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Eyes, hair, mouth: Darkie Armo Girl at Finborough Theatre

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Darkie Armo Girl, Karine Bedrossian’s electrifying one-woman show, commands attention from the moment it begins. First performed in 2022 and revived last year, it now returns for extra performance and it's an event not to miss. The show takes you through the thrills and horrors of a hectic life. She struts, shimmies, and taunts while revealing some horrific truths. She is such an irresistible storyteller that you find yourself hooked. The story is one of fame, glamour, abuse, self-harm, and suicide. If that subject matter doesn't sound like your cup of tea, you haven't seen it delivered with such high energy and provocation. It's currently at the Finborough Theatre . The show's title refers to a slur a popular girl at school once called her. Her ancestry is Armenian, and her parents were from Cyprus, where they fled the civil war and arrived in the UK with nothing. Shortly after she was born in Roehampton. The birth was an emergency C-section that left the baby and ...

Theatre: Thérèse Raquin



An advised that I could learn a lot from Thérèse Raquin in a similar way that I learned a lot from Belle Du Jour. Well after finally seeing this production I suspect the central message is not to live with your mother in law.

Adapted from Emile Zola's play, it is a great story about a woman and her husband's friend who conspire to kill the husband so they can be together. In the opening minutes of the first act, Charlotte Emmerson as Thérèse mostly pouts and isn't given much to do. I was wondering what was the appeal of the pouter. I was also starting to get a little bored with this production. That was until Ben Daniels (as Laurent) stuck his hand up Emmerson's dress. Neither actor is particular attractive but there was this electricity that suddenly made the audience snap to attention.

It was a pity there weren't more touches of this throughout. It felt at times to be a bit too polite and mannered as if were a play about herbal teas and dominoes instead of murder and adultery. I would have much preferred a more gruesome and atmospheric fare and less of the standard issue bland sets the National is famous for... Fortunately there were more tears before bedtime and the second act moved swiftly to its sensibly bleak end. It finishes its run soon...

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