Slave to the Rhythm: The Thread at Sadler’s Wells From the frenzies of Dionysus to the camp of ‘Strictly’ – bodies and minds delight in dance. Dance has the ability to transcend everyday experience, order and disorder, senses on fire; desire, passion, expression… We intuitively recognise the real thing – when we surrender to what […]
Romance Romance – Above The Stag Theatre – Review
Romance Romance, An LGBT Production at Above the Stag Theatre Don’t we all love a bit of Romance?…. I walked out on an absolute high after a charming evening of musical theatre in Vauxhall, at Above the Stag. It was my first visit to this great venue; an Off-West End theatre underneath the arches on […]
Tartuffe at the National Theatre – Review
Molière’s Tartuffe re-imagined, National Theatre, London: John Donnelly’s new version of Tartuffe, Molière’s 1664 comedy, showing now at the Lyttelton, is a contemporary morality tale, stripping away the hypocrisy of both the political left and the right, attacking neo-liberalism as much as the radical pretensions of contemporary art and taking a pop at pretty […]
Follies, The National Theatre – Review
Follies, The Olivier, National Theatre: Stephen Sondheim’s musical, Follies revolves around a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the “Weismann’s Follies”, a musical revue (based on the Ziegfeld Follies). This spectacular revival of Follies, directed by Dominic Cooke features a cast of 40 and a full orchestra. When we reach a certain […]
Review – Arthur Miller The Price, Wyndham’s Theatre
The Price by Arthur Miller – London West End Arthur Miller’s 1968 play The Price is the story of two estranged brothers and how their underlying conflicts play out as they try to sell off their late father’s chattels 16 years after his death. Miller mines his own experience as the son of a businessman who lost […]
Pinter 5 at the Harold Pinter Theatre
Pinter Wonderland… Pinter at the Pinter is a unique theatrical event, presenting together – for the first time ever – all his 20 one-act plays. Harold Pinter is vintage; an evergreen, 20th Century classic. Born in Hackney, London, in 1930, he lived with Antonia Fraser from 1975 until his death on Christmas Eve 2008. He […]
Caroline, or Change at London’s Playhouse Theatre
Caroline, or Change comes to London’s West End… Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s 2003 musical has been on my must-see list for some time. Michael Longhurst’s production started life at Hampstead Theatre, moving to Chichester and now making a very welcome transfer to the Playhouse in London’s West End. This wonderfully original and quirky production takes […]
Circus 1903 at the Royal Festival Hall
The Golden Age of Circus: Contemporary Circus is all the rage lately; Barnum & Bailey’s film ‘The Greatest Showman’ is an international hit, and the rise once again of circus arts is very apparent. Over the past few years, I have found myself thrilling to a whole new the world of entertainment – one which […]
That Night Follows Day at the Southbank Centre
That Night Follows Day – a production by Tim Etchells & Forced Entertainment A Family Affair… Christmastime – perhaps more than any other time – evokes a sentimentalised childhood, a familial idyll that bears poignant relation to the complex, ambivalent truths of actual experience. What better time to see this touching theatre production of ‘That […]
The Merry Wives of Windsor – RSC
RSC at the Barbican – The Merry Wives of Windsor: The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of Shakespeare’s less frequently performed comedies and was my first viewing of this play. But even if I had seen it before, I would not have been prepared for the RSC’s wonderfully uplifting and hilarious production, directed by […]