Arts

Night fever at Night Club

The Jazz Dance Society will be raising the roof of the Lakeside Theatre this month with a pumping musical variety performance called Night Club.

Based around the nightclub scene, Night Club will feature a wide range of music from Kylie Minogue and Sophie Ellis Bextor to the disco fever of the Bee Gees.

The 30 dancers performing are all members of the Jazz Dance Society and this is a great opportunity to see just how talented they are. It is also a great opportunity for people to enjoy a good variety show with some great music and a great atmosphere.

Choreographer Nikki Burns, Sports Supervisor at the Sports Centre, said: 'I wanted the public to see the work of the Jazz Dance society so that their work could really be appreciated. The theme for this performance came to me when I thought about how much people love to go out to clubs and enjoy popular music and dancing. This is what the show is all about.'

Nikki, who has been dancing for over 20 years, choreographed and co-directed the Lakeside Theatre's production of Jesus Christ Superstar a couple of years ago, and was also involved in last year's Cabaret. She has no plans for any future productions as yet but has confirmed that she will continue teaching. She added: 'I get such a thrill out of seeing others perform my routines, and a real sense of achievement.'

German play is a first for language students

Students from Language and Linguistics staged three performances of Max Frisch's Biedermann und die Brandstifter (Biedermann and the Arsonists) in the original German last month.

A scene from the play

The performances at the Lakeside Theatre were greeted with enthusiasm by larger audiences than expected. The play, directed by Wolfgang Fauser and stage-managed by Emma Hopper, was a new departure in that, within living memory, no other drama had been put on by Language and Linguistics students in a foreign language.

In Biedermann, Frisch, (1911-1991), a Swiss 'moralist', develops a theme earlier outlined in a one-act radio play. The main character is a Spießbürger, or petty bourgeois, willing to exploit others for his own profit.

After his employee Knechtling has hit upon a formula for a new hair lotion, Biedermann dismisses him and drives him to suicide. When arsonists move into Biedermann's attic, however, he and his wife neither understand what is said to them by the arsonists nor mean what they themselves say.

On the Biedermanns' side, it is a story of masks and lies, while the arsonists are truthful about their intentions, so the play ends in a conflagration and, presumably, the demise of Biedermann and Babette.

Jo Bell articulated her rôle as Biedermann superbly, while Mark Holmwood and Mauro Gioe made frighteningly sinister arsonists. Luiza Lawetzki came across well as the spoilt, 'kept' wife, Sarah Paddick impressed as the flouncy maid and Yvonne Fang Tse cut a figure of authority in police uniform.

Sarah Paddick as the Maid

Hanna Justic, Agnès Durvin, Esther Cable, Matthew Wright, Liz Easter and Tanja Ragget also performed excellently, and invaluable help was provided by many others behind the scenes, especially John Moore.

John Roberts, Department of Language and Linguistics