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Writer: Siobhan Nicholas. Director: John Ramm
Reviewer: Jane Dawson [Wed 18th and Thurs 19th May 2011]
The Public Reviews Rating:  
Probably set in the 1970s when stand-up was in its infancy and dodgy jokes the norm, this play tells the story of a broken man. Freddie Tourrino is a journeyman – a man who travels from place to place to entertain with storytelling, magic, clowning, drama and music in a vaudeville tradition. Born to it like his father and grandfather before him, he meets his soul mate in the Donegal countryside and steals her away on a motorbike to an itinerant’s life in England. His life with Grainne is hard but fulfilling – perhaps in spite of his trade he is an artist as well as an entertainer – and the couple have a perfect son, Joseph. A tragic accident shatters the couple’s lives when Joseph is killed during the Great Tourrinos’ act on stage. They both blame themselves, are tortured with grief and guilt, and the marriage pays the price when Grainne “disappears” in the middle of the act.
Freddie (Chris Barnes) has lost everything – his wife, his son and his passion for his art. Taking advantage of a club circuit he degenerates into a sub-standard stand-up comedian to make a basic living – enough to keep him in beer and fags. He is redeemed when Grainne (Siobhan Nicholas) returns during his act – they re-run their old show and finally come to terms with their private agony.
But take this at face value at your peril!
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Oxford Playhouse, Burton Taylor Studio |
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Thu April 16th - Fri April 17th 2009
The Daily Info
Dolce Via by Siobhan Nicholas
Take the Space [Theatre Company]
This new play combines ‘mentalist’ tricks, ventriloquism, fire-eating, uni-cycling and some pretty funny stand-up with an emotional disclosure of the hero’s attempts to recover from a devastating tragedy that results in the loss of his son and wife. The narrative of this piece is peppered with illusions of a broad, circus/music hall nature, and is itself shifting and tricksy, so that you can’t be quite sure exactly what is happening. Some of the tricks involve the participation of members of the audience, Derren Brown-style (they are not stooges, I can assure you, as one of them was my daughter), and these are very cleverly done so that they a) astonish the audience in a how-did-they-DO-that! kind of way, and b) resonate brilliantly with the disclosure narrative.
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Portsmouth News / The Guide |
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Friday, June 12, 2009
A bravura display of circus skills by Take The Space featured unicycling, fire-eating and even a bit of lion-taming. Chris Barnes, who includes a spell at Barnum And Bailey’s in his impressive CV, shone as the faded journeyman coping with the unexpected reappearance of his wife, Grainne (Siobhán Nicholas), some years after her abandonment of him midway through their stage act.This act was recreated throughout the evening, seamlessly interwoven with the couple’s own history, and featured extraordinarily polished magic tricks, mime and mind-reading.
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by Brian Jackson, Ross Gazette, August 5 2009
A gem of a play for Ross Live!
DOLCE VIA’ the new play by Siobhan Nicholas presented by Take the Space theatre company as part of the Ross Live! 09 was a littlegem of a piece. It is dedicated to artists of all callings, those ‘journeymenand women..... who have often lived on the fringes of society,’and in it we meet Freddie, (played by Chris Barnes), stand upcomic, sometime conjuror and illusionist, scraping by in the shabbytwilight of his career. In the opening he gently harangues the audience- the Health and Safety police who object to his smoking in thetheatre and promptly stubs his cigarette out on his tongue; the firstintimation that there is more to Freddie than meets the eye. Jokesfollow, delivered in a half-sad, self deprecating fashion and soon weare on his side, sensing there is much more to come.
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Siobhan Nicholas on bringing her play Dolce Via to The Unity |
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by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post, Oct 5 2009
SIOBHAN NICHOLAS’ play Dolce Via is a wonderous magic trick from start to finish, conjuring the lost age of the variety circuit with affection, a bold sense of fun and not a little courage.The Great Tourinos come together after years of sadness and failed ambition to perform one last show.
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Dolce Via - The Everyman Studio Theatre, Cheltenham |
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Monday 1st June 2009.
Being married and divorced in one evening runs a gamut of emotions, but pales in comparison to the life of Dolce Via. My fleeting appearance as magician's assistant was part of an act within an act, a magical tale of a life lived between worlds, of which alchemy dreams are made of. This new play by Siobhan Nicholas is presented by Take the Space, in association with Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. Siobhan herself plays Grainne, alongside Chris Barnes, who plays Freddie. Storytelling, song, magic and mindreading unite their past and present, as the two Vaudevillians present the show of their lives.
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Reviews