Wilma’s Rating [rating=4]
Salad days is a 1950’s sing and dance show about a boy and girl (Timothy and Jane) who take on the responsibility of looking after a street piano for a month and the way it brings them together as a couple. Throw in an alien from outer-space and you have salad days!
Off-puttingly, the actors don’t have microphones and so playing between two rows of facing seats can cause problems hearing when they are not facing you but about half way into the first act your ears adjust you forget about the sound.
Honestly the most bizarre show I have ever seen. My mouth was a gasp during the second half, unable to comprehend what I was watching but there was a sweet underlying message that you discover once you get past the shock of aliens landing in a 1950’s musical!
Shows like this make me remember why I love reviewing shows so much. You go to see things you would never normally consider seeing and they open your eyes to a different world of theatre. Not a glitzy, glamourous world but one where people are so passionate about what they are doing that you can’t help bit be encapsulated by it.
The cast included Luke Alexander, Lee Boggess, Charlie Cameron, Richard Kent Chalk, Nicholas Collier, Matthew Hawksworth, Mark Inscoe, Kathryn Martin, Leo Miles, Tom Millen, Katie Moore, Gemma Page, Ellie Robertson, Tanya Stephens, Tony Timberlake and Josephine Warren.
The audience, while not packed, raised the roof in applause at the end and deservingly so. Salad Days is well worth a trip out to Hammersmith for!
Salad Days plays at The Riverside Studios until 2nd March 2013.
www.riversidestudios.co.uk