London Archives - Page 8 of 178

2Sep

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Sunrise for the Blind – Cockpit Theatre

Sunrise for the Blind by Lee Thomas doesn’t shy away from the mood of the material. On the Camden Fringe website, it’s described as a “raw, naturalistic portrayal of life in a bleak North Manchester town centre”. Many might give such a prospect a sharp swerve. One friend said to me, “I’m sorry, but I can’t face any more bleakness right now.” It’s a valid sentiment in the current climate, so I was shocked, but buzzed to see busy pews for a 4pm matinee. While some of Grey Brigade were out in force, it was cheering to see a surprisingly young audience lapping up new writing in a fringe theatre. As someone who once squatted in a derelict Hulme council estate in 1990, I regard Manchester as my second home. And as for bleakness, I’m drawn to it like a junkie to a meth pipe. The author ...

26Aug

By Phil MeikleNo Comments

London

The Choir of Man – Richmond Theatre

From the moment you enter the auditorium, The Choir of Man transports you to the world's most joyous pub lock-in. For two glorious hours, the stench of real-world toxic masculinity and male bravado is replaced by the clinking of pint glasses and the warm embrace of an inclusive, fun-filled tavern where everyone is welcome and encouraged to open their hearts. Originally conceived by Nic Doodson and Andrew Kay to celebrate human connection, the show loudly and proudly places men's mental health centre stage, with the charity CALM serving as the show's current charity partner. Here, the only male threat you'll find is that posed by the triple threat of nine incredibly talented singers, musicians and dancers performing together for the sheer joy of the shared experience. From its inception ...

26Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Belated – Etcetera Theatre

Celebrating a milestone birthday almost a year late might suggest poor organisation, but for Anna, it represents something far more purposeful: a refusal to let disappointment have the final word. In ‘Belated’, a postponed party becomes the stage upon which she takes stock of middle age, abandoned ambitions and the uncomfortable feeling that everybody else’s life has progressed more successfully than her own. Anna once worked as a professional dancer but now teaches Pilates to wealthy and famous clients. Approaching her 51st birthday, she is contending with the demands of motherhood, the aftermath of a painful separation and the lingering frustration of creative aspirations left unexplored. Rather than quietly accepting that those opportunities have passed, she transforms her long d...

24Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Mates – The Courtyard Theatre

Four Face Theatre’s ‘Mates’ begins with an appealing comic problem: four friends, based on a misplaced promise, have secured the resources and financial backing to stage a new production but have yet to decide what that production should be. Each arrives with different artistic ambitions, and their attempts to develop a coherent piece soon become a contest between personalities, insecurities and conflicting definitions of meaningful theatre. This framework gives the company considerable room for invention, and the action repeatedly shifts into imagined productions proposed by the characters, enabling the show to experiment with contrasting genres and performance styles. Within this theatrical patchwork are amusing observations about masculinity, social privilege, conspiracy culture ...

24Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Maz Pantz – Canal Café Theatre

Created and performed by Mary Redmond, ‘Maz Pantz’ arrives at the Camden Fringe with considerable confidence, promising a character-led sketch show combining physical comedy, mime, cinematic voice-over and cleverly constructed material. Unfortunately, the performance itself falls some considerable distance short of that promise. Across approximately 45 minutes, Redmond introduces an assortment of eccentric characters through a succession of sketches, some of whom return throughout the show. There is certainly imagination behind the concept, and Redmond commits enthusiastically to each creation, employing physicality, recorded sound and exaggerated characterisation to distinguish between them. On paper, this should be a fun show, however the difficulty is that the comedy rarely la...

21Aug

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Earworm – Camden People’s Theatre

Earworm by Gur Arie Piepskovitz is pitched as an ‘anti-rom-com’ and certainly succeeds in presenting the contemporary queer relationship as a prospect of conflict, contradiction and angst. The story concerns alternative cabaret singer Guy (Avihud Tidhar), who is dating queer academic John (Brodie Bass). They are motivated by distinctly varying ambitions and have different needs in their relationship, which is obviously heading towards collapse. In a bold, post-modern meta move, Earworm opens with Guy (Tidhar) directly addressing the audience, as he tries to select a song to open the show. Waylon Jacobs and Reece Lewis sit either side of Guy, acting as an arch, critical chorus, analysing the emotional manipulations of theatrical conventions. The pair savage Guy’s efforts in real time...

21Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

The Waiting – Riverside Studios

Written and performed by Nina-Lou Bricard, ‘The Waiting’ is an intense, uncompromising and frequently traumatic one-woman show. Developed from a one-minute monologue, it takes the polished exterior of beauty, modelling, success and glamour and tears violently through its surface. Bricard plays a former French supermodel who abandons her wedding, quite literally a runaway bride, providing the starting point for a turbulent examination of identity, relationships, trauma and the experiences that have shaped her. What follows is certainly not comfortable theatre. The material is raw and deeply personal in its presentation, with some experiences depicted graphically and without attempting to soften their impact. Bricard delivers it with extraordinary commitment and passion. Her performanc...

20Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Dear Lihua – Canal Café Theatre

‘Dear Lihua’ is a highly accomplished piece of theatre, delicately constructed and performed with remarkable tenderness. Written by Xinyi Chen and directed by Zhaoyi Ying, this bilingual English and Mandarin production explore the loneliness of living abroad, the strain of communicating in a language that is not your own and the painful compromises sometimes demanded by cultural assimilation. After dying in London, Qiuqiu awakens in an “English-speaking heaven”, where even the afterlife is governed by bureaucracy and paperwork. To earn enough points to return to China, she is assigned to the “Department of Unanswered Letters” by God, sorting through correspondence that never received a reply. Among the abandoned words, she repeatedly encounters letters addressed to Lihua, gradually ...

How Do I Love Thee? – Circle and Star Theatre

19Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

How Do I Love Thee? – Circle and Star Theatre

Inspired by the life and work of English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, ‘How Do I Love Thee?’ is an ambitious and emotionally intelligent piece of new writing from new company Aside Hustle. Tracing the Victorian poet’s journey from confinement in England to liberation in Italy with Robert Browning, Ruby Thomas’s script explores creativity, illness, love and the struggle of a woman determined to be heard in a society intent on restricting her. There is considerable beauty in the writing. Drawing upon Browning’s poetry and correspondence, Thomas constructs a thoughtful portrait of an artist discovering the courage to define herself. Her script possesses genuine emotional power and demonstrates substantial future potential, particularly in its examination of the relationship between ...

Jeeves Takes Charge – Charing Cross Theatre

19Aug

By Charlotte MansfieldNo Comments

London

Jeeves Takes Charge – Charing Cross Theatre

A comedy of manners from a by-gone era, Jeeves Takes Charge is a highly enjoyable two hours in the company of P.G. Wodehouse's famous duo. Jeeves and Wooster are brought to life by Sam Harrison, who has the daunting task of playing both, as well as a host of other characters, from a schoolgirl to a doddering uncle, in this fast-paced one-man show. Written and performed first in 1980, the play is a collection of Wodehouse's short stories, one of them from Jeeves' perspective, showing some of the ridiculous situations that Bertie finds himself in. In Wodehouse's world, women are either fickle or domineering and men are boorish or inept, and no one is more incompetent than Bertie Wooster. Fortunately, he has a remarkable valet, Jeeves, to get him out of trouble. Co-creator of the show, ...