London Archives - Page 118 of 150

Much Ado About Nothing – The Globe Theatre

30Apr

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Much Ado About Nothing – The Globe Theatre

Shakespeare's Globe has started their summer 2022 season with a cracking production of the ever popular Much Ado About Nothing. Lucy Bailey's production maintains Shakespeare's traditional Italian villa setting but updates it to 1945. The production is fast moving, very funny and extremely comprehensible while retaining all the essential elements of the original text. Joanna Parker' s design conjures the exterior of an Italian villa with grassy banks and ivy-covered walls. The updating to 1945 provides the opportunity for some gorgeous period costumes supervised by Caroline Hughes and contemporary music played beautifully by an ensemble of five accordion players who moved around the stage accompanying the action. Director Lucy Bailey makes extremely good use of the ...

Five Characters in Search of a Good Night’s Sleep – Southwark Playhouse

30Apr

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

Five Characters in Search of a Good Night’s Sleep – Southwark Playhouse

Five characters reveal their subconscious minds as they grapple with their day-time angst and woes. They sit in chairs, each in their individual homes but sharing a temporal space in a dream-like lilac and blue clouded set designed by Agnes Treplin. Devised by Mike Alfreds, Sonja Linden and ViSiBLE, it has the feel of verbatim as the stories are inspired by the actors’ own lives. All of the cast fully inhabit their characters so that from their first few lines, you immediately get a strong sense of their personalities. The triviality of their problems and their unextravagant, ordinary lives are endearing and poetic in their realism. This and the truthfulness with which these stories are told make it easy to become invested in and hang on their words. Sally Knyvette’s Helen ...

Witness for the Prosecution – County Hall

29Apr

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Witness for the Prosecution – County Hall

A handsome husband; a beautiful, mysterious, foreign wife; a wealthy older woman, now dead; a disgruntled housekeeper. Absolutely classic ingredients for an enjoyable whodunnit, and last night’s performance was up there with the best. From the opening minutes, which were some of the most dramatic I’ve seen in a long time, you know that this production is something special. The lighting, the choreography, the pounding background music and cries of anguish – everything about this production delivers punchy blows to the senses, taking your breath away and pulling you to the edge of your seat. Even the scene changes are slick and stylised, pure poetry in motion with not a beat missed. The Chamber at London County Hall provides the perfect setting for this Agatha Christie masterpiece,...

23Apr

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Qrumpet – Camden People’s Theatre

Theatre can elicit many emotions in an audience – fear, sadness, joy, anger, to name but a few. Last night, I felt an emotion that I don’t think has ever been awoken in me through the arts – an absolute, raging frustration. The show’s description is quirky and intriguing – basically, quantum tunnelling, but with a crumpet. What if you could throw a crumpet through a wall? SPOILER ALERT. You cannot. And I know this, because last night I spent an hour watching crumpets being buttered and thrown at a wall. Not just crumpets, either; a shoe, a free newspaper, an unsuspecting Lindt bunny. None of the above can be thrown through a wall, and I’m sorry to say that I didn’t find the process of finding that out remotely entertaining. The stage is set with the world’s worst Pelaton bike ...

22Apr

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Saving Britney – The Other Palace

Britney Spears was a titanic pop phenomenon. That’s a concrete fact, if you were a fan or a puzzled observer. Whether it was shrugging off the Lolita vibes of the ‘Baby One More Time’ video or sniggering when she shaved her head in a psychotic episode, we were all complicit in the making and breaking of Britney. In 2007, Chris Cocker went viral with a YouTube plea to ‘Leave Britney Alone’. In many ways, the appeal was a canary down the mine for the media intrusion that ensued. Incidentally, Cocker evolved into a very able gay porn star, and then after a stab at cinema and pop stardom, transitioned, and is now known as Cara Cunningham. As Britney would say, ‘Work Bitch’. The Free Britney movement grew from a semi-jokey meme in 2009, to a full-blown, bona fide campaign juggernau...

22Apr

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

The Burnt City – Woolwich Works

Punchdrunk’s new piece directed by Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle is an exhilarating immersive experience which has the epic feel of Greek tragedy fused with a modern electricity. Based on Agamemnon and Hecuba, the story follows the characters as the mythical world comes to life. Audience members enter an exhibition which suddenly lurches into this realm, where space and time feels suspended. We are free to follow whatever takes our interest as a multitude of scenes occur simultaneously across the different spaces. There isn’t a huge amount of audience interaction, but it is visually and mentally engaging throughout as you endeavour to piece together the plot and choose where to go. For a venue with a plethora of different spaces, the set designed by Barrett, Livi Vaughan and Beatrice M...

Sidney Fox’s Crime – Above The Stag Theatre

22Apr

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Sidney Fox’s Crime – Above The Stag Theatre

Sidney Fox led an eventful, unconventional and disreputable life. The illegitimate fourth son of promiscuous Rosaline Fox, he took up pretty crime from an early age. Stealing and forgery were second nature to him, and he spent six spells in prison. His good looks made him attractive to both sexes and he had affairs with many in the highest echelons of 1920's society. In the years before his mother's death, the two of them lived in a succession of hotels, rarely paying the bills before moving on. On 23rd October 1929 in the Metropole hotel in Margate his mother died in mysterious circumstances. Sidney was arrested and tried for her murder. Glenn Chandler has written a fast moving, fascinating account of Fox's life and the events leading up to his mother's death and his ...

21Apr

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

Eating Myself – King’s Head Theatre

Pepa Duarte takes us on a journey into her past struggles with eating, body image and her relationship with her Peruvian heritage. It shows a vivid depiction of disordered eating and the comical absurdity of it all when seen from a distance. The themes of womanhood and culture continuously overlap, as she challenges traditions and reconciles with her roots. Pepa cooks and leaves the soup to stew, and we become immersed in the aroma and her story. The set designed by Laura Arroyo is effectively minimalistic, hinting at a Peruvian kitchen with utensils dangling at the sides and a kitchen top. Michael Harpur’s lighting design highlights dramatic moments and shifts the mood between different scenes. Duarte’s writing is balanced and truthful. The script is written in a way that feels like...

18Apr

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Scandaltown – Lyric Hammersmith

Mike Bartlett's Scandaltown is contemporary London writ very large - big, crass, rollicking London as Restoration comedy. As Cromwell banned theatre in the 17th Century, and Covid managed to do the same in the 21st, both led to a restoration of theatre to (hopefully) their former glory. In Scandaltown there are debauched parties, lies, social media manipulation and cancel culture putting the reputation and power of London's political and social elite at stake. So, it's just about as topical as it gets. The story centres on the thoroughly woke Phoebe Virtue who, when she hears news (on Instagram of course) that her twin brother Jack is up to no good in London, she heads to town to find and save him. In true comedy fashion, she disguises herself as a man and persuades Jenny, Freddie an...

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – New Wimbledon Theatre

14Apr

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – New Wimbledon Theatre

C.S Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe absolutely mesmerised me as a young child – and it’s a fixation that has followed me into adult life. Narnia has always held a special kind of magic for me. Notwithstanding the troubling alternative readings of C.S Lewis’s works, the concept of a door to another world full of talking beasts, dwarves and other mythical creatures, only accessible to children who are able to become national heroes, was just too seductive. Add some Christmassy undertones, some genuinely scary creatures and storylines and a feel-good character arch or two and it’s a pretty perfect story. It’s also a story that’s been told many, many times - from the 1988 BBC dramatization (which I tracked down on DVD in later years), listening to the full Chronicles of Narnia ...