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High anxiety: Collapse - Riverside Studios

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It’s a brave or maybe slightly provocative production to use Hammersmith Bridge on their artwork for a show called Collapse, which is about how everything collapses—poorly maintained bridges, relationships, and jobs. Nothing works. That’s probably too close to home for Hammersmith residents stuck with a magnificently listed and useless bridge on their front door. It gets even weirder when you realise the piece is staged in what looks like a meeting room with a bar. However, keeping things together in the most unlikely of circumstances is at the heart of Allison Moore's witty and engaging four-hander, which is currently having a limited engagement at Riverside Studios . The piece opens with Hannah (Emma Haines) about to get an injection from her husband (Keenan Heinzelmann). They’re struggling for a baby, and he’s struggling to get out of bed. But he managed to give her a shot of hormones before she started worrying about the rest of the day. She’s unsure she will keep her job with ...

Theatre: The 39 Steps



Catching up with all the theatre I hadn't yet seen but should have, on Tuesday night I caught The 39 Steps, which is a sort of sillier version of the Hitchcock classic film from the 1930s. It has been playing for some time and possibly should continue for a while. There is a line at the beginning about the main character feeling bored so he thought he would go for some mindless entertainment in the West End... The jokes keep flying thick and fast as four actors play all the roles.

As a bit of a fan of the film, I wasn't quite sure whether I liked this story being treated this way, particularly since the laughs all came from the acting and staging rather than any clever scripting. In the end however I succumbed to the silliness... Adding to the intrigue (well at least for me anyway) was the gay couple to my right. The one next to me seemed to enjoy invading my personal space. Not doing anything to encourage or discourage this, fights for the armrest ensued all throughout the first act... By second act suspect partner caught on what was going on the seat over so there was none of that...

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Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

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