Etcetera Theatre Archives - North West End UK

1Aug

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Mixed Omens – Etcetera Theatre

Mixed Omens is literally one of a kind. Performed by narrative improv group, The Improvised Play, their previous productions have focused on the works of Tennessee Williams and Caryl Churchill. Here, they take the works of Neil Gaiman, looking at the interface between real life and myth and the creatures that inhabit those spaces. Demons and gods (like Gaiman's interpretation of Aziraphale and Crowley) mix with humans with varying success and outcomes. An evil father who wants to spread his darkness across the world is searching for his wayward daughter who has escaped to the human world to seek out her half-sister rather than following in his dark footsteps. Essentially a struggle between good and evil, the show is Good Omens meets Long Lost Family, with secret sib...

24Jun

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Where You Go – Etcetera Theatre

Millie Henson's new play follows Aniyah and Finn's relationship, following an argument that threatens to destroy the couple. Finn is sleeping on the sofa, slobbing around their tiny messy apartment trying to break through his musical block and forgetting to water the plants, while Aniyah does long shifts as a nurse and is permanently exhausted. They used to be singer-songwriting partners, with aspirations to sell out stadiums and go on worldwide tours. This dream comes crashing down when Aniyah accepts that they have bills to pay and leaves the singing partnership, much to Finn's resentment. Without his "muse", his songwriting stalls. Suddenly at this pivotal moment in their relationship, a global apocalyptic event forces them to make major life choices, renew familial ties and attem...

Franz Kafka’s The Hunger Artist – Etcetera Theatre

11Jun

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

Franz Kafka’s The Hunger Artist – Etcetera Theatre

Franz Kafka’s The Hunger Artist - Etcetera Theatre Mesmeric, painfully expressive, and disturbingly comforting, Jonathan Sidgwick brings Kafka’s final work to life. Caged, centre stage, we find a man who revives himself to tell the tragic tale of the Hunger Artist, a man who devoted his life to his craft, to fasting. We see the hunger artist’s plight at the hands of a disinterested audience, (but also due to his own fixation), as he is forced to downgrade from a solo-travelling act that brought in masses to a sad, sideshow act that viewers see as a hindrance. With outstretched fingers and ever-widening eyes, blooming with the peculiar expression of the tormented hunger artist, you could feel his hunger for express and his appetite for reward, and release. He performed and flaunted th...

A Night with Me, Myself and Bipolar Brenda – Etcetera Theatre

14Oct

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

A Night with Me, Myself and Bipolar Brenda – Etcetera Theatre

I’ve struggled with writing this review, as I have in the past when I've felt that the line between entertaining and educating are blurred in a production. In creating “A Night with Me, Myself and Bipolar Brenda”, actress and writer Natasha Rae has used her own experiences with bipolar disorder and anxiety to paint a brutally honest picture of how she experiences life and motherhood under the cloud of mental illness. Rae is passionate and engaging, her manic energy on stage mirroring the periods of mania she has experienced as part of her illness over the years. She reflects on the impact bipolar has had on her loved ones, covers her coping mechanisms as well as her darker times which felt refreshing, and washes the show through with a thorough dose of self-deprecating humour. That ...

8Aug

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

Dead Souls – Etcetera Theatre

The Eno River Players bring Mikhail Bulgakov’s (author of The Master and Margarita) Dead Souls to life, with a swirling sense of adventure. The cast of three tumble through the plot in a stylistically haphazard way, presenting the 19th century Russian story. Chichikov, the protagonist, embarks on a “get rich quick” scheme, scouring the land for “dead souls”, collecting the rights to dead people. On his journey, he meets a host of strange characters that lead him from one place to another. The set is full of random props, domineered by a central painting of the Russian leader, changing with the time. The bustle as they set up between scenes was rhythmic and characterised and gave the bohemian feel of a travelling troupe, but I think using slightly fewer props would have made the spac...

Nigel Osner: Still Ticking! – Etcetera Theatre

17Oct

By Louise PennNo Comments

London

Nigel Osner: Still Ticking! – Etcetera Theatre

Barrister turned cabaret performer Nigel Osner has had a busy life. In twenty-five years on the stage (“it sounds better than quarter of a century”) this lively septuagenarian has formed his new show following his near-death experience during heart surgery last year. Over the course of an hour Osner looks at the songs he has written, the places he has been to become “self-sufficient” and “comfortable” with his ageing self and performs a handful of character-driven monologues. He tells us of the musicals he wrote – Rock Heaven, with its posturing star and cyborgs, never got produced, but Magic in Ravenswood, a children’s fantasy based on Osner’s own book, did – and his earlier shows, notably Angel to Vampire! which won acclaim at the Buxton Fringe. In personality, Osner presents as...

26Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Janet – Etcetera Theatre

I have to say that I was not sure what to expect when reading the summary of the show, as it does sound absurd to make a character from a piece of bread dough. I am pleased to say, that the unique skills of performer, Helen Ainsworth and director, John Mowat left me in no doubt that this unusual approach to puppetry is very entertaining. The story begins with Ainsworth wearing her chef’s uniform and hat, incorporating a mask, as she begins to bring the characters alive. Beryl is a packet of French bread flour, Keith is a rusty lidded water jug, and Lady Jane Grey is a posh sounding teapot from Sheffield. The show begins with Beryl and Keith consummating their relationship, by mixing together their flour and water to create Janet, their beloved offspring, the French bre...

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 ...

18Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Bad Teacher – Etcetera Theatre

Not to be confused with the Cameron Diaz film in 2011, Bad Teacher offers a tongue in cheek look at the teaching profession and how this particular teacher manages to deal with the day-to-day frustrations of the job. As an introduction, the screen on the backdrop projects news articles about Government cuts to education, mental health and general unrest within the teaching profession because of pressure, leading to teachers quitting. Evie is a 26-year-old drama teacher who feels that she is underpaid and underappreciated. She has decided that as no-one has offered her a pay rise, that she must ask for it herself; you don’t ask you don’t get. Today she is feeling the power of BPE (big pussy energy), so she feels superhuman. Head of the arts department Nina is t...

Eight Hundred Dollar Value – Etcetera Theatre

17Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Eight Hundred Dollar Value – Etcetera Theatre

Al Carretta is the man behind Nightpiece Media, who specialize in delivering movies made on a shoe-string budget. The mafia crime series began in August 2009 with ‘The Tears of a Clown’ at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has since progressed. Eight Hundred Dollar Value is previewing at Camden Fringe Festival, moving to Edinburgh towards the end of the month, and will then be produced as a film in the Autumn. Michael Trudon (Al Carretta) had a good life with his foster parents, they gave him everything he could ever wish for, and everything was handed to him on a plate. ‘I didn’t have ambition; I didn’t need it!’. Following the death of his mother and then his father leaving home, he didn’t know much about his early years until his crazy grandmother from B...