Featured Post

You can’t stop the boats: Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea @ParkTheatre

Image
Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea by Italian playwright Emanuele Aldrovandi and translated by Marco Young, has made a topical return to London at the Park Theatre after playing earlier this summer at the Seven Dials Playhouse. In a week when leaders and leaders in waiting were talking about illegal immigration, it seemed like a topical choice . It also has one hell of an evocative title. The piece opens with Adriano Celantano’s Prisencolinensinainciusol , which sets the scene for what we are about to see. After all, a song about communication barriers seems perfect for a play about people trafficking and illegal immigration. One side doesn’t understand why they happen, and the other still comes regardless of the latest government announcement / slogan .  However, the twist here is that the crossing is undertaken the other way. People are fleeing Europe instead of escaping war or poverty in Africa or the Middle East. It’s set sometime in the not-too-distant future. There is a crisis causing p

Let the river run: Hiraeth @sohotheatre


Some people are rocks. Some people are rivers. Some people can be rocks in rivers. Some people can be rocks just nearby the river. And so on and so on and so on.

These important observations are about as deep as things get in Hiraeth. The word is Welsh for longing. But notwithstanding the flimsy premise the piece is a sweet-natured, whimsical account of  one woman’s journey from a small Welsh farming town to London.


It has just concluded its week long run at the Soho Theatre but given the popularity of the show and the appealing performances, I suspect it won’t be the last time London audiences will get to see it.

The star and co-creator of the show Buddug James Jones comes from  five generations of Welsh farmers. But her desire to leave and forge a career in art is the sense of conflict.

Not much happens in the end. She moves to London and finds that being Welsh and from a small community a bit of an outsider. She is unlucky in love but amongst all the hardship she realises that she can’t go back. Like a river she has to keep moving.

Along the way you will get to sing / shout you are a rock (or a river) and get the chance to eat Welsh cake.

Co-creator Max Mackintosh has unenviable task of taking on all the characters in Jone’s life; her parents, grandmother, boyfriends (Welsh and Spanish) and other random people. He also gets to play the guitar. A deadpan David Grubb accompanies the two with violin and drums and obligatory comic interactions.

The show has been to Edinburgh and has the feel of that fringe sub-genre of solo shows where the performer inflicts their life story on an unsuspecting audience. A greater insight into life in Wales might have helped. Going by this piece there isn't much to life in Wales other than getting drunk and pushing over porta-loos. You may be forgiven for thinking the departure was a no-brainer. But the sweet natured performances make the piece a bit more special. And the Welsh cakes handed out at the end of the show...

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

Popular posts from this blog

Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

Image
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
Read more...

Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

Image
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
Read more...

Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

Image
Damn Yankees at the Landor Theatre is one hell of a fun, sexy show. A great cast of dancers and singers give this show about a man who sells his soul to get on his beloved baseball team (and give them a chance of winning) new legs and balls. It also helps to up the ante with the sexiness with some healthy doses of cleavage and legs (and that's just the men). The musical is a retelling of the Faust story set in the 1950s when the New York Yankees dominated the game.
Read more...