'Not The Horse' was performed at Liverpool’s Royal Court Studio, which is situated in the basement there. Located in the heart of the city, the building itself is full of Art Deco and character. The studio is a lovely space, very imitate for the audiences to see the show closely. The studio has recently opened up for productions that have previously been performed at smaller theatres. A great opportunity for future writers, directors and actors to enhance their skills and develop their shows there too.
The multi-award winning, Naughty Corner Productions are reviving their sell-out. Edinburgh Fringe and UK show, Not The Horse for a few performances at Liverpool’s Royal Court Studio. Naughty Corner Productions have also produced a few more successful shows too. They are currently celebrating their fifth anniversary.
Not The Horse was directed and written by Mike Dickinson, who has an incredible job bringing his play to the stage. Excellent direction was clearly demonstrated throughout the show. His enthusiasm, dedication and hard-work was notably demonstrated in the production. A unique narrative with several interesting characters and some great one-liners throughout the show. There was a few humourous scenes that kept the audiences entertained and amused. Additionally, Mike has also written and directed Bob, The Russian and Church Blitz, which has been successful too. Cath Ainsworth also produced the show and stage managed.
There was a large of cast of characters, all male. The cast consisted of Tony (Nick Sheedy), Paul (Michael Hawkins), Stan (Warren Kettle), Silk (Daniel Carmichael), Dom Joly (Thomas Galashan), Beef (Liam Powell-Berry), Minge (Adam Nicholls), Face (Damian Hughes), Archie (Tom Silverton), Jerrie (Sam Brown), Highie (Pete Smith) and Ernie (Callum Forbes). There was a nice array of different characters with various traits between them all. Although, there was such a large cast and small stage, there was a great deal of order and organisation amongst the cast.
Not The Horse was an outrageous crime-comedy that followed Tony, a twenty-year-old Scouser, who found himself in an extremely difficult situation that he couldn’t get out of. The show opened with him being threatened by a notorious group of gangsters including Dom Jones, Beef, Minge and Face. Even the gangsters names were funny. They demanded £250,000 from him after
losing an illlegal horse racing bet. Inevitably, Tony and his friends, Stan and Paul find themselves looking for any possible means of locating £250,000 in four days.
After discussing many ideas, they embark on a robbery, but accidentally steal a horse in the process. They encounter many difficulties on their journey to retreive the money, which involved Horse traquilizers and a lot of horse semen. [yes, you read that right!] There is another group involved in the story consisting of Archie, Jerrie, Hughes Ernie, who add more mayhem and chaos to the narrative. Silk is the go-between for all three groups, he appeared extremely intimatidating to the others, who all seemed terrified of him. They all needed him as he was the one person who had access to the weapons they all required.
Such a strong ensemble of actors played their roles really well and all added intrigue and depth to their characters. But for me personally, my favourites were the main characters, Nick Sheedy and Thomas Galashan.
The set design was very minimal, but practical. It worked really well, given the size of the stage the characters had to perform on. All the characters were dressed in casual clothes, apart from the London gangsters who were always smartly dressed in black. The design of Horse was very good, as well as the horse masks. Props were again minimal, but were vital, when required. I thought the guns looked real.
The visuals with the whiteboard, which demonstrated Stan retrieving semen from the horse was very good. Again, this particular scene provided the audience with more laughs and humour.
The lighting of the show was very good and worked well. All characters could be seen and there was darkness later on in the show that added to the tension some of the characters were facing. Sound was clearly heard throughout the show. Especially when songs were being sung and music was performed on the guitar, which was excellently done by Nick Sheddy. For me, personally, the one song where the characters were dancing around in horse masks and the horse appeared on the stage was my favourite. I thought the songs choices were selected well and added more humour and laughter to the scenes. The vocals sung for some of the songs were a joy to listen to and watch.
I would highly recommend you go and see this outrageous crime-comedy, it's definitely well worth seeing: a unique, funny story, with several interesting characters and several one-liners throughout. The comical incidents just coming one after another, very humourous to watch. You will not disappointed.
Reviewer - Mark Cooper
on - 25/4/19
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