"tick, tick... BOOM!" / Stammermouth / "See-Through" / Hijinx

I was lucky enough to pay my first ever visit to the Valleys town of Newbridge, a week or so ago, to see the inaugural production from a new company, Yes Please :– Jonathan “Rent” Larson’s small-scale rock musical “tick… tick… BOOM!” – an excellent trio of performances, even if the source material was a tad irritating in that neurotically complacent “off-Broadway musical” way.

There were also two visits to The Other Room, for their Spring Fringe season of off-beat visiting works – Stammermouth’s “Just A Few Words”, which has a personal resonance for me; and Claire Gaydon’s YouTube tragi-comedy, “See-Through” – both deceptively clever.

 

Stammermouth (photo: Holly Cade)

Not to mention the latest from Hijinx at the Sherman, in collaboration with Teatro La Ribalta and Frantic Assembly: “Into The Light” - a highly imaginative physical theatre piece in which performers both with and without learning disabilities explored the hunger to perform.

"Into The Light" (Hijinx)

"Space Cadette" / "Blue"

My first two theatre reviews of 2019 – inevitably, two very different pieces of work. First up was “Space Cadette”, part of a curated season of work from various festival fringes at The Other Room – a science-fiction-inflected cabaret performance from the very talented Laurie Black.

"Space Cadette"

A few days later came “Blue” from Chippy Lane at Chapter – a West-Walian family comedy-drama heavily influenced (this is acknowledged by producer Rebecca Jade Hammond and writer Rhys Warrington) by Tennessee Williams; if the critical consensus thus far is anything to go by, it’s the hit of the season.

"Blue" (photo: Kirsten McTernan)