Beauty and the Beast – pantomime performed with passion and produced with remarkable community dedication (Belvoir Players until Saturday 6 January)

The closer a pantomime can get to its audience, the more powerful and connected it can be. That’s certainly the case with the Beauty and the Beast being performed over the festive season by the Belvoir Players Amateur Dramatics Society.

It’s an enormous operation, packed full of energy, enthusiasm and intergenerational family commitment. While last night’s audience needed no encouragement to clap along and boo the villains from the earliest moments of the first act, the cast were having at least as much fun on stage. With two actors covering each principal role across the 21 performances, and three sets of alternating young choruses, there have been upwards of 120 people rehearsing the dialogue, songs and choreography, and oodles more working backstage. It’s a real labour of love and a dedication to drama, particularly for director Jessie McGreevy and those behind the scenes who need to be at the theatre for every performance and only get three days off over the next couple of weeks.

Alan P Frayn’s script is driven forward by the poetic narration by Flora Fairy (Sinead Fox-Hamilton at the performance I attended) and her evil opposite number Bella Donna (Mairead McAvoy who was lapping up the audience boos). The wonderful pairing’s second act sing-off properly promotes them from storytellers to being the pivotal good and evil influencers of the narrative.

The plot involves a Prince who is turned into a beast, a father who is kidnapped and exchanged for a daughter, a couple of beauty experts who have their work cut out with two sisters (Britney and Whitney), while a third (Belle) enjoys going au naturel but still has to rebuff the advances of a narcissistic Meat Loaf lookalike lad. And let’s not forget the housekeeper (the pantomime dame), his fun-loving son, and an Elvis impersonator.

Audience familiarity with the large cast is greatly assisted by the number of characters involved in each scene. Lots of classic pop hits – Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood, Shania Twain’s Man! I Feel Like a Woman!, Greatest Showman’s Rewrite the Stars, Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’, and a finale fuelled by a One Direction triple megamix – along with a few numbers borrowed from the Disney adaptation give the principle cast members and the animated ensemble a chance to shine.

Nikita White is vocally strong as Belle, a character who consistently knows her own mind and never simply goes along with what men ask her to do. Her Prince, played by Joseph Quinn, becomes a rather overbearing and domineering Beast. Amélie Euler and Rachel McGarry invest stacks of attitude, broad accents, malice and synchronised gestures in sisters Britney and Whitney, and quickly become stars of the show every time they appear on stage. While Robert McGregor manages to repeatedly insult the audience as Madame Fifi – the pantomime’s dame – no one could possibly be offended. His comedy sidekick Alex McKelvey playing Jacques (“with an ‘S’ though there’s only one of him!”) also has gags rolling off his tongue and delighting the willing crowd.

Part of the charm of a production like this come from the moments when a bunch of tiny children race onto the stage from the wings for the larger ensemble numbers. Their faces are full of joy mixed with a little bewilderment. Tonight was this group’s first performance in front of an audience, a big step up from their calmer dress rehearsal. However, by the end of the run the youngest cast members will no doubt be enjoying every minute of the show as much as the old hands standing behind them. Choreographer Matthew Watson has made good use of the two-level set, while Wilson Shields and his small band of merry men musicians keep the live music flowing through scene changes and off-stage moments of transformation.

The story is well told, the performances are full of passion, and the audience is close to the action and very invested in the show. Beauty and the Beast continues in the Belvoir Studio Theatre until Saturday 6 January. There are a handful of tickets left for performances before Christmas, with better availability later in the run.

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Shirley Valentine – Bright Umbrella’s Christmas antidote (until Saturday 23 December)

After a couple of years staging productions of A Christmas Carol – with what must have been the cutest Tiny Tim on the island – Bright Umbrella Drama Company are taking a very different approach for 2023.

Shirley Valentine is their Christmas antidote. Though the Grinch hasn’t totally stolen Christmas as a nativity anecdote does hook the first act of Willy Russell’s play into the festive season.

Julie Alderdice confidently takes on the one woman show, whisking the audience into the mind of 42-year-old Shirley, a Liverpool woman who has become lonely and frustrated in her marriage to Joe. She’s reduced to talking to the kitchen wall as she gets his dinner ready for him coming home. A friend wants her to go on holiday with her in Greece. But she couldn’t leave the husband and grown up kids behind … or could she?

Russell was a women’s hairdresser and ran a salon for a few years. While talking to the wall always feels like a clunky device to explain the titular character’s monologue, his play has aged remarkably well over the last 37 years. The coming of (middle) age story is laced with laughter but also full of sobering thoughts.

Alderdice adopts a gentle Scouse accent and draws the audience into Shirley’s inner turmoil. She riffs off topics like a bouncing pinball, from female orgasms to spinach. After one particular dinner dish was declined, Shirley takes a deep breath and becomes more intentional about living her life to its full. An interfering neighbour is wonderfully put in her place as Julie’s confidence grows.

What starts out as a gradual emancipation is fully realised when the play resumes after the interval. Shirley is in a totally different place, geographically and mentally, and is taking risks, discovering herself and enjoying life. All the more remarkable

The early line “Marriage is like the Middle East: there’s no solution” is even more pertinent in 2023 than back in 2019 and 2020 when the Lyric staged the play starring Tara Lynne O’Neill.

While the preparation of the pivotal eggs and chips dinner is core to the first act, Trevor Gill’s direction allows Alderdice to abandon her pots and pans on the stove and retreat to talking at the table rather than dwelling near the cooker. Some productions make Shirley pace around the kitchen like a caged animal. This one leaves Shirley’s words and mood to do the talking without visual metaphors.

Shirley Valentine is an unusual but pleasing production for the month of December. The show continues at the Sanctuary Theatre in east Belfast until Saturday 23 December.

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Cinderella – a classy, well-pitched pantomime in a new venue (Brassneck at Devenish Complex until Thursday 21 December)

Cinderella at the Devenish Complex in Finaghy is the Belfast pantomime that’s on everyone’s lips. The hotel ballroom may not be a typical venue for theatre, but Neil Keery’s writing (his debut panto script), the careful tone, and the energy of the cast deliver a great evening of family entertainment right in the heart of a local community.

Over-worked and under-appreciated, Cinderella is the genius – with the help of Buttons and some indispensable filters – behind her sisters’ social media success. Meanwhile, the popular Handsome Prince across town is popular online but lonely in real life, or “IRL” as the cool kids would say. A competition to create a new dance for his big ball might reward someone with a proposal from the prince … though maybe not the type of proposal you’re expecting. And when the fairy’s magic wears off at midnight, has Cinderella’s chance to escape the drudgery been cancelled forever?

The ‘overture’ music at the start of the first act has the under 18s doing dance moves in their seats while the oldies don’t recognise the tunes. In a year or two, social media-infested scripts may wear thin. But at the moment, it’s still a great way of playing into adult confusion and youngster’s media of choice.

The bickering, bumbagged Karens (pushy Orla Graham and facially expressive Vicky Allen) are melters. Fairy Up Liquid (Neil Keery) is mouthy but never uncouth and has a great snack pouch in her wig. Buttons (Conor Cupples) is loyal and full of irrepressible bounce and optimism. The Handsome Prince (Simon Sweeney) has royal marbles in his mouth – “Yaaaaaaaaah”, “Sublime!” – and throws great shapes with his upper body as he speaks. And Cinderella (Philippa O’Hara) has an angelic voice – So Happy is a great duet with the Prince – along with the best moves on the stage (sorry Fairy Up!) and builds up a good rapport with the audience as her journey out of servitude to stardom evolves.

There’s quite an art to a good pantomime. Careful judgement is needed to pitch the humour and the language at a level that tickles the grown-ups and still passes over the heads of the youngest, most impressionable audience members. (The older kids can quietly enjoy the fact they get the jokes they know they’re not allowed to repeat in polite company.) A good dame also requires skill to banter with the audience and ad lib without going too far. Brassneck’s Cinderella walks this tightrope with confidence and finesse.

Throw in lots some rapid on-stage costume changes, a routine that makes the actors corpse (who wouldn’t want to be frozen in time while eating a sausage roll?!), sparkly costumes, a wee bit of politics, lots of crowd-pleasing local references and slaggin’ Lisburn, super-soakers, and bubbles … every dame should insist on having a bubble gun.

Take a bow Brassneck Theatre Company, director Tony Devlin and the cast, composer and music maestro Katie Richardson, set designer Cathan Roberts, choreographer Cheryl O’Dwyer, video supremo Fergus Wachala-Kelly and stage manager Marjolaine Demaude. The budget may have been relatively low, but the ambition was high and the show certainly delivers.

Only four performances remain in the run, but extra seats have been added so you might just catch a show at the bedtime-friendly 7pm from Monday 18 through to Thursday 21 December. Tickets £8 (child)/£12 (adult).

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O Holly Knight – the unravelling of a media darling before the age of influencers (Theatre at the Mill until Saturday 30 December)

O Holly Knight is set up as a nostalgic story that plays out in the run up to Christmas in a 1960’s Belfast that is still devoid of Troubles. There’s a newspaper editor who doesn’t know his own mind. A radio presenter – foreshadowing modern influencers with her tightknit team of better-informed advisers – who gets away with risqué innuendo on the BBC Home Service. So far so fictional!

Ruby Campbell plays Holly, the young woman of the moment with a magazine column, a reputation for fine dining and high fashion, and a blossoming broadcasting career. Bedecked in Diana Ennis’ period fashion, Campbell dazzles as sings Holly’s catchy theme song This Town Belongs To Me.

Over in the office of the Belfast Chronicle, Richard Croxford plays the dithering editor Bob Baxter alongside his ambitious and overlooked receptionist Miss Boyd (Rosie Barry). The Fetch Me A Byline song begins in a very ambiguous key but is on firmer ground when repeated later in the story. Barry is underused in the first act, and after the interval her Miss Boyd character (who morphs from aspiring to conniving) is regrettably rushed through revelation, confession, justification and reinvention in the blink of a dramaturg’s eye.

Rea Campbell-Hill plays Johnny, a lad who is flamboyant by day, reserved by night. He uses his car as a wardrobe while he keeps himself in the closet, living at home with his devout mum played by a versatile Jo Donnelly who adds much mirth to her other parts as a print worker and the culinary genius behind Holly’s recipes. Their relationship and Johnny’s worry about coming out to his Mum turn out to be the most emotional issue requiring resolution in the play.

After the cliffhanger-free interval, Darren Franklin strides onto the stage as Hollywood star Brett Beaumont who is over filming in Belfast and to be the subject of an extended Belfast Chronicle profile. Miss Boyd (Barry) wonderfully smoulders – to the glee of the audience – during Brett and Holly’s big song and dance number.

Projections restyle Ciaran Bagnall’s smart angular set to create each location while Chris Warner adds subtle soundscapes like the ticking clock in Johnny’s house. Unfortunately, the overhanging upstairs room creates a lot of shadow down below and a number of scenes leave characters acting in relative gloom.

Sarah Jane Johnston’s choreography completely captures the moves of the swinging sixties. Director Colm G Doran wisely milks key comedic moments like the wobbly butler Walter (played by Croxford who throws himself into each of his roles). Writer Michael Cameron includes a nod back to the Hoffman’s department store from last year’s The Shop at the Top of the Town, though fanny and lumber jokes feel slightly cheap alongside the classier material. The finale lays bare everyone’s secrets for all to see, bar Brett’s which ends up shocking the audience (particularly due to a red herring that earlier hinted at a very different potential plot point) but is allowed to remain between him and Holly and isn’t turned into a newspaper headline.

O Holly Knight is at its strongest when it identifies that parents are often a step ahead of their children and tend to be more full of compassion than their offspring dare to believe. The success of the musical numbers and the energy of dance routines suggest that the talented cast may have deserved a few more songs along with a tighter ending to round off the show. Performances of O Holly Knight continue at Theatre at the Mill until Saturday 30 December.

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The Three Musketeers: Milady – a baffling case of mistaken identity and betrayal amidst a brewing war (QFT from 15 December)

I’m not sure how I missed The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan earlier in the year, but I wish I’d also been able to skip the two-hour sequel The Three Musketeers: Milady. Somewhere amongst the goulash of plot and hard to distinguish characters there’s a story that picks up on a previous triumph of saving the king’s life and sees a series of sword fighters equipped with pistols, muskets and knives try to stop a war, try to find a kidnapped love, and fend off the advances of a mysterious nemesis.

The superior fighting and strategic talents of Milady make her the deserving star of the story. Played by a very calm under pressure Eva Green, she runs rings around the men, a chameleon escapologist who always lives to fight another day despite being tied up in a bodice. Disney+ and Pathé are allegedly making a TV spinoff Milady Origins.

Are there just three musketeers? To be honest, without seeing the first part of the film, it felt like the number jumped between two, three, four, and many, many more depending on the scene. They needed badges or Thing 1/2/3 t-shirts.

The sets are lavish, decorated with gold leaf and rich fabrics. The horses behave impeccably. The unerringly cannons never fall short of their doomed target. Comedic moments are left in the hands of just one character whose oafish chat up lines are amazingly successful. Vincent Cassel is barely recognisable playing Athos. Much is made in the media of Porthos (played by Pio Marmaï) being bisexual, but it must only be obvious if you’ve watched the first film.

The final scene suggests that the story isn’t quite over and this could conceivably be a trilogy. With the two films shot back-to-back, box office receipts for the first instalment tell a different story: the overall production seems unlikely to wash its face so we may yet be spared any more of this seventeenth century nonsense on the big screen.

The Three Musketeers: Milady is being screened in cinemas – including the Queen’s Film Theatre – from Friday 15.

 

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Are Yule Being Served? – it’s Christmas Eve and emotions are running high at the understaffed inn (The MAC until Sunday 31 December)

The hospitality industry provides a rich seam of material for alternative Christmas shows. Fraught industrial relations between workers and managers, agitated customers, the heightened emotions of the festive season, and the pickling effect of too much booze on end of year brains.

Written by Caroline Curran and directed by Dominic Montague, Are Yule Being Served looks back at an eventful Christmas Eve shift in the Wind Yer Neck Inn.

As she approaches the end of her tenth year at the inn, Scarlett (Caroline) is facing a fork in the road. To continue working front of house, or to take up an acting opportunity across the big pond. Big boss (Patrick Buchanan) is on the verge of declaring his hand and instigating a workplace romance. Meanwhile in the kitchen as well as in his home life, chef Gary (Rhodri Lewis) is battling his own fully stocked larder of demons.

A blizzard of customers – eccentric, lonely and nearly always troubled – stumble in looking for comfort and succour on this Christmas Eve. There’s a wedding in one room, a funeral gathering in the other, and the container holding a granny’s ashes is just asking for trouble. The show gets off to an upbeat start with a musical number: Buchanan has a rich baritone voice that is shown off again later in the production.

The jokes come thick and fast. We’re introduced to the foibles of the other unseen members of staff, at least, those who have bothered to turn up on one of the busiest days of the year. And the plot acknowledges that so many in the creative industries rely on hospitality shifts to see them through the times when they have no on-stage work.

Curran has a history of exploring real life social issues through the medium of comedy theatre. Over 70 minutes, you’ll see aspects of your past, present or future self – or those you know – portrayed on stage. It’s a time of year when fear, hurt and insecurity are externally suppressed but internally suffered. And Buchanan, Curran and Lewis capture it well.

The sound effects and set may be spartan, but there’s a lot of heart in this three-handed festive performance. Are Yule Being Served is running in the Upstairs Theatre at The MAC until Sunday 31 December.

Trigger warning: Whamageddon!

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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – pantomime on a grand scale with some signs of evolution (Grand Opera House until Sunday 14 January)

With a big auditorium, advance ticket sales that must be the envy of other venues, and 12 shows a week, the finances are there to throw the kitchen sink at Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in Belfast’s Grand Opera House. You won’t find a Christmas show with a larger cast, with more glitter, with as impressive a street dance troupe, or with as spectacular a pre-interval stunt.

There’s a lot to like with Snow White (played by Aisling Sharkey) fighting off the evil Queen for the eye of a prince. Local performers Conor Headley and Jolene O’Hara are back for a second year and excel as Prince Connal of Coleraine and Queen Dragonella, though Headley’s solo before the close of the first act is somewhat eclipsed by the other performer who rides out over the heads of the front rows (only possible with perfect lighting and stagecraft to pull off the illusion). O’Hara revels in the wickedness of her role as the baddie and her ultimate dispatch from the story is accompanied by a trademark soprano trill.

As has been the case for 33 seasons, top billing goes to panto dame May McFettridge (John Linehan) with the most elaborate frocks. This year he stars as May of the Mirror, in charge of proclaiming who in the land is truly the fairest of them all. Funny man Paddy Jenkins keeps May company while even funnier comedian Phil Walker gets by far the most generous slice of time on stage telling jokes and rapping as the Queen’s court jester Muddles.

Many in the big cast are spread thin. Flawless came to national attention when they reached the final of Britain’s Got Talent back in 2009. Their style of street dancing is energetic, acrobatic, and while they only get to performance two numbers and take part in a skit with the resident comedian, they make a big impression, albeit as a variety act shoehorned into the plot. (The other half of the troupe are performing in the Edinburgh pantomime.)

Also woefully underused are ‘The Magnificent Seven’ (led by Belfast-based Scott English playing Prof) who appear in the show’s title but get very little time on stage. Their role as banished former palace protectors of Snow White allows them to offer her shelter. But the seven actors have little meaningful contact with the majority of the rest of the cast and I’d love to see an updated story arc that properly integrated them into the main narrative. Otherwise, I worry* that there’s an implicit tokenism and powerlessness in the portrayal of dwarfism. (PS: Some of the seven might make great understudies for the rest of the cast.) *I’m conscious I’m worrying out loud in public about something that really requires a quiet conversation to listen to those directly involved. I’ve a month to try to make that happen …

Not every pantomime convention makes it into this year’s offering at the Grand Opera House. There’s less of the “he’s behind you” audience responses. There has been some tinkering with the traditional Brothers Grimm/Disney plot in the second act poison apple scene. The use of double entendre now relies less on sexual innuendo, and scatological humour and fart gags are to the fore. It’s great to watch parents turn to each other and exchange raised eyebrows and smirks over the heads of their young children. (I’d love to hear the conversations in cars on the way home with kids repeating the Shih Tzu joke!)

While people in the boxes are no longer scolded for being posh, the audience in the front rows are ridiculed – though some of the ad libs at the performance I attended sailed uncomfortably close to the line of 2023 sensibilities. It would be fascinating to see how the Belfast Snow White show compares and contrasts with the other three versions running in Darlington, Glasgow and Southampton. (Crossroads Pantomimes have productions running in 24 cities across the UK this season.)

The audience enjoy the spectacle. Theatrically, the final poetic payoff to the pantomime story was somewhat fluffed at my performance and the curtain came down all too quickly after the final bows without another number or a megamix to send us out into the cold Belfast night with a proper song ringing in our ears.

Pantomime is always changing. Hopefully the artform is keeping ahead of audience expectations. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is an ambitious production, technically complex and full of strong performances. It’s in the minor nuances and coping with the scale of the show that improvements could be made. Directed and choreographed by Jonny Bowles, performances continue until Sunday 14 January.

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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget – feathered friends flock to fight for freedom (Netflix from 15 December)

The pesky freedom fighting chickens are back in Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget. Following their escape from the clutches of Mrs Tweedy and the farm she ran like a prisoner camp, the chickens are enjoying life on an island overlooking the scene of their torture. Strong-willed Ginger and accident-prone Rocky are happily rearing little Molly, a chip off her parents’ block. All is calm, until human activity is spotted across the water back on the mainland. Ginger calls the community to action – to lie low – spurred on by maternal responsibilities. But Molly’s curiosity spurs her to investigate and before long the feathered crew are breaking into a farm … or is it a chicken-friendly theme park? And who’s the boss behind this new venture?

Watching back the original Chicken Run (BBC One Sunday 10 at 14:00, BBC Three Friday 15 at 19:00, or Netflix) it’s clear that the animators and cinematographers went to extraordinary lengths to light the sets and create convincing backgrounds. My copy of Chicken Run was on VHS: a lot has changed since Aardman Animations’ first feature-length was released in 2000. While the characters in Dawn of the Nugget are all still stop motion plasticine figures, much of the background and set is computer generated. The end result gives the production a more modern feel.

Some of the original voice artists have been replaced (Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi taking over Ginger and Rocky from Julia Sawalha and Mel Gibson), but it’s good to hear Jane Horrocks back as the fast-knitting Babs. Fowler still embarks on military reminiscences to any captive audience. The cunning rats – Nick and Fletcher – continue to rescue the chickens from tight situations. And watch out for the new scouse character Frizzle voiced by Josie Sedgwick-Davies.

While the plot is less tight than the original, there are plenty of great one-liners, hare-brained contraptions, and visual gags. Rocky’s ability to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (and sometimes the reverse) still gives him unfair moments of heroism in contrast with Ginger’s lower key constant stubborn perseverance to protect her offspring. There’s a Mission Impossible-style sequence complete with a suitably orchestrated score, and an explosive finale that could have stolen its storyboard from a Bond film with the villain getting their comeuppance while their lair experiences what SpaceX would call a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’.

It may be a cockamamie tale about hens standing up against humans, but Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is a decent animated sequel that will entertain adults returning to a childhood favourite, and win over a new generation to this tale of feathered fightback. Available to stream on Netflix from Friday 15 December.

 

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Have Yourself A Scary Little Christmas – are there ghosts loose in the manor hoose? (Lyric Theatre until 6 January)

Step into Darkwood Manor where the unseen Lady Alice is convalescing upstairs with her care assistant Ciara, the handyman McKillop is pootling about, the butler is lingering in the corner of the main room at a piano, and in waltzes the absentee man-in-charge Toby for his annual Christmas visit, this year accompanied by his fiancée Nancy.

Have Yourself A Scary Little Christmas is a ghost story without many scares. There’s a heist, a fraud, a séance, a few mummers, a good load of skullduggery, some double crossing and a great sax solo from the resident musician Frankie McIlvanna. Stuart Marshall’s wooden Hansel & Gretel library set neatly forms the backbone of the manor house

Conor Grimes and Alan McKee have been making adolescent and adult audiences laugh at Christmas time for decades. This year’s script feels novel and the first outing for a new show that will doubtless be refined and revamped over coming years. McKee plays the cast-strapped city boy Toby with an eye for antiques, old and more modern; while Grimes enjoys getting to grips with the more rural McKillop.

Ali White adds an air of mystery as a celebrated psychic medium and, in the second act, has great fun with her spirit voice. She’s a big presence on stage and totally owns her big revelatory musical number based on the popular I Will Survive. Nicky Harley is underused as the plain-speaking Ciara who brings more than a hint of scepticism to the manor house along with disapproving glares that could cut other characters in half.

There are some great physical effects during the séance – the second show I’ve seen in a couple of weeks that incorporates one into the script – and the cast are to be applauded for fully committing to that pivotal scene as well as the play’s other moments of mayhem. Hopefully the Lyric Theatre bar’s wine rack is well stocked with bottles of Jacob’s Creek wine given its importance to the plot.

The cast all have good comic timing and a sense of how to move in comedic ways. During the interval, someone categorised the show as having “Tyrone humour”. Plenty of audience members were shrieking and snorting with laughter, and in some cases sounding like they were wetting themselves, during a bewildering Forrest Gump sketch that somehow materialised in the first act. My funny bone is hard to tickle so my limited laugh count may not be as good a guide to whether the show was hilarious.

Oddly, classic elements of Grimes & McKee shows – so frequently directed by Frankie McCafferty – that I’ve come to expect were largely missing this year. Particularly absent was the normal tomfoolery that usually includes deliberate mistakes (once accidental, then repeated nightly), ad libbing and corpsing. By sticking quite rigidly to the ghost story narrative, they omitted any crowd-pleasing, fourth-wall breaking references to local politicians or topical events. Thunder and lightning effects accompanied nearly every mention of ‘Darkwood Manor’ yet this repetition never became the knowing butt of a joke. Maybe as the run progresses, there’ll be space to let the script and the choreography meander.

The ending felt anti-climatic with a neat and just yet tame resolution to the uncovered situation. The best heists – at least on film and TV – seem to lull audiences into a false sense of security letting them believe that they understand exactly what has just happened, before another layer of double or triple crossing is deftly revealed and the audience are once again wowed having had the wool pulled over their eyes.

Have Yourself A Scary Little Christmas continues at the Lyric Theatre until Saturday 6 January.

Photo credit: Johnny Frazer

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Maestro – the extraordinary portrayal of an extraordinary couple (QFT until 7 December before Netflix release on 20 December)

The act of sitting with a notepad and a pen in hand ready to scribble in the dark already slightly distracts from the normal audience experience. For film previews, the early morning start complete with rush hour traffic and parking frustrations adds commotion to what filmmakers intend to be a relaxing luxury night out in front of the silver screen.

Every now and again, a movie comes along that makes you forget about what else is going on in life. The performances enthral, the storytelling consumes your mental bandwidth, the music captures a mood, and you’re taken to a different place for a couple of hours.

Maestro is one of those films. The word ‘extraordinary’ comes to mind. I don’t attach stars to reviews, but if I did, Maestro would have the maximum number available. Bradley Cooper looms large over the film, a hugely positive influence on its success. He’s playing Leonard Bernstein, as well as directing and credited as co-writer with Josh Singer. While the film’s title and early scenes revolve around the chain-smoking musical genius, the balance changes over time and Maestro becomes as much about the experience of Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) as her better-known musical husband.

Montealegre is never seen to play second fiddle to Bernstein. She enjoys him, accepts him, and for a long time doesn’t seek to change him. If Cooper’s Bernstein is ebullient and driven, Mulligan’s Montealegre is tolerant and resilient. Over time they become visibly and emotionally out of sync. Bernstein was given huge freedom by his wife but was unable to use it responsibly. Exploring their complex relationship – which they attempted to hide from their children – is one of the main drivers of the film’s appeal.

The next most significant aspect is the music. The vast majority of the soundtrack features pieces written by Bernstein, underscoring dialogue and setting the emotional temperature of scenes. Cooper is seen conducting the London Symphony Orchestra for six enchanting minutes as the flamboyant Bernstein in an incredible scene that precedes a pivotal emotional change in the narrative. Captured live in long takes, there’s a sense of authenticity familiar from Cooper’s earlier performance in A Star is Born.

Matthew Libatique’s cinematography captures beautifully lit scenes in black and white, and unfussily switches to colour for later periods. Impossible shots drifting through buildings or switching location mid-pan are never showy demonstrations of special effects, just brave storytelling decisions by editor Michelle Tesoro that pay off. Maestro deserves to win significant awards for the two lead actors and many of the crafts that make the film a success.

Bernstein had a multi-hyphenated career as a public extrovert performer and a private introvert composer. A great American conductor who brought his vision to old classics. But also someone who wrote new musical theatre (which some deemed not to be “serious”). And a music educator who embraced the power of television.

“I want a lot of things” is a line of dialogue that sums up more than just Bernstein’s creative urges. Cooper conveys a man who was impetuous, last minute, talked over people, had a nervous disposition and took huge risks with how he lived his life. By the end of the film we witness a calmer individual who has learned to sacrifice, to be more loyal (perhaps not ever fully), and to better understand his own strengths and weaknesses. The conclusion is painfully sad.

Much has been written and opined over Cooper’s use of a prosthetic nose to better mirror Bernstein’s appearance and whether a Jewish actor should have been cast to play Bernstein. I’d sensitively suggest that the slight disguising of Cooper’s own readily recognisable features – it’s pretty subtle and changes to age the conductor from his mid-20s to his early-70s as the film goes on – assists in drawing the audience away from the star actor and thrusts them deeper into the film’s rich story.

Maestro has been given a brief theatrical release by its distributor Netflix before being released on the streaming platform on 20 December. See it in a cinema if you can. A big screen and proper sound system makes such a difference. And if you do watch it at home, turn the volume up loud and set your phone down. You can catch screenings of Maestro at the Queen’s Film Theatre until Thursday 7 December.

  

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From Lisburn to Lapland – join the elves to tour the city centre on a hunt for what the man in the red suit wants for Christmas (Three’s Theatre Company in Lisburn City Centre until 21 December)

It’s beginning to look a lot like … Santa’s elves need help figuring out what the man in the red suit wants for Christmas. But help is at hand from young volunteers who accompany them on a hunt across Lisburn City Centre, powered by candy cane, rhymes, riddles, some dancing, and the infectious energy of two chatterbox elves.

From Lisburn to Lapland features recently promoted Elsie and somewhat forgetful cousin Sproggy guide their young charges and accompanying adults from inside Bow Street Mall, out through the shopping thoroughfare, calling in with some retailers to pick up treats (hot chocolate much appreciated on a freezing cold evening) and clues. And if you complete the quest and encounter a grateful Santa – conveniently he’s often to be found resident in the light-tastic Castle Garden – he may recognise your contribution.

With no reindeer available, we travel by foot, observing the Elf and Safety rules, particularly when crossing the road. Two stage managers who are less intoxicated with elven mischief are on hand, and youngsters are decked out in hi-vis jackets. Other shoppers humour, nay respect, our exuberant and playful behaviour. What no one can control is the Pied Piper effect of other little people instinctively joining the tribe mid-show, entirely unwilling to be prised away by their embarrassed parents … it’s a good sign that the show is working and pitched at the right age.

The script bounces along with nonsense rhymes, friendly elves that are easy to help, and the added wonder of the light display stretching above the length of Bow Street and the brilliance of the gardens.

Three’s Theatre Company is no stranger to bespoke, site-specific works. Founder Anna Leckey – born and bred in Lisburn – tends to include an element of choice in her shows. Often it’s the selection of which headphone channel to listen into the inner thoughts of one of a number of actors in a scene. Her first professional show was funded by the then Lisburn City Council and this Christmas her street animation is supported by the expanded Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council.

You can join Elsie and Sproggy by booking a slot online over the next few weekends in the run up to Santa’s big present-giving deadline.

Photo credit: Simon Hutchinson

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