26-Feb-2010

Designer Mika Handley's archetypal Greek microcosm - a tilted, circular, flat disc, a couple of cypress trees, a few tiny houses, all in wonderful muted browns and umbers and ochres - provides the atmospheric stage on which Eastern Angles are touring Charles Way's enigmatic play around East Anglia this spring. The sun rising behind the rear diorama will thrill and impress in venues far and wide as it did me, I am sure.

The two-act play revolves (no pun intended) around Old Mother. A widow, she wants to return to the seaside village of her youth. On The Long Way Home, she discovers a wild Dog-Boy and takes him with her. A male and a female Storyteller help her and us by playing all the other roles and manipulating the interesting puppets that telescope the story for our convenience.

Susan McGoun is Old Mother. She's good, but the cavernous hall in Haverhill demanded more oomph. It is a solid but muted performance. Theo Devaney is suitably wild and unkempt as he emerges from under the leaves, learns to identify stone, stick, woman and boy and metamorphoses into an attractive young man under the old woman's tutelage. James Bolt and Jumaan Short are excellent as the Storytellers. Slipping in and out of character, they comment on the action while retaining a firm grasp of the narrative. The dialogue touches on many aspects of human experience. I'm not sure that Dog-Boy's anguished cry of ‘What is God?' is or can be adequately answered on this interesting and entertaining journey, but you certainly leave the theatre musing on life's mysteries.

Hugh Homan, The Stage

01-Mar-2010

Rural touring is one of the Cinderellas of British theatre. But village halls and tiny theatres up and down the country are packed most nights with people enjoying shows that arrive courtesy of the unsung hard work of touring networks and regional touring companies such as Eastern Angles.

The latter has reinvented itself over the last couple of years since the arts council threatened to chop its funding, but then relented. And, in Return to Akenfield, the company produced a show about East Anglian life that stood shoulder to shoulder with the very best verbatim work.

This latest piece, Charles Way's story of an old widowed Greek woman traversing the forests, farmlands and mountains to return to the seaside village of her birth, is charming and accessible. However, by choosing an off-the-shelf play Eastern Angles rob themselves of the opportunity to demonstrate that it is when they concern themselves with local issues that they are also at their most universal. With its timeless, almost fairytale quality, Way's play tries a little too hard to prove its universal relevance as the woman and her companion, a feral dog-child who she discovers in the forest and who she cares for as a lost son, cross the countryside.

Naomi Jones's production embraces Way's storytelling style, which is always at its most interesting and playful when it questions the nature of the story itself, and the opportunities that the teller has to manipulate the narrative. Mika Handley's simple design makes the most of the cramped space and plays with scale - miniature villages nestling amid an immense landscape. There are some lovely moments involving puppetry, with the woman and boy represented as tiny figures crossing great mountain ranges. Death is never far away: the woman's husband appears as a brilliant puppet ghost with an earthenware jug head.

Susan McGoun as the old woman is excellent, providing the drama with its quiet, grounded centre and some much-needed wry humour. The rest of the young cast work like dogs, quite literally in the case of Theo Devaney who plays the feral dog-boy.

The simplicity of the piece is appealing, and it would be all the more so if it wasn't so apparent that this fable comes with a staunch Sunday school lesson about the fences and borders we erect that stop us being truly human.

Lyn Gardner

10-Mar-2010

Following a successful double bill of plays which ran at various locations around Peterborough last year, Eastern Angles are back in the city with their new production, The Long Way Home. Set in an unidentified but decidedly Grecian land, the play follows the character of Old Mother, an elderly lady who, following the death of her husband, leaves her village in order to return to the seaside town of her birth. En route she discovers a ‘dog-boy', a young boy living like a wild dog in the forest. Not feeling able to abandon him, she takes him with her on her journey, and as they travel, teaches him to talk, and about the world around them. Their path takes them through mountains, forest and farmland plains, and along the way they meet with various characters, all of whom are strange to Andreas the dog-boy, and all of whom try to tempt him away from his path alongside Old Mother, and into their worlds.

The Key Theatre Studio lends itself perfectly to this production, its smaller scale thrusting the audience in amongst the action and creating an intimate atmosphere which heightens every tension and multiplies every emotion. As we've come to expect with Eastern Angles the standard of acting is superb, but it's the additional use of puppetry and storytellers, and the overall direction of the play, which makes The Long Way Home truly stand out. Whilst the actors playing Old Mother and Andreas remain constant, all the other characters in the story are played by James Bolt and Jumaan Short, who also act as the storytellers, flipping between roles with a momentary change of costume, or sometimes just an alteration of posture.

The puppetry also blends seamlessly into the action, the frightening creation of the ghost of Old Mother's husband using nothing but an upturned jug and a hessian rag being a particular triumph. Nor has director Naomi Jones wasted a moment of any scene, with even changes of scenery being used to dramatic effect; as Andreas and Old Mother begin to descend the mountains looking down over the town of their destination, the boxes representing the houses are swished past their eyes as they're moved from the stage, signifying their entrance into the town.

With a single stage set, a small cast and the use of puppetry and song, Eastern Angles have pushed the boundaries of what can drama can achieve, and woven it into a gripping and heartwarming story that will enthral and delight audiences in equal measure. With a long list of dates still to run throughout the region, The Long Way Home will deservedly raise the company's reputation once again.

Paddy Burke

Art & Soul Magazine

15-Mar-2010

The title sketches the plot. Charles Way's drama traces an old woman's journey. Before she reaches her destination by the seashore, she is in for surprises, unexpected encounters and, finally, a sense of fulfilment.

The Eastern Angles company pauses at the Maddermarket Theatre on its tireless touring around the region to present a production by Naomi Jones that is ingenious and entertaining, often moving yet lightened by flashes of humour.

A tall, dignified figure in peasant black, Susan McGoun is the Old Mother, contrasting with the lithe Theo Devaney who, with a fascinating blend of savagery and grace, becomes her strange travelling companion. James Bolt and Jumaan Short make up the rest of the cast.

As narrators they explain the situation at the start and at each new juncture. They also convincingly establish the identity of a series of different roles in split seconds and create mini-dramas of unsettling intensity.

On a minimal setting in front of a white backcloth, with few props, they performers don't just speak. They sing and dance, fight and embrace, while puppets mimic their progress on steep mountain paths as the wind howls. Portraying human emotions through the ageless patterns of fairytale with modern touches added, the play adopts the forms of epic theatre as to the manner born.

Christopher Smith

04-Apr-2010

As with all Eastern Angles' productions, The Long Way Home is deceptively simple both in Mika Handley's inventive design and the interpretation of Old Mother's epic journey home, through forests and across mountains and farm land on a small stage with minimalist props. We meet Old Mother (Susan McGoun), a widow, as she decides it is time for her to return to the coast, where she was born. She is tired of ‘always being the one who came from somewhere else'. But Old Woman's dead husband is not best pleased and he appears as a puppet ghost, an earthenware pot for his head, to tell her so. It sounds mad, but it works. The ghost is operated by the narrators (deftly played by James Bolt and Jumaan Short) who, in addition to working a series of ingenious puppetry, slip in and out of characters encountered along the way.

Undeterred, Old Woman dismisses her husband and sets off on her final journey, passing first through a forest. She stumbles on a feral dog-child (Theo Devaney), a frightened, gibbering wreck who gradually responds to her kindness. They form a bond and together, aided by the narrators, continue the journey encountering a series of strange and unsettling characters, all fighting their own personal demons.

The dog-child is no easy role but Devaney carries it off admirably. Some of his lines are a little over-dramatic, as he demands an explanation for God, but he brings an overall believability to the character. McGoun infuses Old Mother with unexpected wit, thereby lifting what could otherwise have been heavily-laboured references to the generation gap.

The true origins of the dog-boy remained enigmatic throughout as befits a folk tale. Events are not always resolved tidily, thus providing the piece with depth. Who, or what, the dog-boy is or represents is open to interpretation.

Presenting what Ivan Cutting describes as an ‘off the shelf play', and set in Greece at that, could have been a gamble for a company so readily associated with East Anglia. Yet the universal story of Old Mother is such that it needed only an imaginative script, a talented director, an innovative designer, and four versatile actors to make it work. Happily for audiences in a variety of venues across the region, there were all of these ... and more.

Carol Twinch, Ipswich Arts Association

05-Apr-2010

As promised, Stagestruck this month reviews Charles Way's The Long Way Home, this year's Eastern Angles Spring Tour which, unusually for EA is not a new piece of work, nor is it set in East Anglia but rather in Greece.

A widow, Old Mother, making the arduous journey to the village of her birth meets and takes into her care a boy who acts like a dog - Dog Boy. Their journey, both literal and metaphorical, warps time and weaves questions of nature, the importance of names and the clash between the civilised and the barbarian, whilst they deal with friend and foe upon the road and Old Mother is harassed by the ghost of her dead husband.

The first thing that must be said about The Long Way Home is how good-looking it is. Perhaps surprisingly that's not actually a reference to the cast, fine examples of the human form that they undoubtedly are, it's the set I refer to. The design by Mika Handley is worth the ticket price alone. Now that sounds like a daft thing to say as you don't usually go to the theatre to admire the carpentry but I was entranced by the set before I'd even taken my seat and found myself wondering whether the performances would do it justice.

I'll return to the stage design in a moment but what of the performances? Well Long Way is a mythic tale which blends European folk tales and elements of Greek Theatre. Such narratives are best unfurled within an intimate atmosphere so that the audience is drawn in, almost as though the story were being told to them around a fire or in the yurt of a herdsman. And the cast, aided strongly by the set, managed to do just this. I was engaged from the start when James Bolt and Jumaan Short emerged as the storytellers; part creators of the tale and part Greek chorus.

It is immediately clear that the Storytellers have told this tale before and, like the Gods in Greek Mythology, are able to meddle in human affairs. Their squabbling over petty matters imitates that of Zeus and Hera and, as the actors also take the roles of the characters Old Mother and Dog Boy meet upon the road, an ambiguity is created as to whether, as in Greek Mythology, these characters are the Gods in human form. They provide dramatic counterpoint to the amiability of the storytellers and goodness and strength of Old Mother by illuminating the greed, fallibility and viciousness of the human character.

James' confused, beaten down woodcutter is well judged and Jumaan makes a magnificent brigand queen; petulant, smart and dangerous, wearing her Kalashnikov as though it were a Gucci handbag. Theo Devaney makes an excellent dog and I'm sure many female members of the audience would have liked to pet him. His transformation from beast to man, under the guidance of Old Mother, played with humour by Susan McGoun, is the backbone of the story against which a couple of genuinely moving scenes are played out. The loss of their child by the woodcutter and his wife is particularly affecting, intensified by the use of puppetry.

Yes there is some puppetry in Long Way and it is used to outstanding dramatic effect. In fact, the ghost of Old Mother's husband, made menacingly corporal by some sacking and an upturned pot, comes close to giving the performance of the show, which is not to denigrate the cast but is testament to the skill with which they animate it. You can almost see this wraith breathe and its own journey of personal enlightenment beyond the grave added and almost unbearably tender touch to the warm, strangely life affirming, finale.

And finally, that set. This is no grand extravaganza. It is a 4 metre wide tilted circle with wooden trees which look like they've come from a giant Brio train set, backdropped by layers of plywood. Sounds entirely underwhelming doesn't it? But its total is so much more than the sum of its parts. To say it's beauty and utility lie in it's simplicity would undoubtedly undervalue the complexity of the composition but the effect set the emotional tone for the play before an actor had even taken the stage, with the splendid lighting adding nuance. The set serves as both a vista and microcosm for the action and all in all Long Way Home makes for a thoroughly charming, engaging, heart-warming and good-looking evening.

Steve Hawthorne

20-Apr-2010

The Long Way Home, from the pen of master storyteller Charles Way, is a tender, engaging and thoroughly entertaining piece of theatre.

It is the story of Old Mother and Dog Boy who make their way to the sea from the forests, across the fertile plains and over the mountains.

Within that simple context - a peasant woman, steeped in the folklore of her country somewhere, one imagines, in the eastern Mediterranean, undertaking the journey of a lifetime accompanied by a wild boy - we are told folk tales and reminded of universal truths with enormous wit and puppetry.

Elegantly written, beautifully designed and executed, it is a rare treat. Each story within a story is a small gem set in a satisfying whole.

The actors, who have been travelling with The Way Home since February, are comfortable with their characters. This is especially demanding for James Bolt and Jumaan Short who have a number, all of them portrayed with great energy and distinction.

Susan McGoun's Old Mother, haunted by the ghost of her husband - a fascinating puppet - gives a fine performance conveying great calm, wisdom and inner strength with an endearing lightness of touch.

She adopts a feral boy and teaches him, as a mother would teach a baby, how to speak and how to understand the complexities of human existence.

She names him Andreas. Theo Devaney is a marvel in the part. He shows the transition from total innocence to awareness and, along the way, shows us a little about the importance of self-knowledge.

I laughed a lot and, inevitably, shed a tear as their journey ended.

You might have had to travel a long way from home to find such a heart-warming and delightful theatrical experience but fortunately, Eastern Angles is on tour for another month with dates in Suffolk, Essex and Norfolk still to come.

Lynne Mortimer