London Archives - Page 87 of 106

24Oct

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Birdwatching – London Horror Festival

I was pretty excited about the London Horror Festival, because I am a self-confessed horror fanatic. There are various fascinating psychological theories around why people like to feel fear which I’m not qualified to cite here or expand on, but for me it boils down to excitement. Books, plays, films, rollercoasters; it’s all about getting the adrenaline pumping around your body but also knowing that you are, at all times, perfectly safe. Perfectly safe is not how Amy (Karen Barredo), one of the three characters in Birdwatching, would describe her position. An actress of small notoriety having appeared in a few slasher B movies, Amy arrives at a shelter deep in the woods to take on the role of Kate, accompanied by Pete (Arno van Zelst) - cameraman by trade, actor to help a friend – and H...

The Body Remembers – Battersea Arts Centre

24Oct

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

The Body Remembers – Battersea Arts Centre

‘The Body Remembers’ created and performed by Heather Agyepong in collaboration with Fuel, creates a space to view ‘The Mover’ realising and releasing from their trauma. This piece opens a conversation in how the body has memory of trauma where the mind may forget, how the body will create physical responses which may not have any explanation other than the trauma of its experience. Focusing particularly on the experience of Black British women in trauma recovery we watch The Mover express through ‘Authentic Movement’ whilst her shadow follows her lead through a large projector, bold beautiful colours combined with simplistic images and quotes from women playing overhead, which seem planted at just the right moments. Knowing that the Mover is reacting through improvisation seems all the...

One Man Poe Livestream – The Space Online

23Oct

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

One Man Poe Livestream – The Space Online

Written in the 1840’s by Edgar Allan Poe, this quartet of short stories and a poem show off to best effect Poe’s interest in the dark side of human nature. Many writers have been inspired by the works of Poe, who pioneered the genre of ‘horror’, and his work is still as popular today. Artistic Director of Threedumb Theatre, Stephen Smith has taken his passion for gothic horror and the original works of Poe and created a one-person show using an unknown narrator to deliver these authentic Poe tales. Smith is directing and performing all the roles himself. First off is ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, a disturbing look inside the mind of an unnamed narrator who is believed to be insane, but he will try to convince the audience that he is sane, by describing the events that led up to a brutal murder...

The Shark is Broken – Ambassadors Theatre

22Oct

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

The Shark is Broken – Ambassadors Theatre

There are few movies as instantly identifiable by the first few bars of their theme tune. The "Jaws" theme - and the movie - became an iconic hit after the film's release in 1975. The film itself may have been thrilling and horrifying, but the drama that went on behind the scenes was also amazing. Bruce, the titular mechanical star of the film, broke down after salt water corroded his insides. This left the three human stars, Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss, with nothing to do until the production team could get the shark back up and chomping on the people of Amity Island. This slice of real life has been turned into this wonderfully original production that wowed audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2019. It's not hard to see why it was such a hit. A...

22Oct

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Flushed – Park Theatre

For many of us, our closest confidantes have been our siblings. From secrets and admissions, including the ones within shared knowledge and the ones deliberately kept hidden from each other, this relationship is equally unique in its love-hate characteristics. In Catherine Cranfield’s play Flushed, we see this contradiction at play through the story of sisters Marnie and Jen. From boy problems and adulthood woes to annoying habits and profound decisions, they rely on each other for better and for worse. Unfolding as a series of unfiltered conversations shared between cubicle walls of public bathrooms, we meet the older sister Marnie (Elizabeth Hammerton) who tries to play by the rules and is working hard to become a self-functioning adult. Her hopes for a fulfilling romantic relationshi...

22Oct

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Sold – Park Theatre

Mary Prince lived an extraordinary life. Born into enslavement in Bermuda in 1788, her life was filled with struggle and pain, but she refused to let it define who she was. Her book ‘The History of Mary Prince’ published in 1831 offers a first-hand account of the brutalities of the slavery regime in the British Caribbean colonies of the time, and forms the source material for Kuumba Nia Arts’ show ‘Sold’. Through theatre, song, music, drumming and dance, we witness Mary’s momentous journey, from childhood to her late 40s, which had an electrifying effect on the abolitionist movement. Directed by Euton Daley and written (and performed) by Amantha Edmead, the show intends to offer a chronological retelling of Mary’s life, tracing her experiences as a young woman of colour trying to come t...

Epic Love and Pop Songs – New Wimbledon Theatre

21Oct

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Epic Love and Pop Songs – New Wimbledon Theatre

What do you call a musical that isn’t really a musical but sort of is a musical? And how do you explain it to people who might want to see the not-quite-a-play but not-quite-a-musical? Here is my attempt: Epic Love and Pop Songs is confusing; think Marmite but for your cultural tastebuds. The story explores the complex dynamics of teenage friendship; needing to find your tribe, wanting to belong and wanting to stick out at the same time, the politics of the secondary school hierarchy. It also looks at love, loss and tragedy - Doll and Ted are teenage friends, bound together by hurt and need, and their friendship will eventually be the making or the end of them both. From the off, the stage is cluttered and it’s not clear why, the basic props sort of work but I didn’t understand the c...

Chop Me Up or Let Me Go – Hen & Chickens Theatre

21Oct

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Chop Me Up or Let Me Go – Hen & Chickens Theatre

Among the things that we all have collectively experienced over the past year, one of them has to be the physical and mental limits we are pushed to in confinement (read: lockdown). This set-up is not unfamiliar to the dramatic world – being stuck in a place with nowhere to go and nothing to do – and has been aptly used as a narrative structure in this new production by the Albiston Line Theatre Company. Chop Me Up or Let Me Go is a terse two-hander written and directed by Lesley Ann Albiston that explores survival, obsession and human relations through the lens of its two characters. Thomas Reynolds, a famous actor, has been kidnapped by Astrid Barton, a researcher who swears she’s his biggest fan. Astrid’s motives for the kidnapping aren’t particularly clear but it’s evident that Thomas ...

19Oct

By Pooja SivaramanNo Comments

London

10 Nights – Bush Theatre

A playwright once told me that a good play will tell you exactly what they’re about in the title itself, because in storytelling, simple is good. 10 Nights is about a young man named Yasser and his decision to take part in itikaf for the last ten nights of Ramadan. The story is at once delightfully simple and gracefully complicated. Originally a one-man show written by Shahid Iqbal Khan, the production is directed by Kash Arshad and enacted by three people: Zaqi Ismail as Yasser, Safyan Iqbal as Aftab (Yasser’s friend who we find out early on has died), and Sumayya Si-Tayeb / Chandrika Gopalakrishnan who acts both as Aneela (Aftab’s girlfriend) and the performance interpreter of the show. The show is audio described, is captioned in English and Urdu, and inventively integrates British Sign...

17Oct

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Yellowfin – Southwark Playhouse

Yellowfin: Marek Horn’s second play and hilarious dive into the mindset of a life in a possible near future? Set in one room, we watch Calantini (Joshua James) interrogated by three senators: Marianne (Nancy Crane), Stephen (Beruce Khan) and the very sweet Roy (Nicholas Day) who reminds us all of our favourite family elder who cannot help but share their favourite memories of a time before. This play tackles a theme of which we are all apart of but also touches on something only a few may admit too: responsibility of the outcome. Calantini is questioned harshly about the death of his brother in relation to the disappearance of fish. He floats through their attacks skilfully with humour and pace, something this cast excelled at. Although this runs straight through with no interval, the a...