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Published Monday 12 July 2010 at 16:39 by Derek Smith

Choosing between spending a lunch hour sitting on a bench trying to stop pigeons pecking at your panini or inside a small, historic venue watching energetic, enthused fringe theatre seems a pretty easy decision. As it proved here, for a varied, 40-strong audience, made up of local office workers, tourists and others of all ages.

 
Nick Danan (Puck) and Luke Kempy (Oberon) in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Bridewell Theatre
The choice by C Company of putting on Shakespeare’s enduring and always endearing love fantasy is a wise one too. Given the current economic gloom, Chekhov would be unlikely to get office workers skipping back to their desks, and given the performance has to be squeezed into just 45 minutes, there’s certainly no time to hang around waiting for Godot. Every Midsummer Night’s Dream needs an alluring Puck, and in Nick Danan, the production has exactly that – he’s confident on stage, yet with essential touches of eccentricity. Luke Kemp, as Oberon, looks supremely confident for an actor only just out of drama school (Arts Ed).

More than anything, it’s an impressive ensemble effort, one that injects plenty of humour and only occasionally loses its impetus. As for the other key role of Bottom, Paul Harnett simply revels in it. Of course, liberties are taken, but that’s part of the charm of watching a classic work creatively condensed by a talented young cast into not much more time than it takes for your cappuccino to cool down.

The Stage review of ‘Cymbeline’

Published Friday 4 June 2010 at 12:24 by Lauren Paxman

For most Londoners, a decent lunch break is one where the rain stops for long enough to pop out and grab a sandwich. A great one is when the sun stays out long enough to sit in the park.

So C Company is always going to be competing with the latest weather front for “lunchbox” audiences. But thanks to the utterly charming Helen Heaslip, it’s a battle the company deserves to win.

Heaslip and, to a lesser extent, her three strong fellow actors skip, endearingly through this 45 minute, nine character version of Shakespeare’s play about a princess called Imogen (an entrancing Sophie Rickman) who disappoints her father by marrying beneath her.

There are some lovely touches. The use of bunting and songs to change scenes is delightful. And while the exaggerated acting might sometimes stray too far into hamming territory, the actors show considerable range with imaginative and surprising characterisation.

The bedtime story theme, meanwhile, perfectly suits the desperation to rush through a story before lights out – although might not be conducive to a productive afternoon’s work.

Those who aren’t acquainted with the tragicomedy would do well to swot up beforehand. But by the time you reach the happily ever after, you’ll be glad you forewent the sunshine.

Cymbeline directed by Susan Bracken

4 actors

9 roles

A dressing up box of costumes and props

The words will always be the same, but nothing else will.

Delving into Shakespeare’s bizarre fairytale, armed with a sense of adventure and spontaneity, C Company brings a host of heroes and villains to life. With no pre-planned choices, simply a willingness to discover in the moment, together with the audience, the true art of storytelling.

Box Office

Chekhov comedies,  The Bear and the Proposal for TWO NIGHTS ONLY at the Kings Head, Islington

Sunday May 9th and 16th @ 7.30pm. Play trailer below…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Starring: Susan Bracken, Brenden Lovett, Sophie Rickman, Nick Danan, John Bateman,

Tickets £8   Box Office: 0844 209 0326

Address: 115 Upper St , Islington N11QN

ONLINE BOOKING : www.kingsheadtheatre.org

Twelfth Night click for video trailer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Shakespeare meets Hollywood’s Golden Age as one of Shakespeare’s great comedies becomes a grand 1930’s musical. “If Music be the Food of Love, Play on”. With such musical gems as “Cheek to Cheek”, “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”, we are doing just that.

Cast: Aileen Gonsalves, Susan Bracken, Jennifer Monaco, Nick Danan, Brendan Lovett, Jack Lewis, Ian Mairs and Edward Hulme. Co-directed by Aileen Gonsalves and Susan Bracken.

Venue: Bridewell Theatre

Address: Bride Lane, London EC4Y 8EQ

Dates: 23rd Feb – 19th Mar

Times: 1pm Tues – Fri (running time 45 minutes)

Tickets: £5 (in advance) £6 (on door)

Online booking at the Bridewell Theatre or call 0207 353 3331

Kents Cavern in Torquay is a prehistoric cave labrynith where the audience are pulled down into a world of savagery. Led round by the porter the story unfolds as witches come out of walls and ghosts hide among the stalagmites. At the heart of our civilised world what lies beneath us …underground or deep in our hearts. Blood will have blood…
Perfect way to celebrate Halloween 28th – 31st Oct
3 shows nightly 6pm.7.30, or 9pm (not for the fainthearted)

A drama teacher Tony Benet directed this with me acting in it over 18 years ago and I always dreamed of coming back with my own company. I am also very excited to be playing Lady Macbeth! We have some wonderful actors including…

Nick Danan, Jack Lewis, Euan King, Nina Lacalle, Nicci Holtby,Krissie Mcilquham and Aileen Gonsalves!

For lovers of the play it will be a truly unique experience in the setting. Tickets are selling quite fast and I recommend booking soon as the audience promenade along candlelit passages following the Porter and we are strictly resticted to only 40 people a show.

Please TELL ANYONE you know who LIVES IN THE AREA!

The Stage Review said of our recent sold out London production of Macbeth “The C Company’s brisk Macbeth, performed within the time constraints of a lunch hour, captures the relentless speed of Shakespeare’s shortest play with minimal sacrifices of clarity and characterisation.Textual trimming is intelligent and unobtrusive and director Aileen Gonsalves and the cast are to be credited for natural and colloquial line readings throughout that give a freshness and reality to familiar speeches.”

We are very excited to be coming to this incredible setting and responding to it to create the Kents’s Cavern production of Macbeth!
Box Office – 01803 215136
www.kents-cavern.co.uk
www.ccompany.cc

Two very funny, irresistable short Chekhov comedies The Bear and The Proposal

Sept 15th – Oct 2nd @ Tues – Fri @1pm

Tickets £5 in advance £6 on the door.

ONLINE BOOKING  www.bridewelltheatre.org

Staring: Sophie Rickman, Nick Danan, John Bateman, Susan Bracken, Brenden Lovett

Reclaim your lunch hour. Don’t sit at your desk dropping bits of sandwich in your keyboard – get out and about and explore your local area. You might end up watching a 45min version of Two Gentlemen of Verona.

That’s what happened when The Guardian’s Xan Brooks when he popped in to London’s Bridewell Theatre.

This year's Shakespeare Season is about to kick off with Macbeth.

It runs Tuesdays to Fridays from 26th May to the 12th June.  It’s a lunch time show, so bring your packed lunch for 1pm at The Bridewell Theatre, Bride Lane (off Fleet Street)

Cast includes:

Edward Nelson Emma Powell Jason DenyerBrenden Foster Claire Kaplan   :   Sophie Rickman

   

The Country Wife – The Stage

Published Tuesday 28 October 2008 at 18:50 by Gerald Berkowitz

Skilfully cut to a sprightly lunch hour, C Company’s modern dress version of Wycherley’s comedy of wit and seduction eliminates some subplots and secondary characters and in the process surprisingly shifts the comic centre. Wycherley’s core premise, of a rake who feigns impotence to attract women and disarm their husbands, is reduced to a bare mention, somewhat marginalising what was meant to be the central figure and turning the prime butt of Wycherley’s satire, a jealous husband trying to keep his wife from city ways, into a more sympathetic, if still comic character.

James Holmes skilfully underplays the husband, finding all the laughs without over-punching them. Nicci Holtby is particularly delightful in capturing the country wife’s not-so-innocent excitement at discovering the temptations of the town, and Joanna Nuttall blends comedy with some serious comment in a surviving subplot, as the one sensible character watching her self-absorbed fiance blindly let a friend steal her from him.

 Remotegoat by Jill Lawrie

Bitesize take on Wycherley satire 

Tucked away just off Fleet Street, this delightful playhouse offers lunch box theatre to a wide and varied audience, ranging from city slickers to the curious tourist. 

‘The County Wife’, sandwiched into a lunchtime slot, was performed by the small but passionate C Company made up of some twenty five writers, actors and directors who offer high quality and challenging theatre to their audiences.

Directed by Aileen Gonsalves, much of the sexiness of the original tale is lost and the fact that Mr Horner is masquerading as a eunuch plays second fiddle to the jealous husband/brother Mr Pinchwife attempting to keep the women in his life away from temptation! 

Despite being reduced to a bit player the charming Royce Cronin excels as the roguish lothario (Mr Horner) who steals the heart of the naïve country wife Mrs Pinchwife endearingly played by Nicci Holtby.  Her husband Mr Pinchwife (James Holmes) won the audience over with his comic paranoia ~ culminating in a hilarious and enraged attempt at demolishing an orange!  The lively flamboyant Sparkish was convincingly played by Matthew Burton.

These half dozen performers brought together a most entertaining bitesized package much enjoyed by some eighty or so enthusiastic and appreciative supporters.

The annual Christmas party is the setting for Simon Warne’s sparkling new comedy premiere; While your letting your hair down keep your guard up! Loose lips, revealed pay slips, unexpected guests and a paid bar – oh yes it’s that time of year again…

C Company are pleased to announce they are now the resident company following on from their sell out Shakespeare season. Come and see what all the queues are about!

Company’s artistic director Aileen Gonsalves has recently directed the first RSC Youth Ensemble production. Assistant director on Midnights Children and All’s Well That Ends Well (both RSC). As well as 5 previous sell out shows at the Bridewell.

What the press said about our last comedy “The Country Wife”

“a most entertaining bitesized package”

“finding all the laughs without over-punching them.”

CAST:

Sophie Rickman, Nicci Holtby, Caroline Colomei, Chris Crocker, and introducing new graduates Will Cartwright and Francis Ortega

DATES: Dec 2nd – Dec 19th

TIMES: 1pm Tues – Fri (running time 45 minutes)

TICKETS £5

BOX OFFICE: 0207 353 3331

The Bridewell’s Lunchbox Theatre plays are a streamlined idea – put on a 45 minute play at about 1pm weekdays and bring a sandwich so workers can still cram a little culture into their lunch hour. Once you get over the idea of munching your midday BLT in front of a tragedy, it’s such a good idea you wonder why no one thought if it before. The current Lunchbox is Merchant of Venice, with a twists of being both set in the ’80s and having Shylock played as a woman (Vanessa Spiro). The ’80s music and clothing, down to the white slipon shoes and the elegantly pushed-back sleeves, breathes new life into the play. Stephen Rahman-Hughes is good as Bassanio, with a nice line in physical comedy, and ably supported by Antonio (Alex Trippier). Fliss Walton gives good Portia and crossdresses effectively for comic effect. Spiro however has the most memorable role, playing the outsider due to her religion, occupation and of course gender, but keeping her character just this side of sympathetic, playing the professional who just wants to be taken seriously in the financial world she works in. Behind the big-hair music and lighthearted crossdressing are a few suspenseful scenes. The audience physically cringes when a shirtless Antonio is threatened by Shylock’s scalpel, as the vengeful Jew rushes at him intending to get her pound of flesh. The play is good enough to have you forgetting your lunchtime BLT. Nina Romain – Nina Romain