Dashing
The 39 Steps
by Patrick Barlow, after John Buchan
Fiery Angel at Richmond Theatre until 6th April, then on tour until 3rd August
Review by Harry Zimmerman
I knew that we were in for an unusual night when, a full three quarters of an hour before the performance, the audience were milling around the beautiful façade of Richmond Theatre, casting admiring glances at a vintage racing car, (identical to the models that graced my very first Scalextric set when I was a young lad), as it was hoisted into position outside the theatre entrance, offering unusual selfie opportunities. Upon entering the auditorium, a selection of jazz and big-band classics from the 1930s further helped set the mood.
Read more…(Part) Finger Food
Bull and Cock’s Pies
Richmond Theatre until 1st April
Review by Avril Sunisa
The problem with being a standby drama critic is you sometimes get requests for reviews at short notice. The perk is that sometimes exclusive press performances come your way. (Alas, in my case usually once a year.) However, I was not expecting a telephone call in the small hours of a bank holiday. 2024 is however is unusual in its concurrence of Easter and the clocks being altered.
This was my excuse for not being at my most alert at 5am (or was it 4am; or 6am; which way do the clocks go in the spring?). Of course it could have my overdoing the chocolate eggs or overindulgence in the succulent lamb that Margaret, the crofter’s wife up at Killin, had given me on my pre-Easter trip to Perthshire, or more likely the excellent bottle of Hannay’s Canadian Whiskey.
There was so much crackling on the line that I thought the piggery down the road was on fire, so the detail was difficult to catch. “A review”, I thought the voice said, of “spatchcock’s pies”.
Read more…Roaring Success
The Lion Inside
by Sarah Punshon, after the story by Rachel Bright and Jim Field, music and lyrics by Eamonn O’Dwyer
Rose Original, Nicoll Entertainment, Curve, MAST Mayflower, and Unicorn Theatre co-production at the Rose Theatre, Kingston until 14th April, then on tour until 29th August
Review by Steve Mackrell
Another school break providing yet another challenge for parents to conjure up some Easter entertainment to distract their youngest from holiday boredom. A helpful diversion could well be the stage adaptation at Kingston’s Rose Theatre of the popular best-selling children’s book The Lion Inside, written by Rachel Bright and Jim Field and first published in 2015. It’s a simple story of a meek mouse and a strong lion and how even the smallest of us can overcome adversity and find our true voice.
Read more…Meeting Pointed
Appraisal
by Tim Marriott
Take Note Theatre, Epsilon Productions and Smokescreen Productions at the Theatre at the Tabard, Chiswick until 13th April
Review by Andrew Lawston
As popular office humour puts it, meetings are the practical alternative to work. Team meetings, interviews, catch-ups, one-to-ones, board meetings, committee meetings, follow-up meetings, pre-meeting meetings, and of course annual reviews and appraisals. Even the biggest fan of meetings – which mostly take place on company time and generally involve sitting down and eating biscuits, after all – would have to admit that they are ripe for satirical exploitation.
Tim Marriott’s one-act play Appraisal takes no prisoners, lampooning corporate newspeak and office culture, while also exposing the vicious attitudes that can lie beneath contemporary office politics, disguised with smooth words and passive-aggressive posturing.
Read more…Chocolate Tears
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics Scott Wittman, book by David Greig after Roald Dahl
Dramacube Productions, Twickenham Purple B Cast at Hampton Hill Theatre until 23rd March
Review by Gill Martin
It’s a recipe for success. Toe-tapping live music, exuberant ensemble, hilarious comedy characters, crackling script and….chocolate. You couldn’t pack more scrumptious calories into one production without inducing a diabetic fit.
Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Willy Wonka, the crazy character imagined in Roald Dahl’s internationally famous novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, no doubt inspired by his boyhood job as a taster for Cadbury, when he fantasised about working in a chocolate inventing room. For chocoholics – and there were few exceptions in this pre-Easter sweetie-chomping audience – this was irresistible entertainment.
Read more…Come Again
Private Lives
by Noël Coward
Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Mary Wallace Theatre until 23rd March
Review by Celia Bard
Some ninety-four years ago Private Lives by Noël Coward was selected as the play for the opening of the new Phoenix Theatre in London, with the stellar cast consisting of Noël Coward himself, Gertrude Laurence, Adrianne Allen and Lawrence Olivier. It is commonly accepted that Coward wrote this play specifically for Gertrude Lawrence, the couple often being described as soul mates
Read more…Castle of Despair
Duke Bluebeard’s Castle
by Béla Bartók, libretto by Béla Balázs
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 23rd March
Review by Patrick Shorrock
ENO’s current season comes to a brilliant and triumphant end, despite its lack of support from the mean-minded Arts Council. How a company, that so thoroughly meets the Council’s own criteria of excellence, inclusion and diversity, fail to be properly supported by it remains a mystery. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that it hates opera for being expensive.
Bartók’s bleak one act masterpiece is well performed by ENO, without a follow up piece to lighten the mood and prevent the audience from slitting its wrists. Its sheer intensity means that we don’t end up feeling that we have only had half an opera, any more than we do after Salome or Elektra, but you do end up leaving the Coliseum feeling rather depressed.
Read more…Masked Ball Bounce-Back
Scandaltown
by Mike Bartlett
Putney Theatre Company, at the Putney Arts Theatre until 23rd March
Review by Heather Moulson
What can be said about a restoration comedy that sits comfortably with reality shows, iPads and make or break social media?! Simply that it is an irresistible piece of writing, and that the cast of twelve are bold, colourful and outrageous. The farcical humour and rhyme is wickedly funny.
Read more…Clove Hitch and Two Hand Knots
Double Feature
by John Logan
Hampstead Theatre Original at Hampstead Theatre, until 16th March
Review by Heather Moulson
A quaint country cottage is the quirky backdrop for two very significant moments in film history, focussing on four iconic players in the industry. Two stories are seen as two separate encounters in one rustic living and kitchen area, bringing to mind Alan Ayckbourn’s How the Other Half Loves.
The concept is a very ambitious step, but is pulled off beautifully. We are flies on the wall as Tippi Hedren and Alfred Hitchcock, and Vincent Price and Michael Reeve confront demons and other misdemeanours in the same limited space, during filming of two historic productions. These icons share more than just the physical set, itself an intricate installation designed by Anthony Ward and with atmospheric lighting by Hugh Vanstone.
Read more…Ironing Out Problems
A Most Pressing Issue
by Tim Harris
Harris-Williams Partnership at the New Wimbledon Theatre until 16th March
Review by Denis Valentine
For anyone looking for a show that bounces along as more of a British sitcom-esque piece with high slapstick and clowning, then A Most Pressing Issue has those elements in abundance, but for anyone expecting a more classical dramatic play then this is not quite it.
The essential premise of the show is that Prison Warden Penton played by Tim Harris (also the show’s writer) is in his office on a particularly trying day, with his assistant Orly (Matt Williams). Harris and Williams have a great comedic air about them and really inject a familiar Blackadder-ish style into their performances (Harris being the famous titular character with Williams as a Baldric/Percy type). They both play off each other well and each make the most out of their set pieces, whether it be high clowning moments or the use of song and a guitar.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 