Midweek Theatre: James Thiérrée’s La Veillée des Abysses

Patrick London To Do, Theatre, UK Life

Once again visiting the Peacock Theatre, which likes to play host to visually spectacular events, I saw with my sister last night, James Thiérrée’s La Veillée des Abysses. It is best classified as a theatrical comedy. Take your typical theatrical comedy, remove all the dialogue and add a liberal dose of circus skills. Just like Momix, this show had amazing sets and leveraged each part of the stage, including the airspace above the audience. It certainly had much larger set changes, and focused on individual items to create clever and humourous situations.

This show had apparently once shown at Southbank and its popularity and positive reviews deemed it fit enough to return to London for another short screening. I think my most favourite aspect of this show is that with only five performers, the audience was constantly laughing and it was all through the use of visual comedy. It amazes me at how well the director and writer of the show could get five completely different performers (such as a contortionist, an acrobat, and a musician singing opera and playing the piano) delivering a seamless show that was visually rich and yet emotionally entertaining.

Momix – Opus Cactus

Patrick Theatre, UK Life

Add the maturity, style and choreography of Circ Du Solei but without the circus acts, add stunning lighting and visual tricks performed on stage by a set of dancers, all backed by a soundtrack as if made by Buddha Bar’s Claude Challe himself and that only begins to describe what the Momix show is all about. This visually rich show is held at the Peacock theatre, and my sister got us bargain stall tickets normally retailing for more than at least £30 for only £10.

It is much too difficult to describe what the show is about – perhaps it is best classified as contemporary dance as there is no singing and no real acting, but then it is not so much about the dancing than it is about the visual tricks that have been mastered by the performers. Their costumes and props in combination with the detailed lighting and music, take you from the real world where you are sitting and plunge you into a surreal world where what you see on stage may not be what you think.

A show that is best explained if you watch if for yourself and something that I can highly recommend.

What the Butler Saw at The Criterion

Patrick Theatre

Tonight my sister and I caught a preview of the play, ‘What the Butler Saw’ held at the Criterion Theatre. Our £10 tickets got us fairly close to the front and proved to be a rather entertaining night. I had no preconceptions of the play, and it was only until recently that I found out that the English colloquialism ‘What the Butler Saw’ refers to seeing something with voyeuristic connotations.

The play follows the script written well over thirty years ago by Joe Orton starting off with a psychiatrist’s misguided attempt to seduce his secretary. Thrown in his drunk and floozy wife, a young and ambitious Bell boy, the doctor’s overzealous reviewer from the city department, a dim-witted policeman, a handful of lies begetting lies, plenty of slamming doors and quick wit and you get an idea of what this classic English farce offers to its audience.

The script is extremely quick with rarely a moment for neither the audience, nor the cast members to actually breathe. The plot builds up momentum quickly and will have the audience laughing at the awkward situations in which the doctor tries to untangle himself with but finds him even more involved with lie after lie. The ending comes rather suddenly and slightly unbelievably but is still a good show to go and watch for those that appreciate British humour.

The Rat Pack @ The Savoy

Patrick Theatre

My sister and I were standing in queue for half price tickets on Saturday, and somehow ended up with some for one that we didn’t really know much about, The Rat Pack. Set at the Sands Hotel, this musical takes you back in time to a place to be entertained by the three great singers, Frank Sinatra, Samy Davis Jr, and Dean Martin (all accompanied by the Borelli Sisters). This musical will disappoint if you are after acting genius, with its story really setting the scene for classic songs to be performed including “Under My skin”, “Once if a Lifetime”, “The Candyman”, “Mr Bojangles”, “Amore”, and “New York, New York”.

Of what acting actually happened was quite well done, with all the little characteristics of each singer very well detailed. Sinatra had his strong New-Yorkian accent, even throughout his singing, Martin, his, if not overdone, constant half-drunk state for which he was well known by, and then the charismatic and energetic performances of Samy Davis Jr. The costumes were just as well attuned to each person, Sinatra’s being the most finest with gold cufflinks and a full suit, Dean Martin still classic but a little more rough around the edges, to the white socks and slightly short pants of Samy Davis Jr.

This performance is definitely not a musical for everyone and especially unlikely to appeal to anyone in my age group, but I still enjoyed the show for both its small bits of comedic acting and the stunning singing ability of the actors. Be warned though, that a number of big fans of each of these singers may attend, and sitting next to them can be hazardous to your health, as my sister will tell you, (unfortunately having to listen to their awful singing!)