Ostensibly, this is a play about a journalist fighting for freedom of expression with a sub-plot about the journalist’s tortured and disintegrating relationship. Or: it’s a play about a journalist’s tortured and disintegrating relationship with a sub-plot about a journalist fighting for freedom of expression. I can’t decide between the two. Each of the two plot-lines takes up the same amount of script but the attempt to fit them together displays all the clunkiness off iron shoes on a … [Read more...]
Review – Raphael Wakefield: Wengerball at The Vaults Festival
Cards on the table: I have to declare a non-interest. I’m a Spurs supporter. This is a solo show about Arsenal. The Wenger Years to be precise. So if you support Arsenal you’ll adore this show. Though if you love football, and don’t follow Arsenal, then I believe you’ll still appreciate this show. Even if you love football but support Spurs and are not too keen on their North London rivals then I’m pretty convinced you will find plenty to like and admire in this show. And if you’ve just … [Read more...]
The Incident Room at New Diorama Theatre | Review
Filing cabinets. Lots and lots of filing cabinets. Wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling filing cabinets, in fact. By my reckoning 230ish of the grey, metallic, functional-but-boring instruments of administrative torture that form the backdrop to this play about the Yorkshire Ripper. It’s an inspired design by Patrick Connellan because it informs us, from the start, that the piece is about the minutiae of detection, the importance of data collection and the tragedy that unfurls when you can’t see the … [Read more...]
Frances Barber: Billie Trix in MUSIK by Pet Shop Boys & Jonathan Harvey
There are good plays; there are inspirational dramas; and there are out-of-body experiences; Musik, the one-person show performed with explosive panache by Frances Barber, falls, very definitely, into the third of these categories. If you were looking for a definition of how a mind gets blown then it’s right here, right now in this extraordinary show at The Leicester Square Theatre. Careful though: Barber, as Billie Trix, the rampant, night-club-trippy dominatrix, it's going to grab you by … [Read more...]
For the Sake of Argument at the Bridewell Theatre | Review
I have a reasonably wide knowledge of the hostelries that abound in London, including, more specifically, around Euston. I’ve experienced bare-board floors, squishy ‘Spoons carpets, retro-lino and even an attempt to return to the spit ’n’ sawdust of the ‘fifties. (There’s actually a pub called the “Spit and Sawdust” in Bermondsey). But I’ve never come across a pub the floor of which is covered in sand. And I’m not talking surface sprinkling here: no, in this show the floor of the Cock Tavern in … [Read more...]