Jack Studio Theatre London Brockley SE4 2DH | Reviews

There are some plays whose writers allow enough scope for a show’s director to exercise some liberty in deciding how the various components of the show should all fit together. The stage directions in the script for Sir Alan Ayckbourn’s Time of My Life, however, are so detailed that it would be difficult to imagine it being performed any other way than as it is exactly prescribed. For instance, what looks at face value like the general hubbub of a family occasion at a local … [Read more...]

It does, I suppose, fit the bill of being ‘a version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet’. Hamlet Our Brother is a stripped-down version of the lengthiest of the Bard’s plays, with the inevitable positives and drawbacks that brings. We are spared, for instance, the ramblings of Polonius (even if there is much in them, particularly if studied at an academic level, to be drawn out); on the other hand, much of the majesty of the Danish royal court is also dispensed with. All characters that … [Read more...]

How on earth could this Russian literary classic that is as complex as it is deep, that spans a huge physical distance and transverses centuries old classes, customs and culture; be translated onto a tiny stage in Crofton Park? The answer is, cleverly and originally with a hugely talented and versatile cast and a director (Ross McGregor) with vision. He has a fearless ability to take his cast across boundaries and he encourages them to take risks and to embrace the … [Read more...]

German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht is not the easiest when it comes to reviewing his work. He was very much a one-off who had certain ideas about how he wanted audiences to react to his plays. So, it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I went along to the Brockley Jack Studio to see The Lazarus Theatre Company’s interpretation of one of Brecht’s most celebrated works; The Caucasian Chalk Circle. The story itself is set in the Soviet Union around the end of the Second World … [Read more...]

Set in the midst of World War 1, This was the World and I was King uses music, movement and puppetry to exhibit the fantasy of storytelling. Whilst battling on the front, Andrew sends his wife and three children to live with their uncle on his farm in the countryside. Whilst away, he stays connected through the stories he writes for his children, to keep their imaginations intact and protect them from the truths of the Western Front. Narrating from the perspective of a … [Read more...]

Next time you see a newspaper, have a read through the major story and try to imagine the central character involved. What do they look like? How are they dressed? What’s their demeanor? Once you’ve done that, then Google the person and see how their reality fits in with your imagination. There is a reason for mentioning all of this as, once you have done this exercise you will immediately be able to to identify with one of the main protagonists in Naked at the Brockley Jack Theatre. It is … [Read more...]

In a world of technological wizardry and the ability to insert projections into theatrical productions that leave little to the imagination, there’s something more than a little ‘retro’ about good old-fashioned storytelling and the odd sound effect, or two, or ten. Coupled with compelling acting from Robert Durbin as David Filde and Jamie Laird as Lord Gray, and a credible narrative from writer Hugh Janes, The Haunting, despite its chilling storyline, has a touching warmth to … [Read more...]