20 Tiny Plays About Sheffield

Event: 20 Tiny Plays About Sheffield

Description: Theatre

Location: The Studio Theatre

Address: 55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire, S1 1DA

Actually (depending on who you listen to) either 21 or 22 tiny plays, and not all plays at that, but some pieces of prose and poetry as well. 20 Tiny Plays is designed to showcase Sheffield, and for the most part, it was successful, with enough detail to keep the locals happy but accessible enough for non-natives.

I myself was born in Sheffield, moved away at a young age, and have been since 2002, when I started University here, and my wife is a southerner, who moved here for university  in 2003, and sees herself as a local but not a native, so between us so we have a little of both perspectives.

The first and final plays nicely bookended the evening, with the opening being quite powerful, a chant of Sheffield's five rivers; "Riv-er Don, Loxley, Port-er Brook, Sheaf! Riv-e-lin, Por-ter Brook, Loxley! Don! Sheaf!"  The rhythmic chanting giving a sense of some of the power and drama to come, and the finale, in which a non-Sheffielder visited to see the iconic cooling towers of Blackburn Meadows power station being demolished, which brought a light tear to my eye (yes, I have an odd affection for the the long-gone twin 250ft hunks of concrete).

In between times, there were a few sections here that seemed mere filler.  I don't think, for example, that we needed five minutes of the cast shouting previous headlines from the Sheffield Star, and we certainly didn't need a reprise of this after the interval. There were other sections which were seemingly just to fill time, including some moments of dance. Amateur actors these people may be, but dancers they certainly were not.

There were some real stand-outs in the middle, however. Chief in my mind as far as comedy in concerned was "Blow Blow", the final play before the interval, about Dempsey's, Sheffield's (in)famous gay bar/club night. The thumping music and witty dialogue made this section quite memorable, although I can't say I ever saw the men in flashing bunny ears!

A mini musical about Snooker, whose World Championships are held at the Crucible Theatre in the same building as the Studio Theatre (indeed, the Studio is used as the Players' practice room) ran with underlying themes of feminism. It opened with the protagonist finishing a ticket for the snooker, before falling in love with the sport, and then staying out all hours and incurring the worry of her parents, before finally admitting her obsession to her mum, finding that she too, had had a love for the sport in the past, but gave up playing as her husband didn't appreciate being beaten by a woman!

This method of staging a social element which could have been set anywhere inside a situation based within Sheffield continued, as groups of rival football supporters, United and Wednesday, clashed chanting their respective songs, before rounding on a banker burning money and again as groups of speeding motorists met for a "re-education" session, and discussed immigration, and Sheffield's "City of Sanctuary" status.

The most poignant, "Dear Danny" was in the form of letters and emails send to Danny, author of www.whokilledmymum.com. This website was set up to find the killer of Patricia Grainger, killed in 1997, when he was still very young, and gained widespread attention in Sheffield. The website now has over 1.6 million hits, but now sadly lies dormant, the author presumably having given up any hope of the perpetrator of this horrific crime ever being brought to justice. The mini-play dealt with the matter sensitively, and was one of the more humbling moments of the evening.

All in all, an enjoyable evening out, with just a few minor niggles. I think that had they made 15 Tiny Plays about Sheffield, and cut 20 minutes off, the whole experience would have benefited. The main criticisms I have seen levelled at the play (especially in the Observer) is that there is little flow to the production, but this was always supposed to be a compendium, and need to be treated as one would a compilation album, rather than a concept album. The individual tracks showcased the Sheffield of old as well as the up-and-coming, From football and steel to art and Clegg, all get a mention here. references to current events, closed shops in the centre, austerity and bankers' bonuses bring the play right up to the minute. Well worth a watch.

Writers: Chris Bush, Helen Eastman, Tim Etchells, Sally Goldsmith, Pete Goodland, Russell Hepplewhite, Richard Hurford, Marcia Layne, Tom Lodge, Andrew McMillan, D C Moore, Kaite O'Reilly, Laurence Peacock, Michael Stewart, Stephanie Street, Andrew Thompson, Chris Thorpe, Louise Wallwein


Performers: Tanya Addy, Billy Ashcroft, Jonny Aubrey-Bentley, Jalleh Bahraini, Jessica Barber, Thomas Barker, Sue Beardon, Ellen Bowes, Elliot Brown, David Burchhardt, Sue Burgess, Michaela Caine, Jean Cherry, Samuel Child-Cavill, Joseph Clarkson, Lily Coates, Ned Cooper, Dominic Corfield, Archana Dait, Jennifer Derbyshire, Chidora Ekebuisi, Annie Etchell, Shelby Foster, Becky Frankham, Carmen Franklin, Imogen Gledhill, Paris Guest, Billy Hinchliff, Emily Hurst, Adele Hodson, Keith Khabo, Sean Longmore, Mariah Louca, Clare McManus, Ryan Meehan, Alison Mitchell, James Morley, Leo Peace, Stephen Peace, Satu Pihlstrom, Matthew Plant, Andrew Raftery, David Ridley, Janice Sampson, Estella Smith, Alex Smith, Samuel Smithson, Kate Spivey, Leonora Stavrianakos, Rosa Strong, Anya Sweetland, Jonathan Syer, Robert Turner, Christian Vernon, Bryn Walker, George Webster, Aileen Westoby, Scott Westoby, Jason Wild, Kyle Williams

Musical direction (and performance): Moony Wainwright

St Patrick's Day Live

Event: St Patrick's Day Live (featuring Smiling Ivy, Chronicles of Graham and Nick Robin, Ben Webster )
Description: Gig
Location: 3 Spooner Road, Broomhill, Sheffield, S10 5BL

Address: The South Sea

Another day, another Chronicles of Graham gig.  Again, supporting the fantastic Smiling Ivy, and this time taking to the South Sea in student-central Broomhill on St. patrick's Day, this was surely a night not to be missed.

The night began with Ben Webster, a singer-songwiter on acoustic guitar.  Whilst he got a good reception from the assembled crowd, I felt he suffered somewhat from the early start time.  He ran through a blend of his own songs and some crowd-pleasing covers as well.  Adept on both guitar and harmonica, his folksy-blues/rock sound was the perfect way to start a St. Patrick's Day off.

Nick Robin (left) really impressed me.  Armed with an acoustic guitar, a kick drum and a cymbal, he was able to sound like a whole band on his own.  He ran through his all too short set with panache and humour, as well as just fabulous musicianship.

Chronicles of Graham came to the stage and filled it - literally as well as figuratively.  The round of applause they received just for their soundcheck was something to behold, before they finally launched into first track and all-round crowd pleaser "Spit".  They then rattled through what seemed like a greatest hits collection including "CoG TV Cribs", a funny take-off on MTV's Cribs, "Pick Up Little Teddy", and a bouncy rock/rap song featuring the wonderful Little of lead vocals and "Body in a Binbag", with Coxy's usual fantastic work on guitar generating whoops and admiring looks from the audience as well as the next band due on stage, Smiling Ivy.  "Gimmie da Fing" got everyone moving and swaying and bouncing, whilst "Here Come the" generated the usual skanking up in front of stage by an audience which was now swelling rapidly.  Just as last time at the Redhouse, The Graham finished off with a wonderful cover of "Lodi Dodi" by Snoop Doggy Dogg (AKA "La Di Da Di"), Little Teddy on lead vocals and Coxstardelux taking the ample cover by A Taste of Honey.  As last time, this was a brilliant finale to a great set.

Smiling Ivy were their usual amazing selves.  By the end of Chronicles of Graham, the floor was packed with people ready to watch Smiling Ivy.  I won't pretend to be well-versed on the tracks played by the band, but every one was a crowd pleaser, danceable, loud and fun, just as one would expect from them.  The drummer was, as usual, a failing mass of hair and arms, every inch look like 'Animal' from The Muppets.  The frontman owned the stage, whilst the band as a whole were tight, and clearly having fun, joking around with each other  between songs.  These are certainly a band to enjoy, and one I plan to watch again on April 6th at Penelopes - come join me please!

Secrets of the Boud'Yargggh Burlesque @ West Street Live

Event: Secrets of the Boud'Yargggh Burlesque

Website: www.secretsoftheboudoirburlesque.com
Description: Burlesque
Location: West Street Live
Address: West Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire, S1 4ES

(EDIT, 11th March 2012 @ 18:20.  Facebookers can see photos from the night here, courtesy of the beautiful Deadly Nightshade).

Secrets of the Boudoir Burlesque may be four years old, but like many brilliant young things, it's already started school - it's own school in fact - Where two of the stars of Secrets, Deadly Nightshade and Cherry Du Bois turn teacher.  I first heard of Secrets around two years ago, and have made my way to five or six of the events, including themes as diverse as musicals, movies, hallowe'en, the circus and Christmas, as well as the Oxjam Special last year (for Oxfam).  This time, it was the turn of the pirates to pillage the ever-wonderful hosts, West Street Live.

Tahlullah Manhattan as "The Siren"

For the second event running, one of the graduates of Deadly NightShade and Cherry Du Bois's Secrets school performed - this time, as the opening act.  Miss Tahlullah Manhattan carefully treaded the line between sweet and sexy, all the while remaining alluring and ethereal as the siren, putting the unwitting crew of the Good Ship West Street Live under her spell with the seeming ease of a long-term performer.  Tahlullah is very sexy, and for someone at such a young age and early in her burlesque career, she really is one for the future.  I for one hope to see her at many more Secrets nights!

Kitty Fantastic as "The Lobster"

Following Tahlullah was Secrets regular Evie Farrah, for the first of her two performances of the night.  Beginning as a pirate before ending up as a mermaid, this routine had all the usual hallmarks of Evie's performances, being lyrical, flowing, and of course, very sexy.  Clearly pregnant, Evie was quite clearly revelling in the enhanced bust that only silicone or aconstant dose of progesterone can provide!  Some previous dance training/experience is, one would suggest evident here.

Warren Peace, Secrets compère extraordinaire stepped up next in the guise of Skeg-vegas' finest Celine Dion tribute act.  Keeping with the nautical theme, Warren sang "My Heart Will Go On" (from Titantic) albeit with slightly saucier words  Warren would return later with co-compère Duke O'Growl and perform another fantastically sexually charged performance.  Individually, these two are fantastic, but the whole is definitely greater than the sum of the parts.

Deadly Nightshade as "Black Magic Woman"

When Warren left the stage, a friendly crustacean in the form of Kitty Fantastic entered the fray.  A nod to Dita's Martini Glass routine, this lobster jumped into the pot, and started bathing in the boiling hot water with the carrots!

Twins Cherry du Boir and Scarlett Noir took to the stage next for a wonderful performance to "Anything You Can Do" from the musical Annie Get Your Gun.  As fantastic an example of sibling rivalry as one will ever see, and one which I suspect was not entirely fictional!

Duke O' Growl returned solo to belt out a fabulous rendition of "Sailing", before a real treat for the ladies in the form of the first 'boylesque' performance at Secrets since Doc Le Roc took on Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera back in June 2011.  Flixx Démontrant performed a brilliant routine hunting for treasure and inexplicable ending up in his boxer shorts!  Regardless, he seemed to go down well (Warren seemed to be a a particular fan!)

A sexy Evie Farrah dancing to
N*E*R*D's "She Wants To Move"

Warren and Duke returned for a duet, before Evie Farrah returned for her second performance of the night, a Rio-inspired dance to N*E*R*D's "She Wants to Move". A composition which includes no stripping whatsoever, and yet is always sexy - Evie really is on of my favourite performers!

Belle Nouvelle was next up, performing a wonderful music/burlesque fusion piece with her mermaid.  This was certainly one of the highlights of the night, before Duke again returned to sing "Sailing" before Deadly Nightshade brought the Black Magic Woman out.  This sexy and quite classical performance probably brought the most whoops and cheers from the crowd of any of the performers that evening.  Whilst not spectacular (although Nightshade most certainly can be!) this was a very professional performance, where she really let Deadly Nightshade come to the fore.

Flixx Démontrant as Captain Hook

Flixx Démontrant returned to headline the night.  He again went down very well with my shipmates, by this time all either suffering the effects of the survey or too well lubricated on rum-based cocktails to notice.  His final piece really did show that burlesque - watching and performing - really is for both genders, and he danced and thrust his Captain Hook around the small stage.  The costuming was, as always, fantastic, with his jacket in particular sending me overboard.  Flixx is certainly another act I hope to see more of at Secrets in the future.

With the usual array of stalls around the edge of the bar was here again, including the wonderful Mad Hatters cakes (the cupcakes are better than Fancie - seriously, try the the PB & J cake!) and ever-present Imogen's Imagination with her wonderfully intricate facinators (my favourite was the orchid) alongside newer stalls such as  Razorblade Mermaid Jewllery making this a complete experience rather than just a night out.  The staff at West Street Live are friendly, and there were even special pirate and nautical themed cocktails on the menu for the evening.

The evening closed, as always, with the raffle, including a wonderful cake from Mad Hatters, loads of goody bags with sweeties and bath products and jewellery courtesy of Razorblade Mermaid and the announcement of the best dressed guest award.  For just £7 advanced/£8 on the door, it is cheap enough to prize money away from my Paypal account every three months without being so cheap that lagered-up lads see it as a destination on their Sunday night booze-up - keeping the clientèle very much weighted in favour of females than one may expect for a night of (mostly) women removing their clothes.

Secrets has always been one of my favourite nights in Sheffield, and is always a night I look out for when it comes around.  Please though, if you are reading this, I urge you not to go - don't spoil it for the rest of us!

Related articles

• Sheffield on Twitter - February 2012 update (sheffieldblog.com)
• [TheGloss] 8 Year Old Girls Are Doing Burlesque Routines (thegloss.com)

Slam Bam Thank You Ma’am 2: Crappy Valentine’s Day Edition @ The Riverside

Event: Slam Bam Thank You Ma’am 2: Crappy Valentine’s Day Edition
Description: Poetry Slam
Location: The Riverside
Address: 1 Mowbray St, Neepsend, Sheffield, Yorkshire, S3 8EN

Original Flyer

It sounds a simple enough concept.  Take ten poets and 50+ guests, cram them into a tiny function room above a pub (the Riverside).  Give each poet two minutes to do their thing, and then score them, with the top five going into a final for the change of another 2 minutes to wow us.

Well, the simple ideas are always the best, and wow us they did!  The theme of the evening was love (or lack thereof).  From Gav Roberts' (of The Bridge Inn's open mic night fame) emasculating tale of having his mobile phone charger thrown to him from a bedroom window to Jevie's (I hope I've spelled you name correctly!) wonderfully soaring rhythmic piece about dancing and its important and relevance in human nature.  In between times we had love over a surgical procedure, laments over rubbish Valentine's gifts (only the rabbit was any good - and then the batteries died), an uncomfortable break-up over the telephone (it's not me - it's you) and polygamous homosexual intercourse.

The winner's trophy

The wonderful thing about any poetry slam though, of course, are that the writer/performers are ordinary human beings with normal jobs, sitting amongst the audience (I myself was sat between two of the finalists).  This give great opportunities for meeting like-minded people.  It is also, or course, fantastic to hear poetry read out by the poet, as they'd intended - to hear the inflections, rhythm and intonation, and indeed, some of my favourite were not simply well-written, sharp and funny, but well performed as well.

The eventual winner in the final was Jevie, with a powerful and violently charged piece, with Gav's dual offering including circling dead goldfish bagging him second, and first-timer Emily bagging third with a humourous riposte to my former go-to club, Corporation (and the buggers who want to take her there).

This led onto Steph Pike, performance poet, political activist and winner of the first Slam Bam Thank You Ma’am, returning for a headline slot.  Amongst her pieces was a really quite witty and rude piece about our banks, the bankers who working in them and the banking that they do which I felt was delivered impeccable, however her piece "I Want to Fuck David Cameron" left me somewhat cold.  Nonetheless, she was a great finale to a brilliant evening, and something I'd certainly like to go to again.

Please Contact Sarah Thomasin if you would like to perform at the next event.

DNA @ Sheffield Studio Theatre

Event: DNA
Description: Theatre
Location: The Studio Theatre
Address: 55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, Yorkshire, S1 1DA

DNA.  An odd play, and apparently now a GCSE text, which probably explained the large number of teenagers in the audience.  The play itself, I found quite interesting,  yet somehow quite banal, repetitive even.  Maybe this is a deliberate ploy of the writer's to illustrate contemporary teenage existence - it's not all Skins fuck party fuck, nor is it Inbetweeners cringe shy cringe.  Maybe we're all just drifting along, nothing happens, banality one day, profound explanations the next, but we're all too shut off to care?

The story itself was simple enough.  A group of teenagers goaded a weaker boy into perform a dangerous stunt, and he slipped and died.  How, the group are faced with a difficult choice; do they turn themselves in, admit what they've done and face the consequences, or do they wait it out, hope no one will suspect them, even try to push the investigation - and the blame - onto someone else, an innocent man?

The somewhat weak repetitive dialogue was more than made up for by the great performances from the cast.  The lead, I suppose you would say, was Phil (James Alexandrou) although he had roughly 20% of the lines of Leah (Leah Brotherhood) whose monologues provided the profound, the ridiculous and everything in between.  Daniel Francis-Swaby had probably the most difficult role, and was sublime in depicting Brian's slip into semi-sanity.

All in all, quite an enjoyable evening, but it will seem really short at barely 80 minutes, and did on occasions seem quite sluggish.  I think that this was a mediocre evening made good by a strong cast and minimal staging, rather than a great play in itself.  Still, worth checking out.