REVIEWS Archives - Page 73 of 549

23Jun

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

The Stars and After – Traverse Theatre

Ten actors stand silently with bowed heads as the audience enters the auditorium. In the dim blue lighting we can make out pieces of corrugated iron and large machine cogs. This is a gloomy dystopian land. In this world of the future, there are two classes of people: the citizens who live above ground and live a comfortable life; and the workers who live below ground, leading a miserable existence. The citizens’ light, power and their whole lifestyle depend on the efforts of the workers. It’s a hundred years since the city of Goliath was founded. Citizens live a good if unexciting life. They are largely unaware of how they are manipulated into docility by their Leader. Above ground there is no darkness and no natural light, but citizens have the benefit of powerful lights. However...

21Jun

By Zandra OdetundeNo Comments

London

One Way Out – Brixton House

One Way Out is the kind of play that doesn’t just speak, it shouts. But in the same breath, it leaves you in silence, sitting with a truth you didn’t ask for but needed to hear. Montel Douglas’s coming-of-age story doesn’t try to be subtle. It’s loud, local, and full of heart. It asks what home really means when a window breaks and your whole life shatters with it. The show opens with a physical theatre sequence that, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy, but it was done incredibly well. Tense, explosive, choreographed with purpose. The fight unfolds like a dance, and it's this moment that sets everything in motion. A broken window leads to a suspension. That suspension alerts the police. The police alert the Home Office. And just like that, someone’s life is over. That some...

21Jun

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Grease – Pitlochry Festival Theatre

The classic rock and rollin’, bunny hoppin’ musical Grease lands at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre this week after kicking off their run at the Blackpool Grand Theatre earlier this month. Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Blackpool Grand Theatre have worked together to co-produce this rough and ready production, showcasing the enterprise opportunities that come with collaborating both financially and creatively. Not only allowing for more freedom with budget, but also (very importantly) allowing this show to provide accessible commercial theatre for those more rural theatre scenes. With no typical-style ensemble and no typical-style band, the cast are tasked with acting, singing and dancing all while playing the score of Grease themselves. Jan (Leah Jamieson) rocks out...

The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs – The Kiln Theatre

21Jun

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs – The Kiln Theatre

The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs holds counsel for all of us seeking to find our queer foremothers who lived and loved despite the unjust laws of the land that aims to criminalize love. The synergistic partnership between writer Iman Qureshi and director Hannah Hauer-King will be cherished. They have managed to not only centre ‘community building’ on the stage but also brought a nuanced, intersectional perspective to the structural challenges that pose barriers to many from joining and sustaining communities. Supported by an award-winning cast, each of them brings such diversity of perspectives and emotional vulnerability to the portrayal of their roles. Fanta Barrie (Ellie) plays the butch lesbian lover on a journey of self discovery and curiosity, Georgie Henley (Ana) plays the white l...

Swallows and Armenians – Chelsea Theatre

21Jun

By Karen Morley-ChesworthNo Comments

London

Swallows and Armenians – Chelsea Theatre

The truth behind a British children’s classic is revealed with the premiere of Swallows and Armenians at the Chelsea Theatre. Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons, set in the Lake District, was an instant success when published in 1930. However, the truth behind the inspiration for the story has been suppressed until now. The actor-musician production by Karen Babayan is based on her book Swallows and Armenians, which she wrote after extensive research. An Anglo-Arminian, Babayan discovered the central characters in the book, a quintessential English family, the Walkers, were based on an Arminian family, called Altounyan. Close friends of Ransome, the family spent the summer of 1929 in Coniston with the author, sailing two boats on the lake. This new production tells the story of...

21Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

In The Cult of Work – Traverse Theatre

Edinburgh Youth Theatre charity, Strange town, return to the Traverse this week with three shows and this is the second of them. On stage tonight are the Tuesday 14 – 18-year-olds and they certainly put on a spirited and well rehearsed show, with no obvious line blunders, a well-drilled cohort who are a credit to director Catherine Ward-Stoddart. I’ve seen a few shows by Strange town over the years and what always comes across is the unbridled enthusiasm and commitment to the creative process from all involved. It’s always great to see the acting youth of Edinburgh taking over one of the best performance spaces in the Capital. Writer, Daniel Orejon was tasked with producing a short play on the theme of, Nobody wants to work anymore. In the centre of the stage a poster pronounces, ‘Ou...

21Jun

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Medea – The Coronet Theatre

This is Medea like you have never seen it before. Director Satoshi Miyagi takes an ancient masterpiece, tweaks it, paints it in fresh colours, and creates a jewel that dazzles. This is no mere telling of a story, it is an experience. Performed in Japanese with English subtitles, the play is set in a restaurant in Meiji era Japan. It is a time of wide-ranging changes from government policies to education systems to trade. A group of male patrons in the restaurant has decided to perform Medea. Each character will be played by two people – a male “speaker” who will deliver the lines, and a female “mover” who will act them out. The female staff of the restaurant present themselves to be picked for the roles. They appear on stage dressed in kimonos of the same shade, brown bags on their ...

Bad Girls the Musical – Rainhill Village Hall

20Jun

By Stephanie WiswallNo Comments

North West

Bad Girls the Musical – Rainhill Village Hall

A musical adaptation from the 1990s TV series Bad Girls with a few familiar roles amongst the cast such as the gobby and cocky Shell Dockley (Laura Riley) and the loathsome and despicable Fenner (Paul Robinson). When the show opens, you meet a colourful array of characters from the sweet and saintly Wing Governor Helen Stewart (Michelle Williams) who is battling against older, more defiant guards such as Fenner, and the stoic and patronising Sylvia "Bodybag" Hollamby (Ruth Gibb) to bring more humanity and empathy to the prison. Due to an uprising in the block, Stewart (who has been falling for an inmate) is in hot water and her budding love story between her and the strong and defiant inmate, Nikki Wade (Diane Glover), is under threat. A very fragile and naive portrayal of Rachel Hic...

20Jun

By Ralph JeffreysNo Comments

London

4.48 Psychosis – Royal Court

‘At 4.48 when depression visits, I shall hang myself to my lover’s breathing’. Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis contains many lines like the one above that simply go through you. The play is a beautiful and terrifying exploration of the pain, anguish, despair, boredom and paralysis that accompany someone thinking of killing themselves. The work has an obvious resonance because it is Kane’s last before her own suicide, but the quality of the writing is such that it would be wrong to say that this is why the play is so impactful. Kane mixes honest, brutal statements with poetic, even biblical passages; lucid descriptions of a prescription with strange lists of numbers and staccato strings of words ‘flicker, punch, slash, dab, wring, press, burn, slash’. It is a startling piece of writing, w...

20Jun

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Livin’ On a Prayer – Traverse Theatre

‘Are we making the most of our time?’ is the question posed by Strange Town in their latest piece of new writing: Livin’ On a Prayer. The Edinburgh-based youth theatre company of 8-25 year-olds took on the writing and direction of James Beagon who has worked with Strange Town for almost a decade, currently working as the Youth Theatre Manager. Beagon’s Livin’ On a Prayer is set in a karaoke bar in which a selection of Greek Gods and Deities enjoy the sweet taste of ambrosia (the source of their immortality). But when Dionysus, God of madness, decides to hide their ambrosia, the Gods must work together to decipher the clues left for them by Dionysus. Initially led to believe that if they enter a singing competition, the winner will earn the remaining ambrosia, howeve...