How can a play be both charming and devastating? Through its tight script, abundant humour and pitch-perfect performances, 4th Country manages to straddle these opposing forces to deliver a sublime production of an important new play. Suspenseful and humane, we are told the story of a family that is also the story of government dysfunction, injustice and tribalism. Playwright Kate Reid has managed to locate the most personal of the political without compromising either in her script which … [Read more...]
About Mary Beer
Narcissus at Chiswick Playhouse | Review
William J Dunleavy, author and star of this monologue play, is a writer and face to watch. He enters the room (as the staging is more geared towards feeling you’re in a room with Dunleavy than a theatre) with an initially unobtrusive sort of lowkey prowling that subtly starts to command the space until he’s conquered it. His gaze is not on the middle-distance; rather, he looks at each of us with eye contact held intensely -penetrating, flirtatious and bold before he speaks. Matt McGowan’s … [Read more...]
A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story at Alexandra Palace
Mark Gatiss’ adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, directed by Adam Penfold, is indeed a ghost story as the title suggests. Mounted in the eerie majesty of the Alexandra Palace auditorium, the absence of a proscenium and the presence of projections, puppets and all sorts of flying spectres makes for an immersive and textured experience without the audience participation associated with ‘immersive’ theatre. This production is a faithful and traditional telling - without the curlicues … [Read more...]
Peggy For You by Alan Plater at Hampstead Theatre
Tamsin Greig is eminently engrossing, likeable and a first-rate comedienne. It is for this reason that Richard Wilson’s revival of the 1999 Hampstead Theatre original play Peggy For You is both an extremely pleasant diversion and a missed dramatic opportunity. It’s the late 1960s and we meet the legendary playwrights’ agent Margaret “Peggy” Ramsay (Tamsin Greig) in her script-strewn and production poster-festooned office (conveyed with painstaking care by designer James Cotterill) in her … [Read more...]
GANGSTA GRANNY at The Bloomsbury Theatre | Review
On tour just in time for Christmas, Neal Foster’s adaptation of David Walliams’ fourth novel is a high production value two-act play with some festive flourishes to provide a celebratory family outing - without dripping in Christmas features. This feel-good show is aimed squarely at Walliams’ fans. If his derivatively Dahlified takes on an outsider boy hero finding the true meaning of friendship/family/love with some hijinks and the occasional utterance of ‘bum’ along the way entrances your kids … [Read more...]