London Archives - Page 10 of 150

2Oct

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

FIASCO – Vaulty Towers

FIASCO by Cryptids Improvisational Theatre is a longform improv show based on the tabletop roleplaying game of the same name. In the tabletop roleplaying game, players roll dice and consult tables to come up with a collection of storytelling prompts, linking characters together through “relationships”, “needs”, “locations”, and “objects”. This provides the framework upon which the players collaboratively tell a story, usually of normal people finding themselves drawn into increasingly violent situations the likes of which you might find in a Coen Brothers movie. Cryptids Improvisational Theatre have adapted and streamlined the general structure to suit a live improvised performance. The audience first votes – by cheering and general verbal consensus – on which of three general genre...

1Oct

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Foreign Girl – Bread & Roses Theatre

Ana is the foreign girl, a Belarusian living in the UK, attempting to get herself the Global Talent visa in the field of theatre. On realising that mere song and dance isn’t going to be enough, she calls her agent for help in deciding on what kind of professional theatre piece could make her eligible. They go through options – Marina Abramovic (too abstract), Chekhov (but he’s been cancelled), Shakespeare (Lady Macbeth with a Belarusian twist could work) – until they hit the right one. An autobiography. Written and performed by Anastasiya Ador and directed by Rachel D’Souza, this hour-long performance takes us through Ana’s life as she tries to set down roots in the West. Her attempts to assimilate are experiences that would resonate with many an immigrant, from mispronounced names ...

Sam Dodgshon Tries to Hold Your Attention for One Hour – Club Silly

1Oct

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Sam Dodgshon Tries to Hold Your Attention for One Hour – Club Silly

Being a standup comedian already requires a certain level of bravery. In his latest comedy special at Lambeth Fringe, Sam Dodgshon takes this vulnerability to new extremes by giving the audience control over what happens in the show. The concept is simple but smart. We’re presented with a PowerPoint that resembles a flowchart, with slides prompting the audience to choose between various options that influence the direction of the show. These options range from the straightforward (“Can I speak?”) to the absurd (should he go to hell via purgatory), and each pathway ends the same: we’re asked if we’d like to “play again”. With the assistance of an on-stage technician who operates the laptop and encourages the audience to shout out our answers, Dodgshon throws his all into the piece...

30Sep

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

Girls on Fire– The Golden Goose Theatre

Girls on Fire tells the fascinating, terrifying, and inspiring true story of three extremely brave young women. Hannie Schaft, Freddie Oversteegen, and Truus Oversteegen were Dutch resistance fighters during WW2, who put their lives at risk as spies and assassins, killing Nazis and Nazi sympathisers. The cast of three each give solid performances. Emma Graveling plays Truus with a serious, fretful demeanour that occasionally gives way to touching warmth and humour. Ellie Grace’s Hannie is both playful and intelligent, with plenty of optimism and resolve. Lily Sitzia’s Freddie transforms from a naïve child to a cold, pragmatic killer. Each performance is distinct, and the interplay between the three actors is engaging. The script does a good job of selling the friendship between t...

30Sep

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

choke me – Hen & Chickens

choke me – written and performed by Alexandra Montalbano – is a new one-woman reinterpretation of Punishment without Revenge by Lope de Vega. The plot follows Cas as she navigates the bizarre love triangle that she finds herself in. Trapped in a loveless marriage with her older, boring, cheating husband, she starts having an affair of her own with her husband’s son – her stepson. The plot jumps around, as Cas – in relaying the story to the audience – forgets things and has to go back and explain past events in order to bring the audience up to speed. As such, there are plenty of twists and turns to keep the audience engaged, although moment to moment it can sometimes be hard to work out where a scene is leading and what it’s purpose in the plot is. The play leans more towards comedy...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Golden Goose Theatre

29Sep

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Golden Goose Theatre

For the Lambeth Fringe, The New Rep Theatre tears through Richard Pepper’s adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in just 90 minutes. Focusing on the four lovers as they get twisted up by the fairies in the forest, while also bringing in the mechanicals, the actors in a play within a play - rehearsing in the forest and caught up in the fairies playing around. There’s a lot of fourth wall breaking, asides to the audience and some very modern moments, New Rep have certainly gone all out for the comedy to - mostly - success but a few moments land awkwardly and feel tacked on, pulling us out of the world rather than deeper into it. A sharper edit or simply more restraint would have helped here. Jack Gogarty’s Bottom works well but has a naive earnestness despite his se...

29Sep

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Punch – Apollo Theatre

“Inspired by the true story Punch” this production at the Apollo Theatre features a small but impressive cast of six and production team credited for bringing this life story to the West End stage. The staging is set to resemble a dark place for a conclave, on the steps, the bridge and on stage which enabled an astonishing style of creative movement, as the actors moved freely and smoothly from character to character, to scene change in synchronised motion. Credit to Leanne Pinder the movement was so emotionally moving aligning with the tragedy and empathy, which I’m sure was felt very strongly by the audience, just WOW. Scenes with strobe and flashing lights, the play has references to violence, death, alcohol and substance misuse. What strikes you in the opening scenes of th...

The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton – The White Bear

29Sep

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton – The White Bear

The Silence of Snow: The Life of Patrick Hamilton opens like a gothic horror: thunder and rain set a moody scene as a figure sits slumped over in a white hospital gown, before jolting to life and erupting into a crazed monologue complete with manic laughter. This play – like the novels and plays of the real-life Patrick Hamilton – boldly explores dark themes and incorporates spooky imagery. Life – the play seems to suggest – can be as terrifying as any fictional ghost or demon, but we can still smile and laugh. Above all, this play tells an interesting story about an interesting character and is masterfully performed. This one-man show (written and performed by Mark Farrelly) follows almost the entire life of Patrick Hamilton from his youth in the 1910s and ‘20s to his declining hea...

26Sep

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Love Quirks – The Other Palace

Four friends living in London brought together by unfortunate events: their love life sucks. Ryan (Lewis Bear Brown), Stephanie (Clodagh Greene), Chris (Tom Newland) and Lili (Ayesha Patel) have struggled to keep their love life on the upward trajectory. Stephanie announcing her divorce, Chris being cheated on by his fiancé, Ryan struggling to find a man he truly likes and Lili never quite getting over Ryan- the only man she’s ever loved. We are slightly rooting for Stephanie and Chris as it’s revealed they have a past and potentially through their heart break, they can find comfort in each other. However, the story does feel quite dated and limiting for the actors as every time we explore a complexity to heartbreak the script stays very 2 dimensional. Lili is a masters student who i...

25Sep

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

The Harder They Come – Stratford East

The Harder They Come, currently showing at Stratford East is an updated remix of the stage musical, last performed almost 20 years ago at the same venue. That pioneering production was an adaption of Perry Henzell’s 1972 cult film of the same name, co-written by Trevor Rhone. Henzell is regarded as the ‘Father of Jamaican film’. For his debut, the director cast the singer Jimmy Cliff in the lead role. This not only made Cliff a household name but arguably introduced Jamaican culture and reggae to a global audience. My first experience of the Harder They Come was at a late-night screening of the film at the notorious Scala cinema in King’s Cross. It was the late ‘80s and following Bob Marley’s death and the UK’s embrace of Ska via bands such as The Specials, Madness, and The Selecter, Ja...