London Archives - Page 24 of 149

Shucked – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

22May

By Gemma PrinceNo Comments

London

Shucked – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Tony Award-winning musical comedy Shucked has officially kicked off Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s 2025 summer season with its highly anticipated UK premier. The question on everyone’s lips, will such an American show be enjoyed by a UK audience? Set in the fictional Cob County, Shucked tells the story of young couple Maizy and Beau as they prepare to get hitched; however, crisis strikes when the town’s much-loved corn begins to die off. Maizy sets off on the adventure of a lifetime when she heads to Tampa in search of help and meets smooth-talking Gordy (Matthew Seadon-Young), who seemingly offers the solution to all their problems. Will Maizy bring back the close-knit town’s happily ever after? Indeed, Shucked is a musical that revolves around corn, yet Robert Horn’s clever writing ...

The Crucible – Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

22May

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

The Crucible – Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

The Crucible, written by the extraordinary Arthur Miller, remains a powerful examination of mass hysteria, moral panic, and how fragile truth becomes in a climate of fear. At Shakespeare’s Globe, the play is given fresh urgency in a setting that amplifies both its historical weight and its emotional resonance. The Globe Theatre itself enhances the drama. Watching a performance in this open-air venue, with its wooden balconies and standing pit, is a unique and deeply atmospheric experience. The historical design transports you to another era, which makes The Crucible—though written in the 20th century—feel like a natural fit. The architecture reinforces the themes of scrutiny, public shame, and isolation. Set in 1692 Salem, the play dramatises a society tearing itself apart over accus...

21May

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

The Mikado – Drayton Arms Theatre

One presumes it is no easy task to reimagine a classic from a time long gone for an audience of today. Preserving its original form could horrify modern sensibilities; washing the script in political correctness would strip it of its essence. What does one do? Forbear Theatre does a refreshing job of giving comic operetta The Mikado a new look. With a few tweaks, it dusts off the exoticism and stereotypes of the original, while preserving the wit and the tension, the topsy-turviness that the creators intended. Photo: Jon Lo Photography Deviating from the original setting of Japan, this new iteration takes place in the fantasy land of Pa’gæn, populated with woodland creatures, elves, and mages. The names are no longer Far-Eastern either. Rather, according to the director’s note, th...

20May

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

The Fifth Step – @sohoplace

David Ireland’s Edinburgh Fringe hit The Fifth Step transfers to London, making its debut at @sohoplace in a new version with substantial changes. Staying from its Edinburgh run is Jack Lowden with Martin Freeman joining to complete the two-hander. The title refers to the fifth step of the 12-step programme; writing down everything which brings guilt and shame so you can tell them to a trusted friend in order to reduce the chance that these will drive you to drink. There is the usual David Ireland wit and black humour as he explores themes of addiction, masculinity, and in particular, religious faith. Photo: Johan Persson The set is minimal - a blank stage with just a few chairs and a coffee point. Director Finn den Hertog has chosen to strip away all the staging from the E...

19May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

London

Die Walküre – Royal Ballet & Opera

Following 2023’s Das Rheingold, conductor Antonio Pappano and director Barrie Kosky reunite to continue the mythical adventure with Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), the second work of Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. On a stormy night, fate brings Siegmund (Stanislas de Barbeyrac) to the door of Sieglinde (Natalya Romaniw), the fearful wife of bully Hunding (Soloman Howard), unleashing a love with the power to end worlds. Meanwhile, in the realm of the gods, an epic battle ensues between their ruler Wotan (Christopher Maltman) and his rebellious daughter, Brünnhilde (Elisabet Strid), after his wife Fricka (Marina Prudenskaya) has laid her own law down to him, and the battle of the Valkyries – Helmwige (Maida Hundeling); Ortlinde (Katie Lowe); Gerhilde (Lee Bisset); ...

19May

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Diagnosis – Finborough Theatre

Athena Stevens commands the stage in the world premiere of her new play, Diagnosis, playing at the Finborough Theatre. In a dystopian London police station, a woman with a disability, S/he (Athena Stevens), is questioned about an alleged assault against a stranger. In accordance with new procedural law around ‘vulnerable individuals’, she is taped, watched by an audience through a one-way mirror, and forced to be taken seriously - or that’s the idea. In reality, the endless red tape acts less as a support system than as a distraction from the truth of her story. The set is immediately eerie. There is one window, blinds drawn, through which an ominous red glow seeps into Juliette Demoulin’s dark interrogation room. A camera on a tripod records and projects onstage the entire questioni...

Richard III – New Wimbledon Theatre Studio

16May

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Richard III – New Wimbledon Theatre Studio

Alex Wakelam's new production of Richard III for the Carlton Theatre Group is innovative in the number of ways. As Wakelam explains at length in his directors note in the programme is made various changes to the text, including significantly reducing the number of speaking characters, introducing a scene from Henry VI part 3 and references to the Wars of the Roses. And it worked. The plot was easy to follow, and the dialogue flowed actually using Shakespeare's own language. It is also innovative that it set the entire play around a long dinner table with a cast seated on one side opposite the audience. The period was deliberately ambiguous. Possibly Victorian. The dinner guests were the main characters, kings, queens and courtiers dressed in evening wear, while in the background with th...

15May

By Sadie PearsonNo Comments

London

1536 – Almeida Theatre

A period drama which couldn’t be more pertinent, 1536 by Ava Pickett is a triumph of feminist rage against a system which is perpetually rigged against women. The trail of Anne Boylen seen through the eyes of three anonymous women - stripping patriarchal attitudes down to bare bones, this electrifying drama exposes – with a warning claxon – the dangerously well-trodden path toward female subjugation. It is not a play to be missed. ‘History is told by victors. And for most of history, men have been the victors’ states Suzannah Lipscomb in the programme’s foreword. This is a play which inverts that narrative. In a small village near Essex, Anna (Siena Kelly). Jane (Liv Hill) and Mariella (Tanya Reynolds) gather in their seclusion of their childhood meeting place, hungry for London’s gossi...

A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy – Soho Theatre

15May

By Ralph JeffreysNo Comments

London

A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy – Soho Theatre

A Small Enclosed Room With Alfie Murphy is a unique and funny show that sometimes struggles to deliver on its strong themes and ideas. We begin as a one-man style show. Alfie confides in us about his life, telling us about his band ‘The Camden Stoners’ and the struggles he has with his more sociable, but rather shallow bandmate Jai. From the moment our other performer, Anna Constable, puts her head through the curtain (as Alfie’s ghostwriter dressed as a ghost), the show moves at lightning speed. Alfie falls out hard with Jai, travels to India to lose become a guru, and suddenly finds himself thrown into a particularly aggressive talk show interview before the fourth wall comes crashing down as Constable begins to object to all the costumes and roles, she is forced to put on in order to...

Dear Annie, I Hate You – Riverside Studios

15May

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Dear Annie, I Hate You – Riverside Studios

Samantha Ipema takes what is perhaps the most traumatic period of her life and turns it into a dramatic telling full of comedy and poignance. To say that this play offers a peek into its creator’s brain is not hyperbole, it is a mere fact. We do get to see her brain. But more on that later. The play is directed by James Meteyard and Ipema plays herself as she tells her life story from the day she met her adoptive brother, Mica. Their childhood shenanigans, school, friends, teenage, and her love for soccer. And that’s where Annie comes into her life. Annie is the personification of the aneurysm that doctors find in Sam’s brain. She is unpredictable, explosive, and is played with chaotic energy by Eleanor House. She is Sam’s unwelcome plus-one at spring break, in school, at parties. Th...