Madeline Appiah Archives - North West End UK

The Winter’s Tale – Royal Shakespeare Company

23Jul

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

The Winter’s Tale – Royal Shakespeare Company

Yes yes yes yes yes yes! This is the type of production that makes you doubt the play has ever been better performed in the 400 years since it was written. A text often relegated to reluctant decennial repetition by repertory Shakespeare theatres, this “problem play”—only partially redeemed and abashedly esteemed for its “strong female characters”—is here staged so boldly that it not only asks but demands audiences to answer: what actually is so problematic about female strength? Why are men made so uncomfortable by powerful women? And what on earth are women supposed to do with that dangerous discomfort? Directed by Yaël Farber and dripping with the seductive intrepidity that coats her directorial tongue, this production is unmissable and unmistakable. It is contemporary not in the sen...

Toto Kerblammo! – Unicorn Theatre

Isolation in community, courage in adversity, the bravery it takes to feel – to love. Toto Kerblammo! is a tale from a furry friend which is deeply, tenderly human. Effy, played by Peyvand Sadeghian, is struck with tragedy. Sent to live with her aunt and uncle as her mother recovers from a nervous breakdown, in a flat block which doesn’t allow dogs. Little do her aunt and uncle know, however, that the ‘no-pets-allowed’ rules haven’t been followed. Using 3D binaural audio technology, the audience wear headphones to experience Effy’s world. Felipe Pacheco as Effy’s beloved dog Toto not only takes the stage but narrates Effy’s story through the headset directly into your ears, ASMR-like at times, demanding that to appreciate it all you must “really listen”. Audio performances from Ma...

Chisholm For President! – The Warehouse in Holbeck

It’s always risky when you see any work in progress which can often just be a series of vignettes that don’t really knit together, even if you can see the potential of the material being tested in front of a live audience. That was most definitely not the case at this taster session for Chisholm For President!, based on the life of the first black woman elected to the US Congress in 1968 and then the first woman of colour to run for President in 1972. Sitting in Slung Low’s cavernous newish home I was wondering why a brand-new musical, that is basically performers acting with script in hand and singing a bunch of original songs, seemed so fully formed. But then the penny dropped that this fledgling production has a very strong creative team behind it. Playwright Zodwa Nyoni has cr...