Alex Fernandes Archives - North West End UK

9Feb

By Charles PipeNo Comments

London

Exhuming Emily – Etcetera Theatre

Monty Bulmer sits at the bottom of Mealt Falls in the Isle of Skye with a compound leg fracture and the tide coming in. Above him, entombed in the frozen waterfall, is the body of Emily. Monty intends to exhume the body. He beseeches God for a miracle. In order to convey to God just how important it is for him to exhume Emily, Monty tells the story of what led him to his current situation. With a heavy focus on his tumultuous relationship with his father, Monty recounts his life story. I don’t want to describe the plot further, so as not to spoil any of the shocking twists and turns. I would suggest that those particularly sensitive to upsetting themes around sexual offences use their discretion when deciding whether or not to see this show. Alex Maslin’s richly complex script...

The Concrete Jungle Book – The Pleasance Theatre

Twisting the colourful Disney version of The Jungle Book, reproducing the grimness of Rudyard Kipling’s classic, interpolating it with live rap music, grime, reggae and spoken word, the Highrise present a dynamic and reverberating Hip-hop musical The Concrete Jungle Book at the Pleasance. Written and directed by Dominic Garfield, the play explores homelessness, abandonment, and survival in a concrete jungle where “there’s no fair when there’s hunger in the air…” Set on the streets of London, the opening scene invites the audience into a run-down, dark, sketchy neighbourhood with a pulsating score often drowning the words of the actors. Nonetheless, their performance energy and commitment to the ensemble successfully transports the audience into a surreal world created brilliantly by jux...

Two Billion Beats – Orange Tree Theatre

Orange tree Theatre’s new show ‘Two Billion Beats’ follows two sisters who meet at the bus stop. Both tackling their secondary school experience in very different ways. Asha, the older sister and arguably the smartest in the school is inspired by the revolutionary figures of the past. Bettina, the younger is tackling a revolution of her own, against her bullies on the bus. We meet them at the bus stop, detention and the park as Bettina does her best to avoid being by herself but one day, she asks Asha for help and as their political beliefs and the cause and effect begins to unravel, we question the damage of our actions. Safiyya Ingar and Anoushka Chadha beautifully portray the sisters with such depth and humour, pushing each other’s buttons with rage and burning sisterly love. Their p...