The theatre at the Bridge House Pub in Penge is a well equipped, intimate space seating less than forty. It is an ideal venue for plays with a small cast, and, as this production proves, perhaps surprisingly, for Shakespeare. Guy Retallack, the director, cunningly decided that Twelfth Night could be staged with a cast of five ‘in-the-round’ to make the audience feel … [Read more...]
Napoli, Brooklyn by Meghan Kennedy at Park Theatre
This powerful play, set in Brooklyn in 1960, attempts to tell the story of a family of Italian immigrants trying to assimilate and adapt to the change of culture and environment. The promise of the ‘American Dream’ has proved elusive, especially to the father of the family, Nic, passionately portrayed by Robert Cavanah. He has ended up with a dead-end job as a lowly … [Read more...]
Beneath The Blue Rinse By Tom Glover at Park Theatre | Review
Tom Glover’s new play is not only VERY funny, it is also heart-warming and at times very dark! Beneath the Blue Rinse attempts to explode stereotypes associated with old age and questions how society views and treats the elderly. Unscrupulous salesman Simon Sudgebury, comically played by Kevin Tomlinson, has bullied 44 OAPs into purchasing his burglar alarms and … [Read more...]
Man of La Mancha at London Coliseum | Review
Man of La Mancha, the 1965 musical version of the sixteenth century Spanish novelist Cervantes’ story of Don Quixote, who imagines he is a mediaeval knight errant, has not been seen in London’s West End since 1969, so this new English National Opera production has been one of the hottest tickets in London this Spring. Musically, it is superb, in no small part owing … [Read more...]
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin at The Rose Theatre Kingston | Review
Rosa Munro, the author of the ‘James Plays’ a few years ago, has now attempted the seemingly impossible by adapting Louis de Berniere’s sprawling, epic novel for the stage. The result is awe-inspiring at times, using music and great physicality from the actors in order to convey the sweep of the action. As she says ‘it is such a huge and complex novel and inevitably … [Read more...]
Review of Blood Knot at the Orange Tree Theatre
Blood Knot is a two-handed, early (1960) play by South Africa’s most important playwright, Athol Fugard who also directed the first production in Johannesburg, when black and white actors were still allowed to perform together onstage. The action, such as it is, takes place in a shack in Korsten, Port Elizabeth and concerns brothers Morrie and Zach. Morrie is … [Read more...]
The Picture of Dorian Gray at the Churchill Theatre
For those who only know Oscar Wilde through his light comedies such as The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere’s Fan, this adaptation of his only novel will come as something of a shock as it is a much darker affair. In fact, it is Wilde’s take on the Faust legend. Its publication caused a scandal as the author seemed to be questioning the basis of … [Read more...]
Cheating Death at The Cockpit Theatre | Review
Cheating Death is the first play by Max Nowaz, who has previously written and self-published a couple of novels and a book for children. It started life as a one-act play performed in Bedford in 2013. Rather than write a second play, Max decided to expand his first into a full-length piece of dramatic writing, as well as setting up his own company 'First Time … [Read more...]
Agnes Colander: An Attempt at Life at Jermyn Street Theatre
Granville Barker wrote this witty and compelling exploration of love, sexual attraction and independence in 1900. Perhaps realising that if the Lord Chamberlain would not allow Ibsen's A Doll's House to be performed, Agnes Colander stood no chance, he put it aside, to be discovered 100 years later amongst Barker's papers, revised by Richard Nelson, given a staged … [Read more...]