In the Stalls: 13th November 2011

Your weekly dose of theatre in York returns for another week.

This week we preview a play described as "the most significant English language play of the 20th century", Samual Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'.

We review this weeks Dramasoc's production of 'The Saliva Milkshake' and we have our preview of The York Shakespeare Project's ambitious production of 'Troilus and Cressida'.

Star-crossed lovers, epic battles and an empire on the brink of collapse . . .

The mighty Greek campaign against the Trojans has reached stalemate, with both sides quarrelling amongst themselves. Against this turbulent backdrop, Troilus and Cressida must battle the power politics and ruthless diplomacy which threaten to crush their newfound love.

York Shakespeare Project’s production of ‘Troilus and Cressida’ re-locates Shakespeare’s classic tale of love and war to York, 1644. The English Civil War provides a dramatic fictitious setting for this timeless story, which explores the potent mix of conflict, romance and chivalry amidst turmoil.

Combining period music, live accompaniment and singing with edge-of-your-seat combat, ‘Troilus and Cressida’ promises a memorable evening’s entertainment.

More information about the production avaliable on the York Shakespeare Project website here.

And on a personal note; Congratulations to everyone who helped us achive national recognition in The Student Radio Awards. We have highlights of the ceremony to round off todays show.

Hear the programme now on the ((URY PLAYER)) here.

Review: 'The Saliva Milkshake'

Reviewed by Kate Bull.

Before Reading our review hear our preview of the production now on the ((URY PLAYER))

The director’s choice of “The Siliva Milkshake” was a good one. It is topical in so much that today’s funding for the Arts is being cut, and the role of student protest is at the fore front of people’s minds. Plays for Poor Theatre are once more becoming a necessity; Brenton’s play is an enjoyable necessity.

Unfortunately, the URY preview promises something the play itself fails to deliver: a fast paced thriller of political intrigue and paranoia. Perhaps the stress of being both the narrator and protagonist of this play was too much for Abbott, for his character’s emotions, to us, seemed stilted and unnatural. The peak of Martin’s paranoia was never fully reached, affecting the play’s success in affecting the audience. As a result, I felt no empathy with the protagonist as the final scenes unfolded. Lily Cooper, as Joan (the extremist ex-student whose one action the play forms around) was very good, delivering intense scenes with confidence and understanding. Ryan Hall as Rafferty also deserves mention – his sadistic scenes had a childlike quality that added to a characterization that was quite threatening.

Matthew Lecznar’s direction deserves praise for it’s ambition, although some of the intensity apparent in Brenton’s writing did not quite translate effectively to the stage: some of the monologues became dull and stilted. However, there were some truly excellent scenes in which Lecznar’s understanding of the space, and the space between the actors, really shone. One example of this was the split stage moment of near total darkness, apart from a cigarette end and a red gel. This was fantastically effective. Otherwise, moments of slow motion throughout and the use of the projector screen as a gauze with silhouettes behind, were creative and well thought through. I believe, that with further experience, Lecznar will become an interesting director indeed.

Katie Lambert’s lighting design was effective, if slightly under-rehearsed in places. The use of an OHP projector worked cleverly to demonstrate change of scenes, and bring home Brenton’s ideals of Plays for the Poor Theatre. The blank, black space of The Drama Barn again demonstrated Lecznar’s understanding of the play’s context.

Overall, an engaging production, but one that just fell short of its director’s promise to teach the audience “something about themselves, about society and about real life”.

Listen in to the full review on 'In the Stalls' now on the ((URY PLAYER))

National Award Winning URY Speech

The URY Speech team have managed to win two National Student Radio Awards at a ceremony at the O2 in London. (Above URY at the SRA's!)

In the Best Speech catogory our highly acclaimed orginal comedy drama 'The More Beautiful Game' grabbed a BRONZE Award putting it in the top 3 orginal speech programmes from student radio this year.

'The More Beautiful Game' is the story of Yorkshireman and world class athlete, Geoff Batterson (played by Chris White) who wants to see his sport in the 2012 London Olympic games.

There is a catch though. The sport is table football.

Geoff not only faces the challenge of convincing the olympic committee, but must also be wary of rising table football star Kazayuki Takamoto, who threatens Batterson's place as World Number 1.

As the hearing, and the table football World Cup final approach, Geoff, along with his best friend Alan (Dan Wood) test their friendship, their nerve and their devotion to the more beautiful game.'

On top of that 'The Prince of Humberside' won the prestigious Kevin Greening Award.

Kevin Greening started his radio career as presenter and Station Manager of CUR. He was the Chair of the Radio 1 Student Radio Awards from 2000 - 2003 and was made a Fellow of the Radio Academy for his work promoting student radio and the awards and making it a spring board and vibrant training ground for new radio industry talent. His distinguished radio career included numerous accolades, including presenting Radio 1's Drivetime, Weekend Breakfast and ultimately the Breakfast Show with Zoe Ball.

This category is a special annual award to recognise the unique on air creativity of a presenter and/or show team's exceptional execution of innovative radio. This could range from a link from music or speech radio, a feature, a drama or interview to an overall programme, competition, or station message.

Each first round judge were asked to listen out for something they feel fitted the criteria of creativity out of all the entries. It should be something new and creative that stood out from the standard criteria of their category that made the judge stop and listen. They will be passed onto the judges of this award and judged accordingly. Judges in the first round do not have to refer an entry to this category.

The Prince of Humberside, originally a half an hour black comedy, deals directly with the issue of depression in young people and is written and directed by Tess Humphrey who has had personal experience in dealing with the issue. The play represents the power of two talented actors speaking on radio to engage and grip the audience.

It charts the phone conversation between Laurie (an aristocratic student) and his opposite Arrabella (a NHS call centre worker in London). Not only is there great drama as Laurie sad story unfolds but also tinged with comedy as the two struggle to understand what the others going through) Over the half hour both develop as characters which I hope the audience have an emotional attachment to.

And of course our Arts programme 'In the Stalls' was Nationally nominated even if not making the top 3 and continues this weekend with a preview of 'York Shakespeare Project's production of 'Troilus and Cressida', Dramasoc's production of 'Waiting for Godot' as well as our review of 'The Saliva Milkshake', this weeks dramasoc production!

You can listen to all our programmes now on the ((URY PLAYER)) and of course catch our national award winning content every Sunday from 2 on URY.

Congratulations to everyone involved in any of our entries and of course to URY for winning Silver for best station!

And if you want to be part of our national award winning drama here on URY then don't miss our Sitcom auditions for 'Going Solar' this weekend. More info here.

In the Stalls: 6th November 2011

This week on the programme we have reviews of Happily Ever After Society’s production of Thoroughly Modern Millie and Dramasoc’s latest production ‘A Day in the Death of Joe Egg’ by Peter Nichols.

Also our preview of next week's Dramasoc production ‘Saliva Milkshake' and, courtesy of the award winning news team here at URY, we have an interview with Cherie Federico, the founder of the Asthetica Short Film Festival which concludes today.


If that wasn't enough we also have our interview with Martin Barrass, on playing the role of Stan Laurel in York Theatre Royal's production of 'Laurel and Hardy'. 


Catch the national award nominated programme on the ((URY PLAYER)) here!

URY Debate: 6th November 2011

We'll be talking public sector strikes and the Greek bailout, plus Iran's nuclear weapons programme: how far should we go to stop it? Plus the Archbishop of Canterbury's been having his say on economic policy: we ask whether he's right, and whether he should be keeping his views to himself. Our guests are political blogger Adam Alcock, the Green Party's Spin Pitman and Daniel Murphy of the Conservative party.

The programme is produced by Paddy Evans, George Viner and Nick Duquemin.

Catch the programme here on the ((URY PLAYER))

In the Stalls: Laurel and Hardy - Martin Barrass Interview

Earlier this week John Wakefield met up with Martin Barrass, one of the stars of York Theatre Royals production of ‘ Laurel and Hardy’ and I spoke to him about the experience of performing the play as Stan Laurel and his opinion of the comedy Duo.

York Theatre Royal's Production of Tom Mcgrath's 'Laurel and Hardy' is an incredible show that shouldn't be missed!

'Both incredibly funny and deeply moving' - URY Review

 Don't miss your chance to see this fantastic show as this Saturday (4th Nov) marks the end of the run. Tickets avaliable from http://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/

Listen to the interview NOW on the ((URY PLAYER))

And make sure you tune into 'In the Stalls' for all the latest theatre and arts news on campus this Sunday at 2!

Review: ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’

Before reading our review, get a taste of the show by listening to our preview here on the ((URY PLAYER))

Happily Ever After Society’s latest musical offering is their production of ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’. The performance provided a showcase for some of the finest vocal talents at the university yet the production never quite captured the air of a professional production.

For those who don’t know the premise of this unusual musical it provides a combination of 20s jazz, love triangles, money and of course white slavery (what comedy musical would be the same without that key ingredient). The show mixes superb jazz with Gilbert and Sullivan for a mix that must be unique in musical theatre.

The performances of the leads were astounding. Lottie Johnson as Millie shone with an infectious enthusiasm and enjoyment of the production. Tom Jones felt relaxed and charming in his role as Jimmy (Millie’s love interest) and Melissa Layton was delightfully evil as the pantomimic Mrs. Meers. Yet the show was stolen by Luke de Belder and Bethan Williams as Trevor and Miss Dorothy who both provided spot on comedy as well as impressive vocal performances which combined had the audience in the palm of their hands.

While the chorus initially seemed unnerved in the opening scenes they soon settled into the performance and the final chorus numbers couldn’t help but bring a smile to my face and raise the hairs on the back of my neck. Equally when in smaller groups, such as at the Society Club the male chorus provided a superb barbershop backing to the sexy jazz vocals of Claire Lawrence’s Muzzy. While the dancing was by no means perfect and often felt forced instead of flowing into the overall continuity of the show it still provided some great moments such as the letter writing scene which was a highlight of the first half.

Many people will be aware that the production has faced the problem of not being able to use its Central Hall home stage because of renovation being carried out by the University. The decision, however to move the production to the Joseph Rowntree Theatre did suit the production. As the stage show is an adaptation of the 1967 film the theatre’s plush ex cinema feel suited the show perfectly.

However despite the incredible performances by the leads the cast and chorus often failed to fill the stage or bring many of the settings alive. This was often due to unimaginative staging and a lack of props to punctuate the different locations which wasn’t helped by incredibly poor lighting design which lacked subtlety and rarely aided the empty staging. Furthermore the Joseph Rowntree theatre had facilities that performances in Central Hall could only dream of, such as a fully functional stage loft which was only used once in the entire performance.

In conclusion the show was an enjoyable evening despite its problems and the superb performances made the journey to the theatre well worth while even if the staging and technical aspects of the show made some parts of the evening underwhelming. Yet a recommendation is by no means hard to give and it still is a good introduction to the abilities of the performing arts societies at the university, even if it never attained the air of professionalism they set out to achieve.

The show is running at the Joseph Rowntree Theatre, 7:30 every night until this Saturday. There is free transport to the venue from James College at 7:00 each night.

Hear our full audio review now in the National Award nominated 'In the Stalls' on the ((URY PLAYER)) here!