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Picture
Insanity Theatre Co
present
Dogfight
Dixon Studio at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff on Sea
​21-23rd August 2017

It’s November 21, 1963. On the eve of their deployment to a small but growing conflict in Southeast Asia, three young Marines set out for one final boys’ night of debauchery, partying and maybe a little trouble. But, when Corporal Eddie Birdlace meets Rose, an awkward and idealistic waitress whom he enlists to win a cruel bet with his fellow recruits, she rewrites the rules of the game and teaches him the power of love and compassion.

Dogfight is a musical with music and lyrics by Pasek & Paul and a book by Peter Duchan. It is an adaptation of Nancy Savoca's 1991 film, Dogfight. The musical premiered Off-Broadway at the Second Stage Theatre in 2012, and in August 2014, the musical had its European premiere at the Southwark Playhouse in London.

I’ll be honest and confess that I had never heard of this musical before but as soon as I discovered that the music and lyrics for the show were by Pasek & Paul, who had written songs for one of my favourite US tv series, SMASH, I was eager to see what this show would be like.

Insanity Theatre Co is also a new name to me, although they have previously put on a production of Lift the Musical at the Dixon Studio.  They are a Southend based youth theatre company and as well as putting on Dogfight this week til Wednesday, the company are also producing another musical, I Love You, You’re Perfect Now Change from 24th to the 26th August.

Setting a musical in the Dixon Studio is a challenge in itself, especially when you have a six piece band on the stage with you, however, with the band placed upstage and having the audience in the round seated at three different angles, this left ample space for the actors to perform.  

Direction from Grace Hans was innovative with almost every inch of the Dixon stage utilised in ways I have never seen before.  All movement and dance worked well considering the small amount of space that was available for such scenes.  Scene changes were done quickly and smoothly and the pace of the piece was kept running along nicely throughout. 

The cast coped well with a somewhat complicated score which commanded a lot of emotional investment not only into the songs they were singing but was also needed in the roles they played, not least for Charis Cruddington and Jack Martyn who performed the parts of Rose and Eddie with true conviction.  

Another lovely characterisation came from Chloe Oliver as hooker, Marcy, although she really was far too pretty to have won the Dogfight competition, despite blacking out her teeth.  Joe Jenkinson as Bernstein and Rob Maynard playing Boland, Eddie’s fellow marines, positively oozed on the detestability factor.  

All of the costumes looked great although I have to wonder whether ripped skinny jeans (Eddie) would have been worn during that time period.  I was also a little uncertain as to whether there should be any audience participation in the dance scene as this was a bit of a distraction from the actors who had dialogue.

I was most impressed with the company band and MD, Keenan Ngo did a fabulous job keeping the sound and musical quality of this production as good as any I have heard at the Dixon or indeed in the main house. With Keenan on piano, James Green on drums, George McCaffrey- Williams on guitar, Dan Alexander on Bass and James Bazely and Chris Burkette on violins, they all sounded fantastic.

With many of the cast going off to drama schools and university in September, I am not sure when we will see their next production but suffice to say that Insanity Theatre Co are definitely ones to keep an eye on in the future if the standard of this show is anything to go by.

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