Friday, September 20

REVIEWS

Les Blancs – National Theatre at Home
4Jul By Paul DownhamNo Comments
London

Les Blancs – National Theatre at Home

Writer Lorraine Hansberry was a remarkable woman who, despite her early death at age 34, conquered Broadway as the first black writer to see her play ‘Raisin in the Sun’ performed on stage in 1959.  She followed her father into activism and wrote for the newspaper ‘Freedom’, working alongside Africans and African Americans.  This work; and seeing a production called ‘Les Negres’ (The Blacks), inspired Hansberry to write ‘Les Blancs’, which she began writing in 1960 and completed it just before her death.   After her death the play was adapted by her ex-husband Robert Nemiroff.  The 1970 Broadway production was staged at the Longacre Theatre and the National Theatre’s production took place in 2016. The play follows the visit of journalist Charlie Morris (Elliot C...
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The Almighty Sometimes – Royal Exchange Theatre
3Jul By Paul DownhamNo Comments
North West

The Almighty Sometimes – Royal Exchange Theatre

Back in February 2018 the Royal Exchange Theatre showcased the world premiere of Kendall Feaver's The Almighty Sometimes. It had won the Judges Award at the 2015 Bruntwood Award for Playwriting and well deservedly. Anna is eighteen, working and lives at home with her mum, Renee. One night, after meeting him at a party, she brings home Oliver. At twenty-one he's a few years older but they had been at the same school and he had been taught by her mum. Anna likes and trusts him with her secret. She has been seeing a psychiatrist since she was 11 and is on a combination of medication to control her mental health issues. Although her illness is never named, through the play it becomes obvious how serious her mental illness is. But as Anna is beginning to embrace adulthood, she also begins qu...
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Birdsong – Original Theatre Company Online
2Jul By Paul DownhamNo Comments
REVIEWS

Birdsong – Original Theatre Company Online

Written by Sebastian Faulks and adapted by Rachel Wagstaff, Birdsong was first staged by Original Theatre and toured between 2013 and 2018.  It was hugely successful with 4- and 5-star reviews and was seen by more than 250,000 people in 75 theatres across the UK and Ireland. As we pass the 104th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, this play is a timely reminder of the severe loss of life between 1st July and 18th November 1916.  On the first day of battle a man was killed every 4.4 seconds, the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army.  The battle was described by war poet Siegfried Sassoon as a “sunlit picture of hell”. The play begins in France 1916. The Sappers (a team of ex-miners) were conscripted as tunnellers, setting mines an...
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Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads: Bed Among the Lentils – BBC iPlayer
2Jul By Paul DownhamNo Comments
REVIEWS

Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads: Bed Among the Lentils – BBC iPlayer

Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads are well known for exploring the darker themes of society and the people within it. Bed Among the Lentils is no exception, diving into the alcoholism and infidelity which shape vicar’s wife, Susan’s (Lesley Manville) life. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, this dark, comic piece, particularly explores the role of the church in the sex lives of its parishioners and life behind the closed door of the vicarage. Opening in a tidy and old-fashioned kitchen, we meet Susan, a heavy smoker and heavy drinker, modestly, and somewhat drably, dressed, as she talks about her marriage to local vicar, Geoffrey. Black comedy is present from the start, as she describes Geoffrey’s recent sermon which explained how the institution of marriage gives a licence to sex and having sex i...
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The Merchant of Venice – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
2Jul By Paul DownhamNo Comments
West Midlands

The Merchant of Venice – Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon

It is not often recognised that this is one of Shakespeare’s comedies and watching this RSC production from 2015 under the direction of Polly Findlay as part of the BBC Culture in Quarantine programme, one would be tempted to say it was a tragedy. I often say that less is more but Johannes Schütz’s set design is so bare that even with its pendulum constantly swinging, it is impossible to decipher a proper sense of time or place which is at the heart of this play about money and how it affects all involved. We begin with Antonio (Jamie Ballard), a prince among Venetian merchants who is unaccountably depressed despite his obvious success as a dealer in luxury goods. His friend Bassanio (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) in contrast is broke but remains reasonably cheerful as he has a plan to marry Por...
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Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads: Nights in the Garden of Spain – BBC iPlayer
30Jun By Paul DownhamNo Comments
REVIEWS

Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads: Nights in the Garden of Spain – BBC iPlayer

Number nine in the new series of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads is a remake of the 1998 monologue Nights in the Garden of Spain.  Originally featuring Penelope Wilton, it is now Tamsin Greig's turn to recreate Rosemary Horrocks.  Like the majority of the Talking Heads pieces, Nights in the Garden of Spain is set in Alan Bennett's semi fictionalised version of Leeds. It is the 1990s and Rosemary and her husband Henry live in a fairly well to do suburb of Leeds, on a street of mostly detached houses.  Henry is keen to sell up and move to Marbella and the passive Rosemary is going along with his choice.   But one morning as she is going to the shops, her neighbour Mrs McCorquodale stops her.  Her husband is dead and she needs help.  It transpires that she s...
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Talking Heads by Alan Bennett: The Shrine – BBC iPlayer
30Jun By Paul DownhamNo Comments
REVIEWS

Talking Heads by Alan Bennett: The Shrine – BBC iPlayer

In the new series of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads, ten of the twelve are remakes of five of the original six from 1988 and the another five from 1998.  Two of the original series' have not been remade as they required actors over the age of seventy.   There are two new ones, written last year and filmed this year under social distancing conditions.  One of these new ones is number twelve The Shrine. Lorna is a woman in her fifties and the monologue starts a few days after she has lost her husband Clifford in a motorbike accident.   The police have offered to take her to the scene of the accident, but she does not wish to go.  As the piece continues she has decided to visit the place of the accident and then returns regularly, making herself a seat and&...
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Within – Threedumb Theatre Live
29Jun By Paul DownhamNo Comments
REVIEWS

Within – Threedumb Theatre Live

Joseph Furey’s one man play tells the story of an isolated and lonely young man who downloads a creepy AI app which promises to show him the meaning of life. Even though the sci-fi element is strangely familiar, Furey’s script is interesting and quite poignant in parts. Stephen Smith (who also directs this piece) plays the young man with a great deal of energy throughout his AI torture with the mysterious and at times rather annoying AI voice S.U.E (voiced by Millie Webber). This is a play that explores isolation (quite apt for the times that we live in) and it also looks at vulnerability and how easy it is to be attacked from malevolent forces hiding in plain sight. Smith’s character is intense and just a fraction overstated and I felt that the play was a touch overlong (mayb...
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Othello – Birmingham Opera Company
29Jun By Paul DownhamNo Comments
West Midlands

Othello – Birmingham Opera Company

Shakespeare’s Othello is a tragedy which explores timeless themes of race, trust and fidelity and Verdi’s operatic version adds a mesmerising backdrop of powerful music. Birmingham Opera Company’s production is a unique modern interpretation which immersed its original audience within the action of the story and exposes the darkest elements of the story in shocking detail. The opera is sung in English, with occasional subtitles which turn on and off at seemingly random intervals. The opera is performed in a warehouse, with bare brick walls and a blood red carpet, with a live orchestra conducted by Stephen Barlow. As part of the broadcast we see the bewildered and shoeless audience enter the performance space and merge into the Chorus made up of 250 people. It was clearly the intention o...
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Weekly Watch: Souvenir – Up ‘Ere Productions
29Jun By Paul DownhamNo Comments
North West

Weekly Watch: Souvenir – Up ‘Ere Productions

As Pride Month 2020 draws to a close it’s refreshing to see new writing of this calibre reflecting upon the gay experience and how it affects a person and relationships during a set period of time and change. Up ‘Ere Productions are a new Salford based production company working with local talent to create new work. Souvenir tells the story of sixty year old Iain who having lost his friend of many years decides to take one last trip down to Soho from his native Scotland. This was a trip that both Iain and his friend Kip made on regular occasions. They simply wanted to experience and fully appreciate what it meant to be out in a more open and friendlier environment. Matt Gurr’s script is both sympathetic and insightful and takes into account the changing attitudes of being gay in ...
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