London Archives - Page 78 of 107

Anyone Can Whistle – Southwark Playhouse

6Apr

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

London

Anyone Can Whistle – Southwark Playhouse

What is a miracle? What is madness? What is normal? These are just some of the questions you’ll be thinking as you tap your foot to Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents’ 1964 musical. But this is a musical like no others – this is as surreal as it is subversive, an off-the wall political satire that’s hugely unconventional, but all the more clever for its presentation as a song and dance show with huge layers of meaning. ‘Anyone Can Whistle’ is the story of a corrupt Mayoress, Cora Hoover Hooper (Alex Young), who along with her crack team of adulating men (a greedy but brilliant businessman, the town treasurer and the chief of police) devise a plan to make their bankrupt town money. The plan is simple: fake a miracle, this will then result in people paying pilgrimage to see the said mir...

Nothing in a Butterfly – Omnibus Theatre

31Mar

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Nothing in a Butterfly – Omnibus Theatre

Omnibus Theatre and Dorty Mooth Theatre jointly present this play supported by the Synergy Theatre Project. The Synergy Theatre Project works with prisoners, ex-prisoners, and young people at risk of offending with a belief that theatre can be transformative and challenges the perceptions of both prisoners and society. The writer and performer Ric Renson has benefitted from this project and has previously performed in The Invitation at the Secret Theatre, and Blackout for the Synergy Project. This time Renton has turned his hand to writing this, his first play. Nothing in a Butterfly is an auto-biographical play about Renton’s own life, set in Tyneside. Renton plays himself in this hard-hitting play, leading the audience along the path of his life beginning with him almost jumping...

30Mar

By Aditi DalalNo Comments

London

The Other – Drayton Arms Theatre

Packing boxes and walls with scribbles draw the audience into a unique house as they enter. A sentence is written on the walls. It is then spoken aloud. The rest of the show then embodies it. Delicately presented with light moments of interaction with the audience, ‘the other’ is explored in its many forms and feelings. Tracing the journey of a family, as witnessed by the walls of the house they lived in, the show explores their relationships with each other and with their home. As they seek to find a new house, we are taken down memory lane of the bitter and sweet happenings over the years. The nuanced direction of Ariella Stoian brilliantly uses everyday objects to make meaning of people and their emotional journeys. The use of chalk, in particular, is a strong motif. It can be eas...

28Mar

By Louise PennNo Comments

London

Dracula – Richmond Theatre

When actor James Gaddas received an offer to work on a television documentary exploring the origins of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it sent him into an obsessive investigation to discover the truth behind the myth. Such is the premise of this new adaptation, in which Gaddas is not only the writer but performer of fifteen different characters. Bringing Stoker’s novel to life is something many others have done from the days of the silent screen: if you haven’t read the book, you have surely seen one of the film, television or stage adaptations. But what if Stoker had really meant to write a work of non-fiction about vampiric activity, and what if an investigation into his real intentions is cursed? As Gaddas tells the story of his interaction with documentary evidence and a trail which takes...

The Marriage Of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein – Jermyn Street Theatre

27Mar

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

The Marriage Of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein – Jermyn Street Theatre

Everything about Edward Einhorn's "The Marriage of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein" is an enigma. Is it comedy, tragedy, tragi-comedy? Farce? All of the above? It's a play within a play within a play in which everyone (audience included) has been invited to the wedding of Gertrude and Alice. The circles in which the two literary superstars of their time moved means that their guest list includes those who are regulars at their Paris salon. There is Picasso (along with one of his wives and two of his mistresses), T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and the less-than-welcome Ernest Hemingway who turns up uninvited with his wife and a matador pal. With such exalted company, the conversation naturally revolves about the nature of art, genius, fame, sex and love. Love is certainly...

27Mar

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

Psychodrama – Battersea Arts Centre

Sleepwalk Collective and Christopher Brett Bailey’s experimental piece is a fusion of titillation, poetic imagery and philosophical exploration. From the get-go, there is an overt sense that we are audience members with an assumed passive role, and we are reminded of the undulating relationship between the collective and our anonymity. It feels like we are slowly spacing out into a nebulous, creative void. There is terror and excitement and freshness, and we feel oddly safe as we enter it, guided by the two characters (Christopher and Lara) who feel just as lost as we are. Fragmented and episodic, the script is disorientating as it whispered through headphones, both soothing and unsettling like an ASMR. Its ambiguous storyline begins to piece together later in the play. With evocative, ...

Who You Are and What You Do – Bread and Roses Theatre

25Mar

By Aditi DalalNo Comments

London

Who You Are and What You Do – Bread and Roses Theatre

A children’s birthday party-cum-carnival is the vibe the audience gets as they enter a room full of confetti, balloons and streamers. You’re in for a rollercoaster ride of clapping away to Pharrell Williams’s ‘Happy’ before holding your breath as unexpected events unfold, bursting in sprouts of uncomfortable laughter and circling back to a joyful singing of “Happy Birthday.” Written by Hugh Dichmont, the play was the Top three winner of The Bread & Roses Playwriting Award 2019. Opening with an energetic clowning act, the show quickly turns the mood around and dives into darker themes. Five stories, seeking happiness in different ways, unfold part by part as a montage, except they never fully come together. The fragments are played in a different order in each show. They seem general...

24Mar

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Fatal Attraction – Richmond Theatre

From screen to stage, Fatal Attraction does make a long journey, making it relevant to a 21st-century audience after its release on screen 35 years ago. Written by the original screenwriter James Dearden, directed by Loveday Ingram, the play is indeed “a psychological thriller” and “a cautionary tale” as described by Ingram and Dearden respectively. The play opens suddenly with a swift shift in light and a suspenseful sound effect hushing a chatty audience and immediately demanding engagement. Dan Gallagher (Oliver Farnworth) is a lawyer, happily married to Beth Gallagher (Louise Redknapp). When Beth and Ellen (voiced by Charlotte Holden), their daughter, visit out of town, Dan’s casual drink with Alex Forrest (Susie Amy) at a recently opened bar turns into a one-night stand. What occur...

22Mar

By Chloe StallibrassNo Comments

London

School of Rock – New Wimbledon Theatre

School is in session at New Wimbledon Theatre as The School of Rock invites you to be 'in the band' until 26th of March. The story follows Dewey Finn (Jake Sharp) struggling to stay a member of a rock band whilst living with his old high school band mate Ned Schneebly (Matthew Rowland). He poses as Ned to undertake a position as a teacher in a prestigious school to pay his rent and to help boost his chances of winning The Battle of the Bands, leading to him creating his own band made up of the talented and gifted children of Horace Green. As always, I'm keen eyed towards the sets on the shows I see. This set was gorgeous for its transitions and used clever tricks to set the scene and create the key locations within the storyline. I particularly loved the giant sliding and rotating do...

17Mar

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Gulliver’s Travels – Unicorn Theatre

Gulliver’s adventures come to life with the bizarre and delightful production of Gulliver’s Travels playing at the Unicorn Theatre for age 7+. Directed by Jay Woodcock-Stewart, Lulu Raczka’s rendition of Jonathan’s Swift classic brilliantly uses form to share Gulliver’s narrative to a vivacious audience of young people accompanied by adults. Leah Brotherhood, Mae Munuo (Gulliver), Sam Swann, and Jacoba Williams make an energetic entrance to hip-hop music with a camera and a portable spotlight on a whitewashed stage with multiple tables set at a corner. They set the tone of the play, dancing and celebrating, interacting with the audience, and playing with the camera as their movements are projected on the white backdrop. Photo: Marc Brenner The narrative seamlessly begins as the da...