Consensual - A Review

On Friday, I had the pleasure of seeing Consensual by Evan Placey at the Nuffield Theatre. Here is my spoiler-free review of it.

Imagine a play that starts with a giant penis being drawn on the wall, then ends with you in tears and squirming uncomfortably in your seat. Doesn't seem possible, right? Well it is with Consensual, performed by Nuffield Youth Theatre.

The story is one of lies, betrayal, consent, and social issues. There are moments of hilarity, directly interspersed with those of horror and sadness. The director, Max Lindsay, used naturalism mainly, perfectly unified with sections of Frantic-Assembly-style symbolic physical theatre. The actors (who were all superb, by the way) used chalk to draw the 'set' on the floor of the stage, a dynamic approach which produced pacy and exciting breaks between scenes. Although the theatre was small, this heightened the feelings of discomfort when the artistic intentions were as such, and intensified the moments of heartbreak for both the actors and the audience.
At the lighter points of the play, it is set in a classroom filled with rowdy children. Anyone who's ever been in a class full of teenagers can relate to this scenario, and it was the type of setting where every audience member could point at a character and identify someone like that in their own lives. The actors painted almost caricature-like characters, but it didn't feel for a moment forced or overly dramatic (if you can be overly dramatic during a play). The plot flowed easily and despite it's complexity, was followed to the letter by everyone in the audience.

As well as being stimulating visually and emotionally, the play poses many hard questions about consent, maturity, and "quite who is doing the leading astray" (Fiona Mountford, for the Evening Standard). As an audience member, you are left to deliberate which character is in the wrong, if any of them are.

As an actor, to force an audience to like you and hate you and empathise with you all at the same time is exceedingly difficult. This, however, was achieved by both main characters; Laurie McNamara as the then-15-year-old schoolboy Freddie, and Evelyn Blackwell as Diane, the schoolteacher who 'led astray' Freddie (or did she?). Being an actor myself, I realise the talent that this requires, and appreciate it when I see it. The audience's emotions are further manipulated consciously by the twists and turns in the plot, and unconsciously by the exquisite physical theatre that cohesively force them into caring for these characters and their situation, whilst questioning the characters' morality and therefore their own.

In my opinion, it was a masterpiece. I encourage anyone who has the chance to see it done by anyone to do so, and also to see anything else that Nuffield Youth Theatre perform in the future. I've added Consensual to my bucket list of plays I want to do before I die!

Top 3... Musicals

Happy Wednesday!

Today I'll be mini-reviewing my favourite three underrated musicals. My favourite musical of all time has to be Les Miserables, but that's so well-known that I won't bother reviewing it today. Let me know if you want to hear my thoughts on it.

In no particular order;

Love Never Dies (Phantom of the Opera sequel)
Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton, with music by Webber and lyrics by Glenn Slater and Charles Hart, this musical is a masterpiece. I watch the DVD of the Australian cast so much, and I was lucky enough to see Anna O'Byrne (who plays Christine) in a different musical last year. Ben Lewis' performance as the Phantom is truly a spectacle. The plot continues the original Phantom 10 years on, and is so emotional and thought-provoking. Christine and Raoul have a 10 year old child, and Christine is reunited with the Phantom to sing for him one last time. Highly recommended.

Matilda the Musical
This adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic novel is written by Dennis Kelly, with music and lyrics by comic genius Tim Minchin. The story is heartwarming and funny, yet sad and slightly harrowing at points. My favourite songs from it are My House, Loud, Quiet, Telly, and This Little Girl. The young cast are always exceptional and make you feel bad about being older than them and yet far less talented. The School Song scene and the gym scene are so well put together and the entire stage is beautiful aesthetically.

Miss Saigon
Miss Saigon was an instant classic, written by Alan Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. It deals with the issues faced by American soldiers and Vietnamese women during the Vietnam War. Kim, a 17 year old Vietnamese peasant, is left with nothing when her parents are killed, and so has to become a prostitute, catering to American soldiers in Vietnam. On her first day, she attracts the attention of Chris, an American GI. They fall in love and plan to be together forever, but the strains and circumstance tear them apart. What will happen when they are reunited 3 years later? The musical is filled with heart reaching songs such as Why God Why?, Movie In My Mind, I Still Believe, and The American Dream, among others. At the end of every single show, there isn't a dry eye in the room, and even for the thousandth time watching it, I still cry before the interval. An incredible show, second only to Les Miserables.

Sherlock Season 4 Review

Okay, so over the past 3 Sundays, the new season of Sherlock aired on BBC1. I have always absolutely loved BBC Sherlock, mainly because Martin Freeman (John Watson) and Andrew Scott (Jim Moriarty) are two of my favourite actors ever. This season disappointed some fans, but I was thoroughly pleased with every episode, as usual. Therefore, here's my little snippet of a review of Sherlock season 4. Beware, spoilers may be ahead!

So, the first episode of the season picks up where the last left off. This episode on the whole was slightly convoluted, as the 'reveal' seemed a little impossible and plot-filling to me. However, the episode was fully emotionally-charged, and had some really beautiful imagery and cinematography of the aquarium and sharks. The ending was rather foreseeable and avoidable fro the characters' perspectives, and I feel like (SPOILER) Mary's death was just a plot device as opposed to something that would've actually happened. I also got really mad at John 'cheating' on Mary, as I thought it was a little out of character for him. Although the episode was a little slow, I understand that it had to set up the new season, introducing new characters and reminding us all of the past.

The second episode was INCREDIBLE. The villain is probably the scariest villain I have ever seen in a TV show. Played by the wonderful Toby Jones (who brought you classics such as Debby the house elf, Claudius Templesmith, and Bursar in St Trinians), Culverton Smith is the perfect villain. Perfect as in perfectly creepy. The scene where he nearly kills Sherlock is so intense and revolting, it truly shook me to the core. It takes some incredible writing, filming, and acting to make me feel so uncomfortable, and yet somehow this scene managed it. The episode was also interesting in other ways, exploring Sherlock and John's relationship, Sherlock's drug use, and the mystery of the disappearing girl. On the whole, I think this was the best episode of the season, and Toby Jones should be commended highly for his tremendous and yet nauseous acting. (Also, I didn't in the slightest see the big reveal at the end coming. Omg it was so well done.)

The third and final episode of the season aimed to tie up loose ends whilst simultaneously creating some more, to tease another season. It succeeded. I have heard mixed reviews about this episode, but I really liked it. I felt like the 'villain' of Eurus (Sian Brooke) paired with posthumous Moriarty made an intriguing team. The plot was rather more Saw than Sherlock in my opinion, but the last part of the episode really made up for it. I guessed the fourth-sibling reveal (yes this is me boasting) but I was still shocked by the way they did it. The creators of Sherlock really know how to make me fear for characters' lives, especially John Watson. When Mycroft (Mark Gatiss) was pretending to insult John so that Sherlock would shoot him instead of John, I welled up, I'll be honest. There's one thing that never fails to get me, and that's characters protecting John Watson.

All in all, I think this season was a triumph. Maybe not as good as season 3, but that's a biiiiiiiiiiig thing to live up to. Congratulations, Gatiss, Moffat, and all the cast and crew!

Top 3... Movies

Hello Wednesday!
Today I'll be sharing (and mini-reviewing) my personal 3 favourite underrated films of all time.
In no particular order:

Zero Day (2003, dir. Ben Coccio)
This is by far my favourite film ever. The story is inspired by (well, directly based on) the Columbine high school shooting of April 1999. Andre Kreigman and Calvin Gabriel, the two main characters (played by Andre Keuck and Cal Robertson, respectively) are fictional versions of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (respectively), the perpetrators of the real-life crime. I find this film so enthralling because, having studied the real massacre and perpetrators, it gives a different perspective to the relationship between the two criminals/characters, and also to the mind and inner workings of Dylan/Calvin. In particular, this is shown by in real life, Eric was blamed for being the 'mastermind' being the plan, and Dylan was portrayed as the 'quiet innocent one, led astray by Eric'. However, in the film, there is a scene in which Calvin (Dylan) is talking about how it's funny that people seem to not blame him and instead blame Andre (Eric), even though he has most of the ideas. In short, the film is very well made (and I usually hate found footage films), with incredible complex characters who give your morals a shaking-up and simultaneously make you love and hate them.

St Trinian's (2007, dir. Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson)
This film was my entire childhood oh my. Summarised by IMDb, the plot is thus; In order to save their bankrupt school, a group of troublesome girls stage a robbery with a group of geniuses on their tails. This does not do the movie justice. It is witty, innovative, moving, and all-round hilarious. The typical clique trope is so overdone, but somehow works impeccably in this classic. Plus, I'm pretty sure everyone wanted a cliquey makeover after seeing that amazing makeover scene. I remember always wanting to be one of the Posh Tottys, before realising that they were phone sex workers, of course. In summary; funny, empowering, and sheer genius.

Ratatouille (2007, dir. Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava)
One of my all-time favourite Disney movies, and one of the most underrated! The story is wonderful: a rat with great culinary skills and a sophisticated palette pulls a guy's hair and makes hm move in order to cook better. Simple! Honestly I have no clue why this film isn't more hyped-up, it's so funny and clever! Roger Ebert claims it is 'a triumph of animation, comedy, imagination and, yes, humanity' and asks for a sequel. If any animated film deserves a sequel, it's Ratatouille (excluding the cinematic masterpiece Toy Story 3 of course). But what really proves how wonderful this film is, is that I am a huge germaphobe, and yet I would be totally comfortable with Remy (the chef rat) cooking for me. Magnificent.

Counting My Blessings

I wrote this when I was extremely happy, and it's message is something I need to remind myself of. You should remember it too.

I started counting good things in my life
And I started to count my worries and strife
The good things took longer; hours on end
Whilst the bad things took seconds, it was hard to comprehend
Because in school I was good at maths; I didn't even try
But now I guessI've realised I still can't count that high,
All my virtues and amenities added up rather quickly,
And the volume of the bad things stacked up not nearly so thickly.
So now I'm sure that life is so much more than good to me
And life is good in general; count your blessings and you'll see.

                                        -c.h.f

Exam Stress!

Recently at college, my year has been in the midst of *gulp* mock exams.
The pressures of revising, taking exams, and even waiting for the results, are honestly harrowing to even think about. But they can be somewhat conquered, I promise!
My aim is for this post to be your mini exam survival kit, and I hope that it'll help at least a little, in preparation for your next exam, whenever that may be.

Firstly, revision.
You need to prepare. Sit down for half an hour or so, and make a schedule, You don't have to do hours at once, or even do some every day (although it does help). All you have to do is a little at a time, and regularly. Look at the subject(s) or topic(s) you struggle with most, and dedicate more time to them than those which you're more comfortable with. There's no point in spending hours going over things you already know just to make yourself feel better. Once you have a schedule, stick to it! This is probably the hardest part, but you have to do it. However you can convince yourself, you should do it. While revising, try out different things to find what works for you. This means revision methods, like mindmaps/flash cards/quizzes/reading/etc. as well as having the TV on/silence/music/etc. I, personally, find it a lot easier to concentrate if I have some kind of background noice; I prefer instrumental piano music, so then I don't get distracted by lyrics.

Secondly, taking the exam. Before it, make sure you have everything you need; a bottle of water, pens, pencils, ruler, rubber, maths equipment, highlighters, any books/papers you need, etc. Get your bag packed the night before, so you don't have another worry on exam day. Make sure you know the structure of the paper too, so you know how much time you have for each section. Then once in the hall, lay out your materials how you want them, and take some time to calm yourself down and prepare. When the clock starts, know how much time you have for each section and keep yourself o that schedule, Don't get overwhelmed and if you feel like you are, stop and take a minute for yourself.

Finally, once the exam is over (thank goodness), you can't change anything. So there's no point worrying about it! This is easy to say, but not so easy to put into practice. However, once you realise this, you lose your worries post-exam because if you feel you've done your best, then there isn't anything to fear.

Exams don't have to be the beast they appear to be. The key is preparation and a calm, level head.
Good luck!

Top 3... Blogs

(A very late) Welcome to January's Wednesday series! This series is called Top 3..., and each week I will give you a mini review of my top 3 books/films/etc.
To kick off this month, I thought I'd start with something clearly rather important to me: blogs.
I am lucky enough to know the owners of these blogs in person, and I genuinely get excited when any of them upload a new post!

In alphabetical order (to avoid favouritism :P );

My friend Anna's blog, A Fabulous Feminist.
Her posts make me think, they make me laugh, and they inspire me. (Also her poetry is insanely good, you should also check out her poetry/photos instagram; @wildpetals)

My blessed-with-historical-knowledge friend Jemima's blog, Another Ranting Reader.
I see a lot of who I want to be in Jemima (both as a blogger and as a person), especially in her organisational skills, You just have to glance at her blog to see how structured and clear her goals are. I always find it hard to set goals, but I'm taking a leaf out of her metaphorical book and trying to be more organised.

And lastly (but definitely not least-ly), my friend who blogs anonymously at How Can You Believe That?
She posts Christian-related topics, answering age-old questions and debunking arguments against Christianity with reason and grace. I really, really recommend checking out her blog, whether you're an Atheist, Christian, questioning, or of any other religion. (Also I am always here if you have any religion-related questions. I may not be able to answer them all, but drop me a message and I promise I'll try!)