What is it About That Night

Before going any further let me give the Theatre Royal Brighton five very shiny stars for opening its doors to small companies with interesting new theatrical projects. Given that ATG is a commercial venture receiving no public or government funding this initiative has to be applauded.

What Is It About That Night is a short work featuring Catherine Ireton, a singer you may remember from Belle & Sebastian, and she has a fine voice, a pure soaring voice with a controlled vibrato and the ability to hold all of those qualities when performing in an intimate space and in a whisper. The performance follows her, supposedly the stage door manager, through the dark recesses of the theatre’s backstage and here she relays tales of the building, the people and the history – from Mrs Nye-Chart to Marlene Dietrich and even a mention for Denise van Outen. The tales are peppered with personal thoughts alongside the anecdotes, few of which came new to a seasoned Theatre Royal goer – and the whole was punctuated with songs.

To be fair the songs are very nice, pretty, haunting at times and she sings them with great skill. So why do I sound like there is a big but coming. Well it’s as simple as this – I could not fathom what any of the songs had to do with our backstage journey. They were whimsical, perhaps personal to Catherine Ireton – but, and here it is – they simply did nothing to enhance the actual storytelling process. Call me old-fashioned but I like the music attached to my theatre to progress the narrative or colour it in an intellectually satisfying or an entertaining way. I really wanted to like this and I did like Catherine and her songs, but this was a small backdoor concert whimsically tacked together with easily found history. What a missed opportunity when the building itself is steeped in so much history, so many wonderful tales and – dare I say it, so much great music.

Theatre Royal Brighton, 24 January 2013

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