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BrumHour saw The Syndicate at the invite of The Alexandra.
For Brum Radio’s Interval Theatre Samantha Giles talked about her role in the UK Tour of The Syndicate. Listen below:
By Dave Massey x.com/BrumHour
This production contains some strong language and themes surrounding death.
Review: Kay Mellor’s The Syndicate at The Alexandra
⭐⭐⭐⭐”A winning comedy drama”
Directed by Gaynor Faye, written by Kay Mellor
A group of supermarket workers discover that winning a lottery doesn’t stop the mess of their day-to-day lives from getting in the way of their fortunes.
This is based largely on the first TV series of The Syndicate and features characters from that programme played here by Samantha Giles as Denise and Brooke Vincent as Amy with Benedict Shaw as her on/off boyfriend Stuart, Oliver Anthony as Stuart’s brother Jamie, William Ilkley as Bob and Rosa Coduri-Fulford as Leanne plus Jerome Ngonadi as Newall, the police inspector.
Anyone looking for a distraction from the football will enjoy this slice of Northern life, both comedic and serious in tone with some quite dark moments. Samatha Giles and Brooke Vincent are surprisingly different to their soap opera personas both quite understated in their own ways. Benedict Shaw and Oliver Anthony get the lion’s share of the dialogue particularly as their sibling relationship hangs over the bulk of the story.
The set is fairly simple and appears to just reverse in the second half to create the second location, other than that they are just static through each half. There are plenty of props including supermarket style products. Incidental music throughout is all songs about money by ABBA, Madonna and Rhianna particularly stuck in my mind. And the costumes are fun too.
Oliver Anthony‘s performance as Jamie is the one that sticks in my mind, His character is entitled and destructive, his dark angry performance is filled with humour but the Birmingham audience was having none of it from him. A testament to the script and the performance.
A winning comedy drama, The Syndicate is at The Alexandra until 29th June 2024. Book tickets here: atgtickets.com/shows/the-syndicate/the-alexandra-theatre-birmingham.
