Southwark Playhouse Archives - Page 2 of 5

24Apr

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

You Are Going to Die – Southwark Playhouse

It was noteworthy that the Southwark Playhouse was fizzing with an unlikely joi de vivre for the launch of You Are Going to Die. On a Monday? For a ‘nail-biting descent into existential anxiety’? The bar was jumping with a young, up-for-it crowd, and it was mystifying and exciting to be among them. Who told them and why are they here? As a long time supporter of the avant garde, I’ve endured excruciating boredom, genuine fear and questionable thrills, but the audience at such events always leans towards the gothy fringes of artistic society. That crowd were oddly absent and in their place were fresh faced Londoners, keen to party and free from the frosty demeanour of the serious aesthete. In attendance was Michelle Greenidge, who plays Lola, Mandy’s best friend in Diane Morgan’s BBC com...

Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear – Southwark Playhouse

1Apr

By Khushboo ShahNo Comments

London

Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear – Southwark Playhouse

Blackeyed Theatre’s Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear makes its Spring 2024 revival at Southwark Playhouse Borough after a successful run in 2023 across the UK. Adapted and directed for stage by Nick Lane, the play weaves two plots set in the past and the present with stylised, engaging storytelling (Joseph Derrington) and neat choral transitions transporting the audience to a different time where mysteries and adventures are the norm. The play opens with Holmes (Bobby Bradley) decoding a mysterious message signalling “danger” with Dr. Watson (Derrington) and Mrs. Hudson (Alice Osmanski) at the iconic 221B Baker Street. This leads the duo on an adventure to an ancient manor house further unravelling a distant narrative set in Pennsylvanian Vermissa Valley involving a corrupt gang and ...

13Mar

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

London Zoo – Southwark Playhouse

London Zoo is set at the dawn of the Millenium, as print media faced the oncoming juggernaut of online content. Job losses and a decline in quality journalism came in its wake, except in a few rarified and fortunate corners. This play highlights the subtle ways in which prejudice, power and ambition are thinly veiled by passive aggressive marketing jargon, jokey office politics and the cold reality of number crunching. As someone who left print media at the turn of the century and then worked for an online brand that expanded in the boom, I can attest to the accuracy of some of the vibes seen in this odd window onto that period. Much like this fictional news corporation, GAY.com, where I held the role of Editor, imploded due to rapid expansion, shareholder tyranny and phantom accountanc...

18Dec

By Jennifer LaishleyNo Comments

London

Stranger Sings – Southwark Playhouse

Stranger Sings bursts back onto stage at the Southwark Playhouse this winter. This is an incredibly funny spoof of Netflix favourite Stranger Things that promises audiences a night of adventure, musical ear worms and non-stop laughter! This cast of incredibly talented performers use their captivating energy and beautifully blended voices to make this a musical that you will want to see over and over. Stranger Sings returns to the Southwark Playhouse for a second run, after a sell-out season in the vaults last Christmas and a tour around the country that has excited audiences night after night. Jonathan House’s script is a love letter to the 80s, with lots of musical theatre jokes that are entertaining if you’ve not managed to binge the Netflix series before seeing the show. The songs ar...

8Nov

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Phantasmagoria – Southwark Playhouse

An activist and politician meet in a forest guest house, here they partake in a closed debate ran by Jai (Antony Bunsee) who wishes to relaunch his career with his new channel following a very anticipated and most likely heated debate between the two. Activist, Mehrosh (Hussina Rama) enters anxiously as she never intended to become as admired as she is and in this has lost control of her security. The politician, Bina (Tania Rodrigues) enters with assistant Scherezade (Ulrika Krishnamurti) confident in her ability to intimidate this young woman until she’s squeezed dry of any lingering confidence she might have left. Bina’s goal is to ‘convert’ Mehrosh from activist to politician through threats to family and the promise of safe security. Mehrosh is disgusted by the fake glamour of politic...

2Nov

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

LIZZIE– Southwark Playhouse

London's Southwark Playhouse is currently playing host to a riveting and unapologetically fierce production of ‘LIZZIE’, the true crime rock punk musical. This fresh and dynamic production of the first UK staging, presented by the accomplished team at Hope Mill Theatre, is edgy, bold, and nothing short of brilliant. It brings a thrilling blend of music, drama, and history to the stage, redefining the boundaries of what a musical can be, and quite frankly goes toe-to-toe with some of the other similar historical productions that are currently playing in the West End and round the globe. Set in the backdrop of the infamous Lizzie Borden murders in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892, ‘LIZZIE’ weaves a gripping narrative that blends fact, fiction, legend, and female sass, into an intoxicatin...

21Sep

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Operation Epsilon – Southwark Playhouse

Operation Epsilon is concerned with a niche piece of 1945 history that may potentially find a wider audience due to the popularity of recent Oppenheimer movie. Thanks to Cillian Murphy’s turn in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic, suddenly everyone has an opinion on the ethics of scientific research and the uses of nuclear fission. The play is set after the fall of Nazi Germany, as the Allies carved up the Reich and sought justice and peace for the world at large. Except, it’s never that simple. At best, war creates moral ambiguities, and by its very nature, revels in murder and destruction. Ethics become very bendy once bombs start falling. In the post-war clean up, British and American intelligence services were keen to get the lowdown on the extent of Germany’s nuclear research. ...

25Jul

By Zara OdetundeNo Comments

London

Ride – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Ride is a British musical that Returns to London after a period at the Charing Cross Theatre last year. This show is back and even better than before. Presented as a pitch for her very own newspaper column we see Annie Londonderry commandeer office assistant Martha and together the two of them narrate Annie’s journey in 1894 to be the first woman to circumnavigate the globe via bicycle. The performers speak directly to the audience as though we are the panel they are pitching to. Which is great for this story especially given the double act cast and small intimate set. The transition between relaying the story to the board vs Annie disappearing into her reality was profound and the shift was palpable via the energy in the audience. All the book, music and lyrics are by Freya Cat...

Under the Kundé Tree – Southwark Playhouse Borough

31May

By Gonzalo SentanaNo Comments

London

Under the Kundé Tree – Southwark Playhouse Borough

Important topics and neglected topics are both amongst the main raw materials that theatre brings forth to create and look at reality. In the case of Under the Kundé Tree, it is both. This play, written by Clarisse Makundul and director Ebenezer Bamgboye, takes us back to the times of the Cameroonian independence conflicts, with an interesting emphasis on the role women had during these times. Throughout the story the audience will be following Sara, played by Selina Jones, who will be having encounters with Jean, his suitor, played by Fode Simbo; Nadia, her cousin, played by Amma-Afi Osei; and his father Pa, played by Yinka Awoni. Finally, Makundul herself plays an uncredited role. The play starts with a short section of dance. Beautiful short choreographies will be seen the rest of...

3May

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Blanket Ban – Southwark Playhouse

Performing to a packed Southwark Playhouse audience on Tuesday night, writers and performers Davina Hamilton and Marta Vella open their one act show by extolling the virtues of their home country, Malta. And it sounds idyllic – 300 days of sunshine, beautiful beaches and coastline, jewel blue sea – which features as a recurring theme of beauty and power – delicious food and a friendly community spirit across the country. Ah, and it has – or had up until very recently – a blanket ban on abortion. And so, the premise is set, with Hamilton and Vella breaking down the internal conflict they feel for a country they clearly love, with otherwise open and progressive views, taking such a stern, outdated position on abortion. The piece has been well researched and uses a mix of first-person t...