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A Man For All Seasons: Seagull True Story - Marylebone Theatre

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It's not often that you see a play that tells you not so much a story but gives you a sense of how it feels to be in a situation, how it feels to be silenced, how it feels to be marginalised, how the dead hand of consensus stifles your creativity. However, in Seagull True Story, created and directed by Alexander Molochnikov and based on his own experiences fleeing Russia and trying to establish himself in New York, we have a chance to look beyond the headlines and understand how the war in Ukraine impacted a a group of ordinary creatives in Russia. And how the gradual smothering of freedom and freedom of expression becomes impossible to resist, except for the brave or the suicidal. Against the backdrop of Chekhov's The Seagull, which explores love and other forms of disappointment, it presents a gripping and enthralling depiction of freedom of expression in the face of adversity. After playing earlier this year in New York, it plays a limited run at the Marylebone Theatre . Fro...

I see a river: The Fishermen @Trafstudios

 
A Booker-Prize nominated novel by Chigozie Obioma about families, vengeance and fate, is adapted into a two-hander play and currently playing at the downstairs space at Trafalgar Studios. It’s an intense, haunting and brisk adaptation by Gbolahan Obisesan of two men reunited after a tragedy.

A prophecy of foreboding trouble haunts four brothers living in a small Nigerian town. Two brothers, Ben (David Alade) and Obembe (Valentine Olukoga), secretly fish at a forbidden river along with their two older brothers. They risk both their lives and angering their father by fishing there. Until one day, they come across a madman who changes their lives permanently.

It opens with the two brothers meeting on either side of a riverbank. Some time has passed, and their reunion at first brings joy. And then takes a darker turn as family relationships, guilt and superstitions are remembered.

As the two storytellers, Alade and Olukoga bring humour and warmth to their roles as they portray a variety of characters. Even if you’re not entirely sure what you are seeing. Those familiar with the book may be on firmer ground. But the confusion doesn’t always distract from the journey.

It’s imaginatively staged by designer Amelia Jane Hankin. A real barrier of meandering sandbags and poles splits the stage becoming the divide. But it’s also the tools for fishing and much more.

Directed by Jack McNamara, The Fishermen from New Perspectives theatre company is at Trafalgar Studios until October 12.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


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