AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: Rent - The Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds.

Bite My Thumb Theatre, an ambitious amateur Yorkshire theatre company, are currently on a three-venue tour with their production of the musical, 'Rent'. The tour starts at The Carriageworks in Leeds, before travelling to both York and Hull. 

Not only does this company take their shows on tour, but to add to their professionalism, many of the cast and crew have either already had some professional experience or are graduates of well-known theatre schools. It felt very much like this company is allowing its members to utilise their exposure and experience in their shows as a springboard into the profession. And that's not a bad thing; in fact, it is a brilliant idea, and a superb way of allowing young people with the obvious expertise to try and get themselves one small step ahead of the rat-race for professional employment! However, I am digressing...

'Rent' is a modern rock-opera style musical, mostly through-sung with minimal speaking, and tells the story of a group of  'bohemians' [struggling artists] living in a run-down area of New York "at the end of the milennium" (1999 / 2000), at the height of the AIDS scare. Written by Jonathan Larson, the show takes us through 12 months in the lives of a handful of these people {seen as society drop-outs}, and we learn more about them, their struggles, sexualities, addictions, and indeed, how AIDS truly does affect their lives on every level, as tragedy strikes. Based, albeit loosely, on Puccini's opera 'La Boheme', there are obvious parallels, including the tragic death scene. 

This high energy show featured a fabulous-sounding ensemble with some lovely harmonies, working well in and around the principals. The set was an amalgam of metal platforms and diases, with steps up and down, LED lights were attached to these and the "ceiling" was adorned with Chinese lanterns. The band (sounding excellent all evening) was placed under one of the platforms. Otherwise, the on-stage props were quite minimalist, but what was used was apt and effective, except for two long tressel tables, which were moved up and down and around almost non-stop, changing poisitons mid-scene at times. This became quite irritating and repetitive, especially when I could see no valid rationale for it. Costuming was mainly very good, and was all 1990s or earlier. However, Tom Collins's headband was distracting and pulled focus. 

The start of the musical was taken just a tad slower than usual, with the narration and opening song being spelled-out just a little more than normal. This worked well, as we were able to clearly understand the starting point of the story much better than I have seen in other productions of this show. Sadly however, maybe because this was the first night of the run, the pace never truly picked up fully until quite near the end of the first act. Perhaps first night nerves were the issue, so hopefully the pace will start to kick in much quicker for subsequent performances. The same is to be said of the lighting cues and design too. Some of them were either late or shining in the wrong spots, but agian, this is something that is very easily rectified. 

The leading roles of Mark and Roger were taken by Paul Lonsdale and Jonny Landels respectively, and they worked well together, riffing and bouncing off each other with a kind of brotherlyness. Tom Collins was played with sincerity by Mikey May, and together the three developed an interesting dynamic throughout. Love interests came in the forms of Angel (Liam Gordon), who gave a truthful and impressive performance of the young homosexual drag artiste, and Mimi (Nikki Hosker), who, again, gave her all to deliver a sexually divergent, drug-dependant, anti-heroine. Her death scene was sincerley and sympathetically portayed. Continually feuding lesbian couple Joanne (Vicki Holmes) an Maureen (Mollie Targett), added a much-needed element of comedy to the dramatic and tragic events unfolding around them. Targett's rendition of the highly symbolic and incredibly difficult 'Over The Moon' was excellently handled. 

First night hiccups notwithstanding, this was a thoughtful, sympathetic and highly theatrical production of this musical, enthusiatically performed by a talented company. 

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 9/3/22