REVIEWS Archives - Page 401 of 427

Bleak House: A Radio Play – The Pantaloons Go Online

14Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Bleak House: A Radio Play – The Pantaloons Go Online

Charles Dickens first penned the satirical Bleak House as a 20-episode serial following which it was published as a novel in 1853. With its array of characters connected through the tale of a family waiting in vain to inherit money from a disputed fortune in the settlement of a lawsuit that has gone on for so long that no one knows what it’s about anymore, and despite criticism from the legal profession, it was eventually to influence judicial review and reform in the 1870s. Considered by many to be Dickens greatest work and the forerunner of the detective novel, given the abuse of power evident in recent times – PPE anyone? – who better than the critically acclaimed The Pantaloons to resurrect this indictment of the self-serving public life enshrined in Parliament, provincial aristocra...

Hansel and Gretel – Scottish Opera on Screen

14Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Scotland

Hansel and Gretel – Scottish Opera on Screen

Take your favourite childhood story but turn it into an opera. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Well, I believe that the ‘Scottish opera’ took these two worlds and fused them together perfectly for any age to enjoy. Indulge in the breathtaking vocals and you might just find some darkness hidden behind the innocent sugar-coated façade. A mother tired of her son and her daughter misbehaving sends them off into the forest to pick berries, not knowing the dangers lurking within. Hansel and Gretel were taught to never speak to strangers. Although who could blame them for giving into the temptation of endless marshmallows, lollipops and pies galore! If only that wasn’t followed by getting kidnapped by a witch... The cast is made up of nine actors, four of them making up the ‘ensemble’ of the pe...

Suitcase Under The Stairs – Greenwich Theatre

12Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

Suitcase Under The Stairs – Greenwich Theatre

In my time, I’ve seen more drag queens than I care to remember. From Danny La Rue at the Palladium to Naughty Nikki down the local pub. There is usually something to entertain, even if it’s the way home. However absorbed we are with the performance I would bet we never give a second thought to the artist under the slap, we just want to be entertained. In their play “Suitcase under the stairs” Lewis Pickles and Lauren Tranter take us quite literally behind the scenes and shows us the performer inside. Like drag queens, ventriloquists also create a second persona for themselves and put it in a suitcase after the performance. Sometimes though, the alter ego dominates Anthony Hopkins covered similar ground in the movie “Magic”. Here, the drag queen takes over the performer. In this pe...

12Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Romeo & Juliet Online

With the national lockdown still upon us and theatres remaining closed, Metcalfe Gordon Productions has found a way around the restrictions with their virtual adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragic love story, Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Nick Evans, the show is set in the aftermath of the pandemic, in a world where the population has taken refuge in empty theatres. With current restrictions, CGI was used to create the virtual theatre setting, with the scenes taking place in all aspects of the venue, from the stalls to backstage, it certainly took some getting used to. After being away from a theatre for so long, I enjoyed being reacquainted with the place I’ve missed. The clever CGI set by Jamie Osbourne effectively gave the illusion of the characters interacting with each other whi...

Good Grief – Platform Presents and Finite Films

12Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Good Grief – Platform Presents and Finite Films

Written by Lorien Haynes and Directed by Natalie Abrahami, Good Grief is a romantic comedy which takes us on a journey of loss, hurt, love and memories. Filmed on location at Coptic Street Studios, London, the one act piece follows Adam (Nikesh Patel) and Cat (Sian Clifford) after the loss of someone close to them over a 10-month period, taking us through different scenarios and many different emotions. The piece takes place in one room which is dressed between ‘scenes’ to create different places, from a living room to a car park and even a hotel room. The set is extremely basic, using chairs and cardboard boxes to build different looks and situations. At first this comes across as quite bland and uninspiring but as I went with the piece, I started to feel the lack of scenery reflect...

9Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Take Care – The Living Record Festival

Take Care is an online adaptation of a stage play by the verbatim theatre company Ecoute Theatre based in Bristol and London. Crafted from interviews with carers over six years, the show first premiered in 2014 with a sold out run at Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This filmed version, produced for the Living Record Festival, has four actors of the company take you into the real lives, homes and stories of 20 such carers and the people they care for. Full of heart-wrenching, messy, hilarious and poignant moments captured through the actual words of carers without any ‘edits’, this show makes you introspect deeply about the formal (and informal) care industry in the UK. The show is directed by Zoë Templeman-Young who also doubles up on the screenplay with Sam McLaughlin, accompanied by Matt K...

Heads or Tails by Skye Hallam – The Living Record Festival

8Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Heads or Tails by Skye Hallam – The Living Record Festival

Heads or Tails is a solo play written and performed by Skye Hallam for The Living Record Festival that asks us to deliberate the afterlife, our hang-ups about life (or those around our imminent death), and the decisions we make our in present ways of living. Presented as a 40-minute filmed performance that uses the free/shaky camera technique and has Skye speaking directly to the viewer, this piece makes you giggle, listen and reflect by exploring the life (and afterlife) of Steph, an actress gone in her prime who has now returned to the mortal world for one last show. By sharing candid experiences about the final years leading up to her untimely death and her encounters in heaven, particularly with God herself (please note the pronoun), Steph intends on sharing practical tips, suggesti...

This Little World – The Living Record Festival

7Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

This Little World – The Living Record Festival

This Little World is a solo adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry II, adapted by Owen Corey and Matthew Windham. Performed by Corey and directed by Windham, the piece utilises original body puppetry under the direction of Essie Windham to tell this story of isolation, desperation and the absolute loss of everything someone holds dear, whether that’s friends and family or the throne of England itself. Opening with Corey, playing Richard II, huddled up in his bare and dusty cell, wearing a torn tracksuit, we see him firstly engaging in desperate attempts to escape before scrawling desperately into a notebook. He pulls the camera towards him, a subtle push against the fourth wall, as he begins his first soliloquy. Using Shakespeare’s original text, Corey essentially tells the story to the a...

Ain’t No Female Romeo – The Living Record Festival

7Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Ain’t No Female Romeo – The Living Record Festival

Ain’t No Female Romeo, created and performed by Lita Doolan, is a surreal and disconcerting story of social media, the relationships they create and how reliant people can become on both posting and consuming content on it, and, more importantly, receiving responses, particularly “likes”. Combining snippets of poetry, selfie videos, images, quotes and hashtags, the piece exposes social technology, as Doolan travels the world looking for Peter, someone she knows through Instagram, but how well is never made clear. It’s possible that she and Peter have exchanged messages and comments, but the more disturbing possibility is that their only interaction has been liking each other’s posts. The images, quotes and hashtags which flash up on screen from time to time are often very quick, crea...

7Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Shook by Samuel Bailey – Papatango

Samuel Bailey’s Shook, directed by George Turvey in collaboration with James Bobin, tells the story of three young new or soon to be fathers, who are all in prison. The play won the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize and shows the characters proceed through a series of parenting classes. The set shows a bleak, simply furnished room, with obviously faded paintwork and fold-up furniture. The play opens with Jonjo (Josef Davies) sitting on one of the fold-up chairs, with his head down as he tries to avoid Cain (Josh Finan), a loud Scouser who knows everything about everyone else and goes to great pains to maintain his own reputation. The play makes good use of the online format by including snippets of black and white CCTV recordings, emphasising the prison environment and giving the piece a...