James Corrigan’s production of Bent by Martin Sherman, a play dealing with the Nazi suppression of the homosexuals, is a thought-provoking and ambitious piece, and one which will certainly engender much discussion when it opens at the O’Reilly.

The giggles of the press preview audience at the onstage nudity in the opening scene were soon silenced by the actors’ believable portrayal of the anguished suffering in concentration camps, even without the visual aid of the piles of corpses which will provide a focal point in the final performance.

Chris Greenwood put in a moving performance as Max, the play’s central character. It is one of the play’s great strengths that Max is not merely painted as a victim but as an emotionally complex character. Perhaps slightly more attention could have been paid to considering the effects of Max’s wealthy background on his characterisation as this came slightly as a surprise.

Max’s boyfriend Rudy (Matt Gavan) provided a neat contrast to the central role and some humour. Gavan’s movements around the stage felt very natural, yet although his vocal performance was obviously designed to be in opposition to Max’s, delivery was a little too rushed at times – something easily correctible before the play’s opening.

Joe Eyre (as Horst) and Jared Fortune (as Wolf) played some difficult scenes with conviction, although Fortune’s simpering glances at Max in the first scene were a little too comic. The contrast between Fortune’s death throes and Jacob Lloyd’s rendition of ‘Streets of Berlin’ provided one of the play’s most powerful passages, showing subtly of direction.

One weakness in characterisation which all the actors shared, with the partial exception of Brian McMahon (as Uncle Freddie), was a separation from the time period. While the concentration camp setting was gruellingly believable, there was little sense that this was 1930s Berlin at the play’s opening – a problem which needs to be looked at not only in terms of costume and set design but in individual performances.

Further design elements should add a lot to this production. The fence which will be constructed between the audience and the actors should be a particularly effective design tool – not only highlighting the segregation of the gay community but placing the audience in a fittingly voyeuristic position. Bent is an ambitious and well-executed piece in which minor errors will be ironed out easily before performance. It should prove very popular at the O’Reilly next week.

Isit and watch intently as the ensemble stand before me, taking turns at random to count to twenty, eyes closed, faces showing expressions of complete concentration. A seemingly simple feat, anyone who has ever attempted theatrical ensemble work will be familiar with the difficulty of this exercise, which involves counting from one to twenty, where no two members may say the same number simultaneously.

The intangible bond of the group that was made apparent in their warm-up carried solemnly through the entire play. The actors were not performing as individual characters, but working together as an ensemble. Not for one second was the faith of a character lost, a line forgotten, or a silence unintentional. Brittany Ashworth and Ellen Jones’s jointly directed rendition of Frederico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding, introduces most characters not by name, but rather by familiar relation. As such, the play centres around the arranged marriage between the Groom (Tom Garton) and Bride (Chloë Wicks), who still harbours feelings for a past lover, Leonardo (Alex Khosla). Set in the early 1930s, this lyrical drama tells a tale of raw human grief, family honour, and rebellion against the overpowering restraints of a rural Andalusian existence.

Though a tragedy, the cast have successfully incorporated subtle moments of physical comedy which provide a welcome break from the solemn atmosphere of the rest of the play. Additionally, the intensity and drama of the acting is broken up with elements of choreographed dancing and singing. The songs are accompanied at different times by two guitarists, a cello and a violinist set to original music written by Genevieve Dawson. The lullaby sung in Spanish in harmony by the Bride and Mother-in-Law (Olivia Charton-Jones) in the second scene of Act One, which foreshadows much of the tragedy ahead, effectively incorporates the beauty of the original Spanish verse.

This production of Blood Wedding, or Bodas de Sangre , has stayed true to its Spanish roots. Despite the risk of losing its meaning in translation by singing the lullaby in Spanish, the emotions, regardless of language, are well-captured and preserve the original spirit adding authenticity to the play.
To describe any production in one word is a great challenge. Confused Production’s Blood Wedding is the exception to this rule. Passion.

five stars

Blood Wedding is at the OFS from Tuesday – Saturday, 7.30pm

Angels and Airwaves aren’t what you might call a ‘normal’ rock band. There’s no charming back-story of all the members meeting at school and instantly becoming friends for life. Instead, they’re more of a second-generation group, formed from an odd mixture of bits of other bands: the drummer is from The Offspring, the bassist originally played for 30 Seconds To Mars, and their lead singer is Blink-182 front man, Tom DeLonge. A little surprisingly, the end result of this medley is actually rather good.

Released as a free digital download, their latest album Love was described by DeLonge as the ‘biggest release’ of his life. Although perhaps not the masterpiece he promised, it certainly appears to illustrate a growing maturity, both in his music and attitude to life. The flickering, darting introduction to ‘Soul Survivor’, the dreamy ‘Et Ducit Mundum Per Luce’, the frantic crescendos in ‘Hallucinations’ – they are all indicative of a band that are beginning to free themselves from the limitations of typical American pop-punk.

Every now and then they slip back into their comfort zone, and a couple of the songs aren’t quite as ambitious as one would like them to be (Epic Holiday in particular is dangerously reminiscent of Green Day), while their fondness for guitar effects occasionally threatens to drown us in a vague, over-distorted mess.

Nevertheless, the large majority of tracks seem well polished and flow smoothly into each other, although there is perhaps a slightly repetitive feel, with the album repeatedly trying to drag the listener into swelling crescendos, which becomes tiresome. If one looks past these minor faults, however, it is possible to enjoy Love.

It doesn’t quite live up to the hype: it’s not world changing and it’s certainly no ‘blend of Radiohead and U2′, but we can forgive DeLonge his over-zealous ambitions. Apart from his comparison of Love to Pink Floyd’s The Wall, that is. Too far, Tom, too far.

Cast your mind back a few of years and you may remember the hype surrounding indie four-piece The Sunshine Underground. Their debut album Raise The Alarm received great critical acclaim and the band hotly tipped to become the next big thing. However a long period of inactivity resulted in the band almost disappearing into the ether. Having now released their sophomore album, Nobody’s Coming To Save You, I caught up with front man Craig Wellington and guitarist Stuart Jones to discuss their background and return to the music scene.

From early on in the interview it’s apparent that the band have worked restlessly from the start to achieve success and to build up a strong fan-base. Things began to get serious for the band when they relocated from Shrewsbury to Leeds. Jones explains the importance of the decision; ‘We moved up there with the band in mind – if we had an evening off from work we’d spend it rehearsing.’ The fresh and versatile music scene and plentiful venues gave the group a platform to unleash their energetic live performances. After the release of Raise The Alarm the band embarked on a large tour, and soon sweaty local gigs turned into festival appearances, most notably at Glastonbury. The guys thrive off their live shows and Jones speaks passionately about them, ‘It’s nice when it’s a challenge to share the bill; not everyone’s there to see you play’.

Wellington describes The Sunshine Underground as ‘a guitar band, with dance music influences’. The band’s combination of quirky offbeat rhythms and funk driven guitars resulted in them being branded as being part of the ‘new-rave’ movement alongside acts like Klaxons and Hadouken in 2007. Although the exposure was appreciated, it was not a pigeonholing the band wanted to embrace. ‘It was invented by NME, but everyone knew it was a quick label that would be extinct in six months.’

The band’s reluctance to jump on this media-constructed bandwagon was a large factor in why the group’s second album has taken so long to see the light of day. Wellington explains how they wanted to create a very different record to their first; ‘We had to try and make our own sound.’ Despite taking a long time to get their act together, Wellington is much happier with how the album came together the second time around. ‘It felt much more like making a record this time; we had more time to think about the mood we wanted’. By working with Kasabian producer Barny the band have been able to hold much more creative control over their sound in the studio. Being signed to independent label City Rockers has allowed the band time to mature since their first effort (a relative luxury compared with the pressure often imposed by major record labels).

Over the course of their break the band wrote almost thirty new songs. With regard to the final track selection Jones jokes: ‘after extensively touring the first record you think to yourself, “do I really want to be playing this song live?”‘ The result is a follow up album packed with infectious vocal hooks and soaring guitar riffs – as Wellington puts it, ‘we always like big choruses!’ I was interested in what the band thought about the changes in the music industry since they first started. ‘We’ve come to the conclusion that our album is going to get ripped illegally – everyone’s does – but in a way we don’t mind that now. Obviously it would be ace if everyone pays for it, but if someone does steal our album and likes it, hopefully they’ll pay to come to a gig, or even buy the CD’. Jones has a refreshingly positive attitude to the bleaker side of the

music industry: ‘Spotify is brilliant to be honest, the more people that hear [our record] the better’.

The band hope to be returning to the festival circuit this summer and Jones jokes that the only way they’ll manage to headline Glastonbury is by befriending and marrying festival co-organiser Emily Eavis. I’m tempted to say that The Sunshine Underground could one day headline, but judging by the inaccuracy of past predictions, I’ll just settle for a third record sometime before 2014 instead.