Tapp Fest has begun at the New Adelphi Theatre. It’s a theatre festival comprised of devised and adapted productions by second year Performance students of the University of Salford. They had an enriching opportunity to collaborate with guest directors and be supported by students from the Technical Theatre course. The festival is dedicated to the memory of Liam Byrne, described as a “maker of extraordinary of things.”
It was my first time at the venue and tonight I was in the Studio Theatre. This production of “The Miser” was a reworking of Moliere’s classic text. You might know him for writing, “Tartuffe”? This play was a comic parody borrowing from the theatre style of Commedia Dell’Arte, using the stock characters as the basis for characterisation. The servants worked indefatigably for the parsimonious, Harpagon, played by Helen Varey with sterling effort and a controlling presence. The Miser is disconcertingly paranoid, possessive and protective over all aspects of his life; most of all his wealth. Another difference with this production, compared with the original, was the location: it was set in 16th Century Manchester and not France. Which made it funnier because you couldn’t imagine Moliere’s works being performed in a Mancunian accent.
The Performance students in tonight’s play were: Alaw Jones (Brindavoine), Alice Parrott (Frosine), Diarmaid McDonagh Green (Mr Anselme), Finn McDonald (Cleante), Helen Varey (Harpagon), Imogen Kite (Servant/Mr Simon), Jessica Kokocinska (Mariane), Kate Oldfield (La Fleche), Katie Buckley (Police Officer), Levi Samuels-Timperley (Valere), Melissa Leigh Mercer (Elise), and Michelle Green (Master Jacques).
Set Designer, Eleanor Dare, had come up with a practical design which allowed room for plentiful moments of jesting and set the scene nicely. It was an exterior brick wall of an old house, with vines growing around it. It had a window and a hatch with swinging doors. When the wall was rotated round it became the interior of the house layered with period wall paper. The lighting, some lights with coloured gels and some not, were carefully positioned in parts of the story to enhance character motivations and their lines.
Alice Robinson’s direction worked superbly for keeping up the pace, even if this dropped in one scene mid-way through. There was stylised naturalistic movement signifying the relationships between characters; the action was an extension of the goings on in the text. The characters went through a rollercoaster of emotions, sometimes one extreme to the next. Lust to love, sadness to happiness, and excitement to disappointment. It was all heightened, melodramatic, and exaggerated fun. One problem after the next; one twist after another. In particular McDonald’s facial expressions were on the money, his clowning made everyone laugh-out-loud.
As you would expect from Moliere, there was a lot of eavesdropping from various characters as they peered around the wall, looked through the hatch or the window. A couple of characters ate popcorn whilst they were watching the action like in the cinema. Hilarious. It just goes to show whether its 16th Century Manchester or the 21st Century, we are still interested in learning how the other half lives. We can all relate to the inner themes of unrequited love, romantic love, lust, and rich versus poor too. I’m not sure why the cast took a selfie during the set transition moment though and there were a few missed opportunities for pauses to mark the impact of the comedy. Saying that, this didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the performance. The lyrical modification of Abba’s song “Money, Money, Money” and another number “The Phantom of The Opera” worked really well because it was plot relevant and added an extra layer of amusement.
Verdict: A farcically fun hour of theatre which the students should be proud of.
Reviewer - Sam Lowe
on - 16/1/20
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