Latest Articles - Page 3 of 676

26Apr

By Charlotte MansfieldNo Comments

London

Down to Chance – Pleasance Theatre

Based on a true story, Down to Chance, follows the events in an Alaskan town during the biggest earthquake that’s ever hit the US. Advertised as Come from Away meets The Play that Goes Wrong, this show is much more like Come From Away, as very little goes wrong in this slick, fast-paced tale of disaster and courage. Written by Ellie Jay Cooper and Directed by Caleb Barron from Maybe You Like It theatre company, the story follows Genie, a radio journalist in 1964, whose gender is hampering her ambitions. When the earthquake strikes though, she is the only experienced reporter available, and together with her teenage intern, they keep the residents of Anchorage informed and entertained during a terrifying night. A set of radio mics, portable recording equipment, and a c...

Should I Still Be Doing This? – Soho Theatre

26Apr

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Should I Still Be Doing This? – Soho Theatre

Susan Harrison's parade of weird and wonderful characters was a big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and it's not hard to see why. This hilarious mixture of stand-up, improv and character comedy is sharp, original, and best of all, funny. Depressed Sindy is a particularly brilliant and original skit, as the doll looks back on her life of always being negatively compared to her more successful American counterpart, Barbie. Angry panda from Chester Zoo makes cogent observations of how people view zoo animals and intrude on their private moments. Over-the-top “influencer” Fleur is recognisably cringe-worthy. Harrison also takes a deep dive into the surreal with her girl stuck in a well inside a woman - a bizarre alter-ego but strangely believable which even draws the...

26Apr

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Cock – Colab

As a theatre space, Colab Tower in London Bridge offers quirky novelty and elements of mystery to the uninitiated. Prior to the performance, audience members were asked to wait in The Gold Bar, before being called to the show. The bar features an abundant range of drinks (2 types of stout!), plush theatrical drapes, a cabaret stage, art installations and the vibes of a private members club. From this cosy, bohemian space, the audience were then called en masse to descend a labyrinth of bland, office block stairs. Like a drunken office party on an unscheduled fire safety tour, we arrived in the unpolished bowels of the building. The room we were then ushered into felt like the lair of a serial killer. Exposed pipes, peeling paint, industrial lighting and plastic chairs only added to the sin...

Smoke + You Are Loved Panel – Omnibus Theatre

23Apr

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Smoke + You Are Loved Panel – Omnibus Theatre

SMOKE is a savage queer comedy thriller. A play written and performed by Alex Gregory. spotlighted by the non-profitable charitable work of ‘You are loved’ YAL. Gregory invites you to witness his lonely intimate experience dealing with grief, addiction and psychosis a life dominated by his everyday thoughts and actions. His openness about his previous drug taking is divulged early on within the play and there is no reference to drugs and sexual content thereafter. The focus here is the aftermath of a life lived with pain, loneliness and misconceived biases. Alex fights with his demons and becomes activated when he ‘receives’ or ‘perceives’ an Instagram message asking “how are ru” no question mark- that is sent to his phone from his dead partner Ben. The narrative weaves its...

Jack Docherty in The Chief: No Apologies – Traverse Theatre

23Apr

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Jack Docherty in The Chief: No Apologies – Traverse Theatre

Jack Docherty has had a much longer, and varied, career than many may be aware of. Having started at the Fringe in his home town of Edinburgh in 1980, he’s been on stage, in front of and behind the camera and as a writer for such legendary TV shows as Alas Smith & Jones, Spitting Image, Vic Reeves and Lenny Henry. Heck, he even had a chat show on Channel Five for a year or so in the late 90’s. But it’s Chief Commissioner Cameron Miekelson (from Scot Squad) that’s finally given him his oeuvre and the opportunity to roam unrestrained across any subject he cares to choose. Tonight’s very much like a stand-up routine but in two acts, with an interval. He’s written a book, ‘The Chief: No Apologies’ and treats us to excerpts, ‘treats’ being the operative word for we are privileged to be t...

23Apr

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

Nayatt School Redux – Coronet Theatre

I once described a Wooster Group production to a prospective theatre date as a “massage for the brain”. She was intrigued and tagged along. She and her hyper-rational brain then spent two hours beside me in quiet agony. Six years later, I texted her to say I was giving them another try, joking there might be a plot this time. She did not ask for a ticket. Probably for the best. Nayatt School Redux by the Wooster Group is less a play than a controlled act of disorientation. Conceived as a reconstruction of a partially lost 1978 production, giving center stage to T. S. Eliot’s The Cocktail Party, it embraces fragmentation as both method and message. It begins with Kate Valk, a long-time Wooster Group member and deadpan narrator, who delivers an avalanche of archival detail about the or...

23Apr

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

The Waves – Jermyn Street Theatre

Virginia Woolf’s poetic, genre-resistent novel The Waves might not feel like an obvious candidate for a theatrical adaptation, but Flora Wilson Brown takes on the challenge with aplomb in this excellent new production at Jermyn Street Theatre. Director Júlia Levai reimagines the lives of friends Rhoda, Bernard, Susan, Neville, Jinny, and Louis in a loosely ambiguous time period, set against Tomás Palmer’s stark, metallic set design that becomes etched with the sextuplet’s memories — both literally and figuratively. Costume Designer Annett Black initially has the characters dressed in white t-shirts emblazoned with their names, which they shed as they grow up and into themselves, trying to discover who they are while also acknowledging the extent to which they are the sum of their experi...

The Spy Who Came in from The Cold – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

23Apr

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

The Spy Who Came in from The Cold – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

One of the predominant elements of John Le Carré’s novels concerning British Intelligence is bleakness. A mantle of washed-out grey cloaks the lives and actions of his characters, darker shades representing the shadows in which they are doomed to operate. As his son Nick Harkaway writes in the programme (in contrast with another, cinematically celebrated, agent of ‘the service’) there’s ‘not a martini or an Aston Martin in sight.’ The set (Max Jones) and lighting (Azusa Ono) for tonight’s show reflect this, the barbed-wire topped wall looming mute behind a floor displaying the contorted map of Europe in the early 60’s. The uniforms and attire of all concerned (with the exception of Liz Gold’s turquoise suit in the closing scenes) are relentlessly dour, and in Alec Leamas’s case, appr...

23Apr

By Emma LambeNo Comments

North West

Miss Saigon – Liverpool Empire

Miss Saigon is an iconic love story set in the last days of the Vietnam War. 17-year-old Kim is forced to work in a Saigon bar run by a notorious character known as The Engineer. There she meets and falls in love with an American GI named Chris, but they are torn apart by the fall of Saigon. For 3 years Kim goes on an epic journey of survival to find her way back to Chris, who has no idea he's fathered a son. There are some musicals that can stand the test of time, and this is certainly one of them. In this new and updated production of Miss Saigon, it's not so much a reinterpretation, but the same Miss Saigon fans know and love, but with a different creative approach. The role of the Engineer is played by the incredibly diverse Sean Miles Moore, stunning the audience with commanding...

23Apr

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Barnum – Birmingham Hippodrome

Some musicals are classics and last forever, strong enough to weather changes in socials mood and time and attitudes. Other pieces have their place, their period and should, thereafter, be quietly archived as a curiosity of its time. Barnum falls into the latter category. Not for any fault in the music which continues to be vibrant, lively and riddled with humble ear-worms, but because we are asked to support, empathise and care for a character whose real-life exploits are clearly questionable by today’s standard. In the hands of a beloved TV entertainer forty years ago this would have passed without remark but today it’s somewhat toe-curling. A tweak of a line here or there would’ve avoided that. Barnum exploded on Broadway in the eighties with the multi-talented Jim Dale in the title ...