Saturday, December 21

Tag: Hen Ryan

Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working – Lion & Unicorn
London

Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working – Lion & Unicorn

Most shows are interested primarily in being funny. But what happens when you try to go deeper than that? To cut beneath humour, to the blood and the violence? What happens when the line between a joke and the real-world dissolves, and collapses? These are the questions that the Full Frontal Theatre poses in its no-holds-barred production of Rodney Black: Who Cares? It’s Working. Following the story of an edgelord-misogynist comedian who doesn’t seem to believe in anything he says on stage, but whose career skyrockets as he pursues a darker routine with real world impacts, Rodney Black isn’t a pleasant show to watch, nor is it meant to be; playwright Sadie Pearson and director Hen Ryan force viewers to contend with a side of comedy that most probably don’t enjoy ruminating on, their...
To Watch A Man Eat – Shakespeare North Playhouse
North West

To Watch A Man Eat – Shakespeare North Playhouse

One of the things I love about reviewing theatre is the wide variety of productions you get to see, and the many evenings spent engaged with the artistic endeavour of others. Rarely is it boring, usually it’s very engaging and occasionally, if you are lucky, something blows you away and you think ‘I am so glad I got to see that’. Last night, as part of the Heading North Fringe Festival at Shakespeare North Playhouse, the latter was my experience. Full Frontal Theatre’s To Watch A Man Eat is a powerful, dynamic, mesmerizingly brutal piece of theatre which explores desire, control and ambition in a sharply funny and intelligently observed narrative. Presented throughout as direct narration to audience we initially meet Micky (George Usher) who recounts the story of serial monogamist Je...