Charles Court Opera specialises in small-scale productions of Gilbert and Sullivan plus other operas and operettas, touring them all over the UK. This week the company has landed at a former paint factory in East London as part of the Arcola Theatre’s 'Grimeborne' season. It is a real tonic – very funny, superbly sung and acted and imaginatively directed by John Savournin. The sort of production that is liable to convert those who say that they do not enjoy Gilbert and Sullivan - assuming, that … [Read more...]

Hot on the heels of Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s wonderful new play (his 89th!) Constant Companions about our future relationship to/with 'Artificial Intelligence', now showing at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, comes the premiere of this 75-minute-long play looking at the same subject from a different perspective, as you might expect, by San Francisco playwright Lauren Gunderson. “Who doesn’t love a thriller?” asks the author in a programme note. “That genre has a built-in, … [Read more...]

When American audiences first saw the Abbey Theatre Dublin’s production of school teacher T C Murray’s Birthright in 1911 they were scandalised by the incendiary nature of the play’s material: NOT the romanticised Ireland they believed in: “no cottage with roses around the door, no Wicked Landlord a la Boucicault, no loving old mother.... {but a } stark, ugly tragedy played between father, mother and two sons”. (DeGiacomo: T C Murray - Dramatic Voice of Rural Ireland) More than one … [Read more...]

Desmond’s Scared of the Smoking Sea is a short play by ‘award-winning poet and educator’ Tommy Sissons. This play takes place in a Pupil Referral Unit in Lewisham, the London Borough where the Jack Studio Theatre is situated. We meet Desmond and Wiggy, two 15/16-year-olds who have presumably been expelled from their mainstream schools and are, as usual, truanting lessons in order to distract themselves from the looming threat of their limited prospects post-education. They are both naïve, … [Read more...]

Now, here is something really new and just that bit different: a Japanese musical, first seen in Tokyo in 2015 which has quickly gained 'cult' status, even though it is actually composed by American Frank Wildhorn with book and lyrics by Ivan Menchell and Jack Murphy respectively. The present 'concert' staging is its first in English. The story is adapted from the 'manga' of the same name by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata first published in 2003 and so far selling 30 million copies … [Read more...]