Camden People’s Theatre Archives

19Jun

By Saloni SanwalkaNo Comments

London

Camdenwalla – Camden People’s Theatre

There are some works of art which one wishes were fiction and Camdenwalla is one of them. The play takes us back to 1990s Camden, when racism against the British-Bangladeshi community was at an all-time high. Amidst police indifference emerged the Camden Monitoring Project, an organisation run by local volunteers which functioned as a helpline of sorts and kept meticulous record of the details of each attack. Camdenwalla is a snapshot of an average night for one of these volunteers, Muhammad, as he races to extinguish the embers of violence before they catch. The first few minutes of the show perfectly capture the period’s unease. Bhasker Patel, in a truly magnetic turn as Muhammad, tries to go about his routine but gives himself away with fleeting glances towards a locked door, wai...

Strange Young Girls – Camden People’s Theatre

6Aug

By Gemma PrinceNo Comments

London

Strange Young Girls – Camden People’s Theatre

Written by Abby Greenhalgh and co-directed with Megan Dunlop, Bossy Boot Productions presents Strange Young Girls, a bold new play inspired by the real-life friendship between Michelle Phillips (The Mamas & The Papas) and Sue Lyon (Lolita). Winner of Best Play, Best Writing, Best Direction, and Best Actor at the Durham Drama Festival, it is a coming-of-age tale as these two characters come to terms with their changing identities, the uncertainty of their futures, and whether their friendship will last. Set in Los Angeles during the swinging sixties, the play focuses on 17-year-old Michelle (played by Grace Graham) as she prepares for her new life in San Francisco. While packing, Michelle is suddenly interrupted by the return of her 14-year-old best friend, Sue (played by ...

26Feb

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

Musclebound – Camden People’s Theatre

Very niche and very funny! Rosy Carrick ruminates about the eroticised torture of bodybuilders in mainstream films of the 1980s and her personal sexual exploration through the years. Having co-hosted the poetry stages at Latitude and Glastonbury festivals for the last decade, Rosy has the gift of gab and will have your attention immediately after 'coming' into the room. It is not often that we have one-woman comedy take centre stage shamelessly about their first explorations around sex as a child, a teen, an adult, a mother of a teen, or an older woman pursuing exactly what she fancies. This new show is asking a lot of questions about the politics of female pleasure and untangling the creepers of shame, power, and torture around ideas of sexual exploration. Rosy has created a bra...

20Aug

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

Wife Material – Camden People’s Theatre

Sophia and Heleana Blackwell are a married stand-up comedy and poetry duo. Two lesbians tell us about the trials, tribulations and satisfactions of marriage. There is poetry, improvised songs and duets. Sophia and Heleana share a vibrant chemistry of opposites attracting. They intersperse one another’s stories recollecting how they met, got married and tug of disagreements solely about duvet covers. The show, first performed at the RVT, returns to the Camden Fringe and is the love story we yearn for and deserve. In the onslaught of heteronormativity slapped at us across all media, the piece holds the quiet comfort of a warm cup of coffee with a friend. Sophia is a performance poet with three published poetry collections and one novel. For two years, she hosted the LGBT+ radio sho...

A Caravan Named Desire – Camden People’s Theatre

12Aug

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

A Caravan Named Desire – Camden People’s Theatre

Split Infinitive presents the play 'A Caravan Named Desire'. The experimental piece is performed by married couple Alexander and Helen Millington. The play starts on the premise to curiously unpack the living experience of a sex worker but meanders into the personal journey of the writer/character's sexual exploration. 'A caravan named Desire' is the John Beecher Memorial Award winner for original, challenging work with high production value at the Buxton Fringe Festival. For time immemorial, men have lied and deceived women to share their stories and services. The play's premise's inherent deceit sits uncomfortably and is invisible in the room. Though the play's premise is attractive, the tension, curiosity and apprehension around sexual exploration falls flat in the latter h...

<strong>Block’d Off – Camden People’s Theatre</strong>

10Nov

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

Block’d Off – Camden People’s Theatre

Bold, dynamic and unmissable. Block’d Off a brilliant addition to the curation of 'Theatre in times of crisis' autumn shows at Camden People's Theatre. The play illuminates the unspoken realities of surviving in London for the working class. The characters based on true stories, all portrayed by Camila Segal, are deeply churning. Kudos to first-time Writer and Director Kieton Saunders-Browne for some stunning stagecraft. The specificity of observations, from fixing Santander cycles to discussing the pieces of ham in their sandwich, will make you laugh. It also achieves the intricate suspension of the reality of going back and forth in time while the character's trajectories progress and intersect. We start the play with an older woman enjoying the joy of moving to music tha...

Wipe These Tears – Camden People’s Theatre

14Oct

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

Wipe These Tears – Camden People’s Theatre

BÉZNĂ Theatre brings another powerful and hard-hitting performance traversing space, time, years and gender to centre conversations about love, sacrifice, strength and war. Wipe these tears is based on interviews with over 90 individuals, including survivors of war and torture, clinical psychologists and medics working with ex-service people and the UK's leading anti-war, anti-Islamophobia, state crime and colonial studies academics and activists. The ensemble of female, working class and BME-led cast hold forte traversing the narratives and transforming characters, accents and costumes seamlessly. It was satisfying to witness symbols of British Imperialism receive what they deserved and see how capitalists profit from the wars on stage. We start at the innocuous setting of a teac...

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 tombo...

23Apr

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Qrumpet – Camden People’s Theatre

Theatre can elicit many emotions in an audience – fear, sadness, joy, anger, to name but a few. Last night, I felt an emotion that I don’t think has ever been awoken in me through the arts – an absolute, raging frustration. The show’s description is quirky and intriguing – basically, quantum tunnelling, but with a crumpet. What if you could throw a crumpet through a wall? SPOILER ALERT. You cannot. And I know this, because last night I spent an hour watching crumpets being buttered and thrown at a wall. Not just crumpets, either; a shoe, a free newspaper, an unsuspecting Lindt bunny. None of the above can be thrown through a wall, and I’m sorry to say that I didn’t find the process of finding that out remotely entertaining. The stage is set with the world’s worst Pelaton bike ...

Say Yes to Tess – Camden People’s Theatre

9Apr

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Say Yes to Tess – Camden People’s Theatre

When I arrived at the Camden People’s Theatre on Thursday night, despite having been there several times before, I walked straight past it. It has had a lovely post-pandemic spruce up and the space felt clean, calm and inviting. Then, my heart sank when I saw the promotional poster for the show. “Say Yes to Tess - A New Musical”. Now don’t get me wrong, fringe theatre is very much my bag, and the description I’d read of the piece had really appealed to me, but goodness me… a musical in an intimate setting is the stuff of my nightmares. I’m pleased to report, though, that I was very pleasantly surprised and had a genuinely uplifting and enjoyable evening. Say Yes to Tess is Tess Seddon’s autobiographical retelling of her experience standing as a candidate for the Yorkshire Party in the 2...