Blanche McIntyre Archives - North West End UK

18May

By Charlotte MansfieldNo Comments

London

Stage Kiss – Hampstead Theatre

Currently in its UK debut at Hampstead Theatre, Stage Kiss explores the nature of acting and the intimacy of a kiss, asking where are the lines between reality and performance, and what would the fallout be if those lines began to blur? In Sarah Bruhl’s critically acclaimed romantic comedy, an actress returning to work after a long break finds her ex has been cast opposite her in a revival of a terrible 1930s play, The Last Kiss, where the plot makes no sense and half the characters are called Millicent. Life begins to mirror art as the leads fall back in love, just like the characters they portray, causing upheaval in their normal lives. But is the romance sustainable once the play they’re in has ended? As the reality of being poor and out of work sets in, they are cast in a second ter...

Private Lives – Royal Exchange

The Royal Exchange’s recent renaissance under its newly installed artistic director, Selena Cartmell, continues apace with a sparkling revival of Noël Coward’s Private Lives. This is a production that deftly balances the play’s barbed wit with the art deco glamour of its setting, while allowing something darker to seep through the cracks: a distinctly Pinteresque unease beneath the polished surface. Coward is often caricatured as the world-weary, dressing-gown-clad wit, all epigrams and elegance. But there has always been more to him than that. Ever since seeing the Citizens Theatre’s 1988 production of his early play The Vortex—with Maria Aitken and a startlingly young Rupert Everett—it has been clear to me that Coward’s work carries a sharper, more serious undercurrent. His outsider’s...

Hymn – Sky Arts at Almeida Theatre

Lolita Chakrabarti’s thoughtful new play ‘Hymn’ was conceived with a live audience in mind. However, Blanche McIntyre’s recent production filmed under COVID-safe, socially distanced conditions at the Almeida Theatre, initially live-streamed and then shown this weekend on Sky Arts works perfectly in communicating the relationship between two men, Gill (Adrian Lister) and Benny (Danny Sapani). The play centres only on Gill and Benny, and opens with the funeral of Gill’s Father, Gus. Gill delivers the eulogy. Benny is also at the funeral. The two men meet, not at all by chance, and even though they are from vastly different social backgrounds, with different education and different prospects, this opens a course of events that draw the two into what becomes a powerful and emotionally charg...