Tag: Joe Layton

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REVIEW: Frantic Assembly in Lost Atoms, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday *****

Intertwined: Joe Layton’s Robbie and Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Jess in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms. Picture: Scott Graham

RELATIONSHIP two-handers keep popping up on the York Stage in recent years, just as Normal People and One Day’s young lovers top the TV viewing charts.

First, in March 2022, came  the multiple universes in Black Treacle Theatre’s York premiere of Nick Payne’s Constellations at Theatre@41, Monkgate, where each scene, such as the first meeting, the first date and breaking up, unfolds in several different ways, showing how nothing is necessarily ‘meant to be’, not least a crisis that could mean the end of their time together.

Next, in November that year, White Rose Theatre staged The Last Five Years, Jason Robert Brown’s sung-through American musical with the novel structure of struggling actress Cathy telling her side of the story from the end of the relationship backwards, while, at the other end of the stage, successful young novelist Jamie does so from the start forwards, as he lands a publishing deal at 23.

Now comes physical theatre specialists Frantic Assembly’s boy-meets-girl tale, or enervated man meets sparky younger woman, if you prefer, in the London company’s 30th anniversary show in a co-production with Curve, Leicester, Mayflower, Southampton and the Lyric, Hammersmith.

Payne and Brown’s works were both festooned with multiple awards. Anna Jordan’s Lost Atoms is at least their equal and could well be the best of the three in terms of capturing the essence of a life-changing relationship through physicality. When words fail, physical expression takes over, much like how discord in discourse leads to outbursts of singing in opera and musical theatre.

In this truly memorable memory play, the present keeps being interrupted, even elbowed aside, by recollections of a past that began with a chance meeting, sharing a mobile hotspot, in a cafe where Jessie (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) had temped for four years. So stop-starts a run of awkward dates with Robbie (Joe Layton), but gradually blossoming love too.

Is this the stuff of fairy tales, asks Jordan, or maybe of grimmer tales that avid researcher Jess bemoans have had their guts pulled out? Recollection by recollection,  it becomes apparent that both protagonists/antagonists are remembering  their version of the past in accounts that differ. Whose version should we trust, where does the truth lie and why do we need to re-write and embellish what has gone before – and to keep re-writing it every time we recall it? Maybe because the truth is too painful?

Do Jess and Robbie doubt each other or, increasingly, doubt themselves? Can there be a reliable witness in matters of the heart and do we ever really understand love?

For all the clash of present and past, symbolised by flashes of light and soundwaves, everything is played out  in chronological order: love’s vicissitudes; connection and disconnection; Robbie’s preference for staying in, Jess’s need for night outs; parental relationships and pregnancy; infidelity and Robbie’s request of this reunion meeting.

Jordan’s text, as full of frank humour as much as heartbreak, is seductive and insightful in  its own right as she explores how two people’s “perceptions of romantic love affected their experiences”, but works all the better for its symbiosis with Frantic’s theatrical house style. Or, as she puts it, “I am drawn to Frantic’s extraordinary ability not just to tell a story but to create feeling on stage.

“I’m always trying to find words for the things that seem impossible to describe, and I love to watch Frantic find language to describe these things through movement.”

Movement that, in the process, really lifts the impact of the language – and I do mean ‘lifts’. Scott Graham’s movement direction plays out on Andrzej Goulding set, dominated by a towering wall of filing cabinets that serves as a climbing frame for Layton’s Robbie and Sinclair Robinson’s Jessie to go clambering hither and thither, to almost dizzying effect at times, as they express a multitude of emotions from giddy joy to guttural pain, playful fun to vulnerable fall-outs, cautious start to implosive finale.

A floor drops out of the structure like a modern-day drawbridge, for sensual bedroom scenes and scrambling precipice friction alike. Drawers open, sometimes to be used as seats, more often for access to props, clothing, photos, mementoes of childhood and past pursuits that serve as welcome or unwelcome memory triggers and glowing light bulbs that set off new patterns of thoughts. Two armchairs complete the set, theatrically large to emphasise how their every reconfiguration carries significance.

Layton and Sinclair Robinson had worked together previously in Frantic’s Othello and Metamorphosis and that familiarity oozes through their kinetic, magnetic performances in Lost Atoms as, in Jordan’s words, they “recreate the extraordinary energy of falling in love, in a way that is recognisable and palpable for the audience.”

How right she is. Lost Atoms is a love story familiar in its course and feelings, but told in a thrillingly bold way, with feeling, energy and infinite hope from lessons learned for the next wall to climb, the next life file for the cabinet.

Frantic Assembly in Lost Atoms, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Whose account of a relationship can you trust in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms?

Joe Layton’s Robbie and Hannah Sinclair Robinson’s Jess opening up the cabinet of memories in Frantic Assembly’s Lost Atoms, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Tristram Kenton

IT starts with a chance meeting, sharing a mobile hotspot, followed by some disastrous dates, but then an extraordinary transformative love ensues.  This is the stuff of fairy tales, surely? Or is it?

Welcome to Lost Atoms, Frantic Assembly’s 30th anniversary production, on tour at York Theatre Royal from October 7 to 11, under the direction of physical theatre specialist Scott Graham, who was at the helm of the London company’s earlier York visits with Othello and Metamorphosis.

Written by Anna Jordan, who has credits for Succession and Killing Eve episodes as well as Frantic Assembly’s Unreturning, Lost Atoms takes Jess (Hannah Sinclair Robinson) and Robbie (Joe Layton) on a wild ride through a life-changing relationship.

Frantic Assembly director Scott Graham in the rehearsal room for Lost Atoms. Picture: Ben Hewis

Or, or more pointedly, through Jess and Robbie’s recollection of how they scaled the soaring highs and crushing lows as they relive the beats of connection, the moments of loss – but are their stories the same and can their memories be trusted?

By turns humorous and heartbreaking, Lost Atoms’ timeless story explores how love shapes our lives and how we remember it as two people plunge deep into their shared pasts and propel themselves into multiple futures, risking it all.

Welcome back to York, Hannah, who, like Coronation Street alumnus Joe, appeared in Metamorphosis and Othello, as Grete and Bianca in her case; the Chief Clerk and Iago in his.

“My first experience of Frantic Assembly was when I did a three-year performing arts course at Bath Spa [University], where we researched the company for a devising module,” recalls Hannah.  “My tutor was a big fan, and I first saw a Frantic Assembly in Othello at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, which was an incredible show.

“We’ve had a massive hand in character development and offering a character’s insight on a scene, which was such a privilege,” says Hannah Sinclair Robinson, pictured in rehearsal for Lost Atoms. Picture: Ben Hewis

“I have a dance background and I loved how their work married my two favourite things, acting and dancing, so it really inspired me. Then, when I did the tenth anniversary tour of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time, I hadn’t realised that Frantic Assembly’s Scott Graham had done the movement direction.

“So when I heard that Frantic Assembly would be doing Othello again, I contacted them to say I’d seen it in 2014 and loved it, and ‘please can I have an audition?’! And the rest is history, working with them ever since. It’s been like a dream come true.”

Now comes Lost Atoms, a performance that is all the more physical, the more intense, for being a two-hander. “It’s been very intensive, rehearsing for five weeks with Scott,” says Hannah. “It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done because there’s no respite, no breaks, you’re both on there all the time.

“The physical element is one of the biggest things for Frantic Assembly, using movement to express things that are unsaid; things you can’t say but can express with movement.

“Working with Scott in rehearsals, we did a couple of weeks of ‘table work’, going through the script, settling on your character’s intentions, and then we used Frantic Assembly’s building blocks, creating movements based around the theme, putting them together with Joe [Layton] after starting with six small movements.”

“The gift we give is that there is hope,” says Hannah of Lost Atoms’ journey through love’s ups and downs. Picture: Scott Graham

Describing Lost Atoms’ structure, Hannah says: “It’s a play about love and memory, as a couple come together to relive their past history with different motives for meeting up and with their differing perspectives: how we remember things differently – and that depends on how we want to remember things and how we want to be remembered.”

Hannah and Joe have been involved in the gestation of Lost Atoms since taking part in three weeks of research-and-development sessions. “We started maybe late last year, and the first week was with Anna, the writer, as well as Scott,” she says. “We’ve had a massive hand in character development and offering a character’s insight on a scene, which was such a privilege.

“As an actor, you draw on your own experiences, accessing different emotions. For Lost Atoms, we could share experiences of love, both platonic and romantic and familial too. It was a really safe space to do that, so it feels like our fingerprints are all over the show.”

Hannah and Joe performing together previously has been an advantage when working on Lost Atoms. “Because it’s a two-hander and it’s so intense, it’s really important that you have that trust. Joe is a brilliant actor and friend and we trust each other totally,” she says, as the partnership blossoms in performance at Curve, Leicester, where the production opened on September 22.

“Because it’s a two-hander and it’s so intense, it’s really important that you have that trust. Joe is a brilliant actor and friend and we trust each other totally,” says Hannah. Picture: Scott Graham

“After five weeks in the rehearsal room, it comes to the point where you need to put it in front of an audience, because there’s both humour and heartbreak and you’ve got to find the points where the humour lands.

“Also, because it’s so physical and intense, you need to learn how to open it up to share with people, and you have to learn the rhythm of the performance too.”

Ultimately, for all its candour about love being strange, Lost Atoms has a hopeful tone. “It doesn’t necessarily come in the package you might expect, but we hope to leave people with that feeling of hope, even within the heartbreak of the relationship,” says Hannah. “The gift we give is that there is hope.”

Frantic Assembly in Lost Atoms, York Theatre Royal, October 7 to 11, 7.30pm plus 2pm Thursday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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REVIEW: Frantic Assembly in Othello, York Theatre Royal, until Saturday ****

Michael Akinsulire’s Othello in a street clash in Frantic Assembly’s 21st century Othello. Picture: Tristram Kenton

HOW reassuring to see packed houses for theatre shows in York this autumn, whether for Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d at the Theatre Royal or SIX The Musical at the Grand Opera House.

Sitting next to Theatre Royal chief executive Tom Bird on Tuesday night, he revealed that 60 schools – yes, 60 – had booked for Frantic Assembly’s combustible 21st century reimagining of Othello, Shakespeare’s tragedy of paranoia, sex and murder.

“That’s the draw of Frantic Assembly, not Othello,” he said. Maybe, but you don’t have one without the other.

The crackle of excitement in the air, the cheers that greeted the company’s arrival on stage, brought to mind the electric surge triggered by the visits of Emma Rice’s Wise Children company, most recently for Wuthering Heights, that again drew young audiences in abundance.

Drink it all in: Joe Layton’s Iago, left, Tom Gill’s Cassio, Felipe Pacheco’s Roderigo, Oliver Baines’s Montano and Matthew Trevannion’s Brabantio (right) in a scene from Frantic Assembly’s Othello. Picture: Tristram Kenton

You could draw comparisons between the two companies: the importance of choreography; the almost dangerous physicality of the performances; the unexpected moments of humour; the chemistry and one-for-all and all-for-one commitment between actors; the instant bond with the audience; the drive to bring text to thrilling life; the propulsive power of thunderous music.

Yorkshireman Joe Layton, who plays an incorrigible Iago, puts it this way: “The way Frantic work, you are creating a physical sequence, finding a physical connection between characters,” he says. “Then story and characters are layered in on top of that. You throw yourself in and trust the director. You have to give yourself and trust the process,” he says.

From the off, that working practice is borne out in a fast, furious and, yes, frantic Othello, adapted, directed and choreographed by Scott Graham and Steve Hoggett, newly updated for the 2022 tour co-produced with Curve, Leicester.

That opening feels like plugging into the powerlines of The Prodigy’s Firestarter in a wordless, breathless scene-setter that introduces characters (Shakespeare), setting (Laura Hopkins) and soundscape (Hybrid) all at once.

Michael Akinsulire’s Othello listens to Joe Layton’s poison-dripping Iago as Chanel Waddock’s Desdemona looks on. Picture: Tristram Kenton

Think Shameless or This England; a bar with a pool table and a slot machine; bottled beers; everyone off their heads or on a short fuse in high-street zip tops, trainers, hoodies, stretchy sportswear and joggers.

One long Friday night, full of broken glass, jealousy, betrayal, revenge and the darkest intents; a darker brew of John Godber’s Bouncers, where the booze meets the bruise.

Let Frantic Assembly light the fuse, then stand well back, but feel the fierce heat from all that brutal physicality as Layton’s mendacious manipulator Iago winds up Michael Akinsulire’s Othello, the Moor, who is as muscular with Shakespeare’s words as he is physically, his eyes bursting, his mind mangled, his baseball bat never far away.

This is an Othello of myriad street accents, making it universal, from Tom Gill’s Scouse Cassio to Akinsulire’s North London Othello; Chanel Waddock’s Essex Desdemona to Kirsty Stuart’s Scottish Emilia.

Luck’s out: Chantel Waddock’s wronged Desdemona in Othello. Picture: Tristram Kenton

The pace is relentless, the dialogue hot on the tongue, the choreography dazzling, sometimes beautiful and sensuous, as in Akinsulire and Waddock’s pas de deux spread across the pool table, later to be repeated in such contrasting circumstances at the finale.

Frantic’s trademark physicality extends even to Hopkins’ design, suddenly coming to life in wave-like motions, first when a drunken Cassio staggers along the wall, and later when Othello is overcome with shock at what he has done, wishing it might swallow him.

Nothing sums up this Othello better than Iago’s prophetic T-shirt, Just Do It. Let’s hope Frantic Assembly will be back to “just do it” again, whatever the play, because Shakespeare all shook up this way demands a follow-up with more of this full-on brand of theatre.

Frantic Assembly’s Othello, York Theatre Royal, 7.30pm tonight until Saturday; 2pm, Thursday; 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office:  01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

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Yorkshireman Joe Layton heads home as trouble-making Iago in Frantic Assembly’s Othello on tour at York Theatre Royal

What’s he plotting next? Joe Layton’s Iago in Frantic Assembly’s Othello, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Tristram Kenton

JOE Layton returns to his native Yorkshire from tonight to play Iago in Frantic Assembly’s electrifying reimagining of Shakespeare’s Othello at York Theatre Royal.

Once more he will confirming his English teacher’s hunch at a parents’ evening that Ilkley lad Joe “had some talent for acting”.

“He said, ‘I don’t say this very often, but I would encourage Joe to apply for drama school’,” he recalls.

He duly did so, supported by teacher Tony Johnson, who provided not only encouragement but help in preparing audition speeches. “I owe him a huge amount,” says Joe. “He came to see the last show I did in Leicester and hope he’s in the audience for Othello.”

This is Frantic Assembly’s third staging of their award-winning account of Othello, Shakespeare’s tragedy of paranoia, sex and murder, set in a volatile 21st century wherein Othello’s passionate affair with Desdemona becomes the catalyst for jealousy, betrayal, revenge and the darkest intents.

Shakespeare’s muscular yet beautiful text combines with the touring company’s own bruising physicality in a world of broken glass and broken promises, malicious manipulation and explosive violence, previously staged in 2008 and 2014 and now updated for 2022.

On the wind-up: Joe Layton’s Iago has a word with Michael Akinsulire’s Othello. Picture: Tristram Kenton

Frantic Assembly have had a marked effect on his career and aspirations already, as he was part of their Ignition programme – a free nationwide talent development programme for young people aged 16 to 24 – in 2009 and later appeared in Frantic’s The Unreturning.

“It’s for all genders now but Ignition started out as an all-male programme and was a space where sensitivity and masculinity were explored in a non-toxic way, which I hadn’t experienced before,” says Joe, one of no fewer than five Ignition graduates involved in Othello this season.

He saw Frantic Assembly’s original production in 2008 but it was another of the company’s shows that was particularly influential: Bryony Lavery’s two-hander Stockholm. “I must have been 15 years old,” says Joe. “It was one of those mind-blowing moments that gave you goosebumps. That was the moment I said to myself, ‘I want to work with Frantic one day’.”

His professional debut came two years later in Nikolai Foster’s production of George Orwell’s Animal Farm at West Yorkshire Playhouse. As a 17-year-old schoolboy, he was given special dispensation to leave early several days a week to do the Leeds show.

Looking back at his first encounter with Frantic Assembly’s Othello, Joe recalls how “it really leapt off the page for me and made it accessible, especially for teenagers. It was real, visceral and immediate”.

Honest, Iago? Joe Layton keeps at arm’s length from the truth in Othello. Picture: Tristram Kenton

Now he is playing Iago, the poison-dripping baddie of the piece, or is he possibly misjudged? Psychopath or “a bit of a villain”, Joe must ask himself. “As an actor, you have to get inside them, understand them, what makes them tick, and do the things they do which, in Iago’s case, is hideous, unforgivable things,” he says.

Movement becomes as important as words in Frantic Assembly’s style book. “The way Frantic work, you are creating a physical sequence, finding a physical connection between characters. Then story and characters are layered in on top of that. You throw yourself in and trust the director [Scott Graham]. You have to give yourself and trust the process,” he says.

“We begin rehearsals with a one-hour workout and high intensity training. The rest of the morning is given over to movement sequences. Everything is really highly choreographed. There’s nothing that happens on stage that’s not choreographed.”

Joe grew up in Ilkley, moved to London for drama school, met his wife in New York and now lives in the United States, while working on both sides of the Atlantic.

He headed to America after being scouted by a top actors’ agency. “I don’t regret moving to Los Angeles because it was a really interesting period of my life, although challenging in a lot of ways. I moved away from family and friends and all that sort of stuff.

Turning the tables: Joe Layton’s Iago plays his mind games on Michael Akinsulire’s Othello as Chanel Waddock’s Desdemona looks on. Picture: Tristram Kenton

“I couldn’t work for six months because I was waiting for my work visa to come through. I was a 21-year-old with not much money just sitting around.”

One role to emerge from his USA move was Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. He was not picked for the role for which he auditioned but was offered a different one. He took part in the series for only a few weeks but found working in the Marvel superhero world to be “a whole different ballgame”.

“I have an agent in the US and the UK,” he says. “One of the things that really changed through the pandemic is that everything, including casting, went online, which means there’s even less need to be in London. It seems the industry is getting less London-centric. You can audition on film anywhere, read a scene and be cast off the tape. That’s been great for me in terms of quality of life and being able to live in America.”

During lockdown, Joe spent an enforced period back in Leeds while visiting family for Christmas celebrations. Unable to go home, he spent six months living in his grandmother’s cottage near Pateley Bridge.

He will return to the USA during a break in the Othello tour. “My wife is at home in America. She’s a writer and working on a new book, so she’s pleased to have me out of the house and have time for herself and her writing.”

Frantic Assembly’s Othello runs at York Theatre Royal from tonight until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2pm, Thursday; 2.30pm, Saturday. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Did you know?

Joe Layton (Iago), associate director David Gilbert, co-choreographer Perry Johnson, Oliver Baines (Montano) and Felipe Pacheco (Roderigo) have all taken part in Frantic Assembly’s Ignition programme.