Audio Review- Lydee

300 word review- Sweet Charity

Impulse Productions are an amateur youth theatre company, who never fail to impress. The last show of theirs I saw, Spring Awakening, could have been easily mistaken for a professional production. I therefore had high expectations for this production. Sweet Charity follows the escapades of Charity, a New York City dance hall hostess who longs for a man to fall madly in love with her and carry her away to a new life. When we first meet her she is being fished out of the river after another being left by another dodgy guy, and at the end of the first act (during which she finds herself the apartment of movie star Vittorio Vidal) meets Oscar, the first man to fall in love with her, who might just be Charity’s happily ever after.

        Aimee Fisher as Charity was bright and bubbly, with an excellent voice and stage presence- and her performance was all the more impressive knowing she is only 14- but the show lacked a level of energy and the wow factor regular Impulse viewers have come to expect until the arrival of Oscar (played with excellent comic timing by the brilliant Jake Sharp) at the end of act one, which gave the show a boost. As an amateur production in small theatre there was no room for a live band, so instead a CD backing was used which, is possibly one of the reasons the first half felt a little flat. Though people may not think they know Sweet Charity, a large number of the songs have seeped into the communal conscience (Hey Big Spender and Rhythm of Life to name but two), and the CD backing just restrains the cast to performing the songs in the same way as hundreds of others before them.

    All in all it was a fantastic amateur production, the cast were excellent and it was fun to watch, but unlike some of Impulse’s past productions it definitely felt amateur.

Video Review- Ovid's Metamorphoses

Mini Review 20- Lydee

Felt like classic greek theatre, but that to me means slightly dull. Leads were good, and it was a better adaptation of Greek theatre than some we've seen this year.

Mini Review 19- Ovid's Metamorphasis

Just brilliant, Greek Mythology with a WWII twist. Done in a very funny way, with excellent music and clever set design, the supremely talented company get the audience completely on-side to sneak in their more meanigful environmental message at the very end.

Mini Review 18- Redrum

Based (loosely) on Bloody Mary, it was a shame her only appearance wasn't visible to most of the audience. The performances were good, and the use of the space was great, but wasn't as scary as I was expecting.

Mini Review 17- Bronte

Put off reviewing this because I couldn't make my mind up about it. Still can't. Liked the way characters from the sisters' novels were brought into their lives showing where the inspiration came from, the rest was a little dull and the characters weren't massively likeable. But then it was fairly historically accurate.

Mini Review 16- Spamalot

Brilliantly funny, distinctly monty python- all the classic jokes thrown in- though with brilliant contemporary references in the songs. Sirs Galahad, Lancelott and Robin were particularly fantastic, and wonderfully camp...

Mini Review 15- Others

Just phenomenal in every aspect: movement, concept, performance. I don't think I can do this performance justice with words.

Mini Review 14- Black, White and Red All Over.

Too heavily media saturated, basically just a poem with people dancing around. Really made me appreciate gradual changes because IT HAD NONE! Just a load of snap changes that broke up the flow.

Mini Review 13- Under Milkwood

After realising that nothing happens, and embracing this, pretty good. The performance added a lot of entertainment to the last-of-the-summer-wine-esque script.

Mini Review 12- Masquarade

Not really a fan of dance shows, and I didn't feel like I apperciated the skill as much as I should have not being a dancer. But, quite enjoyed most of it, though it was very, very weird.

Mini Review 11- The nutcracker

Great adaptation of a classic. Maybe a little extreme with the violence for children, but the second act made me feel like I was 5 years old again. Fantastic.

Mini Review 10- Lear 1864: Trail of Tears

It's never easy to take one of Shakespeare's plays and "modernise" it, but this American Civil war adaptation of King Lear managed it perfectly, it felt like the play had been written with this setting in mind. The southern american accents made the language easier to grasp, and the use of two Lear's was fantastic. All in all a brillain adapation.

Mini Review 9- Avenue q

It may not be high brow, or serious, intellectually challenging or considered equal to "proper" theatre by many, but there is a reason musical theatre is as popular as it is; it's sweet, lovelable, funny, endearing, escapist, comforting and contains an entire spectrum of emotion, which is easily accessible to an audience. There is nothing that produces catharsis quite like a good musical, and avenue q is one of the best.

Audio file- Avenue Q theme

Mini Review 8- Hippolytus Re-framed.

Felt like a cross between traditional greek theatre and the rocky horror picture show. Wanted to do too many clever things and so didnt really manage to do any of them well.