REVIEW: 'Christmas Dinner', The Greenroom

Published: MANCHESTER CONFIDENTIAL, 11th December 2008

"Christmas Dinner at Greenroom"

The Christmas lights are twinkling and the bank balance is fearfully quivering as letters to Santa are carefully composed. You’ve slipped on the ice at least once in the past few days and if, like me, the tree is up already, the carpet has become a pine needle danger ground. Me thinks, this must mean, it be time for a pantomime!

Panto can be a difficult one, a bit like Marmite, people either love it or hate it. Slapstick, raucous running around and a good old sing-a-long in Christmas spirit is not everyone’s idea of a pleasant night out. But Greenroom’s very own Christmas Dinner might well change your mind.

This is the panto I have been looking for, still suitable for kids, but simultaneously wonderful entertainment for those who no longer believe in Father Christmas, or receive Christmas stockings. I am a panto (and Marmite) lover, but in recent years I have to admit that I have found myself lagging somewhat after shouting, “He’s behind you” for the fifth time in a row. This was not the case tonight.
 
Oliver Bray has succeeded in writing an unpretentious, witty and refreshing festive script. Baron Balbus, the wonderfully evil baddy who will kill you with his own tongue, vows to destroy the enchanted forest after being spurned by the spectacularly clothed Dame Lederstrabenaffe (the monkey hat being a particular favourite). As the forest is the home of Fairy Mary and brothers Nelson and Nigel, this is an event that cannot be allowed to happen. Not only will all the forest inhabitants be forced to live in housing estates (as the Dame rightfully exclaims: “Oh no!”) but as Nigel reminds us, we also must remember our love for the trees: “We love the environment,” he ardently exclaims. A Christmas Dinner aided by Santa Claus is, obviously, their only hope of swaying the Baron’s decision.

This story is wonderfully aware of the social construct behind its creation, and that exists past the 'fourth wall' of the stage. Not only are parents welcomed, but ‘mums and mums, dads and dads’ – no sexual discrimination here, thank you very much. The stock characters remain, as do the songs and catchphrases – yet all with a twist for the better.

Food is sarcastically organic, the Fairy likes her tipple a wee bit much and the Dame definitely has a beard. Santa, though still white-haired and red-attired, is magnificently lewd, and sleazily seduces Fairy Mary. The music is cheesy, badly sung and hilarious.
 
Asking you to 'leave pre-conceptions at the door’, Christmas Dinner is a self-conscious narrative frequently commenting on, and battling against, the traditional pantomime structure. References to the contract being formed with the audience are stated; the actors artificially come out of character to express frustration at their constrained roles.

Sound effects and projections are used to great effect. In typical Greenroom style, the snow falling outside an arched window floats upwards, as well as down. The sets are similarly impressive – salt snow floor, an ornate dinner table and a flickering fire all add to the magic of the performances. The actors are clearly enjoying themselves as they perform, improvising and interacting with the audience with skill. They render jokes with irony and smiles, and the audience love it. Adults hiss and boo, laugh loudly, grapple for sweets and clap to Christmas renditions of ‘Eye of the Tiger’. What more could you want? Absolutely nowt.
 
It might not have the big budgets of the larger Manchester pantos, nor be so expertly rehearsed, but that only makes it jollier. This ‘Christmas Dinner’ really is the cream in the pie. It is a ridiculous, endearing and most importantly, a fun, pantomime. A wonderful Christmas treat, expect to have your tummy tickled and winter woes lifted. You should go. Take family, friends, reindeer and a token elf. At only £9, it would be silly not to.



'Christmas Dinner' is on at the Greenroom until the 21st of December.

Link: http://www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/Entertainment/Theatre-and-Comedy/Christmas-Dinner-at-Greenroom

PDF: Christmas Dinner, Manchester Confidential, 11th December 2008

REVIEW/FEATURE:'From Space' shop and Laura White at Castlefield Gallery

Published: MANCHESTER CONFIDENTIAL, 8th December 2008

"From Space’ shop and Laura White at Castlefield Gallery: Thalia Allington-Wood becomes the princess of single evening art-shopping and Gallery-going"

It’s bloody cold outside and the air is sharp as I walk past Salford station in search of ‘From Space’. The self proclaimed ‘new art and fashion shop’ I have been sent to assess. The Christmas lights and wafts of festive sausages I left behind in Deansgate place further bricks upon my shoulders. Bricks entitled ‘Christmas is looming’ and ‘It really is time to start Christmas shopping’. Maybe, I think, just maybe this shop will be my tinsel covered savior.

Tucked away, ‘From Space’ is an endearingly small but effectively filled shop. The showcase for resident Islington Mill artists, along with other artistic pieces from further afield. This is a place to come for unique, handmade, and sometimes rather pointless items to fill a home, (or the underneath of a Christmas tree). Most at nice and un-daunting prices to boot.

An eclectic array of art lines the walls, to suit many a taste. Andrew Brooks is of particular note. Artist of the forthcoming 'Reality Hack: Hidden Manchester' at Urbis, Brooks’ photographs are surreal and rather beautiful (see review this week). Extremely sharp portrayals of cityscapes, woodlands, derelict buildings and ships at sea, that have been layered and reworked digitally till the colours and light hold an ethereal and mystical quality. They have an unexpectedly euphoric effect upon the viewer.

Also worth a mention is Liz Scrine’s absolutely huge candleholder, the ceramic pipes reminiscent of medieval, Gormanghastesque, scenes, flickering corridors and looming shadows.

‘From Space’ is almost a bohemian lifestyle store. Not only do they wish to sell you adornments for your walls, but to dress you in artistic clothes, supply your bookshelves with artistic books, fill your living room with artistic music, and provide artistic postcards for you to inform your friends of just how artistic you are.

However, it does so in a friendly and laidback manner, without too much self-artistic awareness, which is refreshing. ‘From Space’ is full of gift potential and worth a visit.

Having by now finished my complimentary artistic beer, I head back into the cold night, one art print in bag, for a well wrapped stroll towards another art related drink. This time at the Castlefied gallery, and the preview of Laura White’s ‘If I had a monkey I wouldn’t need a TV’. I can feel my very existence turning into oil paint and gouache.

Now I like Castlefield gallery, it has enough glass windows and white walls to swell my artistic pride sufficiently, and Laura White’s show is terrific. Using the gallery as a studio, the works were made on site and as such the relation between artwork and space is articulated eloquently.

Describing her own work as ‘imagery mess’, White’s art is a modern sensory explosion. Plastic animals, magazine cutouts and household goods that appear to have stepped out of the £1 shop are amalgamated into abstract and unexpected sculptures. Sponges, clothes pegs, feather dusters and suitcases are all present.

Images and objects are removed from their expected location and associations. Advertisements are shredded and mixed with clay to form a molding material; images are projected on to a pile of blowup balls and billboard posters. An Umbrella is filled with photographed animals. A huge media made stalactite hangs from the ceiling.

Laura White’s work is fun. It recalls Bahktin’s carnivalesque: enjoyment and festivity suspending and manipulating the official into freedom. The normal functions objects hold are disregarded, White makes you look at daily commodities from a different perspective.

Sipping some white wine, I catch my reflection in the window and am horrified to find that my art saturated evening has turned me into a Picasso. Wonky eyes not being the look of the season I head home, to do some decidedly non-artistic shopping at Lidl on the way.
 
Link: http://www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/Culture/Architecture/From-Space-shop-and-Laura-White-at-Castlefield-Gallery

REVIEW: Jan Chlebik, Artland Gallery

Published: MANCHESTER CONFIDENTIAL, 2nd December 2008

"Manchester and New York: Visit the Exhibition"

Walking into the relatively new Artland gallery, a small, personal and welcoming space, I did not expect to leave so moved.

Jan Chlebik’s photographs are stunning. Black and white prints that capture the emotion and beauty of urban cityscapes. Towers and office blocks become grids, patterns. Car filled streets are abstracted into blurred silhouettes. These are images familiar and alien. Surprising and poignant.

Chlebik’s images express the experience of city life. Of being lost, insignificant, within a sea of people, buildings and production, and of simultaneously being empowered as an individual. Surrounded by opportunity and activity.

This might sound odd as the photographs present a distinct absence of people. Moments of solitude are snapped by Chlebik’s camera lens. Early mornings, quiet evenings. His cities are still, empty and in wait.

Yet in Chlebik’s photographs it is the people in the indistinguishable cars, and behind the many windows and doors that are presented. It is what we cannot see, what the buildings contain. Voices articulated by the city landscapes. Manchester and New York stand side by side. The line of difference between the two cities becomes undefined. The order of the photographs jumbled. Buildings are shown to be the universal motif of human assertions. They express our collective ambition and also our individual routines. They are evidence of our existence. As Chlebik states, buildings and rooftops are ‘a snapshot of life going on, continuous and all encompassing’.

Either sharp, starkly contrasted, blurred or grainy the photographs of Manchester and New York present unexpected and alternative angles on familiar destinations. These different techniques show the versatility of our urban landscapes. In hazy backgrounds, the buildings rise through the mist like phantoms. In some, the solid buildings slice into far reaching skies. Modern Towers of Babel. Roads that carry solitary cars into harsh white distances feature heavily: journeys being made, beginning or ending, images of potential, independence and freedom. Clocks are also prominent. Time is shown frozen, but suggests it’s passing, evokes the visibility of change. Old churches next to glass towers: the collage and layering of historical architecture visible when walking through our streets.

The blurred images, highly contrasted, turn churches and skyscrapers into dark shadows. X-ray skeletons of daily urban existence. Chlebik’s use of light is wonderful. It shines from above, floats or sears ethereal on window pains and streets. In some, the lines are so sharp the buildings are almost returned to architectural graphics. Routine layered by the many streets and tiled by repetitive windows. Home is made surreal.

There is a sense of nostalgia. The Great Gatsby. Romance. Sadness. Hope. Glamour. Loss.  Past and future. All are invoked when standing before Chlebik’s photographs.

They are beautiful and absorbing images. Jan Chlebik’s work makes the minute and huge elements of the city graceful and bold. They articulate a sense of memory. Narrate the possibility present in Manchester, New York, and any urban space. Go and have a look. 

LINK: http://www.manchesterconfidential.co.uk/Culture/Architecture/Manchester-and-New-York-visit-this-exhibition

PDF:Jan Chlebik, Manchester Confidential, 2nd December 2008