Paul Ackroyd, Author at North West End UK

16Apr

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Private Lives – Donmar Warehouse

Michael Longhurst's revival of Noel Coward's classic play downplays the lightness and wit of Coward's dialogue and emphasises the violence of the relationship between the two main characters. Elliott and Amanda. The plot is familiar: two honeymooning couples happen to occupy adjoining balconies in their seaside resort, and unfortunately one of the members of each of the couples used to be married to the other. When they discover this and overcome their initial shock and horror, they realise that their underlying love for each other is much stronger than they have for the nonentities whom they have recently married. The first scene takes place on the two balconies and the rest of the play takes place in a Paris apartment, to which Elliott and Amanda have escaped from their new spouses...

29Mar

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

One Minute – King’s Head Theatre

The Working Actors Studio have revived Simon Stephens 2003 play One Minute at the King's Head Theatre. 'One minute' refers to the time it takes 11-year-old Daisy Schults to vanish, and the play depicts five characters impacted by her disappearance. In part this is a police drama, with the two detectives, played by Frederick Lysegaard and Lee Lomas, leading the investigation into her disappearance, but later being left on their own as other resources are taken away due to their lack of success. But it is much more an emotional study of the interaction of the five characters. The story unfolds slowly through numerous short scenes, many of which are only tangentially linked to the actual events of the disappearance. For example, the two characters of Mary Louise and Catherine, played by Im...

24Mar

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Slow Violence – The Pleasance Theatre

We are on the sixth floor of the office building of Happy Holidays. Claire is welcoming a new team member, Peter. Initially, things get off to a promising start, although there is a clear mismatch between the personalities; Claire, controlling but clearly needy, and Peter who is more restrained but wants to fit in and make a good impression. As the days turn into weeks and months the constraints of working in that office environment become dominant, it is far too hot, but the "people upstairs" will not allow the radiator to be turned down, the watercooler dispenses stagnant water, the electricity starts fusing, and there is flooding in the lower floors of the building water plus a leak from the ceiling. This is a brilliantly devised piece by Laura Ryder and Harry Kingscott,...

The Walworth Farce – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

26Feb

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Walworth Farce – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Southwark Playhouse have chosen the Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh as their opening production in their splendid new location at the Elephant. Apart from the location being appropriate it was not a good choice. This is an extraordinary play based on the scenario of a father and two sons exiled from Ireland who barricade themselves in a squalid flat in the Elephant and Castle district who cut themselves off from the outside world almost completely. They spend their time under the direction of the father, Dinny, in ever more extraordinary and surreal ways their recollection or imagined recollection of their final days in Cork. Only one of the sons, Sean, is allowed to leave the flat to obtain basic provisions. One day he returns home with the wrong shopping bag.&...

<strong>The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Jack Studio Theatre</strong>

27Jan

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Jack Studio Theatre

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886 will be familiar to many. However, in order to avoid impairing the pleasure of those who do not know the story I will be circumspect in this review about the plot. This one-man stage adaptation has been written and performed by Mark Stratford. It closely follows the plot and characterisation in Stevenson's original. The play starts with the investigating officer Inspector Newcomen explaining to the audience of background to the case and introducing the testimony of Gabriel Utterson, the lawyer and friend of Dr Henry Jekyll. Concerned by the strange behaviour and disappearance of his friend plus a strange will left in his keep, Utterson starts to investigate and soon comes across the str...

<strong>Mrs Warren’s Profession – Richmond Theatre</strong>

23Nov

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Mrs Warren’s Profession – Richmond Theatre

George Bernard Shaw wrote Mrs Warren's profession in 1893. It was immediately banned by the Lord Chamberlain, and it was not until 1925 that it had its first public performance. A lot has changed in the last hundred years, and there is little in the text now which would scandalise. Indeed, given that it is dealing with issues of prostitution it is surprisingly coy in its use of language. The core of the play is the relationship and conflict between Mrs Warren, who has made a prosperous living through her prostitution business, and her daughter, who has benefited, largely unknowingly, from the financial security and educational and economic advantages which her mother's wealth has provided her. In this production, the mother and daughter are played by real mother and daughter Caroline an...

11Oct

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Doctor – Duke of York’s Theatre

Almeida Theatre's production of Robert Icke's The Doctor has now transferred to the West End. The play begins as Professor Ruth Wolff, founding member and director of the Elizabeth Institute, which undertakes groundbreaking research into Alzheimer's, is caring for a young girl in the final hours of her life. A Roman Catholic priest demands to be allowed to perform final rites to the dying girl on the grounds that her parents are Catholics. The Doctor refuses, on the grounds that the girl's religious beliefs are unknown, and the presence of the priest would disrupt what would otherwise be a peaceful death. An altercation ensues, the consequences of which have profound consequences both for the Doctor and her institution. Around this simple event Icke has written a most fascinating, engag...

20Sep

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Snail House – Hampstead Theatre

A new play written and directed by Richard Eyre is something to look forward to. Neil Marriot an eminent paediatrician and recent scientific adviser to the government during the pandemic, think Chris Whitty or Patrick Valance, is preparing to celebrate both his birthday and his elevation to a knighthood. Unfortunately, the meticulously planned celebrations are marred by the internecine warfare between the members of his dysfunctional family and the revelation of a historic medical misjudgement with appalling consequences. There are topical themes aplenty in this piece: management of the pandemic, enduring class divisions, the incompetence of contemporary politicians, Brexit, race, the inequalities of private and public education, north/ south divisions and even referen...

A Plague On All Your Houses – Riverside Studios

16Jul

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

A Plague On All Your Houses – Riverside Studios

A Plague On All Your Houses, a new play by writer/director Marcia Kelson presently playing at the Riverside Studios, is a hilarious romp depicting plagues through the ages. Scenes, not in chronological order, imagined the impact, on rulers and ordinary people, of the plagues including those of biblical times, pestilence in French wine fields, the Black Death, which caused so many problems for the budding playwright William Shakespeare, up to recent Covid events and a very worrying peek into the not too distant future. It was presented on a largely bare stage against a black backdrop, with a few boxes as props, and a keyboard musician to one side of the stage. All the characters in all the various historical pieces were played four actors who changed their costumes at the side of t...

Ten Days in a Madhouse – The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

17Jun

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Ten Days in a Madhouse – The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

This multimedia adaptation by Douglas Baker is based upon the real-life account of Nellie Bly of her spell in New York’s notorious Blackwell’s Island Asylum in 1887. It documents her initial unsuccessful attempts to be employed as a journalist by the misogynist editor of the New York World, John Cockerill, who, taking advantage of her youthful enthusiasm to pursue investigative stories, sent her undercover to be committed to the asylum as a patient. The abuses of patients that she uncovered were published in The World and led eventually to the closing down of the asylum, as well as to a surge in young female investigative journalists. Although there are many characters in this story, there is only one actor, playing the role of Nellie Bly. Most of the other characters are portraye...