Category Archives: 2018

Doctor Faustus

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe, London ***
Runs 2hrs 30 mins incl interval

TICKETS 020 7401 9919 or 0871 297 0749 (booking fee applies)
In person: Mon-Sat 10am – 6pm (8pm on perf days);
Sundays: 10am-5pm (7pm on perf days)
On-line: www.shakespearesglobe.com

© Marc Brenner, Jocelyn Jee Esien as Doctor Faustus in Paulette Randall's gender switched production...

© Marc Brenner, Jocelyn Jee Esien as Doctor Faustus in Paulette Randall’s gender switched production…

Review by Carole Woddis of performance seen Dec 28, 2018:

I love Christopher Marlowe. I love the raciness and rebel in him. And sometimes, particularly in Paulette Randall’s reframed version here at Shakespeare’s Globe with Doctor Faustus, the omnivorous, greedy scholar as a woman selling her soul to the Devil for more knowledge and more of everything material, you could feel the young Marlowe within riding those waves as if putting two fingers up to the Establishment of his times. Continue reading

The Cane

Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, London ****
Review: by Carole Woddis of performance seen Dec 27, 2018:

© Johan Persson, Maggie Steed as Maureen, loyal but under the deputy headmaster's marital thumb, and Nicola Walker as the renegade daughter, Anna, now teaching in a hated Academy school...set by Chloe Lamford.

© Johan Persson, Maggie Steed as Maureen, loyal but under the deputy headmaster’s marital thumb, and Nicola Walker as the renegade daughter, Anna, now teaching in a hated Academy school…set by Chloe Lamford.

Mark Ravenhill made his name as part of the 1990s In-Yer-Face wave of young British dramatists with the play calculated to shock, Shopping and F**king. Continue reading

The Convert, Sweat, Summer and Smoke

The Convert ****
By Danai Gurira

© Marc Brenner with Letitia Wright (Jekesai/Ester) - the newest convert...

© Marc Brenner with Letitia Wright (Jekesai/Ester) – the newest convert…

Young Vic Theatre,
The Cut,
London SE1 8LZ

Runs: 3hrs incl two 15 min intervals

Sweat ****
By Lyn Nottage

© Johan Persson, with Leanne Best (Jessie), Martha Plimpton (Tracey), Clare Perkins (Cynthia)

© Johan Persson, with Leanne Best (Jessie), Martha Plimpton (Tracey), Clare Perkins (Cynthia)

Donmar Warehouse,
41 Earlham Street,
Seven Dials, London WC2H 9LX

Runs: 2hrs 30 mins incl 15 min interval

Summer and Smoke *****
By Tennessee Williams

© Marc Brenner, Patsy Ferran carries the load as Alma in Rebecca Frenshall's superb revival. Here facing the chorus of pianos and the back brick wall distinctive of the Almeida auditorium and replicated in the West End setting.

© Marc Brenner, Patsy Ferran carries the load as Alma in Rebecca Frecknall’s superb revival. Here facing the chorus of pianos and the back brick wall distinctive of the Almeida auditorium and replicated in the West End setting.

Duke of York’s Theatre
St Martin’s Lane
London WC2N 4BG

Runs: 2hrs 40mins incl 15 min interval

Review by Carole Woddis of performances seen Dec 18, 20, and Dec 22, 2018:

After something of an enforced lay-off, this week has been one of those weeks. Three shows via our three of our foremost subsidised London theatres, the Young Vic, Donmar Warehouse and the third, an Almeida Theatre transfer to the West End at the Duke of York’s. Continue reading

ear for eye

Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, London ****
Review: by Carole Woddis of performance seen Nov 1, 2018:

© Stephen Cummiskey, cast of ear for eye in design by Merle Hensel.

© Stephen Cummiskey, cast of ear for eye in design by Merle Hensel.

There is no one quite like debbie tucker green, no one writing with the same urgency, disquiet and plain brilliance for adjusting and changing forms. Excepting perhaps Caryl Churchill with whom she shares so many affinities in terms of political content and experimentation. Continue reading

The Wolves

Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London ****

Review by Carole Woddis of perf seen Oct 30, 2018:

© Manuel Harlan, cast of The Wolves in full flow...

© Manuel Harlan, cast of The Wolves in full flow…

I didn’t see Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, Lee Hall’s runaway success from Alan Warner’s novel that hoovered up a shelf-load of awards last year.  Continue reading

The Wild Duck

Almeida Theatre, London ****
Review by Carole Woddis of performance seen Oct 25, 2018:

© Manuel Harlan, Lyndsey Marshal as Gina and Edward Hogg as James Ekdal in happier times, before the truth comes bursting in and breaks them...money and pride beats the best of men and women...

© Manuel Harlan, Lyndsey Marshal as Gina and Edward Hogg as James Ekdal in happier times, before the truth comes bursting in and breaks them…money and pride beats the best of men and women…

Robert Icke is far too clever a theatre magician for it to be accidental. But there are moments when his updated, deconstructed and completely reimagined version of Ibsen’s Wild Duck comes over as a bit of a lecture in keeping with one of the Almeida’s former lives as a lecture theatre for the Islington Literary and Scientific Society. Continue reading