London Archives - Page 12 of 96

20Jan

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Look Behind You – Theatre at the Tabard

The 25th anniversary performance of Strut & Fret’s Look Behind You features a completely updated book both classic in its recognizable theatrical tropes and urgent in its relevance to the present moment in arts and commerce. Daniel Wain’s love letter to “the bitchiest, barmiest, bravest business of them all,” encompasses the wide range of characters and character flaws that make a theatre tick. Set during the run of Christmas pantomime, Dick Whittington, at the aptly if unsubtly named, “Britannia” this play minces no words. Subtlety is wholly eschewed and in its absence something urgent, theatrical, and true, prevails. No matter how dazzling the script, and believe me it is dazzling, this is the kind of show in which one sour note might poison the whole symphony. Fortunately, each ...

Cruel Intentions: The ‘90s Musical – The Other Palace

20Jan

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Cruel Intentions: The ‘90s Musical – The Other Palace

I will tell anyone who will listen that the ‘90s was a golden age for music. I don’t know if everyone feels that way about the music of their coming-of-age decade, but let us also remember that the ‘90s gave us The Spice Girls, No Doubt, Britney Spears… So, taking a cult ‘90s film and turning into a musical featuring classic tunes from the same era was always going to peak my interest. I’d not been to The Other Palace - just around the corner from some of Victoria’s better known theatres - before, and I really wish I’d discovered it sooner. It’s a great space with comfy seats and a fancy gin bar - what’s not to like? So far, so good… The piece opens with a stellar full cast performance - you can spot Kathryn (Rhianne-Louise McCaulsley) with her cold confidence and Daniel Barvo’s Seb...

20Jan

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Indestructible – Omnibus Theatre

Okay or not okay? Michael Jackson, Pablo Picasso, Kanye West… Who do we hold accountable? And how? Who even actually has this power that we’re supposed to be speaking truth to anyway? This ballsy production not only asks but demands answers to these questions. Written and directed by Proteus’s Artistic Director, Mary Swan, Indestructible is an unflinching examination of nauseatingly complex, and just plain nauseating, interplay between gender and power in the contemporary art world. Richly situated in a digital world built by the production team and multi-disciplinary artist Paula Varjack contextualizing all of the plays' imagined characters in an all too familiarly problematic alternate reality, this show offers audiences a non-traditionally immersive theatrical experience. The plot f...

19Jan

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Kindred – Brockley Jack

This new play by Amee Walker-Reid is a journey through one tumultuous week in the lives of a young couple, Lois and Matt, as they look forward to their wedding at the end of the week. As the play starts, they have just returned from Matt's father's funeral, which was a disturbing event due to the ongoing animosities within his family. During the week, they also have to attend Lois's sister's divorce party. This would be enough for most stable couples to cope with, but Matt suffers from a fairly severe psychotic illness which he is struggling to manage, and Lois is reaching the end of her tether trying to help and support him. Thus, this is a fairly angst laden 60 minutes of theatre. There was a lot of swearing, shouting and some physical violence, with just moments of tenderness ...

18Jan

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Cowbois – Royal Court

This is my desert island show. It’s only January and I’ve discovered the best play of 2024. Charlie Josephine (writer and co-director) finds a very welcoming new home in the Royal Court after their run before Christmas in Stratford-upon-Avon. We explore the Wild West, a struggling town after the ‘husbands’ of the town go off in search for gold and more supplies. The ‘Wives’ are left waiting but in hearing news of a nearby explosion, hold no hope in their return. Miss Lillian (Sophie Melville) holds the bar while her husband is away- praying every morning for his return when news of the famous criminal ‘Jack’ (Vinnie Heaven) is on route to town. What unfolds is a beautiful release between two people finding their joy, passion and reason to feeling happy and being alive. This town is ...

12Jan

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Exhibitionists – King’s Head Theatre

The King’s Head Theatre holds a special place in my heart, as it was the scene of my first ever written review. In 1986, as coursework for my Drama ‘O’ Level, I travelled from the depths of sleepy Surrey to lively Islington for an experimental interpretation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit. The production was less memorable than the concept of being squidged in a room at the back of a pub with an audience brought together by existential angst. I’d not only found my people, but learned that theatre could be uncomfortably intimate, messy and weird. In 2015, I played a sexual health and drugs counsellor, in a production of The Clinic at The King’s Head. My character was based on renowned ‘chemsex’ expert David Stuart (RIP) who was also one of the show’s producers. It was a thrill to perform...

12Jan

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Swan Lake – Richmond Theatre

The brand new (2023 founded) Mergaliev Classical Ballet brings to Richmond’s now 125-year-old theatre a tame and traditional rendition of the tragic classic best suited for young audiences. Swan Lake is one of the dance world’s most famous ballets and for good reason. Tchaikovsky’s score is compelling and engaging and the story is simple and accessible. It follows Prince Siegfried (Azamat Askarov), a young man upon whom tragedy suddenly strikes. Urged to choose a bride he spurns the seductive court and ambles into the woods alone. Followed into the woods by the ominous and treacherous sorcerer Rothbart (Jackson Stewart), whose menacing musical motif is no less satisfying for its ubiquity, Siegfried is shocked to discover that the swans he hoped to spear are in fact beautiful maidens te...

The Enfield Haunting – Ambassadors Theatre

11Jan

By Maani WayNo Comments

London

The Enfield Haunting – Ambassadors Theatre

Based on a true story in 1978, Catherine Tate stars alongside David Threlfall as Peggy Hodgson, a single mother who is desperate to protect her three children from an unknown source that is incomprehensible and deeply disturbing. Written by Paul Unwin, this new, supernatural and paranormal play is based on the first-hand accounts of one of the ghost hunters from the true story in 1978. The Hodgsons, once a normal family from North London, were subject to the movements of a terrifying poltergeist in the summer of 1977. When furniture and toys began mysteriously moving on their own accord, and the family’s behaviour started changing, the Hodgsons found themselves the subject of supernatural torture for eighteen months, becoming one of the most famous poltergeist events worldwide. One ...

10Jan

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

The Unfriend – Wyndham’s Theatre

We've all done it - you're on holiday, you're relaxed, you meet a fellow tourist and strike up a vacation-friendship. You say, "We must keep in touch", even exchange contact details without ever really meaning anything other than "Goodbye" and never really wanting to see that person again. Maybe you exchange Christmas cards but nothing more. It's part of the British psyche to avoid appearing even a little impolite, so you will do everything to escape a hint of awkwardness or embarrassment. Thus, when Peter and Debbie meet ebullient far-right-wing American, the Trump-supporting Elsa Jean Krakowski, on a cruise and she invites them to visit her in Denver, they reluctantly give her their email address. A few weeks later she's manipulated them into letting her stay for a few days and she turn...

The Motive and The Cue – Noël Coward Theatre

23Dec

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

The Motive and The Cue – Noël Coward Theatre

The Motive and the Cue takes a moment in theatrical history that might only appeal to academics or utter luvvies and transforms it into a gripping meditation on fame, ego, art and the power of the stage. The play is a multi-dimensional window onto a 1964 Broadway production of Hamlet, directed by Sir John Gielgud and starring Richard Burton. The personal dynamics between the two actors were at best complex and often toxic. Burton was a global star of stage and screen, at the peak of his career when he asked Gielgud to direct him. Gielgud’s star was on the wane, rendered unfashionable by 1960s modernism and experimental performance. Jack Thorne’s writing is sharp, witty and peppered with metaphors. What makes this show so thrilling to watch is that a tight and clever script is in ...