Louise Penn, Author at North West End UK

17Jul

By Louise PennNo Comments

London

Knives and Forks – Riverside Studios

In Danielle James's ambitious but uneven play, Iris and Thalia live in a flat share. Firm friends who share a life of carefree partying and fun. But Iris is hiding a catastrophic secret that will rip their world apart. Knives and Forks, directed by Annah Calascione, has a strong story at its heart, one of love and acceptance in the face of the ultimate ending. Where it becomes a little problematic is in the additional elements utilised to tell this story. Both Iris and Thalia have shadows, or 'psyches' who dress like them and express themselves through movement and words or art, added to a huge canvas backdrop. Now and again, it is a clever shorthand to highlight what is not being said. But as both an emotional device, and a practical one to tell us where we are in the non-linear...

28Feb

By Louise PennNo Comments

London

Nachtland – Young Vic

This play by Marius von Mayenberg presented in a translation by Maja Zade sells itself as “a jagged new satire” and is set in modern-day Germany. Siblings Nicola (Dorothea Myar-Bennett) and Philipp (a nervously downtrodden John Heffernan) are clearing out their late father's house. Curiously most of his goods are being cleared from the stage as the audience file in, leaving one item wrapped in brown paper, found in the attic. It’s a painting of a church, a simple piece, but the signature is of the most interest. Is it indeed a painting by Hitler, and if so how did it find its way here? There is plenty of mileage here for black humour or satire, but the pacing feels off and some segues are either head-scratching (Nicola’s husband Fabian (Gunnar Cauthery)’s behaviour takes ...

2Aug

By Louise PennNo Comments

Scotland

Gethsemane – Edinburgh Fringe Online

Gethsemane is a new musical by John Richmond which tells the story of Nadi and Chloe, who were contemporaries of Jesus. This piece in currently in development as a full show and so plays out as a visual album in its current 100-minute form, with songs and narration. Although the images are often simply complementary to the narration or songs, they are sometimes set out of their time - I can see why the parallels are being made (for example, with the homeless in a 21st century London). There are no actors and no on-screen performances. The leading characters are Nadi, a carpenter who works with Jesus in the workshop and based on the “naked disciple” referenced in the Gospel of Mark, and Chloe, the daughter of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich merchant. Must Nadi fight the Romans with his br...

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story – Online

5Apr

By Louise PennNo Comments

REVIEWS

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story – Online

Awkward Productions’ latest show streams across the world by popular (and very possibly, Royal) command following a successful run at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe and at the Pleasance in London. Linus Karp’s earlier work has been of the Jellicle kind, but here he brings another icon to the stage in the person of Diana, Princess of Wales. With the help of his trusty PowerPoint, and his partner Joseph Martin’s sound design, Diana comes to life to tell her tale. A cast of many is briskly performed, as are many costume changes. This show revels in its irreverence. This is Diana as you have never seen her, as we join her in heaven for her own, hilarious, autobiography. Karp looks the part with the downcast eyes and part-pout, and in bringing Diana’s ‘story’ to the stage, has pre-...

Nigel Osner: Still Ticking! – Etcetera Theatre

17Oct

By Louise PennNo Comments

London

Nigel Osner: Still Ticking! – Etcetera Theatre

Barrister turned cabaret performer Nigel Osner has had a busy life. In twenty-five years on the stage (“it sounds better than quarter of a century”) this lively septuagenarian has formed his new show following his near-death experience during heart surgery last year. Over the course of an hour Osner looks at the songs he has written, the places he has been to become “self-sufficient” and “comfortable” with his ageing self and performs a handful of character-driven monologues. He tells us of the musicals he wrote – Rock Heaven, with its posturing star and cyborgs, never got produced, but Magic in Ravenswood, a children’s fantasy based on Osner’s own book, did – and his earlier shows, notably Angel to Vampire! which won acclaim at the Buxton Fringe. In personality, Osner presents as...

28Mar

By Louise PennNo Comments

London

Dracula – Richmond Theatre

When actor James Gaddas received an offer to work on a television documentary exploring the origins of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it sent him into an obsessive investigation to discover the truth behind the myth. Such is the premise of this new adaptation, in which Gaddas is not only the writer but performer of fifteen different characters. Bringing Stoker’s novel to life is something many others have done from the days of the silent screen: if you haven’t read the book, you have surely seen one of the film, television or stage adaptations. But what if Stoker had really meant to write a work of non-fiction about vampiric activity, and what if an investigation into his real intentions is cursed? As Gaddas tells the story of his interaction with documentary evidence and a trail which takes...

Mimma: A musical of war and friendship – Cadogan Hall

2Mar

By Louise PennNo Comments

London

Mimma: A musical of war and friendship – Cadogan Hall

Playing for one-night only in a charity gala concert performance for the Prince’s Trust, Mimma is a story of personal sacrifice in war that seems glumly relevant in the current climate. Sadly, despite a 48-piece BBC Concert Orchestra and a starry cast led by Sir David Suchet, Celinde Schoenmaker, Louise Dearman, John Owen Jones, plus opera stars Ashley Riches and Elena Xanthoudakis, this show is uneven from the start and is neither musical, war drama, or opera. The opening scene set in July 1940 hints at conflict, but we then go back to 1938 and a Turin where the young Mimma (Schoenmaker, enigmatic) is at a family party. Her uncle and mother conspire to send her to safety in London, where Uncle Lorenzo (Jones, underused) has a café in Soho, as war fizzles on the horizon. Her uncle...

The Rubber Merchants – Old Red Lion Theatre

14Jan

By Louise PennNo Comments

London

The Rubber Merchants – Old Red Lion Theatre

A lengthy and absurdist look at commerce, love and sex, this revival of Hanoch Levin’s tragicomic play is brought to the stage by Gamayun Theatre and proves to be an uncomfortable and disquieting watch. The Rubber Merchants is about staying safe, with Asya Sosis’s production attempting to merge “the absurdist comedy of Israeli literature, Ukranian theatre tradition and British styles of performance”. With a floor strewn with packing peanuts, a throbbing disco beat, and a constant drooling objectification of women, this play somehow struggles to hit its mark. Yohanan Tsingerhai (sweaty, nervous, a borderline pervert around women, played by Tom Dayton), Bella Berlow (unpleasant and impenetrable, played by Hadas Kershaw), and Shmuel Sproll (a jaded would-be rock star, played by Joseph E...

Lady Chatterley’s Lover – stream.theatre

8Oct

By Louise PennNo Comments

REVIEWS

Lady Chatterley’s Lover – stream.theatre

A musical based on DH Lawrence's controversial last novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, sounds an interesting prospect. John Robinson – a former engineer and academic who turned composer late in life – has taken the romantic thread of the story, but jettisoned the sex, earthy language, and nudity to make a PG friendly show. Filmed during its two-night run at the Shaftesbury Theatre in June, Sasha Regan's production benefits from a clever two-tier set by Andrew Exeter highlighting the deeply rooted difference in class between Constance, Lady Chatterley (Georgia Lennon), and the rough gamekeeper (Michael Pickering) who had been an officer in the Great War. There is wood panelling and trappings of wealth above, and the rough bark of trees in the wood below. An early number underlines the pa...

3Sep

By Louise PennNo Comments

North West

Alexithymia – GM Fringe Online

Alexithymia is a term used in psychiatry as “the inability to recognise or describe one’s own emotions”. Although not a core feature of autism, it can affect as many as 50% diagnosed with it. In Madison Weinhoffer’s short theatre piece, which runs at less than twenty-five minutes, we are following the journey of “Friend”, who is a lost being needing assistance to find their way back to who they are. The production starts as more art installation than theatre. Projected images and music add to a general sense of confusion and disorder. The letters which spell the title of the show mix and disintegrate as watch. Friend and voices engage as abstract images are shown on a landscape we can only partly see, but not fully appreciate. Then the show becomes more of a traditional theatre pi...