Sub Rosa
The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Questors Youth Theatre at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 28thFebruary
Review by Polly Davies
Alex Marker’s audacious adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s much loved children’s novel proved to be a perfect way to showcase the talented members of the Questors’ Youth Theatre. The amuse bouche performance by the younger members of this group provided plenty of reassurance that there is a good supply of talent and enthusiasm in the wings of this youthful theatre company.
As a fan of the novel, I had doubts that this story could be successfully adapted for the stage, and the promise in programme notes of a large cast including three Marys was worrying. But in practice this device worked extraordinarily well. Eloise Pringle, Advika Nair and Annabelle Dee were convincing as they showed the different emotions Mary experienced as she adjusted to the move from a privileged but emotionally bare life in India to the unfamiliar large gloomy house in Yorkshire. The play, as in the novel, is an overwhelmingly positive one, demonstrating that loneliness and unhappiness can be transformed by embracing nature and friendship. The story charts this journey. Mary is seen in India, virtually forgotten as a cholera outbreak devastates her neglectful family and the servants in their household who had looked after her. After a brief sojourn with a clergyman’s family, she is shipped back to a reluctant uncle in remotest Yorkshire. While still in India her loneliness is emphasised by the way a chorus of children taunt her. This chorus is a recurring theme whenever she is at her most vulnerable.
Back in Yorkshire her uncle, sympathetically played by Sean Keogh-Smith, is still in deep mourning after the death of his beautiful young wife; the household is organised around this grief and their preoccupation on the news of the arrival of an orphaned niece is how to contain the disruption. A stellar performance by Charlotte Green as Mrs Medlock, the harsh, but sympathetic housekeeper, showcased the work of Dotti Lawson, as Dialect Coach. Hats off to the whole cast whose accents throughout were pitch perfect. To this southerner Charlotte’s Yorkshire accent was perfect, as was that of Billy Adcock, Noa Eloise Archer, and Noah Christi whose accents were suitably broader as gardener, housemaid and village lad. These three befriended Mary and showed her the beauty of the nature around the house, and slowly the allure of the plants and the animals to be found in the garden calmed and softened her character. In turn her friendship with her sad and sickly cousin brought him up from happiness and joy. Orton White made Colin’s recovery seem credible, and there were some lovely cameos by members of the ensemble as porters, servants, a clergyman-valet, doctor, and Martha’s mum.
The multi-talented Alex Marker directed this play at a fast pace and, although the story is a happy one, there was plenty of tension all through as the children’s discovery of joy in what was a forbidden garden, was so at odds with the mood of the household, there was always a risk of discovery and disapproval. I really enjoyed the processions of laundry maids, who made such a convincing show of a busy household, and from the odd bits of Yorkshire dialect thrown in were clearly part of the working members of the house. Out in the garden puppeteers brought birds and animals to life.
Alex’s set design was inspired. A few wooden frames serving convincingly as doors or corridors. Living pictures told their own stories, plinths provided a space for ghosts to come and go to remind the living of significant events in the past, and the turntable gate into the secret garden worked without a hitch. The combination of a complex, frequently and rapidly re-arranged set, scurrying laundry maids, a chorus that could turn into a train when needed, and a fast-paced plot must be a director’s nightmare, but the superbly disciplined young actors were faultless and the pace meant the story could retain its nuance.
Young voices don’t always carry so well and so I was glad to be there on an evening when captions were shown on the side. But excellent lighting and sound, costumes that convincingly turned young actors into weathered gardeners, sophisticated ladies, and village kids completed an enchanting evening.
Polly Davies, February 2026
Photography by Jamie Gould
French Leave
Fallen Angels
by Noël Coward
Teddington Theatre Club at the Hampton Hill Theatre until 28th February
Review by Heather Moulson
Fallen Angels was an unexplored part of the Noël Coward canon for me, so what might unfold? We were welcomed into a splendid and stylish flat in London, with intriguing alcoves and a tantalising glimpse of a room behind the door. Directed in charming detail by Mandy Stenhouse, who has an impressive background with Teddington Theatre Club, the production presented a nice use of the space and its dimensions and, with its tasteful twenties décor, opened up for us a window into 1925.
A postcard, a blast from the past, disrupts the married lives of friends Julia and Jane. As a result, we watch their composure unravel as they recall a former French lover . . . the same French lover. Their husbands off for the weekend, the women are thrown into turmoil with anticipated telephone calls and passionate memories. With intermittent and profound advice from Saunders, the new maid, played wryly by Isabelle Crean, and the use of the splendid grand piano and enchanting music and vocals, we follow their difficult journey.
Read more…Dark Chocolate
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, book by David Greig after Roald Dahl
BROS Theatre Company at Richmond Theatre until 21st February
Review by Heather Moulson
After a vibrant opening with the classic song Candy Man, sung by Nick Moorhead as the iconic confectioner Willy Wonka and backed by an impressive chorus, we concentrate on Charlie Bucket. This ambitious and colourful musical featured (for this particular performance) Anthony Eckley-Majercak as Charlie.
Charlie lives in extreme poverty with his overworked mother and elderly grandparents. The young boy has longed for a golden ticket to get to Willy Wonka’s fabled factory. Tash Willis’ clear singing voice, playing Mrs Bucket, makes the sadness of their situation all the more poignant. The hardy, witty, long-suffering stoical oldies, Grandpa Joe (Nigel Cole) and Grandma Georgina (Deb McDowell), and Grandpa George (Steve Taylor) and Grandma Josephine (Faye Brann) provide the encouraging background to Charlie’s life. A humorous touch by the dubious fruit seller Mrs Green is nicely paced in by the likeable Clair Jardella, who shows a business-like affection for Charlie.
Read more…Deep Currents
The Seafarer
by Conor McPherson
Putney Theatre Company at the Putney Arts Theatre until 21st February
Review by Harry Zimmerman
There are currently a bewildering plethora of musicals, and one person shows, for the curious theatregoer to choose from these days.
It is, therefore, refreshing to encounter a more traditional piece, with an innovative story, combining humour and pathos, (with more than a sprinkling of the supernatural), that is well performed and holds the attention throughout its two hours.
This is what we have with Putney Arts Theatre’s resurrection of Conor McPherson’s The Seafarer. First performed at The National Theatre in 2006, the play followed McPherson’s acclaimed hit The Weir and, whilst sharing some of the constructs of its more famous predecessor, it stands up extremely well in its own right as a beautifully observed and nuanced exploration of the bonds of friendship, family, love, pain and loss. In short, a whisky-soaked allegory of the way in which long repressed guilt can creep up and threaten to overwhelm every aspect of life.
Read more…Fire Guard
The Bodyguard
by Lawrence Kasden, music by Chris Egan, book Alexander Dinelaris
Crossroads Live at the New Wimbledon Theatre until 21st February, then on tour until 29th August
Review by David Stephens
Last night’s performance of The Bodyguard at New Wimbledon Theatre arrived carrying a considerable weight of expectation. Any review of this story inevitably risks drifting toward comparisons with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner, whose performances in the original film have become culturally iconic. Their portrayals remain etched in popular memory, and the soundtrack in particular has achieved legendary status. The challenge, therefore, is to judge the stage adaptation on its own theatrical merits rather than through the lens of cinematic nostalgia. Encouragingly, this production makes that task far easier than expected. Through subtle narrative adjustments, performances that forge their own interpretations, dynamic staging and an unwavering commitment to high-energy spectacle, it confidently establishes an identity distinct from its film predecessor.
Read more…Wit’s End
I’m Sorry, Prime Minister
by Jonathan Lynn
Barn Theatre Production at the Apollo Theatre, West End until 9th May, then on tour until 18th July
Review by Mark Aspen
Arriving rain-soaked, in tourist-trap seedy Shaftesbury Avenue, via disrupted rail and tube journeys, just in time for curtain-up, might seem not to create the right atmosphere to see a much-hyped comedy. Yet somehow, it is just right for I’m Sorry, Prime Minister, a pertinent caricature of what is outside the theatre, of all that is wrong with present day Britain. Laughter is the panacea. It’s the banana skin effect, guilty laughter gleaned from vicarious pain.
The much-loved Yes, Prime Minister TV series of the nineteen-eighties is given a new shot-in the-arm by its co-creator, Jonathan Lynn, now writing solo (the late Antony Jay died a decade ago), bringing its two priceless main protagonists back from retirement.
The two characters find themselves in a world far more treacherous than twentieth century political government, circumnavigating the not-so brave new world of culture wars and identity politics.
Read more…All the Fun of the Fair
Così Fan Tutte
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 21st February
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Just how hilarious an opera Così Fan Tutte is supposed to be remains an open question. Two men attempt to seduce one another’s lovers for a bet, because they are convinced of their faithfulness, and get a rude awakening from their romantic illusions – or perhaps, more accurately, a taste of their own medicine. This sounds like a recipe for something witty, ironic, and funny, but the music is so intense and so magnificent that it never quite feels like a joke, even in Act One when everyone is either pretending or bigging up their emotions for effect.
Previous generations rejected the piece as immoral because the lovers experiment with other people; or as an affront to the romantic spirit because everyone goes back to their original partners at the end. Nowadays, there are concerns about the extent to which it might be sexist: whilst the men in it certainly are, it remains much more ambiguous whether the opera itself is. The men are excessive in both their idealising and denigration of their women and have no self-awareness as they collude in the destruction of their own illusions, oblivious that they are applying a double standard and are just as unfaithful as the women whose loyalty they discover is not absolute. These days, there seems something quite healthy and sensible about the 18th Century view that you can’t completely trust anyone because everyone is fallible and needs a bit of forgiveness.
Read more…Who’s Who
Practically Imperfect
by Clare Norburn
The Telling at the OSO Arts Centre, Barnes until 15th February, then on tour until 20th March
Review by Claire Alexander
Whilst PL Travers did write other books she is by far and away known for her Mary Poppins series — perhaps even more so because of the enormous success of the Walt Disney film of the same name — its rights acquired by Disney in 1962. As an author primarily known for one work that has become a household name she is in good company: Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird) Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights) Boris Pasternak (Dr Zhivago) JD Salinger (Catcher in the Rye) to name a few.
Clare Norburn’s play Practically Imperfect starts from the premise of what might have happened if Travers had met her heroine, or indeed if her heroine had met Travers. Thus starts a clever engaging dialogue between the two and you begin to wonder who’s in charge, Mary Poppins or Travers. Part biographical and part psychological exploration of what happens when an author becomes controlled and overtaken by her creation of a character that is far bigger than herself, this is a thought-provoking and interesting reflection on quiet, frumpy PL Travers, and her larger than life creation.
Read more…A Marriage Made in Hell
Dance of Death
by August Strindberg, adapted by Richard Eyre
OT Productions at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond until 7th March
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Samuel Butler once wrote: “It was very good of God to let Carlyle and Mrs. Carlyle marry one another and so make only two people miserable instead of four.” Alice and Edgar, the awful unhappy couple in Strindberg’s Dance of Death, would clearly find the Carlyles lamentably unambitious, as they take turns to make mincemeat of Kurt, who is Alice’s cousin and Edgar’s friend, and who is unwise enough to pay them a visit.
We are told that the servants (understandably) have abandoned this nasty couple to their own devices, and that their neighbours avoid their company as much as possible (I don’t blame them). This comes across as a sardonic joke by Strindberg at the audience’s expense, as we have the misfortune to be shut in a darkened theatre with Edgar and Alice for two hours (albeit with a fifteen-minute interval). Will Keen, as Edgar, gives a wonderfully detailed portrayal of toxic militarism that is mixed with strokes and fainting fits that he seems able to deploy at will. Lisa Dillon plays Alice unhammily as a confused blend of frustrated attention-seeking retired actress addicted to manipulation, an oppressed woman damaged by patriarchy.
Read more…Things That Go Bump
2:22 — A Ghost Story
by Danny Robins
Runaway Entertainment at Richmond Theatre, until 7thFebruary
Review by Harry Zimmerman
It is fair to say that 2.22 – A Ghost Story has a legitimate claim to being one of the most successful plays in British Theatre over the last five years. The statistics are impressive. Since its 2021 debut, it has played regularly across the UK and Ireland. The show has been seen by over one million people in seventeen different countries across five continents. It holds the all-time record for the most transfers in the West End and has been nominated for three Olivier awards. This particular production is its fourth extensive UK-wide tour.
Continually refreshing and resetting itself for UK tours and London residences, the play has also been instrumental in catapulting its writer, Danny Robins, to a pre-eminent position in what may be termed populist ghost broadcasting. Robins is the creator and host of the tremendously successful radio, TV and podcast show Uncanny, which investigates creepy paranormal experiences sent in by the general public. Uncanny is the ideal listening companion late at night, if you are that way inclined.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 