London Archives - Page 2 of 104

12Jul

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Dressing Gown – Theatre at the Tabard

Have you been bed rotting? Are you in your dressing gown? Is it mostly clean? Are you itching to get out and get dressed, or get dressed and get out? It’s amazing how the trappings of coziness can feel so oppressively snug when certain conditions of comfort are not met. The intimacy of the the Tabard Theatre for instance shifts into something else entirely under the influence of Andrew Cartmel’s new bedroom farce, aptly if unimaginatively titled Dressing Gown so called after its leading man’s essential predicament and sole comfort. Jamie Hutchins stars as Ash, a theatre director whose morning recumbence is interrupted by a series of visitors who each come bearing a unique challenge to his efforts to finally clothe himself. Much like the play’s title, its characters and plot are ...

11Jul

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Interview with the Vamp – Soho Theatre

A love letter to the lost and found art of vamping, this rambunctious queer song-cycle has it all. We get logos in a well-reasoned critique of the sinister ascendance hyper realistic cakes, ethos in the unimpeachable credentials provided by Dr Adam Perchard’s perfect hair, and just almost surfeiting pathos in ten top notch cabaret songs each braver, funnier, and filthier than the last. Perchard’s uneasy chemistry with composer and pianist Richard Thomas juxtaposes well with their easy command of the eager audience instantly won over by their unique mixture of sheepish charm and operatic bravado all bundled up in a scintillating gold trained over gown that can’t help but sparkle. Composed of a lot of singing and a little talking, Interview with the Vamp comprises about an hour’s ...

11Jul

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Accolade – Richmond Theatre

It is the late 1940s and the Nobel Prize winning author, Will Trenting (Ayden Callaghan), has just been announced to receive a Knighthood to the delight of his wife as Rona (Honeysuckle Weeks). It turns out that Sir William has been leading a double life, as his alter-ego ‘Bill’ arranges and attends orgies above a pub in Rotherhithe. As his second life starts to crossover into his real life the consequences of his scandalous personal life become increasingly serious. The intent is clearly to create a deliberately paced play, to allow a sense of tension and a feeling of the walls closing in – but instead it feels slow and sluggish throughout. Each act brings a twist, but none feel delivered significantly, if anything they feel rather ho-hum. Many performances border on caricatures so if...

11Jul

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Bindweed – Arcola Theatre

What can you do about domestic abuse? Martha Loader’s whopper of a one act, Bindweed, begs the question. Directed by Jennifer Tang, the play follows Jen (Laura Hanna), a group counsellor for men who have committed acts of domestic abuse. Although the bulk of the play’s plot comes apart in these facilitated sessions with the men she is attempting to rehabilitate, Loader does not confine her heroine exclusively to the therapeutic setting. We see her on a date with disappointing romantic prospect, Peter (Shailan Gohil), having drinks with married friends Nina (Josie Brightwell) and Ed (Simon Darwen) and in check-ins with her supervisor Alistair (Sean Kingsley) each played by an actor who also takes on a role in the world of the sessions themselves. This double casting and its both troubli...

ShakeiTuP: The Improvised Shakespeare Show – The Other Palace

10Jul

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

ShakeiTuP: The Improvised Shakespeare Show – The Other Palace

How do you review a show which changes every night? Which is what ShakeiTuP: The Improvised Shakespeare Show which is currently playing at the Other Palace Theatre studio claims to do. The format of the show is that at the beginning of the first half the audience is asked, by acclamation, to choose which of the three genres of Shakespeare's plays; histories, comedies and tragedies they would like to see. On press night we chose histories. The audience is then then asked to suggest a lead character. Avoiding obvious suggestions like King Charles, possibly for fear of litigation, an audience member suggested a friend of theirs, an entrepreneur and horticulturalist: so, King Keith it was. Suggestions were then asked for a location and from various improbable sugges...

10Jul

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Home, Sweet Home – Riverside Studios

Amalia Kontesi's contribution to Riverside Studio's "Bitesize Festival" of short plays explores the concept of home. Ellie lives in London, working in a high-paid marketing job which she hates, having left behind her parents and brother in Athens. Is "home" in London, Athens, or the summer cottage by the sea that the family scraped together the means to buy, and which Ellie and her brother adored? Ellie has returned to the cottage in order to sort it out prior to putting it on the market. As she reminisces about the wonderful summer times by the sea, the fun, her first kiss, first love and subsequent heartbreak, sibling rivalry and eventual loss, can she bring herself to sell up or does she need to hold onto this house that holds so many memories? Is the cottage her home now? Behind thi...

Your Lie In April – Harold Pinter Theatre

8Jul

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Your Lie In April – Harold Pinter Theatre

A musical about musicians and for everyone, the play is based on the manga by Naoshi Arakawa and operates with a clear respect for the conventions of its source material and culture of origin. With a new English book by Rinne B. Groff, music by Frank Wildhorn, and lyrics by Carly Robin Green and Tracy Miller, the story is told concisely and movingly. Jason Howland’s music arrangement and orchestration is tremendous, and the work is as much a pleasure to listen to as any musical that so highly prizes musicianship. Directed and choreographed by Nick Winston, this production has a surreal gracefulness to it as transitions between scenes and musical numbers coalesce seamlessly and lend a magical quality to every encounter between character and audience. The venue is pushed to its full p...

6Jul

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Hedda Gabler – Bread And Roses Theatre

Out of all of Henrik Ibsen’s dramatic works, Hedda Gabler remains one of his most notorious. Featuring a supremely complex central character, it’s a realistic play that still leaves a lot up to interpretation — giving director Mya Kelln plenty to sink her teeth into in 13th Night Theatre Company’s new revival at The Bread & Roses Theatre. Set in an ambiguous time period, we follow 48 hours in the life of titular character Hedda (Eliza Cameron), a newly married woman who’s returned from a lengthy honeymoon with her academic husband Jörgen (Jack Aldridge). While navigating the boredom of her new life in a house she hates, the return of Jörgen’s academic rival — and, as it turns out, Hedda’s former romantic interest — Eilert Lövborg (Bede Hodgkinson) sets the character onto a path of ...

6Jul

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Sparks – Jack Studio Theatre

Sisterhood is complicated. Sparks, a ninety-minute play by Simon Longman does not make it any simpler. Directed by Julia Stubbs for the Upper Hand Theatre whose co-founders also star in this production, Sparks stages the reunion of two sisters separated by twelve years without contact and a lifetime of disparate experience. Lisa Minichiello plays Sarah, a young woman without any friends who lives in an apartment without a sofa, works in an office without any purpose, and goes through the first twenty minutes of the play without any lines. Emma Riches dominates the stage as Jess, Sarah’s chaotic older sister who materializes on her doorstep one night with a goldfish and a back bar. The contrast between them is extreme almost to the point of unreality and their distinguishing features...

6Jul

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Medea Gosperia – The Cockpit

I have a mild obsession with Medea, prompted by the realisation that there is not enough time to read, study and analyse The Classics, so probably wise to just focus on one banger until the coffin lid closes on my life. It was Rachel Cusk’s brilliant vision of the Euripides shocker at the Almeida which put me on this path. Kate Fleetwood’s performance and the entire production blew my mind. It moved me as a piece of theatre, but also turned me on to the text. This nouveau fevered enthusiasm led me to the 1969 Pier Paolo Pasolini film with Maria Callas, which gave me full-blown Medea mania. Medea Gosperia is presented as a ‘brand new jazz/gospel opera’ which in many ways, ticked a lot of boxes for me, but led to widespread hoots and horror when mentioned to my peers. It’s fair to ...