Featured Post

More sex and violence: Playfight @sohotheatre

Image
The funny thing about three girls growing up under a tree is that you never quite know when they're being serious or just messing about. One time, they might be talking about giving blow jobs on a tennis court at school and another, they might be yearning for a connection that they can't quite explain. That's what happens in Playfight, an Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024 hit currently showing at Soho Theatre .  Writer Julia Grogan doesn't give us much time to dwell on the lives of these three young teenage girls. One minute, they're fifteen and giggling, and then the next thing, they're off getting married or going to University. But underneath all the smutty talk, humour, and quick scene changes, there is a darker underbelly about relationships, power, and consent. It's about finding your way in a complex world that can dehumanise and degrade you. But as things move so quickly, you could blink and miss it. This is too bad as the performances capturing this co...

Lovely spam: Cockamamy @TheHopeTheatre

Alice is starting to get a bit absent minded. She left the can of spam in the sofa. And she forgot that her daughter is dead. But when do these little things start to become the onset of dementia rather than just being part of old age? Afterall, who hasn’t forgot they already had a few cans of spam in the cupboard when they go shopping? It’s all part of Cockamamy, which is currently running at The Hope Theatre.

Part of the charm of this piece is that even as things become bleak, there is humour found in the everyday situations. And dementia can be funny while nobody is getting hurt. Alice (Mary Rutherford) says what she thinks. She has a pizza a 5am when she’s hungry. She tells her granddaughter she landed on her feet dating a doctor,  while pouring him a big glass of wine. 

Her granddaughter Rosie (Louise Coulthard, who also wrote the piece) feels obliged to look after her. She gets a cleaner in to help and she gets an alarm hooked up. But as she wants to get on with her life she finds none of this stops her from being worried about her gran to the point that she’s feeling trapped and burdened. Which is when things also take a darker turn. The pressure of being a carer without support takes its toll and the stress of the situation becomes almost unbearable. For a brief moment you see how vulnerable people could end up being abused by the ones who love them. 

It is finely crafted with sensitive performances from Coulthard and Rutherford. Both create a believable grandmother / daughter relationship. A thoughtful and open response to challenges of ageing and reverse parenting. And recognition that you can really have too many cans of spam in the house. 

Directed by Rebecca Loudon, Cockamamy is at The Hope Theatre until 30 June. The piece had sell-out runs at the Camden Fringe and Edinburgh Fringe last year. It also won the Lustrum Award for Outstanding Play.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Photos by Alex Brenner

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 ...
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...