REVIEWS Archives - Page 14 of 641

28Sep

By Prateek SonnyNo Comments

London

Three Men in a Boat – Rose Theatre

Three Men in a Boat, plus a dog, is a spectacular feat of musical comedy directed by Christopher Haydon. Based on a 19th-century novel of the same name, it follows three friends: Jerome (Jonny Weldon), Harris (Bronté Barbé) and George (Richard David-Cane), as Jerome organises a boat trip from Kingston to Oxford as a stag do for Harris. What should have been a picturesque and pleasant trip down the Thames becomes a succession of comic mishaps, misunderstandings and increasingly absurd situations. A splendid contributor to this mayhem is Jerome’s mischievous dog, Montmorency, brought to life through Calum Donald-Bruce’s puppetry. Having the journey begin in Kingston also gives the play a particularly fitting local connection. The play is an absolute visual treat, with a delightful product...

The Last Ship – Theatre Royal Drury Lane

28Sep

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

The Last Ship – Theatre Royal Drury Lane

There is a compelling musical somewhere inside ‘The Last Ship’. Its story of a Wallsend shipbuilding community facing the closure of its yard has all the ingredients for a powerful night of theatre, threatened livelihoods, fierce loyalty and the question of what remains when the work that defines a place disappears. Yet, despite its ambition and considerable scale, this production at Theatre Royal Drury Lane left us admiring what we could see far more than we cared about what happened. Visually, it is remarkable, stunning in fact. Jenny Melville’s immense set makes imaginative use of the theatre’s vast stage, establishing the shipyard as both a workplace and the centre of a community’s identity, dominated by the constant presence of the massive ship, Utopia. Adam Bassett’s lighting give...

28Sep

By Amanda HodgsonNo Comments

North West

Cryin Air – 53two

Lauren Bugg’s play Cryin’ Air is a wonderful tour de force exploring emotions of loneliness, grief, and friendship. Following a break-up with her indifferent boyfriend, innocent but ultra-anxious Grace (Milly Overland) seeks support from multiple over-the-phone therapists, but this provides little relief for her. She decides to book a city break to Amsterdam as a “solo female traveller” to escape her troubles, even though she is terrified of flights, travel, strangers and just about everything. Meanwhile, following the death of her father, Kerry (Ella-Maria Danson) decides to follow through on her promise to take a trip and scatter his ashes in an exotic city. Cue a (much delayed) flight to Amsterdam, where our two protagonists meet and become fast friends. Their newfound friendship will b...

28Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

The Urmetazoan – Hampstead Theatre

There is something genuinely refreshing about The Urmetazoan. At a time when theatre can sometimes feel like it needs to announce the scale of its ideas, Alex Rugman's play approaches questions of science, space travel, human survival and the future of the species through something much more intimate: two sisters who have not spoken to each other for seven years. Alice, played by Dorothea Myer-Bennethtt, is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist preparing for a one-way mission to Mars, where she will work towards establishing a human population. Abigail, played by Meghan Treadway, has taken a very different route through life. She is impulsive, carefree and much more interested in living in the present. Alice has spent her life looking towards the future, while Abigail is concerned with the me...

Suzi Ruffell: The Juggle – Assembly Roxy

28Sep

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Suzi Ruffell: The Juggle – Assembly Roxy

The colonnaded Lower Hall of Assembly Roxy is an impressive architectural space, marching ionic columns and barrel vaulted roofs, but perhaps not the ideal home for comedy. Plastic chairs sit on a flat floor facing a relatively low stage, making sightlines less than perfect and comfort something of a challenge over a 90-minute show. Add some troublesome microphone issues, particularly during the first half, and the evening does not get off to the most auspicious start. Thankfully, Suzi Ruffell herself is something of a breath of fresh air. There is an engagingly vaudevillian quality to Ruffell. She talks about Tipping the Velvet being something of a touchstone during her teenage years, and I certainly see a little of that dandyish, music-hall swagger in her. She is also a su...

28Sep

By Amanda HodgsonNo Comments

North West

Mrs Dalloway – HOME Mcr

Fans of Virginia Woolf’s classic novel Mrs Dalloway will be intrigued to follow the new adaptation of the story, written and directed by Jen Heyes and starring Kit Green in multiple roles. The play does not follow the conventional rules of drama, offered as more of a commentary on the story of Mrs Dalloway and how the characters relate to modern life than a straightforward performance. Green frequently breaks character and the fourth wall to engage with the audience and comment on the relevance of Virginia Woolf to aspects of modernity such as mental health, technological change and socioeconomic uncertainty. If this all sounds like heavy-going, the truth is that these breaks in the story are the highlights of the production, offering funny and upbeat respites in the official narrat...

27Sep

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

FLOP! – Wilton’s Music Hall

A musical can close early, lose money and still leave behind a song worth hearing. That is the appealing idea behind FLOP!, Arthur Hull’s cabaret devoted to songs from musicals that failed to find an audience, and at Wilton’s Music Hall, his London debut, he makes a convincing case for giving each of them another chance. Hull is an engaging tour guide through this collection of theatrical misfires. He introduces each show with a clear sense of its story and fate, giving the songs enough context to stand on their own, with narration that is lively without overwhelming the music. His selection of songs feels carefully curated, with each offering a fresh reason to be curious about work that might otherwise have been forgotten. His singing is the evening’s greatest strength. He...

27Sep

By Prateek SonnyNo Comments

London

F*ck You Claire – Etcetera Theatre

F*ck You Claire is an ambitious one-act play written and performed by Rosie Hollingworth. It follows Penelope, a woman in her mid-twenties, as she battles her inner demons. It is a story that many younger people can empathise with, and older audiences can sympathise with. Tackling the pressures of being an adult alongside society’s expectations and judgements, the play effectively captures her struggle to cope under the weight of everyday life. The set design transforms the stage into Penelope’s cluttered, chaotic bedroom. The use of audio effects, music and lighting complements the disorder of her mind. Together with some literal personifications, they convey the hyperactivity, anxiety and pressure that gradually overwhelm her. The script is funny and sharp. The overall producti...

Causa: The Trial of the Illegal Potato – Lower Marsh Arts Club

27Sep

By Charlotte MansfieldNo Comments

London

Causa: The Trial of the Illegal Potato – Lower Marsh Arts Club

A small basement room in Waterloo, with bare brick walls and a simple lighting rig was the venue for Causa: The Trial of the Illegal Potato, one of the many shows in this year's Lambeth Fringe Festival. The first hint that this show wasn't going to be a tightly put-together piece came as the audience waited outside as the start time came and went with no information on what was happening. Starting nearly twenty minutes late wasn't an auspicious opening. Juana, a Peruvian woman living in London, gets homesick for Causa, a traditional potato dish. When she realises that the yellow potatoes she needs to make it aren't available in the UK, she tracks down someone who can get her a seed potato so that she can grow her own, precipitating an ecological disaster. Described as an 'absurdi...

27Sep

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

North West

BULL – HOME Mcr

Imagine if David Brent busted a few moves and communicated in British Sign Language (BSL) then you get a sense of what BULL was all about. Like Mamet’s masterpiece Glengarry Glen Ross this was on one level a play about toxic office politics, but also a perceptive examination of power, and more importantly which of the characters had it. What sets BULL apart is that the cast communicate in BSL throughout with hearing members of the audience relying on captions above the stage. I’d seen a few works at Leeds Playhouse where BSL had been partially integrated but Deafinitely Theatre as the first deaf led company had gone much further as the hearing amongst us found ourselves where people with hearing issues routinely find themselves in theatre land. As director Paula Garfield no...