London Archives - Page 10 of 167

RH and Friends – Hoopla 20th Anniversary

13Apr

By Charlotte MansfieldNo Comments

London

RH and Friends – Hoopla 20th Anniversary

Hoopla improv comedy club is turning 20 this Spring, and celebrating with a packed programme of improv shows. RH & Friends launched the anniversary celebrations last night, performing to an enthusiastic, sold-out audience. The Friends part of the title on this occasion consisted of two improv groups: relative newcomers, Not a Cult, who met doing classes at Hoopla; and the more experienced Valkyrie. In the first half of the show, these groups made up short scenes based around suggestions from the audience. We learned that it's important to have your chakras aligned before you take off in a space shuttle, and demons are responsible for Ryanair baggage fees. The experience of Valkyrie was clear in their adoption of different characters, but the Not a Cult performers had some clever...

13Apr

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Carmen – Richmond Theatre

Carlos Acosta’s Carmen isn’t the opera you know but you’ll recognize the music. Extremely danceable and performed by a highly competent company, Bizet’s famous score is in this case prerecorded and piped in to the Richmond Theatre offering a curious mixture of ecstatic dance and rather quiet song to theatregoers. Adria Díaz as Carmen and Alexander Arias as Don José both rise to the occasion and their dancing chemistry powers this performance forward with compelling turns by Paul Brando as Bull and Brandy Martínez as Zúñiga to compliment the molten core of sensuality at the heart of this piece. Music by George Bizet and arrangement by Rodión Schedrin is interspersed with additional music by Martin Yates, Yhovani Duarte and Denis Paralta fairly seemlessly. Set and costumes by Tim H...

Invisible Me – Southwark Playhouse Borough

13Apr

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Invisible Me – Southwark Playhouse Borough

Three individuals, turning 60 and leading solitary lives, starting to explore new horizons, eventually meeting up, may sound a bit of an artifice for a plot. But with a tightly written text by Bren Gosling and first-class acting and direction, it is a theatrical gem. We meet: Lynn, played by Tessa Peake-Jones. Divorced from her uncaring husband and now living in her late mother’s house, working as a cleaner in a Travelodge. A surprise encounter leads to an unexpected foray into the world of online "personal services". Alec, played by Kevin N Golding. A taxi driver, divorced with two adult children who he rarely sees. His tedious world interrupted by an encounter with a mysterious woman half his age. Jack, played by James Holmes. Still in grief over the death of his ...

13Apr

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

Flyby – Southwark Playhouse Borough

Flyby at Southwark Playhouse is a new musical that explores love, regret, and the consequences of impulsive decisions. The story centres on Daniel and Emily, whose relationship is revealed through a mix of present-day narration and flashbacks after Daniel steals a spacecraft and disappears into space. This unusual premise works well as a metaphor, allowing the audience to reflect on what drives someone to run away rather than confront the realities of a relationship. At its core, Flyby presents a deeply relatable love story. The connection between Daniel and Emily feels authentic, capturing the highs and lows that many will recognise. Their dynamic moves naturally between affection, tension, and conflict, showing how small misunderstandings and emotional reactions can escalate into some...

13Apr

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

A Doll’s House – Almeida

My first brush with A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen was in 1988. The play was a text for Theatre Studies ‘A’ Level. Our study of the Norwegian classic coincided with the Second Summer of Love. We were listening to French Kiss by Lil Louis on pirate radio, as E-fuelled Acid House swept the nation. Ibsen’s critique of the claustrophobic strictures of 19th century society, with its heavy sideboards and gloomy dialogue did not jive with the vibes of my fellow drama students. We yawned, eye-rolled and gurned, wearing smiley face t-shirts and muddy Kickers. In 2022, in the crazy throes of lockdown, Soho Theatre produced an online adaption of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. It was created, written and directed by Jen Heyes and starred the avant garde legend David Hoyle. HEDDA (after Ibsen), blew my mind....

7Apr

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

The Authenticator – National Theatre

The Authenticator at the National Theatre is an aspirational play that seeks to question past historical slavery, in a way that raises the sensitive points of shared ownership and interpretation of the truth. Set in a country house ‘Harford’ it focusses on a time from 1756 when “the fictional Henry Harford departs England for Jamaica” where he settles and acquires his own plantation. Following the uprising to abolish slavery and the plight of colonial enslaved Jamaicans Henry returns to England and buys Harford House. Living there is his “ancestor Fen -Fenella Harford”. This dramatic short production is centred around three female characters’ whose lives are exposed as they all uncover secret references to their own inherited colonial past. It has cursive dialogue which brings about many t...

Riki Lindhome: Dead Inside – Soho Theatre

7Apr

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Riki Lindhome: Dead Inside – Soho Theatre

Cinderella wants to go to the ball and Ariel wants to be where the people are. Riki Lindhome is trying to get some balls to come to her so she can be where the people are (growing). Venture into the infinite forest of her fertility journey in Dead Inside, a one woman musical odyssey that rejects both the structure of the cis straight white man’s hero’s journey and the audience expectation that a one act one woman musical won’t make everyone cry. Lindhome alternates musical comedy with a series of gut-wrenching monologues so disarmingly genuine that by the end of the show much of the audience was in fact brought to tears. Fans of Lindhome will recognize almost all of the songs in this show from her online work, with particular standouts “So Long Farewell (A Breakup Anthem for B...

2Apr

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

Choir Boy – Stratford East

Choir Boy is an engaging and thought-provoking play that centres on the character of Pharus played by Terique Jarrett, an outspoken, confident student at an elite prep school for Black boys. As a young, gay man, Pharus is navigating both his identity and his place within a rigid, tradition-driven environment. The production balances humour and tension effectively. There are several genuinely funny, laugh-out-loud moments, often driven by the boys’ natural banter, playful teasing, and bursts of spontaneous energy, including unexpected dancing. These interactions feel authentic, capturing the way teenage boys might behave with one another. The cast as a whole deserves credit here; their chemistry makes the dialogue feel fluid and convincing, with a rhythm that adds to both the comedic and...

2Apr

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

In The Print – King’s Head Theatre

It’s 1985. London. Rupert Murdoch secretly relocates his entire newspaper operation overnight from Fleet Street to a purpose-built facility in Wapping, locking out five thousand print workers without warning. Facing him: Brenda Dean, the first woman ever elected leader of a major British trade union, who must somehow hold a fractious coalition together against a man who seems to have already won before the fight even starts. In The Print, written by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky, takes this year-long standoff — known as the Wapping dispute — and wrestles it into 90 tight, no-interval minutes. Given we’re living through another era of tech moguls rewriting the rules while calling it progress, the timing feels pointed. The production values are impressively high. Claudia Jolly’s Bre...

The Trials of a Gentleman – Brockley Jack Theatre

2Apr

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Trials of a Gentleman – Brockley Jack Theatre

David Martin is in a police interrogation room, preparing his defence statement for a serious crime. He is not a habitual criminal. He is a man out of his time. Born in the 1960s, he harks back to what he sees as a more glamorous civilised world of the 1940s, informed mainly by the great Hollywood actors of that age: Niven, Grant etc. In fact he was brought up in a modest working-class household, his childhood shattered by domestic violence. In this 75 minute monologue Kit Smith as David Martin explains how he came to be in this police cell, and the values and beliefs which have guided his life. He believes in civility, courtesy and politeness. He abhors much of modern society, with its rudeness, debasement of language and reliance on technology. In his life as a primary school teacher,...