ROGUES &
VAGABONDS (www.rouguesandvagabonds.co.uk)
Theatre Website
Review by Peggy Leader
Friday 5th
November 2004
Theatre Review | WE COULD BE HEROES | Bridewell Theatre
We Could Be Heroes, written and
performed by actor/writer Richard Lumsden, is a biopic tale of a nameless
struggling songwriter, who desperately tries to break into the music industry by
following in the footsteps, as the title suggests, of his rock icon David Bowie.
But as we sojourn through his teenage years to adulthood we witness how he
inevitably falls prey to life’s many and various distractions through love and
the wrong choice in career moves.
All is normal when you enter the theatre from the street, but from the
auditorium you can hear the folk/rock strains of the festival singer, filling
your soul with memories of rock festivals past and present. The bright pink neon
lights then lead you to a table bar selling bottled lager, red rock and boxes of
wine for the more discerning customer, and the chalked blackboards tell you the
‘rules of the gig’: ‘no urinating in this area’ and ‘please use the facilities
provided’. Through the hazy atmosphere you spy the lone girl in the green skirt
perched on her stool soulfully singing whilst playing her guitar. People mill
about in the dark, half-listening, half-talking but the atmosphere is charged
with excitement and as you take your seat the Festival begins.
Audrey Nugent leaves the stage and Richard Lumsden enters with high energy and
comic repartee re-verbing over the PA system, whipping the audience into
participation, before launching into his first number ‘Always Mine’.
Imperceptibly, the amplifier-strewn set has become his teenage bedroom and we
embark on a music-filled story with hilarious diaried encounters and touching
romantic reminiscences.
Richard Lumsden, currently gracing our small screens as Charles in BBC s Friday
night sitcom
All About Me, is wonderful. Not only
a talented actor and writer, but also accomplished musician, he switches
effortlessly from a variety of guitars to a harmonica, a keyboard and back again
and the dialogue interspersed with music interspersed with dialogue all blends
into one perfectly formed show, each section cleverly provoking a particular era
feel — a change of duvet cover, coloured light bulb, a fridge in the corner of
the now bedsitting room where he is determined to live the rock n’ roll
lifestyle.
In this dingy atmosphere with the leopard print duvet cover, he creates his home
recording studios with a reel to reel tape recorder, the microphone clamped to
the lamp standard and the red bulb becoming the cue light for ‘recording’ — just
how many of us can remember air guitaring , or singing into a hairbrush in front
of a mirror behind our bedroom door? It is an image we can all relate to, which
makes this piece funny, touching, evocative, and ultimately thought provoking.
Adrian Mole meets the Glastonbury Festival, Pandora becomes Natalie, the little
girl he so longed to dance 'Oranges and Lemons' with, whose shadow follows him
through the years till they meet again at a friend's wedding.
Eventually he becomes the grown-up he never expected to be, with his own child
asking for nightly reassurance about the imaginary vampires threatening peaceful
dreams. The room has become the child's room with a navy blue print covered
duvet and blue LCD nightlight. As he checks for coffins under the bed, he finds
his dust-covered guitar and as he sits singing, we can feel the child’s sleeping
breath, the dark blue of the night sky with the tiny globe shining like the
moon. He kisses the child goodnight and turns out the light; the duvet
transforms to the white and blue/grey stripes that we saw at the beginning and
as he sits undressing we come face to face with Ziggy Stardust, lipstick, eye
liner and the white skintight leotard with the coloured lightening flash.
The closing number is energized and inspiring as the rock festival reaches its
peak, but there is one final surprise in store! You should discover that for
yourselves, as this is a truly entertaining and uplifting show that deserves to
be seen by a wider audience.
Lumsden is amazingly talented and I defy anyone not to feel in awe by the end of
this two-hour one-man performance, with only a small band back-lit behind the
multi-coloured backdrop for support. He has also composed all of the numbers,
some recreating the talents of rock icons such as Dylan and, of course, Bowie,
but as the character experiments with various music styles including Hip Hop and
Jazz Piano, Lumsden’s ability as a versatile musician becomes as evident as his
versatility as a performer.
Under the expert direction of Graham Gill, he creates a fantastic imaginary
world, not only with his talent as a comic actor, but also with the ability to
touch the hearts of those watching by evoking such clear imagery that you can
almost smell the atmosphere.
Congratulations must also go to the band who provide huge support, to Audrey
Nugent who beautifully draws you into the festival scene, to the designer Gary
Campbell, and to Big Nose Productions, which Lumsden and Gill formed together
with Matthew Ashford and Richard Brooker in 2003, for bringing such an
entertaining piece of theatre to the stage.
As the back of the programme says, ‘THIS ONE’S FOR ALL YOU DREAMERS’ and one
certainly does leave dreaming, but also with hope that dreams can come true, how
ever old, or young you happen to be in your heart.
Peggy Leader © 2004
•
We Could Be Heroes opened at the
Bridewell Theatre on 4 November 2004, following previews from 2 November, and
runs until 20 November 2004.
Bridewell Theatre, Bride Lane, London EC4Y 8EQ ~ Box Office: 020 7936
3456
Bridewell Theatre
Big Nose Productions
www.wecouldbeheroes.co.uk