The title character in Kerry Jackson (Fay Ripley) is a paradox, at least on paper, a Leave voter who runs a Spanish restaurant and, as her chef Athena (Madeline Appiah) points out, she probably didn’t envisage paying tariffs on imported ingredients. Mercifully, talk of That Referendum doesn’t dominate proceedings, and the six on-stage characters are very different but are also all flawed people with redeeming features. That does, of course, sound like almost every human, but in portraying … [Read more...]
Sleeping Beauty at Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch
It wasn’t that long ago when anyone who gave warnings about Sleeping Beauty would be dismissed as more than a little ridiculous. The concern is that the story is, in part, about a man kissing a woman who isn’t able to give explicit consent. After all, if the prince doesn’t kiss the princess, she dies, so the better option is to proceed, and the princess isn’t exactly upset or angry about the kiss after it happens. I can’t help but agree with those who assert that implied consent is there, … [Read more...]
To Have And To Hold at The Bread And Roses Theatre
In the pandemic (remember that?) I worked in adult social care. My role was to help older people in their own homes with daily tasks - I’d cook meals, do a spot of ironing, perhaps assist them in and out of the shower, and engage in conversation. A good number of them had been diagnosed with dementia, which is why they needed external support. One of the initiatives the social care provider tried to encourage was a ‘life journal’ - more often than not this wasn’t something I even mentioned … [Read more...]
Press By Sam Hoare at Park Theatre
Some journalists get, as it were, a bad press, though some of them don’t help themselves with some of the things they write and do. This play doesn’t, overall, say anything that won’t already be known to people who have an interest in newspapers and how they operate, particularly when it comes to the lengths journalists are prepared to go to in order to get a story they deem to be newsworthy. Matt Bradley (Sam Hoare) tells his story involving both his personal and professional lives - he … [Read more...]
Tunnels By Oliver Yellop at Park Theatre
Paul (Lewis Bruniges) and Freddie Metz (Oliver Yellop), who identify as cousins, are so desperate to get out of the German Democratic Republic, commonly referred to - but not by the cousins - as East Germany, that they spent months digging a tunnel to freedom. A brain drain from East to West Germany was reduced after the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961, with all sorts of ramifications for those who attempted to leave but got caught trying to do so. Needless to say, various tunnelling … [Read more...]
The Wizard Of Oz – Curve Theatre
There are usually, broadly speaking, two large demographics of patrons at a family show like The Wizard of Oz – children and their responsible accompanying adults. The best family shows have both camps coming away feeling as though they’ve enjoyed proceedings. There’s a third group that I couldn’t help noticing at the performance I attended at Curve - adults without children, and I don’t just mean reviewers who didn’t want to bring anyone with them to Leicester on a six-hour round trip on … [Read more...]
Top Hat – The Mill at Sonning Theatre
This production makes excellent use of the available stage space - and, rather like the big musicals at Chichester Festival Theatre, has its cast making en masse entrances and exits through the auditorium. The amphitheatre-esque seating configuration makes this a good experience from most vantage points, and the costumes are exquisite and absolutely in keeping with the interwar period. Just don’t go for a gripping plotline because you won’t find one here - this is one of those fluffy … [Read more...]