Theatre
Filumena, Theatre Royal Windsor review - Mozartian marriage comedy with pasta sauceFriday, 11 October 2024
Of all the ingenues in all the world of golden TV sitcom, Felicity Kendal was the most innocent, the most wicked, the most deceptive, with an amaretto voice that wheedled like a child and seduced like a witch. Half a century on, there must be a heck... Read more... |
Brace Brace, Royal Court review - too slender to satisfyThursday, 10 October 2024
Air travel is bad for us. Yes, yes, I know we need planes to take us long distances, but look at the downside: not only the carbon footprint, but also the anxiety. I used to feel pretty relaxed about flying, then – one day on a short European... Read more... |
First Person: Tim Etchells on 40 years of making a noise with Forced EntertainmentThursday, 10 October 2024
Forced Entertainment is a theatre company based in Sheffield, touring original performances around the world. The core group of 6 artists has been working together for 40 years, often inviting others to collaborate on particular projects. From the... Read more... |
Gigi and Dar, Arcola Theatre review - a war-game of two halvesThursday, 10 October 2024
The writer-director Josh Azouz and actor-director Kathryn Hunter have collaborated on a piece exploring the ethics of being an army of occupation. Or, at least, I think that’s what Gigi and Dar is aiming for. The set gives little away about the... Read more... |
The Other Place, National Theatre review - searing family tragedyWednesday, 09 October 2024
Contemporary reworkings of Greek tragedy run a very particular risk, that out of context the heightened actions of the original plays – the woefully poor judgement, the copious bloodletting, the rush to disproportionate vengeance and suicide – can... Read more... |
Bellringers, Hampstead Theatre review - mordant comedy about the end of the worldWednesday, 09 October 2024
As hurricanes rip into the American Gulf states with increasing ferocity, Eastern Europe disappears underwater and even the gentle British rain becomes a deluge, the arrival of Daisy Hall’s debut play Bellringers at Hampstead Theatre’s Downstairs... Read more... |
French Toast, Riverside Studios review - Racine-inspired satire finds its laughs once up-and-runningWednesday, 09 October 2024
It’s always fun jabbing at the permanently open wound that is Anglo-French relations, now with added snap post-Brexit, its fading, but still frothing, humourless defenders clogging up Twitter and radio phone-ins even today. So it’s probably timely... Read more... |
Juno and the Paycock, Gielgud Theatre review - a shockingly original centenary revival of O'Casey's tragi-comedyMonday, 07 October 2024
"Captain" Jack Boyle is a fantasist, a mythmaker, a storyteller. He relishes an audience – usually his sidekick, Joxer. There is a theatricality in his part as written by O'Casey, but in Matthew Warchus's hands this is made an explicit element of... Read more... |
Angry and Young, Almeida Theatre review - vigorous and illuminating double billMonday, 07 October 2024
Why should we not look back in anger? With the Oasis reunion tour in the news recently, the title of John Osborne’s seminal kitchen-sink drama – which kicked off the whole cultural phenomenon of the Angry Young Men on its first staging in 1956 – has... Read more... |
Lear, Barbican Theatre review - a very stormy saga, Korean-styleSaturday, 05 October 2024
What do the cult TV show Squid Game and National Changgeuk Company of Korea’s Lear have in common? Oddly, a K-Pop producer, Jung Jae-il, who has created additional music for Lear.Korean opera traditionally tells its stories via a hybrid blend of... Read more... |
A Tupperware of Ashes, National Theatre review - family and food, love and lossFriday, 04 October 2024
Queenie is in trouble. Bad trouble. For about a year now, this 68-year-old Indian woman has been forgetful. Losing her car keys; burning rice in the pan; mixing up memories; just plain blank episodes. At various times, she relives distant moments in... Read more... |
The Cabinet Minister, Menier Chocolate Factory review - sparkling tour de force of a farceTuesday, 01 October 2024
The stock of the late 19th century playwright Arthur Wing Pinero has just received a significant boost, thanks to the brilliant work of the actress Nancy Carroll – not only as a superb performer but as a dab hand with an adaptor’s pen. Not seen... Read more... |
