Theatre
First Person: theatre director Christopher Haydon on how the Rose Theatre, Kingston, can bloom anewMonday, 13 September 2021
Programming a theatre during a pandemic has been like trying to nail jelly to a set of constantly moving goalposts. Government indecision meant that reopening dates shifted repeatedly while the configuration of our auditorium kept changing as we... Read more... |
The Memory of Water, Hampstead Theatre review – uneasy tragi-comedyMonday, 13 September 2021
Memories are notoriously treacherous — this we know. I remember seeing Shelagh Stephenson’s contemporary classic at the Hampstead, when this venue was a prefab, and enjoying Terry Johnson’s racy staging, which starred Jane Booker, Hadyn Gwynne and... Read more... |
Frozen, Theatre Royal Drury Lane review - twinkling spectacle with a sincere drama at its heartThursday, 09 September 2021
Let it snow! The Broadway musical adaptation of the Disney film behemoth Frozen premiered back in 2018 and now, following Covid delays, a rejigged version finally makes its home in the West End – to the delight of the army of miniature Elsas in... Read more... |
Leopards, Rose Theatre, Kingston review - a no-thrill thriller about sex and powerThursday, 09 September 2021
Is it a thriller? Is it a character study? Leopards, Alys Metcalf’s two-hander about a middle-aged white charity executive – male – and a young job applicant of mixed race – female – goes under the colours of both, but falls short of either genre.A... Read more... |
Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Orange Tree Theatre review - a blast from the past with lessons for todayTuesday, 07 September 2021
Even if you miss the play’s title and do not recognise the writer’s name with the heft of reputation that comes with it, as soon as you see the black man and the white woman speaking in South African accents, you know that the tension that... Read more... |
Rockets and Blue Lights, National Theatre review - strong, but inconclusiveFriday, 03 September 2021
For more than three decades, playwright Winsome Pinnock has been at the forefront of new writing, often experimenting with form as well as documenting the lives of black Britons. Her new play’s original opening at the Royal Exchange Theatre in... Read more... |
Once Upon A Time In Nazi Occupied Tunisia, Almeida Theatre review - flawed theatre but a great experimentTuesday, 31 August 2021
An ageing Nazi, stuffed into a slightly too tight white linen suit, sits at the opposite end of the dining table to a young Jewish woman. Between them is a dish of chicken stew that we, just moments beforehand, have seen her lace with poison.The... Read more... |
Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury review - dazzling Disney rewriteMonday, 30 August 2021
Bedknobs and Broomsticks has always suffered from not being Mary Poppins, the movie delayed in development and released in 1971 (it is a Sixties film in tone and technology) and always seeming to appear later on the BBC’s Christmas Disney Time... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: Screen 9Monday, 23 August 2021
The popcorn on offer as you enter the Pleasance’s performing space at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre quickly fills the air with its rich, sugary scent. It’s a smell that sets the scene nicely for a show set in a cinema, but also an... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: StillSaturday, 21 August 2021
Ageing Mick wakes up on Portobello beach with two gold rings in his pocket, and embarks on the bender to end all benders in order to work out what or who they’re for. Young Gilly has a poorly pug named Mr Immanuel Kant, but can’t face having it put... Read more... |
Cinderella, Gillian Lynne Theatre review - a spectacular show that hits and missesThursday, 19 August 2021
Belleville has lost its Prince Charming and, when his statue is graffitied, it loses its long held title as the most beautiful town, too. Its people fear the impact on their livelihoods and soon identify the gobby, gothy girl as the culprit – they... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: Fear of Roses / Myra's StoryThursday, 19 August 2021
Fear of Roses Assembly Roxy ★★★One of the more disconcerting aspects to this year’s Fringe is different venues’ contrasting reactions to the easing of Covid restrictions. Some – like Army @ The Fringe and the Traverse Theatre – maintain... Read more... |
