24-Feb-2008

After the shock of the threatened cuts to their funding and the subsequent struggle to overturn that decision with the Arts Council, it is good to see Eastern Angles back on the road with production that is an example of what they do best. 

A drama rooted in local history that is well crafted and well acted with a touch of wit and a little music to add spice - this felt that the company were very much back to form.

Cuckoo Teapot covers a time when young labourers from Suffolk and Norfolk made a regular migration to Burton-on-Trent to work in the breweries and in doing so found themselves in a different world where they had to grow up very quickly.

This play follows the journey of Joseph who is retracing his brother's footsteps and in doing so finds out about the secrets of his and his family's past. 

Although it was a little slow to start, and initially a bit difficult to follow - once the characters were established and the story began to take shape, the pace quickened and it became a joy to watch the team working together to create this moving drama.

Tim Bell brought a vulnerability to the role of Joseph, and his relationship with Emily (Bryony Harding) was very believable.

Helen Grady was superb as the severe chapel-bound mother, a good contrast to Jacqueline Redgewell's solid northern grandmother, and Graham Howes subtle changes made the most of his various roles.

On a stark but versatile set this was a fast-moving piece that just got better as it went along - helped by well-written, crisp dialogue that didn't let the story get bogged down with too much information - ending with a topical if not totally surprising climax.

Worth going out into the cold for.

Susan Hawkes, Evening Star

15-Feb-2008

Eastern Angles back at their best.

Coming up with an exciting and original new show was always the Eastern Angles best card. That the Company's done it again is no small feat. Rehearsals went on through a period when potentially devastating and disgracefully ill-considered funding cuts were hanging over the company.

But they've come through the shadows, sense has prevailed, and Cuckoo Teapot, an engrossing tale with a dark secret lying at its core is on the road. A darned good night out, it is too.

The setting for Kate Griffin's play I'd come across as a boy. I had an aunt who had been born into a Midlands brewing family and she told me she remembered that farm workers from Suffolk and Norfolk would go on the trains to Burton-on-Trent to get winter work in the Maltings.

Back in the days just before the First World War when the play is set, a quarter of country's beer was brewed at Burton.

The play uses local animosity in Burton towards the lads from Norfolk - 'Norkies' - as the social backcloth. When a young Norky, Joseph (played by Tim Bell) goes to Burton for work he has an address given him by his late brother.

His arrival there begins the unravelling of a secret family tragedy from years back, full of intriguing twists and turns, which keep you guessing throughout. What events of the past have left are two bitter and secretive families that have completely the wrong idea of each other.

I won't spoil it here by revealing whether things are resolved, but around Charlie Cridlan's multi purpose set, embodying a barge, a home, a Midlands outside loo, a riverbank and a railway station, we have an all-action drama with chases, carriage and bike rides, a pub scene, a fight, and some songs.

Director Ivan Cutting, who's kept his perceptive, inventive head amidst all the Arts Council nonsense going on around him, has assembled a fine cast of five - Tim Bell and Bryony Harding as the two Romeo and Juliet youngsters (there are Shakespearean references and twists, by the way, and Jacqueline Redgewell, Helen Grady and Graham Howes as the older family members.

It seems as if there's a cast of a dozen there - not the least because of Graham Howes, who is completely different every time he comes in stage as another character. A class performance.

Eastern Angles best village tour shows tell a good story, paint pictures and debate issues. They explore our East Anglian identities and heritage - and entertain us. Cuckoo Teapot does all that.

Ivan Howlett, EADT

27-Feb-2008

Eastern Angles is a regional theatrical miracle and for the Arts Council to have threatened them with cutting their grant by half was sheer lunacy.

If ACE wanted artistic excellence, this company has been providing it at the same high level for many years at mainstream theatres and out of the way locations. Among their alumni is Alistair McGowan who appeared in Goodbye America.Their latest production now touring is an account of the tangled lives of Norkies (Norfolk labourers) who spent winters in Burton in the Potteries working in the malting industry. The young men would then bring home a teapot for their womenfolk.

Writer Kate Griffin has homed in on a quadratic equation of generations of north and eastern families. Two matriarchs are determined to protect family secrets but prove unable to when fate steps in to set things on a very different course. I can't reveal the ending except to say that it is a cliff hanger right to the last words.

Angles' founder, Ivan Cutting, directs this simply staged, imaginative and powerfully acted story with music by Pat Whymark. Designer Charlie Cridlan's simple green wooden set with doors set into it is versatile enough to be a sitting room, boat, riverbank and more.

The five-strong cast are all strong actors with Tim Bell and Bryony Harding as the younger generation, and Jacqueline Redgewell and Helen Grady as the matriarchs - one a temperance follower, the other an outspoken critic. Graham Howes doubles as the dubious hypocrite Mr Spencer and genial Charlie.

It's well worth seeing. 

And finally, the good news is that ACE has granted Eastern Angles a reprieve, but you still need to support them as they go from village and school halls to barns and other remote venues.

Mary Redman