Category Archives: 2019

Swive

Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe, London ****
Review of perf seen Dec 30, 2019. Runs 1hr 30 mins without interval 

© Johan Persson, Nina Cassells as the young Princess Elizabeth, calling on God to protect her, surrounded on all sides by insecurity…

My goodness, that Ella Hickson doesn’t let the grass grow under her feet for long.

Having circled the globe in time and space with Oil (2016) and the history of fossil fuel, taken on creativity with The Writer (2018), here she is again in winning form playfully, even mischievously with serious intent, re-examining the legacy of that role model to end all female role models, Elizabeth I. Continue reading

Candida

Orange Tree, Richmond, London ****
Runs: 2hrs with an interval

Review of perf seen Dec 28, 2019:

© Johan Persson, Martin Hutson as Reverend James Morell and Claire Lams as his wife, Candida - happily married bliss...

© Johan Persson, Martin Hutson as Reverend James Morell and Claire Lams as his wife, Candida – happily married bliss…intensity and twinkling good humour…

A free thinking poet confronts a charismatic Christian socialist preacher. In between them stands a woman loved by both men. Which one will win her hand? Continue reading

Fairview

Young Vic Theatre, London ****
Runs: 1hrs 30 mins without interval

© Marc Brenner, Rhashan Stone (Dayton), Nicola Hughes (Beverly) - happy moment for wife and husband before the birthday treat...that goes wrong...

© Marc Brenner, Rhashan Stone (Dayton), Nicola Hughes (Beverly) – happy moment for wife and husband before the birthday treat…that goes wrong…

Review of perf seen Dec 17, 2019:

Over thirty years ago, African-American writer and satirist, George C Wolfe presented a play in London called The Colored Museum. I have never forgotten it. Continue reading

Land Without Dreams

Gate, Notting Hill, London ****
Runs: 60 mins without interval
Box Office: 020 7229 0706

Review of perf seen Nov 19, 2019:

© Cameron Slater, Terri Wilkey as the woman regarding us, the audience, with wry amusement. She knows us better than we know ourselves...

© Cameron Slater, Terri Wilkey as the woman regarding us, the audience, with wry amusement. She knows us better than we know ourselves…

Notting Hill’s tiny Gate Theatre continues under AD Ellen McDougall to amaze and provoke. Where would British theatre be without these lab style venues where experiment and daring combine to shatter smug complacencies. I love ‘em! Continue reading

On Bear Ridge

Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Downstairs, London ****
Runs: 90 without interval
TICKETS 020 7565 -5000
Review: of perf seen Nov 4, 2019:

© Mark Douet, Rakie Ayola as Noni, and Rhys Ifans as John Daniel, a couple at the extreme but somehow finding resilience...

© Mark Douet, Rakie Ayola as Noni, and Rhys Ifans as John Daniel, a couple at the extreme but somehow finding resilience…and an actor at the height of his powers.

Some plays and productions cast a very special kind of spell. Theatre is all about suspension of disbelief, of the creation for a small amount of time, of a particularly hermetic, special kind of world. And within that particularity, if they get it right, is a universality, a paradox that never ceases to amaze. Continue reading

Shook

Southwark Playhouse, London ****
Runs: 90 mins with no interval.
TICKETS: Box Office: 020 7407 0234
www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

Review: of perf seen Nov 1, 2019:

© The Other Richard, Josh Finan as Cain, Ivan Oyik as Riyad - Cain would get under anybody's skin but it's all show...

© The Other Richard, Josh Finan as Cain, Ivan Oyik as Riyad – Cain would get under anybody’s skin but it’s all show…

About ten years ago, the late, much loved and admired Philip Osment wrote a play called Inside. Developed with young male offenders in Rochester prison with Jim Pope’s Playing On company, Osment took the workshops and turned the accounts of the young men, all of them fathers, into a piercingly humane commentary on parenting and fatherhood. Continue reading