I fell just a little bit in love with this production as I walked in, Daisy Blower’s set design is wonderful! The tiny performance area, just big enough for the cast of two is crammed with vintage items and topped off with parachutes. Oh, I would love to have helped put this together. Billy Bishop Goes To War was first performed in Canada in 1978 and is now one of … [Read more...]
Measure for Measure – Guildford Shakespeare Company | Review
As the action begins I am comfortably sat at a table with a cheese board and a gin and tonic. How have the Company made the church seem so big this time? Didn’t there used to be pews either side of a narrow aisle? How have they done it? The space is transformed and the audience is spread over the whole central area. There is no obvious focal point; there are at least … [Read more...]
The Railway Children at Leatherhead Theatre | Review
The Railway Children is the second production in Leatherhead Rep Theatre’s three-week season. Dave Simpson has created this as a brand new musical version of the classic story with composer Katherine Mount. This morning performance is mainly for local schools. There were a few independent visitors though including a lady who had travelled many miles to bring her … [Read more...]
Alice in Wonderland | Guildford Shakespeare Company | Review
This revival of Guildford Shakespeare Company’s Alice in Wonderland is timed to commemorate 150 years since Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) came to Guildford for the first time to find a home for his family. It was a great honour to be welcomed to the service at the beautiful St Mary’s Church by The Reverend Charles Dodgson himself (Eliot Giuralarocca). Reverend … [Read more...]
Review: Teechers by John Godber – Guildford Fringe Theatre Company
Teechers was written by John Godber in 1984, and like most of his plays, it is for a small cast and a minimal set. The actors playing the three main parts of students Gail, Hobby and Salty are performing a play within a play to their favourite teacher who, like them is leaving at the end of term. This play is ideal for the Star Inn’s intimate theatre space with … [Read more...]
Spiders at Tristan Bates Theatre | Review
The stage of the Tristan Bates theatre is transformed into a squat so realistically grubby that I have to resist the urge to scratch! Even my children's university accommodation has never looked as bad as this. Graffiti covers the walls; rubbish is strewn across the floor and the mattress that is serving as a sofa has some very unpleasant stains on it. Harry (Sam … [Read more...]
Gag House Comedy Superstars G-Live, Guildford
Nick Wyschna welcomed us to the opening night of this year’s Guildford Fringe Festival and gave us an insight into all the wonderful events taking place during the festival. Guildford Fringe includes comedy, opera, poetry, theatre, cinema, art, spoken word and everything else in between. There really is something for everyone! The festival kicked off with the Gag … [Read more...]
Review of Much Ado About Nothing at the Rose Theatre Kingston
Director Simon Dormandy has set this production in a luxury spa hotel in contemporary Sicily. I have been to several less successful productions where the action has taken place in randomly selected conflicts around the world; this production cleverly puts it back in Sicily where Shakespeare himself set his play. The conflict that Don Pedro is returning from is a … [Read more...]
Review of Suffragette City at WSPU Café – London Pavilion
It is 100 years since the partial granting of the vote to women, and Suffragette City is here to remind us what life was like for women in those days. The London Pavilion that serves as The Women’s Social and Political Union’s (WSPU) headquarters for this project is historically important as it was a meeting place for the suffragettes and was the scene of several of … [Read more...]
Review of Muso at The Grant Museum
Have you ever been to the Grant Museum? No, neither had I before this evening. You really must go; it is one of London’s hidden gems, a treasure trove of fossils, bones and preserved specimens. This is certainly wasn’t going to be a normal theatre experience! Philip Pellow got the evening started by telling us about “Impropera”, this evening an opera will be … [Read more...]
Review of Romeo and Juliet – Guildford Shakespeare Company
Guildford Shakespeare Company are a site-responsive theatre company and often their venues are among the stars of the production. Holy Trinity Church is the largest Georgian Church in Surrey and its rich and beautiful style is the inspiration for the look and style of this production. Neil Irish’s designs are stunning, I was particularly struck by the clever use of … [Read more...]
Review of London Classic Theatre’s production of Private Lives
Coming in from the cold dark evening Frankie Bradshaw’s stage design immediately warms you up and makes you think of hot summer holidays. The stage is set as a pair of hotel balconies, simple but glamorous, identical tables on each, divided only by a row of plant pots. Sun-bleached doors half open to partly reveal the hotel rooms beyond. Noel Coward wrote Private … [Read more...]