Growing Bold Graciously
Allegra
byPeter Quilter
Thomas Hopkins Productions and SAMS Entertainment at the Theatre Royal, Windsor until 20th June, then on tour until 8th August
Review by Gill Martin
HEALTH ALERT: National Treasure and Grande Dame of the Theatre Maureen Lipman has succumbed to an acute case of Tourette’s.
Not the rude, sweary tic type, but the saccharine sweet nice-as-pie version that sees her bursting into uncontrollable singing mode. Wherever. Whenever. The butcher’s, the baker’s, the crimper’s, the Indian eaterie, the petrol station. Probably the undertakers wouldn’t be out of bounds to this enthusiastic song thrush and star of Peter Quilter’s new work Allegra. It’s a part comedy, part musical, part fantasy with a pinch of social commentary.
Read more…Death Us Do Part
La Bohème
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
The Grange Festival at The Grange, Northington, Alresford until 11th July
Review by Mark Aspen
La Bohème has something of an impressionist feel about it, with its poetical hints at time, place and way of life. It’s premiere in Turin in 1896 was at a time when in France the likes of Monet, Sisley and Pissarro were making their mark in the art world. In this revival production of French director, David Geselson’s La Bohème, other artists make an entirely different impression. Delacroix, Goya and even Turner are dragooned in to make points about French politics of the Nineteenth Century. We see projected images that seem totally irrelevant. The subject of Delacroix’s Massacre at Chios is in Greece, Goya’s The Third of May in Madrid, and Turner’s The Slave Ship is in the Atlantic Ocean!
Surely, La Bohème, Puccini’s sine qua non tear-jerker, is a romantic tragedy, not a political polemic. Although Puccini set the opera at the end of 1830, the year of the July Revolution, in which the restored King Charles X was forced to abdicate, the setting merely indicates a time of shortage and of instability. (At one point in the opera, the impoverished bohemian friends pay mock homage to the image on the only coin they possess, the image of the new constitutional monarch Louis Philippe, the “Citizen King” the last scion in attempts to restore the monarchy . . . but that is all.)
Read more…Over the Moan
It’s A Funny New Game
by Mark Keegan and John Random
Barry Mousetrap the Canal Café Theatre, Paddington until 12th June
Review by Lottie Walker
The World Cup has just started, so the timing for this short run at the Canal Café Theatre of It’s A Funny New Gameis perfect; and what a fun hour it is!
Writer and actor Mark Keegan has devised a suitably silly sketch show to counteract any opportunity the beautiful game might have to take itself too seriously. (Heaven forbid!) The premise of Barry Moustrap, unreconstructed football manager and author (there is a real book to purchase online) hosting an evening about his life and times give ample opportunity for a sideways look at some of the superstars of the game, memorable moments of yesteryear and, of course, divine intervention as provided by David Hicks’ St. Atto – Patron Saint of Statisticians.
Read more…Gripping Nineties Suspense
Dead Guilty
by Richard Harris
Take Note Theatre at the Tabard Theatre, Chiswick until 27th June
Review by Andrew Lawston
We’re back to the mid-90s at Chiswick’s Tabard Theatre tonight, in the house of Julia, a freelance graphic designer from the days when cutting and pasting still meant exactly that, despite the equally nostalgic chunky computer monitor on the desk.
Julia has recently been in a car crash, after her employer John Haddrell suffered a fatal heart attack at the wheel. She is convalescing, undergoing various operations on her leg while working from home. She’s visited by Gary, a young local man who cleans and gardens for her (Julia’s “Daily Male”), as well as by Anne, her counsellor. In pain, depressed, and irritable, Julia mostly just wants to be left alone, as anyone who’s ever worked from home can surely appreciate at the best of times, but there is a particularly nervous edge to her irritation.
Read more…For Richer or Poorer
The Marriage of Figaro
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte after Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais
Wild Arts Summer Opera Festival at The Layer Marney Tower, Essex until 7th June, then on tour until 27th September
Review by Mark Aspen
It is a clear recognition of the quality of Wild Arts productions, that such a new opera company was chosen by one of opera’s superstar singers for her stage directing debut. Danielle de Niese’s career has spanned the world’s greatest opera houses for over three decades, and she was already singing at New York’s Metropolitan Opera whilst still a teenager. (And four years earlier, she had been singing with the Los Angles Opera.) Whether it be London’s opera houses, La Scala, Le Palais Garnier or Sydney Opera House, Danielle de Niese will have sung there. And, of course Glyndebourne is her base, both her artistic home and family home.
Bringing the verve and energy of the performers together under Wild Arts power-house, the inspired conductor Orlando Jopling, its founder and artistic director, and with the inspiration of the inimitable Danielle de Niese, Wild Arts forges a piece that is a pure triumph.
Read more…Top Class
Teechers
by John Godber
The John Godber Company at the Reading Rep Theatre until 13th June
Review by Sam Martin
John Godber’s Teechers has long held a special place within British theatre; its combination of sharp social observation, infectious humour and deep affection for education ensuring its enduring popularity. This latest production by the John Godber Company at Reading Rep demonstrates precisely why the play continues to resonate still, decades after its premiere. Cleverly updated for a contemporary audience, this version retains the spirit of the original while weaving in references to modern school life, creating a production that feels both nostalgic and strikingly relevant.
Read more…Harder Hit
The Shawshank Redemption
by Stephen King, adapted by Owen O’Neil and Dave Johns
Bill Kenwright Ltd at Richmond Theatre until 6th June
Review by Eleanor Marsh
There is a fashion for adapting successful movies into stage plays and musicals. The West End is flooded with such shows and without doubt some of these adaptations work better than others. It feels at times that there are no new ideas and so it was with some trepidation that I waited for the curtain to go up on The Shawshank Redemption.
The stage adaptation of the movie (itself an adaptation of Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption) was first produced in 2009, before the current infatuation with such things and is all the better for it. There is no pretence that this is anything other than a theatrical piece from the moment the curtain literally goes up on Gary McCann’s set. King’s story lends itself well to the medium and this production is both stylised and grounded in harsh reality.
Read more…Through a Mirror Darkly
Black Comedy
by Peter Shaffer
Orange Tree Productions at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond until 11th July
Review by Eleanor Lewis
The description ‘drawing room farce’ is outdated in 2026, it being quite some time since women did any withdrawing to specific rooms leaving the men to do whatever they did after dinner. Black Comedy, however, has such an air of vintage charm that you couldn’t really describe it any other way.
Known for his more famous work Equus, a dark, psychological drama exploring the nature of obsession and trauma (to hugely oversimplify it), Peter Shaffer’s range of talent was clearly not limited to serious drama. Black Comedy is both something of a surprise, and an impressively skilled piece of comedy farce which is very entertaining
Read more…Sunshine Brought to Heatwave
Eric and Ern
by Ian Ashpitel and Jonty Stephens after Eddie Braben
Martin Clarkson and The Production Garden at BEAM, Hertford until 29th May, then on tour until 20th December
Review by Steven Roberts
Should you go to see Eric and Ern expecting to find out about the off stage lives of Morecombe and Wise, loves and events, then this is not the show for you.
What we are treated to is an evening of nostalgia and celebration of the lives of arguably two of the greatest comedy partnerships this country has ever known. And what a celebration it is, played out by Jonty Stephens (Eric) and Ian Ashpitel (Ern) with great affection and joy.
Even before the performance begins, the presence on stage of the famous red curtain, the sofa and coffee table, the double bed and the window, to be replaced by a grand piano for the second half, set the scene perfectly. This performance was to be all about the Morecambe and Wise TV shows of the late 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, mostly written by Eddie Braben, that many of us, of a certain age, grew up and fell in love with.
Read more…No Country For Old Ministers
I’m Sorry, Prime Minister
byJonathan Lynn
Barn Theatre Productions at Richmond Theatre, until 30th May, then on tour until 1st August
Review by Andrew Lawston
As London swelters in record-breaking May temperatures, it is something of a relief to enter the wintry world of I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, not to mention the air-conditioned auditorium of Richmond Theatre.
Classic sitcoms have proved to be a rich vein for theatre in recent years, with stage versions of The Good Life, Only Fools and Horses, and Fawlty Towers all finding a ready and enthusiastic audience. By comparison, Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister feel like a much more obvious candidate for stage adaptation. The original television version was particularly studio-bound, with lengthy character scenes and a small central cast.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 