Friday, December 5

Tag: Golden Goose Theatre

The Wolf of Poyais – Golden Goose Theatre
London

The Wolf of Poyais – Golden Goose Theatre

The Wolf of Poyais is a new one-man historical satire play from BlueBar productions, written by Sam Went and starring Joz Norris. It tells the fascinating true story of con man Gregor MacGregor, who – in the early 1800s – swindled hundreds of people out of hundreds of thousands of pounds with an outrageous, fraudulent scheme. Sam Went’s script is both well-researched and very entertaining. The story itself is absolutely fascinating in itself, but Went’s script injects it with even more humour and poignancy. The script is darkly funny; it revels in the absurdity of MacGregor’s scheme, while still treating the devastating impact it had on people’s lives with gravitas.  Many plays based on true stories fall into the trap of simply depicting one historical event after another, w...
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Golden Goose Theatre
London

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Golden Goose Theatre

For the Lambeth Fringe, The New Rep Theatre tears through Richard Pepper’s adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in just 90 minutes. Focusing on the four lovers as they get twisted up by the fairies in the forest, while also bringing in the mechanicals, the actors in a play within a play - rehearsing in the forest and caught up in the fairies playing around. There’s a lot of fourth wall breaking, asides to the audience and some very modern moments, New Rep have certainly gone all out for the comedy to - mostly - success but a few moments land awkwardly and feel tacked on, pulling us out of the world rather than deeper into it. A sharper edit or simply more restraint would have helped here. Jack Gogarty’s Bottom works well but has a naive earnestness despite his se...
Strangers in Between – Golden Goose Theatre
London

Strangers in Between – Golden Goose Theatre

Strangers In between is a coming-of-age story set in Australia. The story follows young Shane as he gets settled in Sydney and the play follows his struggles with coming out and self-discovery. The cast bought this play together with well-timed comedy and strong acting. Tommy Murphy's play is described as a period piece in the programme, but it still has the power to resonate with younger audiences. The play has a very clear message and really would work as a piece of theatre to teach younger audiences about sex. Photo: Peter Davies Alex Ansell does a good job of capturing Shane’s youthful naivety. He uses his innocence to create allot of comedy and did a good job with sustaining the Australian accent, even during the more emotional intense scenes. Stephen Connery Brown has exc...
Every Sinner Has a Future – Golden Goose Theatre
London

Every Sinner Has a Future – Golden Goose Theatre

The title of the play brings to mind ‘A Woman of No Importance’ by Oscar Wilde, when Lord Illingworth declared ‘Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future’.  In context Wilde’s play is vastly different, as the subjects are from a privileged society, something that is not the case with this play. Frank Scully is a 1960’s child, whose mother did the best she could for him under difficult circumstances.  Scully comes from an era before ‘black lives matter’, skin colour mattered and if you didn’t fit in, you were going to find it very difficult to get on in the world.  Like most young boys, Scully had dreams of what he would like to do, and when he was young his dream was to be a paperboy like the other boys.  He had his chopper bike, but why wouldn’t Mr Patel...