London Archives - Page 97 of 114

10Oct

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Roots – Wilton’s Music Hall

As I found myself settling into my seat at the historic Wilton’s Music Hall, I registered a strange feeling. Perhaps it was the humdrum of excited, hushed voices that swept the hall or maybe it was the fact that we were all gathered here, together, to listen to some folk tales. However, what followed next completely disarmed me (in a good way) and for the next hour, I surrendered myself to the lure of a good story. Independent performance company 1927’S Roots is a playful, multi-faceted exploration of stories from a simpler time. Written and directed by Suzanne Andrade with Paul Barritt on animation and design, the show is an anthology of ancient folk tales from the Aarne index which has categorized and numbered thousands of stories from all over the world. 1927’s trademark aesthetic combi...

Behind Closed Doors – Christ Church Spitalfields

8Oct

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Behind Closed Doors – Christ Church Spitalfields

If there’s one thing that transcends linguistic, cultural and socio-political boundaries for humans, it’s our curiosity about other human beings. More specifically, the people who live in our neighbourhoods and their lives. Multicultural collective 27 Degrees seeks to bring forth this innate curiosity about people who live next door to us through their show Behind Closed Doors, a site-specific theatrical experience that unfolds on the streets of East London. The journey begins at the steps of Christ Church in Spitalfields where you are invited to put on your headphones and access the audio instructions. Step by step, you are introduced to the rules of the world and you begin your journey on foot. Guided by audio, you cross different streets in and around Spitalfields. As you progress, y...

8Oct

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Eulogy – National Theatre Courtyard

Before I even arrived at the courtyard outside the National Theatre, I could see the large white container with EULOGY written in black letters along the side. In the ten minutes I was waiting for the performance to begin, two people came up to me and asked me what it was. It’s unusual for something to stick out on the Southbank – there are street performers and installations most weeks – but there’s something mysterious about the Eulogy set up that immediately captures your interest. Performance isn’t quite the right word; Eulogy is billed as an in-person, immersive experience and I can’t think of another way to sum it up. We take our seats in our “suite” don a pair of headphones and are plunged into such extreme darkness that at times I wasn’t sure if my eyes were open or closed. I’ve...

7Oct

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Fritz & Matlock – The Pleasance Theatre

Fritz & Matlock is a new two-hander play by James Wallwork and Salvatore D'Aquilla that makes its way to the Pleasance Theatre’s autumn programming, after being written over Zoom during the pandemic. The show, produced by Part of the Main and directed by Jessica Millward, has been described as a contemporary 'Waiting for Godot’, an almost tongue-in-cheek reference to how its two titular characters find themselves trapped in a dingy basement, grappling with the consequences of an unfortunate incident, and are waiting to make their next move. These are childhood friends Carl Fritz (D'Aquilla) and Barry Matlock (Wallwork) whose vastly different outlooks on life are, perhaps, only exceeded by their considerably different approaches to the situation at hand. The story begins sometime mid...

5Oct

By Clare ChandlerNo Comments

London

Hamlet – Young Vic

Cush Jumbo is the big draw in this production of Shakespeare’s classic play, whipping up a storm as the tempestuous Prince of Elsinore. Cross gender, or gender blind, casting of this legendary protagonist is not a new fad, indeed the first ‘female’ Hamlet graced a London stage in 1796 - when Elizabeth Powell took on the role. There is also a 12th century Danish legend that states that he was in fact a she, and that Hamlet’s gender had been hidden by their mother to protect their claim to the throne. In Greg Hersov’s production Jumbo’s ‘unmanly grief’ is the undoing of Elsinore as Hersov’s edited text (which still runs at over three hours) aims for a mystery thriller flow to bring the piece alive for a contemporary audience. At its most successful the performance is an absolut...

2Oct

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Snowflakes – Old Red Lion Theatre

A man awakes in a hotel room, unsure of how he arrived there. He is agitated, struggling to make sense of his situation when two strangers arrive with a deadly mission. The hotel door is locked, and it will stay locked until the job is done. In Snowflakes, writer Robert Boulton presents a thought-provoking piece of theatre, exploring a number of issues that have been tackled in recent popular fiction, including programmes like Black Mirror and the Saw films. In a society where so many feel unjustly treated, where is the line between right and wrong, judgement and punishment and criminality? Who is the real ‘bad guy’, and how far will people go to see that justice is done? If it’s not an entirely unique plot – I found the ending satisfying if not a little predictable – what really sto...

How To Survive An Apocalypse – Finborough Theatre

1Oct

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

How To Survive An Apocalypse – Finborough Theatre

"No-one wins the end of the world." This just about sums up Jordan Hall's witty and timely rom-com-drama "How To Survive An Apocalypse" which tracks a millennial couple's sudden financial collapse and how this leads them to question their smart urban lifestyle and adopt a survivalist mentality. Realising that they are not at all prepared for a natural disaster or catastrophic failure of society, they start to learn what they will need to survive. They quickly find that Jen's skills of running a lifestyle magazine and Ben's coding ability have left them remarkably lacking when it comes to survival in a potential post-apocalyptic world of no food, water or electricity. They can just about buy bottled water and tinned goods with their maxed-out credit cards, but becoming hun...

Witness For the Prosecution – London County Hall

30Sep

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Witness For the Prosecution – London County Hall

‘Witness For the Prosecution’ started its life as a short story called ‘Traitor Hands’. Agatha Christie herself thought the story wasn’t anything special, but her theatre producer Peter Saunders, thought he could develop the story into a courtroom drama for the stage. Christie challenged him to adapt the story into a play and he took her up on it. She dismissed his attempt but went ahead and wrote her own version which became one of her greatest achievements as a dramatist. The play received its West End debut at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1953 and the following year opened on Broadway. The setting at the London County Hall could not be bettered for its authenticity. The courtroom feel, fits perfectly with the play’s location at the Old Bailey, where the ...

29Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Tokyo Rose – Southwark Theatre

‘Tokyo Rose was a legend, but Iva Toguri lived.’ It’s this simple yet decisive line, delivered just before its concluding musical number, which encapsulates the interplay between the personal and the political in this extraordinary production. Tokyo Rose is a powerful testament to the life and trials endured by Iva Toguri, an American citizen of Japanese heritage, who was accused of treason by the US Government in the aftermath of the World War II. The title refers to the nickname given to the female radio broadcasters trusted with spreading Japanese propaganda to the Allied Forces and prisoners of war captured by the Axis forces. Blending Iva’s personal journey of coming to terms with the duality of her heritage and upbringing as well as a larger socio-political narrative about the fallou...

Back to the Future: The Musical – Adelphi Theatre

28Sep

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Back to the Future: The Musical – Adelphi Theatre

Synchronise your watches folks, because you are about to head back in time at a speedy 88mph with Marty McFly and that famous DeLorean. Exploding onto the stage, London’s Adelphi Theatre’s most recent production is a musical adaptation of Robert Zemeckis’s hit 1985 time-travel movie, ‘Back to the Future: The Musical’. If you are going to open a new West End musical based on a cult 80’s movie classic, then you need to do it with some style, and that’s exactly what ‘Back to the Future: The Musical’ has achieved without compromising at all the legacy of the movies. With music and lyrics by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard and a book by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, adapted from their screenplay of the 1985 film, this is a high-tech, multidimensional, magically cinematic production, that qui...