REVIEWS Archives - Page 394 of 402

The Silly and Unnecessary Variety Show – Virtual Edinburgh Fringe

13Aug

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Silly and Unnecessary Variety Show – Virtual Edinburgh Fringe

Online comedy is difficult. You know that awkward pause in a live show where no one laughs at a joke and there's just silence? That's what you get all the way through. Even the best comedians struggle to deal with this lack of atmosphere and streaming live over the internet means that things can and do go wrong. Lori Hamilton cleverly addresses this at the beginning of her performance, inviting us to take a drink or snack to fill those awkward gaps. Her show is broadcast live from her home in New York, and "produced" by her two cats. She flits between different characters and video content, with a touch of added whimsy. Was it silly? Absolutely. Was it unnecessary? Perhaps. Her style isn't one that particularly works for me, but it did have that touch of Fringe nostalgia - stum...

Fanny and Stella – The Garden Theatre at The Eagle

12Aug

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Fanny and Stella – The Garden Theatre at The Eagle

Fairy lights twinkle in the trees, the evening air clings around us and my “Fanny and Stella Special” lemony G&T is refreshing, sipped beneath my face mask (of course). We can all sense excitement in the air; pure, buzzing, expectant joy. Even the delightfully garish bar we had to walk through to reach the Garden Theatre added an extra thrill. We’re out, we’re back, we’re together and we’re about to experience LIVE THEATRE. Special credit must instantly be given to the team behind the show for making this happen and keeping us safe! On a night where theatres around the UK were lit up in red to alert us to the ongoing crisis unveiling within our industry, how amazing to find a team working around the guidelines and putting on a show. “Fanny and Stella” follows the story of Ernest ...

When Judas met John: Songs of Dylan and Lennon – Online@theSpaceUK

12Aug

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Scotland

When Judas met John: Songs of Dylan and Lennon – Online@theSpaceUK

With the Edinburgh Festival cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic some of the venues are supplying a virtual festival for those of us who are missing out on our annual pilgrimage to Scotland. I have been going to the Fringe for over a decade. It is an experience like no other as you spend every day going from comedy to drama to music to magic and then to some act you can’t quite classify but they were really quite good. You basically live in a bubble of creativity away from normal life and all its attendant worries. It is such a tragedy the festival is not taking place but thankfully The Space venue in Edinburgh is holding a virtual festival with some of the shows that would have been staged there this year. One of those shows is this one exploring the music of B...

A Virtual Alice in Wonderland – Creation Theatre

11Aug

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

A Virtual Alice in Wonderland – Creation Theatre

Creation Theatre have been going strong for 22 years, performing out of the ordinary theatre events, at venues such as castles, gardens, bookshops, factories and tents. They like to interpret well-loved classics and breathe new life into them. The latest offering is Alice in Wonderland, quirkily entitled, as Alice, A Virtual Theme Park. Taking place on zoom, (described as a multi-platform, multi-choice experience) you are required to attend a series of slapstick, zany meetings - It's great to see the audience participation, no room for bashfulness. Of course, they’re not real meetings but a series of crazy, riotous performances by the cast. You're thrust into a magical imaginary world, where you might be required to dance to Abba, run on the spot and swim to name a few th...

The Comedy of Errors – Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre

11Aug

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

The Comedy of Errors – Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre

Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre and Storyhouse have worked magic to bring some live theatre to Chester in these dark and uncertain times. From conception to first night took just two weeks as this incredibly talented group of actors, under the direction of Storyhouse Artistic director Alex Clifton, mostly rehearsed online, only coming together a mere four days before opening and staging the whole show in two days. Staging a show during a time of social distancing is a tricky business, but this group somehow made it look and feel completely natural. Keeping a distance from each other and, unlike other years, keeping a distance from the audience rather than running between them. We were still fully engaged and completely involved. Danielle Bird, Nichole Bird, Lowri Izzard, Mari Izzard,...

The Secret Love Life of Ophelia – Greenwich Theatre

9Aug

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

The Secret Love Life of Ophelia – Greenwich Theatre

Steven Berkoff’s The Secret Love Life of Ophelia provides the backstory to one of the Shakespeare’s most tragic couples. Adapted directly in response to the closure of theatres during the coronavirus pandemic, Greenwich Theatre’s new version, directed by James Haddrell, has taken the epistolary nature of the play and converted it into a series of video messages, which makes it a perfect piece of drama for an online production. The piece opens with a clever and imaginative explanation of what is about to be shown, creating a believable world from the off and providing the opportunity for a large cast of forty actors to play the roles of only two characters, alongside a special guest appearance from Dame Helen Mirren. There are some nice special effects which emphasise the technical backs...

Dear Beryl – The Moonlighters Collective

31Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Dear Beryl – The Moonlighters Collective

Dear Beryl is a work in progress piece from The Moonlighters Collective, presented as part of Command Fringe Festival, a line-up of online performances being showcased over one weekend. Social media influencer Lyla (Amy Allenby) is on the brink of creating the life she’s always dreamed of when she finds herself trapped in a prison of sorts and unclear as to how she has got there. Also present is the mysterious Ruth (Hannah Roze-Lewis) who is clearly from a different social circle and apparently unaware of the workings of the modern world. Lyla wants answers to her current predicament, but Ruth appears determined to keep what little knowledge she may have of their current situation to herself. As Lyla explains the marketplace nature of current technology to Ruth, where everything come...

31Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Myles Away – Chronic Insanity

Chronic Insanity has been making theatre since 2012. Set up by Nat Henderson who, in typical small theatre company fashion, combines many roles such as playwright, director, performer, costume designer, make up artist and still finds time for her Artistic Director role and studying for her Masters in English Studies. Her Co-Artistic Director Joe Strickland is also a good juggler and combines being an up and coming director with being a writer, producer and performer whilst researching for a PHD looking at Future Experience Technologies with a focus on Drama and Performance. Their interest in this area has prompted them to look at a slightly different approach to theatre using technology to give the ‘theatre goer’ interactivity so that each viewer may have a slightly diffe...

31Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – The Globe

As part of the BBC Culture in Quarantine season, we are offered a selection of Shakespeare’s plays performed at two of the UK’s most well known theatres for Shakespeare. Written in 1596, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a regular feature in theatres’ Summer calendars for their Summer season. We have seen many adaptations of this play as theatres become more creative, but this version is like the making a cocktail, the ingredients can be the same, but it is how much of each ingredient that creates its individual flavour. In Emma Rice’s first play as Artistic Director of The Globe, we were treated to a feast of energy and colour. The play positively buzzed with excitement as we experienced an adventurous modernised version of this much-loved play. The play is ...

27Jul

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Beethoven’s Fidelio – Royal Opera House

Recorded just prior to lockdown and largely unedited, conductor Antonio Pappano introduces a new production of Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, from the Royal Opera House, a story of risk and triumph against a backdrop of revolution, with Tobias Kratzer’s new staging, including some dialogue changes, bringing together the dark reality of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution and the conflicts of the modern age to illuminate Fidelio’s inspiring message of a common humanity. This is very much an opera of two halves with Act One in period as Leonore (Lise Davidsen) attempts to locate her husband, Florestan (David Butt Philip) who is a political prisoner incarcerated in a secret dungeon and subject to torture from the governor of the prison, Don Pizarro (Simon Neal). To secure a ...