REVIEWS Archives - Page 8 of 545

10Nov

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

(Parent)ified – Augustine United Church

In Erstwhile Media’s final play of their “One Dramatic Night” at Augustine United Church, we saw Rhona O’Donnell star in Cosette Bolt’s one-woman play (Parent)ified. Based on Bolt’s own experiences, this play was heartbreakingly raw, looking at the impact abusive parenting has had on our protagonist’s life as she is forced to step up to the plate and raise her younger sister, putting her own life on hold. Directed by Oliver Giggins as well as Bolt, this play is dynamic, displaying not only the frantic nature of our protagonist’s life with the fast-paced blocking, but also the passage of time as we pendulate between her life in the early teenage years all the way through to her mid-20s. O’Donnell was the perfect choice for this role, engaging us completely throughout which...

The Ebony Frame – Augustine United Church

10Nov

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

The Ebony Frame – Augustine United Church

Based on Edith Nesbit’s story of the same title, Erstwhile Media presents us with Oliver Giggins’ adaptation of The Ebony Frame—the second instalment of work at “One Dramatic Night” in Augustine United Church. Much like the source material, Giggins’ adaptation is an atmospheric and haunting tale in which protagonist Arthur Marsh (played by Alexander Donaldson) inherits a house where he discovers a portrait in an ebony frame. Unlike Nesbit’s original, the subject in the portrait is a man by the name of Raoul (played by Pedro Branco), giving this gothic horror a queer twist as Marsh becomes enraptured by the portrait’s presence. He soon encounters the ghost of Raoul and begins to uncover the torrid love affair the two men once shared in a past life. Giggins’ writing is enticing, and w...

Who’s the Fairest of Them All – Augustine United Church

10Nov

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Who’s the Fairest of Them All – Augustine United Church

Seeing us into panto season, Who’s The Fairest of Them All is writer and director Holly Wagner’s adaptation of Snow White, in which the magic mirror is featured as the real villain. Exploring the lengths one goes to for the sake of vanity and validation, we see not only the classic story of Snow White versus her wicked stepmother, but also the relationship Snow White has with her own daughter and the ways in which the title of Fairest of Them All has shaped her character. Held in Augustine United Church, the scene is set in the black-box-style theatre using minimal set and tech design, allowing the writing and acting to take centre stage. The space, although small, was well-utilised, with the actors parading up the staircase through the audience and out secondary exits as...

10Nov

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

Kodachrome – The Cockpit Theatre

It all starts with a thoroughly intriguing concept. Two performers mix live throughout — two DJs whose lives become romantically intertwined as they share and fight for sonic control. The decks become a site of power, identity, a place to take over, find refuge, or disappear. It’s a strong idea — the music mirroring the shifts in desire and domination, the distortion of a connection that turns toxic. Yet the form never quite finds its rhythm. The techno undercurrent often sits in the background rather than driving the story — a missed opportunity in a show built around pulse and control. Kodachrome captures with painful clarity how easily intensity can be mistaken for intimacy, how validation can slip into addiction, and how modern monsters are made out of the most vulnerable parts ...

10Nov

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

REVIEWS

La Bohème – The Metropolitan Opera

Mirabelle Ordinaire’s revival of Franco Zeffirelli’s rich and sumptuous 1981 production is epic on every level, as it visualises the musical textures of Puccini’s timeless masterpiece that tells of love, friendship, and death in 1830’s Paris. It is Christmas Eve when we meet four struggling bohemians living in a garret: a poet, Rodolfo (Freddie De Tommaso); a painter, Marcello (Lucas Meachem); a philosopher, Colline (Jongmin Park); and a musician, Schaunard (Sean Michael Plumb) who arrives having had some good fortune and they agree to celebrate by dining at Café Momus. They are interrupted by their landlord, Benoît (Donald Maxwell) but cleverly trick him into revealing he has been playing around which allows them to throw him out in comic moral indignation without paying their rent...

8Nov

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Arlington – Traverse Theatre

The most visually remarkable production to grace the Traverse Stage in years, Arlington. This new Shotput production of Enda Walsh’s dystopian fable is a feast for the eyes, ears, and the darker corners of your brain. It is strange, unsettling, sometimes hilarious, and very occasionally infuriating, but it is never dull. The set earns its own applause. Designer Anna Yates places Isla, our imprisoned heroine, on a raised metal platform, roughly level with the third or fourth row of Traverse 1, surrounded by the cold glow of surveillance screens. Behind her, a full wall of projection blooms with shifting images, ghostly fragments, data streams, and hints of an outside world, or what might once have been. The stage picture is technically dazzling, a precise marriage of lighting, sound...

Sung Im Her: 1 Degree Celsius – Southbank Centre

8Nov

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

Sung Im Her: 1 Degree Celsius – Southbank Centre

An empty stage. Neutral lighting. A square mat. Suddenly, a woman (Sung Im Her, the choreographer and company director) finds her way onto it and begins to move — in silence, cautiously at first, then with growing boldness. Nothing tells you the show has started. No lights dimming, no cue. Like life itself, it just begins — without asking for permission. As she leaves the stage, six performers arrive. They are the constant of the piece, the small society around which everything revolves. Their presence shapes the next fifty minutes: movement as language, relationships as rhythm. There’s something intriguing in watching them evolve, not through character but through tension, proximity, imitation. The soundscape by Husk Husk and Lucy Duncan is kept to a disconcerting minimum — alternat...

8Nov

By Damian RiverolNo Comments

North West

The Red Rogue of Bala – Theatr Clwyd

1913, with a war looming, we are transported to a dark, dingy pub where we are treated to stories of mischief and misdemeanours from scoundrel and rogue, John Jones. But all is not as it first seems. Written by Chris Ashworth-Bennion and directed by Dan Jones, we are taken on a journey of deceit, lies, “magic” and unusual friendships. As we enter the Theatr Weston we are invited into the local pub, where the audience can buy a drink at the on-stage bar, sit in the pub and mix with the locals (cast) and join in with card games and conversations. We immediately feel involved as we are taken directly into this world and you become a part of it. With jolly music and frivolity, all is good and light, that is until the change in music and lighting and John Jones, otherwise known as Coch Bach ...

Romeo a Juliet – Sam Wanamaker’s Playhouse

8Nov

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Romeo a Juliet – Sam Wanamaker’s Playhouse

The tale of Romeo and Juliet, the young lovers Shakespeare ensnared in a tragedy across a familial divide, is a play that has been performed countless times, in many forms, some more successful than others. Never before though it been presented as a bilingual production, the original Shakespearean English interwoven with the acclaimed Welsh translation by J T Jones. It's bold and innovative - in the wrong hands this could be seen just as a gimmick, but director Steffan Donnelly's adaptation is a vehicle to enhance the conflict between the families, the misunderstandings and miscommunications that inevitably lead to tragedy, the reason for the enmity between the Montagues and Capulets long forgotten. The fluidity and flow of the text is retained, the characters' intentions portr...

7Nov

By Ben PearsonNo Comments

North West

Bad Lads – Unity Theatre

Created from a story by Jimmy Coffey and the testimonies of other men held in the Medomsley Youth Detention Centre during the 1980s, Bad Lads is a powerful, devastating and vitally important play which exposes the systemic abuse suffered by these men throughout their sentences. We follow Jackie Jones, a fictional character whose story is inspired by these testimonies, including Coffey’s own, as he serves his 3-month sentence. Jackie is portrayed by 3 actors: Danny Raynor as Older Jackie, Robin Paley Yorke as Younger Jackie, and Craig Painting as Signing Jackie. This was an effective decision, as conversations between Older and Younger Jackie not only rounded out the character, but also demonstrated just how severe and long-lasting the impact of Jackie’s terrible abuse was. Older Jackie,...