review | Miracle Theatre

August 9The Third Policeman

Bicycles that turn human, humans who turn bicycle, an army of the one-legged, an invisible to the naked eye carved chest, a basement Eternity and a murder victim who comes back to life as a copper ….
These are just some of the elements that make up what has been described as the world’s first post-modern novel: The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien.
Written by the Irishman, originally known as Brian O’Nolan, in 1939, it was rejected by his publisher and was finally printed in 1966 to much acclaim.
That O’Brien claimed the manuscript had been blown away, page by page, from the boot of his car tells you all you need to know about the man and his wonderfully skewed mind.
But how to adapt such a fantastical work for the stage? With great aplomb, no little genius and a lot of humour if the quite brilliant production by Miracle Theatre which is touring Cornwall until August 26, is anything to go by.
Writer/director Bill Scott and his gang of merry men and women are no strangers to messing with Cornish minds – witness the 2013 production of Beckett’s Waiting For Godot.
That was a brave one but staging the even more surreal Third Policeman could be viewed as commercial suicide. The fact that it has sold out all over the South West and has received glowing reviews from audiences, is testament to Miracle’s ingenious way with a story, no matter how out-there it is.
I saw it at St Mawes Castle last night – the majority of those around me were chuckling nay guffawing throughout. However, there were a few WTF stony faces, including a chap who kept looking around astonished at his fellow audience members as if he were the only sausage left on the barbecue. That’s theatre at its most delicious.
And talking of bangers, The Third Policeman is set in a sausage-shaped world where our “hero” is obsessed by philosopher de Selby, so much so she (in this case, “he” in the novel) wants to publish the definitive critique of the man. In order to raise the funds to get it published, she murders old man Mathers for his cash box in cahoots with publican Divney.
Thereon in things get strange. Very strange.
You can trace a direct lineage of the comedy of the absurd from The Third Policeman; through The Goons and Spike Milligan’s Q to Reeves and Mortimer, The League of Gentlemen and The Mighty Boosh.
There is a brilliantly obtuse moment in the second half (where things get really mind-melting) when a scene is repeated verbatim two-and-a-half times. It’s then you realise David Lynch must be a Flann fan.
None of this would work without the cast. Hannah Stephens holds the whole thing together in the central role of Nameless. With a nod and a wink, she’s almost one of us, bewildered and beguiled by what is happening around her.
Ben Dyson is in his element. Always one for a peculiar comedy turn, he brings a touch of the Pythons to Sergeant Pluck; as naturally funny an actor as you can find. Ben Kernow is his equal as Policeman MacCruikseen, a wonderfully bizarre creation, helped by the fact that he looks every inch the Irishman (it must have something to do with that Celtic surname).
Catherine Lake lends superb support as sinister Old Mathers and the completely bonkers Martine Finnucane, leader of the one-legged. The parping trombone soundtrack only heightens the madness.
This really is a marvellous production – designed with great imagination by Jude Munden – that has to be seen if only for its glorious lyricism.
To borrow an album title from fellow Irish arch-surrealists and obvious O’Brien fans, Stump, this show is most definitely “a fierce pancake”.
By LeeTrewhela Cornwall Live Wed 09 Aug 2017

July 3The Third Policeman

* * * * ‘plenty of Miracle magic’

'The Third Policeman' by Flann O Brien
Review by Jenni Balow at The Minack Theatre June 26, 2017

July 3The Third Policeman

‘The Third Policeman’ by Flann O Brien
Review by Jenni Balow at The Minack Theatre June 26, 2017

Get ready to take a ride on this surrealistic bicycle of a play where nothing is as it seems and a straight pair of handlebars is hard to come by, because it takes us around in circles.

The book by Irish writer and journalist Flann O’Brien is a complex and compelling combination of words and ideas that are fantastical, fearful and farcical and very original, all at the same time.

As Miracle Theatre’s choice of play for a summer tour, it can be watched on many levels, and we all know that director Bill Scott and his team know how to entertain.

Just to look at Benjamin Dyson, who is the pedantic police Sgt Pluck, is amusing, with every gesture carefully played for laughs, and his sidekick PC MacCruiskeen, taken on by the talented, tousle-haired Ben Curnow, are a great duo.

Working from a tardis-like police station, with a funny ‘flushing’ lift, they suffer from telephone-answering avoidance, and are bizarrely bicycle-obsessed, preferring to reserve the cell for a bike, rather than the perpetrator of a brutal murder, who is due to be ‘stretched’ on the gallows.

The action is narrated by a woman with no name, Hannah Stephens, who sets the story in motion by whacking an old man over the head for money . . . but he won’t go away, and soon appears with a tray of tea and asks her:”won’t you be mother?”

There are many questions throughout. The police always ask “is it about a bicycle” of course, and then we have to consider some queries about atomic particle theory too.

It is down to Sgt Pluck to observe sagely that “atoms are like hen’s eggs under a good clucker”.

Catherine Lake appears as the eccentrically clad Martine Finnucane, carrying a bedroll and dressed in oilskins, patchwork and a Fair Isle sweater, and smoking an elaborate ivory pipe. She takes on a number of roles, also pedalling across the stage as a postman, who is 71 per cent bicycle.

The cast of four is completed by assistant director Ciaran Clarke who as well as appearing as Insp O’Corky, has notably put together a strikingly surrealist sound track, with jerky jazz overtones and trombone interludes that underscore the action to perfection.

There is strong back up from technical stage manager Oliver Cumins, designer Jude Munden and the set builders led by Howard Wilkins.

O’Brien’s story was completed in 1939, and rejected initially by publishers on the grounds that it was simply too surreal. It was not until after his death nearly 30 years later that it came to light again and was hailed as a comic masterpiece.

On one level it is whimsical, but the night is “black air” and we find ourselves being taken for a ride in a county that is honeycombed with bad brakes and where the players “keep turning left” into a very dark space.

There is plenty of Miracle magic here, and you will be handed a bag of sweets with your programme, but some may be left asking themselves – is it about a bicycle, or what?

December 22Cinderella

Cinderella Review, Cornwall Live

Miracle Theatre's new Christmas show is uniquely, well, Miracle. Which other company would stage a traditional panto but as produced by cack-handed 19th century repertory players?
Everything about this show is a joy – from the Victorian staging of Cinderella to the "play within a play" knockabout humour which reaches hysterical levels of farce, but without the ludicrous aspects of that genre; from the engaging use of music by 17th century composer Henry Purcell to the gifted cast.

February 2Dr Livingstone, I presume

Theatre Bath Review

"Magnificent foolery"

June 17The Tempest

“Crisp, inventive and very, very funny”

Simon Parker WMN

June 17The Tempest

Few comic actors can make an audience laugh uncontrollably merely by their entrance, but Ben Dyson achieves this difficult feat with perfect aplomb.

Not generally known for its jokes, Shakespeare’s final play is taken to a new dimension by Miracle Theatre, which kicked off a 60-date tour at Sterts on Bodmin Moor at the weekend. The Cornish company’s fiftieth project in 35 years, their production of The Tempest, which will be seen across Cornwall and the wider South West until the end of August, looks set to be another huge success.

Crisp, inventive and very, very funny, the free adaptation may not find favour with Shakespeare purists – whoever they might be – but it will undoubtedly entertain thousands at some 45 open-air venues this summer.

Opening with a pre-show warm-up that sees an athletic Catherine Lake as Ariel clambering atop Alan Munden’s cleverly designed and constructed set, Miracle’s version neatly conveys the early scenes of shipwreck with character puppets of the main protagonists.

Thus, we set sail to Shakespeare’s magical island of Prospero, Miranda and Caliban. Deftly moving between parts are Ciaran Clarke, Hannah Stephens, Simon Norbury Lisa Howard and, of course, Ben Dyson as Alonso, who has brought such intelligence and humour to more than a dozen previous Miracle shows.

From the moment a shipwrecked Alonso is tossed on to the shore like a large wet fish, we’re off on the sort of well-paced ride fans of this much-loved Cornish company have come to expect.

Adapted, as ever, by Miracle founder Bill Scott, The Tempest has been reduced by a third and trimmed to 11 parts for the six actors. Hannah Stephens conjures a deliciously saucy Miranda; Ferdinand is the first man, other than her father, she has ever encountered – and she going to make the most of it. Ariel is assured, properly mischievous, and a joy to watch, while Ben Dyson delivers another serene performance as Stephano the sailor. Few actors can play drunk with such precision, never quite finding the necessary centre of gravity.

Bill Scott, whose previous adaptations have included Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet and The Taming Of The Shrew, makes no secret of his love of playing with Shakespeare.

“What we always try to do with Shakespeare is make it clear, so that it is watchable and entertaining,” he said. “And adapting Shakespeare is such a joy to do. Hacking away at genius sometimes feels awful but I feel that if he was trying to communicate with a 21st century audience he would be doing similar things with his own work. He would be the last one to want people scratching their heads and wondering what was going on, because he was about entertaining people.

“For that reason we never trash the plays and are always true to the spirit of the original text.”

A director whose first foray with Miracle was a production of The Ordinalia at Perran Round in 1979, is now beginning work on a winter show, Dr Livingstone, I Presume, as well as planning for an autumn premiere screening Tin.

Until then, The Tempest can be seen at Lynmouth, Hartland, Gulval and Gwinear this week, followed by dates across the South West. For full details visit miracletheatre.co.uk SIMON PARKER

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The Third Policeman Review

* * * * ‘plenty of Miracle magic’

Cinderella Review, Cornwall Live

Theatre Bath Review

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