A life of hope and promise, interrupted, lies at the heart of Mr Jones: an Aberfan Story. The play follows two young people in Aberfan before and after the disaster that killed 144 people, including 116 children. It’s an emotional coming-of-age tale of intersecting lives, family, love, and the shock of tragedy. With two vivid performances and strong characterisations, you feel immersed in 1960s Welsh small-town life. It’s now running at the Finborough Theatre , after performances at the Edinburgh Festival and across Wales. The Aberfan disaster is well known in the UK but perhaps less so elsewhere. The facts of the tragedy are confined to the programme notes rather than in the piece. On 21 October 1966, the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip on a mountain above Aberfan engulfed a local school, killing many. The play avoids the causes and negligence, instead focusing on those working and building lives in the town. Writer-performer Liam Holmes plays Stephen Jones, a...
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Theatre: Mr Happiness and The Water Engine
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Monday night, Johnnyfox and I found ourselves in the dark, cold underworld where dreams are destroyed by faceless businessmen. We also found ourselves at the Old Vic Tunnels, a fabulous collection of spaces under the railway arches near Waterloo station (that are also a little bit dark and dank) watching Mr Happiness and the Water Engine, two short plays written by David Mamet originally for radio.
The first piece is about a radio announcer (Mr Happiness) and his sometimes unusual advice to his listeners. Played by David Burt, his velvety tones and the space of the theatre make you feel like you could be in a radio audience from the period.
Things switch a tone for the second piece, The Water Engine, is about a young inventor Charles Lang (played by Jamie Treacher) who invents an engine that runs on water. But he soon finds that he is up against lawyer-hoodlum types and things
This is a stylish great looking production with a great looking bunch of actors. The performances are impressive too but you do feel for the actors and hope that they have dressed warmly in this cold space. As homage to the original radio origins of the pieces actors speak into microphones and create sound effects of doors opening, factories whirring and machines starting up. The atmosphere of the tunnels with the trains from Waterloo rumbling overhead adds to a sense of creepiness. It would have been possible to close your eyes and follow the play, but you would miss out on seeing the fantastic costumes and set designs then too.
It is also not everyday you get the chance to go to the theatre via a rather anonymous entrance that has security guards outside, but the location is also an opportunity to sample the treasures from the Lower Marsh area. The tunnels were recently the site of Banksy's documentary premiere, Exit Through the Gift Shop but given they are vast cavernous spaces, the possibilities are endless... Although hopefully its use won't include the site being yet another club. Maybe it is not suited to every production (and a musical might be tough going there), but with the Old Vic Tunnels, Waterloo East Theatre, Union Theatre along with the long-established major venues, an interesting cluster of theatres catering for a variety of tastes has firmly taken hold in SE1.
Produced by Theatre6 and MokitaGrit Productions, it runs through to July and is a great night out. Dress warmly however, and be prepared for smells that you might not be familiar with (unless your home has rising damp or is poorly insulated)...
David McVicar's oddly modern production of Rigoletto is back at the Royal Opera House . This modern and minimalist dark production has evolved over the years. It is better lit now but there is still an orgy and full frontal nudity within the first thirty minutes. This enables anyone not in the stalls an excellent view of a flaccid penis and a nicely shaved bush. But as time goes it seems more and more superfluous to the main focus of this tragedy of a court jester who seeks revenge. Here is hoping that the production continues to evolve... Conductor John Eliot Gardiner keeps the music well paced. Dimitri Platanias in the title role sounded great and received a rapturous applause for his interpretation of the role. You get a sense more of the doting father rather than the court jester or cursed man here. Vittorio Grigolo plays the Duke and sounds too lovely to be the cad the role calls for, but it is hard not to like when he is on stage anyway. And it is easier to understan...
Nowadays no self-respecting gay play can be staged without full frontal nudity of some kind. It feels like the default response for the modern gay play now that gay rights are no longer an issue . Afterglow, currently playing at Southwark Playhouse , serves it up in spades. From the beginning, three men are in a bed, naked. There’s what appears to be a very brief exhalation of ecstasy, before the obligatory rush to the shower. But the gratuitous nudity and excellent performances can’t conceal this is a pretty conventional and predictable story about a fantasy couple. The three men in the simultaneous orgasm at the start of the piece are Josh, Alex and Darius. Josh and Alex seem to live in a New York world where they can afford a rooftop apartment in Manhattan while holding jobs as a theatre director and a grad student in chemistry. As writer S. Asher Gelman based it on his own experiences, perhaps gay plays with full frontal nudity are the way to achieve financial ...
Damn Yankees at the Landor Theatre is one hell of a fun, sexy show. A great cast of dancers and singers give this show about a man who sells his soul to get on his beloved baseball team (and give them a chance of winning) new legs and balls. It also helps to up the ante with the sexiness with some healthy doses of cleavage and legs (and that's just the men). The musical is a retelling of the Faust story set in the 1950s when the New York Yankees dominated the game.
