London Archives - Page 23 of 111

10Mar

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Blue – Seven Dials Playhouse

Following its world premiere in Los Angeles in 2023, June Carryl's Blue won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It's not hard to see why. It's March 2021, the world is emerging from the lockdowns of the pandemic and America is reeling from the tumultuous events that followed the 2020 Presidential election and the storming of the Capitol. When a young black motorist is shot dead by Police Officer Boyd Sully during what should have been a routine traffic stop, Detective LaRhonda Parker is called in to investigate. Parker and Sully are old friends, and Sully was also the partner of her now-retired police officer husband. As they banter about old times and start to delve into the events around the killing, shocking truths are gradually revealed that cause a conflicted Parker...

8Mar

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

GOOD-BYE – Coronet Theatre

A sizzling, poetic piece from Japanese theatre company, Chiten Theatre, weaves snapshots of Osamu Dazai’s life and literature together. The rhythmically acute cast form characters sat at a bar in Tokyo. As they swig their drinks, they build the tension as Dazai nears his impending suicide. A beautifully choreographed sequence sees the characters popping and pulsing, drawing out “Good bye”, a syllable per person. Slowly, this morphs into the main body of the show, which externalises Dazai’s emotional journey, exploring the notions of living and dying, through the particular nihilistic post-war lens. The cast embody characters from Dazai’s life, his stories, and also his own voice. The narrative, elegant in its simplicity, conveyed an intense longing and desire to understand life a...

8Mar

By Eleanor HallNo Comments

London

Uncle Vanya – Orange Tree Theatre

Trevor Nunn directs this powerful reincarnation of Uncle Vanya, which meditates on human love, the spaces we inhabit, and the purpose we cultivate for ourselves. The design and setting of this version remain in 1897 - the time contemporary to Chekhov’s writing - while the written text itself also remained largely faithful to the original. The added humour was refreshing, which invited the essence of the piece into the mouths of the 21st Century actors without diverting or detracting from Chekov’s original. For example, the professor’s demand “Friends, lend me your ears” was quickly followed by the quip “I’ll give them back at the end” - with no harm done to the plot! The acting was simply faultless; phenomenal performances were offered by each and every actor. In particular, Andrew Rich...

8Mar

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Oedipus Electronica – Brixton House

Of all the iconic Greek myths that have firmly held their place in our collective consciousness, the story of Oedipus is one of the most infamous. So, what do you get if you take this tragic tale and add a 21st century London setting, strobe lighting, and live electronic music? You get Pecho Mama’s Oedipus Electronica, currently playing at Brixton House until 9th March. Flipping the notorious story of Oedipus, the plot centres around Jocasta (Mella Faye), a writer struggling to complete a script ahead of a rapidly approaching deadline. But when she discovers she’s pregnant with her husband Laius (Kwame Bentil), she feels an almost supernatural compulsion to write about the son she had taken away from her when she was young. Propelled by a force greater than herself, she unknowingly star...

6Mar

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Rika’s Rooms – The Playground Theatre

The world premiere of Gail Louw’s Rika’s Rooms is adapted from the playwright’s novel of the same name and based on the real-life experiences of her late mother’s childhood flight from Nazi Germany, uneasy teenage settlement in Israel, marriage and immigration to apartheid South Africa, and eventual deterioration and disintegration living with dementia in England. Despite the weighty nature both of the story itself and the delivery method of its storytelling, this harrowing one woman show is suffused with love and light. Emma Wilkinson Wright is a revelation as Rika, where many a singular actor might seem overburdened and stoop under the heft of so dense a series of monologues, she acts with a potent naturalism, ruthlessly efficient in both vocal and physical transformation to the point...

52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals – Soho Theatre

6Mar

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals – Soho Theatre

Despite the apparent universal agreement that ‘culture wars’ are destructive, divisive and politically debilitating, there’s little sign of a ceasefire. In fact, the bad faith battles which raged with ugly fervour on social media have become the lingua franca of senior members of the cabinet and the UK’s Prime Minister. Vindictive conflict, which bins truth for fraudulent punches has been normalised on a global scale. Caught in the relentless crossfire, the trans community has been widely forced to retreat, for self-care and preservation. While the ‘trans agenda’ obsessively preoccupies the media, it’s rare to actually hear a trans perspective that isn’t then trounced and savaged by a ‘gender critical’ diatribe. High kicking and lip synching into this grim mise-en-scène are Laurie Ward ...

Standing at The Skys Edge – Gillian Lynne Theatre

2Mar

By Jennifer LaishleyNo Comments

London

Standing at The Skys Edge – Gillian Lynne Theatre

Standing at the Skys Edge is a heartwarming musical about love and familial relationships growing through time. The musical explores love and home. Standing at the Skys Edge is a well written musical with beautiful lyrical songs which opened at The National Theatre last year to show stopping reviews and certainly deserves its west end transfer and spot on the West End. Standing at the Skys Edge tells the stories of three families living in an estate in Sheffield, starting at three different points of the same timeline. The three storylines play out simultaneously with all the characters wrapping up seamlessly towards the end of the show. Whilst this device is frequently used in film, it is rarely successfully deployed in theatre. Chris Bush’s book is cleverly structured to give all the ...

2Mar

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Scarlett Sunday – Omnibus Theatre

Obsession and dark secrets of the infamous artist Ray Blackwood and what lay behind the enigma of a painting named Scarlett Sunday. Following the death of Blackwood, it was now left to his daughter Ava played by Camilla Aiko an introverted girl still living in the family home with her demons. This play was simplistic in its form and told the story of Yasmin, played by Sorcha Kennedy an excitable rather intense arts author curious to find out more about Blackwood, the man who inspired her career in the arts, a man she had feelings for and was hungry in pursuit to get the exclusive scoop on his unseen masterpiece Scarlet Sunday. The set is staged first in a coffee shop for their first meeting which sees both characters sparring with each other over childhood memories, the arts and a plan ...

1Mar

By Eleanor HallNo Comments

London

Lucy and Friends – Soho Theatre

Dressed as a tree, Lucy McCormick takes the mic aside the tech box. She tells us that there’s a problem with the tech and that the show can’t go on. “Only joking!” she shouts. The fun has only just begun. ‘Lucy and Friends’ is an expectation-defying, fluid-splattering bonanza that leaves you gasping and giggling on repeat. It is a high camp meta-theatrical treasure. But heed the age rating and content warnings… this show is not one to see with the parents! McCormick is an outstanding performer and knows her audience well. Jokes about Arts Council funding requirements were met with bouts of laughter, as she asserted her ultimate goal: to create a community of ‘friends’ within the theatre. From here onwards, audience members were asked to represent people in her life, throw confetti wh...

28Feb

By Louise PennNo Comments

London

Nachtland – Young Vic

This play by Marius von Mayenberg presented in a translation by Maja Zade sells itself as “a jagged new satire” and is set in modern-day Germany. Siblings Nicola (Dorothea Myar-Bennett) and Philipp (a nervously downtrodden John Heffernan) are clearing out their late father's house. Curiously most of his goods are being cleared from the stage as the audience file in, leaving one item wrapped in brown paper, found in the attic. It’s a painting of a church, a simple piece, but the signature is of the most interest. Is it indeed a painting by Hitler, and if so how did it find its way here? There is plenty of mileage here for black humour or satire, but the pacing feels off and some segues are either head-scratching (Nicola’s husband Fabian (Gunnar Cauthery)’s behaviour takes ...