Show: Be My Baby / Dogg’s Hamlet
Society: Artists Theatre School (student productions)
Venue: Questors Theatre, 12 Mattock Lane, Ealing W5 5BQ
Credits: Amanda Whittington / Tom Stoppard - SHOWCASE PERFORMANCE
Type: Sardines
Performance Date: 24/07/2015
Be My Baby / Dogg’s Hamlet
Founded twenty years ago by renowned TV, film and theatre actress, Amanda Redman, Ealing’s Artists Theatre School offers its (usually amateur) adult students a unique and extremely reasonably priced one-year part-time acting course culminating in a high-profile showcase directed by the school’s principal – Redman herself.
This year’s well-received ATS showcase, performed at Questors Theatre’s 120-seat studio space (The Questors is possibly the UK’s largest amateur company of which Amanda Redman is Patron), included a highly appreciative audience, a plethora of agents and casting directors as well as ATS Patron, and friend of Redman, Sheila Hancock CBE.
The twelve-strong acting company, several of whom are participating in their second or third year at ATS, found themselves appearing on one or both contrasting sides of the interval as the audience was presented first with Amanda Whittington’s emotionally charged Be My Baby, followed by Tom Stoppard’s mad-cap (emphasis on ‘mad’) Dogg’s Hamlet.
With Be My Baby being the longer of the evening’s brace, and featuring an all-female cast of six, ATS’s girls (who outnumber their male counterparts, seven to five) will arguably have relished the full ‘showcase’ opportunity when given the chance to demonstrate their versatility through two diverse productions.
Whittington’s traumatic drama throws a light on the strict religious institutions of the 1960s that would take in scandal-threatened expectant teenage mothers, before putting their babies up for adoption – in the ‘interests’ of all concerned, whether they liked it or not. It seems hard to fathom by today’s educational standards, that many of these poor girls knew more about singing the pop hits of The Ronettes into a hairbrush than how babies were born.
Aided by Rosanna Sinfield’s commendable ’60s hair and make-up design (sadly lacking in many productions from similar eras, pro or am), the ensemble gave a strong account of themselves with one or two stand-out performances. Layla Shirley’s street-wise and wise-cracking Queenie was very watchable, as was Rebecca Jones’ well-educated Mary, who’s arrival with her mother, set the scene. Joanne Arber’s Matron, hardened by the continuous line of girls passing through her door, nicely presented a predictably stern exterior, but I would liked to have seen Arber make just a little more of the matron’s tell-tale emotional cracks appearing toward the end of the piece after Mary gives birth during the night and thus has the time to bond with her new baby girl, before being forced to part with her. That said, Arber got the chance to show off a completely different side to her ability in the evening’s second piece – as did Angela Schlegel who must have enjoyed her two very different roles; mother to a pregnant teenage girl, followed by Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius!
However, if I’m putting my money on ‘one to watch’ it would have to be Elysia Showan. Pregnant teenager before the interval, Showan had the good fortune (or probably talent) to take on the title role after the break in Tom Stoppard’s Dogg’s Hamlet.
This was my first time watching Dogg’s Hamlet, and it’s an experience I won’t forget in a hurry. Stoppard’s twenty-five minute slapstick comedy is a hilarious demonstration of how we unnecessarily put our own mental obstacles in the way when it comes to understanding the Bard’s language. Set in a ‘parallel’ school which teaches and speaks ‘Dogg’… for fifteen minutes we must accustom ourselves with an English language where all the same words you and I know are used but with completely different meanings. Despite the fact that, as an audience, we are bizarrely able to begin piecing together how this mixed-up language works, when the school performance of Hamlet is performed (as we know it, but alien to the school), it’s all suddenly as clear as water.
Performed at breakneck speed, this latter piece presented a true ensemble showcase demonstrating the strength in depth of ATS’s entire company. The sheer frantic energy had the audience rolling in the aisles and the more pace the cast introduced, the bigger the reaction. From Gary Cain’s scouse Ghost …to Graeme Sanders’ bearded Ophelia …to Dale Osborn’s bewildered, but quick-to-learn Easy – the poor driver who speaks ‘normal’ English and arrives at the school to deliver building supplies – Dogg’s Hamlet was a very well learnt, rehearsed and executed comedy performance.
Sardines is looking forward to interviewing Amanda Redman (who will be hitting our screens this Autumn on ITV in The Trials of Jimmy Rose with Ray Winstone) for our November issue, where we’ll be finding more out about the Artists Theatre School and this fascinating actress’s story – who tells us she also “started out in amateur theatre.”
- : admin
- : 24/07/2015