Flowers for Mrs Harris

Musical

Flowers for Mrs Harris *****

By Rachel Wagstaff and Richard Taylor

Crucible Theatre, Sheffield

Director: Daniel Evans

Cast includes: Claire Burt, Anna-Jane Casey, Mark Meadows

Dates: 19^th May to 4^th June

Times: 7:30. Matinees, 2:30 Wednesdays and Saturdays

Running Time: 2hrs 40mins including interval

Review by Nicola Wallace

26^th May 2016

When you first hear about this new musical, it sounds cute but not exactly the most riveting of topics. Based on the novel Mrs Harris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico, Flowers for Mrs Harris is about a woman who sees a Dior dress and decides that she must have one. That is essentially a very barebones synopsis. But, oh my goodness, it is so much more than that! It’s funny, moving and gives you hope – all dreams are achievable. Mrs Harris is a cleaning woman in post-war, austerity era London who, after seeing a Dior dress in one of her clients’ homes, embarks on a quest to own one herself. She saves up enough money, after a few mishaps, to fly to Paris and purchase one. By the sheer force and wit of her personality, she makes a difference not only within her own life, but the various lives of others. After years of feeling alone after she is left widowed after the Second World War, she realises that she is not quite so lonely after all. It is a sentimental fairytale of never giving up hope and not letting life’s obstacles stand in your way. Through hard work and a good heart, Mrs Harris achieves her dream. Seriously, there was not a dry eye in the house by the end! I even shed a few tears myself!

It is an outstanding production. Writer Rachel Wagstaff and composer/lyricist Richard Taylor bring together Mrs Harris’ quest with humour and heart in a whirlwind of emotions. Seriously, there are a lot of feels in this production! Make sure you take your tissues. The music is stirring and fits with the overall production beautifully.  There are never songs just for the sake of them; they always bring something to the action on stage and move along the production succinctly. The actors themselves are all brilliant and embody their roles so so well! The casting is perfect and this production seemed to have been made for them – much like a Dior dress! I bet the costume department had a whale of a time with all those dresses! I was very jealous of the actors who got to wear some very gorgeous Dior dresses – would have liked to have worn a few myself! The revolving stage allows for quick and slick set changes which never overpower the action on stage. It looks stunning as well. By the end, the stage is literally alive with colour as Mrs Harris learns of the good she has done. As Daniel Evan’s final production as artistic director of the Crucible, he certainly goes out with a standing ovation. 

Unfortunately, my flowers have died!
And I don't think a penny would bring
them back!

If you want to see a fairytale, plenty of gorgeous dresses or just to have a good cry, then seriously, go see this play! It’s on until the 4^th of June at the Crucible – more details can be found here.

Also I have recently got Twitter, so if you want to give me a follow for more random theatre trips, Live for 5 news or just me ruminating about life, then here you go: @nicola_wallace5. 

The James Plays: The Prisoner, The Innocent and The Glam Rock Star

Its been a while but, in between all the work and the dissertation which is now finally finished, I went to the theatre to see three plays in a day. The James Plays.

This trilogy of plays has been billed as “Scotland’s answer to Game of Thrones” and it is certainly as binge-watchable! Though we only had to wait a few hours for the next instalment, not years. The plays start off with a young James I who, after been kept prisoner in England for 18 years, has to unite the families of Scotland and prove himself as king. The drama and familial relationships develop over 3 generations of the Stewart family who seek war with other countries, with other families and finally with their own family. It was really easy to be absorbed into their world; the contemporary language removes the barrier so often felt with Shakespeare’s history plays and brings to life stories that have been left out of the literary canon. The writing was witty, funny and developed the relationships between the characters – both romantic and platonic alike – fully.

The James Plays

The plays gradually become more stylised in their medieval settings with sets and costumes. By the final play, the medieval world was only invoked by the dipped hems of the back of the ladies’ dresses and the men’s jackets. Though contemporary elements were peppered throughout all the plays – modern shoes in the first play and jeans in the second – creating the sense that these medieval kings and queens were perhaps not so different than the audience. We were lucky enough to be able to watch the first play seated on the stage which was just a brilliant experience! It made the whole play much more intimate, as it would, and made the audience feel like they were part of the action with the actors walking past you every so often. There were muttered expletives and secret glances which could only be seen and heard from the stage seating, and now I can say I had a front row seat to a monarch’s coronation! That totally counts, right?

Ready for the first play!

The first James play is all about political intrigue. The Scottish King James is released from an English prison after 18 years and he must prove himself to the powerful families of Scotland who are not happy that he has returned and reclaimed the throne. There is a battle sequence whilst James’ wife, Joan, gives birth in the midst of it all and a giant sword that drips (or rather, sprays) blood. This first play was action packed, bloody and full of betrayals.

A very sunny Lyceum for part two!

It’s a testament of a good actor who can go from making me dislike him to finding him adorable in a matter of hours, so congratulations Andrew Rothney! The play follows James II (as it would) from his childhood and shows how he grew to become king. It mainly concerns itself with James’ and his childhood friend’s, William Douglas, relationship, rather than politics on a grander scale. The giant sword was now a flame thrower which echoed the destruction of James’ own childhood – his father being assassinated, becoming king at the age of 6 and being a pawn in the other families’ games – which continued to haunt him into his adulthood. This was very well done through the repetition of nightmares that brought the audience through his early days as king to his taking back of power succinctly. Also, he spends much of the first act in a box, if you like that kind of thing.

The end of the final play

What is there to say about the final James play? Wow. The three words I would use to describe it would be flamboyant, camp and tight trousers. He was easily the most dislikeable of all the James’ but definitely the funniest. There was a change in tone in this final play as it became softer and more about how his wife, Margaret, was a better ruler than he was. James III was like a glam rock superstar who was afraid of ever growing old. And I now want a choir to follow me round all day to announce my presence!

So, if you want to see a guy swinging an axe in close proximity to you, a football game on stage, bagpipe and accordion renditions of Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams and The Human League, or just men in kilts, then these are the plays for you!

Don't forget! You can still sign up for Live for 5 tickets on line - just click here to start! And if you want to see The James Plays, here's the website to find out where they are touring. 

Yet Another Week at the Theatre

Sorry for the late post; work and the flu has pushed me back a bit! It has been another busy week in my theatre life as I have managed to fit in 3 shows into the week and have had the life changing experience of queuing up for tickets when the new season has gone on sale.

The Crucible all lit up!

Last last Thursday I managed to get a public dress rehearsal ticket to see The Nap, which I was incredibly happy about because I had missed out on the Live for 5 tickets for the previews. The Nap is a comedy-thriller about snooker written for and about The Crucible. Sounds like a weird concept, I know, but I thought it was hilarious! The plot revolves around the up and coming snooker player, Dylan Spokes (played by Jack O’Connell), who is blackmailed by a local gangster, Waxy Chuff (played by Louise Gold), to throw a frame. It also starred Mark Addy (Atlantis and Game of Thrones) and Ralf Little (The Royle Family), which, you know, I was very excited about. Richard Bean, the writer, also wrote One Man, Two Guvnors and that farcical humour also carried over into The Nap. I mean it was completely crazy but fabulously so! And hey, I got to see a snooker game at the Crucible (that totally counts, right?) so not a bad evening all in all!

New look tickets for a new play!

My next trip to the theatre was to see the Northern Ballet’s Swan Lake. This was the first ballet I’d seen live (I’d seen the Northern Ballet’s version of 1984 on BBC Four a few weeks prior) and I really enjoyed it. It was pretty mesmerising to see the dancers’ strength to be able to lift, contort and hold themselves in positions that seemed pretty uncomfortable to be in, and make it all look so easy! Not going to lie, I was a little bit jealous – I’m not a dancer and have no natural grace! I knew the music of Swan Lake and, thanks to Black Swan, I thought I knew the story, but Northern Ballet’s adaptation was updated and brought the story out of its mythological context and into a more human realm. They’d set it in an Edwardian New England and this setting worked really well with the Wilde-ian nature of the homoerotic subplot. It certainly felt more human with the exploration of themes like unfulfilled desire and loss and grief. And of course, the music was superb! I do enjoy a bit of Tchaikovsky! I really enjoyed it all and I will definitely be going to the ballet again (providing I can get £5 tickets of course!).

As an ambassador for the Crucible, I worked the NT Connections festival which was all about new writing for young actors. This was a really good opportunity to highlight the Live for 5 scheme and talk to young people who may not necessarily have known about it (although it was slightly terrifying having to talk to lots of people!). The NT Connections festival happens all round the country so if you’re interesting in writing, performing or just watching, take a look at the website here.

Queuing for new season tickets was stressful. That’s it. We got there nice and early – 45 minutes before the box office at 10 to be precise! – and still managed to end up queuing for an hour and a half! It had recently been announced that Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart were going to be performing No Man’s Land at the Lyceum in Sheffield. That’s what everyone was queuing for, including us! However, we wanted the Live for 5 tickets and this put extra pressure on us. We scouted out the queue and quickly realised that we were the youngest there but there was still quite a lot of people before us in the queue. A couple of days before, Live for 5 tickets became available online and, as the clock struck 10, we realised that this might be our only option to get these tickets. Thank goodness for that! If we had waited it out, those tickets would have been sold out! After logging in and waiting in an online queue for 10 minutes, the tickets we wanted were ours! I think the woman at box office was slightly surprised when we asked for the James Plays tickets rather than No Man’s Land, though we then did ask to pick up those tickets. So a stressful morning but well worth it in the end!

Just some of the next lot of tickets!

So yeah, you can now sign up and buy Live for 5 tickets online so literally no one (as long as you’re aged 16-26!) has an excuse! Click here to set up an account and make sure you include your date of birth so that every time you log in, Live for 5 tickets will automatically be available for you.

Happiness is a blanket scarf

Hello one and all! I’m not sure if my title will turn into a weird metaphor by the end of this post but for the moment I mean it very literally. If you know me, you will probably know that I basically show no emotions and that it’s actually very hard for me to show that I’m happy. But how can I be sad when I have a scarf that is a blanket? That’s basically the pinnacle of life right there. Anyway, I digress. The point of this post is to give you a bit of background.

So much happiness!

So I’m a painfully shy introvert who tends to remain quiet in any social situation – this much pretty much everyone knows about me and I am always faced with such questions like “Why are you so quiet?” or “Are you okay? You look upset/angry.” The only answers I can give to these are “That’s just my personality” or “That’s just my face – I generally look like I have no desire to be near people even when I’m actually enjoying myself”. It’s just the way it is and unfortunately, when it is brought up, it does make me very self-conscious and ultimately I clam up even more. What you may not know is the fact that I have struggled with depression and social anxiety since I was about 11. I’m still not great at expressing this to even my closest friends, even though I have got so much better in the last few years, so it would appear that the only way I can actually talk about this is through this blog post, mainly just to avoid the embarrassment of actually talking about myself to other people. I hope that, by writing this, people don’t feel like they have to tiptoe round me, I would just like to make everyone aware of something that I internalise quite a lot. I appreciate a lot of people will feel very different to how I feel so this is just my experience and I don’t want to come across selfish or anything.

I was bullied a lot throughout primary and high school and even a bit in college. I mean, this isn't the entire reason for my depression, I reckon some of it is just my personality and the way I'm wired anyway, but it certainly contributed. I don’t think I really realised I had depression until I was about 16/17 and had put my entire experience down to just being a teenager which probably stopped me from getting any help sooner or at least expressing how I felt. I always felt like (and still do sometimes) I didn't belong anywhere. My depression, coupled with social anxiety, has sometimes left me feeling isolated, unappreciated and in constant need of someone to tell me that I am enough and that my friends do actually like me and don't think I'm a burden. I just never seemed to quite fit in, and so I turned to literature – books, film, TV and music – as a way to escape. I still do this to an extent, it is one of the ways that I find happiness. I mean this love of literature has basically shaped my entire life – I'm doing an English Literature degree and I have an offer for a Creative Writing MA – and yes, sometimes it is hurtful when people belittle me for choosing to do an Arts and Humanities degree but I know that this was always going to be the path that I took. Literature has really helped me through some pretty dark times of my life and, as I would like to be a writer, if I could help and offer just one person a way of escaping then it’s all worth it, isn't it? In a way, I don’t know who I would be without my depression, it has come to shape me as a person but I have got better in the last few years and, although the scars will probably always be there, I'm slowly becoming the person I actually want to be.

Anyway, sorry for the slightly longer post and it’ll be business as usual next time as I have a few theatre visits lined up, and, as I said before, I hope this post doesn't change anyone’s opinion of me or make it seem like I'm selfish or anything.

The NHS website has some pretty useful information about depression and there’s a self-check tool there too, as well as links to various charities that offer help.   

The Trip to Ireland

Way, way back in November, my flatmate Megan asked me if I wanted to go to Northern Ireland to spend the weekend with her and her family at her home for her birthday. Any normal person would have thought great, a holiday after January exams, but for me, it was a Big Deal. I had never set foot in an airport, never been on an aeroplane and never been abroad (although that one is still true). You know that icebreaker that tutors always like to play – tell us your name and an interesting fact about yourself – well those were always my go-to! But finally, after much cajoling from Megan and my parents, I decided that well, it couldn't hurt to go to Ireland on a plane and at least I would be with someone who knew what they were doing. So the day of the flight came round, I had had a really bad night’s sleep and was sick with nerves, but I managed to get to the airport in one piece and I hadn't burst into tears, which was always a bonus! I managed to rally after a very sugary drink from a café and was feeling a bit more up for it by the time our plane was due. But then disaster struck! Our plane had been delayed by an hour and a half due to bad weather which just meant that I had more time to worry! But after much support from Megan, I was slightly calmer by the time we could board the plane.

Made it onto the plane in one (not weeping) piece!

This being my first ever flight, I’m going to bore you with the details of my actual experience of flying – not that there are too many, it was a pretty straightforward flight and nothing went wrong! My head swam a bit because of the air pressure and I never really got the hang of how the seatbelts worked (I will admit, Megan did have to help me out once we got to Ireland!) but other than that, flying was a pretty fun experience! It was cloudy and we were just flying over sea so there wasn't that much to see but it was still fun seeing all the boats and the earth from above! Obviously it was a perspective I had never seen the earth from! Other than that, I suppose flying is pretty much the same as travelling on a train really, just a tad faster! The flight back, however, was less of a fun experience. Once again, our flight was delayed and the weather could have been better. There was some turbulence which wasn't the greatest and not going to lie, I’ll felt a bit sick. At least, since it was night-time, the lights of the towns were pretty and I managed to get some reading done so it wasn't a complete write-off! And we got back in one piece!

Genuinely terrified about being blown into the sea!

The wild Irish sea at the Giant's Causeway

Walking the Walls at Derry

The Dark Hedge

I had a fantastic time in Ireland and being by the sea when the weather was so wild was a new experience for me. I'm from a landlocked county and have only been by the sea in the summer so it was great to see it so completely crazy! And it was great just seeing new places and having a Game of Thrones tour of Ireland from my wonderful friend and her family! Definitely worth getting on a plane for!

My Week at the Theatre

So this week has been very busy for me! You'll be getting any other post soon about my recent trip to Northern Ireland but for now, I'll tell you about my immediate trip to the theatre tonight. Also check out the new Sheffield Theatres website which is very colourful and full of jaunty angles! It's much easier to navigate and soon there will be the option to buy Live for 5 tickets online.

The Crucible and the Lyceum

Tonight I went to see King Charles III at the Lyceum. I'm going to say straight off that I'm still not entirely sure if I enjoyed this play. I mean, it’s a really clever concept but it felt a bit jolted. The premise of the play is a pretty simple one: it revolves around the immediate aftermath of the Queen's death and how Charles can prove himself as a ruler. But it is executed as if it is a Shakespearean history play, though set in the future. The writing is very much in that Shakespeare mode - blank verse and iambic pentameter. It was incredibly self-consciously Shakespearean and I felt as though it was a mixture of Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Richard II. It certainly wasn't what I was expecting, even though I'm not sure what I was expecting. The main theme was personal and national identity as all the characters try to work out who they are within the public and private spheres. The set and the acting were very good, I'm just a little unsure of the concept as a whole. This show is a touring production so is only on at the Lyceum for a couple more days. I would definitely recommend seeing it if you want to see a play that will make you think and it is a fabulous play to analyse! And for £5 (if you're 16-25) it’s worth it. If you can't make it to Sheffield, the next performance is on at Brighton Theatre Royal.

I will update this post at the weekend after I have been to see Waiting for Godot at the Crucible, but make sure to get your Live for 5 tickets for this weekend if you are at all interested!

Waiting for Waiting for Godot

So Waiting for Godot is one of those plays that most people have heard of but not many have seen performed. It’s one of those standard GCSE/A-Level texts which might put off some people because they’ve studied it to death, though may never have had the chance to see it live. Honestly, I think these sorts of texts are better to see live rather than reading them in a classroom because then you can catch the humour in the text and different theatre interpretations are always useful to help analyse the text. I find that Beckett – being an avant-garde writer – is more interested in exploring theatre rather than narrative and this was portrayed through the use of a very stark and minimal set – it seemed very post-apocalyptic. The plot is very minimal too and I think best summed up by the critic Vivian Mercier: "Waiting for Godot has achieved a theoretical impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, Beckett has written a play in which nothing happens, twice". The plot itself is literally two men waiting for the unknown Mr. Godot and waiting in vain. The plot is so incredibly frustrating because they do not remember anything and so a lot of the speech is repeated in a slightly different way or at slightly different times. The acting was very good – Lorcan Cranitch and Jeff Rawle, who played Vladimir and Estragon, were on stage all the time and kept the audiences’ interest, even with the very minimal plot, through their humour and constant back-and-forth lines. I would definitely recommend seeing Waiting for Godot to everyone because it is a funny play, just don’t expect to understand it! Because Beckett was good friends with James Joyce, I think anyone doing the Modern Literature module this semester should definitely make the effort to go to see it because it is a great way to ease yourself into the crazy world of modern lit! And Live for 5 tickets have been extended to all performances so no one has any excuses not to go see it! Waiting for Godot is on at the Crucible until the 27^th of February.  

Oh Sew Fabulous

Hello again!

Sorry for the brief hiatus, my life has recently been taken over by exams and essays! But now that I am so very almost free (and whilst we all wait for the new theatre season to start again), I will share with you a few projects I have started which I hope to get back to before work overwhelms me once again.

Back in the summer, I started sewing little plush dolls as a project to keep me from going completely crazy. My mum taught me how to sew when I was very young and since then I’ve only ever sewn if a piece of clothing needed a bit of alteration done to it. These dolls were my first proper BIG project I’d completed and I’ve just kind of kept going with it, although without the help of a sewing machine (I hope to get one soon!). A couple of years ago, I went to Comic Con with my friend and we saw these plush dolls of pop culture figures, which were totally cool but pretty expensive! A year later, the idea popped into my head that I could make her a Harley Quinn plushie (she loves Harley Quinn!) for her birthday at a fraction of the cost. So I did my research, bought my materials, made a pattern, made a trial run out of an old pillowcase and then actually started making her. All in all she took about two weeks to make, giving me plenty of time to send her off to my friend who (I hope!) was pretty happy with Little Miss Harley Quinn!

Little Miss Harley Quinn

So that’s the story of how I got into sewing again and since then my collection of sewing paraphernalia has grown (sans sewing machine) and I started work on a plushie of Jon Snow, who has been regularly mistaken for Jesus. He’s taken me a little bit longer to complete, considering I started him back in Freshers’ Week and I haven’t had the time to pick him back up since, but now is that time! He’s mostly complete, just missing his cloak and Ghost, so I’m hoping that won’t take too much longer to do. I’m not sure where he’ll go once he’s finished but for the moment I think I’ll keep him on my desk and he can just chill with his very dour expression. As for my next projects, I think the Fellowship of the Ring is next on the list! I’m not really sure where all of this is going but it’s become my hobby, which is nice because I’m not a hobby kind of person! I hope that one day (once I buy a sewing machine) I can actually start making clothes and costumes and things like that, but, for the moment, sewing plush characters to stave off mental exhaustion is enough for me.  

Jon Snow knows nothing because his brain is literally toy stuffing! 

Everything I need to sew!

Thanks for reading and check back here very soon for some more theatre exploits!