Southwark Playhouse Archives - Page 3 of 6

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...

31Mar

By Julia PanovaNo Comments

London

Berlusconi – Southwark Playhouse

Silvio Berlusconi: renowned former Italian prime-minister, celebrated billionaire and the self-proclaimed ‘Jesus Christ of politics.’ But perhaps, that’s just one side to his story... Performed at the Southwark Playhouse, ‘Berlusconi’ is a pop-rock musical communicating to audiences the affects this political leader has had on those close to him in addition to the affects he has caused among the global masses. However, beyond the topic of the property mogul himself, this is a piece of theatre about power. How it’s gained, how it’s misused, how it’s taken advantage of and the devastating consequences of it. What enticed me about this production was how it was framed through the device of media. One of the female leads, Fama who was played Jenny Fitzpatrick, was a news reporter, report...

The Tragedy of Macbeth – Southwark Playhouse

17Mar

By Anisha AnantpurkarNo Comments

London

The Tragedy of Macbeth – Southwark Playhouse

Covered in mud and dirt, we see all cast members on stage as we enter the theatre. The stage is bare, with percussion instruments set up at the back. The performers are clad in beige tank tops and long skirts that look like sack cloth. Their presence creates an ambience in the room; you can feel it in the air, here a tragedy will take place. As we walk in, the theatre staff gives us a warning that the performance will be quite loud. When the show begins, the sound of the drums reverberates in the space generating an immediate sensory impact. The Tragedy of Macbeth is Flabbergast Theatre’s first narrative production of Flabbergast Theatre. The production is supported by Arts Council England and was researched and developed at the forest base of the Grotowski Institute in Brezinka, Wrocla...

Blanket Ban comes to Southwark Playhouse

12Mar

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

NEWS

Blanket Ban comes to Southwark Playhouse

Following its hit run at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, theatre makers and activists Davinia Hamilton and Marta Vella bring their rallying cry for Maltese reproductive rights to Southwark Playhouse. Blanket Ban was performed as part of New Diorama and Underbelly’s Untapped Award, and combines the artists’ lived experience with interviews, stories and video footage of Maltese women who have suffered the life-changing and life-threatening consequences of the country’s blanket ban on abortion. Malta: a country of Catholic kitsch, golden sun, deep blue sea and Eurovision fanatics. It leads internationally on progressive LGBTQIA+ rights, including trailblazing transgender laws — but also has some of the strictest abortion laws in the world. Taking a fondly critical look at their home country and...

The Walworth Farce – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

26Feb

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

The Walworth Farce – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Southwark Playhouse have chosen the Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh as their opening production in their splendid new location at the Elephant. Apart from the location being appropriate it was not a good choice. This is an extraordinary play based on the scenario of a father and two sons exiled from Ireland who barricade themselves in a squalid flat in the Elephant and Castle district who cut themselves off from the outside world almost completely. They spend their time under the direction of the father, Dinny, in ever more extraordinary and surreal ways their recollection or imagined recollection of their final days in Cork. Only one of the sons, Sean, is allowed to leave the flat to obtain basic provisions. One day he returns home with the wrong shopping bag.&...

15Feb

By Zara OdetundeNo Comments

London

Windfall – Southwark Playhouse

After an acclaimed run in New York last year Windfall has arrived at the Southwark playhouse. From director Mark Bell comes a story about five office workers, so miserable with their current situations, are willing to risk it all on a $500 million lottery prize. This show explores the relationships between these people and with their evil boss, but most importantly how they ended up stuck in the office and exploring what they’d do to get out of it. The atmosphere in the theatre was amazing, the music during the preshow and the interval was in the style of a radio show playing hits from the 80s and 90s. This style mainly links to act one and early parts of the play which feel like a 90s sitcom set in an office. A sitcom with classic characters, the evil and uncompromising boss, and 5 qui...