If I were a teacher looking for a seasonal theatrical show to take a bunch of kids to, this season I would choose Philip Pullman’s re-telling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales which opened last night in London. Adapted and directed by Philip Wilson from Pullman’s Grimm Tales, this fantastical show is set in the Bargehouse, a four-storey warehouse which has retained its internal industrial landscape as part of Oxo Tower Wharf on the South Bank. Generally it is used for exhibitions, shows and … [Read more...]
5 Stars for Blackout New Room Theatre production at The Hope Theatre
Blackout is often a play's final stage direction. However, at the Hope Theatre in Islington it is both the title and the starting point of a journey through the ravages of alcoholism. You often hear stories of pub theatres where an errant drunk has taken a wrong turning out out of the toilet, lurched through a couple of doors and stumbled out into the show. This didn't happen on the night we were there, but if it had, the bloke - it's usually a bloke - would have found himself upstaged and … [Read more...]
Review of FIERCE at Camden People’s Theatre
The warm, intimate setting of Camden People’s Theatre was perfect for this radical one-woman play, written and acted by Kathryn Griffiths. It was completely sold out, as is Sunday, but there are still a few tickets left for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday (15th to 18th October '14). Although CamdenPT is not large by West End standards, it was nevertheless notable that the people packing it out were precisely those that the big theatres are trying to attract - under-30s, young … [Read more...]
Review of Haste Theatre’s UK Premiere of BEYOND CRAGPORTH ROCK
This play opens with its ending, yet that is not how it ends. The audience enters onto a set where six mad, beautiful women, one called Oscar, are arranged in a variety of death poses. The six sisters, the youngest ten at the time, had fled a world that had disintegrated into economic and technological chaos. They moved into a cottage on the edge of a cliff and we meet them as their food supply finally runs out. There is cannibalism, fratricide, and above all humour. This post-modern … [Read more...]
Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
In addiction recovery meetings, a phrase often heard is: “The definition of insanity is repeating the same mistake and expecting a different result.” It is rare to see this truism given such magnificent, dark treatment as in Porgy and Bess. This operatic piece of musical theatre is as well-suited as anything I’ve seen to the outdoor space of the Open Air Theatre at Regent’s Park, as under Timothy Sheader’s direction the tempestuous action glowers beneath clouds rolling over the setting … [Read more...]
Review of The Nether at The Royal Court Theatre
The Nether, Headlong’s brilliantly disturbing new play at the Royal Court, transgresses boundaries to challenge our deepest fears. Through the literally timeless beauty of a 9-year-old girl, played with compelling yet knowing innocence by Isabella Pappas, who shares the role of Iris with Zoe Brough, it forces us to confront possible and unacceptable futures. Director Jeremy Herring’s whole is dressed in a reality that is a virtual and yet at the same time a chilling verisimilitude of some of the … [Read more...]