Amanda Paul writes, independent, honest reviews for Lakeside Theatre shows and we post them unedited.
Nostalgia is a rare sort of piece because it’s not often that we see such raw, real and uninhibited accounts of life played out for an audience with as much honesty as Nostalgia managed to capture. Some powerful questions weigh in my mind about how it is I coped with certain fears and how much my submission to them or overcoming of them formed the person I am today. Nostalgia the story moved me beyond the stage and out of the room, to me.
Additionally as a performer, his varied states of tension were an extremely effective tool for grabbing the audience. For example when reliving his fear of the dark and his inability to sleep, the stiffness in his body dragged the audience into that rigamortis type state with him. This brought home exactly how crippling that type of fear must have been.
The choreography hit the nail on the head. There was no part of that play that was not structurally thought out. The music, the pictures, the projected images/words and the extra decorative props most of it in general were spot on, just what they needed to be. This all absolutely made the show for me!
1.3.12
Nostalgia2012
“… [T]ime cannot take away…the past that we make.”
Che Kelvin’s performance was beautiful and aside from the fact I’d hoped I could hear him a bit more at times, especially because the script was literally reeling with poetry. I was so in love with his life journey.
Additionally as a performer, his varied states of tension were an extremely effective tool for grabbing the audience. For example when reliving his fear of the dark and his inability to sleep, the stiffness in his body dragged the audience into that rigamortis type state with him. This brought home exactly how crippling that type of fear must have been.
The choreography hit the nail on the head. There was no part of that play that was not structurally thought out. The music, the pictures, the projected images/words and the extra decorative props most of it in general were spot on, just what they needed to be. This all absolutely made the show for me!This one man work in progress is well worth a drop in, it’s not often you get challenged with pertinent life questions about yourself in a Theatre piece as poetically structured and sensually engaging as Nostalgia. The cats out of the bag now, I can’t wait to see what comes next...
Amanda
University of Essex, Student
25.2.11
Polar Bear
They are a ‘Bizarrely brilliant’ ensemble of sound.
Polar Bear absolutely smash convention I was literally sat with my mouth open amazed at pretty much everything that I heard coming from the stage, it was infectious you actually needed to physically react. However I must note that aside from their musical finesse there is something magnetic about this group. They are not apologetic at all for anything. It’s like every moment of sound that they produce was an opportunity to explore a new musical dimension. I have a feeling no two shows are the same with this group they seem incapable of conforming, its soo refreshing. I loved the fact that tracks like ‘fluffy I want you’ hardly sounded like the phrase ‘fluffy I love want’ but it worked well enough to escape the realm of pretentious, absolutely priceless.
Oh and Ok, so I have to be frank I was mentally tripping on the fact that they had a Playstation and Wii control pad with a balloon and some electrical contraption that I cannot name all contributing to the songs being played. What? Having just about got over all of that I was in complete love with the electronic sounds that were made, the distortion, echo, pitchy and deep-toned combination, complemented so beautifully by the tenor saxophone, double bass and drums made it an electro-melodic wonderland just bursting with flavour.
The musicians themselves were phenomenal, especially the saxophonists who blew me away, they stretched the vocal capacity of their instruments literally to their own physical limits and really didn’t hold back. Yet the parts of the songs that really grabbed me and had me bopping my head and tapping my feet, fingers and anything else that would tap, were the drums and double bass. This mechanism of working as an ensemble has to be applauded because I cannot talk about one instrument and do it justice without talking about the other. Although truth be told the icing for me on this musical cake (and I like icing), was the mind boggling experimental elements of the music, what would my night have been without that balloon? The usual I am assume.
They are an absolute must see live and Sebastian is extremely funny he really does a fantastic job of building rapport with the audience and it’s an absolute pleasure to watch these musicians do what they love to do. Get a clue...Polar bear
Amanda
University of Essex, Student
6.5.11
The Staff Sessions
Hmm well Let me begin with this disclaimer, ‘should I attempt to say anything remotely negative the name Staff Sessions is self evident, I’ll become a clear target for vicious physical attacks from Essex University academics & Co.’ For that I’m grateful on two counts, firstly it was actually an enormously pleasurable evening at the lovely lakeside, that and even if it wasn’t, well I’m not in the music department, so HA...
Where does one begin to detail what can only be termed as a musical globe trot, I mean the night typified eclectic, my goodness, when was it even conceivable that a show would feature the metallic sounds of the ‘White Stripes’ (an exceptionally well played cover) alongside African drumming which had me dancing in my chair...err, yeah exactly. So really there was actually something on stage for absolutely everyone from classical to Jazz I was so in like I was happy to the core of my musical appreciation. You know, that odd feeling you get when your favourite song comes on and it does something to you that makes you feel giddy and nostalgic about a pass time you never really had. Well that happened to me at least 3 times with different artists each half. That good!
My personal favourites were the Folk bands, I must add and this is by no means to negate the contributions by the other talented artists, it’s just that for me they were absolutely appropriate and pure WOW, their simple yet wholesome delivery of songs was phenomenal. For example the First Folk band the father son duo consisted of two instruments one being a glorified recorder and the other a guitar, yet the sweet sounds that followed were beautiful. The Meddlers at the end, with the fiddler (Violinist) who played completely uninhibited along with the natural instrumental harmonisation that comes from a double bass and guitar were just jaw dropping good. The thing about them that stood out for me on the night was that the music was traditional and illustrative of the native music that would come from the British-Irish Isles, which I think was fitting for a show in Colchester in the middle of the Home Grown Festival (so forgive the bias).
However with the plethora of other joys that night, a word must be had for the wonderful children that were gusty enough to play African drums (in an all age drumming group) in front of a relatively full audience, they were refreshingly great just pure innocent enjoyment of what they were creating, with apt conducting from one of the young drummers. Oh and finally the Jazz guitarist blew me away I wanted to run to his music literally, it had me existing in the fantastical place of wonder and delight and fortunately both female vocalists that he was accompanying, on separate occasions, did his playing justice.
I couldn’t have had a better time if I’d tried just pure Home grown classic!
Amanda
24.2.11
Beachy Head
I found myself moved to deep thought and at times wondering, wow I never thought about the possible ways in which a pathologist may view the human body when performing an autopsy. Then just for a moment, well maybe a second, I felt slightly superficial, how could I have been so passive about suicide? It’s a significant cause of death.
University of Essex, Student
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24.2.11
Beachy Head
I found myself moved to deep thought and at times wondering, wow I never thought about the possible ways in which a pathologist may view the human body when performing an autopsy. Then just for a moment, well maybe a second, I felt slightly superficial, how could I have been so passive about suicide? It’s a significant cause of death.Not to kill the mystery or intrigue, but the humorous bursts in the piece were great examples of scriptural comic timing, for such a serious topic at times I found myself laughing slightly more than you’d assume. That perhaps made Beachy Head for me; it is such a great way of making potentially unpalatable subjects, especially with the level of description that’s given particularly regarding the dissecting process, just about digestible. This is a powerful tool for social dialogue and the great thing about it is, that’s not what everybody leaves talking about. The swift transitions, the lighting the way the stage morphs into something cinematic are but ‘menial’ aspects of this technological theatre. The use of technology in this piece is revolutionary, never have I looked at theatre in this way before, this is theatrical licence brought into the 21st century with no caution to those still in wooden stadiums.
The cast were water tight absolutely nothing slipped through their fingers, they developed a report with the audience in an almost silent exchange of thought; capturing what can only be assumed to have been the emotional state of people living the lives that they were playing. Dramatic irony is used very well although, all together the story itself is simply written. Yet the simple script is met beautifully with the complex use of both the stage itself and props, I doubt a more complex storyline or even script could have done the staging justice. The exquisite directorship is evident creating moments that were pure poetry.
This is an extremely well thought out project evidencing originality and spurts of real genius, truly a piece of intelligent theatre, trail blazing a path for theatrical innovation.
Amanda
University of Essex, Student
The melodic blues of fabled songs such as Miles Davis’ ‘So what’, Plus his own rendition of Sting’s Fields of Gold completely justified anybody’s doubts as to whether cross genre covers actually work. I keep wondering what would his cover of Stevie wonder’s ‘What the fuss’ sound like...ahh I know I’m being a bit too, what’s the word, unnecessary.
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12.2.11
12.2.11
John Law
Pure quality, nothing but proficiency was present on the stage this night, just absolutely wonderful.
The melodic blues of fabled songs such as Miles Davis’ ‘So what’, Plus his own rendition of Sting’s Fields of Gold completely justified anybody’s doubts as to whether cross genre covers actually work. I keep wondering what would his cover of Stevie wonder’s ‘What the fuss’ sound like...ahh I know I’m being a bit too, what’s the word, unnecessary. Ok, so let’s keep it simple, the night was SPECTACULAR!!!
The sound featured an intimate arrangement of passion and musical finesse. A journey truly worth taking, John Law’s opt Trio was perhaps a walk in to the smooth pass times of your life. Presenting a quirky blend of colour, wonder with a soulful edge.
John Laws (pianist) humbly and generously gives, as his hands move as though without bounds across the piano; it’s almost surreal being able to watch this live. The quality was phenomenal and, he throws everything into it the mood and conjures a sense of belonging to whatever piece it is his playing. A Double dose of bass like you wouldn’t believe, Tom farmer (Double Bass) plays with clarity, oozing a powerful presence... whilst drumming Asif Sergave draws you in sparing no one prince nor pauper, when infectiously he creates a beat you can’t help bobbing along to.
They played a little piece of paradise, rhythmically serenading the audience with authenticity and musical genius. Managing to translate emotion into sound, they have an innate sense of musical integrity I trusted their honest delivery and related to their complexity.
Inspirational...
Amanda
University of Essex, Student
