Jeremy Kingston’s choice
ORVIN — CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS
Stephen Joseph, Scarborough, Aug 7-23
(01723 370541)
LAST EASTER, when other members of the National Youth Music Theatre were taking a break from their immensely successful Oklahoma! at the Peacock in London, five of the performers were driven up to Scarborough for preliminary rehearsals of the NYMT’s next show. Alan Ayckbourn’s Orvin, with music by Denis King, is something of a new venture for him. Not just because of this association with NYMT, but because of the period in which it is set.
Ayckbourn has placed several of his plays in the near future, but this is his first to be set in a medieval past. The epic tale of accidental heroism takes place in a sort of Ruritania, part Blackadder, part Shrek, where Orvin (played by the 17-year-old Tim Webb) is the clumsy retainer to a legendary warrior whose mighty deeds the chorus of gods intends to relate.
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Unfortunately, Orvin oversleeps on the morning of a mighty battle, which means that history has to be rewritten — frantically, disastrously, triumphantly. Georgina White, who played Laurey in Oklahoma!, is Princess Delcine, and Dominic Tighe, formerly Laurey’s true love Curly, shows a darker side as the evil Prince Dedrick.
NYMT is enjoying a busy summer, with short runs of Such Sweet Thunder (music by Duke Ellington, plots by Shakespeare) at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, and an adaptation of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market at the Lyric, Belfast. Two workshop productions are also taking place, so it is no surprise that they are breaking with tradition and giving Edinburgh a miss this year.
JK’s best shows nationwide
PLAYING THE VICTIM
Crucible Studio, Sheffield, Aug 7-9 (0114-249 6000)
IN SOMETHING of a first for the Told by an Idiot theatre company, this co-production with the Royal Court sees them working not on a devised show but with a script, and one written by the joint authors of Terrorism, the Presnyakov brothers. In this story of a university drop-out who makes a living from police murder reconstructions, a cast including Hayley Carmichael and Paul Hunter, and directed by Richard Wilson, is to give three performances here before moving on to the Traverse in Edinburgh and the Royal Court in London.
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THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL
Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, until Oct 29
(01768 774411)
ANNE BRONTE’s moorland novel has been adapted cleverly by Lisa Evans. It does not unfold exactly as the author told it, but instead sets present and past events in alternate scenes. The awkward attempts by a gentleman farmer (Adam Waddington) to uncover the secret of the mysterious tenant (Jessica Lloyd) proceed together with the revelation of that secret, and then back to a time when she bore a different name and lived in affluence. It is a good tale, playing in a theatre with views of fells on all sides.