London Archives - Page 5 of 94

13Mar

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Macbeth (an undoing) – The Rose Theatre

She didn’t know what she was headed for, and when she found out what she was headed for, it was too late. Macbeths come undone. Playwright and director Zinnie Harris’s new and old work, Macbeth (an undoing) sets out to prove that what is done can in fact be undone rather than merely redone. Shakespeare’s Macbeth is arguably overdone, especially at the moment. From Ralph Fiennes to David Tennant, powerful male actors can’t take their grubby hands off it. Audiences too never seem to tire of it. It’s an enduring story, full of sound and fury, and rife with juicy monologues for actors to sink their fangs into. The juiciness of the plot even translates well into foreign adaptations and lubricates applications to very specific historical metaphors. However much of its adaptive appeal rests on w...

The London Improvathon – Wilton’s Music Hall

13Mar

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

The London Improvathon – Wilton’s Music Hall

After taking time to catch up on sleep and sustenance, it is comforting to reflect on what a special event the London Improvathon is. I covered the whole show but had breaks to grab a couple of hours sleep and to eat, so you could consider me to be a lightweight in comparison with these improvathoners. For cast and audience, there is an invisible bond that forms over the fifty hours, the commitment to perform, or to watch the equivalent of twenty-five shows back-to-back, binds the two together, and the final bows are met with celebration. For those who do not wish to commit to fifty hours, there was an option to buy a two-hour episode ticket. The history of the Improvathon goes back to 1993, when the first Canadian Improvathon took place, and then some years later Ken...

13Mar

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

London Zoo – Southwark Playhouse

London Zoo is set at the dawn of the Millenium, as print media faced the oncoming juggernaut of online content. Job losses and a decline in quality journalism came in its wake, except in a few rarified and fortunate corners. This play highlights the subtle ways in which prejudice, power and ambition are thinly veiled by passive aggressive marketing jargon, jokey office politics and the cold reality of number crunching. As someone who left print media at the turn of the century and then worked for an online brand that expanded in the boom, I can attest to the accuracy of some of the vibes seen in this odd window onto that period. Much like this fictional news corporation, GAY.com, where I held the role of Editor, imploded due to rapid expansion, shareholder tyranny and phantom accountan...

10Mar

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

The Duchess of Malfi – Globe Theatre

For the Sam Wanamaker’s 10th anniversary season, we are treated to John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi. This beautifully clear and impactful performance modernised the themes to highlight the sexism and misogyny of men in power, lit only by candlelight and at one point plunged into darkness completely. We follow this tale with huge anticipation and energy: Francesca Mills as Duchess lights the stage with incredible generosity and spirit as she takes on this ‘young Widow’ to discover her new love in life. Passionate to find romance herself and not on her brother’s command. Her twin Ferdinand (Oliver Johnstone) shares the deepest connection with her and yet betrays her so suddenly when discovering her pregnancy. His rage from losing control of her sends him mindless and he loses his sanity. The...

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 Parke...

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 ...

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 Ric...

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 sta...

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 poin...

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...