Caroline Worswick

The London Improvathon – Wilton’s Music Hall

13Mar

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

The London Improvathon – Wilton’s Music Hall

After taking time to catch up on sleep and sustenance, it is comforting to reflect on what a special event the London Improvathon is. I covered the whole show but had breaks to grab a couple of hours sleep and to eat, so you could consider me to be a lightweight in comparison with these improvathoners. For cast and audience, there is an invisible bond that forms over the fifty hours, the commitment to perform, or to watch the equivalent of twenty-five shows back-to-back, binds the two together, and the final bows are met with celebration. For those who do not wish to commit to fifty hours, there was an option to buy a two-hour episode ticket. The history of the Improvathon goes back to 1993, when the first Canadian Improvathon took place, and then some years later Ken ...

The Merchant of Venice 1936 – The Criterion Theatre

26Feb

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

The Merchant of Venice 1936 – The Criterion Theatre

Relocated from the traditional Venice of the 16th century, to 1930’s East End of London, this thoroughly re-worked and re-freshed version of The Merchant of Venice, uses a different period in history to tell its story. The outline of the story remains unchanged. Antonio (Raymond Coulthard) hopes to assist his friend Bassiano (Gavin Fowler) who wishes to court the wealthy Portia (Hannah Morrish); by obtaining a loan from Shylock (Tracey-Ann Oberman). Antonio suffers financial setbacks, and cannot repay the loan, unfortunately, the penalties for this are not financial, Shylock wants her pound of flesh. And yes, you noticed that Shylock is a woman! Oberman imagined a Jewish matriarch, inspired by her grandmother who fled an antisemitic country to arrive in Lon...

24Feb

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Stitches – The Hope Theatre

My 19-year-old son has a teddy, or should I say a rag that used to be a teddy; I also had a favourite teddy (shh, I’ve still got him in a drawer at home), and for most of us, it is the first possession that we learn to care for. Stitches, turns the story around, and the teddy becomes the narrator/obsessive observer of Chloe the baby, Teddy’s baby, and the story is born at Chloe’s birth. Teddy was bought as a present for Chloe, and Teddy has rejection anxiety – will Chloe want me? Am I cute enough? He needn’t have worried, Chloe immediately cuddles him and squeezes his ear - the beginning of a life journey together! Written and performed by Jonathan Blakeley, this play is an exploration of commitment, to love someone through the good times and the bad. It’s ...

1Nov

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

King Lear – Wyndham’s Theatre

Written in 1604, King Lear is sandwiched between Measure For Measure, Othello and Macbeth, a period in the bard’s writing dedicated to history and tragedy. 419 years later, and following many extraordinary performances, how can Kenneth Branagh and team bring something different to their production? And here is where I feel that some modern productions fall foul, the need to modernise and bring today’s razzamatazz into the equation. Call me old fashioned, call me a Shakespeare prude, but I want to see, hear, and feel the language, the small nuances that a blank stage can offer, and when I hear the words spoken, allow them to touch me, without the hinderance of external factors introduced by an over eager director wishing to put their own mark on Shakespeare’s work. S...

20Sep

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

North West

Annie – Manchester Opera House

The story of orphan Annie originates from a 1924 comic strip called Little Orphan Annie by Harold Gray, lyricist Martin Charnin approached author Thomas Meehan to write the book of a musical, a wise choice considering his many successes since, with awards for co-writing The Producers, Hairspray, also writing the books for the musicals, Elf, and Young Frankenstein amongst others. Meehan created Annie, using some of the characters from the comic strip, but added to them, using Charles Dickens’ orphan characters as inspiration, which worked well with the musical being set at the time of the Great Depression of 1929. Lyricist Charnin, would then work with composer Charles Strouse, using Meehan’s book as the framework for Annie. We join Annie (Sharangi Gnanavarathan) and her frie...

10/400 – Celebrating The 400th Birthday of Shakespeare’s First Folio – The Library of Birmingham

5Sep

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

NEWS

10/400 – Celebrating The 400th Birthday of Shakespeare’s First Folio – The Library of Birmingham

The Library of Birmingham was the setting, and the team behind the ‘Everything To Everybody’ project collaborated with bardic improvisers, The School of Night, and Shake It Up, to host a free for all event. Celebrating its 10th birthday, the Library of Birmingham played centre stage to bring together likeminded individuals to play homage to Shakespeare’s work, in the form of the First Folio. The ‘Everything to Everybody’ project is a partnership between the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council, and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and History West Midlands; to engage the community of Birmingham with their own heritage, and to revive the world’s greatest Shakespeare Library which is housed in the Shakespeare Memorial Room within the Library of Birmingha...

Nick Everritt: The Quiet Man – Aces & Eights

26Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Nick Everritt: The Quiet Man – Aces & Eights

Time for some comedy down at Aces & Eights, and from Nick Everritt who calls himself, The Quiet Man. Not an ideal trait in a comedian I hear you say, but Everitt has his quiet man routine down to a fine art. This is routine with a defined structure, and at the outset, we are introduced to this shy man persona, with a couple of impersonations, and jokes, which are ‘joke-splained’. Getting the crowd involved is a big part of Everritt’s act, which is reliant upon being able to pull in a reasonable size audience, or the audience may feel that they are too large a part of the routine. Luckily, our small audience is willing to participate, and offers up the repartee that a comedian depends upon. Everritt’s Quiet Man persona is purposefully creepy, a weird, sociall...

26Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

The Two Horsemen – Aces & Eights

Whenever I am ‘fringing’ (yes, let’s make it a verb), I like to go along to see some improv. The quick-witted repartee, the verbal jousting is exciting, and watching The Two Horsemen saddle up, mount, and strap on their jousts, I know that we are in for a helluva ride. Liam Brennan and Tom Jacob-Ewles are the two riders that make up The Two Horsemen, and these two fablers tour, playing the medieval tavern circuit, with the aim of making it big in showbiz weaving fantasy tales assisted by suggestions from the audience. Below is a selection of the happenings that went on:- The intro came from Bubonic Bobby who oozes infection from every pore, and then duo begin with a suggestion of a fable about The Ugly Duckling who is secretly Macbeth, Brennan relished the role of the ugl...

23Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Body 115 – The Hope Theatre

In an extremely warm theatre, I watched poet and writer Jan Noble, create imagery with verse, a necromancer of inventive poetic speech, searingly powerful, and infinitely watchable. Body 115 is a homage to Dante’s Divine Comedy, delving into the underworld with its decay and death. Jan Noble’s one-man show sees Body 115, who is one of the long unidentified victims of the King’s Cross fire in 1987, the 31st victim, who lies in the earth, has memories of fire, and an horrific death. Following the dramatic nature of The Divine Comedy, body 115 becomes Virgil, who guided Dante, and represents human reason. For those unaware of Dante’s Divine Comedy, it is a poem written by Dante Alighieri, during the 14th century, which is divided into three parts, the Inferno, Purgatorio,...

Remember The Before – Hen & Chickens Theatre

23Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Remember The Before – Hen & Chickens Theatre

An unnamed couple try to pick over their relationship memories, but why do their memories differ? An intriguing peek into this couple’s relationship history, who have been given numbers and not names (one is played by Sarah Pearcey and two by Jed McLoughlin). Written by Jed McLoughlin and directed by Pippa Dykes, the story arc gives plenty in terms of intrigue. Jed’s character (One) buzzes, as his extrovert nature wins over his partner when they first meet, he is funny, lovable, and larger than life, whereas Sarah (Two) is more reserved, but loves his outgoing nature. The couple clearly care about each other, but it is unclear whether they have a future together, as their shared experiences don’t appear to have evolved into shared memories. It asks the ...