Company reviews continued from main page –
The Complete Works, 1986. The ‘ethics of the confectionary industry’; a trainee discovers in a sweet factory ‘that a chemical has been discovered which induces craving when added to chocolate’, and that this is ‘the pride and joy of his new girlfriend – the company scientist’; ‘conflicts of interest and ideology’, and, ‘of course, plenty of song’, ‘all delivered in the high-energy, sock-it-to-them Pentabus style’. (Archenfield Review, May 1986; Archenfield is the historic English name for an area of south and west Herefordshire)
The Bone Harvest, 1986: ‘[C]ombines the traditions of Japanese and English theatre, using mask, verse and music to tell a story based on a tiny Pacific island. It tangles comedy with tragedy, real events with those which might have been, and the past with the future.’ (Ludlow Journal, 31/10/86).
Burning Out, 1987: ‘takes a compassionate look at a young girl trying to make sense of the future as she tries to decide what she wants from childhood. The play is about growing up away from things which seem to hedge you in: school, family ties, a job.’ (Kidderminster Shuttle, no date on cutting)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1987-1990)
‘Following this first visit to the festival, Pentabus are now recognised as one of the country’s leading producers of new theatre’. (The Shuttle, 15/9/88)
‘The set is sacks, the sound is gun and shell, and you are more deeply in First World War trenches than most of us have ever been. This is one of the most valuable pieces of work at the Fringe this year.’ (Owen Dudley Edwards, The Scotsman)
‘Even when a play has been well received at Birmingham Rep Studio, the first night audience aren’t generally given to rapture, and I’ve rarely heard continuing applause after the first curtain call. That they brought back an exhausted Steve Johnstone three times… is an indication of the calibre of this one-man show, one of the acclaimed highlights of the Edinburgh Fringe.’ (Pat Ashworth, The Guardian)
‘…an intense and moving performance’ (Edinburgh Evening News)
‘Powerfully moving… Peter Cann’s adaptation of Remarque’s novel puts into a thoroughly modern idiom something so universal and deeply-felt that it is irrelevant which side the soldier is on’ (The Guardian)
‘viewed solely as a piece of theatre it is remarkably effective and impressive. Much of the credit for this must go to Steve Johnstone… His performance is extraordinary.’ (Festival Times, 1988)
‘Steve Johnstone, in a veritable tour de force, creates a moving and vividly expressive picture of life in the trenches.’ (North Devon Journal, 1989)
‘…a quite stunning performance from Steve Johnstone. This production… is bold and risk-laden, but the obvious efforts of all involved have certainly paid off. I have rarely heard such enthusiastic applause from an audience.’ (Theatre Review, 1988)
‘It’s powerfully moving: the nightmare of a young soldier’s experience of the First World War compressed into two hours of confidences, some expressed in an outraged and wildly comic manner reminiscent of Jasper Carrot, others painfully articulated. Paul Cann’s adaptation of Remarque’s novel puts into a thoroughly modern idiom something so universal and deeply-felt that it is irrelevant which side the soldier is on. He’s German of course, but his accent lies somehwere between the West Midlands and Liverpool, and he looks like anyone’s son.’ (The Guardian 1988)