Secs and the City
London Wall
by John William Van Druten
Questors Production at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 20th July
Review by Andrew Lawston
The problem with plays based in offices is that they are very often written by people who have never, or rarely, worked in an office. John Van Druten’s play London Wall, focusing on the staff of a City law firm, benefits from the playwright having practised law for a number of years. The offices of Walker, Windermere & Co feel from the outset like a real business, and in many respects one which could still be running today with only a few upgrades to the office technology.
Throughout this lengthy play, the law firm’s business runs alongside the play’s narrative, as the cast of secretaries dash around Charles Dixon’s lavish recreation of a 1930s legal firm, with all its huge sturdy desks, paintings lining the walls, shelves stuffed with reference books, electric buzzers, and a single telephone.
Read more…Bedroom Farce
Dressing Gown
by Andrew Cartmel
Take Note Theatre and Thursday Theatre at the Theatre at the Tabard, Chiswick until 27th July
Review by Andrew Lawston
It’s the sound that everyone dreads in the morning – the doorbell ringing before we’re quite ready to face the new day. And so it is for Ash, the somewhat put-upon young theatre director who leads Andrew Cartmel’s new play at the Tabard Theatre, Dressing Gown.
Misunderstandings, innuendo, paranoia, and a parade of awkward but witty conversations ensue after producer Sheridan, or Dan, walks in on Ash in his dressing gown one morning and, eventually, accuses him of having an affair with the leading lady in the play they are working on, The Bearded Vulture. The leading lady in question being Dan’s own girlfriend.
Read more…The Boundless Bound
The Unicorn in Captivity
by Angelika May
in collaboration with Vertebra Theatre at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre, Kentish Town until 13th July, then at Theatro Technis, King’s Cross until 31st July
Review by Heather Moulson
With an effective introduction of lit-up objects being brought on stage during a blackout, and surrounding props covered by sheets, the lights go up on F, a fine art student in her final year. We also meet M, an acclaimed artist, his work driven by his mother’s death. The couple, who are on the cusp of a relationship, make the duvet and pillows at centre stage a significant focal point. With the surrounding pinned-up photos, the atmosphere is dark and interesting.
Under the consistent direction of Mayra Stergiou, and using the small performing space to its full potential on a set was designed by Eliza Podesta, the action is enhanced by Jack Hoban’s disturbing soundtrack and the sensitive lighting designed by Inigo Townsend.
Read more…Sins Sear
Accolade
by Emlyn Williams
Bill Kenwright Productions at Richmond Theatre, until 13th July
Review by Eleanor Lewis
A ‘beam me up Scotty’ moment isn’t quite what you expect to see opening Emlyn Williams’ 1950 play Accolade, but it does focus the attention and almost creates the idea of time moving on, or not.
Writer Will Trenting (Ayden Callaghan) lives comfortably in London with his wife Rona (Honeysuckle Weeks). As the wireless rings in the new year of 1950, he tells Rona he has been offered a knighthood. General jubilation and celebrations ensue, but this is not going to be as straightforward as might be hoped. Trenting has a predilection for orgies which he enjoys as and when he wants to, and with the knowledge and consent of Rona who has been aware of his habits from the day she met him. She finds him exciting without sharing that particular passion.
Read more…Not Waving but Drowning
The Drowning Girls
by Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson, and Daniela Vlaskalic
Teddington Theatre Club at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre until 6th July
Review by Andrew Lawston
Three white bathtubs sit in a row on a lino floor in Hampton Hill Theatre’s Noël Coward Studio, as Teddington Theatre Club prepares to do for the humble bath what Psycho did for the shower.
The Drowning Girls, by Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson, and Daniela Vlaskalic, tells the tale of three Edwardian women who were married, defrauded, and ultimately murdered by the same man.
As the ghosts of Margaret (Laura Eagland), Alice (Racheal Rajah), and Bessie (Martine Neang) each erupt, gasping, from their respective baths, and the audience receives a modest sprinkling of water. The lighting is stark and harsh, the actors are wearing make-up to make their faces pallid and their eyes look sunken, leaving us in no doubt that their characters are dead.
Read more…Action Replay
Prince/David
by Yasir Senna
Razor Sharp Productions at the Golden Goose Theatre, Camberwell until 6th July
Review by Heather Moulson
A lurid blood-red poster draws the audience into this great little theatre space on New Camberwell Road for the première of Prince/David.
The initial action is set in 1999, at a long-gone pub restaurant in Ealing, where ‘Robert’, posing as a hot-shot modelling scout, online endorsements not being so visible then, offers a lifeline to Amber Da Costa, a hopeful young model. We know this will turn sinister very quickly.
Then, another drama starts with an old-school detective, DC Harewood being dismissive of the young PC Lisa Stecklen and her leads. While an authentic newsreel plays behind them, he orders the new recruit to make the tea.
Read more…Sharp Shards
One Million Tiny Plays about Britain (A Selection)
by Craig Taylor
Richmond Shakespeare Society, Junior Actors Company at the Mary Wallace Theatre, Twickenham until 23rd June
Review by Quentin Weiver
The task of reviewing one million plays in one evening is a daunting prospect for even the most experienced drama critic. Hence it was quite a relief to find that 999,972 of them had been cut for this production, leaving a hand-picked selection for RSS’s cast of young teenagers to get their thespian teeth into.
One Million Tiny Plays about Britain aren’t quite plays, or playlets, or even sketches, but are epigrammatic snippets, the sort of thing you overhear on the top of the Clapham omnibus, that make your ears prick up. They are tiny twists in the tail, but without the tail. These may be fragments but they are sharp fragments, with the cutting edge of everyday wit.
Read more…Essex Spells
The Magic Flute
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder
Wild Arts, the Essex Summer Opera Festival, at Layer Marney Tower, Essex until 23rd June, then on tour until 22nd September
Review by Mark Aspen
Mozart was of course a bit of a rebel. Die Zauberflöte was more or less the last opera he wrote before his untimely death in 1791 and this, his The Magic Flute, could be seen as a final act of rebellion. It was a fairy tale with a lot of spoken dialogue, rather than grand opera. It was written in German, not the courtly Italian, the language in which almost all his previous operas (apart from those he composed as an adolescent) were written. It moved away from the grandeur of Emperor Joseph II’s court, towards the showman Emanuel Schikaneder. It was not premièred in the imperial heart of society Vienna, but in the Freihaus Theater, in the definitely down-market Wieden district of Vienna, near the Wurstelprater, a public amusement park, still there today as the Prater.
It seems fitting then that Wild Arts is presenting its production of The Magic Flute in English, away from the grand opera houses in London, in the far-flung ends of Essex where the landscape dissolves in a web of rivers and estuaries. Not that Layer Marney Tower is down-market; far from it. It is a handsome grand Tudor manor house. This is country house opera in a charming location and at its most delightful. On what seems to be belated opening days of summer, the ambience of white lawn tablecloths and green lawn swards leading the eye across the wide visas of the Blackwater estuary and going on for ever, is enchanting.
Read more…Ass You Liked It
Drop the Dead Donkey: The Reawakening!
by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin
Hat Trick and Simon Friend Entertainment at Richmond Theatre until 22nd June
Review by Heather Moulson
Despite this clever and controversial comedy being off our screens since 1998, the original cast energetically bounce back onstage. What time lapse?! Yes, the actors show their age but they still retain their vibrant wittiness, with all their characteristics firmly in place as if they had never left us. Drop the Dead Donkey, directed with intricacy by Derek Bond, has returned in its Reawakening!
A well-written script unravels each much-loved character to welcoming applause. Starting with Jeff Rawle as the gentle George grappling with a sophisticated coffee machine. Then the laddish Neil Pearson as Dave, a reformed former gambler, who has more to reveal in the gender neutral toilets! They both admit to being headhunted. The odious Gus, played by the wonderful Robert Duncan comes on and gleefully takes all the credit.
Read more…Operatic Artistry
National Opera Studio with English National Opera
National Opera Studio at Cadogan Hall, Chelsea, 11th June
Review by Susan Furnell
In captivating evening of rising stars, the National Opera Studio presented a spellbinding showcase featuring gifted young vocalists performing alongside the Orchestra of the English National Opera (ENO).
The National Opera Studio (NOS) trains young musicians over a nine month period to become the leading artists of their generation. NOS works closely with six of the leading opera companies in the UK. In addition to a bespoke coaching programme, the young artists work closely with leading directors, conductors and six leading UK opera orchestras to prepare opera scenes for public performance.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 