For a natural process, death is not a topic that comes up naturally for people. We ask how people are doing but expect the response to be “I’m great”, not “I’m not dead yet”. And so for the main character in A Brief List of Everyone Who Died, Graciela has a death issue. Starting with when she was five and found out only after the matter that her parents had her beloved dog euthanised. So Graciela decides that nobody she loves will die from then on. And so this piece becomes a fruitless attempt at how she spends her life trying to avoid death while it is all around her. It’s currently having its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre . As the play title suggests, it is a brief list of life moments where death and life intervene for the main character, from the passing of relatives, cancer, suicides, accidents and the loss of parents. Playwright Jacob Marx Rice plots the critical moments of the lives of these characters through their passing or the passing of those around them. Howeve
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Theatre: Mr Happiness and The Water Engine
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Monday night, Johnnyfox and I found ourselves in the dark, cold underworld where dreams are destroyed by faceless businessmen. We also found ourselves at the Old Vic Tunnels, a fabulous collection of spaces under the railway arches near Waterloo station (that are also a little bit dark and dank) watching Mr Happiness and the Water Engine, two short plays written by David Mamet originally for radio.
The first piece is about a radio announcer (Mr Happiness) and his sometimes unusual advice to his listeners. Played by David Burt, his velvety tones and the space of the theatre make you feel like you could be in a radio audience from the period.
Things switch a tone for the second piece, The Water Engine, is about a young inventor Charles Lang (played by Jamie Treacher) who invents an engine that runs on water. But he soon finds that he is up against lawyer-hoodlum types and things
This is a stylish great looking production with a great looking bunch of actors. The performances are impressive too but you do feel for the actors and hope that they have dressed warmly in this cold space. As homage to the original radio origins of the pieces actors speak into microphones and create sound effects of doors opening, factories whirring and machines starting up. The atmosphere of the tunnels with the trains from Waterloo rumbling overhead adds to a sense of creepiness. It would have been possible to close your eyes and follow the play, but you would miss out on seeing the fantastic costumes and set designs then too.
It is also not everyday you get the chance to go to the theatre via a rather anonymous entrance that has security guards outside, but the location is also an opportunity to sample the treasures from the Lower Marsh area. The tunnels were recently the site of Banksy's documentary premiere, Exit Through the Gift Shop but given they are vast cavernous spaces, the possibilities are endless... Although hopefully its use won't include the site being yet another club. Maybe it is not suited to every production (and a musical might be tough going there), but with the Old Vic Tunnels, Waterloo East Theatre, Union Theatre along with the long-established major venues, an interesting cluster of theatres catering for a variety of tastes has firmly taken hold in SE1.
Produced by Theatre6 and MokitaGrit Productions, it runs through to July and is a great night out. Dress warmly however, and be prepared for smells that you might not be familiar with (unless your home has rising damp or is poorly insulated)...
David McVicar's oddly modern production of Rigoletto is back at the Royal Opera House . This modern and minimalist dark production has evolved over the years. It is better lit now but there is still an orgy and full frontal nudity within the first thirty minutes. This enables anyone not in the stalls an excellent view of a flaccid penis and a nicely shaved bush. But as time goes it seems more and more superfluous to the main focus of this tragedy of a court jester who seeks revenge. Here is hoping that the production continues to evolve... Conductor John Eliot Gardiner keeps the music well paced. Dimitri Platanias in the title role sounded great and received a rapturous applause for his interpretation of the role. You get a sense more of the doting father rather than the court jester or cursed man here. Vittorio Grigolo plays the Duke and sounds too lovely to be the cad the role calls for, but it is hard not to like when he is on stage anyway. And it is easier to understan
Nowadays no self-respecting gay play can be staged without full frontal nudity of some kind. It feels like the default response for the modern gay play now that gay rights are no longer an issue . Afterglow, currently playing at Southwark Playhouse , serves it up in spades. From the beginning, three men are in a bed, naked. There’s what appears to be a very brief exhalation of ecstasy, before the obligatory rush to the shower. But the gratuitous nudity and excellent performances can’t conceal this is a pretty conventional and predictable story about a fantasy couple. The three men in the simultaneous orgasm at the start of the piece are Josh, Alex and Darius. Josh and Alex seem to live in a New York world where they can afford a rooftop apartment in Manhattan while holding jobs as a theatre director and a grad student in chemistry. As writer S. Asher Gelman based it on his own experiences, perhaps gay plays with full frontal nudity are the way to achieve financial security
Iranian-Canadian musical theater actor Ramin Karimloo is known for his work in the West End, performing in The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables, as well as debuting the role of the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera sequel, Love Never Dies. Recently he finished a run playing Valjean in Les Miserables on Broadway and gained attention for not just his vocals but his physical strength. He is back in London and getting ready for a show (tonight) at the Palladium on 16 July. Later in the year he will be joining Victoria Hamilton-Barritt and Kerry Ellis in UK premiere of the off-Broadway musical Murder Ballad at the Arts Theatre. The Palladium show will be another opportunity to see Ramin and his band mix country and bluegrass with musical theatre (and vice-versa), after sellout shows at Islington’s Union Chapel in January. I sat down with Ramin shortly after his return to London. We talked about the shows, his fitness regime and how he is looking for a goo
