Reuniting the team was like escaping to a pre-pandemic existence
The Birmingham Hippodrome, which has been closed for almost a year under severe Covid restrictions, has found a new way to bring musical theatre to its much-missed audiences
THE Color Purple – At Home marks the Birmingham Hippodrome’s first venture into streamed theatre The online show is based on the Hippodrome and Leicester Curve’s award-winning 2019 production of The Color Purple, a story set in racially divided Southern America.
The first-ever co-production between Hippodrome and Curve played to sold-out audiences with standing-ovations and a wealth of critical acclaim, and now it’s been especially reimagined for audiences to enjoy at home.
It has been staged by the team behind the 2019 production – director Tinuke Craig, musical director Alex Parker and choreographer Mark Smith.
Tinuke says:“It’s a strange thing coming back to a show. The assumption when one makes theatre is almost always that the last day is the last day, that the thing you created has gone, vanished almost as quickly as it came about, and on you go to the next project hopefully with some good memories and the sense that you did some good and gave the audiences something.
‘‘But every now and then, you get a chance to revisit and reanimate your show, and in doing so you get to transport yourself back to a past-self, a past-community, a past-time.
“That’s a particularly weird thing to do when your past-self, pastcommunity and past-time existed before a global pandemic changed the world and decimated your industry.
‘‘Reuniting The Color Purple team was like escaping to a pre-2020 existence (albeit one with masks and social distancing).
‘‘It was really exciting to be back with such a wonderful group of people, all of whom had had been starved of being able to do their job for a year and were chomping at the bit.
“The show means something different now, or at least feels more potent thematically. A piece about community, connection, a need for time with loved ones and about isolation is inevitably going to hit harder off the back of 2020 (and let’s be honest, 2021 so far).
‘‘Even more so, a piece that highlights black struggle and systemic racism, celebrates black lives, and champions black love is needed more than ever, and will surely hit different for audiences now.’’
He adds: “It’s a privilege to be able to tell the story of Celie again and in doing so celebrate all those who live on the margins of society, or within the intersections of identity.
‘‘Celie navigates being black in a white supremacist world, being a woman in a man’s world, poor in a capitalist world and queer in a world where that’s not even presented as a possibility for her. ‘‘Celie’s story is at once extremely specific and entirely universal. She’s based on a real person. We don’t take that responsibility lightly.” Recorded in the Curve’s transformed auditorium and fully lit using the theatre’s state-of-the-art lighting rig, The Color Purple – at Home offers audiences the chance to see Alice Walker’s seminal novel as they’ve never seen it before.
“Our new version is in the round, and without our set and most of our props,’’ says Tinuke. ‘‘All we have is the stage, the words and the story. ‘‘Alex Lowde’s wonderful costumes remain to help to locate us and give us insight into our characters, Ben Cracknell has lit our ‘magic circle’ of a stage to feel close and intimate, and Tom Marshall has designed a soundscape that keeps us rooted in rural Tennessee.
‘‘It’s been really thrilling to boil it all down to its essentials and find that the heart of the story and of our original production is still beating.” In a new world for staging a theatrical production, various ways of working and presenting a show need to be adapted.
“We only had ten days to make the show,’’ reveals Tinuke. ‘‘The cast turned up on day one and, led by Alex Parker, pulled the melodies, lyrics and harmonies from deep in their memories from almost two years ago.
‘‘Mark Smith reimagined and simplified our choreography to fit a world of social distancing whilst retaining the fun and expressiveness of the company and our original show.
‘‘I worked with the actors to find the truth and detail behind the words and figure out how to tell our story for people not sitting with us in the auditorium but at home in their living rooms.
‘‘The team at Crosscut Media have done an amazing job in capturing our work for screen and we’re excited to share it with audiences.”
A piece about community, connection, a need for time with loved ones and about isolation is inevitably going to hit harder off the back of 2020
■ The Color Purple – At Home is streaming until March 7. Tickets are priced at £20 per household and can be booked online at curveonline.co.uk
Director Tinuke Craig
DEATH BY ROCK AND ROLL THE PRETTY RECKLESS HHHHH
IN 2017,
The Pretty
Reckless landed a support slot on tour with grunge veterans Soundgarden. Then, after a concert in Detroit, the headline act’s frontman Chris Cornell took his own life, following a decadeslong battle with depression.
Some 11 months later, Kato Khandwala, friend and longtime producer for The Pretty Reckless, died in a motorcycle crash.
These events have inevitably shaped their fourth album, tellingly titled Death By Rock And Roll. The tone is fairly consistent – big riffs, frontwoman (and former Gossip Girl star) Taylor Momsen’s versatile voice, vaguely derivative songs. Death By Rock And Roll is full of emotion and talent but without the tight songwriting to match.
WHO AM I? PALE WAVES HHHHH
ENIGMATIC indie rock quartet Pale Waves have unleashed a show of force in the form of new album Who Am I? This follow-up to their 2018 debut album My Mind Makes Noises serves up a rougher, 90s-centric take on the band’s renowned pop-infused choruses. Laying down the track framework in Los Angeles before Covid took the recording process online and produced by Rich Costey (Muse, Foo Fighters), it combines grunge-tinged undertones with dancing highs. The album retains the band’s penchant for indulgent pure pop melodies, but the introduction of rough around the edges late 90s and early Noughties production leaves you wanting more.
TYRON SLOWTHAI HHHHH
NORTHAMPTON rapper Slowthai’s follow-up to his 2019 hit debut album Nothing Great About Britain showcases his broad range of styles.
Tyron combines Slowthai’s signature punky, aggressive sound with more reflective, tuneful tracks. The album’s lyrics are not particularly thoughtful but its unusual combinations of influences and sounds are sure to cement Slowthai’s place as one of the UK’s most interesting rappers.
OVER the course of a distinguished literary career, Roald Dahl dedicated books to each of his five children. The name of his eldest daughter, Olivia, appears at the beginning of James
And The Giant Peach when she was still alive and posthumously in The BFG, after she had passed away from encephalitis following a measles infection.
When the seven-year-old died on November 17, 1962, there was no measles vaccine in England. Dahl and screen star wife Patricia Neal went on to become passionate advocates for the campaign to immunise children.
John Hay’s heartfelt drama, based on Stephen Michael Shearer’s biography of Neal, chronicles the impact of Olivia’s death. A stylish animated sequence over the opening credits traces the paths of RAF fighter pilot
Dahl (Hugh (Bonneville) and Tony Award-winning actress Neal (Keeley Hawes) to their home in Great Missenden, via Hollywoodland.
It’s 1961 and James And The Giant Peach has sold just over 2,600 copies. Unpaid bills are piling up and Neal is searching for a film script worthy of her talents.
While Dahl pens his next book, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, in the garden shed, Neal tends to their brood, Olivia (Darcey
Ewart), Tessa (Isabella Jonsson) and Theo (Alfie and Tommy James Hardy).
The sudden death of eldest child Olivia casts a dark shadow over the household. Neal becomes frustrated by her husband’s refusal to articulate his feelings and the marriage reaches crisis point when director Marty Ritt (Conleth Hill) implores her to return to LA with her children to star in Hud opposite Paul Newman (Sam Heughan).
■ On Sky Cinema from Friday.
I DON’T know about you, but I’ve been freezing. Last night I wore three jumpers, a dressing gown, thick leggings and huddled under a quilt to watch TV.
A benefit of feeling so cold, is being able to hug a glass of warming red wine without any qualms. And a handful of red wines have recently made an appearance in my life to warm me from the toes up.
My first is from the Wine Society and is one of the beaujolais crus.
The Beaujolais wine region has a handful of quality levels, and a “cru” is one of the top villages with the best, complex wines. One of the more widely known is Feurie. If you want to try this style for the first time, a half bottle is a good option.
The Society’s Exhibition Fleurie 2019 (£5.95, half bottle, online at The Wine Society) is exclusively crafted using the gamay grape sourced from three growers in the region.
Gamay, and the way these wines are made, creates soft, low tannins.
The society’s wine is exactly that, with ripe plummy fruits, a hint of violet and a chirrup of cherry. It has a complexity a step above basic Beaujolais, yet is still a very approachable wine.
Now to a couple of cabernet sauvignons.
I listened to Adam LaZarre, of Gladiator Wines, as he joined a few of us on a Zoom call at his 8am California time.
Luckily it was late afternoon in the UK, so I was able to sip his wine Cycles Gladiator Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 (£14.99, online at flagshipwines.co.uk) without any pre-noon guilt.
It’s a fruity, drinkable, red, with a small amount of merlot and petit verdot in the blend.
Adam explained he wanted to create “something yummy” with all the benchmarks of California cabernet, but which doesn’t require years of bottle ageing.
The word yummy is apt. The grapes hang on the vine a little
longer than normal, allowing the tannins to ripen and soften.
The wine has cherry red fruit and fleshy dark fruits, which linger in the mouth.
My next cabernet sauvignon is delicious and has plenty of potential to grow even more delicious as it ages in bottle. Robert Oatley Finisterre Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 (RRP £18, Waitrose) is crafted in the Margaret River, on the south west coast of Australia. The wine could age and improve for 10-15 years, but even at a couple of years’ old, it already has a beautiful personality.
Black fruits called out to me. Blackcurrants, blueberry, bilberry; all coated with vanilla
and spice from oak influence. Finally, I’ll head to Spain and the wine which warmed me last night: Maruxa Mencía 2019 (£12.99, or £10.99 in a buy six deal at Majestic). It’s a velvety red wine, chokka with bramble fruits and cherries.
I read that the mencía grapes grew on steep terraced vineyards in the Valdeorras region of Galicia. The vines have to work hard in the challenging soils and – as a result – grow concentrated grapes. All the better for us, so we can cosy up and enjoy their warming flavours.
Stay warm and safe.
■ Jane is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. Find her on social media and online as One Foot in the Grapes.
THE latest heart stimulant could be peppery chilli.
Italian researchers have tracked 23,000 people and found that those people who consumed chilli four times a week or more were 40% less likely to have a heart attack, and 60% less likely to die of a stroke than those who avoid them.
Overall, their mortality rate was nearly a quarter lower than the people who avoid chilli. Interestingly, this protective effect of chilli persisted regardless of whatever else the participants ate, be it a Mediterranean diet or one with little fresh fruit and vegetables.