Britain, so a London cab driver once told me, is obsessed with the Second World War, as though it happened just recently. Power Luncheon would seem, at surface level, to be very much in that vein, imagining what conversations between King George VI (Peter Saracen) and Winston Churchill (Edmund Dehn) would have been like during three moments in World War Two - the start of the Blitz in September 1940, then August 1943, then June 1944 – specifically June 6, or ‘D-Day’. There’s even a map of the … [Read more...]
Into The Night by Frazer Flintham – The Original Theatre Company
Looking at the programme for Into The Night, one would be forgiven for thinking that if it were not for this production, the 1981 Penlee lifeboat disaster would be forgotten. This seems rather presumptuous, given that the local community has done very well over the last forty years to make sure it is remembered. The local football club, Mousehole AFC, has named a new stand ‘The Solomon Browne Stand’, in honour of the lifeboat that attempted a rescue of the eight people on board a cargo ship, … [Read more...]
Gatsby the Musical at Southwark Playhouse | Review
Give it a year or two, and this production might be just the tonic - set (largely) in 1922, its characters are partying in the aftermath of the First World War, and, more pertinently for our own times, the 1918 influenza pandemic. Jay Gatsby (Ross William Wild) is hosting some very lavish events on his estate, apparently attended by thousands of people. I say ‘apparently’ as in order to achieve the appearance of a huge gala in the smaller of two performance spaces at the Southwark Playhouse, CGI … [Read more...]
Omid Djalili’s The Good Times Tour at London’s Eventim Apollo
On the evening of the Strictly Come Dancing final, Omid Djalili saw to it that the Hammersmith Apollo (as I still call it) audience enjoyed some dance moves too, and without tedious footage of him in rehearsal beforehand. That the evening went ahead at all was something of an achievement, given the number of cancellations and postponements of other gigs and shows at the venue, and indeed elsewhere at the time of writing. Djalili appears to have reached a point in his career where he’s been on … [Read more...]
Kindred Spirits by Ross McGregor at the Jack Studio Theatre
One of those plays that refuses to take itself too seriously, Kindred Spirits is a period piece in which - wait for it - a man who doesn’t care much for the festive period is subjected to significant amounts of paranormal activity, which eventually leads him to accept that Christmas isn’t such a terrible thing after all. Sounds familiar? Well, the details are very different in this briskly paced seasonal treat. The limitations of not being able to have any more than three characters on stage at … [Read more...]