Eat The Cake Productions

EAT THE CAKE

Reviews for Karaoke Wedding

This hilarious musical starts with Bernadette (played by Alice Keedwell)
proposing to Dave (played by Russell Morton) because she has won a
wedding in a radio competition. Dave isn't exactly leaping for joy at
the prospect and his flatmate Chas (played by Jamie Richards) is close
to tears at the thought of nobody for company other than his "special
friend" (it's him doing all the blowing in that relationship if you know
what I mean).

But the show (or rather wedding) must go on so it's on with the combat
trousers and on with the wedding planning. Bernadette's buxom sister
Clara (played by Leanne Jones) is delegated to do the catering which
doesn't leave her with much spare time to serenade her special friend (a
wedding cake groom called Pete).

Their mother, Gloria (played by Pearl Marsland) does a very good
impression of Mrs Bennet in her frantic attempts to get Clara coupled up
with Best man Chas. Their father prefers to take a back seat while he
wonders where have all the cowboys gone?

Somehow this crazy bunch get it together and a wedding takes place and
along the way there is singing (every kind of style from Opera to
Gospel) and dancing (ballet to tap) and a thoroughly good time is had by
all.

The standard of singing and dancing is excellent. Special mention has to
go to Alice Keedwell and Leanne Jones both of whom have really pure,
sweet voices.

The choreography is witty and slick and Harry Blake's tunes and lyrics
are tap-along-to catchy and include a wild variety of influences from
Western to Mozart to Broadway.

A KARAOKE WEDDING is a must see!

Sarah Monaghan

THEATREWORLD INTERNET MAGAZINE

Reviews for Mojo

Drugs, crime and intrigue

SET in the summer of 1958 in a seedy Soho bar, Mojo is the abstract tale of a bunch of low-level criminals embroiled in a business deal that appears to have gone horribly wrong.

The exact details of the plot that drives this entertaining work are deliberately left hazy and are only slowly revealed throughout the play.
Until the last act Mojo is very much a piece concerned with mood, power plays and above all else, razor-sharp dialogue.

The play's performers revel in the exhilaratingly manic hyper-activity of Jez Butterworth's script, with Mike Lahiffe and James Powell excelling as close friends Potts and Sweets, who carry the bulk of the play's dark humour.

The two are blasted on amphetamines for the first two thirds of the play, a detail which influences the tone of the piece, as it shifts from a madcap farce on speed to a creeping claustrophobic paranoia before ending in sinister quietus. It is Peter Fortune's character of Baby that directs this descent into darkness. A disturbed, increasingly psychotic figure, Baby is seemingly always inches away from a violent explosion no matter what mood he is in. Fortune rises to the task of playing a difficult character admirably, and is never less than riveting.

Dermot Jones does well to anchor the piece in the more understated role of Mickey, while Ollie King's Skinny is an hilariously wired nervous wreck.

For much of its stage time, Mojo appears to be a deft and witty gangster pulp, a brilliantly executed farce that never stoops to spoon-feeding the audience plot or character background.

These details are casually dropped into conversation, never feeling artificial. However, the immense tonal shift in the last third of the play, while jarring, is a risk that lends a degree of substance to all the motor mouth dialogue.

Camden New Journal

It is ten years since Jez Butterworth's play first shocked London audiences and now he has reworked it for this revival. I have not been able to compare the scripts and a decade-old memory is too unreliable to detect what changes he may have made. One thing is for sure: in the past ten years familiarity has developed an immunity to the gutter language, which has now become ubiquitous.

The original production was a violent and foul-mouthed assault on audience sensibilities. The shock effect left many gasping and searching for a meaning to justify its offence, a reflection of the decline in social standards and responsibilities. Now it seems much more possible to take it simply at face value.

Gabby Vautier's production is still very much ‘in-yer-face', especially in the close proximity of this theatre, but violent as some of the action is, it concentrates upon the interaction of the characters, the staff of a sleazy club in Soho in 1958, caught up in all-too-real crime wars and competition over ownership of a potential rock and roll star.

The late 1950s ambience is very strong. Chris King greets patrons as Ezra, the club's owner, though the plot leaves him with no further live appearance. This is no musical but characters break out into song, and Elvis and contemporary rock form part of the sound design. A cloudburst of vinyl 45s hang from the ceiling as one goes into the theatre and there are moments when, given space, I think the audience would have been jiving in the aisle; my companion, who was based in Soho in the 50s, said they'd really caught the feeling.

This production certainly liberates the humour. I was much more aware of how very funny this play is. Butterworth has an excellent ear for authentic sounding dialogue which this cast deliver at a ricocheting pace. Rubber-lipped Mike Lahiffe, as wise-cracking, pill-powered Sidney Potts, and James Powell as Sweets, form a fast-talking double-act that would stand up on any variety bill, not least because they hold onto their characters so firmly. Peter Fortune clearly differentiates the mixed-up, mood-swinging boss's son Baby from his father's staff; a childhood part spoiled and part abused by his buggering father might well have created this psychotic who is brighter than the others think him. As Skinny, whose nuts are continually being scrunched and crushed by Baby ("That hurts! I may want to have children one day"), Ollie King gives us an innocent who may be besotted with Baby but has enough charm to attract manager Mickey (Dermot Jones).

It is difficult to see this misguided bunch as real baddies. As Sid says: "I'm a cunt. It don't make me Al Capone." But the most smooth-talking of them is up to his ears in murder and mayhem. The more ominous second act seems less successful then the jokey first half, despite the help of some gentle underscoring of menacing music from Matthew Greasley. Despite, or perhaps because of the circuitous plot, its hold becomes less tenacious. We are waiting for something that never really happens, some bigger confrontation, a failure I think of the play rather than the production, which makes it seem a little over long. But this is a highly-charged and worthwhile revival.

Howard Loxton © 2005 Rogues and Vagabonds

Mojo , presented by Eat the Cake Productions, opened at the Rosemary Branch Theatre on 7 September 2005 and continues until 25 September 2005. The production marks the beginning of the theatre's 10th anniversary year.

The dangerous edge of 50s London life.

Silver Johnny's a hot property, the new singing sensation of 1958 Soho's gangland drinking clubs. And he soon finds out that's a dangerous thing to be when the property-owners are like Ezra and Sam. Neither show up in the play (though Eat the Cake's production at the Rosemary Branch offers a pre-show Ezra to put the audience in their place at his place). We don't see that much of Johnny. Instead, Jez Butterworth's confident debut play gives a group of men whose function – and functionality – is often vague.

The opening's like suddenly finding yourself on rail-tracks, an express heading in close, sudden, loud and threatening. What it's about's never quite clear but it sets an atmosphere, uneasy, edgy, an explosion waiting for a match. Slowly things piece together, without ever slowing. And it becomes clear, as these young men argue and fight in a mood of perpetual frustration, that the up-and-down stairs of Ezra's watering-hole where they hide out in fear of a rival outfit's attack, is also a refuge. Being afraid to go out is also an excuse for sticking around in this fifties Soho nowhere.

For its first act, the cast in Gabby Vautier's pulsing revival play each moment precisely, but there's a sense of it all not quite joining up. By act two, the links are there, the pressure of the situation's showing up character faultlines. James Powell's Sweets is going round (unless he's clutching a table-leg in terror) smiling with aimless hopefulness that all will be OK, Mike Lahiffe's Potts continues his vaunting triumphalism over little victories while Ollie King's gangly Skinny remains the eternal victim, squealing or whimpering in his powerlessness. King gives the character a dignity as his genitalia receive yet another squeeze in his sideways complaint to no-one in particular that he may want kids some day.

Best of all is the late owner's son Baby, an heir-apparent with nothing to do and a lot of time to do it in, slippery and unpredictable. Apparent innocence or submission's likely too break into violent fury, his quieter moments having the low growl of deep threat in Peter Fortune's tight-reined, danger-edged performance.

Reviewsgate

Please go and support this show. I know the play really well and the performances giving from reading the text were spot on.

From entering the theatre the audience are greeted by the angelic tones of 'Silver Johnny' in the lounge and ya toes are instantly tapping to the sounds of the '50's'.

The play starts and the first 15 minutes are what can only be described as the effect of taking speed and then translating the feeling into the written word.

Potts and Sweets hammering out their dialogue like a couple of manic children excited about going off to America to become some entourage for the popular Silver Johnny. Who now apparently will be off to become a BIG STAR! Oh, whilst also discussing the effects of drugs on the gastric system. Hilarious!

Peter Fortune as 'Baby' is mesmerising. Unaturally pleasent through to unervingly disturbed. When he weilds the machete you want to leave the theatre for fear he may turn on the audience.

John (forgot his surname) playing Sweets never fails to impress as the niave half of the Potts/Sweets show. You feel sorry for the fact that he puts all his trust in everyone and never gets anything back. A solid performance that by the end you really feel for the guy.

Ollie who plays Skinny is perfect as the bullied hanger-on 'Skivvy' who wants to be a cool-dude with more responsibility but always ends up being bullied by Sweets. Near the end the words 'How much blood do you have to lose before you die? Really highlight the tragedy of this very dark tale.

The language and pace is supurb and the actors have to really work hard to ensure that Jez Butterworth's script is given the respect it deserves.

The physicality of each individual (especially Potts) are excellent. You feel you could take away the lines and still know what was going on. This comes from good direction and the ability to really highlight every piece of plot progression in the text. They must have disected this script for ages!

Technically I feel there were some restrictions BUT this was due to low budgets. Though with a play so driven on text and physicality the rest would have just been garnish. The atmospheric sound which can be occasionally heard almost in the back of your head helps with the mood of the darker scenes and the set is simple and effective.

I was slightly concerned with the noise of the stage floor BUT I don't see how without a big budget that could be avoided.

If you can, go and support this show as it really deserves to be sold-out everynight for the rest of the run. I enjoyed it so much I'm watching it Thursday as well.

An entertaining, well performed, dark, humorous and tragic little tale with balanced performances all-round.

Mark Bullock - South London Theatre

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