Tag: Leeds Grand Theatre

Review: ‘Pride and Prejudice’* (*Sort of) at the Leeds Grand Theatre.

Funny isn’t it? You think you know someone and then all of a sudden they do something that leaves you just completely and utterly taken aback. No matter how many people you meet and how well you know them, every so often there’s one of them that will do or say something that you would never have expected.

Well, the very same thing happened to me on Saturday. Not with a person I knew as such, but with the characters in a much loved piece of literature. Having first read it nearly forty years ago and then every so often since then, I thought I knew as much as was needed about Pride and Prejudice. I’d even read an updated version with added zombies not long ago, so surely nothing was going to come as a shock. Then, along came Pride and Prejudice (Sort of).

I’d been given tickets as a birthday present a few months ago and although I knew that this was a different take on the classic, I hadn’t really looked at how different the take might be, which made it all the more of a treat when the play started.

Pride and Prejudice (Sort of) tells the traditional tale of the Bennet sisters and their somewhat complicated suitors. Just with added pop classics often provided by a karaoke machine. And some swearing. Actually loads of swearing. As well as a great big lump of anarchic humour and a noticeably feminist outlook on that whole looking for love thing. And the best thing is that it works perfectly!

As well as following the young Bennet sisters and their love lives you can look forward to singing along to the likes of Carly Simon’s ‘You’re so Vain’, Candi Staton’s ‘Young Hearts Run Free and even ‘Something Changed’ by Pulp near the end. You’ll no doubt end up laughing like a drain as well, especially at Rhianna McGreevy’s Mrs Bennet who at times felt like equal parts Peggy Mitchell and Catherine Tate’s Nan, delivering unexpected pearls of wisdom such as “Being a fucking smartarse is unladylike” to her daughters!

There are five actors in the all female cast and all are superb, taking on what must have been the exhausting task of playing every character. Every character including the Bennet’s domestic servants who are sometime narrators of this tale, but excluding Mr Bennet who is simply an armchair with a newspaper attached that’s wheeled on and off the stage and mocked mercilessly for its obvious silence on all things matrimonial. The cast are incredibly talented though with all of them taking on some kind of pop classic as well as turning their hand to the odd instrument along the way. They add brilliant comic timing to Isobel McArthur’s pin sharp, clever script and come up with a riot of a performance.

Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort of) is without doubt an absolute triumph and I’d go as far to say that if you don’t enjoy it then it might just be you that’s the problem. The show is just really clever and a shedload of fun. If you get the chance, I’d definitely recommend that you go and see it!

I give Pride and Prejudice (Sort of)…

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Northern Ballet – Romeo and Juliet at The Grand Theatre, Leeds.

I’ve been slightly fascinated by ballet for most of my adult life. There’s something amazing about a story told solely by dance and something incredible to me about those who can do so. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I’d ever go to watch one though! As a working class lad from the north-east, I didn’t think I’d quite fit the profile for the kind of person who’d go out to watch the ballet and I didn’t think I’d ever get the opportunity.

However, things began to change in the early stages of last year while I was at home recovering from my heart surgery. While mornings were usually spent getting some kind of exercise, afternoons were for recovering from the mornings and by the time the evenings came round I was often fit only for sitting in front of the telly and that was about it! On one such evening, with the living room to myself, I was flicking through the channels looking for a change from the norm and there it was – Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet. I watched it, captivated.

Fast forward to February of this year and upon opening the final birthday present from my wife, there was a ticket shaped piece of carboard in a huge box. Expecting tickets to a gig or a comedy tour I flipped it over to reveal…tickets to Northern Ballet’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. While I was surprised and a little bit puzzled, I was also really pleased.

And so, last Saturday, with mere minutes to spare – we were cutting things fine, as ever – we took our seats at the Grand, not really knowing what to expect. So, let me tell you a bit about the ballet.

The first thing that struck the both of us was a little detail about the audience; it seemed like about three quarters of them were drinking white wine in the theatre. Not in the bar, but in the theatre. In fact, while squeezing past a group to get to our seats one woman smiled and told me, ‘Just watch the wine’! Now, I’ve been to lots of theatre shows over the years and never have I witnessed such civilised debauchery! But almost everywhere we looked there was wine flowing.

Whenever I’ve thought about ballet in the past, I’ve heard an orchestra warming up beforehand. That kind of discordant mix of various instruments that I assume is musicians tuning up. I thought this was just a daft stereotype that I was relying on, but sure enough with seconds to go until curtain up, there it was! Even that was a bit of a thrill!

As the ballet started though, the orchestra playing Prokofiev’s soundtrack were wonderful. The set and lighting had a hazy, almost other-wordly feel to it and the sight of Romeo and Juliet on opposing balconies stretching to attempt to touch felt somehow profound. And then the balconies were pulled apart and the two star crossed lovers simply got further and further away from each other.

Another thing to point out here; for a very short while I was waiting for someone to speak. It is after all a Shakespeare play and so, as someone who has seen a fair amount of those in my time, I struggled a little to adjust. However, within what could only have been a few minutes I had relaxed into it and was simply carried away by the story and the beautiful way in which it was being told. I mean, who doesn’t know the story of Romeo and Juliet?

I don’t feel qualified to review the ballet from any kind of knowledgeable standpoint. Those on stage looked magnificent, at the very top of their profession, but unless anyone literally fell over, I couldn’t really judge.

What I do know is just how impressive and emotional the whole thing was. I knew that watching ballet in a theatre would fascinate me and I was in no way disappointed. For the majority of the time there was just so much going on on stage that I’d be trying to watch everything with a keen eye, fully aware of just how much I’d be missing elsewhere on stage. This wasn’t simply about the two main players. Every dancer excelled in their ability to convey emotion and the events of the story and the whole thing was just a feast for the senses (well, eyes and ears anyway!).

I sat watching for over 2 hours, admiring not only the fact that Northern Ballet’s troupe were just so graceful and powerful, but also marvelling at their stamina. As a middle aged runner, I’m thrilled with myself for going for a run for around an hour. I regularly speak to friends about how fit footballers are with the sheer amount of distance that they travel in a game, but the realisation of what these dancers were putting themselves through for such an amount of time couldn’t be ignored. I’m sure it’s something that seasoned ballet fans take for granted, but it was just another thing that absolutely fascinated me about the whole thing.

At this point, I wish that I had more knowledge to impart, but about as far as I go in this particular area is knowing the names of some of the moves. I’ve little or no idea what they look like though. What I can comment – again – on is just the level of skill involved. The choreography must have to be so incredibly detailed that for a mere plodder like me, it doesn’t bear thinking about. I watched in awe as dancers spun and soared in perfect time together and dovetailed across the stage with great agility and power in order to tell the story. Beforehand, I’d wondered if I might drift off given that the whole show was well over 2 hours long, but it really wasn’t an issue and I was invested in the tale from minute one.

I can’t finish writing without singling out Kevin Poeung, who played Mercutio and gave an incredible performance. He was just impossible to ignore and brought real personality to the role, adding just a dash of comedy and mischief where it was needed in order to accurately give us the unpredictable Mercutio that we would have expected. In short, Kevin’s was a brilliant and thoroughly entertaining performance among a cast that really were fantastic.

Watching Northern Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet was a genuine thrill for me and I’d really recommend going to see anything that they put on. And this wasn’t just something I think I can tick off some kind of bucket list, either. I’ll definitely go back to the ballet sometime in the future. So, if like me, you’re wondering what a ballet might be like, I could only recommend that you too take the plunge.