James Rowland Archives - North West End UK

16Oct

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

North West

Team Viking – HOME Mcr

SPOILER ALERT – the main character in this funny and profoundly moving monologue dies. Most of us when we shuffle off this mortal coil can expect a short eulogy, and possibly some curled up sandwiches at the wake, but not Tom who got a full fiery Viking Funeral thanks to his two best friends. One of them was James Rowland who in a one-hour monologue took the audience through an intense childhood friendship with Tom and his neighbour Sarah. They became a close knit team as their childhood games revolved around the classic 1958 Norse melodrama, The Vikings, starring Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis as they acted out different roles from the movie. They agreed to a pact where when one of them snuffed it they would each get a Viking funeral where they floated away on a fiery longboat, whi...

Piece of Work – Traverse Theatre

This is a one man show about suicide, but with much wit and good humour and a blizzard of Shakespearean soliloquies you would hardly think it. Till later. Unfolded on the floor are tattered maps of Britain, The World, Greater Manchester and the tiny village where James Rowland paddled in the river. Standing on or hovering over these, master storyteller Rowland unfolds himself, all hands and mouth and sparkling eyes, creased and tattered and a bit ragged at the edges but still intact. His purpose, by way of many a Bard quote is not just to lay out a road map of his own ‘little life’, sustained by chicken burgers, but also to make us seriously consider our own and the sometimes very tenuous line that tethers us all in place. To be or not to be, is indeed the question, but it is one whi...

Learning to Fly – Traverse Theatre

James Rowland’s one-man show, Learning to Fly, is engaging, heartwarming and very funny. He is a gifted storyteller with a tender heart and a grand sense of the absurd. After a tough week, he really lifted my spirits. His tale is personal. It’s about growing up and having an unusual bond with the old lady across the road. He lives it on stage and so do we. There’s something about his face and expression that transforms into a twelve-year-old with all its innocence that I found charming. He embodies the three characters he portrays with simplicity. It’s not a show of gymnastic characterisation, it’s a confessional, sharing a poignant and funny episode between people from different age groups, growing closer over classical music and cups of milky strong tea. Some people had seen...