REVIEWS Archives - Page 12 of 641

5Oct

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Soho Electric – Phoenix Arts Club

There are few venues better suited to a night of unapologetically bold cabaret than the Phoenix Arts Club, and ‘Soho Electric’ feels completely at home within its intimate surroundings. Bringing together drag, burlesque, live music and variety performance, this is a gloriously eclectic celebration of cabaret with a distinctly rock-and-roll heartbeat. At the centre of the evening is Vanity Von Glow, who proves to be the perfect host. She is charismatic, quick-witted and effortlessly comfortable working the room to establish an immediate, somewhat naughty connection with the audience, and manages to maintain it throughout. With a voice seemingly built for a rock ballad, Vanity brings genuine power to the musical numbers, combining the theatricality of cabaret with the energy of a rock...

5Oct

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Eurydice – Assembly Roxy Upstairs

There is something particularly satisfying about watching a young theatre company begin to find its feet. Earlier this year, I reviewed GUTTER.’s first production, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, in this same upstairs room at the Assembly Roxy. I admired the ambition, enjoyed the show and suggested this was an Edinburgh company worth watching. Six months later, Eurydice represents another step forward. There is an interesting connection between the two choices. Stoppard takes two peripheral characters from Hamlet and gives them their own story. American playwright Sarah Ruhl does something similar with the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. We all know Orpheus: the great musician who descends into the Underworld to retrieve his dead wife, o...

Taming of the Shrew: A Kinky Retelling – Bread and Roses Theatre

5Oct

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Taming of the Shrew: A Kinky Retelling – Bread and Roses Theatre

Brush up your Shakespeare and begrime your mind ahead of time to wring all possible pleasure from this depraved and debaucherous play. Shrewd in its commentary on gender and power play but refreshingly earnest in its treatment of romance, this feel good bad boy adaptation is a delight to sink your teeth into. The bite of its unabashedly lewd and unrestrainedly hedonistic humour does little to shield the vulnerability at the story’s heart, that of two people who think they might be able to make something good together that neither one of them has alone. Unremittingly hilarious over the roughly hour-long runtime of raw hijinks, performers Zak Rosen (Petruchio) and Paige Hann (Katharina) nonetheless conjure moments of disarming beauty in the frenzy of arming, dismantling, subverting...

Barnum: The Circus Musical – New Wimbledon Theatre

5Oct

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Barnum: The Circus Musical – New Wimbledon Theatre

Barnum a spectacular show that takes time to find Its rhythm. Matt Rawle is P.T. Barnum, and he is here to entertain you. This long-standing, iconic musical arrived in Wimbledon with plenty to impress, and to some degree, it really did. The production showcased some impressive and highly skilled acrobatics, alongside talented musicians and actors who brought considerable energy and ability to the stage. The staging was well executed, although it felt somewhat restricted by the relatively small scale of the venue. This was, of course, beyond the production’s control, but it did unfortunately limit some of the grandeur and magnificence that this musical is known for. Act One was long, and slow-paced and occasionally stilted. There were also moments when the performances seemed to lack ...

What The Animals Say – Finborough Theatre

4Oct

By Prateek SonnyNo Comments

London

What The Animals Say – Finborough Theatre

What The Animals Say is the first play written by David Ireland. This production is directed by Harry Burton, and stars Robbie Martin as Eddie, a star footballer, and Matthew Blaney as Jimmy, a struggling actor. The play opens at a ferry station, where the two await a ferry to Belfast. They begin to reconnect after recognising each other as classmates from their younger days in Northern Ireland. The script explores themes of sectarianism, masculinity, class and identity through conversations about football, films, goals, aspirations and the contrasting opinions of its two characters. Jimmy is an intellectual, seemingly progressive modern man, while Eddie is the stereotypical brawny lad. Both actors bring an explosive energy to the confrontation. Martin plays the bull-headed celebrity fo...

4Oct

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

Othello – HOME Mcr

This striking co-production between Northern Stage, HOME Manchester, Citizens Theatre, and Royal & Derngate delivers a stark, modernised vision of Shakespeare’s Othello. Director Anthony Almeida transports the tragic downfall of the Venetian general to early 1980s Britain against the backdrop of the Falklands War, reimagining Cyprus as an isolated, high-strung military outpost. The period shift proves remarkably effective, demonstrating how effortlessly the play’s core themes of jealousy, manipulation, and social performance translate across centuries. Natasha Jenkins’ sparse, metallic set creates a hard-edged, sterile arena devoid of softness or warmth, perfectly mirroring the cold calculatedness of the narrative. Erin Guan’s background video design further amplifies the emotional ...

4Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Noises Off – The Questors Theatre

Making theatrical chaos look effortless requires extraordinary control and skill, but The Questors’ production of Michael Frayn’s ‘Noises Off’ delivers precisely that. This is an evening of gloriously escalating disaster performed with such assurance that it ranks among the very best versions of this well-known play. Hilarious from beginning to end, it is a remarkable demonstration of what a cast can achieve when everyone works together. Frayn’s comedy follows a touring company attempting to stage ‘Nothing On’, a farce whose precarious progress is undermined by backstage relationships, professional frustrations and increasingly disastrous misunderstandings. As the action exposes the machinery behind the performance, the distinction between the company’s fictional troubles and its actual...

1Oct

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

Terminal 2 – 53two

There can be few settings better suited to contemplating life’s bigger questions than the strange limbo of an airport departure lounge. In Terminal 2, written by David Payne, that familiar mundanity becomes the backdrop to something altogether more poignant. The simple set consists of little more than airport seating and a screen charting the interminable delay to George (Allan Nicol) and Lynda’s (Janice Fryett) flight. The pair are already waiting as the audience enters, immediately establishing the sense that we have simply stumbled across two ordinary people in transit. And ordinary they initially seem. Their conversation wanders entertainingly through everything from Al-Qaeda, Viennetta to Russ Abbott, to the supposed similarities of Grindr and Sky+, with occasional witty bar...

1Oct

By Helen JonesNo Comments

North West

Jane Eyre – Waterside Arts

Jane Eyre is unarguably Charlotte Bronte’s most successful novel. First published in 1847 it is a hugely popular book and currently a recommended school’s text. At the start Jane is ten, orphaned and ends up being taken in by her maternal aunt but is mistreated and neglected. Eventually she is sent to Lowood School and remains there initially as a pupil for the first six years and the last two years as a teacher. At eighteen, Jane leaves Lowood and begins working as Governess to young Adele Varens at Thornfield Hall. Appointed by the housekeeper Mrs Fairfax, Jane does not meet Adele’s guardian Edward Rochester until sometime later. Over time Jane’s feelings for Mr Rochester grow and eventually she confesses her feelings only for him to admit he feels...

The Anastasia File – Theatre Royal, Windsor

1Oct

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

The Anastasia File – Theatre Royal, Windsor

One of the twentieth century’s most enduring historical mysteries provides rich material for ‘The Anastasia File’, Royce Ryton’s drama exploring the extraordinary story of Anna Manahan, the woman who spent decades claiming to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, the supposedly murdered daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. Following the execution of the Romanov family in 1918, the play moves to Berlin two years later, where a traumatised young woman is rescued from a canal and subsequently placed in an institution. Gradually, details emerge that suggest she may be the surviving Anastasia. From there, questions of memory, identity, trauma and inheritance begin to intertwine as those around her attempt to establish whether she is a survivor of unimaginable brutality or an extraordinarily convincing im...