If there’s a lot of miming going on in this play, whether it’s related to making coffee or opening and then remembering to shut a front gate, those are the prescribed directions by Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) for Our Town. Mind you, this is not a production that sticks absolutely rigidly to every direction – for instance, two intervals are prescribed, which makes sense for a three-act play in which each act is very distinct from the others, but here, the show makes do with one, leaving an … [Read more...]
Bridewell Theatre London EC4Y 8EQ - Reviews
Bridewell Theatre is a thriving off-west end venue built over the City of London’s first swimming pool. This versatile space plays host to a range of production companies throughout the year and can also be transformed into a truly atmospheric ballroom, a magical cabaret venue or conference space. Early booking essential.
The Victorian glass lantern roof, viewing gallery and changing rooms remain in situ giving this historic venue a dramatic and surreal atmosphere. The tiled swimming pool itself is also still in place underneath the seating, accessible via a floor hatch.
BRIDEWELL THEATRE
St Bride Foundation
14 Bride Lane,
EC4Y 8EQ
http://www.sbf.org.uk/venue-hire/bridewell-theatre/
Sedos presents Candide at Bridewell Theatre – Review
There was a certain amount of trepidation on my part going into this production of Candide – even reading the synopsis of the 1999 National Theatre production, the one used by Sedos for their run at the Bridewell Theatre, took far longer than a synopsis ordinarily would to get through, filled with almost impenetrable detail about ‘metaphysico-theologico- cosmologico-panalogy’ (whatever that is), extremes of happiness and melancholy, and the Spanish Inquisition. I needn’t have been so concerned. … [Read more...]
Review of Jim Cartwright’s Road at The Bridewell Theatre
Jim Cartwright’s plays are usually gritty, observant and, at times, humorous and Road is no exception. The play takes us back to Thatcher’s Britain and is set in a northern town during the 1980s. Whilst set in the past it does not feel overly dated (the only thing missing from today is the endless time spent on/wandering around attached to mobile devices!). Cartwright’s writing manages to convey the desperation and abandonment felt by many in towns blighted by high unemployment. Whilst the … [Read more...]
Never the Same by Lily Lowe-Myers at Bridewell Theatre – Review
Hatstand Production’s newest endeavour, Never the Same, is currently playing as part of the Bridewell Theatre’s Lunchbox season. This 50-minute show aims to give the busy workers of London the chance to step outside of their regular working lunch hour, where so many of us often remain chained to the desk, and lose ourselves in this story of childhood friendship. Writer Lowe-Myers plays Sarah, who unexpectedly arrives at her former best friend Liz’s (Robyn Cooper) home, 3 years after she is … [Read more...]
Review of London Road at the Bridewell Theatre
In December 2006 there were a series of murders of prostitutes in Ipswich. Five girls were brutally slain in the city and it became headline news for a while before disappearing from the media when Stephen Wright was arrested, charged and convicted. Not the most obvious subject for a musical but in 2011 “London Road” written by Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork caused a sensation at the National. What made the show unique was that it was a “verbatim” musical i.e. Ms Blythe had gone to Ipswich and … [Read more...]
In or Out at The Bridewell Theatre – Review
Are you in or out? Theatre of Discontent’s first production, In or Out, is either a love story with an EU referendum play trying to get in… or it’s an EU referendum play with a love story trying to get out. Either way it is two very distinct narratives inter-locked with join-lines so clunky and unsubtle that it is akin to a badly photoshopped picture of a sturgeon with Nigel Farage’s head - with all the clumsy imagery that such an image would suggest. We are asked to believe that two MPs - … [Read more...]
Review of Pornography at The Bridewell Theatre
Given that any production company putting on Pornography has permission to perform the scenes in any order they wish, Sedos goes for it, going so far as to have started even as the audience is still taking their seats, and absolutely not performing the scenes in the same order as the original script. The opening sequence is so repetitive it quickly outlasts its welcome, although everything that follows is intriguing and worth paying attention to. There isn’t any actual porn depicted, despite … [Read more...]