Chris Sonnex Archives - North West End UK

Martin McDonagh’s darkly satirical exploration of violence, extremism, and the cyclical nature of retribution resonates as much with today’s challenges of nationalism, radicalism, and unchecked ideology as it did to Ireland’s troubled past when, having been written in 1994, it eventually premiered in 2001. For all the talk of good luck when a black cat crosses your path, Donny (Alan Turkington), Davey (Taylor McClaine) and wayward Republicans Christy (Cameron McKendrick), Brendan (Michael Tient), and Joey (Jason Kelly) are about to discover what ensues when you cross a black cat belonging to Donny’s son, Padraic (Julian Moore-Cook) – a man so mad that much to his chagrin, most mainstream terrorist organisations won’t have him as a member. Throw in a wannabee rebel in Davey’s sister, Mai...

“A lyrical love letter to UK garage,” Bangers is a mixed bag mix tape of bright futures and crushed dreams. Under the neon glow of Laura Howard’s chilled/chilly lighting design, the Arcola Theatre is transformed into a concert venue. DJ Tanya-Loretta Dee cues up tracks under an industrial scaffold as audiences file into the space, meander across the stage’s set of club speakers, and make their way to their assigned seats. There’s a strange uneasiness to the arrangement of the space which places a playing stage not above its audience but in the arena pit of the small Hackney theatre. Very much a North London storytelling theatre, and despite its ushering staff’s best efforts the atmosphere cultivated in the room is not that of bouncer patrolled nightclub where the music is booming and th...

Tag: Chris Sonnex

The Lieutenant of Inishmore – Liverpool Everyman

Bangers – Arcola Theatre