Riverside Studios Archives - North West End UK

12Apr

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

London

Artificially Yours – Riverside Studios

You can’t escape talk about AI these days. Whether it’s dubious photo editing or a dodgy script in an ill-fated Willy Wonka experience, this tech has well and truly permeated our collective consciousness, so it comes as no surprise that it’s starting to be explored through theatre. Enter: Aaron Thakar’s Artificially Yours, playing its first-ever run at Riverside Studios until 21st April. The play revolves around the domestic lives of three couples: Pippa and Martin (Leslie Ash and Paul Giddings), Lilah and Ash (Destiny Mayers and Aaron Thakar), and Ellie and Noah (Ella Jarvis and Jake Mavis) — all of whom have welcomed Agapē, the AI-powered virtual relationship therapist, into their homes. Each couple navigates various disputes that one person in the relationship believes can be res...

17Mar

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

The Good Father – Riverside Studios

What are you doing for sex tonight? When was the last time you felt comfortable singing in front of someone? Who do you belong with, really? The Good Father poses all these questions and leaves plenty of empty space in its performance for you to spend the whole night coming up with your own personal answers. Directed by Mark Fitzgerald and written by Christian O’Reilly, this play is somewhat lacking in theatricality and sitting in the audience you get the sense that it’s only being performed live in front of you because there wasn’t enough budget to turn it into a proper film. Both actors’ performances are serviceable and occasionally attention-grabbing, but they have a lot of empty space to fill, and it is an intimate enough story that audiences feel more like interlopers than partici...

2Feb

By Zara OdetundeNo Comments

London

Bury Me – Riverside Studios

Bury Me is billed as a one act comedic drama which has been put on at the Riverside Studios as a part of their Bitesize Festival, a theatre festival meant to platform and uplift new and emerging theatre talent. This story was told in two timelines. The timeline in which Nadia is trying to track down her brother Noah’s body to be able to hold his funeral and the timeline in which Noah and his family are preparing for him to undergo a surgery to treat his cancer. Being able to get to know the person that these characters lost was a great choice, so we can imagine the extent of Nadia’s pain more and more throughout the play. The highlight of this show was the exploration of the strength of the sibling bond. Explored by Gillian Konko and Peter Todd through their characters Nadia and Noa...

14Dec

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Ulster American – Riverside Studios

A play about an American actor and English director and an Irish playwright sounds like the combination of two rather bad bar jokes but that is what David Ireland’s play Ulster American presents. While it might have been expected to be about the legitimate differences in the creative process between actors, writers and directors. In fact, it was a conflict between three rather implausible characters. Jay Conway, played by Woody Harrelson, is the American actor, with a glittering Hollywood career behind him. He has a great sense of his own importance and of being right even when he is clearly in the wrong. He carries his Oscar around with him to remind himself, and others of his omnipotence. From the beginning of the play, having only just recently arrived from America...

Alan Turing – A Musical Biography to play Studio 3 at Riverside Studios

10Dec

By NewsdeskNo Comments

NEWS

Alan Turing – A Musical Biography to play Studio 3 at Riverside Studios

Alan Turing – A Musical Biography will play Studio 3 at Riverside Studios from 8th – 27th January. ‘A genius who ended up in despair’. Directed by Jane Miles, with music by Joel Goodman and Jan Osborne, book by Joan Greening, lighting design by Rob Dyer, and starring Joe Bishop as ‘Alan Turing’ and Zara Cooke as multiple roles including Joan Clarke. This OffFest award-nominated show was a sold-out hit at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe, where it garnered great critical acclaim. A journey through the extraordinary life of Alan Turing, the genius whose code breaking brain saved approximately fourteen million lives in WW2. Joel Goodman said, “I am delighted to be bringing Alan Turing A Musical Biography to London, and very much looking forward to our run at Riverside Studios....

8Oct

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Othello – Riverside Studios

The features which set this production of Othello apart are its length, only 100 minutes without an interval, and the casting of three actors to play the villain Iago. A full production of the Othello text would probably run to about three and a half hours although few productions are totally uncut. So, cutting it down so severely inevitably means that a lot of the background and subtlety of Shakespeare's text is lost, although the main plotline was preserved and presented in Shakespeare's language. The casting of the three Iago's was the defining characteristic of this production. The director Sinead Rushe, had apparently explored a similar methodology with Hamlet and says in an informative interview in the programme that this was intended to underline the conflic...

Run to the Nuns The Musical – Riverside Studios

15Jul

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Run to the Nuns The Musical – Riverside Studios

It was a curious, rich and unique evening. The first hiccup to curse Run to the Nuns was a technical hitch, which meant the show opened over 30 minutes late. It was their first night. The upside was that the mysterious delay meant there was ample time for cocktails from the bar. In addition to unruly wires in the theatre, the box office printer broke down. A member of staff wrote out a ticket for me with a biro. It was very analogue. And slightly chaotic. I was into it.We were informed that the performers’ microphones had been abandoned. Instead, they’d be singing without electrical amplification. Tech gremlins were forcing a spontaneous descent into the unplugged old school. Our usher didn’t even check tickets when we finally piled into Studio 3. ‘Just get in and grab a seat,’ she beg...

29Jun

By Ely KingNo Comments

London

Tarantino Live – Riverside Studios

Quentin Tarantino is a name that everyone has heard at least once, whether you’re an avid fan of the movies, or have just heard the name in conversation, this industry juggernaut is known for some of the most classic films in history, so it simply makes sense for a show to be made surrounding his work. Whilst it is widely advertised as a musical, it is more of a cabaret/live show. Singing, dancing and photos/videos are all allowed and encouraged – providing that you are still respectful to those around you and the actors, so stay in your seat and don’t take photos with flash. This encouragement of crowd involvement creates such an exciting air around the show, with excited cheers coming from the audience at classic movie moments being recreated onstage. This production stars the Fox...

1Jun

By Gonzalo SentanaNo Comments

London

I Found My Horn – Riverside Studios

What mark are we leaving? What can provide for sense? Is there anything to give wings to our life? In this production of I Found My horn, based on the book by Jasper Rees, with direction by Harry Burton and performed by Jonathan Guy Lewis, the audience delves into questions of existential dimension with a kind perspective, and navigating through the difficulties of music, art, and life. The play starts in an attic overcrowded by objects, many of which are covered by old rags, as if in hiding while waiting for the action to begin. When a hatch opens on the left, letting the light come in, it is as if magic were happening, and the actor were coming from deep beneath the stage. The physical space will barely change during the piece, but we will be taken to different times and spaces, a...

24Mar

By Gonzalo SentanaNo Comments

London

Killing the Cat – Riverside Studios

Can music and speech give fundamental answers to the questions that seem impossible to answer? Can we address the whys and what for of our existence through sound and bodies? Killing the Cat, the new musical with book and lyrics by Warner Brown and music by Joshua Schmidt, undertakes a very ambitious task, both dealing with very complex and interesting topics, while trying to develop a new and unique language in musical theatre. While the play does not reach those goals, it is undoubtedly a refined clockwork, performed with exquisite harmony. When going into the hall, the audience is met by a beautiful white set, designed by Lee Newby, where lights and colours designed by Jamie Platt will combine during the play, joining the music to display the different stages through which the ch...