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Showing posts with the label Oliver Hembrough

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False alarms: Diagnosis @finborough

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Nobody likes Cassandra, and like the Trojan princess who was given the gift of being able to see the future but cursed so that nobody would believe her, the woman at the centre of this piece could see into the not-too-distant future. She can see that disaster is about to strike. But she’s dismissed as a vulnerable, crazy lady who maybe had a bit too much to drink. This is the premise of “Diagnosis,” currently playing at the Finborough Theatre , written and performed by Athena Stevens.  You enter the Finborough under surveillance. The camera is pointed at the audience, and it soon becomes clear that we are somewhere in the not-too-distant future in London. A city where surveillance already abounds so we can capture all sorts of crimes taking place (albeit not in ultra-high definition).  In the future, every police station will record interviews with an audience with “vulnerable persons” involved. This is to ensure no police misconduct occurs. A police officer (Ché Walker) is in...

Bad stuff happens: Insignificance @arcolatheatre

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Insignificance at the Arcola Theatre takes four famous people from the 1950s and puts them in a hotel room. Is it a nostalgia piece or is there a deeper meaning? Written by Terry Johnson, it’s having its first revival in over twenty years. In the second act, the senator (meant to be Joeseph McCarthy) talks about how heroes, geniuses and stars serve as a convenient distraction. It’s also tempting to see parallels with the present day. Thirty five years ago it was the Reagan era and the threat of nuclear war from a trigger-happy b-movie actor-president. In the intervening years there have been desert storms, coalitions of the willing (with or without poodles). In the future maybe there’ll be a battle between little rocket man and the oversized Oompa Loompa. Horrible stuff happens. And the heroes, geniuses and the celebrities exist just to make us feel there’s hope.