Reviews

There is no stronger bond than one forged within a family. They are there through thick and thin, and that love can be tested as the years roll on. This is highlighted in Ipswich Musical Theatre Company’s production Mother and Son.

There can’t be anyone in the Western World who doesn’t know a Carole King song, even if they don’t know that Carole King wrote it. Songs like “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”, “You’ve Got A Friend” and “It Might As Well Rain Until September” were the soundtrack of our lives from the end of the 1950s through to the late 70s and are now considered standards. The music was fabulous, even if its creator wasn’t half as interesting. King’s major ambition was to have children and live in the suburbs.

Director Bronwyn Palmer has set UATG’s The Tempest on an ‘island of garbage’, referencing The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (known also as the Pacific trash vortex) that spans waters from the West Coast of America to Japan. With detritus fringing the sand-coloured/turquoise bordered Little Theatre stage or netting, garbage bags and other junk hanging from the mezzanine and elsewhere, the clever set is certainly evocative of abandonment and remoteness.

Since Stephen Sondheim conjured this mad entwining of Grimm’s Fairy Tales back in 1987, hundreds of big stars in musical theatre and screen have redrawn our memories of these iconic characters.  

Eamon Flack’s production for Belvoir’s corner stage may be a smaller, more ensemble affair than others, but his impeccable casting ensures a true and intimate experience as we follow these characters into the woods.