Two years ago, I wrote a glowing review of Cinderella the first Fairfield Halls' pantomime to be put on in the newly refurbished Phoenix Concert Hall rather than in its traditional venue of the much smaller Ashcroft Theatre (re-named the Playhouse after the refurbishment). The panto, this year is Beauty And The Beast and it has returned to the Playhouse, possibly due to the effects of covid or possibly because of the costs involved. Once again the production company was Imagine Theatre so I was … [Read more...]
Ghost Walk by Poltergeist Theatre | Review
Are you aware that there are ghosts floating above the streets of the City of London? There’s a construction worker in Broadgate, a monk in Austin Friars, a Roman soldier in Throgmorton Street and a punk rocker in Finsbury Circus amongst others and you can hear their stories on a superb, interactive, site-specific, audio walk from Poltergeist Theatre, a young energetic group of directors, writers, designers and performers who The Guardian named “One of the best young theatre companies”. The … [Read more...]
Rumi: The Musical at the London Coliseum
Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī was a very interesting man. Better known as just Rumi, he was born in 1207 in Afghanistan and before his death 67 years later, he travelled all over the Middle East, married twice, had two sons and a step-daughter, studied religious law and the sciences, incorporated meditation, seclusion and fasting into his regime, became a highly respected theologian, at a very young age became the leader of his religious community, amassed scores of disciples and even managed to … [Read more...]
‘Night, Mother by Marsha Norman at Hampstead Theatre
'Night, Mother, Marsha Norman’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama had its first production outside America at the Hampstead Theatre in 1985 and now 36 years later it’s been revived by the same theatre’s Artistic Director Roxana Silbert (who also directs) as a vehicle for multi-award winning (a Tony and numerous Emmys) actress Stockard Channing who is one of the first American actors to cross the Atlantic after the covid restrictions of the past 18 months or so. 'Night, Mother is set … [Read more...]
The Dresser at Richmond Theatre | Review
To write a review of Ronald Harwood’s play The Dresser is fraught with danger as Harwood gets his counterattack in first in the play with Sir, one of the main characters declaiming “Hate the critics? I have nothing but compassion for them. How can one hate the crippled, the mentally deficient and the dead?” Set in 1942 in a provincial theatre in war-torn Britain, The Dresser tells the story of Sir (played by Matthew Kelly) an aging actor-manager and his relationship with his devoted … [Read more...]