Reviews – Flint Street Nativity

Christine Stock, Salisbury Journal

A totally bonkers and chaotic play is on stage at Studio Theatre this week.

Showcasing the trepidatious highlight of the primary school calendar, Tim Firth’s unruly Christmas play The Flint Street Nativity, sees 11 full-grown adults regress into seven-year-olds.

Co-directors Sally Marshall and Paul Chalmers have embraced the disorderly manner of children’s interactions and let the nonsensical flow throughout the play.

It took me a little while to see the infant character through the adult actor, but once I could, it was brilliantly funny.

It’s a play where the actors are supposed to forget their lines, and when they forget the lines that they’re supposed to remember, it’s even funnier.

Crazy and chaotic in places it’s incredibly good fun as the ‘children’ blurt out the reality of their home lives and things their parents have taught them.

Classroom characters are perfectly portrayed – Tamsin Jacson, as Angel Gabriel, is the bossy manipulative friend; Jill Cowling, as the shepherd, is the child that always tells the truth (which always gets the laughs); and Emma Young, as Mary, is the goody goody child with all the pressure that comes with it.

Amid the humour, the play has some touchingly realistic and quite sad themes. Jacob Franks, as the innkeeper, sings sadly about his dad stinking of beer; Jamie Pullen’s wise man wants to be able to say Frankincense without a lisp; while Adam Barge lifts his cardboard ass’s head to spot his social worker in the audience.

A bit daft and chaotic, but totally entertaining – it had me (and the rest of the packed theatre) in stitches.

https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/23975572.studio-theatres-flint-street-nativity-will-stitches/

Lloyd Perry of SceneOnePlus had this to say about our recent production of Flint Street Nativity.

On a cold and damp December evening it was great to be back at Salisbury’s Award-winning Theatre group based on Ashley Road in Salisbury. Studio Theatre are very lucky indeed to have a purpose-built theatre to operate from and judging by the packed and buzzing front of house area on the 2^nd night things are looking good for the group.

Studio Theatre’s Christmas offering for 2023 was The Flint Street Nativity written by Tim Firth who is best known for writing the hit, Calendar Girls.

The Flint Street Nativity is billed as a comedy and tells the story of a group of 7 year olds , played by adults, who are preparing to perform their Christmas nativity play in front of their parents and family. At the end of the play we get an insight into the parents as the cast spin their skills in moving from children to play a selection of their adult counterparts

The play requires an exceptionally fast delivery and pace to keep the humour going and not to let the play flag. At times the cast didn’t seem to feel as one with some slips in pace, unsure moves coupled with some involvement from the prompt in the wings.

That said, some stand-out performances helped to drive the story forward. George Goulding as the Narrator gave a very true and strong performance. I especially liked the section at the end when he played the father role; bringing some much-needed pathos to the second half. Adam Barge also shone as the Ass with strong comic delivery and pace. There was good support from Jill Cowling as the rural, West Country speaking Shepherd, who had several long, comical speeches that had to be delivered quickly.

The costumes, designed by Rae Owen, were great and immediately took the audience to a nativity scene with angel wings, lavish wise men and great purposely styled homemade-looking costumes throughout.

The set was nice and gave some good touches and nods to being in a primary school classroom. From the globe in the corner to the small chairs and noticeboard there was a real feel of a slightly chaotic and messy classroom trying to get young children ready for their nativity.

Throughout the performance, things felt under-rehearsed both with the dialogue and songs but I do not doubt with another 4 performances in the sell-out run to go, it will further improve. The audience on the second night clearly enjoyed their evening out.

The production of The Flint Street Nativity runs until the 9^th December 2023.

https://sceneoneplus.com/the-flint-street-nativity-2/