Bread and Roses Theatre Archives

6Jul

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Hedda Gabler – Bread And Roses Theatre

Out of all of Henrik Ibsen’s dramatic works, Hedda Gabler remains one of his most notorious. Featuring a supremely complex central character, it’s a realistic play that still leaves a lot up to interpretation — giving director Mya Kelln plenty to sink her teeth into in 13th Night Theatre Company’s new revival at The Bread & Roses Theatre. Set in an ambiguous time period, we follow 48 hours in the life of titular character Hedda (Eliza Cameron), a newly married woman who’s returned from a lengthy honeymoon with her academic husband Jörgen (Jack Aldridge). While navigating the boredom of her new life in a house she hates, the return of Jörgen’s academic rival — and, as it turns out, Hedda’s former romantic interest — Eilert Lövborg (Bede Hodgkinson) sets the character onto a path of m...

Alex Getting Better – Bread and Roses Theatre

Set in the United States, Alex Getting Better explores the story of re-emergence of old trauma and how it can affect people in different ways. The playwright, Audrey Lang, describes the play as a play about strength, moving forward and learning to deal with the present and the future. Written from Lang’s own experiences, the principal character, Alex, navigates her past and sexual assault through speaking with her therapist and reconnecting with her old friends from middle school. The friends visit their old stomping grounds, talk about their previous experiences of sexual assault, and carry out activities reminiscent of their youth. As the audience enter the theatre, Alex (Erin Maria Walther) and her therapist (Alice Gold) are on stage. While not conventional for the performers to b...

Who You Are and What You Do – Bread and Roses Theatre

A children’s birthday party-cum-carnival is the vibe the audience gets as they enter a room full of confetti, balloons and streamers. You’re in for a rollercoaster ride of clapping away to Pharrell Williams’s ‘Happy’ before holding your breath as unexpected events unfold, bursting in sprouts of uncomfortable laughter and circling back to a joyful singing of “Happy Birthday.” Written by Hugh Dichmont, the play was the Top three winner of The Bread & Roses Playwriting Award 2019. Opening with an energetic clowning act, the show quickly turns the mood around and dives into darker themes. Five stories, seeking happiness in different ways, unfold part by part as a montage, except they never fully come together. The fragments are played in a different order in each show. They seem general...