LondonTheatre1

London Theatre: Tickets Reviews | News | West End | Off-West End | UK Touring Productions

London Theatre Tickets
  • Home
  • Top Selling Shows
    • Musicals
    • & Juliet
    • Anything Goes
    • Back To The Future
    • Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
    • Come From Away
    • Dear Evan Hansen
    • Dirty Dancing
    • Frozen The Musical
    • Heathers
    • Jersey Boys
    • Les Misérables
    • Mamma Mia
    • Mary Poppins
    • Matilda the Musical
    • My Fair Lady
    • Moulin Rouge
    • Only Fools and Horses
    • Pretty Woman the Musical
    • Six the Musical
    • The Book of Mormon
    • The Drifters Girl
    • The Lion King
    • The Phantom of the Opera
    • Tina the Musical
    • Wicked
    • Popular Plays in London
      • A Christmas Carol
      • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
      • The Mousetrap
      • The Woman in Black
      • Witness for the Prosecution
    • London Theatres
      • Seating Plans
      • Adelphi Theatre
      • Ambassadors Theatre
      • Duke of York’s Theatre
      • Fortune Theatre
      • Harold Pinter Theatre
      • Lyceum Theatre
      • New Wimbledon Theatre
      • New Wimbledon Theatre Studio
      • Piccadilly Theatre
      • Richmond Theatre
      • Trafalgar Theatre
  • News
    • Interviews
  • Reviews
  • ATG Tickets
    • Alexandra Theatre
    • Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
    • Brighton Theatre Royal
    • Bristol Hippodrome
      • Bristol Theatre Seating Plan
    • Edinburgh Playhouse
    • Glasgow Theatre Royal
    • Grand Opera House York
    • King’s Theatre Glasgow
    • Kit Kat Club London
    • Leas Cliff Hall
    • Liverpool Empire
    • Manchester Opera House
    • Manchester Palace Theatre
    • Milton Keynes Theatre
    • New Theatre Oxford
    • New Victoria Theatre Woking
    • New Wimbledon Theatre
    • New Wimbledon Theatre Studio
    • Princess Theatre Torquay
    • Regent Theatre Stoke
    • Rhoda McGaw Theatre
    • Richmond Theatre
    • Stockton Globe
    • Sunderland Empire
    • Swansea Arena
    • Victoria Hall Hanley Stoke
  • Dancewear
  • Newsletter
Home » Reviews » Play » STOP KISS by Diana Son at Above the Stag | Review

STOP KISS by Diana Son at Above the Stag | Review

November 20, 2019 Last updated: November 20, 2019 2:53 pm By Elaine Chapman

Stop Kiss - PBG STUDIOS
Stop Kiss – PBG STUDIOS

At the heart of Stop Kiss is a traditionally formed love story where Sarah (Kara Taylor Alberts) and Callie (Suzanne Boreel) meet through friends when Callie agrees that Caesar the cat can lodge with her while Sarah settles into New York before she finds somewhere to live where a cat is welcome too.

The friendship between the couple is tinted favourably from the beginning with potential as they are very comfortable with one another and chat easily right from the moment they meet.

Diana Son has written this play with a refreshing outlook seeing a relationship growing from an organic perspective which nowadays is mainly focused through a dating app.

The stage depicts a messy apartment in a nicer area of New York rented by Callie where the main parts of the story take place. The working intercom allows you to suspend your disbelief and imagine that people are actually visiting her. After the girls are attacked we never see any of Sarah’s life-threatening bruises or injuries. These are described to us through the cast.

There are elements of homophobia during the play. Especially from the tone that Detective Cole (Matt Brewer) adapts when he is interviewing Sarah afterwards to ascertain what took place before and after. He asks repeatedly throughout their interview, what did Sarah say to provoke him? How could anyone provoke a stranger to the degree of smashing their head into a wall repeatedly?

Mrs Winsley (Rebecca Crankshaw) is their only witness and scared the attacker off by throwing plant pots at him. I recognised some of myself in her character as like her I couldn’t understand why there anything wrong with the girls being in love.

Perhaps if Son has written this play through personal observations it’s about time that people who have any homophobic outlook on life need to see the couple as two human beings in love with each other rather than focusing on gender.

4 stars

Review by Elaine Chapman

After Callie meets Sara, the two unexpectedly fall in love. Their first kiss provokes a violent attack that transforms their lives in a way they could never anticipate.

Written and first performed in 1998, STOP KISS is still as potently relevant now as it was back then.

Cast:
Kara Taylor Alberts
Suzanne Boreel
Matt Brewer
Rebecca Crankshaw
Ashley Gayle
Alfie Webster

Kylie Vilcins for Above The Stag Theatre presents
STOP KISS
by Diana Son
by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited, London
directed by Rafaella Marcus
http://www.abovethestag.com/

Dirty Dancing Tickets
London Theatre 1 and London Theatre One are Registered Trademarks Copyright 2022 www.LondonTheatre1.com
By using our website you’re confirming that you’re happy to accept our use of cookies.
Privacy Policy & Cookies - Advertising - About Us - Newsletter - Contact Us

As an Amazon Associate our website receives a commission from qualifying purchases from Amazon.