Charlotte Gwinner’s ambitious undertaking of one of Euripides’ most confounding plays, ORESTES, delivers visually-stunning imagery but struggles to find a fresh dramatic direction for this ancient play. Billed as a ‘radical re-telling’, Gwinner’s ORESTES offers a radical re-staging but, based on Kenneth McLeish’s 1997 translation, does little to modify the traditional mythos or bring new resonance to its themes in a modern theatrical setting. We meet Elektra, played with commitment and … [Read more...]
Class by Alyce Louise-Potter at Tristan Bates Theatre | Review
Alyce Louise-Potter’s verbatim two-hander does the remarkable: it takes subject matter that is literally the essence of Marxism and manages not to preach, but instead rather warmly conspires with the audience. Class employs ‘recorded delivery’, whereby the documentary subjects’ interviews are played in the performers’ ears via headphones as they simultaneously convey their stories. Far from feeling like a gimmick or a distancing mechanism, the effect is refreshing; we are drawn into the joyous … [Read more...]
The Bay at Nice at the Menier Chocolate Factory
Set in mid-20th century Soviet Russia, David Hare’s The Bay at Nice is a strong and important one-act play about whether freedom and happiness can co-exist and at what human cost. Menier Chocolate Factory Artistic Director, David Babani, makes an apt and well-timed choice in bringing us the first revival since the work premiered at the National Theatre some 33 years ago - adding a new take for fans of the original production and a rich and different experience for newcomers. The characters’ … [Read more...]
Never Trust a Man Bun at Stockwell Playhouse
Lucy, the protagonist of Katherine Thomas’ one-act comedy of modern manners (also played by Katherine Thomas), extols the delights of Gogglebox viewed in familiar comfort with an old friend. Unfortunately, the story-telling and comic delivery of Never Trust a Man Bun pale compared to Channel 4’s now famous low-budget clip-show. As a performer-playwright making her professional theatre debut this week at The Stockwell Playhouse, Thomas’ ambition in her undertaking is admirable, but she has much … [Read more...]
Anna X presented by Joseph Charlton at the Vault Festival | Review
Playing perfectly off the musty, arched wasteland-playground space of The VAULT Festival’s The Pit, ANNA X immediately transports its audience into the world of ambition and delusion that Anna (Rosie Sheehy) and Ariel (Joshua James) occupy in contemporary New York City’s art/investment/tech scene. As perceptive of our era as Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities was of the eighties, Joseph Charlton’s tale is taut, lyrical and quickly hits our souls as pure human truth. Deftly rendered by … [Read more...]
Pain(t) by Richard Foreman at New Wimbledon Theatre (Studio)
Richard Foreman’s 1974 avant-garde theatre work Pain(t), debuting in its European premiere at the New Wimbledon Theatre Studio as part of Patrick Kennedy’s ‘Foreman at Fifty’ series, tickles the senses but tries the patience of all but the most committed student of performance art or theatre history. Forman is much lauded as a theatre pioneer and a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s coveted ‘Genius Grant’ (another notable recipient being Hamilton’s creator Lin-Manuel Miranda). Director … [Read more...]
Synergy Theatre Project with Theatre503 presents There is a Field
Martin Askew’s first full-length play’s debut at Theatre 503 is a strong and affecting start thanks to energetic and charismatic performances by its two male leads, Sam Frenchum, as Mark/Abdullah, and Archie Backhouse, as Saleh, but reveals Askew as a not yet fully-formed dramatist. With a rich premise and tuneful dialogue for his male characters, Askew, unfortunately, fails to create equally convincing and nuanced female characters and tends to overwrite world-building at the expense of the … [Read more...]