Camden Fringe Archives - Page 3 of 4

20Aug

By Ezzy LaBelleNo Comments

London

Domitius – Camden Fringe Online

Revamping Roman history for a modern audience, Domitius bursts with energy and electrifying rock musical scores. Expect the unexpected from Domitius Production Collective LLP! Making its Camden Fringe debut, the musical is available to watch online and follows the vain Roman Emperor Nero (also known as Domitius) and his ambitions to seek life as a poet and performer. However, thrust into power prematurely the audience, and history, bears witness to his descent into despotism instead. Featuring a roll call of names from Rome’s historic hall of fame - Seneca, Octavia, Agrippa, Poppaea and Nero – Domitius offers accuracy in events and finds a lively, original way to portray the period of 1st Century Rome. The internal conflict of Nero is one which cuts across time and cultures and into...

14Aug

By Gemma PrinceNo Comments

London

Dolls & Guys – Camden People’s Theatre

Part of the Camden Fringe festival which marks its 16th year, Dolls & Guys explores a dystopian world where women in a shop wait to be picked by the one and live happily ever after. Directed by Julia Sudzinsky and written by Sabean Bea and Alanna Flynn, the story focuses on five characters, Juliet, Lucy, Soraya, Maggie and Billie and explores their struggles to navigate love, life and dating. As we see the group break up and reunite as male customers (all played by Nicholas Pople) come through the door, one thing that remains the same are their friendships. We see how the characters bond over their shared experiences when the men are not around and was undoubtedly the highlight of the show. The awkward but intelligent Juliet (Sabean Bea) and her heart-warming interactions with tomb...

Play…in your bathtub 2.0 – Camden Fringe Online

9Aug

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

London

Play…in your bathtub 2.0 – Camden Fringe Online

Theatre makers have long been pushing the boundaries around staging works but using your own bathtub as a venue is certainly a new one. However, that is where I find myself to experience This is not a Theatre Company’s ‘immersive spa experience’ Play…in Your Bathtub 2.0. Created at the height of covid lockdowns, and directed by E.B. Mee, this participatory, multi-sensory piece is a 20minute meditation bringing in poetic monologues, classical piano music, toe wiggling and ASMR-style watery sound effects. Whilst the bath is the recommended scene, you can also opt for a footspa, shower, or even a bucket. It’s certainly a different experience, where you bring your own props of choice that relate to a specific sense (touch – warm water and bubble bath, taste – a beverage of your choice, ...

9Aug

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

London

Together At Last – Aces and Eights

What I love most about shows at the Camden Fringe is the experimental, test-the-waters nature. Dave Hazelnut’s ‘Together at Last’ not only tests the water – it blows the water out of the lake and way beyond. His madcap one-man act of witty ditties and audience participation will have you squirming in awkwardness and crying with laughter. Looking like a lost ornithologist crossed with ‘Where’s Wally?’ Hazelnut takes up a variety of instruments to sing about everything from Love Nuts to a Long Spoon to Princess Anne. The lyrics show he’s clearly talented, but he doesn’t let that skill get in the way of being hilariously funny. Photo: Samantha Collett Vaguely reminiscent of ‘Flight of the Conchords’ if you squint hard enough and if they had solo careers, ‘Together at last’ is what f...

7Aug

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

The Dumb Man – Cockpit Theatre

Based on Sherwood Anderson’s short story, this play for Camden’s Fringe Festival tells the tale of a man who lives in a world he created in his head. It begins with an elusive man addressing the audience and giving us a poetic introduction to the story. As Richard, the older character comes on stage he becomes consumed by whispering voices and eerie sounds. He gradually calms down and opens a letter which brings the characters of David and Jack to life as they converse across the stage and thus begins the illusory world. Jagoda Kamov’s writing has moments of eloquence and a particularly engaging scene between Jack and the nurse. The motifs of the windows and of the trees gave it a poetic feel and communicated Richard’s desperation to hold onto his illusions, as mirrored by Hardy Gru’s ...

4Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Jarman – King’s Head Theatre

A mighty spirit is about to reawaken. Yours! Over 80 intense minutes, Writer/Performer/Producer Mark Farrelly embarks on a journey to map out the life of Queer filmmaker, painter, gay rights activist, writer, and gardener Derek Jarman, from troubled childhood, through career achievements, illness, and death in his highly acclaimed solo play ‘Jarman’, which is being shown as a unique double bill as part of the Camden Fringe Festival. Jarman was an icon in the gay community, a trail blazer politically, socially, and creatively. One of the first public figures to announce his HIV status to the world, he called for us all to “be astonishing” and that is exactly what Farrelly achieves with this highly thought provoking and beautifully written piece of theatre. Farrelly’s writing is incre...

A Little Drape of Heaven – Camden Fringe Online

3Aug

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

REVIEWS

A Little Drape of Heaven – Camden Fringe Online

Before streaming A Little Drape of Heaven, part of Camden Fringe 2022, we were advised to ``go to a closet, find a piece of clothing to hold close to your heart, and press play on the audio link”. So, clutching my late mother’s jumper to my heart and, ignoring the puzzled look on my husband’s face, I pressed play on my laptop - only to be told the piece of clothing should belong to someone of the opposite sex. To me, this is classed as audience participation which I hate. And though I was the only one in the audience (my husband having left the room), not in a million years was I going back to the wardrobe to find an item of his clothing to clutch. Swati Das narrates in a lovely, sing-song voice and early on it’s clear she is the voice of a sari, being unwrapped after 10 years of...

1Aug

By Jackie FoottitNo Comments

REVIEWS

Boiling Frog – Camden Fringe Online

Before logging on to watch Boiling Frog, part of Camden Fringe 2022, I did some research and unearthed the following: “Urban myth has it that if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water it will instantly leap out. But if you put it in a pot filled with pleasantly tepid water and gradually heat it, the frog will remain in the water until it boils to death.” The production opens with scenes of burning forest fires, then four actors each share their experiences of how the Australian bush fires of 2019/2020 affected their lives. There is a fifth actor, Jordan (Tom Stevenson), but more of him later. Only one of the four, teenager Bella (Olivia Maiden), actually witnessed the fires first-hand, but it’s the impact the disaster had on her that affects the rest of her family - her gran Susan...

20Aug

By Donna M DayNo Comments

London

Murmur – Camden Fringe

Magpie’s Murmur, written and directed by Susanne Colleary, is a surreal fairy tale audio play, which explores trust and confidence against a backdrop of rich and intricate sound effects and a bizarre and original story of friendship and encounters with strangers. Ren (Orla McSharry) is the expectant mother of Baba who lives in a ramshackle dwelling in the woods. Mag (Isabel Claffey) spots her and points her out to Bee (Sandra O’Malley) who then invades Ren’s home and mind with talk of health and safety, responsibility and welfare, before offering a number of solutions. But this Emperor’s New Clothes style tale teaches Ren that not everything or everyone is as they seem, and the best person to keep her and Baba safe, is probably Ren herself. Haunting singing throughout the piece pair...

18Aug

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Village Wooing – Etcetera Theatre

Produced as part of the Camden Fringe Festival, George Bernard Shaw's "Village Wooing" was written in 1933 while he was on a world cruise on the Empress of Britain. This two-hander in the form of three conversations has characters loosely based on people Shaw knew - writer Lytton Strachey and Jisbella Lyth, postmistress in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, where he lived for most of his life. Shaw said of his play, "..my efforts to write resulted in nothing at first but a very trivial comedietta which only Edith Evans could make tolerable." He was wrong. This is a mini gem of a play, very much of its time and a period delight. The unnamed characters, known only as "A" and "Z" meet on board a cruise liner, he a widowed writer and aesthete, struggling to find the words for his Marco...