"Detention" by Gary Clarke Company.

Nottingham Playhouse.

This is a World premiere of this dance production which explores Section 28, the Conservative Government's 1988 legislation which "prohibited the promotion of homosexuality", forcing the LGBT+ community into a place of secrecy, fear and shame; set to a backdrop of nationwide industrial turmoil and the onslaught of AIDS.

Gary Clarke's powerful and personal working-class storytelling draws on public and private stories and testimonies, including an insight into the LGBT+ Switchboard* Logbooks, combined with intense and exciting choreography performed by a company of incredible dancers, an evocative narrator, plus a local cast of LGBT+ people aged 40+, striking designs in film, sound, light and costume with music tracks by the band Test Dept.

Describing a dance based show like this is like describing a piece of art. Many people can appreciate a work of art but see different things in that artwork, and this show is like that.

I was in my mid twenties when the Section 28 law was introduced, and I didn't know a lot about it or what it meant to people, nor the affect it had on the LGBTQ+ community. I was into my music, as I still am, and it was because of the 1989 record released by Boy George, "Clause 28", that actually educated  me to what the legislation meant.

This piece of theatre explores the violence, loneliness, protests, debates, allies and the individuals and organisations of the time. The dancers are amazing and really get the messages across without the need for dialect, especially the scene in the classroom.

The cast consist of a mix of professional dancers and performers as well as a selection of local performers.

Lewey Hellewell is The Narrator, and if they ever do a musical about "Good Morning Britain" presenter and journalist, Richard Arnold, then Lewey is the man to call, as he is the spitting image of Mr Arnold. There's a feel of EmCee from "Cabaret" about Lewey's performance as well. The pieces taken from information from the LGBT+ Switchboard, related by Lewey are heartbreaking but make you feel so angry that anyone can behave towards another human being in such a way. And that homophobia is still rife today.

El Perry plays the role of Margaret Thatcher on the film, which also uses the wonderful talent of one of the nicest men I've ever interviewed, Steve Nallon, who used to provide Thatcher's voice for the 1980's shows "Spitting Image". The video is very dark, almost a cross between Stephen King and the Frankie Goes To Hollywood "Two Tribes" style

Sarah Squires plays the school teacher on film who is troubled and torn between what she should do regarding the classroom issues.

The professional dancers are Gavin Coward, Alexandra Bierlaire, Alex Gosmore, Mayowa Ogunnaike and Imogen Wright.

The local LGBT+ performers are Danabha Paul Johnson, Vicky Johnson, River Parker, Sarah Squires and Paul Wishart.

Set and Costume Designer is Ryan Dawson Laight along with Associate Designer Hannah Boothman.

Lighting Design is by Joshie Harriette. The subject matter is dark and threatening, and that is reflected in the lighting design.

Torben Sylvest is the Sound Designer as well as the Composer of the music that you hear, along with Test Dept. The music is loud, and that's what it should be for this style of theatre, because the message is loud, and some people are not listening, and should be made to listen, and the only way to get that attention is to be loud. The Sound Technician is Keir Martin.

Choreography by Gary Clarke and the Detention dancers. A gorgeous blend of contemporary, ballet, break, street and other styles that create such an exciting theatrical experience. It has anger and it has hurt; it's tender but aggressive and has the ability to speak volumes, telling stories without the need for words.

The film that you see on stage is the work of Kamal Macdonald. I am old enough to remember those horrific TV adverts with the tombstone advising that AIDS kills. They were like mini horror films, and there were sections of the filmed pieces that created that same fear and unease, but that is what you need when dealing with such subjects.

"Detention" runs at eighty-five minutes long without an interval and is at the Nottingham Playhouse until Friday 9 May.

Photography by Joe Armitage of Boneshaker Photography.

* Switchboard is the national LGBTQIA+ support line. Their confidential, non-judgmental listening service is free, and available to LGBTQIA+ people, their friends, families and allies, wherever they feel most comfortable – whether that’s on the phone, via chat or email.

10am-10pm every single day on 0800 0119 100  www.switchboard.lgbt

 "War Horse" by Michael Morpurgo and adapted by Nick Stafford.

National Theatre production.
Nottingham Royal Concert Hall.

This is the second time that I have seen this beautiful piece of theatre, and it remains as stunning and as powerful as I remember it being when I last saw it about seven years ago.

The young horse was bought in an auction when Ted Narracott (Karl Haynes) out bids his brother, Arthur (Gareth Radcliffe), using the mortgage money of $39.00. This obviously doesn't go down well back at home with his wife, Rose (Jo Castleton) and his son, Albert (Tom Sturgess) is then given the job of looking after the horse, now named Joey.

Arthur then makes a bet with Ted which involved the horse being able to pull a plough within a week, which Albert trains Joey to do, winning the horse for himself.

As war comes, Ted sells the horse to the war behind Albert's back for $100. Albert is resigned to bring Joey back from the war which involves signing up for war, even though he is too young.

"War Horse" exceeds other theatre productions, for me, on two accounts. The first is the whole depiction of war. It shows the true horrors of the first World War; soldiers being blasted off of their horses, horses being mutilated by soldiers riding them into barbed wire fences, soldiers with limbs blown off and the horror of the whole involvement of war. I may say at this stage that it's not quite as graphic as I've made out but the presentation makes your imagination work overtime.

The second is the amazing puppetry. You soon forget that these horses are puppets and there are people involved in making the magic, and you truly believe there are horses on stage. there's one piece where one horse was put out of its' misery which will really get to you; it did me and you just feel helpless, and then you have to bring yourself back to reality and think "it's a puppet"!

That said, these puppeteers, the award winning Handspring Puppet Company, are incredible. The flicks of the horses' tail, the subtle movements, the mane shaking, the breathing of the horse, every mannerism makes you feel they're exquisite equines in front of your very eyes.

It's not just the wonderful horse puppets though, as there's the comical goose, who never quite manages to make it in through the farmhouse door, the birds in the sky, as well as the savage ones picking at the flesh of the dead soldiers and the horses. Pure theatrical magic.

It's this magic that will get you choked at the end. A lesser individual would have released a tear; I just had dust in my eye making it water. Must have been all that dust from the several gunshots on stage.

Seriously though, this is one of the most amazing pieces of theatre you'll see, and you'd have to be inhuman not to be moved by the incredible actors, puppeteers, singers etc, If you allow yourself to invest emotion into this show, you'll leave this theatre drained.

The cast number about thirty-five, including the puppeteers that bring these amazing puppets to life.

I've said in the past that a really good puppeteer will make you see the puppet and not the puppet master, and with puppets of this scale, that's not hard to do, but to make you feel emotion towards such a creation shows that they have convince you that what you see is a living, breathing alternative cast member, and they make you invest in those characters to such an extent that you really do block out anything bar the animal you see before you.

That said, the puppeteers really do need a mention for creating that magic, and it is incredibly hard work doing what they do.

Joey, the horse that the Narracott's bought, and the titular character in this story, was brought to life by Tea Poldervaart (Head), Robin Hayward / Ross Green(Heart) and Gun Suen(Hind).

Joey as a foal was thanks to Diany Samba-Bandza (Head), Jordan Paris (Heart) and Eloise Beaumont-Wood (Hind)

Tophorn, the Captain's horse was controlled by Tom Quinn (Head), Lewis McBean (Heart) and Michael Larcombe (Hind).

 

The lighting design by Rob Casey was spectacular, as was the sound design by Christopher Shutt; both bringing your heart rate down as well as making you jump out of your skin.

Music was beautifully evocative folk music, written by Adrian Sutton, who also created the music for the National Theatre's production of "The Curious Incident Of the Dog In The Night Time", and the song maker being John Tams. performed live on stage by Sally Swanson.

Matthew Forbes is the Puppetry Director with Toby Sedgwick being in charge of the  Horse Choreography and Movement Director. Adrian Kohler is the Puppet designer/Fabrication on behalf of Handspring Puppet Company. 

"War Horse" is directed by Tom Morris and Katie Henry (revival director). It's almost like watching a three dimensional Hollywood movie being played out just feet from where you're sitting. The explosions powerful enough for you to feel the impact on your chest, taking your breath away.

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Several times I've built myself up for a piece of theatre and have found that the production fell below what I'd hoped for. This production exceeded anything I could have hoped for. It's a beautiful piece of theatre, which I'm sure that the Directors, Tom Morris and Katie Henry are incredibly proud of. If I was a director and produced a piece like this, I'd be happy to retire knowing that I'd be hard pushed to better it.

I really can't impress on anyone wondering if they should see this show just how much they will love this piece of theatre, as I did. Just make sure that you're fully stocked up with tissues.

"War Horse" is stabled at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall until Sunday 18 May.

 "Communicating Doors" by Alan Ayckbourn.

The Studio Theatre, West Bridgford.

West Bridgford Dramatic Society.

The communicating doors in the title of the play are in a hotel room, and they allow some of the characters to travel through time, returning to the same hotel room twenty years earlier. But not everybody gets transported, and not everybody gets transported to the same era.

The play kicks off in 2014, in a suite at the Regal Hotel. Julian has arranged for a prostitute for seventy-year-old Reece Welles. The girl, Phoebe, is a dominatrix who goes by the name Poopay Daysir. Reece's regular was not available so Poopay got the job! Reece doesn't want her for what she usually gets paid for as that would, in his own words, "Finish me off altogether, in my condition". Instead, he wants her to witness a confession and then deliver it into the trusted hands of one of the partners of his solicitors.

Reece's business partner Julian had bumped off Reece's previous two wives, and as Julian didn't want this information out in the open, and realising that Reece was about to confess to Phoebe, he had to make sure that Phoebe was dispatched also.

Phoebe escapes through the time travelling communicating doors to the evening that Reece's second wife, Ruella, was due to meet her doom at the hands of Julian. The year was 1998. After much convincing, Ruella also goes through the communicating doors and travels back another 20 years, 1978 and to Reece's first wife, Jessica, but in the meantime Julian is still chasing Poopay, as well as Ruella.

This might sound like I have told the whole story, but there's so much more to discover through the communicating doors!

Julian is played by Jeff Tullin. He welcomes Poopay into the flat at the start of the play, after which we find out that Jeff is, not only quite a rude character, he's also very dangerous! Played with a lovely sense of menace, there's also some nice comedy scenes that contrast well with Jeff's threatening behaviour.

Phoebe aka Poopay is played by Sarah Godwin. In this play the Phoebe that we end up with is a very different Phoebe to how we first envisage her, and via that journey we also get to see two different sides to Sarah's acting skills.

Stephen Herring plays the older Reece, and like Phoebe we see two very different Reeces, and the later Reece at the end of the play is not one that we would ever consider from the first vision. Stephen also gets to present two different physical sides to the character.

Ruella, Reece's second wife who Phoebe first encounters through those doors, is played by Alison Scotney. This is a great character, one that has to think quickly to take control of her destiny, and Alison straight away convinced me of the character. I then, at the end of the show, read the programme to find out more about Alison, as I'd not seen her before, and found out that this was Alison's first board treading for a while, and a newcomer to West Bridgford Dramatic Society. None of that showed at all because Alison was so at ease in character as well as being in front of a sold out audience.

Ruella decides to go through the doors and this is where she comes into contact with her husband as a twenty something on his wedding night with the first wife, Jessica.

Reece, the younger, is played by Harry Longbottom, not the only Longbottom that has theatrical talents! Of course, with this being the honeymoon, the costumes for both young Reece and Jessica are, shall we say, un-cumbersome! Harry has fun with this role, and on Tuesday's warm evening, at least there would be no chance of him overheating under the lights!

Jessica is played by Emily Martin. There are some lighter moments with Jessica, even though she soon discovers that she would be killed off seven years down the line. Unlike Harry's character though, there's a return of Jessica near the end, so did Ruella and Phoebe manage to alter the course of history, or should that be the future? 

Harold Palmer, the only security guard in the hotel, is played by Adrian Bacon. Adrian has a big role physically which contrasts quite comedically with the petite Alison with one scene where he is having a debate with Ruella. Plenty of comedy with this security guy as well. Adrian gets to wear two very different suits as this character, but what I also noticed was that the shoes changed with the costumes. This may be an odd thing to say, but a lot of the time, with male costume changes, you notice that the shoes are kept the same; here they have been changed to match the new costume. It's the little things like this that create an extra veneer of realism.

Directed by Danny Longbottom. While I am on the subject of the "little things", Danny has observed these things meticulously. I deliberately noted the change of the door numbers and the matching accessories for Palmer. This is a long play - you certainly get your money's worth at two and three quarter hours including interval - but the pace is the thing in this play and there's never a dull moment.

Set Designers are Andy & Ali Bakewell. As soon as you walk into the theatre space you get hit visually by a wonderful set, and you note the five doors, which indicate that you are in for a farce. The majority of the set is the living space of the hotel room, a cut away bathroom and bedroom door. The attention to detail in the main room and bathroom needs noting and will give you plenty to pore over during the interval or on your way out. The "communicating door" itself has a magical time spanning feel about it, thanks to the lighting design plus the window is mirrored until the effects start. A brilliant set which oozes class whether in 1974, 1994 or 2014.

Sound Designer is Jem Woolley and operated by Rob Dixon. The sound effects, combined with the lighting effects for the door gives you a flashback to those old science fiction films you used to see on Saturday mornings at the pictures, and I love that retro feel it gives. Also I must mention the depth of the sound effects really create that distant feel with some of the scenes.

Lighting Designer is Sav Dixon and operated by Calum Sharp. As with the above comments, the blending of the sound and light teams really make the whole feel of the play come alive.

The costumes and props, to which I've already praised, are thanks to Jerome Foley, Jo Sharpe & Mandy Stephens. 

I have seen this suspense packed, sci-fi influenced and wordy Ayckbourn masterpiece once before, but this cast made it seem as if this were the first time that I had seen it. It has the wit that we have come to expect from Alan Ayckbourn as well as some nice plot twists, that you don't see coming, but he doesn't forget to include the human element of these characters.

"Communicating Doors" is at the Studio Theatre in West Bridgford until Saturday 10 May. If you miss this run, you don't have the option to go back in time, so catch it while you can!