Southwark Playhouse Archives - Page 3 of 5

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...

<strong>Hamlet – Southwark Playhouse</strong>

22Jan

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

London

Hamlet – Southwark Playhouse

Lazarus Theatre Company offer a different approach to producing a Shakespeare production. Reimagining the classics is their game, collaborating with their artists, they have an emphasis on ensemble work, which was in evidence in this Hamlet production. Lazarus have co-produced this show with Southwark Playhouse’s Shakespeare for Schools Project, and the youthful cast encouraged a younger audience to come along to watch. Hamlet was a reluctant choice for Artistic Director Ricky Dukes, as he felt that it has been exhausted, and there can be an issue of what can we add to a production, but they need not have worried, this production packs a punch and enables Shakespeare’s language to work within this ensemble framework. The opening scene is a case in point, The Voice (...

<strong>Who’s Holiday – Southwark Playhouse Borough</strong>

11Dec

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Who’s Holiday – Southwark Playhouse Borough

The Ru Paul Industrial Complex continues its imperial sashay to every corner of the globe. This franchise mission creep can be viewed as a be-wigged beacon of tolerance or a toxic cash machine that bleeds underground culture. Drag Race alumni find themselves yanked from skanky obscurity to meet-and-greet mania in a matter of weeks. For the truly talented, this can offer a unique chance to shine and earn some coin after decades of thankless graft. Miz Cracker was a popular contestant on Ru Paul’s Drag Race Season Ten and made the final 5. She came back for RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season Five and was placed in the top 3. Since then, she has been deservedly busy; podcasts, academic seminars, YouTube channel, one-woman comedy TV specials and a cookery show. Cracker has c...

<strong>Noor – Southwark Playhouse</strong>

14Nov

By Aditi DalalNo Comments

London

Noor – Southwark Playhouse

A British spy of Indian Muslim heritage, Noor was an inspirational woman during World War II. Her story, with its political and moral complexities has been craftily worded by Azma Dar in this production. Dar undertook extensive research into the life of Noor over a decade ago and in 2018, Kali Theatre presented a reading of an earlier version of the play as part of its War Plays season. Now fully realised by a fabulous creative team, Noor is presented as a 105-minute play at Southwark Playhouse, outlining the values and mission of this daring woman. The play takes the audience on a journey from Noor’s aspirations as a writer to her training to become the first British woman to be a wireless operator on an international mission to her encounters in Paris, fighting for her country and for...

The Canterville Ghost – Southwark Playhouse

17Oct

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

London

The Canterville Ghost – Southwark Playhouse

Coming up in the lift from the underground on my way to the Southwark Playhouse (fast becoming one of my favourite theatre venues - lovely space, absolutely delightful staff, reasonably priced wine) I saw a poster advertising The Canterville Ghost which proclaimed the warning “Contains puppet profanity”. I found this a very pleasing prospect - who doesn’t like a sweary puppet - and so I went into the performance hoping for some silly, joyful giggles. Which is, happily, exactly what I got; a charming, hugely entertaining evening of slick theatre and performances delivered by a talented cast. While the show is based on the Oscar Wilde short story of the same name, the setup is very different - a play within a play if you will. A theatre group consisting of a musician/compere, a ventriloqu...

11Oct

By Akshay RahejaNo Comments

London

Ruckus – Southwark Playhouse

Written and performed by Jenna Fincken, Ruckus is a single-act, one-woman performance that narrates the aging of a toxic relationship. The play brings to life the experience of being with a coercive partner and interrogates the subjectivity of consent in a relationship. There are many parallels between ‘Ruckus’ and the iconic ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen. Just as Torvald creates a Doll house for Nora Helmer, in Ruckus the protagonist moves in with her partner in a beachouse that she had always dreamt of. Just as A doll’s House contemplates the fracture of this house by Nora’s departure, Ruckus explores the fracture in the architecture of a house built on shallow foundations. The protagonist continues to pity and continues to live through the thicks of her relationship. But...

14Sep

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

Doctor Faustus – Southwark Playhouse

The plot of Doctorr Faustus is well trodden in the arts – character thinks s/he is getting everything they’ve ever wanted, turns out the small print doesn’t exactly chime with that. Spoiler alert - your heart’s desire may not be all it’s cracked up to be and/or comes with some undesirable side effects. But Faustus really should have known better – he knows he is quite literally making a deal with the devil and even back in the Elizabethan era should probably have known that might come back to bite him. The stage set up at the Southwark Playhouse (never been, would definitely return – front of house staff charming, drinks reasonably priced, delightfully air-conditioned space) is a little confusing. The setting is very 80s with a dial-up telephone and recording apparatus, yet the backdrop...

6Jul

By Klervi GavetNo Comments

London

The Lesson – Southwark Playhouse

A zealous pupil comes over a professor’s house to study for her total doctorate, an educational certificate in all subjects of life. The excessively polite and timid professor grows restless and domineering as his ignorant student struggles to level up with his academic demands. The pupil develops a painful toothache which renders her incapable of listening to the professor’s teachings. Their mutual pains turn lethal when in an orgasmic climax, the professor murders the young girl. The maid comes in and reprimands the professor - this is his 40th kill of the day… Fortunately she knows how to get him out of trouble and cleans it all up before another student comes to the front door, starting the play all over again. The Lesson is a seminal text in the Theatre of the Absurd, a short-lived...

28Jun

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Evelyn – Southwark Playhouse

In a small Northern beach town, an accomplice to the murder of her own child has moved under police protection after serving 3 years in prison. Escaping her abusive relationship, her grief and horrific past she begins to start life anew with a new relationship and friends. Only until the power of social media, the mob isn’t far behind on a hunt to find out where Evelyn Mills escaped to with an obsessive mission to make sure she knows she doesn’t belong. Focusing on the concept of internet mobs taking justice into their own hands and questioning when forgiveness is actually accepted by the community allowing the rehabilitation of criminals into our society. Evelyn played by Nicola Harrison was a dark, quiet presence on stage who controlled how much she was seen as a person desperately tr...