Oddsocs Reviews - Reviews of our Shakespeare productions

In June 2011 at Dilston we saw a wonderfully direct and meaningful Macbeth, a blessed return to the old recipes.

What sort of dish would their latest offering of The Merry Wives of Windsor prove to be? Cordon bleu or boil in the bag?

Actually it was really quite tasty. The play itself is a bit of a Shakespearean pot-boiler. Legend has it that the Virgin Queen ordered by return a play about Falstaff in love. And a story of a fat knight in lust is what she got. The characterisation is flat but there is a well-structured plot.

Andy Burrow, one of the founder-directors of Oddsocks has devised a version that exists on all sorts of levels.

What we see on stage is a repertory theatre company recording live in a television studio circa 1957. Five actors, playing other actors, playing eleven characters, in a play. Not even Shakespeare with his habit of multiple disguises and cross gendering was this complicated.

After a slow start to set the scene and establish the characters, the action moves into farce-mode as an incredibly rotund Falstaff endeavours to seduce Mrs Ford and Mrs Page.

They, comparing notes, play along with the deception. Ford himself, the epitome of jealousy, endeavours to discover adultery. Needing to hide Falstaff the wives persuade him to take refuge in a Bendix Gyramatic washing machine which goes the full spin cycle to the discomfort of Falstaff and the unexpected pleasure of Mrs Page.

The mayhem continues in the second half with increasing lunacy. There is in the text less chance for verbal humour but the by play between characters was very funny indeed. I shall cherish for a long time the sight of Ford nibbling on Falstaff’s toenail clippings in the mistaken belief that they were Cheesy Wotsits.

Very often, even in large scale productions of this play, the final scene in Windsor Forest collapses like a badly-made meringue. The concept of Falstaff as a stag and his tormentors as malignant fairies can seem twee. The Oddsocks version was the most apposite I have seen, both intelligent and hysterically funny.

I’VE long been entertained and uplifted by the work of Oddsocks, though in recent years I have at times become totally exasperated. They are great exponents of what a friend once referred to as ‘nutty theatre’, a form of production in which actors react directly with the audience rather than ‘putting on a show’.

They descend on Tynedale twice a year, once in the summer when they bring their pageant wagon to Dilston and also immediately before Christmas when they grace the Queen’s Hall.

Oddsocks, I believe, are like barbecues, best enjoyed in the open air. There, without technology, actors have to rely on their own personality to make contact. Straight off the coals grilling brings out the best of the flavour both of meat and players.

We look forward to welcoming Oddsocks back to Tynedale in the summer with their production of Julius Caesar.

Desperate Windsor Wives

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton, Tuesday 13th December, 2011 - William Stafford

Oddsocks’s winter production this year is quite possibly their most bonkers show to date. They set Shakespeare’s sit-com in a television studio in the 1950s, complete with static cameras and equally static cameramen. We are present at a "live broadcast" – the company (usually the Pembroke Players but here the Television Repertory Company) mingles with the audience and perform a warm-up song in appropriate doo-wop style, complete with washboard. Scene transitions are covered with black and white commercials on the large TV screen, extolling the many and varied virtues of Mrs Quickly’s wonder-product, a creation to rival Lily The Pink’s medicinal compound.

We are watching actors playing actors performing a TV play. This remove allows for all sorts of silliness and frame-breaking in the usual Oddsocks style. I won’t spoil any of the surprises because the tour is still ongoing but the postmodern slant doesn’t end with a touch of Acorn Antiques- there is a Bollywood influence at play too, that is bizarre given the context but none the less hilarious. It all serves to bring out the farcical elements of the plot, which has never been one of my favourites. Given this kind of treatment, it works very well indeed.

The cast of only five divvy up the characters, necessitating some quick changes and broad characterisations that add to the fun. Andrew McGillan, a regular player, gives us a teddy-boy Fenton (although he is not involved in the stag scene – a pity given the topical currency of the name) and an almost spherical Falstaff who is more like Elvis in his final years. Avita Jay’s Mrs Ford is melodramatic in a sari, while her Anne Page is a bobbysoxer in Capri pants. Taresh Solanki brings a touch of the Goodness Gracious Me’s to Mister Page, and I was especially tickled (not like that) by Paul O’Neill doubling as a Fawltyesque Mister Ford and a nerdish Master Slender. Cream of the crop, as ever, is the formidable Elli Mackenzie as the ubiquitous Mrs Quickly and a Victoria Wood-like Mrs Page. There is a scene with a Bendix Gyromatic washing machine that is indelibly printed on my memory.

Director and adaptor Andy Barrow is obviously a very clever and very silly man. Oddsocks Productions have come so far that their shows are no longer just a way to have some fun with Shakespeare, they are an event in themselves. The packed-out Arena theatre contained many repeat customers and, I am sure, some new converts to the cause.

Oddsocks’ summer tour is so eagerly anticipated that audiences scorn the weather and will happily camp out in the rain in whatever grassy space or courtyard the company sets up its ramshackle wagon. They’ll even put candelabra on the picnic tables.

They’re not disappointed in this romping Macbeth, a parody of all things Scottish. The cast of five is augmented by floppy ginger puppets and aided by the comic use of masks and terrible beards, along with the inevitable swirling of kilts and uttering of Scots dialect. The one hapless Malcolm among the audience ends up with a prominent role, which generates huge amounts of fun.

The actors roam all over the wagon, banging their heads as they clamber up to the rickety roof to plant rudimentary ravens or to do away with the sleeping guards outside Duncan’s chamber.

Andy Barrow’s Macbeth goes to absurd lengths to make himself invincible for the final Ironman v Braveheart showdown with Macduff (Andrew McGillan), while Kathryn Levell’s Lady Macbeth is an Essex girl with her eye firmly on the main chance.

Amid all the visual jokes about trifles, the lisping about thanes, the dangling daggers and the ad-libbing about deep-fried Mars bars, the truly remarkable thing about Oddsocks is that they still manage to stick to the story and to tell it well.

That’s no mean feat, especially when they’re also their own stage hands and dressers, hauling on the pulleys for scene changes one minute and quick-changing the next. Glorious stuff.

Despite the recent bad weather, it stayed clear for Oddsocks outdoor production of Macbeth playing at the Royal Horticultural Society, Harlow Carr in Harrogate.

Many people had arrived early setting up camp with tables adorned with champagne and picnic food with many a fortnam and mason’s style picnic basket on display.

The oddsocks cast of five entertained the crowds as they arrived. As they moved amongst the crowd and played a few songs the audience began to gain an idea that perhaps this was not going to be an ordinary production of the Scottish play.

The set was based from a trailer (or maybe more correctly mobile stage) with the cast making full use of every part of it from the roof to ground and using Harlow Carr as a bigger back-drop.

Many sceptics may wonder how Macbeth can be funny, but, their presentation was literally a laugh a minute. Still adhering to the words of the bard, pulling you in, using the intense language that Macbeth uses, before interjecting with a joke. There-in lies the genius of the production, one minutes locking the audience’s attention with intense dialogue before taking them somewhere completely different by throwing a gag in.

Harlow Carr’s wildlife managed to join in with the show. During part of the production a small puppet raven appeared on stage just as a Heron majestically flew behind the stage, temporarily causing the cast to pause in confusion as to the audience’s reaction.

There is a lot to be said for making a classic accessible in this way and something that makes it very applicable to the Harrogate International Festival.

The production is playing for two nights with tonight (Wed 20th July 2011) being the the final night.

DESPITE the threat of some challenging weather – in the event it stayed fine – there was a good turnout for "the Scottish play" from Oddsocks.

No one was disappointed – this was a sparkling production from Andy Barrow and his team, even by the company's past standards.

The script was so densely packed with gags you couldn't afford to relax. Even the programme added to the merriment.

And there were some brilliantly inadequate special effects – the dagger as in "Is this a dagger I see before me?" was dangling like a fish on an obvious piece of string.

An unwilling bloke was roped in to play Malcolm simply because he knew a bloke called Malcolm.

But the cast of five was augmented not only by press-ganging but by life-sized puppets, masks and disembodied voices.

Barrow is a brilliant comic performer, a master of the ad-lib real and rehearsed.

He gave Macbeth a Glasgow accent – the stereotyping in this one was so outrageous questions will be asked in the Scottish Parliament – and he gave the audience his, by now, trademark cartwheel even though it had nothing to do with character or plot and he was clad in a kilt.

Kathryn Levell is a good actor with apparently effortless projection.

Her Lady Macbeth she did as a shrill and spoilt chav. Andrew McGillan, Bethan Nash and Kevin Kemp added to the confusion.

Amid the mayhem it's strange and touching how faithful to the Shakespeare original Oddsocks are.

Slapstick and witches on stilts, tragedy's never been so funny

IRON Man meets Braveheart: it can only mean one thing – the Oddsocks theatre company is up to its old tricks again.

This time the members bring the "cursed" Scottish play, better known as Macbeth, to the Derby Theatre stage and give it their usual hilarious and irreverent treatment.

But, as ever, it all really works. The script is original but the comedy and improvisation add an extra dimension that Shakespeare himself would have appreciated.

The stint at Derby Theatre is just one stop-off of many for the five-man cast (well except for two women who mainly play men, anyway) in an array of indoor and outdoor destinations through to the end of August.

The sheer energy of the company, with each cast member playing a plethora of roles, is a joy to behold.

Fight scenes, comic asides and the use of the usual wagon to convey stage changes are all as superb as ever.

It really is a laugh a minute from start to finish for those sceptics who may wonder how Macbeth can be funny.

Throw in witches wearing Scream-style masks and poweriser stilts and a variety of accents, from a broad unintelligible Scottish dialect through to a Cockney lilt from Lady Macbeth and you have some of the answers.

Producer Elli Mackenzie and her director and actor husband, Andy Barrow, who also plays Macbeth, have created another surefire winner for all ages.

New to the cast is Kathryn Levell who plays Lady Macbeth, the second witch, second murderer and Lennox.

Andy McGillan, as Macduff and Banquo, brings his own special brand of humour and facial gesture that has the audience laughing before he even opens his mouth. And Kevin Kemp, as Duncan, the first murderer, third witch and Seyton, is his usual loveable self.

Derby's own Bethan Nash returns for her second Oddsocks production, playing first witch and two male roles, Ross and Fleance.

Overall, it's a show that doesn't take itself too seriously with an abundance of humour, slapstick and silliness but you always get the feeling that the purity of the script is paramount. The Oddsocks approach means that Shakespeare is accessible to everyone, whether you are eight or 80, studying it at school or there just for a good night out.

The hard-working company of Oddsocks Productions excels in an entertaining show which succeeds as both farce and a perfect introduction to Shakespeare.

Although the script remains faithful to the original, opportunities for fun are seized relentlessly. Clever visual gags and one-liners rattle out like machine gun fire, to the accompaniment of rocking music by Jamiroquai’s Rob Harris. Even the famous "To be …" speech is performed as a driving guitar number.

Kevin Kemp’s Hamlet is a moody student with family issues until he decides to fight back by sporting a red nose and acting the clown. Robert Laughlin turns Claudius into a panto villain, while Elli Mackenzie is hilariously masterful as Gertrude and Horatio. In fact, most of the cast play multiple roles.

Andrew McGillan as Laertes, and others, energetically indulges in antics like comedic ballet. And there is something refreshing about seeing Ophelia, played stylishly by Bethan Nash in a black micro dress.

Director Andy Barrow makes an appearance on screen as a Danish newsreader. Likewise, Paul Daniels shows another side to his talents as a hologram of a ghost. Kee Ramsorrun’s brilliantly conceived mobile set, along with his inventive pre-filmed sequences are used to great effect.

Anthony Dearie enjoys a typically off the wall Oddsocks take on one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays.

On paper the idea of enhancing one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays with holographic video appearances of magician Paul Daniels and music from a Jamiroquai guitarist could sound like a potential recipe for disaster. But then audiences have perhaps learnt by now to expect the unexpected when they watch a production by Oddsocks.

The quirky theatre company are regular visitors to our shores and have never failed to impress with their off the wall interpretations of classic plays. And their new production a somewhat unique take on Hamlet was no exception.

Being one of the world’s most famous tragedies, perhaps the most unique thing about Oddsocks interpretation is that they have turned the play into a comedy. However they have managed to do so by sticking very closely to the traditional text, albeit with a hefty sprinkling of comic adlibs. Perhaps surprisingly for some the genre change worked fantastically well and the result was an absolutely first class piece of theatre that was at times hilarious.

Each of the five actors delivered suburb and memorable performances, emphasizing quirky personality traits and never before seen sides in the Shakespearean characters. Hamlet became a stroppy student; his mother Gertrude was manic and constantly drunk, while her new husband, Claudius was played as a pantomime villain - the audience even found themselves booing and hissing him.

Another star of the show was its impressive staging. Large dynamic bits of set were continually being moved around and regularly found themselves becoming part of the action. The original score by Rob Harris, lead guitarist with Jamiroquai was also absolutely superb - many of the tracks were so good that I'm sure a soundtrack would have been a popular purchase, had there been one.

Paul Daniel's regular appearances via hologram, as the ghost of Hamlets father also proved to be very effective and worked amazingly well. The fact that hamlet was always showing off card tricks that he had learnt from his father was a nice touch, as was his mother's quip: 'I loved your father - not a lot!'. Another clever element of the production was how long pieces of dialogue were avoided by turning them into TV news reports or even songs. Hamlets famous to b or not to be soliloquy, for example, became a song that he was improvising on his electric guitar.

With the company’s name going before them it was no surprise that almost every seat in the theatre was taken for last nights opening performance, despite it being a Monday night, or that the crowd brought the house down with rapturous and lengthy applause. To say that it was well deserved would be an understatement.

Hamlet – a comedy – you have to be joking! Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well know and well quoted tragedies. You couldn’t possibly make a comedy out of it. Those were my thoughts when I was first invited to come and see this production. Well was I wrong! I went along with hopefully an open mind but not quite sure what would happen. I love Shakespeare, and I have to confess that I was a little nervous regarding this production. I came away after 2 hours having passed a wonderful evening, having laughed most of the way through it, and having watched even quite young children being enthralled by the production.

The play is performed at the QEH Theatre in Bristol – a modern building with a 3-sided auditorium and seating approximately 200 people. It is just the right venue for this play.

Oddsocks was formed in 1989 by husband and wife Andy Barrow and Elli Mackenzie who met at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. They used their classical acting skills and combined this with clowning techniques gained whilst working with The National Street Theatre and writing skills honed by working with The Marcher Lords Historical Promotions Unit.

Oddsocks "take epic classic texts and adapt them into heart-warming, humorous, vibrant and feel-good theatre performances for all the family. The works of Shakespeare, Dickens, The Brontes, Robert Louis Stephenson, Victor Hugo and many more have all been "Oddsocked" to great effect since 1989". They admit to being "irreverent but respectful to the text, slapstick but skillful, funny but full of truth, clever but accessible".

Hamlet! The acting is excellent – all the of the parts played by just 6 actors – Elli Mackenzie, plays Gertrude and Horatio, while Andrew McGillan works hard playing Laertes, Polonius and Rosencrantz, whilst also directing the production. Kevin Kemp’s Hamlet is a clown, and shows us the mental turmoil, the grief and – yes – the comedy in the part.

Bethan Nash as Ophelia is brilliant, starting out as a rather highly strung aide to the Queen and slowly losing her mind as the tragic events unfold. She doubles also as Guildenstern, Osric and the Priest.

Robert Laughlin as Claudius, and the ghost of Hamlet (a hologram performance by Paul Daniels complete the line-up. An ingenious set, consisting of just 3 large, easy moving pieces, whizz around the stage to form completely new sets. Fascinating to watch, and expertly done by the performers without any loss of characterization.

Many of the well-known soliloquies are set to music - not as you might expect - the music of Elizabethan times - but modern rock music accompanied by electric guitar. I have to say it works very well – sometimes these long speeches can become "boring" especially for the young members of the audience but putting music with them brings them to life and holds the audience’s attention.

All in all a wonderful evenings entertainment – if you are a purist don’t go to see this as you probably won’t enjoy it, but if you are open minded and enjoy a new experience grab any opportunity you get to see it!

As a footnote, even though I laughed most of the way through the play, I was left with a tear in the eye at the end – well done!

From the moment you walked into the auditorium for Oddsocks' production of Hamlet – The Comedy it was all systems go! Cast members were chatting to the audience and performing magic tricks in the stalls, all with such an enthusiasm that was contagious. Despite low audience numbers, they created a high-energy, yet relaxed atmosphere, which meant if you were to laugh out loud with the risk of an unseemly snort, you wouldn’t feel too ashamed about it.

With Hamlet looking like he was straight out of Greenday, wearing guy-liner and a t-shirt saying "What would Chuck Norris do?" the potential for randomness was pretty high. It didn’t disappoint, with classic farce, slapstick routines and one-liners popping up to the end.

The hologram of Paul Daniels as the Ghost of Hamlet’s father was superb, with a hilarious exchange between father and son. After the long speech about his murder and the concluding line "Remember me" he dissolved into the night then swiftly reappeared with a joke: "Knock knock." Who’s there?" "How quickly they forget."

The comedy continued throughout, and by the interval my face was aching from laughing so much. In the second half though, there were moments when things got a little too silly just for comic value. Still none-the-less, very amusing and there was some very good acting in some of the more serious speeches, although having the "To be..." speech as a rock song was a work of genius!

Excellent use of pre-recorded video, fishing wire on Horatio’s hat and the blown about papers, and the clever movement of scenery (although a little lengthy and distracting at times) made this not only a commendable piece of comedy, but also an intelligent piece of theatre. Mixing contemporary speech with The Bard’s verse made for a highly entertaining show, and for those a little wary of Shakespeare, very accessible. The whole cast were excellent, particularly Kevin Kemp as Hamlet and Elli Mackenzie as Gertrude and Horatio.

Hamlet – The Comedy is the popping candy of theatre (and that probably relates to the company themselves). Just when things are running smoothly, you get a whole face-full of hilarious jokes, surprises, magic tricks, rock songs, tooting horns, sword fights and a soft toy on a remote control car. Bizarre and brilliant.

There's nothing better than going to see a comedy and being entertained before the show even begins. Stand-ups have comperes to warm the crowd, so why don't plays? Well now they do. The fact that the ensemble cast are not-so-mindlessly running around in the stalls while the audience take their seats sets a frivolous and casual tone. A tone perfect for a show which playfully carves up Shakespeare into bite-sized chunks of slapstick, innuendo and mock-musical extravaganza. The play's the thing – or is it?

In this farcical exploration of the Shakespearean classic, Oddsocks have cleverly stripped back the script without mutilation. Sure, there's the odd addition of a one-liner to score a punch-line, but the speeches are still Shakespeare's, and the comedy's in there. Andy Barrow's vision of a Hamlet who's not just lost a father but a tutor in circus and magic, feels a natural starting point for a play where the bereaved Dane deals with his grief though a very entertaining madness. From melancholic juggling and rock anthem soliloquies, to the comic simplicity of wearing a red nose, Kevin Kemp's Hamlet never fails to play the fool as well as the avenger. It's clear from his performance (and his programme credentials) that Kemp is comfortable with Shakespeare, and the ease with which he commands the script leaves no obstruction to the comedy he draws from it.

But this is an ensemble piece, and the limelight by no means falls only on the eponymous. Elli Mackenzie's stalwart embodiment of both Gertrude and Horatio provides a sublimely confident anchor for the younger actors to play with; she holds her comic nous an inch further from the audience with her subtlety, but those who seek it are greatly rewarded by her precision. Robert Laughlin's ever-grinning, ever-twitching Claudius also provides a steely gravity around which the excited and bombastic Bethan Nash can manically orbit in her numerous and well-defined supporting roles. But Andrew McGillan seems to have the toughest job, juggling both father and son as Polonius and Laertes, two of the most memorable characters on stage, and ones squeezed between McGillan's other commitment of ballerina acrobatics in the famous play within a play scene.

The set is both a wonder and a burden, being both a cumbersome unwritten character and a playground for magic. It's a Rubix cube of white walls and staircases, all made mobile through wheeled undersides and buckets of the actors' elbow grease. It's exciting, intriguing and largely successful, but there are moments when the plot is lost to the dramatized grunts of the 'off-stage' actors-cum-stage hands, and it transmits an exhaustion which infects even the most fervent audience member. The red and white colour scheme is a youthful touch, but the gaudy red chairs disrupt the aesthetic balance and become more burdensome than functionary.

You couldn't review this show without a comment on the illustrious cameo from Paul Daniels as the Ghost. It's a fine line between marketing ploy and genuine theatrical fun, and I'm sure Elli Mackenzie as both producer and actor would defend the move on both fronts. Nevertheless, the scene is entertaining, if not a touch too laboured when juxtaposed to the humility of the rest of the show.

It's a skillful move to bring the slapstick into Shakespeare without slapping the bard disgracefully across his distinguished canon-fed chops – and it's a funny one too. For laugh out loud splutter, Oddsocks' Hamlet will be hard to beat, and if you want to see a stuffed-toy-spirit present a red nose to a grieving Hamlet while riding a remote controlled rally-car, this will probably be the only chance you'll ever get.

Oddsocks serves up a rather tasty Shakespearean dish

Desperate Windsor Wives

Slapstick and witches on stilts, tragedy's never been so funny