SATIN 'N' STEEL

Following well-received comedy successes Ladies’ Day and sequel Ladies Down Under, Amanda Whittington returns to Queen’s after five years with a musical drama first introduced to audiences at the Nottingham Playhouse in 2005.

Daringly veering away from their usual extensive cast production, Queen’s opts for an emotive two-hander focussed entirely around Jonathan Markwood’s aspirational dreamer Vince Steel and Kate Robson-Stuart’s naive yet sweet Teena White.

Aided by a well-constructed back-story, the cabaret duo’s tumultuous relationship, spanning seven years, certainly pulls at the heartstrings. With elements of charm, Markwood effectively conveys the complex and deluded nature of controlling Vince, while Robson-Stuart’s raw Teena blossoms from apprehensive working class girl to top of the bill.

The double-act deliver delightful harmonies across a vast catalogue of familiar tracks, reminiscent of late night mellow Magic. Markwood’s rendition of Daydream Believer is particularly haunting, yet in Robson-Stuart you have a performance that captures a vast array of emotions, troubled torment during Islands In The Stream, to then inner contentment throughout the spine-tingling Time After Time.

Mark Walters further demonstrates why he was recognised with a best designer nomination in the prestigious Off West End Theatre awards. Just like the remarkably swift costume changes, sets shift seamlessly, morphing from the epitome of a northern working men’s club, dingy back dressing room and north-sea ferry, to the classier Cafe de Paris London joints.
 

A set framed in a motorway snapshot, complete with pillars, barriers and junction signs, Walters cleverly adopts the entertainment industry concept of hitting the road on the club-circuit, in the continuous hope for bigger and better things.
Satin ‘n’ Steel may be cast-light, yet there’s certainly no reduction in quality.
 

Nick Dines, The Stage

Ambition can be corrosive. Take the two characters whose professional fortunes and private relationships over a number of years who we follow in Amanda Whittington’s 2005 play.We meet them at a point where they are – more or less – back where they began. That’s in a pub upper room, the sort of place which runs talent contests in between featuring performers of both the might-have-been and would-like-to-be variety.

It’s very well served up by director Matt Devitt and even more so by designer Mark Walters, who puts before us a set which conjures both the trunk roads upon which such performers spend much more time than on any sort of stage and a succession of venues. The costume changes as time speeds by and careers develop are extremely well handled – there’s some top-notch stage management organising these behind the scenes.

The more interesting character is Teena (Kate Robson-Stuart). From a wannabe who has missed out in a talent contest, through her somewhat spikey partnership with Vince (Jonathan Markwood) – who needs someone to ginger up his fading rock’n’roll act – to her chance at the (sort of) big-time and resolution into being her own woman (as opposed to somebody else’s second-string), Robson-Stuart has the audience on her side. She also sings very well.

In many ways Vince is much less sympathetic a character. He’s a bit of a user, never quite on the level whether dealing with managements, agents, lovers, friends or colleagues. Markwood conveys all this, and puts over his numbers effectively, but you can’t warm to Vince as a person. I feel that Whittington feels much the same. She hasn’t precisely created a monster, for all the steel of his stage name he’s not hard-edged enough for that. But you wouldn’t want to work with him.
 

Anne Morley-Priestman,  WhatsOnStage.com

Music lovers will enjoy Satin ‘n’ Steel, the fast-paced, quick-changing life of two singers who aspire to hit the big time.

The show at the Queen’s Theatre in Billet Lane, Hornchurch, on Tuesday, was full of classic disco floor fillers and sing-a-long tunes from Elvis, Abba, Elton John and many more.

Amanda Whittington’s story follows the turbulent relationship of Teena White, who transforms into the star Teena Satin, and Vince Steel, a dedicated working men’s club singer who aspires to hit the big time.

You follow the journey of the couple as they tour the country singing well-known hits.

But just when it seems dreams can come true a guilty secret threatens to burst their showbiz bubble…

Playwright Amanda Whittington, who has written and adapted more than 10 plays for stage, screen and radio, has created heart-warming characters with down-to-earth humour making her a favourite, with audiences across the country.

The production was performed by the theatre’s resident group of actors/musicians cut to the chase....

Jonathan Markwood and Kate Robson-Stuart play Satin ‘n’ Steel very well and their on-stage chemistry shines through, which helps bring the show alive.

The show is laced with plenty of comedy and Steel’s one-liners will have you chuckling along.

The quick-changing between their performances is also to be commended.

The show runs until February 25. Tickets cost £15 - £24 or £14 by joining jump the Q, from the box office on 01708 443333.
 

Paul McSweeny, Romford Recorder

Popular style with music onstage and emotional song-and-dance behind scenes

After two days watching casts of a dozen or more on pub-theatre stages, it’s ironic to find the Queen’s far larger stage occupied by Amanda Whittington’s 2005 two-hander about Satin ‘n’ Steel, a northern musical duo whose career never takes-off.

Whittington starts at the end, casting a sadness over the retrospective, from the moment Teena Satin (as she’ll become) stands up, and out, at a talent night where Vince Steel (as he’s named himself) is performing. Performing’s his life and he’ll carry on whatever, while she sees there’s more to look for than draughty dressing-rooms and entertaining on ferries.

Director Matt Devitt knows this kind of theatre inside-out, as his production – despite a few long scene-changes – shows. And Mark Walters’ set craftily disguises that the play’s several sizes smaller than the stage.

Though the story’s bunched mostly into the second act, Devitt can rely on his Hornchurch audience not caring two hoots for that so long as the music’s good along the way, and indeed a number of the first act numbers provoke a swaying clap-along. When the retrospective action increases it’s predictable enough –will she/won’t she stay with the act?

Will she/won’t she go back and finish the set they’re singing at sea? There’s no delving beyond the emotion-tugging surface – though Satin ‘n’ Steel was written for Nottingham Playhouse it bears the traits of Whittington’s work for John Godber’s Hull Truck theatre company. It’s accessible, good-humoured and emotionally unsubtle.

And it has two fine performances at the Queen’s, which gain sympathy without challenging the audience. Jonathan Markwood’s Vince is a trouper, a bit of a sexual two-timer who veers between men and women, but charming enough in his inadequacies, while Kate Robson-Stuart provides Teena with a sense of purpose and the will necessary to take her life forward from a relationship that’s going nowhere on stage or behind the scenes.

Musically, the show’s as strong as always at the Queen’s and given the colourful wash of Christopher Howcroft’s lighting, plus the scene-setting aids of the projections in Walters’ set, it should all keep Hornchurch humming happily throughout the run.
 

Timothy Ramsden, Reviews Gate

It was likely that with the rash of talent competitions beefing up the ratings on the box. It would not be long before theatre got in on the act.

Satin 'n' Steel by Amanda Whittington, directed by Matt Devitt, brough to Hornchurch the reality of raw talent trying to break into show business on the northern club circuit, the noted graveyard of ambitions.

The backdrop reflected the notorious club circuit north of Waford with bear-stained carpets and performers trying to rise above the backgroun drin-related noise from a less than interested or appreciative audience.

The story was of a small-time entertainer, Vince Steel, hosting a talent evening at such a club and being impressed by one of the contestants, a young woman called Tina whose repertoire started and finished with Wind Beneath my Wings.

It was a powerful play but needed equally powerful actors, finding them in the multi-talented Jonathan Markwood, well-known in theatre for some of the most remarkable performances on the stage, and the equally impressive Kate Robson-Stuart, in her second Queen's appearance.