Jeannette Bayardelle is a talent to behold. She’s got pipes to rival Lincoln Cathedral and more than enough stage presence to carry the dozen or so characters she portrays in her 75-minute one-woman show. Funky, enthralling and categorically impressive, her musical creation SHIDA reveals awe-inspiring singing and performance skill with a palpable dedication to her … [Read more...]
About Mary Beer
Review of The Fishermen at Trafalgar Studios
Mesmerising and muscular, Jack McNamara’s production is a must-see for fans of Chigozie Obioma’s celebrated novel, The Fishermen. Giving intense perspective to moments within the story and the internal worlds of two of the brothers, Ben and Obembe, who are key to the family saga of the novel, Gbolahan’s adaptation complements rather than attempts to recreate the … [Read more...]
You Only Live Forever at Soho Theatre | Review
If you’re not going to make it to the Edinburgh Fringe this year and you’re hankering for that special sense of satisfaction and excitement you get when you behold proper talent being properly funny at the start of promising careers, make sure you get down to the Soho Theatre tonight for the final performance of You Only Live Forever at 9pm. Part-drama, … [Read more...]
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show at Troubadour White City Theatre
Celebrating half a century since Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar was first published, Rockefeller Productions brings its eponymous puppet theatre display on tour to the UK with residency at the new and highly family-friendly Troubadour White City Theatre until 1st September, before the show tours to Nottingham and Leeds in the autumn. This production is not a … [Read more...]
Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain – Part Four! at the Apollo Theatre
With two thoroughly capable performers (both trained by some of the UK’s finest acting academies) giving it their all in this multi-role romp through the days of the Vikings to current political madness, Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain is energetic, edifying and occasionally a little close-to-the-bone. With enough flatulence-based comedy to make Chaucer proud, the … [Read more...]
Brainiac Live! at the Garrick Theatre | Review
The original Sky One TV series, Brainiac: Science Abuse, hung up its lab coat for the last time some 11 years ago so not only did my seven-year-old twins have absolutely zero familiarity with the franchise but I also entered the Garrick Theatre with a healthy dose of telly-brand-extension scepticism. Fast-forward to an hour later and their grins of delight seem to … [Read more...]
TREE: Created by Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah | Review
Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Tree at the Young Vic is creatively near-perfect, dramatically well-structured and functionally somewhat annoying - but not to be missed. If you’re fortunate enough to get tickets - and please do try! - you are likely to be amongst the 320 groundlings cast as witnesses, worshipers and kettled protesters who will stand on … [Read more...]
Review of In Limbo at the Tristan Bates Theatre
SevenArc Productions’ In Limbo, appearing at the Tristan Bates Theatre until 3rd August as part of the Camden Fringe Festival doesn’t credit a single playwright, noting that the play is ‘devised by the Company’. Director Georgie Straight is, however, credited by singular name and credit indeed should go to her for the excellent staging of this harrowing and pacey … [Read more...]
Review of Peter Pan at Troubadour White City Theatre
The first half of Sally Cookson’s Peter Pan, co-produced with the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic, is stunning and wondrous. Showing strong technical skills and revealing imaginative and beautiful staging that nodded as much to (accessible) opera and ballet as it did to a pantomime classic, I beheld the children in the audience rapt and bewitched. I even felt … [Read more...]