The Jungle Book
Philip Scutt’s mischievous Tabaqui was, by turns, scary and amusing,
with the jackals slapstick shenanigans delighting the Belfast audience. BELFAST
A lot more red in tooth and claw than the cartoon, this version pits Mowgli against all manner of foe's, but he was more than a match for the Monkeys and the Malicious Jackal played with Spirit by Philip Scutt. POOLE
Philip Scutt adds life and colour as the mentally deranged Jackal, Tabaqui, who scouts ahead for the Shere Khan the tiger who promises to eat Mowgli. BILLINGHAM
The performances of Philip Scutt and Yasmin Kadi, the insane Tabaqui and seductive Kaa respectively, both excellent. OXFORD
Baloo the loveable Bear and the Panther Bagheera, his fellow protector of the man cub Mowgli, are well played, although the show stealers are Tabaqui the manical Jakal played by Philip Scutt and the supurbly slithery Kaa played by Yasmin Kaddi. SCARBOROUGH
There are crazy monkeys, frightening wolves and a manic Jakal, played perfectly by Philip Scutt. WOLVERHAMPTON
Lilies
Curtain Rising Magaznie
The odds were stacked against this production. Buried in the depths of Mudchute, and running at almost two hours, Lilies is hardly a tempting prospect after a long day at the office. But brave the tube, and come armed with a street directory, and you will enjoy an evening of engaging and committed theatre, which lacks all pretension and swagger, and is just good, clean acting.
Lilies is adapted from Michel Marc Bouchard’s acclaimed play Les Feluettes, which chronicles the homosexual relationship between a pair of catholic school boys in turn of the century Canada. Les Feluettes has been adapted into an award winning screenplay, and has been staged across Europe and the United States, but has never before been performed in the UK.
As the play opens, Bishop Jean Bilodeau is summoned to a Quebecois prison, to hear the confession of an old school friend, Simon Doucet. Simon was wrongly imprisoned 40 years earlier, and as the Bishop watches, aghast, Simon’s cellmates re-enact the events of the fateful night in 1912 that led to his incarceration. In so doing, the prisoners depict the pubescent, yet passionate, love between Simon Doucet and Vallier De Tilly.
This is not easy subject matter; in the course of the play there is cross-dressing, full frontal nudity, a same sex kiss, and a live burial. But the cast handles each of these hurdles with sensitivity and intelligence. It is the standard of the acting that really sets Lilies apart from other fringe shows, as the cast are, with a few exceptions, superb.
Sam Millard and Aidan Downing portray the fumbling passions of Simon and Vallier brilliantly, and manage to capture all of the skin-crawling awkwardness and wide-eyed passion of adolescent love...the end result when Simon declares his love for Vallier in the ‘bath scene’, was very moving. But the star turn is Phillip Scutt, as the coquettish prima donna, Mademoiselle Lydie-Anne de Rozier. From his first curtsy he was utterly convincing as the flirtatious young woman who becomes ensnared in Simon and Vallier’s relationship.
It takes guts to put on a play like this: with no elaborate sets, or expensive pyrotechnics to hide behind, just a complex script, and committed, intelligent acting. If this was the quality of the performance on the first night, I’d love to see the end of the run.
Reviewed by Harriet Shawcross - Curtain Rising Magazine - at The Space on Tuesday 18th September 2007
The British Theatre Guide
Lilies or the Revival of a Romantic Drama is a serious piece about love and revenge which also manages to include a commentary on truth and on theatre thanks to its multi-level structure. The play is set in 1952 in the church of a prison where it has been arranged that the jailed Simon Doucet will make confession to his old friend Bishop Bilodeau. In the event the Bishop is imprisoned by Simon and some fellow convicts who act out before him scenes from a play. It is no jolly entertainment that Bilodeau is forced to watch, but the gay love scenes from The Death of San Sebastian, which in turn are revealed to be only a part of the script that is to be presented by the convicts.
The prisoners' play takes the action back to the Quebec countryside of 1912 where Simon, Bilodeau and the Parisian newcomer, Count Vallier De Tilly, were young contemporaries. In acting out the circumstances that occurred immediately prior to Simon's incarceration, it is intended that Bishop Bilodeau will be the one to confess what he did four decades earlier that resulted in Simon's wrongful imprisonment. To detail more about the story would be to risk giving away the ending, so enough said on that.
If I suggest that the play-within-a-play-within-a-play structure is like the layered skins of an onion it would not do it justice as the intelligence of this play goes far beyond its assembly. By definition all the parts are played by men and true to the limited resources that would have been available to the prisoners, the costumes and props are simple but effective - they are in their prison uniforms with the addition of a hat, or at most an old curtain as a skirt. There are no pantomime dames or drag acts, here there is acting of such subtlety that you stop noticing that the women are played by men, whilst at the same time being constantly reminded of it because the emotional entanglement that drives the action is between boys.
The configuration of the piece also requires that both Bilodeau and Simon are represented in 1912 and 1952. The result is that Simon as an adult plays the role of his father in the enactment and Bilodeau the bishop is on stage with, and having to revisit the actions of, his teenage self. All this goes to provide additional intriguing dimensions to a play - a finely crafted love story - that also reflects and comments on the social morays of the pre-war era.
Director Joseph Walsh shows a sensitive understanding of the piece and the acting of the principals is thoughtful and moving. Short musical backdrops, composed by Alexander Rudd, complement the piece and contribute to the atmosphere whilst lighting changes are so in-keeping as to be imperceptible.
Lilies is a thoroughly engaging piece of theatre. But it is more than that - this play is real brain food. In fact it's a feast. Go see, or go hungry!
Reviewed by Sandra Giorgetti - The British Theatre Guide - at Brockley Jack Theatre on Wednesday 17th October 2007
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Excerpt from "Untold Story Of Love"
Many actors had to convincingly transform from corrupt inmates to the characters within this play throughout the course of the performance. Due to the play's primary setting in an all-male prison, female roles within the play are portrayed by the male prisoners. Darren Batten is a huge talent who shines in the role of the Countess De Tilly and shares excellent chemistry with the stunning Philip Scutt. Both these actors flawlessly cross genders through the transitions in this play. They had little in the way of costumes to rely on, only sheets draped around themselves, no hair and make up, just their talent. They are so convincing that I often found myself overlooking the actual genders of these actors. I simply saw the eccentric, yet passionate Countess De Tilly when Darren Batten was portraying this character and the bourgeoisie femme fatale persona that Philip Scutt exuded in the role of Lydie-Anne.
Reviewed by Nigel Gough
The Twits
Excerpt from "The Stage"
Headed by Philip Scutt and Fiona Steele with a couple of talented youngsters, this lithe troupe charm, tumble, bond as a family and are saved from the sticky clutches and awful economic exploitation by Calire Dargo’s engagingly scatty Roly-Poly Bird.
Any production that gets a staid St Andrews audience on its feet doing the rap and waving shoes twice over its collective head, has a certain magic and richly deserves the plaudits.