YorWorld: 'Peepshow' Preview

Seven little lives in one big city.

Devised by Frantic Assembly and written by Isabel Wright, Peepshow gets under the brickwork of life in a tower block as two friends, four lovers and one loner expose glimpses of their urban lives to an audience of voyeurs. Can we really trust what we see through the windows or what we hear through the walls? Do we really know what goes on behind closed doors?

In our preview of the production we speak to the cast and creative team behind what looks to be an exciting, engrossing and imaginative production unlike anything seen in the barn this year.

The show runs from Friday to Sunday Week 2 and tickets are avaliable on the door and from 12-2 on Vanborough stalls Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

You can hear our preview on ((URY Player)) here.

URY SPEECH SCHEDULE

Sunday Week 2 -

2:00 - YorWorld

3:00 - Comedy with ‘Got Booty: Fairy Tales’

3:30 – A look at Easter with the York CU

3:45 – Preview of URY Speech

Sunday Week 4 –

2:00 – YorWorld

3:00 - Discussion and Debate with URY

3:30 – The Blue Guitar

Sunday Week 5 –

2:00 – YorWorld

3:00 - Drama Premiere: ‘The Prince of Humberside’

(The Schedule is subject to change and times are approximate)

YorWorld

YorWorld is the weekly magazine show from URY.

The programme shines a light on campus culture, showcasing the best music talent at York University with live sessions as well as reviews and previews of Dramasoc's latest productions where we interview the cast and crew behind the many and varied productions that come to the dramabarn.

If thats not enough we also interview a celebrity every week and we've previously spoken to Mark Watson, Milton Jones, Brian Blessed among many others.

Got Booty: Fairy Tales

Got Booty is a comedy, improvised panal show.

Got Booty returns with its all new teams and delves into the wierd and wonderful world of fairy tales. With new and orginal games such as 'Hotter or Colder' mix with old favourites like 'The Ballad of Wikipedia' in half an hour of great orginal student comedy.

Discussion and Debate

URY's discussion show is returning with topical discussion on the events of the week. Guests include (but not exclusively) members of the campus media and political societies.

Drama Premiere: The Prince of Humberside

The play deals with the serious issues of deppression in young people and is played out through a single dialogue between an aristocratic teenager and a worker on the NHS Suicide hotline who deals him some rather unconventional advice. By Tess Humphrey. The programme will be preceded by an interview with the programmes producer.

The Blue Guitar

Original audio exploration by Hannah Gibbs looking at inspiration and focusing on the famous Picasso Painting. Featuring a depth of beautifully worked soundscapes this is a very different approach to speech radio. The programme will be preceded by an interview with the programmes producer.

Review: Shed

Hear our preview of 'Shed' on the ((URY PLAYER)) here

Reviewed by Tess Humphrey,
(presented by David Brennan)

So firstly what did you feel about the set for shed?

Tess: I thought it was very good, it was very evocative i felt because it was all made up of all the planks just so minimalist but very professional. You could actually smell the wood which was very good, it was intimate in this sense drawing you in.

I like the fact that due to the seating on all three sides of the performing area you really felt you made up the walls of the shed.

I tell you whats good was the way that Tom Crowley (writer & director) brings in the outside town into the script. He sets it up really well, making it not to blatant but you get such a clear idea of whats going on in the outside town.

I know that Shed had an original soundtrack, i was wondering what you felt this brought to the production, if anything?

I really, really enjoyed the original soundtrack, I’ve just written brilliant in great big letters across my notebook. It was going on being very kind of mellow and tonal when the old man was on stage, and it was almost like dialogue the way it complimented his mute actions. There was that shocking event at the end of act one, which i forbidden to mention, but it was so bombastic i went through your heart and you felt it.

Especially in that close space you could feel the seating itself.

I was so shocked that something i never even seen in a theatre before, it was brilliantly done.

Really well done i have to agree with you there. So lets got onto the story line, written by Tom Crowley who is brilliant i must say wrote our radio production of matchstick man last year now moving onto the drama barn with shed. What did you think of the storyline?

I thought it was very original, what i liked about it most was how all the characters feel the shed is their own personal hiding space which i thought was extremely original. Bits of it were sort of Alan Ayckbourn-esque , buts that’s probably to be expected in most theatre. I was a tiny bit confused at some points, but that’s just tiny little adjoining words that was missing from the script however I thought the dialogue was incredibly naturalistic though.

I found that the script and staging lent itself to a very claustrophobic atmosphere, which really helped you believe you were in a shed. I know from interviewing Tom earlier that he wanted to get this across and i definitely felt it.

So what did you think of the twist at the end of act 1?

I thought it was over, and really didn't know where it could go from there. I was completely stunned that it could be developed from there, but act 2 was really worth coming back for with people sitting around me saying they think they were considering going home because it was quite late and very cold. But act 2 was very well thought out, wrapping everything up in a way you could credit it could have from act 1. With the end of act 1 being something that is one of my big theatre moments of all time.

The interval was definitely need to recover from the end of act 1. Trust me the ending is brilliant. It really shocks you.

In terms of the cast audience members described Luke Malkin as ‘enthralling and funny’ and Rebecca Darmody seen as one of the favorites as well. People were really admiring of the way she could bring humor to a female role because a lot of female roles are played all lovely and stoical. I was prepared not to like her at first but i really got into her through her performance.

May i just get some last closing comments of you?

I think Shed and Tom Crowley in particular is proof of what I’ve long thought. That theatre is best left in the hands of the young people, rating it 9/10 as its absolutely fantastic!

And you can hear the original review (along with live music and comments from cast member Luke Malkin and an interview with with one of the most important figures in 20th century radio broadcasting, Charles Chilton) in YorWorld on the ((URY PLAYER)) here.

Review: Jekyll and Hyde

You can listen to our feature on 'Jekyll and Hyde' on the ((URY PLAYER)) here.

Reviewed by David Brennan

This week saw central hall musical society spring term production of Jekyll and Hyde. With a history of great shows least forgetting last years’ fantastic production of Rent, aspirations were high for another incredible performance. Jekyll and Hyde was not to disappoint. The musical is an adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novella ”Strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. It portrays the turmoil of a betrothed man, Dr Jekyll, as his research of separating the good and evil of ones soul is ignored by pompous aristocrats. This leads him to self experimentation causing a downward spiral to adultery and murder, as his experiments result in the separation of Dr Jekyll’s evil persona in the form of Mr. Hyde. A well chosen cast and excellent direction from Kat Kimms brought to life Frank Wildhorn & Leslie Bricusse score. The dark and moody stage setting comprised of multiple levels, adding a Victorian atmosphere and dynamic to the show. Draped on the scaffold set were red and black drapes all intermittent with white haunting masks and other symbols helping deliver the message of duality of the play.

The whole cast gave excellent performances with the group numbers of "Facade" and "Murder Murder" showing off the strength of the whole cast and power of the orchestra brilliantly. With particular excelent performances done by Luke De Belder as General Lord Glossop and Tom Jones as Bishop of Basingstoke. Show stopping performances where seen by both Ali Phillips as Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and Florence Stratton as Lucy the prostitute, both only first years gave excellent singing and acting performances. As Ali gave at times a bit too severe Jekyll performance but was an excellent contrast to the animalistic character of Mr. Hyde this was best shown in "Confrontation" giving a truly skillful bipolar performance. This more than made up for an underwhelming performance of "This is the moment", but as this song is placed amongst a trio of Jekyll's technically demanding songs it’s understandable.

Florence gave an innocent and raunchy performance holding her multidimensional character together through a charming cockney accent, adding much needed energy and fun to an overall dark and serious musical. Anna Czornyj who plays Emma must also be mentioned for her flawless singing performance which shone through in her duet with Florence Stratton with "In his eyes".

The choreography was technically well thought out and effectively performed by dance core and chorus alike, with particular numbers like in "Bring on the men" and in the "Transformation" really bringing something special to the performance. However in places the dancing seemed a bit of a distraction from some of the actors interactions like in "Take me as I am". In general though the dancing was beautiful, enhance by the brilliant costumes, if only in large groups seemed a bit unpolished with mistiming from both dance core and chorus.

The production was slick with swift cast on and off stage movements, however backstage lighting when visible became distracting and could have been avoid with minimal lighting backstage. Also with some technical teething difficulties for example heavy feedback and microphones being left on making the audience privy to some backstage chatter, had the adverse effect of drawing the audience out of a very gripping story. Further work is also needed on the level of microphones and orchestra as in times it had the effect of overpowering the cast.  

Jekyll and Hyde is still gripping and brilliantly thought out having both intimate and open spaces on the stage working well with the musical’s diverse soundtrack. With comic relief in the form of exaggerated aristocrats and pushy barmaids, adding some fun to an all together serious and gripping musical. I feel everyone involved should be praised for providing an entertaining and moving show, with particular praise to the direction and management of Kat Timms, John Askew, Izzy Dixon and James Oliver, who in particular must be praised for getting such a large sound from a relatively small orchestra.   

And you can hear the review as part of YorWorld (along with an interview with multi-award winning comedian Milton Jones) on the ((URY PLAYER)) here

Review: Black Comedy

Reviewed by John Wakefield

Listen to our preview on the (URY PLAYER)) here

So can you tell us a bit about the play?

Well Black comedy is essentially a farce by Peter Shaffer, now many of you may know Shaffer for his epic biography of Mozart, ‘Amadeus’ which is a really serious production but this is far from that. Black Comedy is a classic farce where every setup is obvious but the conclusion of all that is very satisfying.

Its about an artist called Brindsley ,played by Freddie Elletson , in this production who is desperately trying to impress both his future father in law and the world’s richest man Bamberger. They are all coming and they’ve stolen their next door neighbor’s furniture who’s supposedly away for the weekend and then of course it goes horribly wrong and the fuse blow and they are all put into complete and utter darkness.  And that is of course why it is caused black comedy.

And What did you think of the performance itself?

The performance was fantastic, its one of the finest performances i've seen in the barn with each character in the play is undoubtedly a stereotype performed masterfully by the Dramasoc actors.  Brindsley played by Freddie Elletson was highly convincing, as you felt his fear throughout the whole thing and his incredible overreaction convied his terror at every moment. Carol his fiancée played brilliantly by Edith Kirkwood was very uptight, came across brilliantly vocally and was just wonderful to watch. And everyone else was simply brilliant with Tom Crowley in particularly as the Colonel as you never got a smile out of him, everything being completely dead pan which really, really made the audience roar with laughter.  As did the character of Harold who was the epitome of camp played by Sam Lawson and that never letup throught the entire piece.  The same can be said for the uptight but very drunk Ms Fernival played by Stephanie Bartlett and also Clea by Laura Horton was brilliantly cunning and seductive but i won't reveal much about her character so you can go and see it. And Schuppanzigh played by Odinn Hilmarsson was also one of the best performances of the show. I can't really fault anyone to be honest, i felt the whole cast stood out beautifully in this production.

It sounds like its got a good mix of characters in as well…

The interaction between all the characters was superb, the whole thing about this performance is that its inverted whenever there is darkness the stage lights are up so you can see everything perfectly but all the characters have to be groping around in the darkness and this was done superbly. No character ever made exact eye contact with the other and you could always feel where the character felt the other one instead of where they had moved too, as this all sort of evolves this becomes more and more hilarious and all the jokes are built up around this leading to a hilarious finale which you need to see it to work out. But this is something i have to praise Sam Briggs and Katie Lambert’s direction, as i think choreographed is not too strong of a word, because it was beautifully choreographed. Every movement was perfect so each character should be there leading to this whole sort of mesh up of farce and humor that i have to say the audience last night just found hilarious.

Talking about the choreography and stage lighting, what did you think of the set itself?

It was excellently done, I'd never seen anything quite like it in the drama barn so far. From the moment you enter the barn you were in 18 Scarlatti gardens, which is the house. The moment you went through those doors you were surrounded by paintings, sculptor all on the walls it was all lit before you even went in. And even the seating was arranged of domestic furniture, i myself sat and lounged in an armchair which was wonderful being something I've never been able to do for a theatre performance before which really added to it. And also they had built up a second level in the drama barn so that there was a bedroom upstairs which was very clever and something i couldn't imagine doing in that very small space. It always amazes me how much you can get out of the small space of the drama barn, it is a very versatile space and the creative of how they managed to use especially in black comedy but of course in other productions always amazes me.

Can we just get some closing thoughts on Black Comedy?

Its one of the funniest shows I've seen ever full stop and the performances just made it brilliant. I've read some instances of corpsing apparently taking places but certainly for me I never noticed these and I felt it was a slick performance throughout. And while i felt there were a couple of tiny technical problems i felt were first night nerves, i can see it one of the finest performances in the drama barn this term and not just worthy of the barn but worthy of the west end too.

And you can hear the review in full as part of YorWorld (along with an interview with 'Shooting Stars' scorer and mobile caterer of the year Angelos Epithemiou) on the ((URY PLAYER)) here

Archive Comedy: The URY Sketch Show

Reconstructed from recordings found in the depth of the URY archives and as funny as ever the URY sketch show features everything from the new trailer for Rocky 8 to the story of migrating gueese in 15 minutes of student written hilarity!

Listen to it now on the ((URY PLAYER)) here.

And next term listen out for a new Sketch Show coming to URY!