Tuesday, November 5

Tag: Marcia Kelson

A Plague On All Your Houses – Riverside Studios
London

A Plague On All Your Houses – Riverside Studios

A Plague On All Your Houses, a new play by writer/director Marcia Kelson presently playing at the Riverside Studios, is a hilarious romp depicting plagues through the ages.  Scenes, not in chronological order, imagined the impact, on rulers and ordinary people, of the plagues including those of biblical times, pestilence in French wine fields, the Black Death, which caused so many problems for the budding playwright William Shakespeare, up to recent Covid events and a very worrying peek into the not too distant future. It was presented on a largely bare stage against a black backdrop, with a few boxes as props, and a keyboard musician to one side of the stage. All the characters in all the various historical pieces were played four actors who changed their costumes at the side of t...
Devil’s Food Cake – Brighton Fringe
South East

Devil’s Food Cake – Brighton Fringe

Devil’s Food Cake, written and directed by Marcia Kelson, is a dark and emotional drama, written for online performance, which explores the bewildering and overwhelming world of anorexia and its effect on both the patient and their loved ones. The play tells the story of Sophie (Eden Vansittart) who is living with anorexia and the efforts her Mum, Jenny (Lesley Ann Jones), Dad, Frank (David Jones) and sister, Katie (Eliza Jones) are making to persuade her to eat. In their desperation they sign up for family therapy sessions with Jasmine (Caroline Salter). When the play opens Sophie’s actions seem almost reasonable as her apparently overprotective mother tries to prevent her following a plant-based diet, for the planet, and going for a run to keep healthy. It quickly becomes clear how...
The Plague Thing – Putney Theatre Company Online
Scotland

The Plague Thing – Putney Theatre Company Online

Putney Theatre Company are an amateur company who encourage a feeling of community.  The theatre company was originally two separate companies Group 64 which is their youth theatre section and Putney Players (previously Putney Amateur Dramatics Society) but they merged in 1999 to enable them to pool resources and work together.  In this short vignette lasting 6 minutes, we hear from Enid (Carol Hudson) who lives in a care home and new lockdown rules have been introduced due to the pandemic.  She is no longer able to go the community lounge, but must stay in her room, even for meals.  As she states, “This is it – my room, my life!” Enid has dementia and her eyesight is not what it was, so she struggles to even watch TV.  Just from this short statement we b...