REVIEWS
If you are planning to go see a show, think about writing a review!
Return to the Forbidden Planet
Star date 16.06.2011 – 25.06.2011
Two beeps or not two beeps? see photos
Return to the Forbidden Planet is an award winning musical by director Bob Carlton based – very loosely – on the film Forbidden Planet, which was a sci-fi version of Shakespeare’s Tempest (with hints of Star Trek) and incorporating classic rock and roll songs from the 50s.
Three elements that seem unlikely to meld, yet Carlton made it work, fusing it into an organic whole, creating a hilarious script with artful ‘Fakespeare’ dialogue borrowed from several of the bard’s works, and existing rock songs worked into the plot as if they were written for this show.
The InPlayers took on this cult favourite under the inspired guidance of director Christine Blakeley and musical director Edwin Nichols. A talented cast and crew, as well as an excellent live band present us with an energetic and entertaining production.
After having received their boarding passes the audience meets the entire crew of the USS Albatros standing sternly on stage. There is hardly time take in the impressive set and the futuristic costumes as we are immediately taken into a vital emergency drill: what to do in case of reverse polarity.
Then the story takes off, following Captain Tempest and his crew on a routine flight. After a meteor storm they find themselves mysteriously drawn to an uncharted planet, where it appears Dr Prospero and his daughter Miranda are marooned. A newscast appears on the ship’s screen, informing us that Dr Prospero is a mad scientist, who developed a mind-expanding but dangerous drug 15 years before. Prospero’s wife Gloria (now the science officer on the USS Albatros ) recognized the danger and sent him off to space, unwittingly also sending their baby daughter Miranda off in the same space craft.
When Prospero takes a dose of the potion and a monster with tentacles then attacks the ship all realize the monster is created by Prospero’s subconscious (the Id). He leaves the ship, effectively committing suicide, after which the monster disappears, and the ship can barely make it out of D’Illyria before the planet itself disappears as well, having also been created by Prospero’s subconscious. But not without taking Miranda and the gentle robot Ariel with them, and not without Miranda and Tempest falling in love.
It was a joy to watch and listen to. The singing, dancing, acting, the set, costumes and props, all really well done. Established members and new arrivals alike performed with gusto, bringing the songs to life, accompanied by the more than excellent band. Newcomers Theo Iguyovwe and Lauren Mills convinced as Bosun and Miranda respectively, Sandy Topzand did a great job as the stern Captain Tempest (a far cry from the Princess Keli), Mike Williams as the hapless romantic Cookie brings comic relief, Annika Groeneveld creates the sympathetic robot Ariel with her customary attention to detail, and Shelly O’Day has us first hate Gloria, but in the heartbreaking song Go Now finally wins our sympathy. Ken Kitchen was an impressive Prospero, giving the character depth and humanity. All with the strong support of the ‘flight attendants’ and ‘flight crew’ in song, dance and action, and the tongue-in-cheek newscaster Stuart Idell.
The 50s hairdos and false lashes combined beautifully with the ingenious flight crew costumes, and contrasted well with Prospero’s magician’s robe, Miranda’s girlish dresses and Ariel’s silvery appearance (fitting the characters to a T). The impressive set with the captain’s control seat center stage and consoles with bleeping lights all around the stage gave an authentic – can I say it? – Star Trek feel. And last but not least hats off to the makers of the tentacled Id monster.
Congratulations to all involved! Live long and Prospero!
Henny Vos
Cookie, monster en de X-factor
Gezien in het Ostadetheater op 23 juni 2011:
“Return to the forbidden planet”, een Engelstalige voorstelling door The Inplayers.
Ik geef het je te doen: 20 acteurs doorlopend op het toneel in een kleine zaal voorstelling, het verweven van gedragen, Shakespeariaanse teksten met love-boat achtige plotwendingen aan boord van een ruimteschip. En dan ook nog eens een vijftiental jaren zeventig hits erin gemonteerd en goed uitgevoerd. Dit alles zonder dat het onsamenhangend of erg gezocht wordt.
De Inplayers zijn erin geslaagd om met deze ingrediënten een imponerende musicalvoorstelling te maken, waarbij het plezier eraf spat en overslaat op het publiek. Dat belandt aan het einde dan ook dansend op het podium.
Decor en kostumering zitten ingenieus in elkaar. Nooit geweten dat je met een daartoe geprepareerd zwemvest/yogamatje om je hals al heel dicht in de buurt komt van het Thunderbirds-gevoel! Het decor verbeeldt het interieur van het spaceship USS Albatross, compleet met diverse (nep)beeldschermen en instrumentenpanelen, waaruit op uitgekiende momenten alarmsignalen en “beeps” klinken. De enige entree tot het podium is een toegangsdeur (met rode lamp en alarmsignaal) die zo weggelopen lijkt uit Star Trek.
Het stuk is, net als de gelijknamige film uit 1956, losjes gebaseerd op The Tempest van Shakespeare, maar ook zonder die voorkennis (en ondanks het Shakespeariaans Engels) is onderstaande verhaallijn goed te volgen.
De USS Albatross wordt door een mijnenveld van asteroïden aangetrokken door de planeet D'Illyria. Alleen de Sience Officer weet te ontsnappen. Na een onfortuinlijke landing blijkt de planeet bewoond te worden door de wetenschapper Prospero, zijn jongvolwassen dochter Miranda en hun thuishulp, de robot Ariel. Prospero’s echtgenote Gloria heeft hem jaren geleden een slechte reputatie bezorgd en hem - onbedoeld samen met baby Miranda - de ruimte ingeslingerd. Aan boord van de USS Albatross smelt de aandoenlijke kok Cookie (een glansrol van Mike Williams) direct weg voor de bevallige Miranda (de mooi acterende en prachtig zingende Lauren Mills), die op haar beurt als een blok valt voor Captain Tempest (een man van stavast, stoer neergezet door Sandy Topzand). Tempest ziet zich genoodzaakt onderkoeld op Miranda's avances te reageren. De Sience Officer keert terug bij het ruimteschip, achternagezeten door een gigantisch eenogig monster. Hoe dit te verslaan? Het gedrocht blijkt een bedenksel van Prospero. Die heeft de X-factor ontwikkeld, een drankje dat gedachten materialiseert. Dan blijkt de Sience Officer Gloria te zijn. Door haar toedoen gaat de formule van de X-factor verloren waardoor het onmogelijk wordt een antimiddel te maken. Prospero ziet maar één uitweg: zichzelf offeren aan het monster. Hij wordt uitgeleide gedaan door Gloria (Shelly O'Day) die de zaal stil krijgt met een ontroerende versie van Go Now (The Moody Blues). Met Prospero verdwijnen zijn gedachten en daarmee het aan zijn brein ontsproten monster. Ook aan het hersenspinsel D'Illyria komt een einde. Op de toneelvloer komt het feest dan op volle toeren voor een swingend happy end.
Met enorme vaart en humor weeft men al deze elementen tezamen, waarbij de band regelmatig inzet voor wederom een golden oldie. Regelmatig duiken de liedteksten ook weer in geheel andere context op bij de personages. Zo laat Prospero bij zijn afscheid dramatisch weten: “my intentions were good, Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood” (uit de hit van The Animals; componist Horace Ott schreef dit nummer na een ruzie met zijn vriendin Gloria!).
Ook Shakespeare moet het soms even ontgelden; als ergens uit de navigatie-instrumenten twee luide pieptonen (code voor: gevaar?) klinken, vraagt captain Tempest vertwijfeld: Two beeps? Or not two beeps?That’s the question.
Het plezier spat van dit acteursensemble af en de muzikale omlijsting was zeer professioneel. Het Amsterdamse amateurleven mag zich gezegend weten met dit prachtige internationale gezelschap.
Harold van Voornveld, Debby Bruin en Jan van Lijssel (toneelgroep Venster) InPlayers Featured at FEATS!!
In Yonder Green Glen, Written & Directed by Svarupa
was the InPlayers’ contribution to this year’s
Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies
In Yonder Green Glen, we fall in with a troupe of travelling Commedia del Arte actors. They are from today but their high style and low humour are from the sixteenth century. The story line is the same as it has been for over 500 years. Rich old men plot to lure young Ladies into their bed chambers. Poor young men do exactly the same. Actually it seems that love is in the air and has intoxicated all the players.
Harlequin and Pierrot duel for the favours of Columbine, whilest Pantaloon, (dirty old man) desires Isabella and his son, Flavio,(handsome young lover) does also.
They are all here. El Dottore and his fantastic cures. Dashing El Capitano with his sword. Tough and cynical Brighella falling for Isabella's mother, a woman with a past, planning for the future.
We were scheduled after two good but heavy dramatic plays, and the audience certainly appreciated the change and the chance to laugh, giggle and keep their sunny side up during the fast paced performance. I saw tears (good ones) as the show unfolded and the cast gave their all during the show which although has been shortened for the festival still had the whole story and added bits too. Even the Adjudicator was impressed by the costumes, the characterisations and how so much could be packed into 45 minutes. Impressed enough to nominate Annika for the best actress award for Il Dottore (massive congrats!), but not enough to actually give it (She woz robbed!) but then the experience of being there with concentrated doses of theatricality, the wine festival outside the theatre, the picturesqueness and tranquillity of Bad Homberg (there are lots of trees and hills* there) and the convivial company certainly made for a fabulous experience. I am sure that there will be other trip reports which will be put up on the website & Facebook as they come in.
Congratulations to all that took part, whether on the stage or backstage (and you guys are essential – we couldn’t have done it if you weren’t there) and to the volunteer drivers for getting people and kit to Bad Homberg and back safely. We think you are all great!
Trip report done by Alex McKenzie.
*hills: really big piles of rocks and earth often with plants & trees or buildings on that aren’t really found in the NL, so I thought I would define it for anyone unsure of what the trip reporter meant.
More information is available via the FEATS 2010 Web site. www.feats.eu
Deaf on the Nile
The In Players have a history of staging not only classical and contemporary work, but also a succession of original works from the remarkable pool of creativity in our membership. Even so, the 2010 season is already remarkable for having brought our audiences not just one but two extraordinary world-premieres. Following Svarupa’s faithful homage to the commedia del arte In Yonder Green Glenn, the current production, Deaf on the Nile is a spot-on spoof of just about every genre that failed to outrun the savage wit of co-authors and co-directors Stuart Idell and Peter Hopwood: A tried and tested team that has brought several earlier works of mirth to our stage.
Deaf on the Nile is not highbrow philosophical theatre. Rather it revels in being quite the opposite. It is unapologetically bawdy and politically incorrect, but always with a good-natured wink and tongue firmly planted in cheek which ensures that it is comical, not crass; uproarious, not offensive. Reminiscent of the popular British comedy films, the Carry On series, as well as the sitcom ’Allo ’Allo (if only because of Edwin and Kevin’s emotive French and German accents), Deaf on the Nile gets its many laughs at the expense of murder mysteries, old monster-horror movies, espionage thrillers, and various more fleetingly alluded to genres. And while it would be an overstatement to call the play a musical, an excellent Egyptian chorus adds some delightfully witty musical interludes to the humorous action.
There is a plot involving great game politics at the end of the 19th century, Egyptian tombs and curses, a dotty half-deaf archaeologist and his entirely blind and uninhibited daughter, plus a sensual Mata Hari; but that almost does not matter, save that it provides an excuse to watch a parade of colourful characters come to life and engage in their outré antics.
The excellent cast looks to be having at least as much fun as the audience, and included no fewer than five actors making their In Players debut (hailing from four different countries, by the way) alongside a few In Player veterans and relative newcomers: A welcome infusion of fresh talent. These newcomers include Jill Daniels as an exotic Mata Hari fully able to wrap a man around every finger and quite possibly the odd toe; Renate Stalman as a Mummy with unusually expressive physicality and a gentler side mostly kept under wraps; Matt Percy as Algernon, personifying the less-than-savoury side of British colonialism; Kevin Knauer whose Teutonic Adolph would have been right at home in an episode of ’Allo ’Allo; and lastly Masud Husain as the police inspector who is not quite as hapless as he might at first seem.
The rest of the cast consisted of more familiar In Players talent, all of whom lived up to their reputations. As the terminally nervous Albert Simon Murphy took on his largest In Players role yet and proved himself more than up to the task. Ken Kitchen as the sinister Abdul once again demonstrated why he is one of the company’s most versatile and dependable character actors; as Davidoff Terry Sinclair followed up his fine Yonder Green Glen debut by again owning several scenes, while Edwin Nichols, when not doubling as part of the chorus, infused pretty much every comical French stereotype into his Pierre. No one plays the befuddled Brit better than Mike Williams as he again showed as the archaeologist; and finally Janette Warburton as Victoria, the blind savant archaeologist’s daughter, brilliantly blended Victorian naïveté with a sybaritic appreciation for life and its many pleasures, all the while looking and sounding as though she just stepped out of an Agatha Christie novel.
A few brief but well-deserved words of praise for other aspects of the production: The vocal talents of the singers – Irene van Berkum, Nina Cohen, Danielle Renton and Edwin Nichols – are well-known to the In Players and were put to fine use here, not only for the high quality of the vocalization but as a multiplier of the whimsical mood with a selection of songs (inevitably including Walk like an Egyptian) that were not so much breaks from the action as part of it. The set was very simple (with the notable exception of Ken Kitchen’s elaborate, eye-catching sarcophagus) but with a series of clever backdrop slides, entirely effective; the costumes entirely in tune with the period and the personages; and the stage management and technical work seamless in support of the performers. It all adds up to a diverting evening that is a testimony to what you get when the remarkable talents of individual In Players come together to make theatrical magic.
Johan Statius Muller
IN YONDER GREEN GLEN
There can hardly be enough words of praise for the InPlayers 2009 fall production In Yonder Green Glen.
Written a few years ago by Svarupa in the medieval Italian commedia dell’arte style, featuring a modern day troupe of travelling actors playing in the “high style and low humour” from the sixteenth century, the same centuries old characters were brought to life in an age-old tale of love, lust and greed, staying very close to the original style and plot line.
Pantaloon and Flavio contending for the favours of beauteous Isabella, as does as the alleged ambassador of the king of Spain, Isabella’s virtue and future being fiercely defended by her mother. Harlequin and Pierrot dueling over Columbine, Il Dottore and Brighella offering fantastic cures for nearly everything, or so they say. Some find their love, some are thwarted and end up empty-handed, but “this is how the story goes”.
Showing Svarupa’s hand as the director, the well-written script was brought to life by enthousiastic actors, along with expressive masks, great costumes, very effective make-up, and effective lighting. All this made for a very enjoyable theater experience. But as much as the audience enjoyed it, if I may judge from the reactions during and after performance, I think the troupe enjoyed themselves even more.
With some sold-out shows and a standing ovation on one of the nights we can be very proud of this production and of everybody on and off stage.
Many congratulations to Svarupa and her cast and crew!
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PS: But it does not end here. In May 2010 the InPlayers are sending In Yonder Green Glen as their entry to FEATS, the annual Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies, a 4-day event which will take place in Bad Homburg, Germany, where the InPlayers have taken away some prizes in previous years. I would not be surprised if we took away some prizes again this time.
Watch for the announcements in newsletters and on the website, as you will all be able to come along and enjoy another showing, as well as 11 other entries by our colleagues from all over Europe.
Henny Vos String of Pearls
About a year ago when the InPlayers were first considering producing String of Pearls, I read through the play and wondered how it would be possible to stage a piece that contained such a large turnover of characters. That this was achieved with such great aplomb is of great credit to the cast and crew of the InPlayers’ latest show.
Jeremiah’s choice to have the open wardrobes on stage proved a wise one. It set a strong formal tone from the outset and it also meant that the audience were clearly introduced to each new character and, with the actresses always ready to step in to their next role, the play was allowed to flow smoothly.
It must have been quite a job to dress 20+ persons so a big well done to Ian whose impressive authentic clothes were effective in helping set down character. Aaron’s lighting was simple and he made sure our attention was focused in the right areas. And so the stage was set and the performances were an absolute delight.
Alex, Natascha, Marielle, Imra, Sinead and Teresa were excellent and versatile throughout. There was a real warmth and intimacy to their work and they managed to find the right balance between comedy and seriousness, so that whilst we laughed, we also never stopped caring about the people who made us laugh. This was an endearing and, at times, very funny story clearly told and well performed.
Mike Williams
Cabfare for the Common Man
It is difficult to imagine how the in-house production of Cabfare for the Common Man (25 and 26 April) could have worked out any better than it did. Some of the objectives were to give new members a chance to get on stage and show their stuff.
On that score, we had the pleasure of seeing some splendid new talent in the persons of Alex, Ashley, Brian, Maarten, Sinead, and Simon, all making their In Players debut. Long standing members Andrew and Leah, more accustomed to being back stage took this opportunity to step into the lights. Luud had a chance to direct for the first time. And we had some established In Players talent with Henny, Nina and Paddy to anchor the production.
Of course the production featured Mike and Kiki, who pulled it all together, directed the plays, and also each took to the stage in what sadly was simultaneously their In Players debut and farewell performance.
Whatever the other objectives, a production must always also strive to please the audiences. There too Cabfare was right on target. Working with the delightfully charming and humorous scripts of Mark Harvey Levine was certainly a big help on this score, but even the best material can only go so far on its own. Here the cast and crew took it the rest of the way.
From Leah and Ashley’s bewildered panic in the opening play Scripted; though the various though quirky imperfect relationships endearingly portrayed in Surprise, The Rental, The Kiss and Superhero; finally culminating in the madcap finale with the entire cast in the fast-paced metaphor of life Cabfare for the Common Man, the evening never for a moment lost its pace, nor the attention and affection of the audience, while amusing all the while.
The only notes of regret were that as Cabfare closed, so did our all-too-brief association with Mike and Kiki, who are off to conquer other parts of the world; as did our very long association with the Spielerij Complex, which after many false - or at any rate premature - alarms is closing its doors for good. At least our final venture there proved to be a truly memorable one.
Johan Statius Muller
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