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REVIEW: Threesome, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

Julian Eaves22nd March 2017 Off West End, Reviews

THREESOME Union Theatre, Friday 17th March There is definitely a market for plays that, in the words of writer-director, Jamie Patterson, 'say the things that everyone's thinking, but no one actually says', and this is one play that has found that market. Last spring, having been a surprise hit on the festival circuit, this show arrived at the Union for an equally successful fortnight's run. Now it's back: longer, bigger, and as one might say.... more satisfying. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is about sex, and it is a sex comedy, a fluffy confection telling the story of a slightly bored married couple going out - after many years' absence - to a nightclub to pick up a girl to join them 'in the bedroom'. Conceived (if you will) as a vehicle for his partner, April Pearson (she from 'Skins' on Channel 4), Patterson builds the show around her central performance as the insouciant vamp, Lucy, who - far from being an easy score for marrieds, uptight Kate (Gemma Rook) and would-be louche Sam (Chris Willoughby) - is the hostess for this charming little gathering and runs rings around the pair of them, breaking down the walls of their tepid and inhibited relationship (and selves), and transforming them in a manner that is very much for the better. The casting is essential to the success of this venture, and the play gives us a threesome in more ways than one. Pearson's background is principally in TV and film, Rook is very much of the theatre with a cool, steely presence that prevents her Kate from ever seeming weak, and Willoughby's ace is his calling - nay, vocation! - as a gifted stand-up comedian. These three different intelligences at work with each other on the stage make for fascinating viewing, and the play functions best when they are able to draw on and exploit their own personal strengths to their fullest. To his credit, Patterson gives them every chance. Coming from a career in independent cinema (he has made 11 films over the past 10 years), this is his debut as a playwright, and an extremely robust and promising one it is, too. He begins on home turf, by showing the 'pick up' in a film clip (editor, David Fricker, camera, Cliff Trail). This lays down the ground rules for the encounter, and also establishes the writer's voice: the characters listen very carefully to each other, or at least Lucy does, and so we realise we have to do the same. And that's where the laughs lie. Patterson fairly packs them into the script, an example: Kate: Guess how old I am. Lucy (who is 25): 35? Kate (crestfallen): I'm 31. Lucy (carelessly): It's the same thing. After the film prologue, the lights snap up (perhaps a little too fully, too quickly - the lighting isn't credited), on Lucy's apartment - a handsome set by designer William Hooper - where the guests not so much 'chill out' as thaw. There is a great deal of very frank talk about sex and drugs - the act is mainly driven by dialogue, and a few 'interactive games' are played (see above): and things liven up considerably when Sam does a very funny striptease. Then, that act ends where the first version of the play stopped, as the playmates rush off for that promised visit to the bedroom. Patterson's great advance here, however, as a writer for the theatre, is what he does with the second half. As with traditional light comedy, there are two further acts, comprising the two scenes of the second part: the first is a return to the living room after the 'foreplay'. and we see the guests wrestling with their crumbling phobias and frustrations. It is here that the author's confidence in using the direct physical impact of theatre really scores, especially in the hilarious tangle he fabricates in the aftermath of Sam's experimental foray into anal passivity. (You see that Patterson means what he says, and does what he means to?) After an amusing audio-break spoofing David Attenborough's nature programmes, the third act is the beautiful afterglow, showing us the transfigured married couple and hinting at who knows what other adventures still to come. It's all as neat and tidy as a well tended pudenda. Jason Rush is the loyal executive producer here, helping his colleague Patterson onwards with the realisation and development of this bold and bracing concept in a new form: it is also his first theatre production, and a near flawless one at that. As a play, it works like a breath of fresh air, breaking open the closet of what really happens today between sexually active people with a crowbar of wit and brains, as well as some compassion and tenderness. As a first play, it is wonderfully accomplished, with more than enough humour and clever observation to justify its stay of two hours (including the interval). Just as Patterson is getting better - rapidly - at making the physical properties of theatre work for him, I'm sure that he is also realising that script writing for the theatre makes special demands. Even the airiest of comedies are most effective when based on pretty solid foundations of realism: here, after an opening hint about the rental value of Lucy's apartment, we really learn nothing at all of any material consequence about the characters, and that makes it harder to care what happens to them. And, perhaps crucially, the motor bringing them together is never anything more than the initial casual liaison: the bigger the play gets, the flimsier that basis begins to look. The thing is, as the play so eloquently makes clear, sex is hugely important. Having established that, just possibly, it might need to back up its message a little more strongly, maybe by putting something more significant to ride on the outcome (as it were). Patterson's aim is to create a light comedy, and he has succeeded pretty well. Arguably, the laughs would land with even more power were they tempered by the dangerous presence of a little more human vulnerability and complication: after all, we need to not just know but also feel, tangibly, in the room, what is holding back Kate and Sam from having a fully satisfying relationship; that would help us appreciate and value the importance of Lucy's role in helping them towards meaningful change in their lives, so maybe we also need to experience a little bit more about what's in it for her? Who knows. Patterson will have better answers to those questions than anyone else could think up. He's a great new arrival in the theatre and long may he thrive. So go and see what he's got to offer. I think you'll like it.

Patterson’s aim is to create a light comedy, and he has succeeded pretty well.

REVIEW: Anyone Can Whistle, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

Julian Eaves14th March 201713th February 2017 Off West End, Reviews

The musical performances in Anyone Can Whistle will please people who like brilliantly written songs, and they will fire the imagination of anyone who hears them to imagine another, better, story to tell around them.

FIRST LOOK: Anyone Can Whistle at the Union Theatre

Douglas Mayo11th February 2017 Features, Gallery, Off West End

Book tickets for Anyone Can Whistle at the Union Theatre

We’re pleased to bring you these great first look production photos of Anyone Can Whistle which is now playing at London’s Union Theatre. This rare revival of Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents musical satire will run until 11 March 2017. Anyone Can Whistle is political allegory in musical comedy form that tells the story of a town that’s gone bankrupt because its only industry is manufacturing something that never wears out. In order to revive her town Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper and her town council fake a miracle – water flowing from a rock – to attract tourists. When patients at the local mental hospital escape and mix with the townspeople and tourists, chaos ensues whilst J. Bowden Hapgood, a fake psychiatrist falls in love with Fay Apple, a nurse at the asylum who has disguised herself as a miracle verifier sent from Lourdes. The show contains a raft of … Read more

REVIEW: Three Sisters, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

Julian Eaves10th January 2017 Off West End, Reviews

Three Sisters at Union Theatre Southwark

Willmott has gathered together a handsome cast of 14 mainly young professionals, admonished with a few seasoned actors, and offers us a new way of using the Union’s recently acquired space.

REVIEW: Soho Cinders, Union Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Mark Ludmon15th December 201615th December 2016 News, Off West End, Reviews

Book tickets for Soho Cinders at Union Theatre

While we may have no actual glass slippers or fairy godmother, this is a magical production full of laugh-out-loud humour and delightful songs – enough to satisfy the most demanding of the musical’s fans.

REVIEW: Moby Dick The Musical, Union Theatre ✭✭✭

Julian Eaves20th October 201620th October 2016 Off West End, Reviews

Book tickets for Moby Dick the musical at the Union Theatre

Andrew Wright’s production does what it can to make us concentrate on the show’s many felicities. However, it may take more than bracing direction and lively movement to bring a greater feeling of cohesion to this still fairly loose assemblage of magnificent parts.

FIRST LOOK: Moby Dick Rehearsals at the Union Theatre

Douglas Mayo4th October 2016 Features, Gallery, News, Off West End

Book tickets for Moby Dick at the Union Theatre

Originally produced by Cameron Mackintosh. Moby Dick the musical is coming back to the Union Theatre in a few short days. With a book by Robert Longden and music and lyrics by Robert Longden and Hereward Kaye, Moby Dick is directed and choreographed by double Olivier Award nominee Andrew Wright. The cast of Moby Dick is led by Anton Stephans (Porgy and Bess, Smokey Joe’s Cafe) and Brenda Edwards (Hairspray, We Will Rock You). Check out these great rehearsal photographs from Pamela Raith Photography. Moby Dick runs at the Union Theatre from 12 October – 12 November 2016. BOOK TICKETS FOR MOBY DICK AT THE UNION THEATRE

Children Of Eden Cast Announced

Douglas Mayo17th June 201719th July 2016 News, Off West End

The cast of Children Of Eden at the Union Theatre will include Natasha O'Brien and Stephen Berry.

The producers of the upcoming revival of the musical Children Of Eden at the Union Theatre have today released information on the casting of the show. Inspired by the Book of Genesis, Children of Eden tells the timeless story of what it means to be a parent. From the moment you bring a child into the world everything changes; you learn to protect, cherish, and love unconditionally. But as they grow you have to learn one more thing; to one day let them go. Featuring one of the most beautiful scores in contemporary musical theatre from the composer of Godspell, Pippin and Wicked, Children of Eden is a heartfelt and humorous musical about the unique family bond. The cast features Natasha O’Brien (A Christmas Carol, Rose Theatre) as Eve / Mama, Stephen Barry (The Beautiful Game, Union Theatre) as Adam / Noah, Joey Dexter (This was the World and I … Read more