Zak Rosen, Author at North West End UK

25Jun

By Zak RosenNo Comments

London

54.60 Africa – Arcola Theatre

In 54.60 Africa, what begins as a funeral for a continent quickly turns into a breathless adventure as ten friends of different ages and backgrounds, all members of the diaspora in London, spurred on by their Mother Africa, seek to discover and document all those 54 countries, and all that one and a half billion people, have to offer. All in one week. All in time for Gambia’s 60th anniversary of independence. From South Africa to Tunisia, Cameroon to Seychelles, Kenya to the Republic of Congo, this show is nothing short of extraordinary. Written and directed by Femi Elufowoju jr and based on his own experiences visiting all 54 African nations before his 60th birthday, 54.60 Africa approaches the events on stage with a simultaneous vitality and thoughtfulness, deeply attentive to the hum...

Kieran Hodgson: Voice of America – Soho Theatre

20Jun

By Zak RosenNo Comments

London

Kieran Hodgson: Voice of America – Soho Theatre

Kieran Hodgson, the avowed atheist bisexual vegetarian Brahms-enthusiast, wants to be a Voice of America. He even orchestrates a US presidential campaign style entrance to the theatre, complete with standing, chanting, and a great deal of handshaking. But he doesn’t quite let us forget that there is one voice hoarding all the oxygen when it comes to speaking of, and for, the United States, and he asks some vital questions about how to relate to the country, to its hope and promise, when trapped by the totemic power of that voice. Hodgson is hilarious, with every joke pulling peals of laughter from the audience, combining clever writing and delightful impressions (minus He Who Must Not Be Named) and a surprisingly dense amount of British cultural reference with an extended riff on Hodgso...

Mermaids Have No Tears — Barons Court Theatre

5May

By Zak RosenNo Comments

London

Mermaids Have No Tears — Barons Court Theatre

It can be hard not to fall into despair when contemplating all the different apocalypses we face today — climate change, oligarchic billionaires, social media brain rot, rising authoritarianism, talking to your father about your gender. But Mermaids Have No Tears, written by Ellis Stump and directed by Julia Sopher, manages to take in the overwhelming chaos of life in this moment and explores it with hope, humility, and a whole lot of humour, all through the lens of the fascinating subculture of Mermaiding. Set during the 2024 and 2025 New York Mermaid Conventions and the intervening year, the play follows the intricate and mildly unhinged antics of three twenty-somethings. Fyn (played by Everleigh Brenner) is the environmental activist child of an oil tycoon trying to figure out ho...

20Feb

By Zak RosenNo Comments

London

Riders to the Sea – artsdepot

Often, stories centred within specific contexts can resonate far beyond the reaches of the narrative – this is what we mean when we say that a piece of art may be universal. In the same way, forms or structures of performance, while quite alien to how we conduct ourselves in daily life, can still speak to, and deeply move, us. Opera is one such form, and Riders To The Sea, here reimagined and expanded by OperaUpClose and performed at artsDepot, is one such story. The production, directed by Flora McIntosh, features two parts: the first, a new prologue (“The Last Bit of the Moon”), composed by Michael Betteridge, and the second, the 1937 original Riders to the Sea written by Ralph Vaughn Williams with new chamber orchestration, also by Betteridge. Part one offers a window into the grief ...

As Long as We Are Breathing – Arcola Theatre

1Feb

By Zak RosenNo Comments

London

As Long as We Are Breathing – Arcola Theatre

Modern life is not known for giving us opportunities to sit, and think, and be. We are constantly moving, working – there is very little time to do anything else. What is valuable about theatre and about storytelling is the space it gives us to contemplate the kind of lives we live and want to live, whether we want to progress or regress. What it means to more than just survive. A moment, to inhale, and to exhale. This is what great theatre, what As Long As We Are Breathing, does. A woman walks up and starts chatting about porridge, the same kind of interaction I might have with a particularly sociable soul on the street – the lights are still up, the audience is still chatting and taking their seats; this is a kind of immersion into theatre so smooth I didn’t realize at first that the ...

11Jan

By Zak RosenNo Comments

London

Belly Of The Beast – Finborough Theatre

Any kind of societal ill is, like society, gigantic. A hyperobject. Something that expands beyond what the human mind can easily grasp. Often, theatre that tries to engage with such phenomena can feel some combination of lost, scattered, bloodlessly instructional. This is not the case with The Belly of the Beast at Finborough Theatre. We begin in a small black box theatre, arranged tennis-court style, with two simple spaces dispersed across time – an office and a classroom – that, thanks to the set-lighting-sound work of Delyth Evans, Arnim Friess and Max Pappenheim, provides an excellent environment for the action of the play, dynamic and real without distracting from what happens next. Things really come to life, however, through the performances: Sam Bampoe-Parry and Shiloh Coke,...

The King of Broken Things – Riverside Studios

20Dec

By Zak RosenNo Comments

London

The King of Broken Things – Riverside Studios

At the start of The King of Broken Things, we enter into a space full of lost, discarded objects. We sit. We contemplate the items around us – well loved, full of potential. A young child arrives, fleeing bullies, and then, having pushed out their cruel, overwhelming voices, shares with us what it means to be broken, what it means to mend and what possibilities exist for us when we dream, imagine and believe. The King of Broken Things, written and directed by Michael Taylor-Broderick, who collaborated on the (lovely) design with Bryan Hiles and Darren Peens, is a delightful story for the whole family. Creatively textured and built out, and ever inviting the audience to join in on the fun, whimsy, and heart, the show offers adults and children alike a window into a more joyous, mor...

Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working – Lion & Unicorn

18Dec

By Zak RosenNo Comments

London

Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working – Lion & Unicorn

Most shows are interested primarily in being funny. But what happens when you try to go deeper than that? To cut beneath humour, to the blood and the violence? What happens when the line between a joke and the real-world dissolves, and collapses? These are the questions that the Full Frontal Theatre poses in its no-holds-barred production of Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working. Following the story of an edgelord-misogynist comedian who doesn’t seem to believe in anything he says on stage, but whose career skyrockets as he pursues a darker routine with real world impacts, Rodney Black isn’t a pleasant show to watch, nor is it meant to be; playwright Sadie Pearson and director Hen Ryan force viewers to contend with a side of comedy that most probably don’t enjoy ruminating on, their...

14Dec

By Zak RosenNo Comments

London

Hold On To Your Butts – Arcola Theatre

Hold On To Your Butts, the frenetic, exceedingly clever work of New York-based company Recent Cutbacks, is exactly what it purports to be. Originating ten years ago with sold out performances in New York and recently transferring from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the show is (as far as I can tell, a completely faithful) shot-for-shot theatrical parody of Stephen Spielberg’s iconic tale of a dinosaur theme park that goes horribly wrong. But knowing that, and subsequently knowing the general plot (Arrival. Dinosaurs. Chaos Theory. Power Failure. Velociraptor Hijinks.) does nothing to capture the ingenuity and delight of this show. From the very beginning, when one’s eyes fall on the rickety-sparse stage, awash in a thin fog and a deep, anticipatory green lighting (courtesy of desi...

14Dec

By Zak RosenNo Comments

London

Dead Hard – Colab Tower

‘Tis the season for mulled cider, yuletide cheer, festival holiday shrubberies of various kinds, and of course, the Panto – a classic story often full of slapstick, genderbending, topical humour, a villain and a wedding. Well, what’s more classic than the iconic Christmas movie Die Hard?And what better way to tell this classical story, Panto Style, than with some extremely fierce immersive drag? That’s exactly what the Yippee Theatre has done with its inaugural show at the Colab Tower immersive theatre venue. Billed as the world’s first immersive drag panto, this show is full of stellar costumes, raucous performances, hysterical references and superb audience interaction that gets people engaged without making anything awkward or uncomfortable. Directed by Bertie Watkins, the show c...