BEFORE, AFTER (Southwark Playhouse)***

 

By Imogen

Link: https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/show/before-after/

Available until: Final show September 26 at 7pm

I was a bit disappointed with Before, After – the musical itself and the way it was presented. I don’t want to give two stars because it’s always great to see two really talented singers giving a good performance. It was also advertised as a rehearsed reading so it wasn’t supposed to be a full performance.

Rehearsed readings can work really well but this seemed to be half rehearsed reading and half performance. The performers spent a lot of time facing each other, then turning to glance at the script. I think it should be one or the other really. If they’re looking at each other it starts to feel like a full performance but when they have a sneaky look at the script that feels quite strange, like they come out of character for a minute.

Also I think for £15 (which is less than you pay to see some online shows which feel much more rehearsed and complete) they could have given us a semi-staged production even if there’s no set or props. This musical seems to be much more about mental place than physical place so I didn’t really miss the set and props but I wanted a bit more from the actual performances.

We’ve been in lockdown for six months so I think they could at least have learned their music and lines. I’ve been in fully-staged shows where we learned our lines and put a full show together in six days. Before, After was announced more than six days ago and they were using a script. The musical is about two characters who have a really close connection and a lot of their passion was directed at their music stand so the connection between them was sometimes there and sometimes wasn’t.

The social distancing issue would be a problem for most actors singing onstage together but unless there’s been a divorce I don’t know about (and how awkward having to play lovers if they’re divorced) Rosalie Craig and Hadley Fraser are married so they can stand close (which they did) and touch each other (which I don’t think they did). So they should have had lots of opportunity to rehearse properly, learn the music and do a bit of semi-staging. That would have brought the story to life a bit more and stopped the energy from dropping every time one of them looked at the script.

I also thought the structure of the musical was really confusing. The musical flips back and forward between the past and the present and I had trouble keeping track of where I was and remembering what had happened and what hadn’t happened yet. I think it would have been easy to follow if they’d started with the present day then flashed back to the past and gone through everything in order. It would work as a film as they could have different clothes and hair but in this production the past and the present looked exactly the same. That might have been kind of the point as it was like the characters Ami and Ben were going through all the same problems and all the same arguments but if I’m watching a musical I don’t want to waste my brain power trying to remember what’s happened and what hasn’t.

But a lot of it was really good. Like I said the structure confused me but there were some really good scenes. Timothy Knapman’s book and lyrics are fairly strong and I think it might be a work in progress so I’m sure it’ll get better. The music and lyrics (by Stuart Matthew Price with additional lyrics from Timothy Knapman) were tuneful and flowing, no real showstoppers but no boring songs either. And I think maybe a lot of true showstoppers probably wouldn’t sound like proper showstoppers if the singer was reading the lyrics.

Rosalie and Hadley were great as Ami and Ben. Ben is a bit of a waster and Ami is a bit of a bunny boiler but they felt like real people with weaknesses and secrets and good intentions. They both have great voices which suit the style and it seems like they’ve really worked on the characterisation to make them into complete human beings.

You’ve only got 2 hours to book this and maybe less depending on when this is uploaded. I really wanted to review this one and I was busy watching Carrie Hope Fletcher on stream.theatre last night. I don’t review those because you can only watch them live but it is a good series.