The Unreturning at Theatre Royal Stratford East Frantic Assembly’s production of Anna Jordan’s fearless play lives up to its name in The Unreturning. What’s it like to dream of home, a return to familiarity and domesticity…community, family, friends? To long for comforts and details vivid in memory, realer-than-real? And then how is it to arrive, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Aladdin at the Hackney Empire – Review
Pantomime in East London – Aladdin: Love it or hate it, pantomime season is well and truly upon us…. Panto is a quintessentially British institution, but it was in fact developed from the Italian street theatre of the commedia dell’arte in the 16th Century. Here in Britain, we have made it a very Christmassy tradition […]
The Night Before Christmas – Review
The Night Before Christmas at the Southwark Playhouse: Are you already feeling jaded by all the marketing hype that Christmas brings? Had enough of Wham!? Seen A Christmas Carol umpteen times? Or just not ‘feeling it’? We may have found the perfect little pick-you-up play now on at the Southwark Playhouse. Written by […]
Hadestown at the National Theatre – review
Hades is coming to town… Hamilton eat your hat, Hades is coming to town. If Hades is king of the Underworld, Hermes is the king of Soul. And Soul is what this play exudes, in bucket loads. From the moment Hermes (the brilliant Andre De Shields) walks on stage in his 70’s silver grey shiny […]
Drowned or Saved?
Review – Drowned or Saved by Geoffrey Williams: Drowned or Saved?, a new play written and directed by Geoffrey Williams, was the most harrowing 75 minutes I have spent in the theatre in many years. A play of visceral and psychic pain, it depicts Primo Levi’s attempt to complete a new story while he struggles […]
Macbeth at the Barbican – Review:
Royal Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth – Barbican Arts Centre: Macbeth is a startlingly gruesome play. It begins with the ending of a war but the slaying of the great and the good, adults, families and children alike, continues throughout. By the bloody end of the play, both the actors and the audience are exhausted […]
Wicked at the Apollo Theatre – Review
Wicked continues to defy gravity in London’s West End The Tony Award-winning production of Wicked has just celebrated its 12th successful year at the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End, where it has been selling out to enthusiastic audiences night after night, defying all expectations and proving beyond doubt that the public has an insatiable […]