More than Just More
A Man for All Seasons
by Robert Bolt
Theatre Royal Bath and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions, at Richmond Theatre until 15th March
Review by Claire Alexander
It feels as though it has ‘come home’, as Jonathan Church’s honest, confident, absorbing production of A Man for All Seasons ends its short (and only too southern) tour in Richmond (London). The many references and locations on the Thames between Chelsea and Richmond, and beyond to Hampton Court, will be very familiar to local audiences, giving the play an added meaning to the historical context.
Read more…Party Walls
The House Party
by Laura Lomas
Chichester Festival Theatre and Headlong at the Rose Theatre, Kingston until 22nd March
Review by John Davies
It is Julie’s 18th birthday party. She and her friend Christine are waiting for the others to arrive. It’s the calm before the storm. Christine is being driven to Cambridge later that evening with her boyfriend Jon, in preparation for an interview for a place at the University. But Julie has other plans and what unfolds is an alcohol-fuelled power-play of sex and class, as she seeks to manipulate Christine and Jon to suit her desires.
Read more…Cherry Nettles
Cruel Intentions, The 90s Musical
by Jordan Ross, Lindsey Rosin and Roger Kumble
Bill Kenwright Ltd at the New Wimbledon Theatre until 1st March, then on tour until 28th June
Review by Thea Diamond
Being someone who hasn’t seen the 1999 cult-classic film that this musical is based on, nor any of the multiple adaptions of the origin story, the 1782 French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, I was in for a quite surprise and a reminder to take the small print seriously. This jukebox musical came with an age guidance of 15+ and had trigger warnings of “strong language, and mature themes including, but not limited to, explicit sexual language and behaviour, racial discrimination, drug usage, abuse, accidental death, question of consent”.
Read more…Bel-Canto Bomb-Burst
The Capulets and the Montagues
by Vincenzo Bellini, libretto by Felice Romani
English Touring Opera at the Hackney Empire, 22nd February and on tour until 26th April
Review by Mark Aspen
The intrepid photojournalist Letizia Battaglia kept a live record of the atrocities of the violently uncompromising Sicilian Mafia during the 1970’s in her “archive of blood”. It is these raw photographs that inspired director Eloise Lally’s production of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, entirely unlike the soft flowery balcony pictures that we associate with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Both Bellini and the Bard draw their sources ultimately from a 1524 novella by Luigi da Porto and both flesh out the same skeleton, but in different ways. Bellini (with a nod towards an 1818 Italian play by Luigi Scevola) has no Nurse, for there is no comedy here, and all the early hostilities that inflame the rivalry between the Capulets and the Montagues have already happened.
Read more…Once Bitten
The Shark is Broken
by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon
Sonia Friedman and Kenny Wax Productions at the Richmond Theatre, until 22nd February, then on tour until 17th May
Review by Denis Valentine
The Shark is Broken takes place in the unique setting on the film-set making Jaws in 1974, where it depicts the day to day life and times of the film’s main three (human) actors (Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw). The show takes a good look into the human experience and condition from three different perspectives, in a quite surreal situation. There is plenty of banterous dialogue between all three, but also poignant and reflective moments from all three, which makes for a fun-filled and intriguing ninety minutes witnessing people trying to stay sane and normal in quite a bizarre situation.
Read more…Lockdown Hoedown
Here You Come Again, the Dolly Parton Musical
by Bruce Vilanch, Gabriel Barre and Tricia Paoluccio, adapted by Jonathan Harvey
Simon Friend Entertainment at the New Wimbledon Theatre until 22nd February
Review by Thea Diamond
Written by Bruce Vilanch, Gabriel Barre (who also directs) and Tricia Paoluccio (who also stars as Dolly herself), Here You Come Again is truly a memorable night out, even for someone such as myself who felt quite the imposter surrounded by diehard Dolly fans. I only knew a handful of her best known songs, but was left humming the hits and tapping my toes, despite being transported back nearly five years to the upheaval at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (including the weekly ritual of banging pots and pans for the keyworkers).
Read more…Jaws that Bite, Claws that Snatch
Alligators
by Andrew Keatley
Putney Theatre Company in the Studio at Putney Arts Theatre until 22nd February
Review by Polly Davies
Andrew Keatley’s Alligators is a tough but rewarding watch. The programme rightly contains a few trigger warnings about the adult themes and language that are an intrinsic part of the play. The intimate setting of the Studio pulls the audience into the deftly constructed comfortable domestic living room. Children’s toys scattered on the rug, a baby photo on the bookshelf, furniture and pictures suggest a happy middle-class family home. A TV on the wall ingeniously shows the passage of time as Daniel and Sally find their predictable world increasingly turned upside down.
Read more…Couldn’t Bear to Miss
The Koala Who Could
by Rachel Bright, adapted by Emma Earle
Nicoll Entertainment at the Rose Theatre, Kingston until 23rd February, then on tour until 2nd September
Review by Steve Mackrell
“Koala bears live upside down in Australia and eat eucalyptus leaves” announced my eight-year-old grandson with great authority as we went along to the Rose Theatre, Kingston to see The Koala Who Could. “Told you so” he said proudly afterwards, and indeed he was right.
This children’s show, adapted from the best-selling book of the same name written by Rachel Bright, with illustrations by Jim Field, was first published in 2016. The author, who incidentally studied at Kingston University, has written over thirty children’s books, selling well over eight million copies with translations running into some forty languages. Indeed, a stage version of her previous best-selling children’s book, The Lion Inside, was successfully presented at the Rose Theatre last year. Seemingly, her colourful stories are expanding to cover an ever-increasing menagerie of different animals which, so far, have included lions, koalas, squirrels, pandas, camels and wolves. So, next up, perhaps a production of her squabbling squirrels’ story?
Read more…Scots on the Rocks
Mary, Queen of Scots
by Thea Musgrave, libretto by the composer after Amalia Elguera
English National Opera, in co-production with the San Francisco Opera, at the London Coliseum until 18th February
Review by Mark Aspen
The political elite of Scotland are in hostile conflict with each other and with cousins south of the border; there is infighting within the various factions; the people are restless and volatile; and bubbling away in the background religious enmities find violent expression.
This may all sound very contemporary, but here Scotland is not ruled (tenuously) by the SNP, but (tenuously) by the royal dynasty of the House of Stuart. It is not today, but the mid sixteenth Century, although the setting is distinctly modern.
Read more…Shakespearian Chocolate Box
What Dreams May Come
by various composers, words by William Shakespeare
English Touring Opera at the New Diorama Theatre, 15th February and on tour until 25th April
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Valerina Ceschi’s collection of Shakespeare’s song settings provides lots of food for thought and an opportunity to showcase some impressive talents. It displays broad musical range. Just to mention the most famous names, we have songs by Henry Purcell, Thomas Arne, Gerald Finzi, Amy Beach, Joseph Haydn, Benjamin Britten, and Franz Schubert. It was probably a forlorn hope that these fragments, wrenched from their original context, could all be reassembled into a jigsaw that was musically and dramatically coherent. But what fun to try and break out from the obvious concert format.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 