REVIEWS Archives - Page 8 of 636

28Sep

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Dirty Harry – La Belle Angele

There are tribute bands, and then there are those which, for a couple of hours at least, manage to transport you somewhere else entirely. Tonight, Dirty Harry took me straight back to the late 1970s and early 80s, when Blondie were in their prime and Debbie Harry was quite simply one of the coolest people on the planet. First up are The Postcards, who provide an enjoyable warm-up with a slightly more adventurous trawl through the alternative end of the 80s than your average covers band. Orange Juice’s Rip It Up, Simple Minds’ Don’t You (Forget About Me) and a welcome excursion into Echo & the Bunnymen territory all hit the spot. Their venture into The Smiths is perhaps less successful — Morrissey’s voice is a particularly dangerous one to borrow — but you can’t win th...

Dear Joanna, My Favourite Animals Are Scorpions – Bread and Roses Theatre

28Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

Dear Joanna, My Favourite Animals Are Scorpions – Bread and Roses Theatre

Dear Joanna, My Favourite Animals Are Scorpions is an unsettling exploration of childhood friendship, adolescent obsession and the ways in which seemingly innocent behaviour can develop into something much darker. Written by Julia Rudd and directed by Elizabeth Laurence, the play follows Joanna, played by Grace Maltman, and Dave, played by Joseph Mason-Coombs, from childhood into adolescence. Dave becomes fascinated with Joanna and repeatedly tries to establish a friendship that she does not reciprocate. As they grow older, his attempts to gain her attention become increasingly obsessive. Letters, rumours and eventually voyeuristic behaviour shift what initially looks like an innocent childhood infatuation towards stalking and harassment. The writing is the production’s biggest stren...

Tandem at Ten: A Festival of Words – Traverse Theatre

28Sep

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Tandem at Ten: A Festival of Words – Traverse Theatre

Tandem is a writing collective established and run by playwrights Jennifer Adam, Amy Hawes and Mhairi Quinn. This new writing showcase celebrates their tenth anniversary, featuring a varied, thoughtfully curated selection of pieces including plays, poetry, prose and music. As we enter Trav 1, musician Gillian plays her own hauntingly melodic compositions on the piano, creating an atmosphere of expectation. Cunnison plays transition music between each piece as well. The showcase opens with a short play called The Will of the People, written by Charlotte Smith. A politician (Nicola Roy), and her bodyguard (Jenny Hulse) are waiting for hospital staff to identify a mystery substance thrown at them by a protester. As the scene unfolds, the limits of democracy are exposed. It’s a thoug...

The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media) – New Diorama

28Sep

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media) – New Diorama

There is something inherently difficult about making theatre about an event that is still unfolding, particularly one as politically charged and emotionally divisive as Gaza. It requires not only courage, but perspective: enough distance to transform material into theatre rather than simply place it on a stage. For me, this is where The First Year (of the Gaza Genocide in the Media) falls short. The production, developed by BÉZNĂ Theatre with the International State Crime Initiative and Shadow World Investigations, is an ambitious collaboration built from testimony and research. Its credentials are impressive, as is the care with which the material has clearly been assembled. But after 90 minutes, I was left wondering: what is the purpose of this play? The production begins from ...

28Sep

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Balisong – Traverse Theatre

Short but perfectly formed, Balisong occasionally comes perilously close to feeling like a public-information film about the dangers of knives. But perhaps that is hardly surprising. Jennifer Adam's play was originally commissioned by No Knives Better Lives, produced with Fast Forward and developed in consultation with young people. It was subsequently recommissioned twice and, between 2017 and 2019, toured schools in every local authority in Scotland. And yet, sitting in the Traverse, I can't help being affected by it. Isn't that, after all, one of the points of theatre? To write something with purpose, with an allegory; something that seeks not merely to entertain but perhaps to make a difference? Its timing is particularly poignant. A few miles away in Leith stands t...

Exhibition on Screen – James McNeill Whistler

28Sep

By Alice RoseNo Comments

REVIEWS

Exhibition on Screen – James McNeill Whistler

‘Making Art for Art’s sake.’ A quote repeated almost too many times to count and yet, with each time spoken a new weight of how important independent vision truly is to human expression. This film takes us through a spectacular exhibition, starting at Whistler’s early discoveries on page- slowly stretching into new and exciting fields to finally land on some of his work that have stood the test of time. Alongside closer looks at his work, it is paired beautifully with letters sent by Whistler himself explaining his process. It is a wonderful thing to hear an artist express such light and excitement about the journey of artistry. Whistler would often journey into areas most would fear to go, we now have impressions of people who might never have had a chance to get a portrait and in r...

28Sep

By Prateek SonnyNo Comments

London

Three Men in a Boat – Rose Theatre

Three Men in a Boat, plus a dog, is a spectacular feat of musical comedy directed by Christopher Haydon. Based on a 19th-century novel of the same name, it follows three friends: Jerome (Jonny Weldon), Harris (Bronté Barbé) and George (Richard David-Cane), as Jerome organises a boat trip from Kingston to Oxford as a stag do for Harris. What should have been a picturesque and pleasant trip down the Thames becomes a succession of comic mishaps, misunderstandings and increasingly absurd situations. A splendid contributor to this mayhem is Jerome’s mischievous dog, Montmorency, brought to life through Calum Donald-Bruce’s puppetry. Having the journey begin in Kingston also gives the play a particularly fitting local connection. The play is an absolute visual treat, with a delightful product...

The Last Ship – Theatre Royal Drury Lane

28Sep

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

The Last Ship – Theatre Royal Drury Lane

There is a compelling musical somewhere inside ‘The Last Ship’. Its story of a Wallsend shipbuilding community facing the closure of its yard has all the ingredients for a powerful night of theatre, threatened livelihoods, fierce loyalty and the question of what remains when the work that defines a place disappears. Yet, despite its ambition and considerable scale, this production at Theatre Royal Drury Lane left us admiring what we could see far more than we cared about what happened. Visually, it is remarkable, stunning in fact. Jenny Melville’s immense set makes imaginative use of the theatre’s vast stage, establishing the shipyard as both a workplace and the centre of a community’s identity, dominated by the constant presence of the massive ship, Utopia. Adam Bassett’s lighting give...

28Sep

By Amanda HodgsonNo Comments

North West

Cryin Air – 53two

Lauren Bugg’s play Cryin’ Air is a wonderful tour de force exploring emotions of loneliness, grief, and friendship. Following a break-up with her indifferent boyfriend, innocent but ultra-anxious Grace (Milly Overland) seeks support from multiple over-the-phone therapists, but this provides little relief for her. She decides to book a city break to Amsterdam as a “solo female traveller” to escape her troubles, even though she is terrified of flights, travel, strangers and just about everything. Meanwhile, following the death of her father, Kerry (Ella-Maria Danson) decides to follow through on her promise to take a trip and scatter his ashes in an exotic city. Cue a (much delayed) flight to Amsterdam, where our two protagonists meet and become fast friends. Their newfound friendship will b...

28Sep

By Gaurav SinghNo Comments

London

The Urmetazoan – Hampstead Theatre

There is something genuinely refreshing about The Urmetazoan. At a time when theatre can sometimes feel like it needs to announce the scale of its ideas, Alex Rugman's play approaches questions of science, space travel, human survival and the future of the species through something much more intimate: two sisters who have not spoken to each other for seven years. Alice, played by Dorothea Myer-Bennethtt, is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist preparing for a one-way mission to Mars, where she will work towards establishing a human population. Abigail, played by Meghan Treadway, has taken a very different route through life. She is impulsive, carefree and much more interested in living in the present. Alice has spent her life looking towards the future, while Abigail is concerned with the me...