Our House
Going to see Tim Firth’s excellent Our House this week will reaffirm your belief that you are on the right path…
The fantastic Tim Firth’s Our House comes to Theatre Royal this week.
The production, which is inspired by the music of Madness, tells the story of Joe Casey, who, on his 16th birthday, has to make a life-defining choice.
The rest of the musical explores the two very different paths that Joe’s life could take.
Alexis Gerred steals the show with his energetic performance of two very different Joe Caseys. At the very least Gerred changed his costume 30 times, sometimes in the matter of seconds and, remarkably, without breaking a sweat. His bouncy energy carried the performance through some of the most obscure Madness songs.
The chemistry between him and his girlfriend Sarah (Daniella Bowen) was excellent and their duet of ‘It Must Be Love’ was a highlight.
Joe Casey’s friends, Lewis (Alex Spinney) and Emmo (James Haggie) were just like Simon and Neil from the Inbetweeners, and the audience really loved some of their best one-liners.
The music of Madness (of 1980’s fame and popular choice for family parties) makes this a fun and uplifting production.
Many of the audience seemed to be surprised at just how many Madness songs they actually knew and The Tab spotted a few over excited spectators members dancing on their seats during the finale of ‘Baggy Trousers’.
Our House cleverly uses music from the 80s to convey a very current message as many of the underlying social problems in the urban are diverse Camden Town setting are echoed throughout the UK.
The production will undoubtedly make you think of your old school friends who did not take the same learned path as you, binned the UCAS form and got pregnant instead.
Going to see Our House this week will reaffirm your belief that you are on the right path: you might be in thousands of pounds of debt and have no idea what you will be doing when you graduate, but at least you’re not in prison and you have got a chance in life and in love.
Our House is on until Saturday with two performances on both Friday and Saturday. Student tickets are £16. Don’t miss out http://www.trch.co.uk/index.aspx?articleid=22926
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