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Love is all you need: The Island @cervantesthtr

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A drama set on the seventh floor of a non-descript hospital waiting room may not be everyone's idea of a great night at the theatre. But love and all other forms of the human condition are dissected in Juan Carlos Rubio's The Island. Translated by Tim Gutteridge, it feels like everything is up for grabs. What is love? Is it a bond between two women with a fifteen-year age gap? Is it the love between a mother and her son with a severe unknown disability? A wonderful life full of health and happiness is not always an option on the menu, and the choices may become a bit less palatable. Throughout a series of sometimes banal conversations, what comes out is a story of two women with lives that are separate and together. And while the piece becomes darker on one level as it progresses, it never ceases to fascinate and draw further insights into the couples. It's currently playing at the Cervantes Theatre .  A couple waits in a hospital waiting room for the outcome of an accident

Racing with the clock: Around The World In 80 Days @TheUnionTheatre

Around the World in Eighty Days at the Union Theatre is a youthful and energetic interpretation of Jules Verne’s novel. It’s silly and fun. And suitable for younger audiences over the holidays too. If you’re prepared to explain the scenes in an opium den and a rousing number about the virtues of polygamy. 

Travel can be exhausting. In this piece adapted by Phil Willmott and Annemarie Lewis Thomas, there’s little time to dwell on the adventure. And each stop seems livelier than the next.

No sooner as they stop in a particular city there’s a big song and dance extravaganza, expertly sung and executed. And then they’re off again.

But you get the gist of the story anyway. Even if you shouldn’t think too much about it. Phileas Fogg (Sam Peggs) wagers a bet with his fellow members of his club that he could travel the world in eighty days. With his French valet Jean Passerpartout (Connor Hughes).

Along the way they rescue a princess (Jasmin Minjoot) and get help from an English missionary Miss Fotherington (Ceris Hine). It’s a likeable and funny cast for the most part. 

There’s added peril with a pantomime villain in the form of Captain Fix (Robert Oliver). His attempts to thwart the race sit awkwadly with the rest of this adaptation. Maybe if the audience were given cues to boo and hiss (or throw tomatoes) it would make sense. And it’s a shame the strong vocals have to sing along to an underpowered keyboard accompaniment and weak backing track. 

Directed by Brendan Matthew with choreography by Mitchell Harper. Musical direction is by Henry Brennan. Around the World in Eighty Days is at the Union Theatre until 1 September.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

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