Posts

Featured Post

Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

Image
If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging
Read more...

Desperately seeking the West End theatre: another way finding guide...

Image
Another handy guide has been created to find some of the major London theatres around London, what are the nearest tube stations and how to get from them. Combined with the on-street Legible London signs, there should be no excuse for missing the 7.30 start (unless of course the show starts earlier or you spent more time than you expected dining on the pre-theatre menu)...   Created by TicketTree.com , The Theatre Break Specialists.
Read more...

Panto season again: Aladdin @NewWimbTheatre

Image
It is panto season again and the first pantomime, Aladdin at the New Wimbledon theatre was the same production I saw last year in Richmond . It still looks great with some incredible costumes and set pieces and makes for a great (if a tad overlong) family night out. I thought last year's production needed songs from this century and better jokes. Well this time around the songs this are more recent (such as Daft Punk's ear worm Get Lucky) and the street dance troupe Flawless , as the Peking Police Force adds some variety to the proceedings. With Matthew Kelly's very amusing turn as the pantomime dame Widow Twanky, comedian Jo Brand and some genuine west end stars with Oliver Thornton and David Bedella it is like a chocolate box of random assorted entertainment, there is bound to be something to please everyone.
Read more...

Art and other urges: The Shape of Things @arcolatheatre

Image
The Shape of Things , currently playing at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston is a smart and good looking production that captures the banality and earnestness of Neil Labute's high concept play of young love in a university town. Ten years on from its first presentation at the Almeida, it still is an interesting observation on people and relationships and art. Or perhaps. The lady seated next to me who was an art historian was not particularly impressed by the analysis of art. She found Labute was getting things wrong. But coming out of the the theatre, my partner commented, "That's just how people act in my hometown." The mind started to boggle about the games people in his hometown play, but he thankfully clarified he mean that people once they get into relationships change and cut people out of their lives. And this is what makes the piece fascinating. Its observations of the four characters and their interrelationships as they talk about love, sex and art. They
Read more...

Hot and bloody: American Psycho The Musical @AlmeidaTheatre

Image
At the preview of American Psycho  at the Almeida Theatre I caught last week, the audio wasn't great, the cast seemed uneasy and props were knocked over. At one point a dancer blinded by the projections seemed to fall off the stage. But there was something about this slick,  thoughtful and funny production that suggests that these are mere early days for a show that has all the makings of becoming a great new musical. The first half is too long and it could do with some more gore, but you will walk away amazed by the spectacle, style, music and performances. American Psycho is based on the book by Brett Easton Ellis . Famous for its graphic violence and sexual content, it tells the story of Wall Street investment banker who details his life from drug-fuelled clubbing with colleagues, to obsessions over business card fonts and forays into mass murder. He is in a loveless relationship with a fellow yuppie and violent murders seem to be his release, whether they are real or imagin
Read more...

Old jokes home: Barry Humphries' Farewell Tour Eat Pray Laugh

Image
Billed as the Dame Edna farewell show, in Eat Pray Laugh , Barry Humphries is presenting to London audiences (potentially) the last time to see his iconic characters. Watching him perform live is to see an old comic master at work. Quick fire comments fly by and jokes (no matter how old or recycled from previous shows) still manage to seem funny. But at three hours it is an overlong show that will have you thankful retirement beckons for these characters... Even if you admire his stamina for persevering through this marathon of a show. The first character we are introduced to is Sir Les Patterson . Sir Les is meant to be offensive and he does this by having a large erection protrude through his shorts, constant spitting when he speaks and an endless stream of fart jokes. The spitting from speaking rains down on the first few rows of the audience (particularly at members of the audience in the front who don't find the act particularly funny). If you are in the spit rows, you are
Read more...

Art: Sara Shamma's Q and Mother and Child

Image
Syrian-born Sara Shamma's Q at the Royal College of Art is an opportunity to see her work of 10 individual paintings that put together make up a frieze of 16.5 metres that explores the subject of herd mentality and that popular British pastime of queuing. But it is not queuing for the trivial or inane (which is popular in London) but when queuing could be a matter of life or death. Shamma is attempting to capture the change in mentality and behaviour that people at war and under threat experience. Moving from one end of the frieze to the other, images pop out against the flat background using a variety of different techniques to great dramatic effect. Beauty gives way to weariness and death. The lines of people queuing evoke dehumanisation and desperation. Syria is constantly in the news but here the atrocities are second to the dehumanising impact of war. Shamma recently fled Damascus due to the conflict, leaving behind her home and studio and now lives and works in Lebano
Read more...

Free spirits and dark places: Don Juan @cockpittheatre

Image
Don Juan at the Cockpit theatre is a classy staging of the classic tale from Moliére with some strong performances by its young cast. It is baroque theatre at its creepiest and surrealist. You may find however that in the attempt to play up some of the spookier elements of the story, what ends up missing is the comedy from the tale. The Don Juan legend of a wealthy libertine who devotes his life to seducing women, pretending to marry them and leaving them when they bore him. In Moliére's version of the story, he has just rejected a woman he led from convent and she promises that he will face heaven's wrath. Escaping pursuit by the woman's brother's who intend to force him to marry or will kill him, he stumbles upon the tomb of a man he previously murdered. Upon entering the tomb and seeing a statue of the man he invites him to dine with him. To his shock the statue nods. The sprits seem to be  conspiring against Don Juan's ways...
Read more...

Random observations about London: The telephone box

Image
London is Calling - An infographic by the team at Marriott London Hotels The Mariott have developed the following info graphic about the red telephone box in London. Telephone boxes are iconic due to their red colour and design. First installed in Kensington and Holborn, these small phone booths have come to be a well-known symbol of London. They were at their peak during the 1980s when there were around 70,000 boxes throughout the country and alongside police boxes were an acceptable form of street clutter. But their days have been numbered since most people have mobile phones these days and BT cannot flog advertising space on them as effectively as other their more hideous modern designs can  since the primary purpose of phone boxes nowadays is advertising. You can still see the old phone boxes around central London, particularly on Bow Street in Covent Garden where the background image to this blog has been taken. Curiously they have also adapted to the challenge to be pla
Read more...

Sex, drugs and bewilderment: Keeler

Image
Keeler, currently showing at Charing Cross Theatre is a theatrical curiosity. Based on Christine Keeler's own book,  Truth At Last , it gives her account of the Profumo affair. Fifty years ago this caused a scandal that led to a Secretary of State resigning and ultimately the downfall of a government. But rather than provide new insight it highlights how insignificant her part was and the events and  those around her were far more interesting. While the intention is no doubt show how events circling around them overwhelmed them, without any understanding about the characters it is difficult to gleam anything but a vague history lesson on the topic.
Read more...

Jaded and jaundiced encounters: Passing By @TristanBates

Image
Passing By , a rare revival of an early Martin Sherman play is an opportunity to return to the carefree days of the early 1970s New York. This is a time where being gay could get you arrested and the only disease to fear catching was either hepatitis or gonorrhea. It is a comedy of sorts, but what was groundbreaking at the time was its frank portrayal of a couple who just happened to be gay rather than a play where being gay was the whole point of the play. It is a pity that some of this context is lost in this revival at the Tristan Bates Theatre which may leave you wondering what was the show all about.
Read more...