London Archives - Page 5 of 170

Sestercentennial – The Bread & Roses Theatre

4Jul

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Sestercentennial – The Bread & Roses Theatre

The United States of America is celebrating its 250th birthday and Hamza Beshara, a Bangladeshi American, is throwing a party for his closest friends. They have been mates since their school days and Hamza thinks of himself as one of the boys, but do they think the same? Hamza has never questioned it, until now. Written, directed, and performed by Arif Silverman, the play observes USA’s sestercentennial by questioning its current politics. In particular, the situation of immigrants and non-white communities. “I was born here, I am American,” Hamza stresses. But he also sees that life is different for him as compared to his white friends. His parents had moved West in search of a better life, and Hamza knows he would struggle if he had to live in Bangladesh. To him, it is bu...

4Jul

By Ralph JeffreysNo Comments

London

-320° F – Sadler’s Wells Theatre

This is not a show I am going to be able to fully describe here. Across almost two and a half hours, Hideki Noda’s show was a mad, brilliant and strange whirlwind of ideas and images. Roughly, the story begins in the present day with a search for angel bones, which may hold the key to human desires. The main scientist Professor Kyuri thinks they will unlock humanity's secrets, the warring pharmaceutical sponsors, a brother and sister pair, are interested in their market value. The fight over finding and exploiting them centres around the character ‘Help’, because he happens to have an angel bone in his right arm, which allows him to detect other angel bones and use them to unlock the full power of his brain, connecting himself to past memories. As I said, this is not a straightforward p...

2Jul

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Malory Towers – Richmond Theatre

Adapting a beloved children's classic for the stage is never an easy task, particularly when generations of audiences arrive with fond memories of Enid Blyton's ‘Malory Towers’. Emma Rice's adaptation does not attempt to reinvent the theatrical landscape, nor does it aspire to compete with the spectacle of the West End's biggest productions. Instead, it embraces the warmth, imagination and youthful optimism at the heart of the original stories, delivering an engaging and thoroughly enjoyable production that knows exactly who its audience is: young girls discovering the story for the first time, alongside the mothers and grandmothers who grew up with these much-loved books. From the moment the pupils arrive at the famous Cornish boarding school, the production captures the excitement...

Hot Mess: A New Musical – The Other Palace Theatre

2Jul

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Hot Mess: A New Musical – The Other Palace Theatre

Young, blue-green and beautiful Earth is desperately looking for her one true love. The newly evolved single-celled organisms don't do anything for her and T-Rex meets an untimely end before the relationship can even take off. It's a few billion years of waiting impatiently, then Humanity turns up and sweeps her off her feet. Their relationship starts sweet before becoming passionate, fiery and chaotic. Humanity is ambitious, sees potential in what Earth has to offer him and throws himself into discovering fire, inventing the wheel, and then finding Earth's deepest treasures to exploit. Earth warns him of the dangers of exploiting her resources, but the downwards spiral into a hot mess of a break-up is inevitable. Will Earth and Humanity endure, either together or separately or are they he...

2Jul

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

Arcadia – Duke of York’s Theatre

Arcadia is a time-shifting play set across two centuries, where we see teenage prodigy Thomasina Coverly living in the early nineteenth century, rapidly thinking beyond her time as she explores mathematics and the natural world. In contrast, the present-day storyline follows Hannah Jarvis as she investigates the life of Lord Byron while staying in the same country house, Sidley Park. The play is highly thought-provoking, raising complex questions about knowledge, history, and certainty. At times, it can be puzzling to follow how the two timelines interlink, but this is also what makes it engaging, as the audience is encouraged to actively piece together meaning across centuries. One of the central ideas is the contrast between the two approaches to history and knowledge. Bernard Nigh...

2Jul

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Grindr the Opera – Union Theatre

Perhaps there are people out there who don’t know that Grindr is a gay ‘dating’ app and are blithely unaware of the culture which has spawned from this smartphone phenomenon. This production is not aimed at that naïve demographic, but serves as a satire, cautionary tale and a timely mirror for the app’s 15m users across the globe. Last year Grindr released stats in which the UK emerged as the global leader for self-identified ‘fem tops’ while Ireland recorded the highest proportion of users listing themselves as ‘bears’. The most searched tag globally was ‘hung’. Madonna recently used the app to launch her new album, and it’s reported that cities experienced a 4% spike in usage when Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball came to town. The app may be re-shaping our neural pathways and it’s definitely ...

The Lady Boys of Bangkok: Full Moon – Sabai Pavilion, Shepherd’s Bush Green

2Jul

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

The Lady Boys of Bangkok: Full Moon – Sabai Pavilion, Shepherd’s Bush Green

For almost thirty years, The Lady Boys of Bangkok has been a reliable fixture of the UK's touring entertainment calendar, building its reputation on flamboyant spectacle, irreverent humour and an unapologetically camp celebration of Thai-inspired cabaret. Its latest production, ‘Full Moon’, arrives at Shepherd's Bush Green promising a glittering evening of music, comedy and escapist fun. Unfortunately, while the enthusiasm remains intact, the production itself feels increasingly outpaced by the modern cabaret landscape. Entertainment has evolved dramatically since the show first toured in the late 1990s, audiences are now accustomed to the polished excellence of international drag artists, contemporary cabaret, immersive productions and televised performance competitions. Against that b...

1Jul

By Charlotte MansfieldNo Comments

London

Springwood – Hampstead Theatre

On the verge of the WWII, King George VI (Bertie) and Queen Elizabeth visit President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to try to gain U.S. support for Britain. The occasion takes place, not at the White House, but at Roosevelt’s country home, Springwood. Written and directed by Richard Nelson, the play explores the meeting between these two men from a human angle, rather than a political one – what personal challenges were they facing, and where might they have found a connection? Springwood opens with a simple set of dining furniture that is immediately moved off stage and replaced with a small table and a few chairs. Presumably there was a reason for this, but whatever that was is not clear, and it makes for a disconcerting and awkward beginning. Perhaps it’s to foreshadow the awkwardness of th...

30Jun

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Archduke – Royal Court Theatre

Rajiv Joseph's ‘Archduke’ arrives at the Royal Court with an intriguing premise, imagining the lives of the young conspirators whose actions would trigger the First World War. On paper it sounds epic, and it promises a darkly comic examination of radicalisation, friendship and history, yet despite moments of theatrical flair, the production never quite justifies its existence. Although its themes remain strikingly relevant, this production struggles to offer a compelling dramatic perspective on such a familiar historical event, leaving it feeling oddly unnecessary The greatest obstacle is its uncertain identity. The script lurches between historical drama and absurd comedy without ever settling comfortably into either. There are clear echoes of “Blackadder Goes Forth” and the anarchic w...

26Jun

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Sting – Young Vic

This is a confusing and poorly constructed play. According to the publicity and the programme it is about witchcraft and how persecution of women through the ages has led to the current appalling levels of domestic abuse. That sounds intriguing, but the play lost its way several times. Photo: Helen-Murray It starts in an archive where archivist Lily, played by Phoebe Ladenburg works, although there was not much evidence of that on her empty desk. Enter her new assistant the effervescent Ash (Adelle Leonce), dressed and hung over from a wild night out at a nightclub. Despite appearing to be totally unsuitable for a role in the archive she is actually a very bright individual with a considerable knowledge of the history of witchcraft. She has, however, a dark personal history. Ne...