Surrey Mirror: Review of 'The Family'

The first official review of 'The Family' is available here: http://www.thisissurreytoday.co.uk/entertainment/Review-Family-Archway-Studio-Theatre-Horley/article-1420525-detail/article.html

Or read it below:

Review: The Family at The Archway Studio Theatre, Horley
Wednesday, October 14, 2009, 17:33

'The Family'
The Archway Studio Theatre, Horley

Reviewed by Tony Flook

Redhill-based Bradley Barlow is a man with a fertile imagination. A massive creative leap took him from him seeing Paula Rego's painting entitled 'The Family' which, he says, was one of his inspirations, to him writing his first play, recently premiered at The Archway's Studio Theatre.

Very little in The Family is as it seems. The only certainties are that England is at war with itself (indicated in the programme to be a civil uprising against Parliament) and that Peter, a soldier for the rebels, has come home to his sister Beth after a long absence. It is a dark, near-humourless piece that builds tension slowly, inexorably and grips through to the end, rather like a book in which one can barely wait to learn the next revelation.

As Barlow directed the production himself, he knew exactly how he envisaged its staging. He could not have hand-picked a better cast to interpret his characters.

Mandy Humphrey brought Beth frighteningly to life as she applied her ever tightening vice-like hold on her brother. Peter Westmacott (Peter) showed the trauma of a man who has been involved in the horrors of prolonged guerrilla warfare but who, even now, cannot escape his personal demons. His initially raw leg wound and, later, stained bandage were reminders of the bloody action he survived.

Emma, a local girl, seems to offer Peter some respite from his waking as well as sleeping nightmares. Ella Sowton was convincing as this, the play's only well balanced personality.

Athletic David Robson was the enigmatic, menacing Soldier who arrived at the house unexpectedly and whose presence was definitely unwelcome.

The set, largely housed within the stark curve of the studio's arched wall added a claustrophobic dimension to the kitchen, cluttered yet basic after years of shortage. Peter and Beth's clothes reflected this deprivation, while Emma's summery attire introduced a lightness, reflecting at least some semblance of normality. John Hankin's vertical bed, where several crucial incidents were played out, was an inspired idea.

Some works by new writers are aired once then sink from view. The Family deserves to be considered by other groups willing to take risks with a challenging but worthwhile play.

Peter and the Props

(Not to be confused with Pete and the Pirates, Peter and the Wolf, or Dave)

A busy few days have passed with a number of very good actors interested in taking on the role of Peter. As regular readers may be aware, on Saturday I auditioned Joe Burns, a talented young actor from Worthing. That evening I saw Private Lives at the theatre and was informed that two actors at Archway Theatre (Tom Robinson and Peter Westmacott) might be interested in being involved. I'd also been chatting with a friend of David's (Tom Clear) about the possibility of auditioning.

Tom C sounded up for it but, as he is a professional actor, I decided that I couldn't run the same risk as I had with Peter Russell dropping out and with regret had to take him out of the running. In a similar vein, Tom R's schedule for September looked incredibly full on and we both agreed that it wasn't really feasible.

Which left me with two options - a new, younger actor who I could mould into what I wanted (Joe), or an actor I had seen perform and would be able to step into the role easily and had brought something quite different to the character during the first workshop (Peter W).

Following some shifting and adding of rehearsal dates, I'm very pleased to announce that Peter Westmacott will be playing Peter in next month's production of The Family. Peter was unable to do a couple of weekend dates which we switched and actually worked in our favour regarding availability of the studio. We've also added in a few evening rehearsals where the primary intention will be to concentrate on the relationship between Peter and Beth.

I'd like to thank Joe Burns for coming all the way to Horley for the audition and have suggested he might consider joining Archway Theatre as I'm sure there'd be plenty of directors interested in casting him in the future.

So with a full cast I popped up to the Props Store at the theatre and found a selection of fairly vintage bits and bobs for use on the dinner table and display on the dresser. I also found a couple of rugs that would work.

(Erm, maybe the title was misleading but I don't really have much else to discuss on props right now. I might take some saucy photos of said props at the weekend. Ooer missus!)

The next rehearsal will begin at 10am in the Rehearsal Arch where I shall be choreographing the dance between Emma and the Soldier. At 12, when the Studio becomes free, we'll move into there and be joined by the rest of the cast to crack on with the rehearsal. A full report that evening (or the following day).

Just want to sign off by thanking the cast and crew with sticking by myself and the production during all the changes. It gives me faith and confidence that it's all worth it. (I feel I should lighten the mood with a joke... Hmm... What do you call a fish with no eyes? Fsh. Hehehehe) Till next time.

38 days, 2 hours and 33 minutes...

...until 'The Family' opens on Thursday 8 October 2009 at 7.45pm (according to a little ticker on the Archway Theatre page for the play). Note to self: DO NOT CHECK THE TICKER EVERY 20 MINUTES - YOU WILL DO YOURSELF A MISCHIEF!

Last week was a rather unusual and mildly stressful week - have a read of the previous post and you'll understand why. I began Saturday's session with a visit from John who is doing some work on securing the bed frame. We now have a couple of pairs of floor clamps and the headboard is further secured to the main frame. The next step are a couple of wall brackets for the bed legs to slot into which will then be further secured by rope. Once this has been done we'll start to play with the frame and see what limitations we have. But it's getting there.

At the previous rehearsal I asked Ella and David to arrive at 11.30am to allow Pete and Mandy time to work on Scenes 10 and 1. As Pete is no longer in the play, Mandy and I took some time to hunt for bits of costume and set around Horley town centre. We found two beautiful dressers that would be perfect for the set - a dark brown wood, not too high, wide or deep - both for sale in different charity shops. Neither store has hired furniture out before so the kind ladies behind both counters have taken my details to pass on to their managers. Both should be giving me a call this week. We also found a red skirt for 'Beth' for a bargain £4. I've always imagined Beth in a brown skirt and can't decide if red is too brazen for her character. Will have to think this one out...

Following our mini shopping trip, Mandy and I returned to the studio to meet the gathering actors. I have spent most of this week trying to find a replacement for Pete and had hoped for an X-Factor style gathering of wannabes who I'd audition before casting one and sending the others crying into the bosoms of their families; the Chosen One would then ideally stay on for the rest of the day's rehearsal. Due to the short notice, only one actor, 17-year-old Joe Burns from Worthing, was able to attend.

As I had the rest of my cast I asked Joe to read a scene or two with Ella, David and Mandy while I watched. To a certain extent I felt a little sorry for Joe - you've got three cast members who have begun to gel, a production assistant, the guy you're replacing, and the director (who has also written the play you're reading for!). It was also a little odd for me - I've now grown slightly accustomed to how everyone else reads each part and here was another new voice reading the play. Quite surreal.

Joe read very well and, following last week's excellent rehearsal of Scene 7, I wanted to see how he'd cope with the intensity of the scene. We did the scene in two parts: I showed Joe the basic moves for Peter and asked him to act alongside David as Soldier and Mandy as Beth. Again, he did very well.

The audition lasted about an hour and after Joe left I asked for everyone's opinions, which were all very positive. However, I always like to play devil's advocate and am reluctant to go after the first person I see. David has a couple of friends interested and a couple more Archway members have thrown themselves into the ring, so I'm just waiting to hear back from them. I intend to make a final decision before Wednesday evening so that I can have someone in place before this weekend's rehearsals.

After the audition (and lunch) we went back to the beginning and rehearsed Scene 1. As Pete is no longer in the cast I focused on Mandy's portrayal of Beth. In all honesty, I can't off the top of my head think of anything particularly huge that I asked Mandy to do or change; generally little things to work on here and there.

We then moved onto Scene 2 - the Soldier's entrance. We played around with a couple of tracks (Nine Inch Nail - 20: Ghosts; Dust Brothers - Hessel, Raymond K from the Fight Club soundtrack) but neither quite worked to create the atmosphere that the intensity the character needs. There's a track I started writing about a year ago that might work so I'm going to play around with that. We then focused our time on how Soldier moves - the way he walks, crawls, stands, sits. David has come up with an almost broken skeletal movement that is good but needs a bit of definition in places - Louise Adams has added the video to Facebook so if you're a friend of hers on there then take a look (I'll see if I can post it on here too).

After that we moved onto Scenes 3 and 4, with David stepping in as Peter when Pete had to leave. I've really struck lucky with Ella - at the moment I'm finding that I'm having to direct her very little. Part of me wonders if I should be doing or saying more, or if I'll pick up on things more as we progress, but as it stands now I think she's ticking all the boxes. It was also interesting to see David as Peter instead of Soldier: he's clearly a very good actor who is more versatile than the part of Soldier might show (that's not to say Soldier is a two dimensional character..... come see the play, you'll get what I mean!).

Overall, Saturday was a mixed bag - I'd been a little worried the night before as I really had no idea how things would go. But by the end of the day we'd managed to get some work done. As we're recasting Peter it's now a certainty that we'll need extra midweek rehearsals.

Just a quick addition to say that in the evening I went to see Private Lives at Archway Theatre, written by Noel Coward and directed by Michael Beach. The play was witty, well-directed and brilliantly performed and I'd like to say a huge well done to everyone involved (the cast being Paul Richard Simmonds, Joy Andrews, Peter Westmacott and Laura Marie Martin). And thank you to Michael for all the lifts to theatre while I shadowed him as director in preparation for my main house directorial debut in 2010.

So that's all for now but expect another thrilling instalment in a couple of days when I'm hoping to have what will hopefully be the final casting announcement! Third time lucky n' all that!

38 days, 1 hour and 45 minutes. And counting.........

From brilliant to bugger...

Apologies to those of you who have been eagerly awaiting the next instalment of 'The Adventures of Bradley Barlow and the Play Wot He Wrote and Did' - more regularity over the coming weeks I promise...

I realise that I haven't updated you on how rehearsals have been going since Pete Russell joined the cast. The first one nearly a fortnight ago (crikey, has it really been that long since I updated this?! Again, apologies!) was great - Pete stepped into the role with ease and was eager to know as much as possible about the character, always asking questions and thinking things through. The chemistry with Mandy and Ella in the female roles was also great.

The following week, at Saturday's rehearsal, everything shifted up another gear as we focused mainly on Act 2 - it was David's first rehearsal as 'Soldier' and he jumped into the role with great relish. It was also clear that David and Pete would work fantastically well together - this was particularly apparent when choreographing a short fight sequence between the two of them: their combined ideas far outweighed my own in terms of excitement and physicality and the final sequence should work brilliantly. There were also a few moments whilst rehearsing Act 2 where I got genuine goosebumps - as did Mark (the SM), Mandy and Ella: our eyes transfixed on what we were watching - creepy, intense and brilliantly performed. Speaking of Mark, he's leapt in with gusto and came up with (among others) the genius idea of having our crew in balaclavas too - I love it!! John Hankin (Mandy's dad) also popped by to work out just how the bed will be secured so I'm looking forward to seeing what he can come up with. The problem we found with the bed that it's all very well saying ideas and discussing what we'd like to happen but until the bed is in place and the actors can actually physically use it, it's just food for thought really. I think I can safely speak on behalf of everyone when I say that we walked away at 5pm on Saturday positively buzzing with excitement and I for one couldn't wait to get start the next rehearsal.

And this is where the shocking 'Sixth Sense'-style twist comes in (but without Bruce Willis being dead)...

I had a call from Pete yesterday evening - he's been offered some paid professional acting work (one of which is the latest Harry Potter film) which would clash with the performance dates for The Family. I could tell that he'd been having conflicting thoughts on the matter - should he go with his head and take the money, or go with his heart and stick with the play he's been supporting for so long (and he really has supported the play right from the start)? Sadly, he has reluctantly decided to step down from the role of Peter. Whilst it's obviously come as a shock following our fantastic rehearsals and I'm totally gutted that he can't stay in the cast, I 100% respect and understand his decision - hell, if it were me I'd do the same thing!! So best of luck Pete! :-)

I find that at times like these it's best to stay positive and work out a plan of attack (not on Pete, might I add - on how to approach this glitch). David has a few people he knows that are interested and reading the play as we speak. I've sent another 'call to arms' through the Facebook 'Theatre Performers in Sussex' group (the same group that got me David) and this has proved fruitful with a couple of young lads interested too (christ, I'm 26 and using phrases like "young lads" - wtf?!). Gary has come with another possibility through a contact of his, and Mark's husband Chris is also interested, so there should be a few to audition.

So all is not lost. I refuse to use the cliche of 'the show must go on' but I'm going to make sure it does. Pete will be standing in during rehearsals until the replacement is found so this means I can concentrate on the other actors' performances. And I'm sure within a week or so I'll have my (hopefully) final Peter. As they say, third time lucky.....

Every cloud

It is with sadness that I report that Dan Woods has stepped down from playing Peter in The Family. As I've previously said, Dan is also appearing in Dick Barton in September and his schedules have meant that rehearsing for both show would have been difficult. The rest of the cast and myself would like to wish Dan the best of luck in Dick Barton.

The silver lining, however, comes in the form of Peter Russell who will be taking over from Dan to play Peter. Peter (the actor) was involved in the first workshop for the script and has had an active interest in the play ever since. I'm very confident that Peter will slip into the role with ease and look forward to welcoming him to the cast.

This now obviously means we'll pretty much be starting again from scratch at Sunday's rehearsal. Dan has given me his copy of the script with his notes on to hand over to Peter so with a bit of luck there won't be too much old ground to go back over. We'll also try to firm up a rehearsal schedule this Sunday too - I'll have a full report for you on Monday...!

Rehearsal #1

The date: Saturday 1st August 2009.
The time: 10am.
The venue: Archway Studio Function Room.
The reason? The first rehearsal for The Family!!

Over the last few days I've had a lot of people ask me "Ooh, how did it go?". I stand there. I look at them. And I have a little think. "Yeah, it went really well, thank you". And they continue to look at me, and I think to myself Crikey, that's not enough! They want more from me! So I smile, pause a moment. "Yeah, really really well. Really pleased with it. It's looking good. Thank you". A brief silence, before "Oh good". And off they trot.

And when I say a lot of people, I really do mean quite a few. And it's brilliant that they're showing an interest and offering support etc and I'm not for a single second slating anyone for that because it's a huge confidence boost and fills me with hope that we'll actually have a few people show up and watch the thing. But my problem (and it really is my problem and nobody else's) is that, well, I just don't know what to say! Even now, writing this blog, knowing that people are reading this word here - and now these ones - I just don't know what to write.

The night before (and the hours and minutes leading up to) the first rehearsal, I was bricking it. What if they've changed their minds? What if they refuse to do as I say? What if they laugh in my face, tear up the script and declare they're going to put on 'Cabaret' instead?! Clearly irrational, I convinced myself and headed off to Horley with my folder and duplicate scripts. I arrived to find the Function Room locked and no caretaker in sight - luckily, the main theatre was open for the flat wash for Private Lives, so we borrowed the key from there.

Mandy, Ella and Dan all arrived, raring to go and we entered the Function Room to be hit with the smell of fresh paint - Mandy's hangover was about to get much worse! After opening all possible doors, I took the cast through to the studio to explain how the revised staging would work. There is a bit of a gangway down the side of the stage at floor level - the entrance for which will now form the upended bed. The steps from bedroom to the main room of the house (on stage) will be the stairs at the other end, with the "front door" being stairs at the back of the stage. (Not sure that makes any sense - I'll draw a diagram at some point for you...). We returned to the Function Room and got to work on the first scene - and very quickly we hit our stride. Dan and Mandy have great chemistry and should work well together. Towards the end of the first scene, Peter goes to bed followed by Beth. As the bed is upended, the actors must stand instead of lying down. I moved the actors to the wall and, assisted by Ella, held their scripts so they could position their arms properly - in effect, the first small bit of choreography in the play.

We skipped Scene Two as Soldier hasn't yet been cast (it's in italics for a reason...!!) and moved onto Scene Three. Again, Mandy and Dan were great. It was pointed out that, as the stage is a lot deeper than expected, there would be room for a dresser or shelving of some sort at the back for Beth to potter around at etc. Ella entered as Emma and was great - and again, her and Dan look like they'll have some great chemistry together, with Mandy throwing in a bit wicked sister action.

During a quick lunch we chatted about forthcoming rehearsal dates before starting on Scene Four - a dinner scene with Emma and Peter. As we're mainly only blocking at this stage, I'm not really focusing on performance - but at the moment, I've no worries on that score. At 2.15pm Dan had to dash off to work, so Mandy and Ella went through their couple of short bits together with me reading in for Dan.

Hopefully this blow-by-blow account wasn't too dull a read...?! I think once blocking is out the way I'll be able to tell you a bit more about the practicalities and performances.

And there may be an announcement in relation to Soldier this coming weekend - watch this space... ;-)

Casting announcement

I am extremely pleased to announce two confirmed cast members for 'The Family'.

Yesterday afternoon I was being a bit cryptic regarding the casting of Emma as I wanted to ensure that the unsuccessful candidates had been informed. Ella Sowton read the part beautifully in Monday's audition and, having seen her brilliant portrayal of Nancy from 'Oliver Twist' in Archway Theatre's Young Adults Performance 'Twisted Tales', I know she'll be a fantastic addition to the cast. I'd like to thank Katie Dunbar and Emma Ladd for auditioning for this role and hope that I am able to work with these talented actresses in the future.

I'm also chuffed to bits to announce that the role of the lead character Peter has been accepted by none other than Dan Woods. I choreographed Dan in 'Privates on Parade' back in 2007 and have been hoping to work with him again ever since. In fact, whilst writing 'The Family', Dan was the first person that sprung to mind to play the part. He's also got a part in the forthcoming 'Dick Barton' so there'll be plenty of opportunity to see him perform at Archway this autumn...!

Two down, two to go... There should be more news later this week - keep 'em peeled!