Friday, November 22

Tag: OSO Arts Centre

Absent Friends – OSO Arts Centre
London

Absent Friends – OSO Arts Centre

When you think of an Alan Ayckbourn play, a tragi-comedy set at a tea party, at a fringe venue overlooking a pond, you set yourself up for a lovely evening of theatre. And the theatre was indeed lovely, a beautiful exterior with an intimate performance space, but the venue is about the only thing that the show got right. Diana (Polly Smith) invites friends over for a tea party, after their long-lost friend, Colin Thomas Willshire), is supposedly grieving the death of his fiance. Tension is evident between and within the couples; Evelyn (Liv Koplick) has been sleeping with Diana’s husband, Paul (Eoin Lynch). Evelyn’s husband, John (Kieran Seabrook-France) is aware of this but doesn’t say anything; he is in business with Paul. Marge (Bridget Lambert) unsuccessfully attempts to maintain th...
God of Carnage – OSO Arts Centre
London

God of Carnage – OSO Arts Centre

Children get themselves into a bucketload of trouble these days. Yet can we blame them? After all, their loving, nurturing, “responsible” parents seem to do even worse... “God of Carnage” follows Alain and Anette Reile and Veronique and Michel Vallon (two seemingly happy, married couples) as they meet to attempt resolving a scuffle between their sons. We watch as their demeanours fade from respectable and polite to reckless and crude to a point where the situation at hand is forgotten and replaced with, well to say the least: Carnage. As the train speeds along beside the Vallon home, one wonders if discussion will get back on track. I was personally enthralled by this adaptation performed at the OSO Arts Centre. The staging of this production perfectly complemented its naturalistic s...