Zoё Meeres, Author at North West End UK

15Jul

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Disruption – Park Theatre

Artificial Intelligence is having a moment. From ChatGPT and now a Google rival, ‘Bard’, to journalists calmly asking robots with near-human faces if they’re planning a rebellion against us, Andrew Stein’s cautionary tale about AI feels perfectly timed. The stage is set for a reunion dinner. Tech entrepreneur Nick is in town, buoyant from his latest business sale and has arranged to meet up with some old friends; three thirty-something couples who are grappling with the kind of first world problems that plague the middle classes like private school fees, whether to buy a bigger house, which exotic destination would be preferable for a holiday and so on. Enter Nick’s mysterious (unblinking) partner, Raven – together, they have a proposition that could solve all of Nick’s friends’ ...

30Jun

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

One Way Mirror – The Pleasance

One Way Mirror bills itself as a new interactive story about the art of people watching. It is based on the true experience of writer and performer, theatre maker Jonathan Oldfield, one half of PillowTalk Theatre, and the time he spent living in a property with a one way mirror facing out onto the street. From this vantage point, Oldfield can observe people going about their business, a voyeur of sorts who can see you even though you can’t see him. And the show is largely as billed - it does indeed focus on Oldfield’s experience of people watching and it is interactive in as much as it relies on a degree of audience participation. It’s risky but respectfully and gently done - no one is forced onto the stage to pretend to be a cat or a chicken and the excellent willing participants were giv...

8Jun

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Bounce – The Lion and Unicorn Theatre

We begin at the beginning - so to speak - of a motivational seminar; the lights flash, the music booms and our presenter, Jesse (Nick Robinson), is propelled onto the stage, an energised picture of confidence seemingly powered on his own self-belief. Jesse, a self-help guru and his own personal hype man, is here to tell us how we can own our own destinies by facing forward, not seeing unwanted surprises as problems and pretty much every other self-improvement trope you can think of. If that sounds flippant then that is far from my intention - in this snappy 70-minute show, writer Tom Derrington creates a caricature of self-help culture that pinpoints why so many people are caught in its thrall, and why this is so problematic. There’s a precision to Derrington’s writing that from the sta...

31May

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London

The Shape of Things – Park Theatre

My first introduction to playwright Neil LaBute’s work was Fat Pig, which premiered in London in 2008 and depicts the story of a shallow man who works in a testosterone fuelled corporate environment and falls in love, to his shame, with a plus-sized woman. There are definite parallels to be drawn between the two plays, which both feature two male and two female characters and centre around relationships, appearances and challenging ideologies and examine how far we will – or won’t – go for love. The play opens with the meet cute of Evelyn (Amber Anderson), a confident, headstrong art student and Adam (Luke Newton), a meek rather geeky English student in the art gallery where Adam works part time. As they begin dating, we see early indications of Adam’s Grease-style glow up, as directed ...

3May

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London

Blanket Ban – Southwark Playhouse

Performing to a packed Southwark Playhouse audience on Tuesday night, writers and performers Davina Hamilton and Marta Vella open their one act show by extolling the virtues of their home country, Malta. And it sounds idyllic – 300 days of sunshine, beautiful beaches and coastline, jewel blue sea – which features as a recurring theme of beauty and power – delicious food and a friendly community spirit across the country. Ah, and it has – or had up until very recently – a blanket ban on abortion. And so, the premise is set, with Hamilton and Vella breaking down the internal conflict they feel for a country they clearly love, with otherwise open and progressive views, taking such a stern, outdated position on abortion. The piece has been well researched and uses a mix of first-person t...

Grenfell: System Failure Scenes from the Inquiry – The Playground Theatre

24Feb

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London

Grenfell: System Failure Scenes from the Inquiry – The Playground Theatre

I still remember the horror I felt when I saw for myself the remains of the Grenfell Tower as I was driving through west London a couple of weeks after the fire. It was an appalling, brutal sight, and I found it so overwhelming that I immediately burst into tears. So, it was fitting that I – unintentionally – took that same route to the performance of Grenfell – System Failure last night, as the recollection helped set my mindset for the evening ahead. As the title suggests, the premise here is a snapshot into the evidence and conclusions from the first phase of the Grenfell inquiry. Richard Norton-Taylor, together with Nicholas Kent, have selected testimony from a range of people who were either affected by the tragedy or were part of the chain of events that led to it. The stage is se...

22Feb

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London

Romeo and Julie – National Theatre

While any trip to the theatre is a joy and a privilege for me, occasionally something lifts the bar and the experience becomes “more than”. Those times when a production touches a place inside you and leaves you feeling full and empty at the same time, in line with your emotions being pulled to their extremities by characters that you’ll never meet again but somehow feel you know. Last night’s performance was definitely a “more than” event – truly great writing, brilliantly executed, phenomenal cast. As the title suggested, Romeo and Julie takes its inspiration from the Bard’s classic Romeo and Juliet. While this is well-trodden ground as a storyline, Romeo and Julie genuinely feels fresh and unique. Gary Owen’s Romeo (Callum Scott Howells) is a single dad on the breadline with no...

21Feb

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London

The Beach House – Park Theatre

Arriving at the theatre last night to find an almost full choice of unreserved seats I instantly regretted tucking myself into a corner and wondered if I’d get the most out of the four-sided stage. I needn’t have worried, though; and was heartened to see that Director Bethany Pitts’s biography includes Jules and Juniper, which was my North West End UK pick of 2022. The Beach House was reminiscent of this in terms of the fluidity and the smoothness of movement – fitting for a play set by the sea. The performers make full use of a tight space and are in almost constant motion – physically and maybe emotionally too. This is complemented by the gentle use of lighting which perfectly moves the action through time, from a dawn interrupted by a crying new born to New Year’s Eve fireworks. &nbs...

<strong>Nerubashenko Ballet presents Swan Lake – Richmond Theatre</strong>

14Jan

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London

Nerubashenko Ballet presents Swan Lake – Richmond Theatre

I should start this by qualifying up front that while I enjoy the ballet, I am by no means a seasoned or knowledgeable audience member. I find ballet staggeringly impressive in terms of the talent and physical/athletic demands and beautiful as an art form while still thinking things like “I wonder if her feet hurt” and “I hope he doesn’t drop her”. With that in mind, we continue… The story of Swan Lake is the stuff of fairy tales – prince falls in love with enchanted swan-woman, is tricked by evil magician into falling for an evil look alike; it’s all very Disney. The musical score will be recognisable event to those who have never been to the ballet before, so it’s one of my ‘entry level’ ballet suggestions for people who are keen to go. I’ve always thought of a trip to the ballet a...

<strong>Mr Charles Dickens presents A Christmas Carol – Greenwich Theatre</strong>

20Dec

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Mr Charles Dickens presents A Christmas Carol – Greenwich Theatre

I’ve been struggling with this review since I left Greenwich Theatre last night, unsure of whether I’d just witness a masterclass in stage performance or a relatively dry rendition of a festive favourite. I shall expand; the clue is in the title, and ‘Mr Charles Dickens presents’ means exactly that. For an hour and 35 minutes, John O’Connor in the role of Charles Dickens narrates and performs A Christmas Carol solo on a static stage, as the author himself would have in the mid-1800s. Sound and lighting are used sparingly to create effects such as the weighty chain Marley forged in life, but otherwise this the epitome of a pared back performance. On the one hand, O’Connor as Dickens is superb. Alone on stage for the duration of the play, O’Connor’s Dickens is jovial and charming and deli...