stage
RIME
Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Sat 16 Aug
pic: DAVID PICKENS
HAIRSPRAY
Memo Arts Centre, Barry
Thurs 21-Fri 22 Aug
Hairspray, the retro teen-angst musical
with big hearts, hair and ideas, will be in
Barry, and to be hip, you should be there.
The show, adapted from the 1988 film of
the same name, was an award-winning
hit on Broadway and the West End. It was
also remade into a film musical in 2007.
It tells the story of ‘pleasantly plump’ teen
Tracy Turnblad and the discrimination
she faces trying to get on an American
Bandstand-type TV programme, in early60s Baltimore. She launches a campaign
to help her black friends integrate into
the show – all at the same time as trying
to cure her mom (played in drag) of
agoraphobia, help her best friend (who’s
in a budding interracial romance) and find
true love with the heartthrob of the dance
floor. The musical is packed with punchy
songs and silly-named dances that were
all the rage.
The show is presented in partnership
with Superstars In The Making as part
of Memo’s outreach and community
program. Leading the rebellion will be
Laura Phillips (Tracy), a recent Cardiff
University graduate and two Star Of Stage
winners, Jodi Bird (also a Britain’s Got
Talent semi-finalist) and Callum Howells.
So, watusi on down to see Hairspray,
you’ll flip for it! Tickets: £9-£12/£40
group of four. Info: 01446 738622 / www.
memoartscentre.co.uk (RLR)
BUZZ 32
HAMLET
The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: / He cannot choose but hear; / And thus spake on that ancient man, / The
bright-eyed Mariner.
Have you ever been stopped on the street by someone who wants to give you their life story, and had to listen to
their ramblings as you mumble something about an appointment and try to get away? That was the very basic
premise of Romantic poet Coleridge’s longest poem: The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner. The main difference
being that the one doing the talking isn’t a dull and bitter person ranting about how ‘things aren’t like they used
to be’ or an upbeat individual wanting to tell all about the lives of everyone they know, but a sailor recounting his
tale of a long and dangerous sea voyage.
National Theatre and Square Peg Circus join forces to portray the poem in the open air. As the Mariner narrates
his beautiful, terrifying and supernatural story to a groom-to-be (who happens to be on his way to his own
wedding), performers will be creating human towers, posing on Chinese poles, rolling down ropes and flipping
through the air.
The well-respected rhymes of Coleridge are in safe hands with Square Peg who, only running since 2009, have
performed for over 40,000 people. Members of the company can also be seen in the little known (joke) Olympic
Opening Ceremony and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, as well as having worked with big hitters such as
the English National Ballet and the Cairo Opera Ballet Company.
Like the poem itself, written in the late 18th century, Rime isn’t brand new, having premiered in 2012. The show,
however, was a great success – selling out during its first run and now coming back for another round.
With rave reviews abound – and the promise of magic, music and acrobatic muscle – Rime might be a production
worth stopping someone in the street to tell about. HEATHER ARNOLD
Tickets: £8-£12/£40 group of four. Info: 01970 623232 / www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk
Pembrokeshire Castle
Tues 5-Fri 8 Aug
It really does seem to be the summer
of theatre at the moment. Open air is
catching on in a big way, and, with their
new instalment of Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
the youthful theatre company Base Tikes
(in partnership with the MDCC theatre
company) are in the vanguard.
Let’s face it, Hamlet is the play, and it’s
always interesting to see a new theatre
company getting a new take on the
hallowed material. How we’re still coming
up with stuff 500 years on beats me, but
Base Tikes seem to be the group to do
it. Their website abounds with phrases
like phrases like ‘blow your mind’ and
‘modern’. Previously billed as Shakespeare
for the iPhone generation, and the
boyband and girlband of the bard, these
pioneering players certainly look capable
of rocking not just your socks, but your
whole damn underwear drawer.
That said, new directions are always risky,
and it’s not clear whether this group
are going to deliver the ground-breaking
performance promised or this is just
another misguided attempt to make Willy
Shakes down with the homebiscuits, but
I guess the risk is half the fun. And if you
can take it while working on the tan and
sipping strawberries in the grounds of
Pembrokeshire Castle, why not? Tickets:
£7/£5 under-16s. Info: www. pembrokecastle.co.uk (JS)
SISTER ACT
Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Until Sat 30 Aug
The ‘divine comedy’ of Sister Act has
made its way to Aberystwyth. The stage
musical illustrates Deloris Van Cartier, a
disco fanatic who is placed in a convent
for her own protection after witnessing a murder by her on-again-off-again
boyfriend and his gang. The struggling
convent is run by a strict Mother Superior
who takes an instant disliking to the
louder than life Deloris. In order to save
the convent Deloris turns the traditional
choir into the most popular act in town,
but with the success she is faced with the
risk od revealing her disguise and sacrificing her saf ] K