London Archives - Page 9 of 170

Sherlock Holmes – Regents Park Open Air Theatre

15May

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Sherlock Holmes – Regents Park Open Air Theatre

Sherlock Holmes is back in his home place at the Regents Park Open Air Theatre from the 2nd May to the 6th June. This atmospheric theatre is a perfect backdrop for Conan Doyle’s favourite detective to come alive. And he does not disappoint. Horwood’s’ writing and Sean Holmes theatrical and high energy adaptation of Sherlock, captures the presence of this serendipitous sleuth as he and Watson unravel another mystery, under a damp lit moody sky of Victorian London. The set appears simplistic in the round but don’t be fooled as there is so much going on. The scene changes are rapid and unfolds in front of your eyes. This is a brisk moving story line and at times it was difficult to keep up with the switch in movement, characters and the unfolding plot. In some scenes the lines were deli...

The Last Man – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

15May

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

The Last Man – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Deep down in an underground bunker made of concrete and reinforced steel, our unnamed protagonist (played by Lex Lee on press night, alternating the role with Nabi Brown) is seeking shelter from a zombie apocalypse caused by a mysterious unknown virus. As he stocks up his new abode with bulk bought food and supplies, some audience members may feel a shudder of deja vu as there is a touch of the COVID-19 about it all. But not to worry – there aren’t any Zoom quizzes or clashing of pots and pans this time. Photo: Rich Lakos/ArenaPAL Instead, The Last Man, a new English translation of Jishik Kim and Seungyeon Kwon’s Korean musical with dramaturgy from Jethro Compton, follows the protagonist as he reckons with what it takes to survive against all odds and leave the life he once knew behi...

15May

By Zandra OdetundeNo Comments

London

Noughts & Crosses – Hackney Empire

Noughts & Crosses arrives on stage with traces of something oxymoronically freshly familiar. Adapted from Malorie Blackman’s landmark novel, this production takes a story many already know and makes it feel sharper, stranger, more physical, and more painful in the flesh. Set in an alternate society where racial power is reversed, the play follows Sephy and Callum, whose relationship unfolds in a world determined to divide them. The production’s strongest moments are visual and physical. The first hanging scene is spectacularly staged, with the use of red creating beautiful and horrific image. The physical theatre is some of the best I have seen in a long time, especially in the sequence of the bombing, where movement and violence seem to collapse into one another. With only ...

14May

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

BalletBoyz at 25 – Sadler’s Wells

What does a 25-year retrospective owe us? Nostalgia, certainly. A greatest-hits reel, perhaps. What BalletBoyz offer instead at Sadler’s Wells is something more rigorous: a map of possibility. Photo: Hugo Glendinning Curated from works commissioned since 2001 by Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, BalletBoyz at 25 resists the flattening instinct of retrospectives. The evening moves with intent across forms, aesthetics, and dramaturgies, not as a sampler but as an argument. Movement is not one language. It is many, and they do not always agree. The opening triptych, Critical Mass, Motor Cortex, and Ripple, operates almost like a study in physics. Bodies fold, suspend, and redistribute weight as if governed by invisible laws. In Motor Cortex, choreographed by Seirian Griffiths with li...

14May

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

An Ideal Husband – Lyric Hammersmith

An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde is given a fresh and contemporary adaptation at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, blending Wilde’s classic wit with modern cultural references and humour. The story follows London high society as the mysterious Mrs Cheveley returns, using blackmail and manipulation to gain influence and expose secrets hidden beneath society’s polished surface. Visually, the production is striking. Although the set is relatively minimal, it feels grand enough to reflect the wealth and prestige of London society. The elegant tiled flooring and open staging successfully create the atmosphere of lavish drawing rooms. The costumes are another major highlight, filled with sophistication and extravagance that perfectly capture the glamour and excess associated with the upper classes. ...

14May

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

1536 – Ambassador’s Theatre

In 1536 Anne Boleyn, then married to Henry VIII, was accused of treason, locked up in the Tower of London and subsequently executed. Her only real crime, not providing an heir. From the publicity material surrounding this play you would think that that is what it is going to be about. It is not. The setting is a village in Essex, in a small clearing with a large tree stump and tall grasses. Here three village women, Anna, Jane and Mariella, live out their intertwined lives in a highly patrimonial society where women's status and lives count for little. They hear the stories of the arrest and fate of the Queen which they can scarcely credit, but it has little relevance to their lives. Or does it? In their rural microcosm they are subjected to the same misogyny and arbitrary male decision...

13May

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

Blood Brothers – Richmond Theatre

The classic and much-loved musical Blood Brothers returns to Richmond Theatre, bringing Willy Russell’s iconic story back to the stage with emotion, humour and heartbreak. Written by Willy Russell, Blood Brothers tells the tragic story of the Johnstone twins, separated at birth and raised in completely different households, unaware that they are brothers. Despite growing up in contrasting worlds, fate continually draws them back together, forming a lifelong friendship as “blood brothers”. The story powerfully explores themes of class, family, destiny and whether blood really is thicker than water. Kristofer Harding was outstanding as the Narrator, commanding the stage whenever he appeared. His presence helped guide the audience through the story while creating a constant sense of ten...

Godot’s To-Do List and Krapp’s Last Tape – The Royal Court

12May

By Eleanor HallNo Comments

London

Godot’s To-Do List and Krapp’s Last Tape – The Royal Court

The double bill at the Royal Court (Leo Simpe-Asante’s curtain raiser, followed by Samuel Beckett’s classic). Godot’s To-Do List charts an endless number of tasks for its protagonist, the number of which is quantified by a party popper sound effect. Flora Ashton’s quasi supermarket checkout voice is a playful antithesis to Shakeel Hakim’s Godot, a frantic figure decked out in suit and bowler hat. Such tasks range from the banal to the impossible to the repetitive, with chunks of overlapping lines generating either acute tension or comedy. In this world, assumptions are questioned or subverted: i.e. when it is suggested that the omnipotent voice would make a good one for something akin to a mindfulness podcast, it later traps Godot within in a repeated instruction to ‘take a breath’. ...

12May

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

Escaped Alone – The Coronet Theatre

Escaped Alone at The Coronet Theatre is one of those productions that feels perpetually on the verge of becoming something unsettling and profound, yet never quite arrives there. Directed by Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli and Alessandro Ferroni, this Italian-language adaptation of Caryl Churchill’s 2016 play certainly has atmosphere, but little dramatic momentum. The premise is deceptively simple: four older women sit in a suburban garden, chatting about ordinary things: cats, television, old memories, drinks, passing time... Beneath the surface, each carries some private fracture or trauma. Every so often, one of them steps out of the everyday realism to deliver apocalyptic monologues describing floods, disease, famine and societal collapse, while projections and sound design suggest a world qui...

12May

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Company – Bridewell Theatre

Stephen Sondheim's Company won six Tony Awards for its original 1970 US production. Its witty and innovative format of a series of vignettes, focusing on the central character Bobby, stunned audiences then and continues to delight with a message that's as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. It's Bobby's 35th birthday and he's reluctantly at a surprise party thrown by his friends. Surrounded by married and single friends, ex- and current girlfriends, Bobby witnesses the swirl of emotions, the joy and the heartbreak of being in relationships of all types. As the drink, weed and emotions flow, Bobby's married friends set him up with dates and try to persuade him that he needs to be married. But Bobby isn't wholly wedded to the idea of commitment, and it seems his married friends are ...