Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Izzy Feld, Jak Malone, Charlotte Dowson, Adam Bennett, Julie Evans, Tom Lox, Kate Rugen, Philip Birss, Lorna Foley, Andrew Abrahamson, Steven Andrew, Andy Godden, Zoe Thirsk, Jo Vickers, Catherine O’Brien, Carrie Cushman, Andrew Jones, Jamie Barfield, Megan Key, Andy Walker, Sonia Chapman, Stephen Longmuir, Ruth Dalton.
Musicians: Maddie Stones, Jonas Tattersall, Alan Moore, Emily Grint, James Breckon, Lara Simpson, Matthew Cheung, Jack Taylor, Mike Ward, Paul Wilson, Gareth Dawson.
Theatre Company What We Did Next always aims high when it comes to putting on productions. For a company that is steeped in the traditions of the keen and enjoyable recreational, there is nothing amateur about them at all. Wildly comfortable, directed by a man who oozes theatre and presented in such a way, that each story they have told since their formation, is nothing short of dramatic and enticing elegance.
From Into The Woods, through to Carousel, What We Did Next’s long history with taking on the sheer delight of theatre permeates and bleeds through from the stage and into the hearts of the audiences who come to see the team, for that’s truly what they are, perform. However in their version of Bonnie & Clyde, that team took the performance on another stage, another rung of the ladder, and deserved fully the thanks and standing ovation they received for having the courage of conviction that runs through the veins of both producer David Dacey and Director Shaun Holdem-Eyles.
The story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow is one of love, lust and the biggest tale of personal destruction to hit America possibly in the last 100 years, arguably only less sensational than Richard Nixon’s betrayal to his people or of the three lives taken by the insanity of assassins of Martin Luther King, Bobby and John Fitzgerald Kennedy. It is one that has certainly caught the public’s attention over the years, and this version by What We Did Next at the Unity Theatre was no different.
The musical was almost like an express train, it ploughed through the audience with breakneck speed but one that allowed the story to be digested fully and with numbers that built up the infamy of the two lovers and the sorrowful times that they lived through of the first great depression. Songs such as Picture Show, the fantastic Raise A Little Hell, the satisfying punch of Made in America carried the instincts of the performance to very great heights.
In both Izzy Feld and Jak Malone, the parts of the ravishing red head and wannabe It Girl Bonnie Parker and the near state and times induced psychopathic tendencies of Clyde Barrow were bought fully out and certainly in Ms. Feld the part was one in which you couldn’t help but fall in love with the gangster’s moll like easy smile and dangerous star-struck empathy, a natural and outstanding performance from both actors.
What We Did Next is really going to have to pull out all the stops to top Bonnie & Clyde, however, it is a thought that will not be dismissed and will surely be coped with the company’s fullest endeavour.
Ian D. Hall