Omnibus Theatre Archives - North West End UK

6Apr

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Love Steps – Omnibus Theatre

The writer, poet and producer Anastasia Osei-Kuffour makes her playwriting debut in Love Steps: The story of Anna a young, gifted and Black girl navigating a world in turmoil searching for the one thing missing in her life, love. The set is simplistic with only shadow effects of their silhouettes, flashed up words to reflect the mood, offering no hiding place for this two person play. Anna played out by Sharon Rose set the perfect scene of her successful professional life with prose poetry and dance. She had everything a Black girl would want except in this life, devoid of a man’s love and affection, marriage and children. She would ponder, analyse control and create a checklist of the perfect man. When will happen, and how, who will it be are...

6Apr

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

The Pinot Princess – Omnibus Theatre

“Blessed are the hags and the harlots. For they shall be celebrated in this show.” A Bruntwood Prize 2022 nominee, this dark comedic Tale of Two Marys packs up a punch for all feminist and Life Of Brian enthusiasts out there in just under an hour. The Pinot Princess follows Irish actress Pamela Flanagan in her double portrayal of unruly, gender-tormented Marys. First as Pinot, a punk Virgin Mary and the lead character in a rebellious-soon-to-be-viral-hopefully-Vatican-banned production on Jesus’ legendary mum. Second as modern Mary, the catholic actress who portrays the horny, foul-mouthed heroine, and who is convinced she will go to hell for it. Opposite Mary is, of course, her co-star Joseph. Energetically portrayed by Neal Craig in a whirlwind of colourful role-playing, Joe of...

2Mar

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Scarlett Sunday – Omnibus Theatre

Obsession and dark secrets of the infamous artist Ray Blackwood and what lay behind the enigma of a painting named Scarlett Sunday. Following the death of Blackwood, it was now left to his daughter Ava played by Camilla Aiko an introverted girl still living in the family home with her demons. This play was simplistic in its form and told the story of Yasmin, played by Sorcha Kennedy an excitable rather intense arts author curious to find out more about Blackwood, the man who inspired her career in the arts, a man she had feelings for and was hungry in pursuit to get the exclusive scoop on his unseen masterpiece Scarlet Sunday. The set is staged first in a coffee shop for their first meeting which sees both characters sparring with each other over childhood memories, the arts and a plan...

25Feb

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

A Family Business – Omnibus Theatre

A show about how not to blow up the planet, a show about friendship, a show about diplomacy, and a show about what we all owe to each other as individuals and as nations, A Family Business is a genuinely thrilling and intensely educational experience. Written, performed, and introduced by the affable and erudite Chris Thorpe, watching this play feels like making a new friend. Clearly something Thorpe takes quite seriously, friendship is the foundation of this work, and his efforts to befriend experts and ignorant audiences alike are well worth their while. With a severe urgency befitting the play’s subject matter, director Claire O’Reilly weaves audiences confidently through Thorpe’s dense syllabus with more than a little hand holding. Photo: Andreas J. Etter With much the same e...

20Jan

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Indestructible – Omnibus Theatre

Okay or not okay? Michael Jackson, Pablo Picasso, Kanye West… Who do we hold accountable? And how? Who even actually has this power that we’re supposed to be speaking truth to anyway? This ballsy production not only asks but demands answers to these questions. Written and directed by Proteus’s Artistic Director, Mary Swan, Indestructible is an unflinching examination of nauseatingly complex, and just plain nauseating, interplay between gender and power in the contemporary art world. Richly situated in a digital world built by the production team and multi-disciplinary artist Paula Varjack contextualizing all of the plays' imagined characters in an all too familiarly problematic alternate reality, this show offers audiences a non-traditionally immersive theatrical experience. The plot f...

23Sep

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

North West

Compositor E – Omnibus Theatre

The play is placed in 1623 depicting the compositor’s battle with their own demons, aspirations, alongside the morality of meanings and desires to leave their own fingerprint (stamp) within the Folio book. The printing ‘shop’ scene is set by crazed printers obsessed with fingerprints and rewriting history based on their own experiences. Dupre’s focus here appears to highlight the importance and reference of this book, as the First Folio collection edition of Shakespeare’s dramatic texts, has its 400th anniversary in 2023. To mark the occasion Dupre’ showcases a retelling of events, in a Macbeth style, drawing on the influences of language and events in the print shop at the time the original Folio was produced. The scenes are tense fraught with egos and desperation. The scr...

The Woman Who Turned into A Tree – The Omnibus Theatre

7Apr

By Riana HowarthNo Comments

London

The Woman Who Turned into A Tree – The Omnibus Theatre

Presented by Omnibus Theatre and Collide Theatre, The Woman Who Turned into a Tree is an examination into external validation and the pressures placed on a young woman in today’s age. As a woman rhythmically sways in a dark, grungy club, an identically dressed woman enters the stage and the two watch each other intently. Daphne, as she introduces herself, is an ambitious event organiser fuelled by a need to fulfil this fantastical self-idealisation she constructed. Gradually, a force takes over and guides her towards freedom and finding peace in herself, as she metaphorically transforms into a tree. Her battle between different self-concepts is visually represented through the two versions of Daphne. Bathsheba Piepe conveys Daphne’s wide-eyed furious desperation, sinuously moving betwe...

20Mar

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Swim – Omnibus Theatre

Swim is a warm, tender, and humbling story, based on true events, written and performed by Liz Richardson. In an hour-long performance, she encapsulates her journey of moving out of London’s anonymity with her family and settling into a village up north amidst nature and within a community where everyone knows everyone’s business. Of course, at the centre of it, is the experience of swimming in natural water bodies, like she did in her childhood, and how it affects this community at different phases in their lives, particularly her best friend whose sisters have lost their children. The metallic backdrop and oval flooring with blurry visuals shifting in tandem with the story, invite the audience to experience this tale which opens casually with Richardson talking about why she wanted t...

Live to Tell (a Proposal for) The Madonna Jukebox Musical – Omnibus Theatre

12Feb

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Live to Tell (a Proposal for) The Madonna Jukebox Musical – Omnibus Theatre

You may have noticed that Madonna is having a moment. Again. She’s announced a tour that’s seen a demented scramble for tickets. Her appearance, following surgical face-tuning is hotly debated on TV, TikTok and the 77 bus to Tooting. The 64-year-old appears to be getting high and hanging out with hip-hop dons and trans stars, while sharing her exploits on Insta like a gobby teen. This showbizzy noise almost drowns out her musical back catalogue and it’s all a stark contrast to her revolutionary HIV/AIDS activism in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Madonna bigged up safe sex, challenged HIV stigma and supported the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) on her 1987 tour. She delivered this advocacy loudly, when it was controversial and potentially damaging to her career. Madonna released...

Fiji – Pleasance Upstairs at the Pleasance Courtyard

14Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

Fiji – Pleasance Upstairs at the Pleasance Courtyard

After reading the press release, this is one of those plays that you walk-in to the theatre, not knowing what to expect. Co-written by Eddie Loodmer-Elliott, Pedro Leandro and Evan Lordan, the inspiration of the play (scarily), came from real-life events. Omnibus Theatre have joined forces with Clay Party and Conflicted Theatre to produce an alarming, disturbing play that revolves around the theme of cannibalism. For most of us, (hopefully), this will be a subject that does not feature in your daily life, and one wonders what inspired this delving into the culinary skills of a cannibal. The play begins with Sam (Sam Henderson) arriving at Nick’s place (Eddie Loodmer-Elliott) with his suitcase. Sam is nervous and it becomes clear that Sam and Nick have never met before but have chatt...