REVIEWS Archives - Page 400 of 417

12Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Continuity – Finborough Theatre Company

Firstly, a warning. If this were a film it would have an over 15s certificate. It seems that every sentence has a word starting with the letter “F”, admittedly much of it in context, although I would certainly be embarrassed if I had taken my mother along to see this play. Having said that, if you look beyond the strong language, you will discover a tale of a man torn between his personal life and his political commitments to “The Cause” of the Irish freedom fighters. Written by a new playwright, Gerry Moynihan, and set in the country of Northern Ireland in the year 2017, it tells the story of a dissident Irish Republican (hence the play’s title), Padraig Devlin and his relationships with other members of his terrorist cell, Joe the leader and Eammon his somewhat intellectually-c...

9Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Educating Rita – Rose Theatre, Kingston

Willy Russell’s Educating Rita is a story about a girl from Liverpool who enrols in an open university course with a nihilistic and hedonistic tutor. Rita (Jessica Johnson) who came from a restrictive learning background wants to learn critical thinking and to change herself and her life through learning. She tries to find common ground and a genuine connection with her tutor as she emulates his identity of a Scholar and intellectual. She tries to find purpose, an appreciation for life and to change her culture, lifestyle and identity to something greater. Rita moves her apartment, changes her company to university students, changes her job and identity to lead a more enriching and authentic life. While encouraging her tutor (Stephen Tompkinson) to find a love for life through pursuing his...

Howerd’s End – The Golden Goose, Camberwell

9Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Howerd’s End – The Golden Goose, Camberwell

Howerd’s End is a heartfelt story of love, acceptance and the use of humour as a way of masking the truth and revealing it. An emotional story of the story of a deceased popular comedian who comes back to visit his long time romantic and life partner, to go through an emotional journey through self love and self discovery and acceptance; in regards of sexuality, age, societal relevance and value. It encourages the audience to live life well, to let go of regrets and self doubt which are holding you back and explore the depth inside themselves. The show had regular laughs throughout and the comedic timing of both Simon Cartwright and Mark Farrelly was consistently great as well as their ability to hold tension in the room. This story also portrays how vulnerable comedians can be; neuroti...

From Here to Eternity – The Shows Must Go On

8Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

From Here to Eternity – The Shows Must Go On

Another offering from The Shows Must Go on Youtube channel for the remembrance weekend. From Here to Eternity is an original musical with lyrics by Tim Rice that ran for 7 months in the West End in 2013/2014. The musical is based on the 1951 novel of the same name, but with less censorship, it is grittier than the book and subsequent film. It tells the story of the members of G Company serving on the US island of Hawaii in the lead up to the attack on Pearl Harbour. New to the Company is Private Prewitt with a number of personal issues, keeping him focused on himself until he meets dancer Lorene. First Sergeant Warden is determined not to become a commissioned officer, but his mind is changed when he falls for his Captain’s wife. We follow their journey as their relationships and ...

8Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

The Bald Soprano – Magpie Theatre

The Bald Soprano is an absurdist play by Eugène Ionesco, first performed in French in 1950, consisting of meaningless banter and nonsensical truisms – probably drawn from an English primer – and holds the world record for the play that has been staged continuously in the same theatre for the longest time. The play opens to an English couple, Mr Smith (Alex Burke) and Mrs Smith (Solenna le Goff), sat in their living room engaging in small talk about what they ate for dinner. Their conversation quickly turns to an almost incomprehensible discussion about Bobby Watson, who it transpires was the name of several people all at once: a man; his wife; their children; and most other members of their extended families. Their maid, Mary (Tsen Day-Beaver), enters to announce their guests have arriv...

6Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Wales

Missing Julie – Theatr Clywd

August Strindberg’s naturalistic play, Miss Julie, written in 1888, tackles a number of themes sparked by the author’s interest in psychology, including female degeneracy, class and gender conflict, idealisation and degradation, and hypnotism. Whilst considered a classic of modern theatre, the author’s own misogyny which pervades the work often presents a challenge to a successful production in these more enlightened times so it was with some interest that I turned to Theatr Clywd’s live-streamed reading of Kaite O’Reilly’s new version, introduced by Artistic Director Tamara Harvey, which has been freely adapted from Strindberg’s original to give it a twentieth century twist. Miss Julie (Sophie Melville), the heiress of a Welsh stately home, finds herself in a world radically changed...

5Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

North West

RENT – Hope Mill Theatre

Seasons of Love 525,600 minutes 525,000 moments so dear 525,600 minutes How do you measure, measure a year? The opening refrain of the most iconic song in Jonathon Larson's stunning 1988 reimagination of Puccini's 'La Bohème', never felt more timely and relevant than it did last night. As the first night of this radical and exciting new production simultaneously became the closing night, due to the imposition of the latest lockdown, we were left to ponder how much more the theatrical community has to do in order to be allowed to make a living in 2020. It has been 229 days since I last was allowed to review a live piece of theatre (329,760 minutes if you're counting), and I floated on air past the temperature checks, socially distanced staff and in house screens, just so hap...

3Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Little Wars – Ginger Quiff Media

Ginger Quiff Media’s rehearsed reading of Little Wars by Steven Carl McCasland, is an emotional rollercoaster taking place against the backdrop of a literary salon in 1940s France. Gertrude Stein (Linda Bassett) and her girlfriend, Alice B Toklas (Catherine Russell) host the get together and their guests talk about everything from their lives as Jewish people during wartime to the role of female writers and their work. Directed by Hannah Chissick, the play opens with typewritten stage directions, which create a nice sense of the period and nods to the literary theme of the play. A good way to take advantage of the online format, the stage directions which appear throughout the piece create a good sense of the action that we are not seeing during the rehearsed reading. The play is ful...

3Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

What A Carve Up! – Barn Theatre

There’s nothing the public loves more than a conspiracy. “True-crime” is becoming ever more popular. Podcasts and documentaries alike feed the audience’s appetite for a scandal. A showcase of evidence with an unravelling case and the viewer thinks that they’re more informed than the judge. Barn Theatre’s production satisfies this appetite with a helping of contemporary British satire. Six members of the influential Winshaw family are found butchered in their mansion. There is one clear suspect; the writer who is about to publish a tell-all account of their corruption. The writer’s son (Alfred Enoch) takes us through the case and exposes the coincidences and revelations that he has found. Enoch is the perfect narrator; instantly captivating and convincing. He guides us through the twi...

Tales from the Tombstone Tavern: The Narrator – Ameena Hamid Productions Ltd

2Nov

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Tales from the Tombstone Tavern: The Narrator – Ameena Hamid Productions Ltd

The final episode of Tales from the Tombstone Tavern, the new six part podcast series written by Delmar Terblanche and directed by Jamie Boucher, is an existential meta-narrational crisis, which finds our monsters questioning their sense of reality thanks to the malevolent presence of the omnipresent and anonymous Narrator (Delmar Terblanche). An ominous musical opening dissolves into a panicked, blind and paralysed Vlad (Joshua Manning) who assumes that after a drunken evening he has managed to lock himself into his own coffin. However he soon realises there is more to his predicament than that and our Narrator begins to tell him off for his and his friends’ exploration of the deplorable genre of horror. The Narrator then begins working through the remaining monsters, pointing out t...