ANNUAL CRITICS AWARDS 2004
By the standards of my first three years of reviewing I reckon 2004 must go down as a pretty quiet year. Except for a bit of low key teeth gnashing over Malcolm Farrar’s piece on Griffin’s ‘Hot Mikado’ the theatrically outraged have kept a fairly low profile. Maybe I am getting kind; after all I did refuse to pen a review for one show so abysmally awful I couldn’t find one positive thing to say about it. (No, I ain’t telling you what it was). Or, and this is my own pet theory, some local companies are getting cute. When they sniff a turkey in their rehearsal rooms, they don’t invite.
Fortunately, enough slung a ticket my way to make 2004, if not a vintage year, at least a theatrically varied one. Dunstable Rep were always going to find it difficult to match last year but with ‘The Anastasia File’, ‘All My Sons’, and ‘Proof’ they churned out three straight plays which left much of the opposition floundering. ACT’s ‘The Box Upstairs’ and LTC’s ‘Educating Rita’ had their moments, but only Griffin’s ‘The Rise and Fall of Little Voice’ managed to throw down a serious straight play challenge to the lot at the Little Theatre.
Musically the Rep still have something to learn and whilst their ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ had enjoyable touches, most of them took place in the interval. Elsewhere on the musical front Luton Light returned to form with a pleasing ‘The Boyfriend’, CSYMT scored with the homespun ‘We Love A Movie’ and Terry Mills Stage One youngsters were at their classiest with a delightful ‘Robin Hood’.
But there could only be one winner this year, and for their outstanding presentation of a magnificent ‘Chess’ St Andrews Players emphatically wins my BEST PRODUCTION award. Colin Smith Youth Music Theatre threw down a laudable late challenge with their invigorating ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ and deservedly win RUNNER UP BEST PRODUCTION.
Keith Turton (St Andrews - Chess) and Stuart Farrar (CSYMT - Little Shop of Horrors) deserve considerable credit for two outstanding presentations, musically wrapped by the incomparable Simon Tabert, but for sheer ingenuity and theatrical guile my BEST DIRECTOR award goes to ALISTAIR BROWN for the imaginative ‘The Anastasia File’ from Dunstable Rep.
On the individual performance front the ladies were particularly strong this year. Among the best were Liz Caswell (The Anastasia File – Dunstable Rep), Miranda Larson (The Box Upstairs – ACT), Sally Welsh (The Boyfriend – Luton Light), Rona Cracknell (All My Sons – Dunstable Rep), Lisa Farrell (Chess – St. Andrews), Helen Farrar (Little Voice – Griffins), Angela Goss (The Cemetery Club – Dunstable Rep), Sam Burgess (Anything Goes – Luton Light), Kate Ludlow (Proof – Dunstable Rep) and Annalise Carter (Proof – Dunstable Rep). It was not an easy choice but HELEN FARRAR gets my BEST ACTRESS vote for an incredible performance in Little Voice with LIZ CASWELL (The Anastasia File) and KATE LUDLOW (Proof) underlining the dramatic quality of the runners up.
The men gave me a much easier task. We had some fine performances but one was so perfectly crafted it eclipsed all others. Those who particularly impressed were John Catlin (How It Plays Out – Funny Hippo), Peter Brown (All My Sons – Dunstable Rep), Joe Butcher (All My Sons – Dunstable Rep), Richard Haxell (Chess – St. Andrews), Alan Clarke (Little Voice – Griffins), Mick Hale (Little Voice – Griffins), David Bailey (The Cemetery Club – Dunstable Rep), Christopher Lavin (Kiss Me Kate – DAOS), Matthew Orr (Anything Goes – Luton Light), and Andy Margerison (Proof – Dunstable Rep). ALAN CLARKE gets that BEST ACTOR vote for his beautifully crafted and sensitive Billy in Little Voice with ANDY MARGERISON (Proof) and RICHARD HAXELL (Chess) picking up the runner up awards. Richard Haxell also picks up my award for Best Performance in a Musical.
In the staging stakes I was particularly struck with Dunstable Rep’s ‘‘All My Sons’ and ‘Proof’, Stage One’s ‘Robin Hood’, Luton Light’s ‘The Boyfriend’, St Andrews ‘Chess’ and CSYMT’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors’. It was a close run thing but St Andrews ‘Chess’ just edges out ‘Proof’ for the BEST STAGING honours.
So that is just about it this year. St Christopher’s still don’t invite so I cannot comment on their two offerings. Putteridge, Luton Amateurs and Phoenix are currently keeping a low profile, and Dunstable Operatic continue to disappoint. Their ‘Half A Sixpence’ and ‘Kiss Me Kate’ fell well short of the musical best in Luton. Given the obvious talents within the company it cannot be too long before they turn out a much desired cracker.
And local theatre is desperately in need of a few things to sing about. Changes at Luton Library Theatre are making that a miserable place to spend an evening, the financial wounds inflicted on Luton Arts Council are, predictably, threatening its demise, and a number of straight theatre companies are either dead or dying. In such despairing times one turns in hope to the young to inject the new theatrical blood that the town needs.
That is why I will always wave the flag for Andy Calvert (Luton Youth), Stuart Farrar (CSYMT) and Terry Mills (Stage One). I may occasionally quibble at their achievements but will always applaud the intentions. And this year my applause rings loudest for Mr Mills and his young troupe. Terry Mills takes thirty six children aged between eight and thirteen and puts on a winter pantomime. And he has done it for eighteen years. It is about time somebody gave him an O.B.E. I can’t do that. But for an exceptionally colourful and accomplished Robin Hood this year I can give him and his Stage One company my THEATRICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. When those kids reach for the razor or the lipstick on some distant night, we can but hope that just a few will have theatre, and all its joys, firmly on their minds.
Roy Hall