I went to see 'Some Like It Hotter'

Some Like It Hotter

	Oxfordshire Theatre CompanySome Like It Hotter Sun 18 March, 7.30pm

Great movie stars never die, they just sparkle on forever...

It’s September 2010, at long last funny man Jack Lemmon and the incomparable Marilyn Monroe are reunited with old friend, Tony Curtis. But how come Tony looks thirty again? Where exactly are they? Who is the stranger on the set? And what the hell is going on?

This brand new, fast moving, fantasy comedy whisks the three screen icons back to their most beautiful, sexy and hilarious selves as they are forced once again to don heels and stockings and go backstage during the making of the best loved of all the classic Hollywood comedies. Daring dialogue and razor-sharp wisecracks, sparkling musical numbers and red hot jazz, join us for the most surprising comeback in movie history, starring Monroe, Curtis & Lemmon - dead, uncut and hotter than ever. Now that’s entertainment!
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Memoirs of a Biscuit Tin Review

I went to see this last Wednesday and really enjoyed it. Here is a review I did on it.

‘Memoirs of a Biscuit Tin’ was by a small theatre company called Maison Foo, which is a touring theatre and street theatre. The play is set in Mrs Benjamin’s house. The three characters in the play are the Wall, the Chimney and the Floor. They told the story of Mrs Benjamin’s life by using props and costumes. The play wasn’t a serious play; it had quite a lot of humour, with some serious themes like death, dementia and loss. The audience were brought into the house by the door (on wheels) being turned around and Floor asking if we knew Mrs Benjamin and where she had gone. This felt more intimate. 

The set for the show was designed to be quite shabby looking and monotone; colour was added through lighting in some scenes. The main items on stage were a door, chimney, microwave, lampshade, plant table and a coat stand. Later in the show the lampshade, plant table and coat stand were used as puppets, the actors put blazers onto them and they became men and they danced with them. I found this part really interesting because they could have used actors but this made it more interesting – the audience had to use their imagination- and it was cheaper. They also used a half a bike in one scene to show Mrs Benjamin rode a bike and the other actor moved props around to show she was moving. After the show I stayed for a question and answer session.  I learnt that the set had been thought up of by Maison Foo, they were told to only have props that were needed on stage.  A rough drawing was made, but the props were actually produced by a company called ‘Realize Events’.

The costumes for the actors were grey, shabby and were made to represent what each character was. Floor wore a quite baggy costume with a faint pattern on it and some patches in places. Chimney wore grey dress and a shoulder cape; this costume had more dust on it. Wall wore the most interesting costume; she was wearing a dress that looked like she had peeling wall paper, the pattern on this costume was stripy and the dress had different flaps of fabric sewn onto it. I feel the costumes suited the play because they needed to be simple and just hint what they were. 

I feel the aesthetics of the play work very well, the set isn’t too much and the costumes are simple. The play made me sad at times with Mrs Benjamin dying and when they showed her life with dementia. There were also parts of the play that made me feel happy, when Mrs Benjamin was younger and life with her husband. The play was in a studio theatre and I think this was the best place for it to be. I was sat quite high up, in the theatre; this was a good place to sit because I could see everything clearly. If the play was in a proscenium arch theatre the front row wouldn’t have been able to see some parts of the show. The play didn’t need to be in a big theatre, I could see it working in a marquee. I would recommend this play to anyone.

I have linked Manifesto to this post because I think it inspired to make the box more for memories, I could add a section to keep some memories in.

Forever Young Review

Forever Young is a show set in Nottingham Playhouse, forty years on and has been changed into a residential home for aged actors. There are six residents and one carer. The actors are playing themselves in forty years’ time. The carer only visited about every fifteen minutes and in between this time the residents sang songs from their younger, days  - smoking, drinking, dancing and reminiscing their past. They sang a few different songs like I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, Forever Young, I Will Survive, Respect, Barbie Girl and I Got You Babe and many more.

The set for the show had an old looking feel and shabby. The items on stage had not been specifically made for the show, they had been found. The only pieces that had been made were three paintings of people linked with the show. It was not were not explained who they were, but they appear in the program. The set wasn’t changed throughout the show. On the stage there was a piano with a stool, three armchairs, a settee and a book shelf.

The “carer” likes to spend her time patronising and humiliating the residents. She wore two different costumes, a white medical coat and under the coat she wore a red turtle neck and high black boots with a black mini skirt. She also wears a black, seductive evening dress to sing a ‘song’ but she just kept repeating different words about death and graveyards.

All the elderly characters were dressed quite smartly for their weekly sing-a-long. The first older character was a foreign man that played all the music for the show on the piano; he didn’t speak English throughout the show. He wore a light brown suit with a tie and white shirt. He only played the piano so I didn’t find out to much about his character. Next to him was Marcus, he was not dressed as smartly as the other characters, he wore a red dressing gown with brown cuffs and neck, a white shirt underneath with brown trousers and a tweed trilby. He carried a gold fish in a bowl with him and was quite a proud man. His costume suited his personality because he didn't look scruffy at all but didn’t look smart. Next to him is Mrs Little, she was quite a short person with a big personality. She was wearing a blue black lace dress with white lace gloves, a tiara and a dead ferret round her neck. Sat on the settee was a married couple, he wore a navy suit with a grey jumper underneath and she wore a flowery skirt and a matching scarf with a blue cardigan. The last character was not smart at all he wore messy joggers, a scruffy shirt and a tatty brown waist coat.

Overall I felt the play had quite a serious message of how old people are put into the situation of living in a residential home and that people need to rebel from time to time.

I wrote this for a play I went to see in March and thought it would be a good idea to put it up. More about the play.