Theatre review: Much Ado About Nothing (The Faction / Selfridges reFASHIONed Theatre)

Alongside the theatres that have been marking the 4th centenary of Shakespeare's death, there's been various other tributes from the obvious, like commemorative coins, to the less likely, like Selfridges (they sell fridges) theming their window displays around quotes from the plays. Taking the idea full-circle, the department store has also decided to actually stage one of them on-site, in a pop-up venue in the Oxford Street shop's basement. They're calling it the reFASHIONed Theatre, and handing out glossy programme/brochures PRINTED SINGLE-SIDED ON THICK PAPER HOW MANY TREES HAD TO DIE that remind us of the many high-fashion brands you can buy in-store (they also sell fridges) so the fact that this is largely a marketing stunt would normally have kept me away.

Theatre review: Vassa Zheleznova

Like a lot of bloggers I've been plugging the work of fringe ensemble The Faction for some years now, but recently they haven't half been making it hard to maintain that enthusiasm. There was last year's "leave 'em wanting less" season, of course, and now before Vassa Zheleznova even starts there's a virtually unusable programme costing £5: Inspired by the title character listening to the Shipping Forecast, the programme is an A2 sheet folded like a map, making opening it and finding any information a tricky business. The cost is because it includes the playtext, although whether you'd be able to read it in the correct order is a different story. And speaking of different stories, Emily Juniper has transposed Gorky's play from revolutionary Russia to Liverpool during the 1990s dockers' strike.

Theatre review: Joan of Arc

If Friedrich Schiller is Germany's answer to Shakespeare, then Joan of Arc must be his Henry V. It even features its own Welshman, and takes place soon after the end of Shakespeare's play, as the French start to take back the land and power lost to the English. It takes an unusual general to reverse their fortunes, though: With the Dauphin (Natasha Rickman) out of cash, and at odds with his half-brother Dunois (Christopher York) about how to take on the enemy, they're open to desperate measures, like the arrival of young country girl Joan (Kate Sawyer,) who claims to be a messenger of divine support for the French cause. Allowed to test her claim, Joan proves a canny military tactician, bringing the traitorous Duke of Burgundy (Christopher Hughes) back to the fold, and defeating the feared English general Talbot (Christopher Tester.)

Theatre review: Romeo and Juliet (The Faction / New Diorama)

An unusually Shakespeare-heavy start to the year continues with what's become something of a tradition: The Faction's rep season at the New Diorama, which usually includes one of the better-known Shakespeares. The fact that director Rachel Valentine Smith was on good form in the recent Reptember season made me a bit more optimistic than I would normally be about a play I've never liked: This year's rep opens with Romeo and Juliet. Two leading Verona families have been mortal enemies for generations, for reasons nobody seems to even remember. When the Capulets host a party, Romeo Montague's (Christopher York) friends convince him to crash, in the hope that he might get over his unrequited love for Rosaline. It works, but only because Romeo quickly falls for someone else instead - his enemy's only daughter, Juliet (Clare Latham.) And unlike Rosaline, she's actually noticed he's alive and feels the same way.

Theatre review: Reptember - Duende / Faust / The Rape of Lucrece

Last trip to the New Diorama for now, for three monologues to conclude the Reptember season in which The Faction showcase their actors and creatives. Kate Sawyer is one of the company's regular members who most often impresses me, and she and director Rachel Valentine Smith have come up with the most innovative of the nine pieces in terms of staging. Lorca's Duende is a lecture on the titular, indefinable Spanish word, something akin to "je ne sais quoi" or "the X factor" but with an inherent melancholy. Sawyer arrives on stage dressed like a clown¹ to deliver the lecture, but freezes on seeing the audience. In a solution reminiscent of Analog.Ue, she plays a tape of herself speaking the words, while acting out the beats, playing slides and music to help illustrate her points. Lorca's essay makes some interesting points about the awareness of life's transitory nature being a vital component of great art; Sawyer and Valentine Smith update it to include the unlikely despair in Kylie Minogue's "Better The Devil You Know" and reveal something of a crush on Nick Cave. It's playful and innovative but with touches of the Duende it discusses.

Theatre review: Reptember - Prometheus Bound / Dog's Dialogue / John Gabriel Borkmann

Straight back to the New Diorama for another in its trilogy of trilogies, Reptember. As I mentioned in my earlier review, this sees The Faction adapt classic texts into monologues, and this bill opens with the most liberal adaptation so far: Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound provides only the inspiration for Will Gore's short play, which takes the story of eternal punishment and puts it in a much more human context: The company's artistic director Mark Leipacher takes to the stage as a Prometheus working behind a bar, but with a dark past as a terrorist and torturer. The people he once worked with are now running the country, but that doesn't mean he's safe from having his past come back to haunt him, and the punishments he one meted out are visited upon him in turn. It's an interesting idea but, opening with Leipacher standing up a ladder and apparently bound there, director Rachel Valentine Smith doesn't quite bring a sense of movement to the piece, and this static feeling infects the whole evening.

Theatre review: Reptember - The Man With the Flower in His Mouth / Medea / Metamorphosis

I've been plugging ambitious rep company The Faction for a few years now, but by the end of this year's season I was starting to wonder if their choices of text and style of production were in danger of becoming a bit predictable. Almost as if they heard me, for the first time they've announced a September repertory season at the New Diorama in addition to their usual January/February one, with a new direction both in style and presentation - and if the latter involves Tom Radford rolling sweatily around the floor with his top off that's just a bonus. Reptember is a trio of triple-bills, each of the 9 plays being adaptations - some looser than others - of classic works. But unlike most of the source material, these new versions are monologues, performed by regular members of the ensemble and a couple of guest actors.

Theatre review: Thebes

I don't think I've seen The Faction tackle Greek Tragedy before - surprising really, as the importance of the Chorus would seemingly make it a good match for a company built around an ensemble. If they've neglected the genre before they make up for it by doing three in one: Gareth Jandrell has taken the various plays by Aeschylus and Sophocles dealing with noted motherfucker Oedipus and his legacy, and knitted them into a single epic history of Thebes. We begin with the city's king Oedipus (Lachlan McCall) at the height of his hubris, angrily demanding that the killer of his predecessor be found, and dismissing all the signs pointing to the fact that he himself is the killer. When it becomes obvious that he fulfilled the prophecy to kill his father and marry (or fuck, in this no-nonsense translation) his mother (Kate Sawyer,) he blinds himself and sets out to die - but in the process leaves a dangerous power vacuum in his city.

Theatre review: Blood Wedding

The Faction conclude their current rep season with Lorca's Blood Wedding, a play which, as the title suggests, is steeped in violence. But it turns out to be the interval that commits the bloodiest crime of the evening. The Mother (Anna-Maria Nabirye) is preparing her son, the Bridegroom (Andrew Chevalier) for his marriage, but the happy occasion is overshadowed by her feeling of dread, made worse when she discovers the Bride (Derval Mellett) has an ex-lover, Leonardo (Jonny McPherson.) It's not the suggestion of impurity in her future daughter-in-law that worries her so much as the man's identity: Although Leonardo himself was not involved, his family killed the Groom's father and brother, years ago. The marriage still goes ahead, but when Leonardo arrives at the wedding it's clear he and the Bride are still in love with each other, and tragedy inevitably follows.