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A Man For All Seasons: Seagull True Story - Marylebone Theatre

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It's not often that you see a play that tells you not so much a story but gives you a sense of how it feels to be in a situation, how it feels to be silenced, how it feels to be marginalised, how the dead hand of consensus stifles your creativity. However, in Seagull True Story, created and directed by Alexander Molochnikov and based on his own experiences fleeing Russia and trying to establish himself in New York, we have a chance to look beyond the headlines and understand how the war in Ukraine impacted a a group of ordinary creatives in Russia. And how the gradual smothering of freedom and freedom of expression becomes impossible to resist, except for the brave or the suicidal. Against the backdrop of Chekhov's The Seagull, which explores love and other forms of disappointment, it presents a gripping and enthralling depiction of freedom of expression in the face of adversity. After playing earlier this year in New York, it plays a limited run at the Marylebone Theatre . Fro...

Streaming Queens: The Crown Dual @KingsHeadthtr


Even if you haven’t watched The Crown on Netflix, there’s much to be amused about in The Crown Dual. A meta-spoof on the public’s endless fascination for dramatisations about the lives of the royal family. And all things royal for that matter. It’s currently playing at the Kings Head Theatre.

The premise is that Beth Buckingham (Rosie Holt) and her dubious agent and patio specialist Stanley (Brendan Murphy) are going to recreate Beth’s showreel audition for The Crown. And prove that she would have been far more talented than that Claire Foy in the role.


And so beings a rather silly and at times hilarious recreation of the best and most preposterous bits of the first series of The Crown. With Holt or Murphy playing a range of cast members, sending up both the characters and their fictional television characterisations. Both have great comic timing and make a  somewhat regal pair.

The lives of the Royal Family often seem like the subject matter for a farce. Here it’s an entertaining journey. And a lot more fun than the dreary play A Princess Undone, which covered some of the same material as if it was of grave national importance.


The other genius in the piece is also to make fun of the emerging conventions of a Netflix television series. From the skip intro feature, over-bloated production budgets and annoying premise to introduce new characters in the final episodes (so you continue watching next year when the new series lands). It's all here to remind us that the jokes on us for watching this garbage in the first place.

Written by Daniel Clarkson of Potted Potter etc fame, and directed by Owen Lewis, this is a frightfully witty diversion at the Kings Head Theatre until 6 April.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Photos by Geraint Lewis

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