Fearing that rain might stop play, as it were, I was delighted that the sun came out just in time for last night's entertainment from the marvellous team Shakespeare in the Squares. For they have come up with the genius idea of bringing together two of England’s finest creations: the plays Shakespeare performed live in our unmatched garden squares. These squares are … [Read more...]
About John OBrien
Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
A sure-fire way to judge a play is to ask two questions: Is this enjoyable? How quickly does time pass? On both counts, these productions pass with flying colours. Hugely entertaining and utterly engrossing - the six hours was over all too soon. Teddington Theatre Club have put together an outstanding version of Hilary Mantel’s novels Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the … [Read more...]
Hansel and Gretel at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre | Review
This visually stunning production of Hansel & Gretel (written by brother and sister Engelbert Humperdinck and Adelheid Wette nee Humperdinck in 1893) works on every level, but especially the perfect fit between the setting, the stage design and the stuff of the play itself. For what more appropriate setting could one imagine for a forest folk fantasia than the … [Read more...]
Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams at Menier Chocolate Factory
Venue and play are perfectly matched in Orpheus Descending at the Menier Chocolate Factory Theatre. The play is set in a store with confectionery so the ex-Menier Chocolate Factory evokes wonderfully the atmosphere of such an establishment. We feel like Orpheus descending as we make our way down to the auditorium. Its pitch black. Brilliantly the designer Jonathan … [Read more...]
Unsung by Unsung Collective at King’s Head Theatre
Unsung asks the question why are women so underrepresented, undervalued and under-acknowledged? It homes in on the four remarkable women - Countess Ada Lovelace, inventor of the first computer, Sophia Jex-Blake, the first female Doctor, Lillian Bader, the first black woman to serve in the RAF and Andrea Dunbar, working-class female playwright. Although their lives … [Read more...]
BED PEACE: The Battle of Yohn and Joko at Cockpit Theatre
This play tells the story of the greatest secular protest song of the 20th Century: Give Peace A Chance. The clever pun in the title Bed Peace (it’s for peace and it was written in bed) refers to the extraordinary context of the songs genesis. Its 1969 and John Lennon and Yoko Ono have taken to their bed in protest against the Vietnam War. With their mantra of Make … [Read more...]
John and Beatrice at the Canal Café Theatre | Review
Having read the promotional material for Carole Frechette’s new play John and Beatrice I was really intrigued as it spoke to many of my favourite dramatic obsessions. A short one hour, two-hander about a man and a woman locked in a room with each other for fifty years. I looked forward to a Beckettesque existential, tragic comedy about the human condition and … [Read more...]
Go, Lovely Rose by Mary Manning at The London Irish Centre
Mary Manning’s monologue about JFK’s mother Rose Fitzgerald is charming, chilling and challenging. Go, Lovely Rose tells the fascinating story of the 17-year-old Rose Fitzgerald. Siobhan Gallagher plays the young Rose to perfection. The play begins with Rose sitting at her desk reading a letter and smiling into the distance. She is over the moon because not only has … [Read more...]
Stones Theatre Company’s production of SAGA | Review
Saga, based on August Strindberg’s A Dream Play (1901) is an engaging, entertaining and enterprising 60-minute piece. The quartet of Frida Storm, Julia Florimo, Olivia Skoog and Marie Rabe are fantastically talented. Michael Currell’s script is sharp and direct and Olivia Stone's direction is fast-paced and economical. Daughter of the Gods, Saga (Frida Storm) falls … [Read more...]