'Can Theatre make the change in the world that we want to see?' The Lyric Ensemble, a group comprised of ambitious young actors and theatre-makers, kick-boxed this question for nine months and found inspiration in England's history of rebellion. The fruit of this innovative team of creatives, under the bold guidance of director Holly Race Roughan, is realised in … [Read more...]
While the Sun Shines at The Orange Tree Theatre
Those of us who love the works of Terence Rattigan will invariably have a favourite Rattigan play. Almost certainly, The Winslow Boy, Flare Path, The Deep Blue Sea and Separate Tables will top most lists. Little attention is paid, however, to Rattigan’s 1943 West End hit, While the Sun Shines, an effervescent bubble of a play and an affectionate wink to Shakespearean … [Read more...]
Urban Wolves Theatre Company Presents Experiment 150 | Review
We live in terrifying times, an age of never-ending wars fuelled by political propaganda, theft of personal information, Big Brother methods of surveillance and a propensity in media to support government wrong-doing in the name of patriotism and the public good. Bryan Oliver's explosive new play, Experiment 150, mirrors this nightmare scenario, one that whittles … [Read more...]
The Glass Piano by Alix Sobler at The Coronet Theatre | Review
Alix Sobler's comic, albeit, philosophical tale of a slender princess who swallows a glass piano the day her mother absconds from a soul-destroying marriage, is a metaphor for the stultifying power of moral convention and the price to pay for those who defy it. The narrative of The Glass Piano is based on a real-life phenomenon, that of Princess Alexandra Amelie of … [Read more...]
All My Sons by Arthur Miller at the Old Vic Theatre | Review
All My Sons, Arthur Miller's colossal dinosaur of a play, will be revisited for centuries to come. Like the works of Shakespeare and Ibsen before him, it depicts the evil committed by ordinary men, the carnage that ensues, and the suffering of those who collude and look the other way. First performed in New York in 1947, All My Sons carries with it the fallout of … [Read more...]
Market Boy by David Eldridge at the Union Theatre – Review
No less dazzling than an open-air Souk in the middle east, is the setting for Market Boy, David Eldridge's riotous play, first presented at the National Theatre in 2006, about a 13-year-old boy with a tasty single mum who delivers him up to a medley of hardened market traders in 1985 Romford. The play opens at the height of Margaret Thatcher's powers, capitalism is … [Read more...]
Keep Watching at the New Diorama Theatre | Review
Keep Watching begins with two surveillance experts slouched in front of a CCTV screen, monitoring activity in public spaces. We can see by their death-like expressions that this is a boring job. Then suddenly it's their lucky night. Their bodies jerk with excitement as they witness a bag snatch live onscreen and, with their direct-line contact to law enforcement, … [Read more...]
Connecting at Chapel Playhouse | Review
Connecting... is an experimental piece of theatre that begins with a back to the future scenario as we travel with its sole character through two decades of crippling loneliness, a condition that is exacerbated, rather than alleviated, through advances in web-based communication technology. The play's simple setting conveys much of the isolated world its protagonist … [Read more...]
Tobacco Road presented by Incognito Theatre Company | Review
Tobacco Road is an enthralling blood-soaked tale of five petty criminals who rise to the heights of crime lords (and ladies) following the end of World War I. Incognito Theatre Company and its amazing cast use physical choreography, raucous music and fine acting to tell the tale of the seedy and dangerous side of London's underworld in the early part of the twentieth … [Read more...]