged in 2014 and has since been shown in venues around the UK including in Ardfern.

It can now be seen at the Vault Festival in the Leake Street tunnels in Waterloo before it heads to Adelaide, Australia and then to Greenwich Theatre at the end of April.

“It was serendipitous in the way it happened,” Alex tells me during a break from rehearsals. “We were in Ardfern, a tiny village in the Scottish Highlands, with another show we were touring.

“We went to the pub after the show and during the evening, a man called Blair came in. He came up to the bar, introduced himself and began quoting Rabbie Burns at me.

“It turned out he was the local tree surgeon and a poet, originally from Glasgow who wanted to build log cabins.

“He was a wonderful man, talked for much of the rest of the night and it was fascinating, very entertaining – not least hearing about how he was about to go to the Arctic to build these log cabins because he couldn’t do it in Scotland.

“When I got back to my digs in the small hours, I decided to write down what he’d said. I then realised it could form the basis of a play.”

Combining storytelling, music and performance, Fable is about our childhood dreams and what, here and now, we are left with.

A two-hander, one of the characters, is based on Blair, the other, J, is entirely fictitious. J is a woman from Birmingham who has always wanted to be an astronaut but because of a defect in the wall of her heart she can’t fulfil her dream.

So she becomes a physics teacher and imparts her enthusiasm for the solar system and space to her students.

However, one day she decides to take control of her life and answers an ad on a dating site. She finds herself on the end of the pier with Blair, a man who makes log cabins.

Although very different characters, their meeting and subsequent discussion changes both of them profoundly.

“It’s storytelling at its most beautiful and with a wonderful score,” says Alex.

“It is about the push and pull between the necessity of the modern world and how we find our own place in it, what we are in control of and how we manage to take stock of where we are and what we do about changing things.

“It’s also about how obsessed we are about how busy we are all the time and how we try and out-do each other by saying how busy we are.

“There was a wonderful moment in the pub when Blair said to me ‘I wish everyone would put that internet down’. It’s brilliant. And that’s the thing - we should all put our phones down and sit and look at the sea for a bit or talk to people a bit more.

“Both the characters in the play help the other to shake off the shackles."

Since the show was first made the company has been back to Ardfern to show the locals - including Blair - the play.

“I was really worried about him seeing it but it was great,” says Alex. “What was amazing was that in the play the Blair character tells J how he went to Canada, saw bears and swam in the sea to impress the girls.

"When we went back to Ardfern and met Blair again, he told us that’s exactly what he had done on a recent trip to Canada which was really weird!

“I think we owe him quite a lot. In fact we feel quite connected to the village – it’s a lovely community.

“This is the third incarnation of the show we made originally and it’s really nice to go back to it and make it again,” he adds.

“We are still enjoying discovering stuff about it.

“It is the most traditional show we have ever made so it will suit Greenwich and we are really excited to be performing it there, not least because it's a theatre that has helped us so much with it.

"But it also fits the Vaults too because it’s very site specific. The Vaults is quite a stark but beautiful space and is the kind of stage we are used to rather than a traditional theatre setting.

"It's really exciting to be here.

"Ultimately it’s a very simple but magical story that leads the audience on a journey that the characters go on," he adds.

“It’s nice to make a piece of work about who and how we are. And what’s great is that the story is still starting interesting conversations amongst the audiences who see it.

“We are so excited to see where it leads us next.”

Fable runs at the Vault Festival, The Vaults, Leake Street, Waterloo, until February 7. Tickets cost £12. Visit www.vaultfestival.com or call 020 7401 9603 for listings.

It is on at Greenwich Theatre, Crooms Hill between April 26 and 30. Visit www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk for tickets.

Shrek The Musical, New Wimbledon Theatre

FIVE STARS

Dean Chisnall as Shrek and Bronte Barbe as Princess Fiona. Credit Helen Maybanks

THERE can't be many who have not heard about or seen the heart warming story of Shrek, the giant green ogre who proves that beauty comes from within.

First a movie, the story then spawned a couple of sequels before being translated for the stage. And now after a successful stint in the West End it is on the final leg of a UK tour.

Shrek The Musical is currently on at the New Wimbledon Theatre and I defy you not to see it and come out without a big smile on your face.

Tap dancing mice, a host of colourful nursery rhyme and fairytale characters, a talking donkey and a princess who captures Shrek's heart are just some of the amazing characters in this barnstorming show.

For those who don't know, Shrek gets sent away by his parents aged just seven to go and live on his own in a swamp. Here he lives happily on his own with no one to bother him or tell him what to do. That is until the fairytale characters are sent to his swamp to live under the orders of the evil Lord Farquaad.

In a bid to get them off his land and back to where they belong, Shrek goes to visit Lord Farquaad. However Lord Farquaad has other ideas and insists that he will only comply with Shrek's demands if Shrek rescues a princess for him to marry.

And so Shrek, who is joined by Donkey, goes off in search of Princess Fiona who has been stuck in the tower for many many years and then deliver her to Lord Farquaad.

It is a wonderful story, full of humour and pathos and in this version, some fantastic songs which are sung brilliantly by the very strong cast.

They are led by Dean Chisnall as Shrek, Bronte Barbe as Princess Fiona and Idriss Kargbo as Donkey who are absolutely brilliant - the scene where Shrek and Fiona tried to outdo each other in the burping and breaking wind competition had my kids in stitches.

However it was Gerard Carey as Lord Farquaad who stole the show. Cavorting about the stage on his knees with perfectly coiffured hair he had the audience crying with laughter.

A real winner!

Shrek The Musical is on at the New Wimbledon Theatre, The Broadway until Sunday, January 30. Visit www.atgtickets.com/wimbledon or call the box office on 0844 871 7646.