08-Dec-2007

Howling at the moon, and growing hair and claws have been just the horror thing since Universal created their classic cinema wolf man in the 1940s.  

But Queen Victoria fighting a werewolf, a pantomime cow giving birth, sailing ships crossing the seas to Billericaystan? That can only be the comic version laid on by Julian Harries for Eastern Angles. 

It may be the eleventh Christmas show he’s done at the Sir John Miles Theatre, but this is one of the very best.  

It’s so good that it makes you take a fresh look at Julian Harries himself. How talented is this man who can write wildly funny, tongue-in-cheek, film genre take-off fantasies, direct them with pace and ingenuity and give an outstanding comic performance in the lead role? There can be few in the country that come anywhere near him.

The story’s a Victorian Gothic yarn about an ancient curse on successive Barons Wildwood who become werewolves when the moon is full.  A young vet, a popular figure down at the Jug and Jugular, does his best to put things right by tracking down the magic spell which started it all off.  This he narrates in a series of letters to his absent fiancée who’s quite obviously having a wild time with hordes of servicemen while he’s away.  

The five performers (Greg Wagland, Tracy Elster, Betsabeh Emran, Philip Benjamin and Julian himself) take on a myriad of quick-change parts and sing some delightful mock Victorian songs, composed by Pat Whymark.  Cleverly harmonising, the actors dance and accompany themselves on piano, violin, mandolin, squeezebox and gazoo It’s all great fun and even the inevitable audience participation gets us involved in werewolfery

Julian Harries’ own performance is really something else. He’s quite mesmeric, his face at times a cross between Peter Cushing and Basil Rathbone, at others rural and bucolic.  Always, though, there’s twinkle in his eye, a hint of a grin, which fits with tradition because underneath the wolf man was always a good guy in torment.   

It’s done on a well-lit and attractive woodland set of twigs and antlers, with lots of ingenious stage devices including a staircase - three small sections of banister passed along beside miming climbers - a two-wheel gig, two ships, a camel train and puppets.  

This is a show with surprises and delights at every turn. It could become a very hot ticket this Christmas.

07-Dec-2006

BARKING MAD… AND QUITE BRILLIANT

Thank goodness this year's Eastern Angles Christmas production is about werewolves – because the entire show is barking mad.

Utterly, brilliantly and hilariously barking mad.

The inner workings of the mind of writer Julian Harries must be something the rest of us can only wonder at, because how he is able to keep writing these fantastic alternative-to-panto masterpieces is a mystery.

The latest lunacy to emerge from the pen of Harries is Mystery of the Blood Beast Horror of Wolfbane Manor Mystery,which opened last night at the Sir John Mills Theatre in Ipswich.

When newly-qualified vet Percy Tadworth takes a job in the Victorian town of Gippeswick, he is soon befriended by the lord of the manor, Wildwood, who gives him board and lodgings in return for the care of his animals.

But all is not what it seems with Wildwood and Percy ultimately discovers there is an ulterior motive.

Wildwood is afflicted with a curse passed down through the generations of his family that sees all the men turn into werewolves every full moon once they turn 40.

Aided and abetted by a talking cat – no, really – and his unsuspecting owner, Percy must travel to darkest Billericaystan (presumably via the A12) to find the only known cure.

The closest this production gets to anything like pantomime is with the appearance of a comedy cow and some booing at the evil witch, Mrs Drascombe.

We might be led to believe that when it comes to Christmas theatre there is nothing like a dame, but this superbly written and acted production proves otherwise.

The cast of five worked like crazy, won over the audience in minutes and kept us all roaring with laughter every moment – except when we were being asked to howl or bark.

It can sometimes feel like a rare treat to see a cast really working as a team but these five actors really do and it certainly pays off, there are no stars or divas here.

The Sir John Mills Theatre is certainly not a palatial venue and Eastern Angles have none of the glitz or glamour of bigger theatres, but what they do have is imagination, talent, bravery and perfect comic timing,,, and they have all of that in bucket-loads

Helen Johns