Monday, September 21

Tag: Julian Starr

Holy Fool – Park Theatre
London

Holy Fool – Park Theatre

Throughout history, music and art have been used as vehicles to communicate hidden truths by creatives living under tyrannical states. Here, the legendary composer Dmitri ‘Mitya’ Shostakovich is presented as Communist Russia's Holy Fool; a man who must walk the tightrope between underplaying his talents and concealing his resistance to the state in order to survive the propaganda-led brutality of Lenin and Stalin’s Soviet Union. In Holy Fool, co-writers Rosalind Adler and Lea Sellers document Mitya's life from 1936 to 1973, but in trying to navigate the tightrope of life-threatening political resistance through faux compliance, the play occasionally loses its balance. While Adler and Sellers stay faithful to the historical record and portray the sinister world inside the Soviet regime, ...
The Hidden Dangers of Camping – Theatre Royal, Windsor
London

The Hidden Dangers of Camping – Theatre Royal, Windsor

Liesl Wilke’s ‘The Hidden Dangers of Camping’ arrives at Theatre Royal Windsor for its world premiere with an intriguing premise and an impressively large production. The story begins with a family crisis in the present that pulls Casey (Jess Nesling) back into memories of a childhood camping trip, gradually revealing that this apparently idyllic weekend was anything but. The result is an absorbing, visually accomplished drama which examines the damage carried through families and the lasting effects of being exposed to adult behaviour at an impressionable age. Director Bronagh Lagan handles the movement between past and present particularly well. Casey’s therapist (Sandra James-Young) becomes an effective portal into her memories, allowing the play to slip between timelines with clarit...
F**king Men – Waterloo East
London

F**king Men – Waterloo East

When Tony Award-winning playwright Joe DiPietro first started writing his all-male adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, he didn’t think anyone would be interested in producing it. So, he gave it what he considered to be an ‘un-producible title’: F**king Men. As the title of this review gives away, the play not only went on to be produced, but it was a runaway success. Debuting in London over 15 years ago, F**king Men became a fringe classic, and DiPietro’s updated version is back for a six-week run at Waterloo East Theatre until 26th May. Drawing back the curtains on the interconnecting sexual encounters between ten different men, F**king Men offers the audience a glimpse into the lives of modern gay men navigating sex, love, and monogamy in a world that still too often discri...