B&H Theatre Co. The Bakehouse Theatre. 27 Jan 2016
Bent, manic, mash up, mania perfectly describes Matthew Briggs and Josh Heaysman’s musical The Angel of Death.
What’s in the mix? Gilbert and Sullivan, Cabaret, Faustus, The Pirates of Penzance and the medieval morality play obviously, given it gave the world the grim reaper, as we know it. Hints of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Jim Carrey’s movie Dumb and Dumber also come to mind. B&H Theatre Co take extreme liberal license with the era of Elizabeth I in which the work is set, by throwing in the black plague alongside the battle of the Spanish Armada, or their alternative version of it.
This over abundance of influences, obvious or inferred, is meant to successfully support a flash comic book style tale of a 16th Century ordinary man, mercilessly assassinated (seemingly for no reason), who is transformed into the Angel of Death by Nicholas Miotti’s dippy-hippy, light-hearted ‘God’ and Sophie Atkinson’s sexy down-and-dirty in tight black dress ‘Devil’. Theodore Girgolas as the reaper, is their plaything, their morality test gone too far with a liking for power and selfish desire to protect his wife and daughter from his assassin.
An overabundance of promise is not the same as a well trimmed, clear structure to the narrative, no matter how over or under abundant that content may be. Not to mention the execution of it onstage as guided by the work’s musical construct, scene to scene, context to context.
While Heaysman and Briggs are capable of coming up with some great lyrics, which neatly tie in with occasional scenes and characters, it’s unfortunate that musically and lyrically overall, The Angel of Death is two toned and flat even despite the icing of competent choreographic sets by Ashlee Skinner.
The duet Sêorita in Act Two is of note however, for its writing and performance by Lindsay Nash as Alonso Perez de Guzman and Carolina Fioravanti as Michelle.
There is so much promise in this work, drowned out by a desire to pump the production with too much, and reaching for a level of execution in performance the cast are not uniformly up for.
B&H Theatre Co want to be creators of new musical works they can license, and clearly have modelled themselves more on Gilbert and Sullivan than Rogers and Hammerstein (on the basis of this production).
The Angel of Death should serve as a learning, in which Heaysman and Briggs should see themselves striving towards their peak, having learned anew from each mishap as they head towards sharper, better work.
David O’Brien
When: 27 to 30 Jan
Where: The Bakehouse Theatre Main Stage
Bookings: trybooking.com
