Take one incredibly popular television programme, add fifteen or so brand-new songs, a witty and bright book, stir in sixteen or so very talented performers, sprinkle in six excellent musicians, and put it all in a big bowl (well a stage set), and whisk briskly. Then place in the oven (well the Noël Coward Theatre) cook for two hours or so on a high heat and what have you got? The Great British Bake Off Musical. Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary who wrote the delightful and imaginative The … [Read more...]
Blood Brothers at Churchill Theatre | Review
When Willy Russell wrote Blood Brothers back in the early 80s, I’m sure he didn’t think that it would still be performed over forty years later and it would be on the Drama GCSE curriculum which is why the audience at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley was full of teenagers revelling in the strength and power of Russell’s play with music. It’s a story of twins separated by circumstance at birth - a tale of nurture or nature which in the case of this magnificent piece of theatre, comes down hard on … [Read more...]
FLIES by Charlie Josephine at Shoreditch Town Hall
“I can see you”, “Who you looking at?”, “You looking at me?”, are the first words almost spat out by the seven young women who are posing with attitude, arms crossed defiantly as the audience enters the auditorium at the Shoreditch Town Hall. They stare at the audience daring them to respond to the aggression and contempt they’re showing. They’re feisty and in your face pivoting a metaphorical mirror 180 degrees into the faces of the audience to show them the kind of problems they face nearly … [Read more...]
Standing at the Sky’s Edge at the Olivier Theatre
Sheffield has always been regarded as a gritty, edgy city - it’s not called the 'Steel City' for nothing and one of its football teams is nicknamed 'The Blades'. Surrounded by the hills and rivers which supplied the iron, coal and water needed to make steel, it had a reputation that sets it apart from other cities in the north of England. Some of the areas in the city became slums and as the economy slumped, something had to be done and in the fifties, a whole area of rundown housing was … [Read more...]
Borders הגדר ألسياج – VAULT Festival
Separated by twenty kilometres, a border and a barbwire fence, two gay men, one an Israeli Jew and the other a Lebanese Arab find each other on Grindr and start a friendship that turns into an impossible love affair by text. And that’s basically the very slight plot of Borders, a play written by Israeli playwright Nimrod Danishman. Separated by a wall both metaphorical and in this production, physical, the two characters Boaz played by Yaniv Yafe and George (Tarik Badawan) send each other … [Read more...]