I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Festival Theatre

I hadn't been to a recording of 'Clue' for almost twenty years.  But here I was again.  New chair, new panellists, but same producer and pianist.  Same games, same audeince responses required.  And the same comedy that can leave an audience aching with laughter.

If you don't know what ISIHAC is about then where have you been?  It's been running on Radio 4 since 1972, and this was a recording of episodes five and six of series 81.  The Festival Theatre was sold out within a few days of the show being announced, as are all their appearances.  This is cult attending as well as listening.  

So the format is well worn, predictable, comfortable.  The producer (still John Naismith, who was there for all the shows I have been to before) comes out to do a bit of warming up.  The teams take their seats and tell a joke each.  Tonight we had Rory Bremner, Pippa Evans, Milton Jones and Fred MacAulay.  On comes the regular Chair, Jack Dee, and piano accompanist, the much abused Colin Sell.  Two shows are recorded, one in each half, with more than enough material to be edited down into a tight 30 minutes radio broadcast.

John and Colin were there for all the shows I saw, all those years ago.  The others were new for, sadly, the Chair and regular panellists of those times are dead now, other than Graeme Garden.  But noithing else is new.  The format is the same, the games are the same, and the silliness is identical.  because silliness is what this show is all about, and something the audeince is encourage to particpate in.  Jokes and puns and wordplay.  Songs sung badly.  (Although Evans has a very impressive vocal style.)  The chair's disdain for the teams, the pianist and the audience.  The 'laser dispay board' and the lovely Samantha.  All still there, all still essential elements of the fun.

It goes worng at times, but that just makes it funnier.  There's the odd politcal comment, but nothing too in depth.  The emphasis, the entire ethos, is about fun, laughter and determined silliness.  Long may it contin ue to be so.  A night at a Clue show is a night to treasure, whoever is up on stage.

Nye, NT Live

 

An NT Live show, live theatre beamed into the cinema.  A focus on the great Nye Bevan.

But what sort of beast was this play?  Biography? Social History? Political Polemic? Entertainment? A bit of everything, including a full blown song and dance routine.

Social History - Events around one of the most important events in UK history, from the perspective of a leading member it's most important government. Showing socialism can work. Showing the huge improvements it brought.

Political polemic - very much so, and necessarily so, at a time when the NHS, as a principle, is under attack more than ever. When the need, and underlying principle, remain as much as ever. It may have gone a bit wayward, but that's the nature of all big beasts over time.

Entertainment - definitely. Funny, warm, human, with great performances.

Structure has Nye dying, and dreaming of past life. Childhood, union leader, councillor, backbench MP and maverick, Churchill opponent, Minister and pioneer. Lover too. But always clear what period he's in, be it with his dying dad, or Clem as PM.

And Biography?  Partly so.  It does tend to hagiography at times, but still gives some of Nye's imperfections as a human being. Getting women to look after him. His inability to compromise (up to a point). But the passion for socialism is there, the things that made him a great man are very much there.

The performances are strong, with Sheen magnificent and at his passionate best.  If anything grated it was have Clem Attlee played by a woman.  Nothing wrong with that in itself - but the voice made hom sound too much like the Wicked Witch of Grantham at times, a later, lesser, PM who was not fit to lick Attlee's boots, and did so much to detroy his achievements.

The play is structured around Bevan slowly dying in his bed.  In an NHS hospital of course (which does not reflect the actual event).  In dreams and conversations and rants he takes us through tyhe events and struggles that brough about the dream of free health care for all, for a service that did as much for the poor as for the rich.  Of course the story is romatnticised, but it was, in many ways, a romantic ideal in itself.  Most of all it feels ocntemporary, necessary.

How we need his likes again.  But what chance, when a good man like Corbyn is charater assassinated into oblivion by the right wing media?

Alice Howe and Freebo, Traverse, TradFest

 

The equal billing reflected the content of the show.  While Howe did the most songs, it was as much the Freebo show, with a lot of his own material too.  Their own songs, with the exception of Alice's perfect rendition of Jonie Mitchell's A Case of You.  Good songs too, mostly with a country music inflection, but other influences present.  Personal songs, with a story behind them, which both related with great humour.  And in Freebo's case, a couple of funny songs which had the audience laughing.  Howeve plyed guitar, mostly as accompaniment, but plays well.  Freebo is the more virtuosotic of the pair, playing both guitar and electric bass.  It's first time I've seen someone play lead guitar parts on a 5 string bass, and it was a pleasure to be induced to the sensation.

So both were entertaining, more than competent musicians and singers (Howe has a wonderfully clear and pure voice, with excellent phrasing), and provided us with a memorable hour.  And she can say 'Edinburgh' pretty good for an American!