Riverside Studios Archives - North West End UK

30May

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Second Class Queer – Riverside Studios

‘Second Class Queer’ delivers an emotionally charged and deeply human exploration of identity, belonging and grief. Written, performed and produced by Kumar Muniandy, the one-person play uses the framework of a Berlin speed-dating event to unpack the experiences of Krishna, a queer Malaysian-Indian man navigating racism, homophobia and the exhausting complexities of existing between conflicting cultures. What makes this production compelling is not technical polish, but the honesty of its storytelling and writing and the charisma of Muniandy. The script confronts difficult themes without losing sight of humour or vulnerability, allowing moments of discomfort to sit alongside genuinely touching reflections on loneliness, shame and connection. Muniandy’s performance carries a quiet intens...

18May

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Player – Riverside Studios

Actors like nothing more than talking about themselves and their profession, and this wonderful little play at Riverside Studios, written by Matthew Lyon, is an ode to the joys but mainly pains of trying to make a career in the theatre. It is almost all written in rhyming couplets in a faux Shakespearean style, which makes it a delight to listen to. Lyon himself plays the actor struggling through the various stages of life in the theatre from initial stirrings of interest at school and home, not always encouraged, through the agony of endless auditions until at last reaching the zenith of actually having a script for the part of “seventh spear carrier on the left”. Ola Forman plays all the other pa...

An Adequate Abridgement of Boarding School Life as a Homo – Riverside Studios

3May

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

An Adequate Abridgement of Boarding School Life as a Homo – Riverside Studios

Gay men who managed to survive the UK during the ‘80s and ‘90s would likely remember the 1984 historical drama Another Country. Written by Julian Mitchell, and directed by Marek Kanievska, the film launched Rupert Everett and Colin Firth’s careers. It stormed Cannes, got nominated for a raft of BAFTAs and caused quite a scandal on its release. Beautiful public school boys, a masturbation scandal, floppy hair, same-sex snogs and posh fury at the establishment are just some of the film’s takeaways. In the homophobic mania of the AIDS crisis and a few years before Section 28, Another Country shocked the nation. It’s laughably tame by today’s standards, but people stormed out of cinemas in disgust. Tabloids frothed and dribbled. Almost nobody noticed it was based on the early life of the spy a...

22Apr

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Managed Approach – Riverside Studios

Holbeck, Leeds made headlines in 2014 after the local government launched a trial initiative to decriminalise and regulate the sex work industry. The scheme, known as the “managed approach”, ultimately lasted until 2020, and Jules Coyle’s play of the same name explores the programme’s impact on the women and girls living in the area at the time, including those working within the initiative. A semi-verbatim piece, Mangaged Approach threads the stories and experiences of a number of sex workers (played in turn by Áine McNamara and H Sneyd) through a central storyline about 18-year-old Abbie (Coyle) and her mother Kate (Eanna Ferguson), with the managed approach stirring up new tensions between the pair as they debate whether or not the scheme is truly protecting women. It’s immensely ...

19Mar

By Charlotte MansfieldNo Comments

London

Panacea – Riverside Studios

Professor Gus Jamieson (Will Batty) is a man with Autism Spectrum Disorder and an idea for how to save humanity. His cure for infectious diseases will prevent another pandemic, provided he can get approval for the initial stages of lab trials. Written as a collaboration between microbiologist Andrew Singer and theatre-maker Christina James, this one act play explores how science and ethics interact to have real-world consequences. Opening with a Greek chorus that leaves us in no doubt how the play is going to go, we follow Gus as he navigates work, romance and his ASD in his desire to eradicate disease. Egged on by an enthusiastic student (Nina Fidderman), Gus becomes caught between the more cautious advice of those closest to him and his confidence in his own scientific abilities. ...

11Mar

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Salt – Riverside Studios

A bitter song for a bloody story, Contemporary Ritual Theatre brings a strange and slippery offering to Riverside Studios, weaving dance, song, and dialogue in a summoning circle of rope and sweat that ensnares its audience and holds them in a merciless grip well beyond the threshold of pleasure. The play’s brutal stranglehold on its audience is a testament to its enigmatic and often energetic performing corps comprised of veteran actor Emily Outred as the Widow Pruttock, Contemporary Ritual Theatre regular Mylo McDonald as her son Man Billy, and relative newcomer Bess Roche as Sheldis, the strangely seductive interloper in their squalid little life whose lascivious ways threaten to upend the little order they are able to impose in their chaotic sea ruled community. Composer and mus...

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Riverside Studios

26Nov

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Riverside Studios

Douglas Adams' wildly inventive intergalactic adventure has landed in West London, allowing audiences to escape Earth by hitching a ride on the Heart of Gold spaceship with its infinite improbability drive. Accompanied by all the Hitchhikers' characters, the crew try not to panic as they seek the answer to the eternal question of life, the universe and everything. This beloved sci-fi classic has been given an immersive theatre adaptation by co-creators Arvind Ethan David and Jason Ardizzone-West with a cast of energetic and multi-talented performers. Benjamin Durham's Arthur Dent has the perfect expression of a man who doesn't know what's going on while he searches for his lost love and simultaneously tries to stop his home being bulldozed. Tamara Saffir as Fenchurch is also spot-on castin...

14Nov

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Old Fat F**k Up – Riverside Studios

“What are we going to do about all the men?” It’s a broad question that lacks any tangible answer, and “millennial, middle-aged theatremaker” Olly Hawes isn’t concerned with providing an answer. Instead, his new solo play Old Fat F**k Up occupies space within and around the question, tackling the meaty subjects of masculinity, fatherhood, and inherent violence. As Hawes clarifies at the top of the show, staged in an intimately small traverse that brings us right into the world he’s creating, this is not a stand-up comedy show. Nor is it an autobiographical tale – but he’d happily sell it to Netflix in exchange for a glossy 6-part limited series. Old Fat F**k Up is rather a blend of storytelling and comedy that runs for a well-oiled 70 minutes, and acts as an incredibly sturdy vehicle...

2Nov

By Savitha VenugopalNo Comments

London

Surinderella – Riverside Studios

Your regular pantomimes already come packed with beloved characters, popular music, and hilarity. Now give it a desi twist, and you have more colours, hip shaking, and drama than Bollywood itself can dish out. Written by Pravesh Kumar and directed by Ameet Chana, this is a bold new panto with lashings of South Asian flavour. As the name suggests, Surinderella is a retelling of Cinderella and when it comes to adding that desi-ness, the makers do not hold back. Surinder (Sonya Venugopal) lives on the edge of the Bolly Woods with her stepsisters Lovely and Bubbly, and her emotional support livestock and best friend, Basanti the cow. In the stepsisters we have our pantomime dames, played with sass and style by Neil Varu and Raheem Payne, whose crowd work and shenanigans were consistently...

13Oct

By Holly SewellNo Comments

London

Da Vinci’s Laundry – Riverside Studios

What gives a piece of art its value? Is it purely aesthetic? Is it arbitrary, decided in reverse once a piece’s price is set? Why did Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog sell for nearly $60 million? These are the questions grappled with by auctioneers Christopher and Milly in Da Vinci’s Laundry when they are forced to go through with a $450 million sale of a recently uncovered Da Vinci that they know is a fake. Keelan Kember's’ choice of high-end art as a subject is full of potential. He paints a picture of a world run by the dirty rich, where art experts’ opinions are reduced to box-ticking exercises that can in any case be overruled by those with enough power. Christopher, the timid auction house representative, is threatened with a 100-foot plummet from a gangster's balcony if he refuses to sell...