Propaganda Swing Review (Nottingham Playhouse)

Propaganda Swing is a story of music and romance set in Nazi Germany, during a period which became known as ‘the Phoney War’. Based on true stories and real people, the story is told through the eyes of young American War correspondent Bill Constant. It is directed by Hamish Glen, who has a plethora of theatrical productions under his belt both here and abroad. It stars Clara Darcy (Emmerdale, The Royal), as Anita Spada and Tomm Coles (Gulliver’s Travels, Muppets Most Wanted) as Lutz Templin to name only a couple.

The story begins shortly after Billy’s arrival in Germany, who has fallen in love with a young jazz songstress called Lala after a fleeting meeting. Bill, Lala and her band all love jazz, but problematically, the Nazis hate it due to its black roots and also because they believed it was a Jewish led conspiracy against the purity of German womanhood. The group’s hopes of being able to play jazz freely soon become a reality, but not in the way they wanted. An unfortunate encounter results in them having to play for the benefit of the Nazi war effort and under the strict and heavy hand of Propaganda Ministry leader: Herr Hinkel. It is in this complicated arrangement that a story of love, deception, censorship and suspicion unfolds.

Propaganda Swing is brilliant in every way from the music and characters to the set design.

The set is a cool and stylish chiascuro design, predominantly black and white laced with iron looking bars formulated into imagery reminiscent of Nazi symbols. These bars covering the white backgrounds cast prison bar-like silhouettes onto the stage throughout, encasing the performers in a cage of shadows, a constant reminder of their potential fate. The contrast is rather ironic considering the play focuses on grey areas, namely that of Nazi performance laws.

The set also matches coolly with the tone and narrative of Propaganda Swing, which feels very similar to classic film noir.

Nazis referred to jazz as 'Entartete Musik'
which translates as forbidden music

The cast are also brilliant, with several stand-out performances. The star of the show has got to be Otto Stenzl, played by Chris Andrew Mellon, a closeted Jewish homosexual who loves to party. A darker skin tone would be the only thing that could make Hitler hate him even more. He turns from a character known as ‘the fixer’, who can get you anything and everything, to a shadow of the man he once was. Miranda Wilford as LaLa Anderson, the pretty jazz singer is also another standout performance. You are shocked the first time you hear the powerful yet mellifluous voice that she emits when singing, not something you’d expect from her speaking voice. This is not surprising however, since she is a regular vocalist with several big bands including Syd Lawrence Orchestra and The World’s Biggest Big Band. Finally is Paul Lincoln as Heinrich Hinkel of the Ministry of Propaganda. Hinkel is the ever seeing eye of censorship, ensuring the strict rules of the Reich are abided by and will not hesitate to punish those that break them. He plays his character with conviction and it is hard not to dislike him from the outset.  

To bring all of those aforementioned things together is the music. As expected Propaganda Swing has a great soundtrack of jazz and pop music of the time. These include Tiger Rag, Makin’ Whoopee, Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf and St Louis Blues to name only a few. Each song is sang brilliantly by various members of the cast and backed up with a brilliant band which includes bass, percussion and piano.  

Propaganda Swing is a well told story that is funny, moving, enjoyable and expectedly jazzy. It is an overall stylish and sophisticated production that oozes emotion.

It seems fitting to say that Propaganda Swing is just like a pantomime, what with the music, love triangles, goodies that end up as baddies and baddies that aren’t that bad. There’s even a bit of damey-ness in Stenzl thrown in for good measure. The most fun you will have around men wearing Nazi uniforms, aside from going to a party with Prince Harry.

Propaganda Swing is on at the Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday 17 October, with tickets starting from £9.50. Tickets are available both in-person from the box office and online here at the Playhouse website.

Directed by Hamish Glen

Written by Peter Arnott

Musical Supervisors Hilary Brooks and Steve Tromans

Jonny Bower as Charlie Schwedler

Callum Coates as William Joyce/Lord Haw Haw

Tomm Coles as Lutz Templin

Richard Conlon as Bill Constant

Clara Darcy as Anita Spada

Chris Andrew Mellon as Otto Stenzl

Paul Lincoln as Heinrich Hinkel

Miranda Wilford as LaLa Anderson

A Dangerous Game Review

With the Scottish Independence Referendum looming, there is something that Alex Salmond does not want you to know. He does not really care about Scotland all that much. That is unless you measure how much someone cares about something by how much they are willing to sell it to destructive billionaires. A Dangerous Game is something Salmond does not want you to see. Neither does Donald Trump or Greg Norman.

A Dangerous Game is about self-professed environmental and ecological expert Donald Trump. It is a  documentary that reveals the destructive impact of golf resorts for the super-rich worldwide. It follows up on You’ve Been Trumped, which told the story of Donald Trump’s plans to build a massive luxury golf resort in Aberdeenshire and one man’s battle that helped stop it. This man Michael Forbes, a stereotypically strong willed and fiercely stubborn Scot, was eventually awarded the ‘Top Scot Award’ trumping the likes of Andy Murray and Billy Connolly to get it. A Dangerous Game branches out from Scotland and explores the other areas Trump tries to infiltrate with his gold resorts, places less able to stand up to him for one reason or another.

The film explores the potential destruction and that which has already happened to the homes of both wildlife and humans alike. It makes Trumps golf resort empire seem like a cancer, spreading into the world’s most beautiful areas, both natural and manmade, such as UNESCO site Dubrovnik. And it is not just the landscapes that suffer. The amount of water needed to irrigate the world’s golf courses a day is enough to supply 80% of the world’s population.

The developments turn vast natural beauty into bland patches of grass, and those who dare to stand up to Trump and the developers are subject to death threats and physical assault, a fate inflicted on some of the most vocal Croatians that spoke out against the resorts. It is clear to see how much the Croatian people did not want the beautiful city of Dubrovnik being turned into a golf resort with twice as many voting against the plans than in the entire European Parliament vote. It seems that many people worldwide see Donald Trump as a poorly mannered bodily function. Rather noxious and leaves many of those whom he comes into contact with revolted.

A Dangerous Game is a frightening insight into how money can persuade even the most established democracies. It is very Michael Moore in style and delivery and succeeds in ridiculing those who it opposes, although not necessarily purposely, as people like Donald Trump generally succeed in doing that themselves. Michael Forbes made sure Mr Trump felt as welcome in Scotland as his namesake in a cramped elevator but other people are not as fierce as Michael.  There are only so many beatings and threats some people can take before giving into a seemingly losing battle.

If you are voting in the IndyRef on Thursday, A Dangerous Game and You’ve Been Trumped are must watch films before you cast your vote and even if not it is one that should be seen by all. Donald Trump has turned his back on Scotland for now and is unleashing his tentacles elsewhere but what is to say he will not return? A Yes vote might not just be a vote for independence; it could be thumbs up to another Donald Trump, maybe even the man himself. After all, in the words of Robert F. Kennedy: “There are Donald Trumps everywhere – there are people like him in every country and in every community.”

Check out the trailer for A Dangerous Game below. 

Richard III @ Nottingham Playhouse

Richard III follows William Shakespeare’s story of Richard III and his bloody rise to the throne, a play that is not often played unabridged, due to Shakespeare referencing many of his other works. This is something that would go over the heads of some if they were not too familiar with Shakespeare or have a fair knowledge of English history. This version decided to boldly keep many of them in, making the production a somewhat ‘uncensored’ edition.

The discovery of Richard III’s body under a car park in Leicester brings the Playhouse’s latest production much closer to home. Shakespeare’s depiction of Richard III, complete with a humped back, has been brilliantly brought to life in the first major production since the car park discovery.

The skeleton of Richard III 

As with many of the recent productions at the Playhouse, projections were again excellently utilised allowing several set changes without actual change as well as visually depicting the dreams and fates of the characters.

The cast were of the highest order with not a weak link amongst them. There were a number of standout performances from Ian Bartholomew and Sam Oatley.

Ian Bartholomew is no stranger to the role of a tyrant, having played the part of Arturo Ui in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui a few years back. After his masterful performance in that, there was no doubt that his portrayal of Richard III would be equally as good. He pulled off the devious and manipulative king expertly keeping his supporters and the audience on his side during his rise to the top, despite the pools of blood he left behind on his way up. His outfit also bared similarities to the late dictator Colonel Ghaddafi, and it would be surprising if this was not intentional since both rulers, although of very different periods, appear similar when it comes to their ruling. Whatever Bartholomew did oozed brilliance, whether it was through monologue, interaction with fellow characters or merely facial expressions.

The multiple roles of Sam Oatley as Lord Grey, Mayor of London and a murderer were also well played. His best role however was as Richard’s gullible and manipulated or, dependent upon your interpretation, loyal lap dog also known as the Mayor of London. He does not bat an eyelid when Richard arranges the deaths of those in his way, and shows no sign of guilt when they are finally dispatched. His role as one of the murderers provides a nice link to his responsibility in the deaths of the unfortunate characters, since the timid Mayor is as much to blame as the very man who drove the blade into his victims.

Credit is also due to the three females of the play, Natalie Burt, Siobhan McCarthy and Joan Moon who all worked well together and provided wonderfully diverse performances that spanned a plethora of emotions.

Richard III has been brilliantly adapted for the stage. 

The play is a perfect example of how good the works of Shakespeare were and still are and includes his humorous and tragic elements he was so well known for. Even with the fairly slow build-up to the coronation of Richard that spans the entirety of the first act holds your attention not just due to the compelling story but also due to the strength of the cast. Not many would be able to keep an audience captivated with such a long winded build up. The second act acts as a reward for the audience however, with its quicker pace evident from the start.

Richard III is definitely one to see and a wonderfully complimentary to the other shows that have made up the autumn theatre season. A play that will not only be enjoyed by fans of Shakespeare and history but those interested in the modern world and its politics of today. The play is as relevant today as it would have been in its own era.

Richard III is on until November 16 with tickets ranging from £9.50 all the way up to £27.50. Tickets can be bought online here or from the Playhouse Box Office. There will also be a workshop on November 8 exploring how it was adapted from page to stage. More information can be found on the Playhouse website.

Charlie Peace @ Nottingham Playhouse Review

Charles Peace was a notorious 19^th Century criminal from Sheffield, famous for his burglaries and ability to avoid the police due to constantly changing his appearance and identity. The show was a bit of a surprise as it is rather pantomime in style, not something you would expect in a story filled with murder, adultery and other criminal activity. The audience participation and scenes that took place in the crowd only emphasised this.

 There was also a musical type element in the production and coupled with the theme, it gave it an almost Sweeney Todd feel. This Sweeney Todd feel was multiplied in the second half as it became less pantomime-ish and much darker as character relationships break down and Peace comes closer to capture.

The projections were brilliant and allowed numerous set changes without actually changing the set.

The production starred an all-star cast including Blue Peter old timer Peter Duncan who played the devious Charlie Pace and one half of comedy duo Hale and Pace, Norman Pace who played the showman.

Pace was brilliant as the showman and narrator as he both entertained and amazed the audience throughout with humbly done magic tricks and stories of Charlie Peace.

Star of the show however was Peter Duncan as the many faced villain Peace who excelled in everything he did, whether it was clambering up ropes and ladders to break into houses, playing the innocent reformed criminal or singing, which he was surprisingly good at.

The rest of the cast also deserve and honourable mention, especially the disastrous police duo and Bridie Higson who recently starred in Of Mice and Men, as both Katherine and Susan.

The play is a brilliant way to learn about this lesser heard of Midlands’s bandit and is a story that will leave in you in awe and shock at some of the parts, which are all in fact true. It has something for all the family to enjoy, from the pantomime feel of the show for the kids to the dark story for the adults.

Charlie Peace is on at the Nottingham Playhouse until Saturday the 19^th October with tickets starting at £7.50. There is also a special exhibition at the Galleries of Justice about this devious outlaw which runs until November 3^rd. 

L&S Long Time Coming - literally.

A rather belated post. In the words of their new single and upcoming album: Sorry We're Late, It's been a Long Time Coming!

Long Time Coming is the second single to drop from Leddie & Smoggy’s upcoming album ‘Sorry We’re Late’.The album is due to be released in October and if the singles are anything to go by, it’s going to be great. Check out the music video right here:

It’s also available for download on iTunes and Bandcamp with the latter containing a clean or dirty version and a free acapella!

iTunes Download 

Bandcamp Download 

Evil Dead 2013 Review

So the brilliant remake of Evil Dead came out on DVD recently. If you have not yet seen it, check out my review and grab a copy from Amazon here. 

Before the Spiderman trilogy, Drag Me to Hell and more recently Oz: The Great and Powerful, Sam Raimi stuck to low budget horror films. He made somewhat of a name for himself in 1981 with the influential, brutal and darkly comical Evil Dead, which has garnered a cult following over the years. Step up Fede Alvarez, the young, currently unknown, director of the 2013 Evil Dead remake.

Whilst remakes are usually better never made, this one has the seal of approval from joint producers Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi. This is possibly one of the reasons that many fans of the original have been anticipating the latest installment of the film franchise. The film cannot fully be considered a strict remake; Alvarez has rather taken the skeleton of the original and added his own flesh and life to it. It can also loosely be considered as a sequel. Raimi and Campbell held a Dragons Den style audition for directors, rejecting pitches that swam too close to the original or contained Ash. This is most likely why a young Uruguayan with no experience of Hollywood cinema managed to grab the honour of directing this film rather than an established director. For Fede Alvarez, Evil Dead 2013 is a debut on two accounts as it is his first English language film and first feature film.

The film begins with a pretext to the cabins history that the young group of friends later descend upon. After the initial title card we are introduced to the soon to be victims of the ancient Necronomicon curse. This introduces an underlying drug rehabilitation subplot as we learn Mia, played by Jane Levy (Shameless), is being brought to the cabin to try to kick her drug habit picked up after losing her mother. This inevitably does not work however, since she ends up with more demons inside her than she came with. The rest of the cast are made up of equally young actors consisting of Elizabeth Blackmore (Home and Away) as Natalie, Jessica Lucus (90210) as Olivia, Lou Taylor Pucci (Brotherhood, Carriers) as Eric and Shiloh Fernandez (Red Riding Hood) as Mia’s brother David.

Everything seems to be going okay for the group until they come across a particularly gruesome discovery in the cellar, along with the Naturom Demonto, an ancient book bound in human flesh. Things go from bad to worse as Eric, despite warnings scrawled in blood, recites words from the book thus unleashing its curse. It is at this point Mia attempts to escape through the woods, which results in her getting attacked by the cursed forest and so begins her possession. Mia’s condition deteriorates as her behaviour becomes more bizarre, which the dim-witted youths put down to her drug withdrawal rather than anything supernatural. Cue a gloriously bloody and violent second half of the film.

The film is much more gory and violent than the original with one scene using a massive 50000 gallons of blood, which is around a thousand bathtubs full to the rim with blood. Some scenes even make various scenes from Tarantino films seem tame. One particular brutal scene in the bathroom was very similar to the fire extinguisher scene in Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. YouTube it if you are not familiar, although you have been warned. What is impressive about the effects too is that 99% of them are practical, meaning no CGI was used, just like in the 1981 version. The only time CGI was used was to remove stunt harnesses and wires. The team behind the effects definitely need commending for what they have created.

The performances are not amazing, but horror films are not generally known for their powerful acting. To say most of the cast have their background in TV and this is a first in Hollywood acting for them, they did pretty well. In fact, ironically, one of the weakest performances comes from Pucci, who has the most experience in Hollywood films. Jane Levy was particularly impressive as the possessed Mia and it was hard not to compare some of her lines to that of the demonic Reagan in The Exorcist. There are visual similarities there too. The film has a lingering feeling of European horror and combined with the American splatterfests we are used to, Evil Dead makes very interesting viewing. The combination is rather interesting.

Some have compared this Evil Dead to The Shining, however these comparisons have no base; they are both different kinds of films. The Shining is based on slow ratcheted mental horror whilst this is more visually horrific. The only links one could draw, if any, would be the isolated locations and a terrifying discovery in a bathroom.One bad thing about film is that much of the dark comedy that made the original so popular has been lost. Besides a couple of fairly humorous one liners, comedy is non-existent in this version. What Alvarez has done however, is make it more indulgently gory than the original. The darker tone of this film has not really left any room for comedy anyway.

The credits were also very creative and are worth staying to admire after the film is over. If you do there is also a little surprise right at the end, which fans will surely enjoy. It is obvious a lot of effort has been put into every creative aspect of the film and it does not seem right not to watch it right up until the absolute end. The creative team have not forgotten the fans of the original trilogy either, with plenty of Easter eggs present in the film including a cameo from Bruce Campbell and the Oldsmobile Delta 88, which we see decaying in the woods at the beginning.

The DVD is also packed with plenty of stuff for old and new fans alike including behind the scene footage and mini documentaries.