Dave Smith, Author at North West End UK

28Sep

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Never Let Me Go – Rose Theatre

Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go has been adapted for the stage by Suzanne Heathcote. The story follows a group of clones raised at Hailsham, a boarding school where they learn about their purpose, born and bred to donate from their bodies. Here they make art, and they learn about their bodies and how to keep them healthy so that they can donate to the unknown people they are bred to serve. Although the specifics of the donation process remain shrouded in mystery, it’s clear that they are not expected to survive beyond their fourth donation. In the meantime, they take on roles as carers for those clones who have already started the donation journey. At the centre of this story are Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy. Kathy harbours feelings for Tommy, but Ruth, despite knowing this, e...

1Aug

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

The Grapes Of Wrath – National Theatre

For a novel written almost 100 years ago, the parallels with today are striking. A family of overcrowded refugees trying to make their way to safety, to employment and a home. Yet along the way people won’t even recognise them as human and are happy to cheat them, underpay them and generally take advantage of them. The systemic exploitation of the desperate hasn’t changed from the 1930s until today. Inevitably adaptations sacrifice depth for brevity. Frank Galati’s 1990 adaptation making its London debut under director Carrie Cracknell suffers from this, particularly in character development leading to less impact when some characters don’t make it to the end of the long drive. We are told about Tom’s great relationship with his grandpa but spend so little time in it that it does n...

11Jul

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Accolade – Richmond Theatre

It is the late 1940s and the Nobel Prize winning author, Will Trenting (Ayden Callaghan), has just been announced to receive a Knighthood to the delight of his wife as Rona (Honeysuckle Weeks). It turns out that Sir William has been leading a double life, as his alter-ego ‘Bill’ arranges and attends orgies above a pub in Rotherhithe. As his second life starts to crossover into his real life the consequences of his scandalous personal life become increasingly serious. The intent is clearly to create a deliberately paced play, to allow a sense of tension and a feeling of the walls closing in – but instead it feels slow and sluggish throughout. Each act brings a twist, but none feel delivered significantly, if anything they feel rather ho-hum. Many performances border on caricatures so if ...

1May

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Frozen – Greenwich Theatre

Nancy (Kerrie Taylor) finds herself with her hands full, managing the squabbles of her two young daughters. She sends the youngest, Rhona, on a small errand only for her to encounter Ralph (James Bradshaw) along the way - a man who preys on young girls who abducts her before assaulting and killing her. Indra Ové takes on the role of Agnetha, an American academic who travels to England to study Ralph and his crimes. In case you have not gathered, Bryony Lavery’s Frozen is far from a light-hearted play; it bears no resemblance to the musical of the same name playing nearby along the Thames. We follow Ralph and Nancy over two decades as his crime haunts Nancy and resonates through her life. Director James Haddrell's has clearly given a lot of thought to the staging, as Ralph and Nanc...

20Mar

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Murder In The Dark – Richmond Theatre

After a car crash on a wintry, snowy night, Mrs. Bateman (Susie Blake), a local farmer, brings a fairly dysfunctional family back to her isolated farmhouse to shelter for the night before the trains start running again. It is New Year's Eve and everyone has better plans, but instead, they are left without food or wine along with plenty of acrimony. Danny (Tom Chambers) was a pop star once. Perhaps with a chance of making real music with his brother William (Owen Oakeshott), a hint of fame and fortune led him to leave his brother behind and join the teen pop group Dance Party 5. A string of hits and a jet-setting lifestyle saw him indulge in drink and drugs, leaving his wife Rebecca (Rebecca Charles) and young son Jake (Jonny Green) behind. Many years later, he crashes the car with his f...

6Feb

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Twelve Angry Men – Richmond Theatre

The evidence has been heard and the decision is now with the jury. Starting with a voiceover of the judge's instructions, Twelve Angry Men sees the men locked in the jury room. Their job is to decide if the 16-year-old accused is guilty of killing his father, and thus will face execution or if there is reasonable doubt. A quick first vote from the unnamed jurors seems clear, guilty and guilty and guilty again until the final vote is counted - a solitary not guilty. Jason Merrells does a fine job as juror number eight, the single not guilty vote which forces the other 11 men to talk, debate, argue and even come close to blows. Like the jurors, we never learn the name of the defendant or the witnesses. Reginald Rose’s classic script first staged in 1953 but mostly known for th...

1Feb

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Rewind – New Diorama Theatre

Rewind opens with Andres Valesquez talking to the audience, he is informal and casual. As he introduces himself and the rest of the cast, he gives us some context around the story they will tell. In Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, dictators and regimes often supported by the United States were in charge. People disappeared, often without a trace. Valesquez dons a white shawl to represent Madres de Plaza de Mayo, known in English as The Mothers Of the Disappeared, and then a blue coverall, the uniform of an investigator for El Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team. It is clear that Ephemeral Ensemble have a very set vision for the show. Through very little dialogue relying instead on music, puppetry and physical t...

And Then There Were None – Richmond Theatre

1Nov

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

And Then There Were None – Richmond Theatre

"And Then There Were None" is one of the best-selling novels of all time with Agatha Christie's sales surpassed only by the Bible and William Shakespeare. The inscription above the stage at Richmond Theatre which reads "To wake the soul by tender strokes of art," seems to contrast starkly with the ruthless and unforgiving nature of events in this play. Eight strangers and two servants receive invitations to stay on Soldier Island, but it quickly becomes evident that they have all been deceived, as connections to their supposed hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Owen, turn out to be shaky or false. The Owen’s never appear, and a storm isolates the group on the island, cutting them off from the mainland. The guests seem to have little in common, and they squabble with each other and with the servants. E...

23Sep

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

The White Factory – Marylebone Theatre

At a time when war rages in Europe, a play written by Dmitry Glukhovsky and directed by Maxim Didenko - both political exiles from Russia about the things that people can be forced to do seems timely. The White Factory tells the story of the Kaufman family living in the Lodz Ghetto in Poland under Nazi occupation from 1938 onwards. The family of five are the heart of the story, husband and wife Yosef and Rivka, grandfather Ezekiel and boys Hermann and Volf. Initially in the wrong place and forced to translate, Yosef is forced to give up all he believes and take increasingly desperate action in efforts to keep his family safe. The horror that it takes to survive such a horror. Adrian Schiller is exceptional as Jewish Elder Chaim Rumkowski, appointed to run the city by the SS, forced t...

8Sep

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Birthright – Finborough Theatre

Continuing their re-discovery season, Finborough Theatre presents Birthright by T. C. Murray. Written in 1910 and staged at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin that same year, it was a huge success. Set around the same time in rural Ireland, a farming family comes to conflict over the different ways the two sons are being drawn in their own lives. Shane, the second son, has an innate talent for farm work, often finding solutions to farm challenges more swiftly than his father, Bat. Yet, despite this, the farm and its birthright were never destined to be his. He has arranged to emigrate to America. On this particular evening, we find ourselves at the family table, where a freshly delivered trunk rests, symbolising the second son's future far away – a "spare," borrowing a phrase from recent UK te...