Well, I can’t fault this production for attention to detail. From my vantage point, I couldn’t help noticing that the green paint on a wall even covered an electrical socket, whose plugholes and switches had been taped over prior to the paint being applied. This production of Uncle Vanya: Scenes From Country Life in Four Acts, to give it its full title, rattles the … [Read more...]
Review of Twelfth Night at The Rose Playhouse | Review
One of these days I just might see a radical reinterpretation of Twelfth Night that somehow dares to dispense with the infamous yellow stockings. Should that day come I won’t be happy; I am pleased to confirm that day has not yet arrived. With my solitary ‘red line’ uncrossed, this production, set in the interwar period of fun and frolics, is not far removed from the … [Read more...]
Blue Touch Paper presents Other People’s Money – Review
It’s an intriguing choice of play to revive thirty years after its first production, Off-Broadway. Other People’s Money is distinctly 1980s – there were telephones but there were fixed lines, and the firm run by Andrew Jorgenson (Michael Brandon), the New England Wire & Cable Company, based in Rhode Island, finds itself under threat by a corporate raider, Lawrence … [Read more...]
West Side Story at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
There are probably people who love West Side Story but have turned their noses up at this reimagined production (without having seen it), performed ‘in the round’ as it is at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. It’s their loss. If it were to transfer somewhere that you could get to with an Oyster Card, it would have to be a venue that could host the production … [Read more...]
Review of Brawn at the King’s Head Theatre
A chair, a set of dumbbells and a large water bottle are the only props for Brawn, a single-performer play, not so much about being ‘beach body ready’ but attaining the perfect body all the time. Ryan (Christopher Wollaton) is able to acknowledge that he hasn’t treated sort-of girlfriend Becky in the manner with which she deserves, particularly given her kindness and … [Read more...]
All You Need Is Love With the National Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
Hearing orchestral versions of songs made popular by The Beatles isn’t a brand-new phenomenon. Later in 2019, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra will also tour, providing orchestral renderings of the Fab Four’s back catalogue, and the London-based Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has previously released an album called Symphonic Sgt. Pepper, which does what it … [Read more...]
Funeral Flowers at The Bunker | Review
Everyone, I suppose, has a story to tell, even if not everyone necessarily has the confidence of Angelique (Emma Dennis-Edwards) to tell it. Hers is set against a disadvantaged background – her mother served a long custodial sentence (I couldn’t determine what for) and her father was simply never around. This left Angelique in the hands of the social care network – … [Read more...]
The Frogs: Recroaked at Stockwell Playhouse
The opening scene in The Frogs: Recroaked is sufficient to work out, very broadly speaking, what sort of an evening at the theatre a production of this nature is. The audience is told, plainly and simply, that this is all “meaningless” or otherwise “harmless” fun. If there any contemporary links to be made with this adaptation of an ancient Greek comedy, the … [Read more...]
London Musical Theatre Orchestra’s debut album GIRLFRIENDS
I went along to this concert version of Girlfriends towards the end of 2018 and I must confess I wasn’t exactly blown away – the actors were in fine form, but it felt to me as though this fairly subtle musical would have been better played by a chamber orchestra rather than a full one, and I was most grateful for the spoken narration, by Group Captain Victoria Gosling … [Read more...]
The Fatal Eggs at Baron’s Court Theatre | Review
So it Goes Theatre has not only adapted the narrative of The Fatal Eggs but the introductory notes that go with many English translations of the Russian text by Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940). Not only is it not necessary to be familiar with the book, but it is not necessarily to be familiar with its author either – both are more than sufficiently introduced, their … [Read more...]
Let Kilburn Shake – part of Mapping Brent Festival
Let Kilburn Shake is a rather ambitious project, starting in 1767 and finishing in 2028. It could have started even further back – Kilburn High Road, according to a paving stone there, was once part of Watling Street, established by the Celts and paved over by the Romans. Another one, towards the southern end of the High Road, reads ‘1770s Kilburn Wells Spa’. The … [Read more...]
Fake News at Tara Arts Theatre | Review
Such is the strength of feeling against President Donald Trump (someone in my row immediately had her face in her hands as soon as a segment of a press conference started playing) that it is slightly surprising nobody decided to walk out as Fake News began with an extended clip of his previous remarks. But then again, the President is the most prominent person to … [Read more...]