Propensity to Propriety
Cranford
by Lin Coghlan and Shaun McKenna, based the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell
Orange Tree Productions at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond until 16th January 2027
Review by Gill Martin
Curtsies and candlelight, frills and flounces, bonnets and bows.
The Orange Tree Theatre’s show for the Christmas season is a perfect period choice: Elizabeth Gaskell’s beloved novel Cranford, re-worked with warmth and humour.
We meet the Victorian women of this Cheshire town, mainly spinsters and widows, all with their own baggage of bereavement, love lost and thwarted desires. There isn’t a dry eye in the house . . . but mainly through tears of laughter.
Read more…Lost and Flound
I Can See the Sun
by Tania Khan
Light The Night Theatre at the Hope Theatre, Islington until 21st November
Following a year-long development process supported by ArcolaLAB, Light the Night Theatre presents a revised version of I Can See the Sun at the Hope Theatre in Islington, a cosy place above the famous Hope and Anchor pub. Taking its inspiration from Dante’s Divine Comedy, this is an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful production which left me bemused about its purpose and content.
With the action set in the ‘dark woods,’ the small fifty-seat black-box theatre has been transformed into a forest, complete with autumnal leaves, trees and branches, and eerie lighting from the ‘blood moon’. The design makes excellent use of the intimate space and succeeds in creating a convincing atmosphere.
There is an unusually long introduction to the play, during which a variety of music is played at considerable volume before the lights finally begin to dim. It is then that we meet a mother and daughter who have become lost in the woods after their car breaks down on a trip to IKEA, having mistakenly taken a wrong turn at Goole. For much of the opening section, the audience sits in darkness listening only to their conversation, before the lighting gradually reveals the dusky woodland setting, the two women and their bag of IKEA shopping. I’m not sure, even now, why the two women left their car and walked through a wood but nevertheless, it gives a good spooky setting for their ‘adventure.’
Read more…Home and Away
That Face
by Polly Stenham
Putney Theatre Company at the Putney Arts Theatre Studio until 14th November
Review by Heather Moulson
In the compact Putney Arts studio theatre, seated as an avenue, we look onto a minimal set just of a bed. This focal point, and the only scenery, impresses with its versatility, symbolism and incipient emotion. It is in a very tight and intimate space. An array of props are packed underneath, including cigarettes, clothes and coffee mugs, apt implements for what follows in the intense ninety-minutes of That Face.
There the play begins as a powerful tableau with Mia and Izzy, two older schoolgirls, who have tied Alice, a third year girl, to the bed in a bullying ritual and initiation. Then something goes terribly wrong. In a powerful performance, these girls are portrayed as disturbed and arrogant.
Read more…Exchanged at the Exchange
Poetry Together
by Gyles Brandreth
Dukes Education at the Exchange Theatre, Twickenham, 11th November
Preview by Heather Moulson, in conversation with Gyles Brandreth
On a wet Remembrance Day morning, we went to Twickenham’s Exchange Theatre not knowing what to expect. However, sitting in the Exchange’s vast auditorium, along with roughly four hundred schoolchildren, we were cued in immediately by the insightful poet Kate Wakeling in a fascinating poetry participation. Interacting within the audience’s age range of eight to eleven year-olds, we were drawn together and the generation barrier was broken down.
The basic concept of Poetry Together is to encourages younger and older communities to connect and recite poetry together . . . over tea and cake. The sharp edge of the project takes schools into care homes throughout the country.
It was a great privilege therefore to have the opportunity to speak to the founder himself, Gyles Brandreth. We immediately asked him about the origins of Poetry Together. Gyles, a very amiable poetry lover, told us he was inspired by the benefits for the old and young people that poetry brought. Being very aware of the decline in enjoyment in reading amongst children, they put this project together some ten years ago.
Read more…20th Century Boy
The Hired Man
book by Melvyn Bragg, music and lyrics by Howard Goodall
Luck Penny Theatre at St James’s Church, Hampton Hill until 7th November
Review by Andrew Lawston
Back in 1984, prolific composer Howard Goodall teamed up with the equally prolific broadcaster and author Melvyn Bragg, to create an award-winning musical adaptation of Bragg’s 1969 novel The Hired Man, a dramatised account of the life of his grandfather in early 20th century Cumbria. Now, Luck Penny Theatre has mounted an impressively ambitious revival.
For one week only, St James’s Church in Hampton Hill has been transformed into a theatrical space, complete with a thrust stage down the aisle, tiered seating, and a bar which is, brilliantly, selling beers from Jennings Brewery, “the taste of West Cumbria”. Their Cumberland Ale is a personal favourite so this was a welcome refreshment as well as a stroke of marketing genius. The production is also supported by the Royal British Legion, and poppies decorate the church, foreshadowing the darker turn of the show’s second act.
Read more…Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps
Speculations On the Unexplained Deaths of Several American Icons
by Torben Betts
Wild Yak Productions at the Marylebone Theatre until 17th January 2027
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Torben Betts’ new play covers very well-trodden ground with the deaths of Marilyn Monroe and John F Kennedy. Whether journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Robert F Kennedy also have icon status, as implied by the title – several suggests more than three – is less clear. It’s an interesting and well-constructed piece, even if it doesn’t contain very many shocks and surprises, and its approach is low key and nuanced rather than full-on melodramatic.
It presents three long conversations, regularly moving between them, which maintain the dramatic pace. It is aided by Lee Newby’s brilliant set with its three revolves, which enable rapid transitions from Dorothy Killgallen’s study-sitting room, to Marilyn Monroe’s bedroom, to a New Orleans bar where mobster Carlos Marcello is plying Lee Harvey Oswald with whiskey.
Read more…Fascination in Physicality
Six Lethargies : Preview
In The Rehearsal Room
BalletBoyz at the BalletBoyz Studio, Kingston, 3rd November
Preview by Heather Moulson
I felt a sense of great privilege to be invited to a rehearsal by BalletBoyz, the remarkable contemporary dance company now in its 25th year, founded by the innovative Michael Nunn and William Trevitt.
Welcomed by the company into a stunning studio space, I sat there with awe witnessing incredible talent choreographed by Iván Pérez and Seirian Griffiths. Eight dancers, three girls and five boys, gave an intensive preview of their major new work, Six Lethargies, which has its world première at Sadler’s Wells later this month. I will be there on the first night!
Read more…Warmth With Steel
Tosca
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
English National Opera at The London Coliseum until 11th December
Review by Claire Alexander
Puccini’s Tosca has never lacked for drama, but English National Opera’s new production gives the familiar thriller a fresh political urgency. Directed by Annilese Miskimmon, her concept relocates the setting from Napoleonic Rome to an unnamed European state on the brink of conflict, with much of the opera unfolding in and around a bland concert hall. The concept underlines the opera’s enduring themes of artistic freedom, state repression and personal sacrifice, while leaving Puccini’s white-hot emotional core intact. As audience we are greeted with a cavernous brutalist concert hall of a set which contrasts stunningly with the elegance of the London Coliseum. Although the setting is an ‘unnamed’ state one cannot help but see the parallels to a Soviet state in the Cold War, or perhaps a rather more current conflict from the same region. This theme extends to the nicely observed costuming designed by Evie Gurney.
Read more…Soft Seeds of Nostalgia
Soho Songs
music by Mike Lindup, lyrics by Barb Jungr
Cahoots Theatre Company at Wilton’s Music Hall, Whitechapel until 24th October
Review by Ravenna Vale
There is something inherently theatrical about Soho. For generations, this small square mile of London has existed as a place of contradiction: glamorous yet seedy, cultured yet chaotic, and perpetually caught between its colourful past and an increasingly polished present.
Soho Songs, performed by cabaret artist Barb Jungr at Wilton’s Music Hall, attempts to capture the spirit of this ever-evolving neighbourhood through music, storytelling and a generous helping of nostalgia. The result is an engaging, occasionally moving, evening that celebrates Soho’s lost character, even if its approach sometimes feels more familiar than innovative.
Read more…Mad Jesty
The Madness of King George III
by Alan Bennett
Putney Theatre Company at the Putney Arts Theatre until 24th October
Review by Denis Valentine
Putney Theatre delves into the summer of 1788 with its production of Alan Bennett’s The Madness of King George III. Using the large cast and great resources available, the company has managed to create a show that has a great blend of emotion, comedy and tragedy. This all the while weighted under satirical nature of Bennett’s work, the piece and its cast offer audiences an interestingly entertaining look and reflection on this time in British history.
As the titular character King George, Peter Singer is stretched to portraying a great range of different emotions and conditions and manages to handle them all with good guile and energy. His performance garners sympathy and, as the obvious linchpin of the play, his performance keeps everything on track and skilfully allows for the different storylines and branches to play off the events befalling the King.
Read more…
