REVIEW - TASTING NOTES - SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE -

Southwark Playhouse has transformed into a wine bar to host a brand new musical, Tasting Notes.

This original musical devised by Charlie Ryall (book) and Richard Baker (score), with both contributing to lyrics, spins through 24 hours in the lives of five staff members and one very troubled customer of a boutique, industrial-chic wine bar. Each of them are suffering personal crises of frustration, exhaustion, self-worth and conscience.

As a clever prelude, director Shelley Williams has her cast, as the last of the audience gathers, arrive on stage pantomiming opening duties for the venue: gestures of consulting, prepping, positioning. Nancy Zamit does great trade in comic exasperation as overworked owner LJ. Attempting her best to cheerfully accommodate her workers’ disruptive shift absences and requests for early departures, whilst extending herself too much in the process (she practically lives at the site). Wendy Morgan’s Hungarian Eszter struggles to fully communicate, blocked by a limited grasp of English. Party-boy George (Sam Kipling) regularly strikes poses and tosses out bon mots, lost behind a firmly-fixed mask of conviviality. Charlie Ryall’s Maggie nurses disappointments at failed auditions, doubting her life choices. Niall Ransome’s shy Oliver worries over his cat’s health, all love and affection directed towards his pet. Regular customer Joe (Stephen Hoo), lonely and perpetually inebriated, is met with both hostility and compassion by the vexed staff. Occasionally, the actors will take on brief depictions of various irritating patrons, ignorant and unsophisticated, pompously questioning LJ’s qualifications as a wine expert. All the performers are strong enough actors to carry through a variable assemblage of vocal prowess (Hoo and Kipling especially excel, delivering standout emotive ballads).

Charlie Ryall states in her production memo that the paramount intention of Tasting Notes is to give dignity and dimension to a sector of people (those in the hospitality industry). With whom ordinarily the public will have no more than a glancing interaction with. Yet who operate under tremendous stress and strain, vulnerable to peoples’ worst impulses. By extension, over the course of the night, each member of the wine bar will come to see a colleague in a new light. Musician Richard Baker, as well, has given each character an individual “signature”, an interval (gap between two notes) that acts as a form of melodic identity and distinction. The score is performed live with poise and polish by the gifted duo of cellist Matt James and drummer Jeremy Barnett who skilfully manoeuvre a small performance area.

The structure of the work is less a narrative than a musical motif, a series of reprises with slight variations. In which each movement resets the stage, as it were, with one of the six main characters assuming a central role. This device allows a chance for each voice to be more substantially heard, for each individual to be seen in fuller dimension before he or she becomes yet again a supporting player. Guards are down, defences less attuned, more of the authentic self present, so by the time each again is absorbed into the ensemble the audience has new perspective on each character (and indeed the motivating sequence plays out with tiny but sharp differences in tone and expression). The sweetest development is in seeing the growing acknowledgement of the attraction between Oliver and Maggie, taking proactive steps after so many tentative fumblings.

That said, the arc of some characters work much better than others. LJ, Maggie, George & Joe are given enough space and time to make impact. However, Eszter and Oliver feel rather shortchanged. It is in the concluding chapter that the script takes a major misstep. Not so catastrophic as to collapse the house, but at least severely compromise the foundations. To this point, most of the drama has been quotidian (everyday tragedies and concessions, humanely observed), but there is an action taken that is too serious and severe for the otherwise gentle structure to withstand. And the melodramatic excess of it throws off the scale. All previous iterations of the 24-hour period have progressed towards moments of compassion and insight. A closeness engendered by understanding, but the deed perpetrated in this final section is the result of a blindness born of anger, more an annihilating force. The show, which quickly settles back into its more lighthearted model, doesn’t seem anywhere near ready to confront the very real consequences of such behaviour – and it’s impossible to not feel differently about a major character.

For a work with such a generosity of spirit, advocating for taking a deep, meaningful quaff over the fleeting flavour assessments of the titular Tasting Notes, this sudden reversal feels like a startling violation of principle. The overall goodwill established keeps the piece from disaster, but the curious choice lingers bafflingly.

Tasting Notes is on at Southwark Playhouse until the 27th of August.

{🎟 AD – PR invite – Tickets were gifted in exchange for an honest review}

A CHRISTMAS CAROL – REVIEW – ALEXANDRA PALACE
by Ellie Preston
Spine-tingling yet heart-warming, Mark Gatiss’s retelling of A Christmas Carol truly encapsulates the haunting atmosphere of a Victorian ghost story, balanced out with enough humour so as to capture the festive season. Led by Keith Allen as Scrooge, with Peter Forbes as Marley, this show is perfect for Christmas viewing. The set design by Paul Wills is instantly captivating, containing stacks of metal cabinets towering over the theatre, moveable by the cast to allow space for other central props like doors, beds and tables. In addition to this, the puppetry design by Matthew Forbes is incredibly clever, adding creepy elements to the show such … More A CHRISTMAS CAROL – REVIEW – ALEXANDRA PALACE
A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK – REVIEW – THEATRE503
by Tom Carrao
The title of this winner of Theatre 503’s 2023 International Playwriting Award by Roxy Cook may seem like the set-up to a joke, but the narrative that unspools is instead an affectionate, gently barbed and at base quite sobering portrait of three ordinary souls (and one restless feline) adrift in modern Moscow. There is much affable, satirical back-and-forth commentary on the accepted myths & stereotypes of the Russian spirit & soul. Beset by the indignities of age, opportunism, graft, fatigue, the characters orbit one another, doomed to play out their roles in an unjust, predatory and saturnine universe. The play opens … More A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK – REVIEW – THEATRE503
PETER PAN GOES WRONG – REVIEW – LYRIC THEATRE
by Amy Rye
Peter Pan Goes Wrong first premiered in London at the Pleasance Theatre in 2013, and earlier this year the show made its Broadway debut. Now the production is back in the West End for the Christmas season. Following on from The Play That Goes Wrong, in this production, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is staged by the fictitious Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society and goes awry, disastrously so. The meta-comedy is filled with slapstick comedy, sometimes the humour may be predictable and silly, but it’s universally funny throughout – there is something for everyone here, and the laughs come thick and fast … More PETER PAN GOES WRONG – REVIEW – LYRIC THEATRE
GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT – REVIEW – SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE
by George Rennie
Drawing heavily from the classic canon of the British supernatural, High Tide’s trio of contemporary Gothic narratives uses traditional storytelling formats to address contemporary themes. Directed by Elayce Ismail, reverent musical interludes accompany tales of apparitions and nighttime conjurings that speak of women from the East of England. Unfortunately, the effect is less chilling and more lightweight, with conventional structures, predictable plot twists and an over-reliance on external forces to drive narrative shoring up some of the less relatable aspects of the genre. Nicola Werenowska’s The Beach House, perhaps the cleanest of the three tales, tells of a mother and … More GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT – REVIEW – SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE
CINDERELLA – REVIEW – LYRIC HAMMERSMITH
by Jenny Skuse
Drum roll please…(Cue a literal drum rolling across the stage.) The Lyric pantomime is one of traditions with the return of many well-loved jokes and skits. Costumes and sets are all made at the Lyric itself by Good Teeth, with set pieces being reused year on year. This year Cinderella gets the Hammersmith makeover, with some success. The costuming is fun and vibrant, with the ugly stepsisters’ equine pyjamas and hoop-skirted ball gowns giving all the wrong kinds of extra you need for those characters. Cinderella’s on stage dress transformation is magical and really well-timed. The Dame, Lady Jelly-Bottom’s, outfits … More CINDERELLA – REVIEW – LYRIC HAMMERSMITH

A CHRISTMAS CAROL – REVIEW – ALEXANDRA PALACE
by Ellie Preston
Spine-tingling yet heart-warming, Mark Gatiss’s retelling of A Christmas Carol truly encapsulates the haunting atmosphere of a Victorian ghost story, balanced out with enough humour so as to capture the festive season. Led by Keith Allen as Scrooge, with Peter Forbes as Marley, this show is perfect for Christmas viewing. The set design by Paul Wills is instantly captivating, … More A CHRISTMAS CAROL – REVIEW – ALEXANDRA PALACE
A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK – REVIEW – THEATRE503
by Tom Carrao
The title of this winner of Theatre 503’s 2023 International Playwriting Award by Roxy Cook may seem like the set-up to a joke, but the narrative that unspools is instead an affectionate, gently barbed and at base quite sobering portrait of three ordinary souls (and one restless feline) adrift in modern Moscow. There is much … More A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK – REVIEW – THEATRE503
PETER PAN GOES WRONG – REVIEW – LYRIC THEATRE
by Amy Rye
Peter Pan Goes Wrong first premiered in London at the Pleasance Theatre in 2013, and earlier this year the show made its Broadway debut. Now the production is back in the West End for the Christmas season. Following on from The Play That Goes Wrong, in this production, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan is staged by … More PETER PAN GOES WRONG – REVIEW – LYRIC THEATRE
GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT – REVIEW – SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE
by George Rennie
Drawing heavily from the classic canon of the British supernatural, High Tide’s trio of contemporary Gothic narratives uses traditional storytelling formats to address contemporary themes. Directed by Elayce Ismail, reverent musical interludes accompany tales of apparitions and nighttime conjurings that speak of women from the East of England. Unfortunately, the effect is less chilling and … More GHOST STORIES BY CANDLELIGHT – REVIEW – SAM WANAMAKER PLAYHOUSE
CINDERELLA – REVIEW – LYRIC HAMMERSMITH
by Jenny Skuse
Drum roll please…(Cue a literal drum rolling across the stage.) The Lyric pantomime is one of traditions with the return of many well-loved jokes and skits. Costumes and sets are all made at the Lyric itself by Good Teeth, with set pieces being reused year on year. This year Cinderella gets the Hammersmith makeover, with … More CINDERELLA – REVIEW – LYRIC HAMMERSMITH