IAA Images March 2010 - Noies Off, Events Round-up

NOISES OFF
New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich
Review by Joy Bounds

Noises Off is one of those play-within-a-play-dramas, where the personal life of the actors is shown, and how it impacts on the play they’re performing. Not that unusual a device (didn’t we see something similar last year at the New Wolsey?), but here tuned to farcical perfection. Uncontrollable laughter was the only possible response creating a really great night at the theatre. OK, so it went on a bit late (you really can’t get an audience in and out of the auditorium in a ’10-minute interval’), but we were way past caring by then.

Michael Frayne’s 1982 play uses a brilliant but simple theatrical device. In Act 1 a touring theatre company is at the technical (or is that dress?) rehearsal of their very imminent production of the farce ‘Nothing On’. Slowly the frailties of the cast are revealed – the usual stuff I guess: love affairs, jealousy, a fondness for drink, betrayal. Act 2 is truly awful and brilliant. Our stage is their backstage (now on tour) with a glimpse of their stage through the screens. What we see is the chaos of backstage, what we hear is also the impact on the play they’re putting on. Sheer mayhem ensues as their real lives fall apart, anger, revenge and sabotage take over, with one or two heroically trying to hold things together. It was spectacular, and so cleverly done that I wasn’t the only one who sometimes wondered whether something gruesomely hilarious had been choreographed or had just fortuitously happened. Which is just how great farce professionally done should be.

In Act 3, we are nearly at the end of the tour, and everything has gone irremediably wrong. Our stage is their stage once more, and we see the fragility even of farce if timing and props are out of sync because of what is going on behind the scenes. It was a great ensemble performance, with some fine direction by Peter Rowe, creating a fabulous and drainingly funny night at the theatre.

Noises Off continues until 13th March 2010. Box Office 01473 295900

Events Round-up
MUSIC EVENTS

There is always much wonderful music to hear in the area around Easter time, and this year is no exception. If you look at the Events section of this website, you will see them all listed. Here are some that images has been sent information about:

COMMUNITY LIGHT ORCHESTRA
Saturday 20th March at 7.30 pm at St John’s Church, Cauldwell Hall Road, Ipswich, in aid of the Ipswich Citizens Advice Bureau.
A programme of light classical music to include Wagner’s 'Tanhauser March', Schubert’s ‘Lilac Time’, a medley of Paul Simon songs,
The Overture to ‘The Yeomen of the Guard’, the Suffolk composer William Alwyn’s ‘Scottish Suite’ and other pieces – something to suit all tastes!
Tickets £5 from members of the orchestra, from Ipswich CAB, Tower Street, Ipswich, and on the door.

WOODBRIDGE CHORAL SOCIETY
For their concert on 27 March at 7.30pm in Woodbridge at St. Mary’s Church, Woodbridge Choral Society are performing 'Music for Passiontide'.
Haydn was very proud of his ‘Passion’ describing it as one of his best oratorios. It was first performed in complete darkness in Cadiz Cathedral on Good Friday. By contrast 'Cantata 182' is Bach at his youthful best, combining technical wizardry with infectious melodies. Arvo Pärt, the Estonian composer, gets maximum effect with the simplest means in his musical encounter between Jesus and a lady of doubtful reputation!
Andrew Leach again leads the choir and orchestra this time with soloists from Trinity College of Music London, in this varied and moving selection of music for Easter.
Tickets £9 & £6.50(students available from 01728 689066 or Woodbridge Books.

SUFFOLK VILLAGE FESTIVAL
Sunday 14 March 2010, 6pm St Mary’s Church, Boxford

Le Jardin Secret – Veiled: Music for Holy Week
One of the most highly acclaimed young groups currently performing baroque music makes its Suffolk Villages Festival debut in March The group, first-prize winners at the 2007 International Young Artists Competition in York, boasts a French name, “Le Jardin Secret”, but actually comprises two Australians, an Austrian and a Belgian - : Elizabeth Dobbin (soprano), Romina Lischka (bass viol), Sophie Vanden Eynde (theorbo), David Blunden (harpsichord). “Secret garden” in French refers to the human heart.

The title of the group’s pre-Easter Boxford programme, “Veiled: Music for Holy Week”, reflects the fact that the authorities in pre-revolutionary France banned performances of secular music during Holy Week and even insisted that religious paintings in churches be veiled. The result was that some of the finest music of the period - music of intense passion and drama - took centre stage.
In Boxford, Le Jardin Secret will perform expressive motets and instrumental works by such well-known French baroque composers as Martin Marais, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Louis Couperin and his famous nephew Francois.

Details:Louise Jameson 01206 366603, www.suffolkvillagesfestival.co.uk