Owls and Howls Taunt Aunt
Awful Auntie
by David Walliams, in a stage adaptation by Neal Foster
Birmingham Stage Company at Richmond Theatre, until 12th May
Review by Heather Moulson
A young girl’s bedroom forms the deceptively simple setting, where the (quite literally) awful Aunt Alberta makes an effervescent entrance in her splendid tartan suit. There is no messing around with Auntie, she makes her motives clear from the start.
Neal Foster, who has a natural gift of comedy, plays the eponymous harridan, Aunt Alberta, the flamboyant focus of this stage version of the children’s book Awful Auntie from the pen of one of Britain’s best-known comedians. Foster is also the adaptor and co-director, an ambitious task carried out skilfully and successfully.
Read more…Solitude Sometimes Is
The Slaves of Solitude
by Simon Roberts, adapted from the novel by Patrick Hamilton
The Questors at the Questors Studio, Ealing until 11th May
Review by Andrew Lawston
There’s nothing in the shops, people keep asking if your journey is essential, people with unpleasant political opinions just can’t keep quiet, and the Prime Minister’s voice is everywhere. Thankfully we’re not back in lockdown. Rather, the Studio at Ealing’s Questors Theatre is whisking us away to the beer-sodden wartime world of Patrick Hamilton’s novel The Slaves of Solitude, courtesy of a new adaptation by Simon Roberts.
In 1943, the fictional commuter town of Thames Lockdon, spinster Enid Roach endures a miserable winter at the Rosamund Tea Rooms, among a motley cross-generational assortment of people displaced by the war. She has a half-hearted romance with an American GI who takes his meals at the boarding house, enjoys a fractious friendship with her rival Vicki Kugelmann, and clashes with the pompous Mr Thwaites.
Read more…Caught Courting
Consent
by Nina Raine
Teddington Theatre Club at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre until 4th May
Review by Heather Moulson
Against a traditional court-panelled backdrop, a party of four close friends celebrate the arrival of a new baby. Kitty and Edward’s union appears watertight, while Jake and Rachel’s partnership is brittle.
Read more…Heaven Scent
The Lovely Bones
by Bryony Lavery, after the novel by Alice Sebold
Putney Theatre Company at Putney Arts Theatre until 27th April
Review by Denis Valentine
It is always a challenge for a show that has been adapted from not only an award-winning book but also a film to stand comparison. What the Putney Theatre Company has accomplished here with The Lovely Bones is nothing short of a triumph and fully deserves to be recognised as a top tier piece of theatre.
Read more…You Can Run, but You Can’t Ides
Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
Questors at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 4th May
Review by Andrew Lawston
Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s more political plays, and its themes of the perils of populism and corruption make it particularly resonant in our own charged political age. On the Judi Dench Playhouse stage, a young student falls asleep while reading and apparently dreams a five act tragedy.
From Alex Marker’s stark set design adorned with two marble benches, to the militaristic costumes designed by Carla Evans, Caesar’s Rome is unmistakably fascist, as its elite stride around in medal-laden uniforms, and faceless police officers beat and abduct protestors on the street. Caesar himself is played with great relish by Max Fisher and comes across as a mixture of Mussolini, Don Corleone, and Juan Peron. It hopefully shouldn’t be a spoiler to note that the actor playing Caesar needs to get a strong performance in early, and Fisher delivers a portrayal large enough to cast a long shadow over the events of the second half.
Read more…Pink Power
Legally Blonde, the Musical
by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, book by Heather Hach, based on the novel by Amanda Brown
TOPS Theatre Company at the Hampton Hill Theatre, until 27th April
Review by Polly Davies
I enjoyed the film of Legally Blonde. It didn’t strike me as an obvious choice for a light-hearted funny musical, but I have been converted by the TOPS production of the Laurence O’Keefe and Neil Benjamin musical at Hampton Hill Theatre. This convinced me that I was wrong. A light, fluffy and funny musical wrapped around a life affirming message to be true to yourself. It worked at all levels. The band was good, the dancing was great, the funny bits were funny, and the message wasn’t lost. It was a fun evening. And the costume designer Lynn Hume really deserves a shoutout. With so much story to cram into two acts the audience needs to know whom we are dealing with, and the costumes were just right.
Read more…Trip of a Lifetime Goes with a Bang
Bonnie and Clyde, the Musical
by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Don Black, book by Ivan Menchell
Adama Entertainment and associates at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking until 27th April, then on tour until 26th October
Review by Mark Aspen
Rat-ta-tat-tat! The startling opening of Bonnie and Clyde, the Musical, as the proscenium is sprayed with machine-gun bullets, overwhelming with its noise and disorientating strobe flashes, is a self-inflicted spoiler. It goes straight to the climax, the violent deaths on 23rd May 1934 of a notorious, yet celebrated pair of murderous lovers. Nevertheless, this works superbly dramatically, notching up the intensity and the inevitability of the tragic tale. After all, most of audience will know the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow through the acclaimed, but controversial, 1967 film.
Read more…Green Moor
Othello
by William Shakespeare
Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Mary Wallace Theatre, Twickenham until 27th April
Review by Celia Bard
The Richmond Shakespeare Society has provided an enthralling and sincere retelling of that classic story of Shakespeare’s, Othello. The themes of jealousy, revenge, racial intolerance, uncontrolled anger, murder, sinister manipulation, toxic masculinity are central to the play and these different themes are well exploited and presented in this production. Basically, the play is about sexual jealousy and how one man, Iago, can convince another, Othello, that his wife, Desdemona, whom he loves dearly, has been unfaithful when she hasn’t. Desdemona’s only crime, if you can call it that, is that she radiates happiness to all those she encounters, especially Cassio, and thus she opens herself up, like a lamb to the slaughter. Iago is quick to exploit this aspect of Desdemona’s behaviour in his desire to take revenge on Othello, partly because of the latter’s decision to promote Cassio to the rank of lieutenant over the more experienced Iago.
All the actors in this production play their parts well, successfully portraying the range of emotions necessary to pull off this challenging play. Maxina Cornwell as Brabantia, the mother of Desdemona, is just splendid. Although only appearing in the opening scenes, she establishes the atmosphere for the rest of the play in which many of the themes mentioned above are explored. Cornwell’s stage presence and acting skills are a joy to watch.
Read more…Bye Jove!
Semele
by George Frideric Handel, libretto by William Congreve
Richmond Opera at Normansfield Theatre, Teddington until 21st April
Review by Susan Furnell
Nestled away on an unlikely campus in Teddington, lies one of London’s best kept secrets – an absolute treasure of a Victorian theatre. The Normansfield Theatre was completed in 1879 and has been recently restored to its full glory and grandeur and is the venue for Richmond Opera’s 2024 offering, the musical drama, Semele, by Handel.
Above the elevated stage hangs a curtain from a proscenium arch, flanked by resplendent gilded paintings. With dimensions more akin to a church than a theatre, our eyes are taken first upwards to the lofty beamed wooden ceilings and then back along the vast walls resplendent in red and pale brick patterns and panel portraits who try to make eye contact with us to tell us secrets of a bygone era, and to hint at the magic that will unfold when the curtain rises and the patiently sitting twenty-strong musicians in the Baroque orchestra lift their gaze attentively to the conductor awaiting the first beat.
Read more…Boxing Love
Little Boxes
by Joann Condon and Leonie Simmons
Alphamum Productions at the New Wimbledon Theatre Studio until 27th April
Review by Heather Moulson
As an intriguing array of boxes awaits onstage, the soundtrack of the namesake song by Malvina Reynolds percolates the snug space. Although a childhood favourite, it has taken me a long time to see its irony. But as Joann Condon’s autobiographical gem, Little Boxes unfolds, telling of her life and times, stage career and career stages, its clarity breaks through.
In a one-person show, that is very detailed even down to the pronunciation of her first name, Joann Condon creates an intimate atmosphere, as she shares her past and present with honesty and candour. She tells how she was compartmentalised, particularly her being the ‘fat’ fourth sister, and her resigning herself to that label. This was before finding inner sanctum in drama classes and finally embracing her true potential.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 