London Archives - Page 95 of 150

8Feb

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

London

Quench – Vault Festival

I bet you’ve walked past a drinks vending machine many times in your life and never given a second thought to the lives of those who reside within. Those cartons, cans and bottles all illuminated and waiting to be picked have lives too – or so that’s what Quench made me realise. Set in a vending machine in a leisure centre facing closure we follow the tragi-comedy lives of Appletania, Sparkling, Fizzy Orange and Electrolyte. If it sounds absurd – it is, but the minimal yet effective costumes and behavioural tics make this an incredibly believable set – and idea. Despite sounding like an insane idea for a play, this works really well to tell the story of the hopes, dreams and fears of life. On the surface this may be a funny comedy, but there’s a depth to the writing that leaves t...

Titus Andronicus – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

2Feb

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Titus Andronicus – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

The Globe’s winter fest comes to its closing but not before tackling Shakespeare’s most gruesome tragedy directed by Jude Christian, with an all-female cast bringing us the horror tale without an ounce of blood spilling. Knowing it to be the bloodiest tale, I sat down with sight swell of excitement to how they might butcher each other on stage but what I received was quite the opposite and I don’t think I was too mad about it. Our two opposing leaders, Titus and Saturninus played by Katy Stephens and Lucy McCormick bring a delightful contrast between power and how to use it. McCormick utterly rocks the stage, stealing more than a glance at every moment they perform with force, making a parody of every male leader as we know them in classics creating a clown of who we should respect the mos...

<strong>Vix & Helen – Vault Festival</strong>

2Feb

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Vix & Helen – Vault Festival

Performed in a small brick theatre in the vault located under waterloo station creating an atmosphere; an intimate feeling of being alone with the characters. The stage set out to replicate a school locker room, simplistic but instantly recognisable. The play centred on a bemusing incident involving Vix played by Heloise Spring and Helen (Lucy Sherraft) younger siblings. Vix and Helen are friends however their friendship is intertwined with complexities of family life, their friendship and feelings of how they are perceived by each other as well as the outside world. Their story is peppered with confliction and expression of thoughts created by the turmoil they feel about themselves and how they are perceived by others. Helen is tall and effervescent in her approach to life unlike V...

My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) – Ambassadors Theatre

2Feb

By Jennifer LaishleyNo Comments

London

My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) – Ambassadors Theatre

My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) is a fabulous solo show that sets out to educate the audience and re-claim the word Queer as something to be celebrated! Rob Madge has successfully crafted a piece of theatre that is heart-warmingly hilarious and poignantly moving. The message is obvious, yet powerful: you should let everyone be who they are. Rob openly shares the highs and lows of their magical childhood and explains how Rob’s family encourage them to shine. The structure of the show itself is powerful: 7 steps of putting on a Disney Parade in your living room. Using clips from their family video archive, Rob explains how we can make life magical just by using our imaginations. Rob’s ode to Disney encapsulates the joy and relatable challenges of childhood. The show is written as ...

<strong>Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons – Harold Pinter Theatre</strong>

1Feb

By Aditi DalalNo Comments

London

Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons – Harold Pinter Theatre

Bernadette and Oliver meet at a cat's funeral. One of them is an aspiring musician and the other is a lawyer. One of them has parents who ‘live in a castle’ and the other doesn’t want to have anything to do with the circumstances they worked their way upwards from. As they begin to get to know each other, their past and present, they’re presented with a challenge - they have a strict limit on the amount of words available to speak each day. How many do they need at work and how many can they use at a party? How many are they left with to communicate with each other? What happens when one of them has more words left than the other and what happens when they run out completely? While they use made-up abbreviations and morse code to navigate the literal challenge, what does not having enough ...

<strong>Welcome Home – Soho Theatre</strong>

30Jan

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

Welcome Home – Soho Theatre

Willy Hudson takes us on an adventure into a lurid, phantasmagoria of his past. It begins with Willy returning to his parents’ house after a messy breakup, which ignites memories of the past as he inadvertently seeks closure. The older Willy decides to avenge himself and portrays himself as the villain, fighting the good. With clever Doctor Who crossovers, comparing monsters to certain daunting figures in his life, Hudson’s personal story feels epic. Hudson is an engaging storyteller with sass and warm expressiveness, keeping the narrative buoyant throughout with direction from Zach James. His descriptive, visual script evokes nostalgia, and the conversations are naturalistic with comedic undertones as Willy re-enacts them. The back and forth time jumping was in keeping with the Doctor ...

<strong>Sound of the Underground – Royal Court</strong>

27Jan

By SJ RobertsNo Comments

London

Sound of the Underground – Royal Court

‘Sound of the Underground’ by Travis Alabanza [BURGERZ, Before I Step Outside [You Love Me] and co-created by Debbie Hannan [Constellations, The Panopticon] is an angry, ambivalent, and vibrant call to arms in a crisis of money, dignity, culture and community. This brilliant two act evening of radical art, comprised of some of the brightest stars in the current grass roots drag scene, presents us with these problems and the/a solution- radical art and the rejection of commodification. After a review style introduction to the show (heavily featuring the excellently crass Midgitte Bardot), we are presented with a one scene play. Informed by the traditional theatre setting and location (the salubrious Sloane Square) the curtain rises to a modern kitchen box set. The play begins: beige, ...

<strong>The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Jack Studio Theatre</strong>

27Jan

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Jack Studio Theatre

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886 will be familiar to many. However, in order to avoid impairing the pleasure of those who do not know the story I will be circumspect in this review about the plot. This one-man stage adaptation has been written and performed by Mark Stratford. It closely follows the plot and characterisation in Stevenson's original. The play starts with the investigating officer Inspector Newcomen explaining to the audience of background to the case and introducing the testimony of Gabriel Utterson, the lawyer and friend of Dr Henry Jekyll. Concerned by the strange behaviour and disappearance of his friend plus a strange will left in his keep, Utterson starts to investigate and soon comes across the str...

<strong>Noises Off – Phoenix Theatre</strong>

27Jan

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Noises Off – Phoenix Theatre

Michael Frayn’s ‘Noises Off’ is 41 years old this year, and yet it still manages to hold the audience in stiches from start to finish. Even after all this time, it remains a highly entertaining and truly hilarious comedy. In the very unlikely event that the reader is unfamiliar with the storyline, it is a farce within a farce, following the comedic and highly energetic mishaps of a small time theatre company as they perform a fictional play, "Nothing On". Frayn’s expertly crafted script, filled with puns, innuendo, snappy one-liners, and physical comedy, keeps the audience in fits of laughter throughout, and this latest version’s pacing is spot-on, with expertly choreographed action, and impeccable timing of jokes, which is a testament to Lindsay Posner’s skilful direction and the brill...

<strong>In Clay – VAULT Festival</strong>

26Jan

By Zara OdetundeNo Comments

London

In Clay – VAULT Festival

This is the first show I have seen at the 2023 VAULT festival and what a start. In Clay is one of the best new musicals I have seen, full of heart and passion, it was an experience I won’t soon forget. In Clay is a one-woman musical based on the life of Marie-Berthe Cazin, a French artist. The story is set in her home in the suburbs of Paris in the 1930s. When we meet her in this story, Marie is awaiting the arrival of her fellow artist friend Henrietta. As she waits, she starts to tell the story of how they met in school and as a result the story of her life thus far. She is reflecting on her journey and career, thinking about what could have been and how she ended up on her current path. Rosalind Ford is very charming as Marie. Her comedic timing bundled with her ability to convey ...