Kira Daniels, Author at North West End UK

Measure for Measure – Royal Shakespeare Company

24Sep

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Measure for Measure – Royal Shakespeare Company

Much like its persecuted and prosecuted heroine, this production of Measure for Measure has a lot to prove. Director Emily Burns draws some tight parallels between the scenarios of Shakespeare’s Vienna and the present-day political scene but keeps the play well within the lines of conventional adaptation. That this script lends itself so well to the current moment is more depressing than exciting, and this production does not shy away from, but rather leans into, this discomfort. Distressingly relevant and enduringly painful, this problem play doesn’t offer much in the way of solutions. Photo: Helen Murray Standout performances from Emily Benjamin as Mariana, Douggie McMeekin as Lucio, and Oli Higginson as Claudio only heighten the sense of unease that pervades the play space. Benjam...

23Sep

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Emma – Rose Theatre

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. At least, Jane Austen’s Emma did. Ava Pickett’s Emma has got issues. Handsome and clever but decidedly not rich, her father is a crook, her sister is a crackpot, and her own disposition is anything but happy. This Essex-set adaptation of the literary classic opens at Oxford’s May Ball and is throughout infused with the vaguely sickeningly hedonistic energy of that messy melee. Blatantly dismissive of the traditional Regency aesthetic of horse-and-carriage romance, this production instead takes on the look and feel of a Piccadilly Circus rickshaw ca...

18Sep

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Reunion – Kiln Theatre

This is a tough one. A storm-weathered family convenes on “an island off the west coast of Ireland,” and all hell—less so breaks than steadily chips loose. En route from the Galway International Arts Festival, this production of Mark O’Rowe’s Reunion much like its island setting, holds a captive audience. Its dialogue is natural and intriguing, and O’Rowe resists the kitchen sink dramatist’s persistent impulse to make his characters as mean as possible. A perfectly gender-split cast of five and five places surprising emphasis on its female characters’ internality, relegating its men to timorous punchlines at best (in the case of Stephen Brennan’s adorably addlepated Felix) and tremendous encumbrances at worst (in the case of Ian-Lloyd Anderson’s incredibly effectively irritating Aonghus...

6Sep

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Deaf Republic – Royal Court

Why do you go to the theatre? Is it to hear grand speeches? Perhaps it’s to witness spectacle. Whether your aim is entertainment or education, Dead Centre is going to complicate your experience and expose your complicity. Deaf Republic, a play blending spoken word, sign language, puppetry, and much more, is breathtakingly complex. Adapted from the poems of Ukrainian American author Ilya Kaminsky by Dead Centre and Sign Language poet Zoë McWhinney, this play is one of a kind. Photo - Johan-Persson In turns cruel and comforting to its audience but never careless, writer and director pair Bush Moukarzel and Ben Kidd handle the play’s many difficult themes with grace and gravity. Azusa Ono’s lighting design, Jeremy Herbert’s set design, Mae Leahy’s costume design, and Grant Gee’s vide...

4Sep

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

The Genesis – Peacock Theatre

Human beings are fragile creatures. The connections between us are fraught and tenuous, both physically and spiritually. Copenhagen Collective’s The Genesis offers audiences a powerful reminder of this gravitational reality. Photo: Luke Chadwick Beautifully choreographed and directed by Patrick King and Johan King Silverhult, and set to a mesmerizing score by composer Leif Jordansson, this one-hour circus piece is both awe-inspiring and astounding. As sixteen incredible acrobats weave, dart, pulsate, soar, and even sometimes falter, it is impossible to look away—even as tension builds to almost unbearable heights. The light conception by Stefan Goldbaum Tarabini is so entrancing it occasionally draws focus from the performers themselves—a welcome respite in an hour so deliriously ...

The Glamification of Loki – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

31Aug

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

The Glamification of Loki – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

The gods must be crazy. Thor, Odin, Freya, and the rest are mad as hell. The cause? Loki. This new musical depicts the god of mischief according to tradition — which is to say, as unpredictably as possible. With a surprising and scintillatingly clever script by writer, composer, and lyricist Eden Tredwell, British Youth Music Theatre has a runaway hit on their hands, as much as the Norse pantheon has a runaway deity on theirs. Director Grace Taylor ably weaves a great variety of performances into a compelling and refreshingly easy-to-digest plot, despite an overwhelmingly large cast of young performers. Every actor has their chance to shine, and this production does, in fact, sparkle. Photography: Leanne Dixon The winning combination of Steven Moore’s choreography and Cory Ship...

Caged Sisters Musical – Phoenix Arts Club

24Aug

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Caged Sisters Musical – Phoenix Arts Club

Inspired by the Chinese epic Dream of the Red Chamber, this new musical—with book and direction by Sheldon Long—is a diminutive adaptation with much to recommend it but little to actually say. This iteration of the script, which is still under development, runs under an hour and feels more like a presentation of vignettes for audiences already familiar with the source material than a fully realized adaptation in its own right. Mounted by East Meets West Theatre in the iconic Phoenix Arts Club; this production was unfortunately riddled with technical difficulties that interrupted its flow and obfuscated its already difficult-to-follow plot. It tells the story of sisters You Er (Yiting Jian) and You San (Yiqian Shao), although this fact is not revealed until almost halfway through its...

16Aug

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Back to the Moon – The Glitch

A sixty-minute fever dream that feels more like babysitting a very hyperactive child than spectating a professional theatrical performance, writer and performer Giovanna Koyama’s incomprehensible antics convince that, in the case of Back to the Moon, comprehension is majorly overrated. She is relentlessly charming and possesses an infectious confidence that lends itself to a script that is quirky more than it is coherent. Selwin Hulme-Teague’s direction is competent and occasionally creative but falls short of the spectacle demanded by Koyama’s writing and writhing. Sensational sound design by Yuri Furtado does a lot of heavy lifting where the story (or lack thereof) occasionally sags. Fortunately, the brevity of the play allows little time for minds to wander, despite the meanderin...

Wakaresaseya or How to End Things – Courtyard Theatre

11Aug

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Wakaresaseya or How to End Things – Courtyard Theatre

Renting in London is not for the squeamish. Trying to find a place to rest your head in a city so inhospitable that its train platforms are plastered with propaganda assuring international transplants that friendship and family are just around the corner if they keep hanging on, is no mean feat. BuildingRockets, a theatrical cohort of three international artists, have created in Wakaresaseya or How to End Things a deceptively and dangerously funny stage thriller as sexy as it is sickening. Director Samuel Topper manipulates the undeveloped domain of the cramped and comfortless Courtyard Theatre into an immersive storytelling environment utilizing a potent combination of projection, light, and erotic audio to enhance the anxiety of claustrophobia common to both flat sharing and black...

Tales of a Jane Austen Spinster – Courtyard Theatre

10Aug

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Tales of a Jane Austen Spinster – Courtyard Theatre

What’s a girl to do? When you’ve been on the shelf — the literal bookshelf, that is — for more than 200 years, this question becomes ever more pressing. Should Liliana, a neglected heroine from an unfinished scrap of Jane Austen’s writing, remain a wallflower for all eternity, awaiting the extended hand of a mysterious gentleman to pluck her from her obscure perch and carry her away to freedom and fulfillment? The play wouldn’t be very fun if she did. Fortunately for all involved, this is not the fate playwright and performer Alexandra Jorgensen has mapped out for her. Her Liliana, an earnest young woman with that blend of self-righteousness and self-consciousness that has come to characterize Austenian adaptation, is out to seize control of the narrative. Jorgensen, operating he...