As part of this year's Greater Manchester Fringe Theatre Festival, I travelled to yet another new-to-me theatre venue in this county, The Way Theatre in Atherton. Very close to the M61 junction and half-way between Wigan and Bolton, and only a 20 minute car journey from Manchester with ample parking, it is in a good location with little or no local competition. The theatre itself however is on the first floor of an old large mill, with all the problems inherent with such a building, and the actual stage itself is nothing more than a 'black box'. [an area of the floor partitioned by black curtains]. It is early days for this venue yet though and so hopefully, if there is more interest and attendances at their shows grows, there will be sufficient funds to renovate properly and make it into a proper little theatre.
The production I went to see however was a brand new Musical called 'Boudicca: First Britannia Queen'. Being a huge fan of both history and Musicals, and seeing both the dramatic and musical potential in such a storyline, I was greatly looking forward to seeing what composers Wayne Reedman and Paul Nicholson had produced.
Using simple staging, and a large screen on one side of the triangular-shaped stage, they attempted to recreate Boudicca's life, countryside and her famous battles using much video footage with actors superimposed onto real locations (how they look today though and not how they might have looked). A sense of realism was created with a guesstimation of costuming, and the whole had a very epic and cinematic feel to it.
Local community actors had been sourced to fill the required roles, even using four young performers from a local youth group [two of them playing Boudicca's two daughters on the stage and two boys playing the Emperor Claudius and his side-kick on the screen]. It would have worked much better though if the film and the live spoken word had been better sync'd.
It was evident right from the start just how much time, effort, and how many sleepless nights had gone into bringing this production to fruition, and the commitment from all was highly praiseworthy. It is a notable start to a project that still needs a little work yet before a second outing, but that is what Fringe theatre is all about, and kudos to all involved in the project so far. The story of Boudicca [or as I learnt at school "Bodicea"], the warrier queen of the Iceni, is a fascinating subject and indeed a story that needs to be told. It is so full of emotion, powerful drama, blood, guts and gore that it is almost Shakespearean in its narrative, and in contemporary terms even more relevant since it is the story of a strong female with many good female parts within the story.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 7/7/19
Thank you ever so much for your very positive comments to our group of dedicated, local, non-professional, musical theatre enthusiasts.
ReplyDeleteUnlike newly commissioned West End theatre productions, that I’ve worked on as a theatre tech’ on touring shows for years), when producers have a high-tech performance show, they have several weeks of “previews” (audience-allowed tech rehearsals that take funds from theatre enthusiasts and/or tourists to pay the cast and crews for the probability of re-writes or re-staging), in order to break a new production cast and tech. We didn’t have that luxury. We just had one night – one performance.
On a ‘below zero’ budget we aimed to provide an entertaining evening’s info-tainment experience and as the critique reviews so positively, we all managed to achieved that.
Two of the young people (Emperor Claudius & Aulus Plautius) were from Leigh’s local junior drama group, “Soapbox Youth Theatre.” However, young Scathlach and Olwen, are from the broader Wigan area and are doing their own various performing arts classes.
Wayne Reedman BA (Hons)
Co-writer,
Producer/ Director
Boudicca: First Britannia Queen
Thank you so much for your review of our show. It has been very challenging but I have enjoyed being involved in it. Boudicca was a hard role to play. Such a fantastic character and the music was great too. I really enjoyed working with such a creative team of people in the cast and crew.
ReplyDeleteIt was a thrill to be involved with the production and cast. To work on a collaborative piece where cast members were able to block their own choreographed fight sequence and enhance the existing songs with their own harmonies, is a credit to the immense creative elements present in the group. We have all grown closer and made new friends during this process and it's great to see it recognised in your review. The lovingly made costumes by Linda and Verity and our own personal additions, made us truly feel like a band of warriors.
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