CAMDEN FRINGE 2011 REVIEWS
Camden Voyeur Click here for original article
"The Chairs: David Brett and Alison Sandford brilliantly convey the two old people – dependant on, but also chiding, each other continually; locked together in a repetitive cycle broken only on this one night, their last. Corin Stuart is suitably enigmatic as the orator – hired for the one function he cannot carry out. Vasile Nedelcu’s direction brings out the poignancy of the human story as well as the recurring themes of Ionesco’s work. He both updates the play and emphasises its timeless quality.
"The Lesson: Deborah Ellis is excellent as the initially perky pupil, displaying real comic flair as she giggles with buoyant good humour at the start then begins to sink under the weight of her confusion when the professor becomes more aggressive and domineering. Corin Stuart portrays the professor with unhinged energy, becoming louder and more manic in his movements until he is prancing around the stage shouting “knife, knifey, knife…” Alison Sandford plays the maid as grimly pragmatic and without compassion. The performances blend seamlessly and the whole is tightly directed again by Vasile Nedelcu.
“This is an ideal opportunity to see the two plays together. Atelier Community Theatre have created two excellent productions – both plays complement each other and are linked thematically, highlighting Ionesco’s belief that “communication was impossible”.”
Penpoised Posted Saturday 27th August 2011 Click here for original article
the blog of Julia Lee Dean, Writer, Actor and Artistic Director of Wired to the Moon Productions
"... Anyway, back to the Camden Fringe today and this time I saw (but didn’t review – for that see Camden Voyeur’s excellent blog) Ionesco’s “The Chairs”. Didn’t understand a word but David Brett and Alison Sandford were fantastic as the old couple, a joy to behold and a masterclass in characterisation. Catch it while you can."
The Londonist Camden Fringe roundup “What we Saw” Click here for original article
“The Chairs was unexpectedly brilliant. Picked at random from the programme for its convenient time, this tragic absurdist play by Ionesco had us gripped. The elderly couple, seemingly at the end of the world and teetering on the edge of sanity, were class acts, utterly convincing, even though what was actually happening is obscure. The same [company] were also delivering Ionesco’s The Lesson a couple of hours later and we were very sorry to miss it but the Camden Voyeur did not. We would jump at the chance to see Atelier Theatre again. (LC)”
Jonathan Fryer: Ionescu’s Chairs at Camden Fringe Posted Sunday, 28th August, 2011 Click here for original article
Freelance writer, lecturer and broadcaster on international affairs. For seven years, he was based in Brussels, initially for Reuters, and now writes mainly for the BBC and The Guardian. He has written a dozen non-fiction books, including volumes on Brussels and London. He also lectures part-time at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
"There is so much good theatre going on in London, both in and outside the West End, that I sadly miss many things I really would like to have seen, being too busy with writing, lecturing, politics and travel. But I was really pleased today to be winkled out of my Summer Bank Holiday home retreat to see an old friend from Brussels, Alison Sandford, performing with David Brett in Eugene Ionescu’s ‘The Chairs’ in an Atelier Community Theatre production at The Etcetera Theatre above the Oxford Arms pub in Camden High Street. Today is the last day of the Camden Fringe, four weeks of performances of many kinds that have taken place around the borough. I think the last time I saw the play (in its original French) was at school, when I was doing French A-level. To be honest, I remembered almost nothing about it; as with all Ionescu’s absurdist writing, not much happens and people seem to be living in their own mad little worlds, to a grimly hilarious effect. Sandford and Brett are perfectly paired in this fine production by Vasile Nedelcu. Sandford’s old woman is motherly, but also childlike, and one gets flashes of suppressed lust hiding somewhere under her copious petticoats. David Brett is superb as the little old man who has achieved very little in life but lives with his illusions and inflated memories. The translation by Donald Watson is first rate. I do hope the production will be shown elsewhere so more people can have a really enjoyable experience."
Michael Willoughby awarding 4 stars Review of preview performance in East Grinstead, July 2011
"Size inequality is a staple of comedic double acts: big Eric slapping small Ernie’s cheeks, Little and Large, the gender-bending Krankies. In Atelier Theatre’s double Ionesco production, wee David Brett and the towering Corin Stuart engage in a dialogue about self-belief - its lack and a surfeit- and how it relates to self-control. And they are not even in the same play.
“Brett’s character in The Chairs, a pint-sized “general quartermaster” with tinplate medals, a basset hound face and a trouser leg tucked into his one, odd wellie, finds it hard to express himself – even though he has something vitally important for us all to hear. So he outsources his communication (prescient, perhaps) and appoints a professional orator to deliver his message to dozens of empty chairs and their imaginary occupants. These “fantasy dinner party guests” are corralled and fawned upon by him and his over-maternal wife (Alison Sandford).
“Meanwhile, Stuart’s overbearing tutor in The Lesson is driven to distraction by his idiot-savant pupil (Deborah Ellis) who can add and multiply … but not subtract. Her worsening dental health during his nonsensical disquisitions on philology impacts his own, fragile mental health. Ellis drives him to ever more extreme physical action. Sometimes he dances, at other times he impinges dangerously upon his pupil’s physical space. Ellis’ turn here, desperate to please her insane tutor, melds Victoria Wood’s physicality with Jane Horrock’s Bubbles’ lunacy. The way her heavily made-up eyes blinked independently when she was working on a particularly thorny piece of subtraction (3-1) had me weeping with laughter.
“But these highly technically challenging, mutually complementary and most of all ambitious two-handers could have benefited from a better human connection between actors in the same play to add to the thematic. The Chairs’ marrieds must not only flirt – and more – with imaginary dignitaries, yes, but also react to their real spouses. No one said it was easy. And Stuart, playing against a comic force of nature in Ellis, has either to work out how to respond physically to her clowning; or else the pair need to work on a rhythm which, together, can keep the play’s crescendo developing more inevitably to its appalling conclusion. These pieces are a kind of word music. Overall, the evening was a skilful, surprising and frequently hilarious production of one of Europe’s most important playwrights, and one too little performed in the UK. "
Camden Voyeur Click here for original article
"The Chairs: David Brett and Alison Sandford brilliantly convey the two old people – dependant on, but also chiding, each other continually; locked together in a repetitive cycle broken only on this one night, their last. Corin Stuart is suitably enigmatic as the orator – hired for the one function he cannot carry out. Vasile Nedelcu’s direction brings out the poignancy of the human story as well as the recurring themes of Ionesco’s work. He both updates the play and emphasises its timeless quality.
"The Lesson: Deborah Ellis is excellent as the initially perky pupil, displaying real comic flair as she giggles with buoyant good humour at the start then begins to sink under the weight of her confusion when the professor becomes more aggressive and domineering. Corin Stuart portrays the professor with unhinged energy, becoming louder and more manic in his movements until he is prancing around the stage shouting “knife, knifey, knife…” Alison Sandford plays the maid as grimly pragmatic and without compassion. The performances blend seamlessly and the whole is tightly directed again by Vasile Nedelcu.
“This is an ideal opportunity to see the two plays together. Atelier Community Theatre have created two excellent productions – both plays complement each other and are linked thematically, highlighting Ionesco’s belief that “communication was impossible”.”
Penpoised Posted Saturday 27th August 2011 Click here for original article
the blog of Julia Lee Dean, Writer, Actor and Artistic Director of Wired to the Moon Productions
"... Anyway, back to the Camden Fringe today and this time I saw (but didn’t review – for that see Camden Voyeur’s excellent blog) Ionesco’s “The Chairs”. Didn’t understand a word but David Brett and Alison Sandford were fantastic as the old couple, a joy to behold and a masterclass in characterisation. Catch it while you can."
The Londonist Camden Fringe roundup “What we Saw” Click here for original article
“The Chairs was unexpectedly brilliant. Picked at random from the programme for its convenient time, this tragic absurdist play by Ionesco had us gripped. The elderly couple, seemingly at the end of the world and teetering on the edge of sanity, were class acts, utterly convincing, even though what was actually happening is obscure. The same [company] were also delivering Ionesco’s The Lesson a couple of hours later and we were very sorry to miss it but the Camden Voyeur did not. We would jump at the chance to see Atelier Theatre again. (LC)”
Jonathan Fryer: Ionescu’s Chairs at Camden Fringe Posted Sunday, 28th August, 2011 Click here for original article
Freelance writer, lecturer and broadcaster on international affairs. For seven years, he was based in Brussels, initially for Reuters, and now writes mainly for the BBC and The Guardian. He has written a dozen non-fiction books, including volumes on Brussels and London. He also lectures part-time at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
"There is so much good theatre going on in London, both in and outside the West End, that I sadly miss many things I really would like to have seen, being too busy with writing, lecturing, politics and travel. But I was really pleased today to be winkled out of my Summer Bank Holiday home retreat to see an old friend from Brussels, Alison Sandford, performing with David Brett in Eugene Ionescu’s ‘The Chairs’ in an Atelier Community Theatre production at The Etcetera Theatre above the Oxford Arms pub in Camden High Street. Today is the last day of the Camden Fringe, four weeks of performances of many kinds that have taken place around the borough. I think the last time I saw the play (in its original French) was at school, when I was doing French A-level. To be honest, I remembered almost nothing about it; as with all Ionescu’s absurdist writing, not much happens and people seem to be living in their own mad little worlds, to a grimly hilarious effect. Sandford and Brett are perfectly paired in this fine production by Vasile Nedelcu. Sandford’s old woman is motherly, but also childlike, and one gets flashes of suppressed lust hiding somewhere under her copious petticoats. David Brett is superb as the little old man who has achieved very little in life but lives with his illusions and inflated memories. The translation by Donald Watson is first rate. I do hope the production will be shown elsewhere so more people can have a really enjoyable experience."
Michael Willoughby awarding 4 stars Review of preview performance in East Grinstead, July 2011
"Size inequality is a staple of comedic double acts: big Eric slapping small Ernie’s cheeks, Little and Large, the gender-bending Krankies. In Atelier Theatre’s double Ionesco production, wee David Brett and the towering Corin Stuart engage in a dialogue about self-belief - its lack and a surfeit- and how it relates to self-control. And they are not even in the same play.
“Brett’s character in The Chairs, a pint-sized “general quartermaster” with tinplate medals, a basset hound face and a trouser leg tucked into his one, odd wellie, finds it hard to express himself – even though he has something vitally important for us all to hear. So he outsources his communication (prescient, perhaps) and appoints a professional orator to deliver his message to dozens of empty chairs and their imaginary occupants. These “fantasy dinner party guests” are corralled and fawned upon by him and his over-maternal wife (Alison Sandford).
“Meanwhile, Stuart’s overbearing tutor in The Lesson is driven to distraction by his idiot-savant pupil (Deborah Ellis) who can add and multiply … but not subtract. Her worsening dental health during his nonsensical disquisitions on philology impacts his own, fragile mental health. Ellis drives him to ever more extreme physical action. Sometimes he dances, at other times he impinges dangerously upon his pupil’s physical space. Ellis’ turn here, desperate to please her insane tutor, melds Victoria Wood’s physicality with Jane Horrock’s Bubbles’ lunacy. The way her heavily made-up eyes blinked independently when she was working on a particularly thorny piece of subtraction (3-1) had me weeping with laughter.
“But these highly technically challenging, mutually complementary and most of all ambitious two-handers could have benefited from a better human connection between actors in the same play to add to the thematic. The Chairs’ marrieds must not only flirt – and more – with imaginary dignitaries, yes, but also react to their real spouses. No one said it was easy. And Stuart, playing against a comic force of nature in Ellis, has either to work out how to respond physically to her clowning; or else the pair need to work on a rhythm which, together, can keep the play’s crescendo developing more inevitably to its appalling conclusion. These pieces are a kind of word music. Overall, the evening was a skilful, surprising and frequently hilarious production of one of Europe’s most important playwrights, and one too little performed in the UK. "
