London Theatre Reviews - West End & Off West End - Brighton

The story is set in the first half in 1798, and in the second in 1815, and is refreshingly easy to follow - though I should perhaps point out that my local area has historic links to Emma Hamilton (1765-1815) and Lord Nelson (1758-1805), to whom Hamilton was mistress. Nelson worshipped regularly towards the end of his life, when he wasn’t at sea, at St Mary’s Church in Merton Park, and all of the pews from that time have been long replaced, apparently apart from his. There was a local pub called … [Read more...]

When American audiences first saw the Abbey Theatre Dublin’s production of school teacher T C Murray’s Birthright in 1911 they were scandalised by the incendiary nature of the play’s material: NOT the romanticised Ireland they believed in: “no cottage with roses around the door, no Wicked Landlord a la Boucicault, no loving old mother.... {but a } stark, ugly tragedy played between father, mother and two sons”. (DeGiacomo: T C Murray - Dramatic Voice of Rural Ireland) More than one … [Read more...]

Myra Bradley (Laura Fitzpatrick) is keen to reduce her own funeral’s costs, by requesting the family take care of the arrangements themselves. Her husband, Alec (Michael Tuffnell) objects: isn’t it a requirement to use a funeral director? (It isn’t - nobody has ever been prosecuted for not using one, because there isn’t a law that says people must.) Their two daughters, Jenna (Lisa Minichiello) and Harriet (Emma Riches) have different ways of coping with - well, anything. Myra turns out … [Read more...]

A man and a woman meet in a pub for their very first date. She’s uncomfortable and challenging right from the outset, and he’s kind of a bore. It’s an awkward vibe - and if you’ve been on a first date with someone you hardly know, you know exactly what that’s like. This is where Miriam Battye’s Strategic Love Play begins its unrelenting course. Modern dating is a subject that horrifies and fascinates in equal measure - but this play is also about so much more. After all, contained within the … [Read more...]

What catches your eye as you enter the auditorium of the Lyric Hammersmith is Lily Arnold’s amazing set (more of this later) for this revival of Yasmine Reza’s 2008 play God Of Carnage. It’s a glossy modern room with large contemporary lamps, pristine white furniture, an African tribal mask, and a coffee table with coffee table books on it - whoever lives here is doing very well for themselves. In fact, the couple who live there with their two children are Michael Novak (Martin Hutson) who has a … [Read more...]