Bread and Roses Theatre Archives

The Love That I’ve Lost – Bread and Roses Theatre

10Oct

By Holly LilyNo Comments

London

The Love That I’ve Lost – Bread and Roses Theatre

Love is very complicated, and The Love That I’ve Lost undoubtedly demonstrates that. Written and directed by Morgan Clarice, The Love That I’ve Lost follows three generations of women: Lillie (Harriet Spence-Reid), Michelle (Amelia Dunn) and Betty (Nina Anderson), as they navigate their complex love lives. Lillie, the youngest of the three, is new to dating and struggles with the rejection that can come with finding the right person. Her mother, Michelle (though difficult to believe with the age gap not seeming believably big enough), is going through a messy divorce, finding it hard to move on when she is still so in love. Betty’s husband is suffering from dementia, and so despite still being in a long-term relationship, she feels a lack of love as a result of feeling him slowly s...

Taming of the Shrew: A Kinky Retelling – Bread and Roses Theatre

5Oct

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Taming of the Shrew: A Kinky Retelling – Bread and Roses Theatre

Brush up your Shakespeare and begrime your mind ahead of time to wring all possible pleasure from this depraved and debaucherous play. Shrewd in its commentary on gender and power play but refreshingly earnest in its treatment of romance, this feel good bad boy adaptation is a delight to sink your teeth into. The bite of its unabashedly lewd and unrestrainedly hedonistic humour does little to shield the vulnerability at the story’s heart, that of two people who think they might be able to make something good together that neither one of them has alone. Unremittingly hilarious over the roughly hour-long runtime of raw hijinks, performers Zak Rosen (Petruchio) and Paige Hann (Katharina) nonetheless conjure moments of disarming beauty in the frenzy of arming, dismantling, subverting...

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...

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

16Jun

By Maani WayNo Comments

London

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

25Mar

By Aditi DalalNo Comments

London

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...