Reviews
What the press and public have to say about FalconGrange Productions -
Lucky Sods - The Henley Fringe Festival - July 2011
JUST imagine, two million quid on the lottery and your life changed forever - yes, but not how you'd want it to be. John Godber's Lucky Sods from FalconGrange isn't the first play to examine sudden riches, but it's no less effective for that.
Fringe favourites FalconGrange - in the form of Yvie Magee and Dan Creasey - have become unmissable appointments in this July week and their championship run continues with this morality tale.
They have become masters in delivering stripped-down theatre which punches above its weight - just four actors serve this show which has a cast of eight. The only props are two chairs and a TV set, only visible from the front row, the only scenery a symbolic cross or windmill sail to denote location.
Much of the story mirrors the Viv Nicholson story as portrayed in Spend Spend Spend but there are important differences. We start with the snappy accepting comfort of a struggling household and move through sudden riches, to resenting and grasping family, nowhere they can call home any more and the sad destruction of everything they thought they knew.
The play is always funny and always sad and Magee and Creasey do well to continually tread that line so that we laugh and cry simultaneously. Every scene works but those where those two are together have an intensity and a sparkle which is riveting.
They, particularly, have a range and they use it to telling effect so that the two hours of the play fly by - even with the distraction of noisy rugby training going on just outside.
Mike Rowbottom for The Henley Standard
Having very much enjoyed your productions of Teechers and Bedside Manners in Henley recently I am putting forward the suggestion/recommendation that your company becomes the "resident co." at the Kenton Theatre. More of the same please!
Geraldine Bennetts, Audience Member - Via E-mail
l just wanted to congratulate you on the fantastic play you put on at the Green room. We had not even realised it was on until we were stopped by Yvie in the market place yesterday afternoon. We came along last night with some friends and we all loved it and laughed throughout. You all did so well and we wish you could perform to a bigger audience at a bigger venue. Well done and we will look out for you in the future.
Philippa & Gareth Harvey - Audience Member - Via E-mail
My wife and I (and the mother-in-law) came along to watch Bedside Manners on Saturday evening. We all thoroughly enjoyed the show. Keep up the good work and I am sure your big breaks are just round the corner. I hope the show proves to be as benficial for you all as it was John Inman. The audience were entralled throughout and I'm sure it would go down a storm at other venues around the country. On a personal note I would love to see you take on the sequel Funny Business!!
Peter Creek - Audience Member - Via E-mail
Having visited Buckinghamshire for a couple of days we came to the Thursday night production of bedside Manners in Henley. I just wanted to thank the cast producer and everyone else involved as we had a brilliant evening and laughed so much. Well done! It was a real joy. The characterisations, timing and freeze frames all worked so well. Theatre at its best!!! What a shame the venue was so small that only a few could enjoy.
Sue Ginman - Audience Member - Via E-mail
I came to see you guys on Saturday night and I thought you were hilarious! Laugh out loud funny! My favourites were the running, licky boy and the teacher who had to blow in a bag to stop herself hyperventilating. You were all outstandingly good. SUCH well formed characters (even though some only lasted for seconds). Woohoo! Can't wait to see you in August :-)
Liz Balmford - Audience Member - Via E-mail
Bedside Manners - The Green Room - August 2010
Professional drama company deserves theatre residency
There were trousers on the floor and wanton women sprawled over the beds; yes, FalconGrange Productions were back in town.
This slick, fast, ultra-professional troupe has already wowed us this year with two fine shows for the fringe, now they've added Derek Benfield's Bedside Manners to their repertoire - and they've rocked the house again.
The house in question was The Green Room where FalconGrange played to capacity audiences on a four-night run of Benfield's marriage and infidelity farce.
The story: two couples meet in an out-of-the-way Fawlty Towers-like hotel for illicit fun. Everyone is called Smith and they are served by an unwilling and cynical concierge - played beautifully by the peerless Daniel Creasey.
The two women, played by Yvie Magee and Lara Lemon, and their partners, Martin Clark and Chris Lehec, work every possibility - and quite a few improbabilities - from the sometime obvious script. And they do it with such energy that it overrides any predictability. Yes, during one 20-minute stretch the two men racked up a 100 per cent trouser deficit. And the double entendres and misheard words come thick and fast.
But when played with conviction these things don't matter and we are left with a sense of place, situation and character. Director Redvers Lawson has once more cut and shaped these actors; they throw themselves across beds, from room to room, in and out of bathrooms, with control and passion.
FalconGrange started their Henley appearances two years ago at the first Fringe festival when they played Two. Last year's Fringe saw Abigail's Party, and this year, just two months ago, brought sell-out performances of Teechers and The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch.
Henley has become their spiritual home: Bedside Manners again brought it full houses and they hope to do more in the future. Other professional groups might wonder how Yvie and Dan succeed at a time when getting anyone to the theatre is hard work.
Perhaps it's their level of professionalism - these people are the real deal. How about a residency at the Kenton? They deserve a bigger stage and they can pull a crowd.
Mike Rowbottom for The Henley Standard
Teechers - Henley Fringe Festival - July 2010
Godber's Teechers serves up a lesson in pacey comedy
Schooldays: the best years of your life according to some idiot who must have peaked in his teens.
Not if you're sixteen, spilling over with hormones, in a sink school on a sunk estate. That's the recipe for John Godber's Teechers (sic) from the admirable FalconGrange Productions.
Godber wrote the piece in 1987 but things haven't changed. And FalconGrange, in the forms of Yvie Magee, Daniel Creasey and Lara Lemon, apply their exceptional energy, talent and skill to these ingredients to come up with a pacey comedy.
Every laugh hides a tear. We giggle at illiteracy, innumeracy and sexual frustration - what else can we do? Only cry!
Godber's style is to write in a series of short but linked sketches with a multitude of characters. This requires immense concentration and versatility from the actors and the director, Redvers Lawson, has drilled them well.
The cast is always convincing and invested in the character no matter how short-lived they may be in a scene.
This is another triumph from FalconGrange Productions who have become a Must-see at the Henley Fringe. Teechers is at Henley Rugby Club all week.
Mike Rowbottom for The Henley Standard
The Town Mouse & The Country Mouse - Henley Fringe Festival - July 2009
A child's laugh is music to their ears
The sound of a young child giggling is without doubt one of the most attractive and compelling sounds you can ever hope to hear - so for the cast of The Town Mouse & The Country Mouse it must have been more than music to their ears to hear a bubble of mirth right at the start of this highly attractive show in the Kenton Theatre's Green Room. Based on one of Aesop's Fables, over the course of 50 minutes we learn that you have to accept other people's differences - the contrasting ways and lifestyles of soft and gentle country folk and the rather more material and harsh existence of the town dweller. Both performers - Yvie Magee and Daniel Creasey play their roles with absolute conviction and charm and the proof of the play's success is in the rapt attention of the numerous young members of the audience: you quickly know when a young audience is bored! The simplicity of the plot means that we get the message pretty early on, but nonetheless an attractive assembly of props helped take us through a very happy and gently educative session.
S.C. for The Henley Standard
Bedside Manners - The Green Room - August 2010
Amazing local production! What next?
I was joined by my wife and mother-in-law to see Bedside Manners on Saturday 21st August at The Kenton Theatre in Henley-on-Thames. It was our first viewing of a production by the young and talented team of FalconGrange and will certainly not be the last!
The play itself written by Derek Benfield has previously had two very successful nationwide tours with the lead character of Ferris played by both John Inman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.
The hilarious comedy begins as Ferris as Hotel Manager becomes caught up in a dizzying web of deceit as two men each arrive for a secret rendezvous with their mistresses only to find their wives are also present. The evening doesn't go to plan for either couple as lie after lie is made to unsuccessfully keep both couples apart. The play kept the audience enthralled for the whole one and a half hours due, partly to the high quality of Derek Benfield's writing and the direction of Redvers Lawson but majorly down to the quality of acting from all involved.
The comedy timing was perfect with Daniel Creasey stealing the show in the role of Ferris. Lara Lemon put in a flawless and believable performance as the drunken Sally while, Yvie Magee as Helen, Martin Clark as Geoff and Chris Lehec as Roger all impressed.
I implore you to grab the next opportunity you can to see FalconGrange on stage as you never know when one of them will go on to much bigger things!!
Peter Creek for Remotegoat.co.uk
The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch - The Henley Fringe Festival - July 2010
Every year The Henley Fringe Festival brings a whole host of great theatre to the fancy pants Oxfordshire town which gave us posh stuff like Boris Johnson and regattas. There’s all sorts of grown up shows including comedy, drama and satire from emerging theatre companies, most working on very limited budgets. But grown up theatre is of no interest to us - it’s long and has difficult words in it.
So instead we got ourselves an invite to the Henley Rugby Club to watch a performance of FalconGrange Production’s adaptation of Ronda and David Armitage’s The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch.
A two man show starring Daniel Creasey as Mr Grinling and Yvie Magee as his wife (supported by violinist Carole Carpenter and a host of fantastic puppets), The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch follows the story of an always hungry Lighthouse Keeper and his wife’s attempts to stop seagulls from eating his lunch. The lunch, it should be noted, is sent via a line stretching from home to lighthouse, tempting seagulls with its airborne yumminess. Why Mr Grinling can’t take a lunchbox in the morning like a normal person we don’t know and neither do the kids seem to care.
With cushions and mats spread across the floor, kids are invited to get up close and personal with the performance, lazing on the same level as the actors as the performance takes place. While some of the audience merrily rolled and raced around the room others - Lil and Ted included - sat entranced by the story and the enthusiasm of the actors who really embraced their roles and kept up a level of energy which caused Mummy to feel slightly out of breath by the end even though she’d done little else other than sit quietly with a cup of coffee.
At little more than half an hour the show was the ideal length for small children - though advertised as being suitable for ages 3-8 much younger kids in the audience seemed to enjoy it with Ted (who never sits still) even managing to maintain interest - and both Magee and Creasey, veterans of the children’s theatre circuit, connected with their mini audience in a way which suggests that perhaps they haven’t yet forgotten what it’s like to be kids themselves. Can we keep them in our understairs cupboard to be brought out on difficult parenting days? Please?
Laura Heaps for thetoddlerreview.co.uk
Bedside Manners - The Green Room - August 2010
An Actor's Circus Of Calamities
Bedside Manners' author Derek Benfield was an actor with a long career in both television and theatre. I was mildly surprised to find out that he was also a playwright. Starting with The Young in Heart (1953), Benfield wrote more than 30 stage plays. Most were light comedies, often trading on marital misunderstandings, with occasional diversions such as Murder for the Asking (1966).
However for most, he will always be remembered as a television actor either as the long-suffering husband of Patricia Routledges' Hetty in Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1996-98), or as Bill Riley in The Brothers in the early to mid Seventies.
Benfield's story concerns an inexperienced hotelier, Ferris, looking after his sister's seedy hostelry. Unfortunately, for his peace of mind, two couples with secret assignations planned both arrive on the same weekend. As Ferris begins to realise what is occurring under his roof, he strives to keep them apart with drastic results. The play, directed by Redvers Lawson, clearly shows the influence of Brian Rix, in whose company Benfield had made his acting debut in 1948. That fact alone filled made me feel uneasy and I approached with some trepidation.
Nevertheless, despite my personal disdain for the genre I have to bow to public pressure and admit that it all worked perfectly. It successfully adopted all the key elements expected of bedroom farce - outrageous set pieces, broad physical humour and verbal dexterity. The audience were in thrall to the actors who all delivered their material with expert timing.
The set, suitably economical for the Kenton's intimate 'Green Room' offered everything the drama needed - two beds, four doors and a desk! Daniel Creasey as Ferris held it all together and was clearly the ringmaster in this circus of calamities that also featured Yvie Magee as Helen, Lara Lemon as Sally, Martin Clark as Geoff and Chris Lehec as Roger.
FalconGrange Productions after a sell-out run at Henley Fringe Festival with Teechers are now committed to bringing more theatre to Henley's audiences. Therefore, I am sure we will be seeing them again in the near future.
David Stockton for Remotegoat.co.uk