Brockley Jack Studio Theatre Archives

In the Shadow of Her Majesty – Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

15Nov

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

In the Shadow of Her Majesty – Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

In a cramped but comfortable North London council flat four female members of a family are preparing for Christmas. It is December 2020, when social interaction is still impacted by the effect of Covid. Within sight of the house are the overbearing walls of Pentonville prison, where the man of the house is incarcerated. The long-suffering and alcoholic mother Doreen (Alice Selwyn) and her three daughters form a fractious family unit, obsessed by football and EastEnders. The youngest daughter Jorja (Ella Harding) waits impatiently and in some distress for a long-awaited phone call on the landline from her father from inside the prison, while receiving mysterious messages on her own phone. The play, written by Lois Tallulah who also starred as oldest daughter Riley, was billed as "a t...

19Jan

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Kindred – Brockley Jack

This new play by Amee Walker-Reid is a journey through one tumultuous week in the lives of a young couple, Lois and Matt, as they look forward to their wedding at the end of the week. As the play starts, they have just returned from Matt's father's funeral, which was a disturbing event due to the ongoing animosities within his family. During the week, they also have to attend Lois's sister's divorce party. This would be enough for most stable couples to cope with, but Matt suffers from a fairly severe psychotic illness which he is struggling to manage, and Lois is reaching the end of her tether trying to help and support him. Thus, this is a fairly angst laden 60 minutes of theatre. There was a lot of swearing, shouting and some physical violence, with just moments of tenderness s...

Hedda Gabler – Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

6Oct

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Hedda Gabler – Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

The Fish Don't Matter theatre company have produced a pacy but flawed production of Ibsen's classic. Hedda Gabler is one of theatre's great characters often likened to a female Hamlet. A young bride returning from her overlong honeymoon already bored with her academic husband who is more interested in his research then her, is trapped in a relationship and house that she does not like. She takes out her misery on those around her and tries to rekindle relationships with previous admirers but fails to find satisfaction leading to an ultimately tragic end. The Brockley Jack playing area is not large, and the director Scott James had made it even smaller by creating an acting area demarcated by a wooden boundary containing small bunches of flowers. The result was that the cast were f...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Brockley Jack

3Sep

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Brockley Jack

Bear in the Air Productions have produced a fresh traditional retelling of one of Shakespeare's most famous plays without resorting to gimmicks. It has been adapted brilliantly by Heather Simpkin to be performed by a cast of only six. This of course required very rapid costume changes, and placed great demands on the cast as they shifted within seconds from one character to another. All this was accomplished with great professionalism. The setting was minimal in the Brockley Jack's limited theatre space, with only a rudimentary bower, a statue and a few pieces of platform to represent the leafy bank. But the space was excellently used by the director, Conor Cook, although the need for cast members to leave the playing area to change rapidly into other costumes made for...

Kitty in the Lane – Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

7May

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Kitty in the Lane – Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

Kitty is waiting in her kitchen, dressed up to go to a pageant where her competitive friend will be performing. In her isolated house, at the end of a long lane, Kitty lives with her invalid father. She is also awaiting the arrival of her sometime lover, but he never does. Kitty is played by Aine Ryan who also devised this one-hander. She narrates the story of her life on the isolated farm, where she was always dominated by her dictatorial father. It is a grim piece of theatre, describing suicide, rape, and abortion. The play is intended to be the tale of a woman imprisoned by circumstances, but as a picture of modern day Ireland it was anachronistic. The farm had tractors and CCTV in all the fields: there was clearly no shortage of money. This is not a believable picture of rural...

Ten Days in a Madhouse – The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

17Jun

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Ten Days in a Madhouse – The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre

This multimedia adaptation by Douglas Baker is based upon the real-life account of Nellie Bly of her spell in New York’s notorious Blackwell’s Island Asylum in 1887. It documents her initial unsuccessful attempts to be employed as a journalist by the misogynist editor of the New York World, John Cockerill, who, taking advantage of her youthful enthusiasm to pursue investigative stories, sent her undercover to be committed to the asylum as a patient. The abuses of patients that she uncovered were published in The World and led eventually to the closing down of the asylum, as well as to a surge in young female investigative journalists. Although there are many characters in this story, there is only one actor, playing the role of Nellie Bly. Most of the other characters are portraye...