ANNUAL CRITICS AWARDS 2001
Some of the more percipient amongst you may raise the odd eyebrow at my writing a review of local theatre over the past year. After all I didn’t take over from Mr Kingston until May and a small number of productions, most notably Dunstable Rep’s excellent Spring Season, Luton Light’s Gypsy and LAODS Anything Goes, will have passed me by. But, reviewing or not, I suffered or wallowed in everything at the Library Theatre in 2001 and everything else in the surrounding area since my gentle baptism with St Andrews cheery and well performed Oklahoma. And including a flagging Drama Festival, hopefully to be revived under a combined Adult and Youth umbrella, twenty nine productions received my sometimes unwelcome opinion.
It may come as a surprise to many who only support their own family and friends, or those who dismiss am-drams as a theatrical irrelevance, but the area is, and always has been, rich in quality performers. We may no longer get the professional cream in the town but I could name a dozen actors who are amateur in name only and an equal number of singers who, given the desire or the luck, would grace any stage. Add to that a number of high quality technicians and musical directors and both Luton and Dunstable are rich in theatrical potential.
When those performers get together, as they did for ACT Company's splendid Into The Woods, Get Outa Ya Pram’s ambitious Othello, a stunning Company from the Griffin Players and an absorbing Rebecca from Dunstable Rep, theatre evenings are an unalloyed joy. When they lose the directorial plot as St Christophers did with a misfiring Deathtrap, ACT with a disappointing Dancing At Lughnasa and, notoriously, Dunstable Operatic with a pedestrian Oliver, you gnash your reviewing teeth in despair. All of these latter shows had some very good individual performers but without the guiding hand of imagination and staging flair, all ultimately failed. Theatre must constantly surprise and excite, especially in musicals, and, in the best written plays, draw you in to the heart of the text. For all its faults in the script and some minor acting roles, Mona Norris’s direction of Rebecca did exactly that, and for an example of wit and imagination in musical direction you would go a long way to better Suzy Bolt’s wonderful Pajama Game for Dunstable Summer Theatre School. Her production may not have been totally seamless, in the true Granville Barker sense, but it came much closer than most on the local stage in 2001. And that lady like few others understood that, first and foremost, the director is the first audience for any theatrical offering.
So, accepting my caveats in regards to an overall paucity of good directors, who did impress me on the local stage, either for their singing or their acting. In the female stakes head and shoulders above everyone must be Annalise Carter for a series of first class performances in a number of productions, most notably her mesmeric Mrs de Winter in Rebecca and her moving portrayal as Cinderella in Into The Woods. In a long list of runners up, I was particularly impressed with Jo Mills (Into The Woods and St Andrews Oklahoma), Gemma Dunne (Phoenix Players She Loves Me), Donna McCabe (Othello), Anne Garside (The Pajama Game), Angela Goss (Company), Katie Pargeter (Putteridgebury’s The Grand Duke), Anne White (Dunstable Rep’s Murder In Play), Miranda Larson (Dancing At Lughnasa), Gay Hoyle (Rebecca) and Amanda Seal and Lisa Farrell (CSYMT's All Kind Of People). Notable male performances were thinner on the ground but amongst the best were Richard Cowling (Oklahoma), John Giles ( Griffins Allo Allo and Presbyns Toad Of Toad Hall), Chris Lawrence (Othello), Jonathan Sachon (The Pajama Game), Elliott Lawrence (Company), Alan Clarke (Dancing At Lughnasa), and Matthew Orr and John Horley ( Luton Light’s Pinocchio). Annalise Carter has the edge over the women for her multiplicity of outstanding performances in numerous local productions but the men spread there talents more selectively and Chris Lawrence’s outstanding Iago in Get Outa Ya Pram’s Othello had a distinct edge over the others listed.
Outside of the on stage performers I continue to be impressed by David Houghton’s stunning lighting (Company and All Kinds Of People) and Caroline Smith’s brilliantly imaginative choreography (Company and All Kinds Of People). These two special local talents get the Roy Hall backstage award. The best productions, Into The Woods, Othello, The Pajama Game, Company, Rebecca, and in musical terms All Kinds Of People, were so far in front of many other offerings this year that Luton and Dunstable seemed to be working on two levels. If the cream came to the top a number of the rest never even threatened to get into the jug. Forced to choose I would marginally give the nod to Dunstable Summer School’s The Pajama Game, if only for director Suzy Bolt’s clear understanding of the art of theatre and its need to involve and surprise. Others, including fellow reviewer Peter Collett, would justifiably put Griffins stunning Company up there with it. Phoenix Players may not have impressed with their recent prosaic Blitz but their gloriously colourful parfumery set for She Loves Me shares, with Dunstable Rep’s Rebecca my personal award for best staging.
So an interesting, if mixed, first reviewing season where the very best richly compensated for the mediocre or uninspired. I will gladly suffer ten evenings of pedestrian dross for that one show or play which delights or absorbs. Or that one individual performance, such as Gemma Dunne’s sparkling Ilona in She Loves Me or John Giles’ scintillating Toad, which rises above a sea of ordinariness. It is, of course, only my opinion but in all cases it is an opinion sincerely held and honestly delivered. If objective criticism invites a stinging reply from the defenders of the less than adequate I shall, in the interests of Luton’s theatrical cream, just have to live with it.
Roy Hall