London Archives - Page 45 of 111

Once on this Island – Regents Park Open Air Theatre

18May

By Zara OdetundeNo Comments

London

Once on this Island – Regents Park Open Air Theatre

I arrived back at the Regent’s Park Open Air theatre to watch them kick off their 2023 summer season with a revival of Once on this Island. This 1990 original musical retelling of the Hans Christian Anderson version of the little mermaid tale, was set against the heat of the Caribbean sun, in the jewel of the Antilles. Once Upon This Island tells the story of the unending love of peasant girl Ti Moune for a boy Daniel. Where we will see if love can overcome death and settle a wager made by the Gods. The story and told through the staging of informing two young girls about their culture, within a fairy tale structure. Ti Moune is an innocent girl who longs for something more than the normal day to day life she lives “Waiting for Life”, she becomes the figure of interest of the G...

Around the World in 80 Days – Richmond Theatre

18May

By Maani WayNo Comments

London

Around the World in 80 Days – Richmond Theatre

The classic tale of Phileas Fogg and Passepartout, who, to win a wager, travel around the world in no less than 80 days, is back and this magical adventure has been brought to life once more. Fact meets fiction in this production as the audience is treated to the incredible true story of American journalist Nellie Bly who decided to take Phileas’ goals and make them a reality. In a somewhat Brecht style, the show is a “play within a play” and creates some fun stylistic moments. The set is bright and vibrant, allowing for dynamic movement across several levels, featuring some unusual and fun props. Though a cast of only five, this performance is nothing less than rich. Every cast member gives a full and polished performance, each playing at least three different characters, making it ...

10May

By Ely KingNo Comments

London

Operation Mincemeat – Fortune Theatre

A dead man, a newt obsession, and a birthday. If you’re looking for a camp, overambitious comedic production, then Operation Mincemeat is just for you. As long as you’re fine with being cramped into tiny seats and potentially having knees in the back of your head for the entire production. The Fortune Theatre has long been a theatre that has a love-hate reaction with punters, some adore it, some despise it. Sitting in the second row of the upper circle, the view would be expected to be clear, albeit slightly high up, however the safety rail completely blocks the entire centre line of the stage, and your neck can only handle so much craning – especially when your legs are in your chest and leaning back a fraction would have your head in the lap of the person behind you. Aside fr...

8May

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

August in England – Bush Theatre

Lenny Henry captivates in this bittersweet tale about a man whose life is turned upside down by the Windrush scandal. It is surprising to find out that this is the first play he has written as the language and events flow sinuously and the script is imbued with a strong sense of August Henderson’s character with funny, quirky details. August’s journey is an eclectic one from Kingston Jamaica to Calypso Crescent in an emphatically ghastly Peckham and then to West Brom. This no doubt reflects aspects of Henry’s own life and those he knows, having parents who emigrated to Britain from Jamaica and brought him up in Dudley. The story begins with the family’s move and then cleverly branches into August’s life, starting a zealous band-cum-rebel group called Black Fist and later launching Iq...

The Motive and the Cue – National Theatre

8May

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

The Motive and the Cue – National Theatre

Celebrating Broadway’s famous actor-director duo of the 60s, The Motive and the Cue depicts the journey of Sir Arthur John Gielgud (Mark Gatiss) and Richard Burton (John Flynn) arriving at a Hamlet that is meaningful to both. And in this exciting journey, layer after layer is revealed as reflected in the brilliant set and design of the play. It is the story of two Hamlets, generations, and experiences apart, and when they face each other, one as a “classicist [director] wanting to be modern, and a modern [actor] wanting to be a classicist”, one can hear clashes between theatre v/s film, old v/s new, craft v/s showbiz. Sam Mendes exceptionally directs a stellar cast and production involving Jack Thorne’s words intermingled with excerpts from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. What truly connects the duo...

Kitty in the Lane – Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

7May

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Kitty in the Lane – Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

Kitty is waiting in her kitchen, dressed up to go to a pageant where her competitive friend will be performing. In her isolated house, at the end of a long lane, Kitty lives with her invalid father. She is also awaiting the arrival of her sometime lover, but he never does. Kitty is played by Aine Ryan who also devised this one-hander. She narrates the story of her life on the isolated farm, where she was always dominated by her dictatorial father. It is a grim piece of theatre, describing suicide, rape, and abortion. The play is intended to be the tale of a woman imprisoned by circumstances, but as a picture of modern day Ireland it was anachronistic. The farm had tractors and CCTV in all the fields: there was clearly no shortage of money. This is not a believable picture of rural...

5May

By Anisha AnantpurkarNo Comments

London

Bakkhai – National Youth Theatre

As I walk into the theatre, there is a table where I can avail a free glass of wine. With a glass of wine in hand, most of the audience prepares for the arrival of the God. As they (Dionysos played by Jack d’Arcy) arrive, we go silent, and they take their seat among us in a chair “reserved for God”. On stage is a cubical locker, door ajar, light pouring out. A pomegranate lies by the door- that later gets ripped like a throat. A dress, handed to Pentheus by Agave is locked in it, out of fear of Kadmos and the guards. And only Dionysos can make Pentheus realize and proclaim, “It is valid, this thing we call Daemonic”. Anne Carson, in her translator’s note, ponders: Look at Pentheustwirling around in a dress,so pleased with his girl-guisehe’s almost in tears.Are we to believethis desir...

4May

By Anisha AnantpurkarNo Comments

London

The World’s Wife – Barbican

Clad in red, sitting on blocks shaped like the roof of a house, the Ragazze Quartet sit while Baritone Lucia Lucas stands leaning against the roof with her back to the audience. The sound of one violin and Lucia Lucas’ baritone radiates through the theatre. We don’t see her sing, all we see are the choreographed responses of the rest of the Ragazze Quartet. For the entirety of the performance we are immersed in a production where words, sound, and movement are in conversation with one another as they tell us the stories of women hidden from history. The performance The World’s Wife is based on and named after the book of collection of poems by Carol Ann Duffy’s. It includes the poems The Little Red Cap, Pilate’s Wife, Salome, Mrs. Icarus, Medusa, Mrs Aesop, Anne Hathaway, Mrs Beast, Que...

3May

By Marita MatarNo Comments

London

Stars – Institute of Contemporary Arts

Just because I am born here doesn’t mean I am from here’ -MRS In an effort to elicit sexual arousal and understanding of bodies that are queer, Black, female, or undocumented, STARS present an Afrofuturist music play performed by Debra Michaels (MRS) and Bradley Charles (DJ Michael Manners), written by Mojisola Adebayo, an internationally acclaimed theater maker artist and Alfred Fagon award winner and directed by Gail Babb and S. Ama Wray. Huge acknowledgments to the cast, the creative team and the production who successfully made a 90-minute piece possible with the creative intervention of experimental music, digital tills, acting, animation, lighting and stage managing. The actor was accompanied by music played by the DJ in a space-like cabin who sets the tone with his trippy, univer...

3May

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Blanket Ban – Southwark Playhouse

Performing to a packed Southwark Playhouse audience on Tuesday night, writers and performers Davina Hamilton and Marta Vella open their one act show by extolling the virtues of their home country, Malta. And it sounds idyllic – 300 days of sunshine, beautiful beaches and coastline, jewel blue sea – which features as a recurring theme of beauty and power – delicious food and a friendly community spirit across the country. Ah, and it has – or had up until very recently – a blanket ban on abortion. And so, the premise is set, with Hamilton and Vella breaking down the internal conflict they feel for a country they clearly love, with otherwise open and progressive views, taking such a stern, outdated position on abortion. The piece has been well researched and uses a mix of first-person t...