London Archives - North West End UK

12Nov

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Dogstar- Hampstead Theatre

Up until a few months ago, I’d spent an entire life loathing the lore of polar exploration. Captain Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton’s chilly endeavours had bored me throughout childhood and then soured over time. Blokey, egotistical, jingoistic nonsense dressed up as heroic propaganda and British pride. I was having none of it. There’s nothing brave about freezing to death ‘cause you wanna stick a Union Jack into an iceberg. Leave the Arctics alone, don’t drag the ocean floor, save the polar bears and CAN WE PLEASE stop the snow mountains from melting and flooding us into Armageddon? After reading Sara Wheeler’s Terra Incognita- Travels in Antarctica earlier this year, my perspective on the history of humanity’s polar bothering swung from eternally irritated to absolute...

Christmas in Ireland – New Wimbledon Theatre

10Nov

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Christmas in Ireland – New Wimbledon Theatre

It's Christmas Eve, snow is falling, and in a traditional Irish pub a group of accomplished musicians are telling stories of times past, of travel and returning home, of family and friends. Between tales, they perform classic Irish folk songs and Christmas pop favourites to which they give an added Irish vibe. From seasonal earworms such as I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day, Driving Home For Christmas and All I Want For Christmas Is You, to folk songs and heartfelt ballads, this show is one big, gorgeous hug and an infusion of festive joy to the soul. The audience walk in as strangers and quickly become a group of friends, sharing in the moment and joining in with the songs, transported from the daily challenges of life to an uplifting couple of hours in the company ...

Turn Your F*cking Phones Off, The Front Room, Croydon

6Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Turn Your F*cking Phones Off, The Front Room, Croydon

Opening the Croydonites Festival of New Theatre, Hannah Maxwell's one-woman show, Turn Your F*cking Phones Off, is an excoriating look at misinformation, data manipulation and the toxicity of social media. The piece has already won a slew of awards, including The Stage Fringe Five of Edinburgh's Breakout Theatremakers. Maxwell’s performance is part Ted Talk, part autobiographical stand-up, as she describes her phone addiction and attempt to detox. And a secret job that she shouldn't talk about, but does. The focus on how big tech and shadowy crypto-corporations systematically harvest individuals' data and manipulate algorithms to create societal division, skew politics, control people and money is frighteningly topical, relevant and important. There's talk of Russian troll farms...

6Nov

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Temi Wilkey: Lover Girl – Soho Theatre

Appearing on stage in front of a draped red curtain, Temi Wilkey’sLover Girl is tantalisingly cheeky from the outset. She tells us she’s single and unlucky in love, but she’s hoping this show can change that; confident audience flirtation follows. We’re soon introduced to the concept of her ‘Infinity Pussy’, a physical embodiment of her queerness and sexual freedom. The show starts as a typical stand-up routine in which Wilkey laments the perils of dating (believe it or not, women are somehow worse than men), but it soon becomes something much more absurd and theatrical. Ushered in by some hilariously grotesque suction sounds and Wilkey bundling herself in a red tulle cape, the Infinity Pussy comes to life and takes over the narrative. Somehow, none of this ever feels vulgar, and...

Where Would You Like to Start? – Drayton Arms Theatre

4Nov

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Where Would You Like to Start? – Drayton Arms Theatre

Alexandra Shaw has written a puzzling play. We meet two young couples Francis and Jonah and Sadie and Rich at a reserved table in a restaurant. Although they are apparently good friends there seems to be a degree of apprehension in this meeting. We then follow the four of them through short encounters, in various combinations, waiting for a bus, having coffee, in the pub and at home. They are facing the sort of challenges which most young people do; meeting career aspirations, developing long term relationships and some uncertainty about the fidelity of their partners. But the play never goes anywhere, and nothing really happens. Francis and Jonah are attending remote counselling sessions, but it was difficult to see that these made any material difference to either of th...

4Nov

By Prateek SonnyNo Comments

London

The Bridge – Bush Theatre

“If we can’t laugh at misfortune, what else can we laugh at?” And laugh we did indeed. The Bridge is a play written and performed by Palestinian theatre-maker Alaa Shehada, co-written and directed by Sam Beale. It follows the story of its “hero”, Alaa, as he makes his way from the West Bank to Jordan, crossing a 180-metre bridge and navigating three checkpoints along the way. Set in a black-box space, the production relies on little more than a stool and a yellow canister, with Alaa making full use of the stage to bring his story to life. It begins with him explaining his annual journey from the West Bank to Jordan, carrying the things his mother packs for her sister, who lives there: little “things that smell of the homeland”. The most important of these is 15 litres of olive oil, made...

3Nov

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Martin Guerre – The Old Vic

Martin Guerre is a bold musical based on a true story of a young soldier who returns home after many years away, claiming to be Martin Guerre. Following a forced marriage Martin Guerre leaves his village to escape his fate and finds himself in a seven-year war with a man who shares more with him than his battlefield wounds. Set in 16th-century France. A musical exploring themes of love, identity, betrayal and the search for truth. This thought-provoking story highlights the lengths people will go to for love and belonging. Martin Guerre, premiered at the Prince Edward Theatre in 1996, with a short two-year run and winning an Olivier Award for best musical in 1997. Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg and original lyrics by Alain Boublil, the creators of Les Misérables. Martin Guerre ...

2Nov

By Prateek SonnyNo Comments

London

The Revlon Girl – Park Theatre

Grief inflicted by tragedy, be it an inconspicuous accident or a disaster etched in history, always leaves the living to pick up the pieces. Directed by Maxine Evans, this Neil Anthony Docking play tells the story of bereaved mothers, months after the Aberfan disaster, as they struggle to cope and find a way to move on. The play opens with water dripping over the skylight suspended above the stage, with the set depicting a hotel function room. A young representative of cosmetics company Revlon (Antonia Kinlay) is invited to present products and offer beauty tips, hoping the women might begin to take care of themselves again. What she doesn’t anticipate is just how raw their grief remains, leaving her struggling to handle the situation. First, we meet Sian (Charlotte Gray), who is...

2Nov

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Memoriam – Southwark Playhouse Borough

How does our history get passed on and who is in charge of keeping them alive? Memoriam is a company buying real memories, extracting them and making them available on their software to experience. This is a full body sensory experience of any memory you choose be it childbirth, swimming with dolphins or even piloting a plane. But when the numbers are looking low for next year, top boss Chris (Ben Wiggins) looks to top buyer Rachel (Rachel Barry) for the ‘Premium asset’ she has within her own family. Memoriam is stark and brutal in the reflection of the human need for content and poses an important question: do we use VR to reflect the true nature of human history’s most horrific moments in order to feel the true scale of the event. Rachel’s grandmother Rivka (Beverley Klein) is the ...

29Oct

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Non-Ordinary Service – Coronet Theatre

Living in south-east London means that Notting Hill can feel as distant and awkward to access as Cornwall or the Shetlands. Even Carnival can’t tempt me these days, but you know what can? The Coronet Theatre. It opened in 1898. Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt have both graced its stage. It’s a bijou Victorian space, rather than grand, but it has the best theatre bar in the UK, maybe the world. Dimly lit, with a sloping floor, it’s a bohemian carnival of vintage charm and maximalist eccentricity. The theatre has an impressively experimental programme. A previous jaunt to The Coronet was to see the lovely Lemm Sissay read from a collection of poems. The streets of Notting Hill were once again witness to my presence due to a contemporary dance piece by a Chuang Po-Hsiang, a critically acclaim...