What worked so well with East is East when it was first debuted 17 years ago at the Royal Court, was the way in which deeper and somewhat awkward issues within multiracial Britain was conveyed with great accuracy, and great humour. The play was successfully adapted into a film in 1999 and almost two decades later, Ayub Khan Din has revived his tea-filled, culture-shocking classic for Trafalgar Studios and it does not disappoint. The hilarious story of Pakistani gone British, George Khan (Ayub … [Read more...]
Review of April In Paris at Richmond Theatre
The interesting thing about April In Paris is the fact that John Godber wrote the romantic comedy in 1992 for a festival in Hull, but the relevance has never been timelier than now, as the play embarks on a UK tour. Where a generation of less demanding foreign workers have encouraged businesses to recruit differently and has subsequently left some level of redundancy for another generation of home-grown workers in the same field. That is the situation that Al (Joe Mcgann) finds himself in, … [Read more...]
Review of HIDDEN at The Cockpit: Spring 2014 Tour
Imagine every observation we made in daily life came with visual imagery and commentary, portraying the inner detail behind every thought we had. That’s basically what Laura Lindsay and Peter Carruthers have created and performed with Hidden - the interweaving tales of six people, whose circumstances make you laugh, make you wonder and make you cry. Every character has their own motive which they happily break the fourth wall for, but simply cannot find the guts to bring to their … [Read more...]
Review of The Evacuee at The Chelsea Theatre
The Chelsea Theatre plays host to Ian Breeds’ hour-long play, The Evacuee, which is delightfully spooky, intimate and engaging throughout. Janet, an innocent and troubled evacuee is shipped over to be taken care of by George Wilson, a lonely widower and War enthusiast. The two were bought together through Brenda, who is an old friend of George’s and the local billeting officer. Strange things happen in the house after the introduction of Janet and we dive deeper into the history of George and … [Read more...]
Review of War Horse at New London Theatre
Throughout my 2nd year at university I studied a module called ‘Adaptations for the Stage’ for which we had to discuss, identify and analyse the importance of stage adaptations. We looked at film-to-stage, radio-to-stage and probably the most popular one of them all, novel to stage. Understandably we spent a considerable amount of time focussing on Nick Stafford’s brave theatrical adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s acclaimed novel, War Horse; an engaging production with marvellous acting, … [Read more...]
An Evening of the Absurd: Are we all still Waiting for Godot?
An Evening of the Absurd: Are We All Still Waiting For Godot? was a pleasant revisit of one of the most theatrical forms. I went into the show expecting to not be able to expect anything, if that makes sense. Part of The Camden Fringe 2013, this two-part show by Closing the Gap Theatre is an intriguing take on the value of time, self-awareness and communication. Breakfast with Chamberlain, was a cyclic representation of a family’s journey set in 1939, Britain. It was a short play that … [Read more...]
Review of Mamma Mia! Novello Theatre London
Prior to the commencement of this evening’s performance of Mamma Mia!, the atmosphere at the Novello Theatre was something I had never felt before. Perhaps it was because this was my first time attending this type of musical. In anticipatory nature, the audience members around me had comfortably taken their seats with smiles that suggested they knew what was coming; they knew that they were about to escape into a world full of foot-tapping music, cheesy dance steps, and ultimate female power. … [Read more...]