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Life upon the wicked stage: Already Perfect at Kings Head Theatre

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Performing two shows a day on a Broadway run sounds exhausting enough. But when you’ve just had a not-so-great matinee and are having a crisis of confidence, I would assume the last thing you’d want is to confront your past. Yet that’s the situation in Already Perfect, writer-performer Levi Kreis’s slightly autobiographical journey of confronting the past and his younger self. With a series of toe-tapping and emotional songs in a sleek production, you’re invited to experience someone else’s therapy session. And with a show title called Already Perfect, you know what kind of session this is going to be. It makes for a show where nothing is left unsaid, even if it is unnecessary,  unbelievable or best left on a greeting card. It’s currently playing at the King’s Head Theatre .  The story begins in his dressing room after a matinee, with Kreis alone. The show didn’t go so well. Struggling after being dumped by a lover, pressure mounting on the evening show being filmed for poster...

Theatre: Clybourne Park



The first thing that strikes you about this Olivier-award winning play is how great the production looks. You feel like you are transported back into the 1950s in a living room fashionable for that time, and populated by people you would expect to see. As the play gets going however it becomes apparent that this is going to be a darkly comic night at the theatre that looks at property, neighbourhoods and the enduring value of real estate... It was worth finally getting a chance to see it before it ends its run...



To give too much away about the story would spoil the fun but it is inspired (and plays off) the the events that take place in A Raisin in the Sun. While I was not so convinced by the sentiment of the first act (which seems trite and overlong), the humour that comes from the skirmishes between the couples was hilarious. But the second act was like watching a different play. Here the comedy is relentless and explosive. The performances of the ensemble bring out the best of the material and the audience were in hysterics.

I'm not sure what the central message of the play is, but it sure made you leave feeling like you should buy some property in a neighbourhood that you may not feel like you belong in just to mix things up a little... It's playing now at Wyndham's theatre until early May...

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