Rose Theatre Archives - North West End UK

10May

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

London

Marie & Rosetta – Rose Theatre Kingston

The story of sister Rosetta Tharpe and Marie Knight is not a well-known one. Rosetta played by Beverley Knight was known as the ‘Godmother of Rock and Roll’ in the 1930’s and 40’s taking Gospel music to a whole new level. Donned with an electric guitar she moved with swing and soul influencing artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard and well before the uprising of Elvis, Hendrix and other rock roll greats. Rosetta’s drive was to be true to herself with her music creating a fusion of her faith and soulful blues rock. Ntombizodwa Ndlovu debuts as Marie Knight a young woman married to a preacher man with two children who teams up with Rosetta to create a partnership that would prove to be more than just creating music. The women become aligned to each other’s strengths,...

9Mar

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

The House Party – Rose Theatre

August Strindberg's Miss Julie may be approaching 140 years old, but it's themes of sex, misogyny and class remain timeless. Laura Lomas’ The House Party brings this right up to the modern age, dialling up the sex but leaving class - or more specifically money - as an undercurrent throughout Julie (Synnøve Karlsen) is turning 18, her dad has skipped their evening plans to spend the evening with his 24-year-old girlfriend, so Julie throws a house party. Aided by best friend Christine (Sesley Hope) she anxiously awaits any of her guests to arrive. Director Holly Race Roughan has them arrive in full on Frantic Assembly style, slickly choreographed dance, leaps and dips and a flurry of youthful movement to an energetic beat. Without the traditional servant role to tell us how the charact...

28Sep

By Dave SmithNo Comments

London

Never Let Me Go – Rose Theatre

Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go has been adapted for the stage by Suzanne Heathcote. The story follows a group of clones raised at Hailsham, a boarding school where they learn about their purpose, born and bred to donate from their bodies. Here they make art, and they learn about their bodies and how to keep them healthy so that they can donate to the unknown people they are bred to serve. Although the specifics of the donation process remain shrouded in mystery, it’s clear that they are not expected to survive beyond their fourth donation. In the meantime, they take on roles as carers for those clones who have already started the donation journey. At the centre of this story are Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy. Kathy harbours feelings for Tommy, but Ruth, despite knowing this, e...

20Apr

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

The Glass Menagerie – Rose Theatre

Directed by Atri Banerjee and designed by Rosanna Vize, this stylized performance of Tennessee Williams’ iconic family drama both juices up and strips down the physical environs of a timeless story, but its enduring appeal is undulled by theatrical innovation. A restaging both faithful to its formidable script and imbued with a magic of its own, this production is truly enchanting. Geraldine Somerville scintillates as the reluctant matriarch Amanda Wingfield whose erstwhile husband “fell in love with long distances” and hasn’t appeared in more than a decade save in his grinning portrait on the family’s mantle. This production’s rendering of the Wingfield family home places this mantle on the invisible fourth wall which is neither broken nor ever explicitly mended in this staging but rat...

9Dec

By Maani WayNo Comments

London

Peter Pan – Rose Theatre

Second star to the right, and straight on till morning. The classic tale, and a firm family favourite, is brought to life once again this Christmas in a new production at the Rose Theatre in Kingston. Following the mischievous boy Peter Pan who refuses to grow up, and happens to fly, the story begins when Peter crash lands into the bedroom of a strong-minded young girl and her brothers, who desperately seek adventure. With the help of a little fairy dust, and countless happy thoughts, they are whisked away into the land of never growing up, Neverland, where they encounter pirates, mermaids and much more. Bursting with magic from the get-go with the enchanting music and lighting, we are introduced to the story in the classic way in the Darling’s room, narrated by a Gran telling the st...

2Nov

By Aditi DalalNo Comments

London

A View from the Bridge – Rose Theatre

The Arthur Miller classic was first staged as a one act production on Broadway in 1955. This latest co-production with Headlong Theatre, Bolton Octagon, Chichester Festival Theatre and the Rose Theatre sees it in its full-length version, with the play's central themes resonating just as powerfully in today's world. Set in a working-class Italian American neighbourhood in Brooklyn, the story revolves around the complex dynamics within the Carbone family. Eddie Carbone (Jonathan Slinger) is a longshoreman who becomes increasingly obsessed with his niece, Catherine (Rachelle Diedericks). Tensions escalate when two Italian immigrants, Marco (Tommy Sim’aan) and Rodolpho (Luke Newberry), move in with the Carbone family, leading to a dramatic confrontation as Eddie's jealousy and cultural clas...

6Oct

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Shooting Hedda Gabler – Rose Theatre

Jeff James returns to the Rose with another fantastic re-telling of a classic- ‘Shooting Hedda Gabler’ which explores the classic story in a very twisted and modern setting, written and adapted by Nina Segal. Antonia Thomas as Hedda is flown to Oslo to film ‘Hedda Gabler’ and there she meets Henrik (Christian Rubeck) the director with high ambitions and unwavering dedication to getting what he wants out of his actors. Also, on set we meet Berta (Anna Andresen) the AD and possibly the closest character to normality for Hedda as she is pulled into a collapse of self-belief, loss of identity and shame. Henrik believes the separation between actor and character should not exist and therefore creates situations to morph Hedda’s world together: so he hires her Ex to film with her, Ejlert (Avi Na...

22Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Shooglenifty – Rose Theatre, Edinburgh

I vaguely recall the Shoogles, it must have been more than 25 years ago in some dank Edinburgh cellar. But I still remember being moved, shocked even, by the discovery that Scottish traditional music could be funky, edgy, dance-worthy! I cannot remember what I was expecting then (Jimmy Shand perhaps?!), but the band that termed the phrase Acid Croft were a musical revelation. And here tonight, at The Rose Theatre, nothing has changed, yet everything has changed. No longer led by their charismatically big-bearded frontman, fiddler, Angus Grant, who used to bound around the stage like some BFG and always whipped the crowd up a storm, lost way too early to throat cancer in 2016. But somehow, they have survived, regrouped, with new fiddler Eilidh Shaw, fitting in beautifully to the w...

9Jul

By Gonzalo SentanaNo Comments

London

Miss Brexit – Rose Theatre

Discussing controversial topics is one of the prerogatives of theatre. Immigration and European identity, or lack thereof, is as controversial as it gets in these post Brexit years. Enter Miss Brexit. In this devised new piece, under the direction of Alejandro Postigo and Amaia Mugica, we find an unnamed presenter, played by George Berry, and 5 contestants: Maria Alba, played by Alba Villaitodo, Maria Isabel, by Isabel Mulas, Maria Marie, by Maxence Marmy, Maria Shivone, by Shivone Dominguez Blascikova, and Maria Ricardo, by Ricardo Ferreira. As simple as the indicates, the audience is promptly informed about the show they are about to witness: Miss Brexit is a contest where one of the five contestants will be awarded the right to remain in the UK. The premise is straightforward, and...

30Apr

By Gonzalo SentanaNo Comments

London

Richard III – Rose Theatre

What is the right way to do Shakespeare? Is there a right way? Is there only one way? How are his characters seen today, and what do they mean for today's audiences? Adjoah Andoh takes a bold swing at one of Shakespeare's most hateful villains, and strikes the audience with wit. This staging of Richard III, coproduced by Rose Theatre and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Theatre, toys with the idea that the non-able bodied title character is being judged by his appearance more than his actions. All the historical explanations notwithstanding, it is interesting to think about discrimination and marginalization based on physical appearance. It's just… well… according to the text, Richard did order the murder of two children who were in his way, amongst several other people. The question ...