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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...

Low-calorie stories: Fast @ParkTheatre


The pseudoscience of detox diets and fasting is given some historical context in Fast. Kate Barton's tale of Linda Hazzard, a quack doctor who inadvertently killed many of her patients is given the once over in this brisk adaptation of her life and crimes against science. It's a fascinating tale, but the roundabout way in which the story unfolds seems to undermine the tension, absurdities and horror of the story. It's currently playing at the Park Theatre.

The piece centres around two wealthy English sisters travelling in Washington who stumble across Linda Hazzard's book, Fasting For The Cure Of Disease. The book is a curious polemic about how any disease can be treated through a series of fasting to cleanse the body of unspecified toxins. Available to read on the internet, it's like reading one of those self-published books on Amazon that has a curiously high number of five-star reviews. Hazzard was clearly ahead of her time. If she were alive today, she would no doubt have her own YouTube channel.

But alas in those days, the only way to make money was to deal with people directly. In a sanatorium. The two English sisters, one a little mousey and gullible and the other slightly suspicious have various complaints. Headaches, pains and general unwellness, so they sign up to a six-week treatment at Dr Hazzard's sanatorium, in Wilderness Heights, Olalla, Washington. Unfortunately, they weren't aware the location was known by the locals as "Starvation Heights".

It has all the potential for being a gripping comic horror story. Particularly with Caroline Lawrie's performance as Hazzard, which is both delightfully evil and sympathetic to a woman trying to make a living in the wellness field.

The production looks wonderful in evoking a woodland setting with animal skulls, mouldy shower curtains and rising damp. But the story jumps forward and back around the ensuing court case. And there's much ado with a journalist on her trail. It all feels as if we've received a diet version of a story that could be more substantial. Here's hoping that this run will provide inspiration for a full-fat treatment.

Directed by Kate Valentine, Fast is at the Park Theatre. Since it's a short piece, there's plenty of time for a bite to eat afterwards.

⭐️⭐️⭐️



Photos by Manuel Harlan

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