Uplifting Storytelling
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini, adapted by Matthew Spangler
Nottingham Playhouse, and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, at Richmond Theatre until 27th March, then on tour until 6th July
Review by Viola Selby
Khaled Husseini’s bestselling debut The Kite Runner is a book filled with guilt, remorse, unspeakable cruelty, friendship and loyalty all interwoven in the history of the upheavals Afghanistan has gone through for over half a century. It is poignant and personable in so many ways and Matthew Spangler’s thorough adaptation masterfully manages to truly encompass this, staying as true to the novel as a theatre drama possibly can.
Read more…Pop with Snapple and Crack
Pop Music
by Anna Jordan
Teddington Theatre Club at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre until 16th March
Review by Steve Mackrell
It’s only rock ‘n roll, but it provides a rich soundtrack to the story of our lives. Pop Music, staged by the Teddington Theatre Club in the Coward Studio, has served up a stimulating evening of toe-tapping music and emotionally charged entertainment with intelligence, wit and poignant dramatic content. In essence, the play is a dialogue between two guests at a wedding reception, held in a local disco, and their subsequent recollections of their experiences, from early school life to middle-age, against a background of contemporary pop music.
Read more…Here’s Gold
The Lady or the Tiger
by Jeremy Paul, Michael Richmond and Nola York
Take Note Theatre at the Theatre at the Tabard, Chiswick until 23rd March
Review by Andrew Lawston
Based on an 1882 short story by Frank R. Stockton, The Lady or the Tiger seems an unlikely basis for a musical, at first glance. In a semi-barbaric kingdom, a hero must choose between two doors. Behind one is a lady he must marry, behind the other is a ferocious tiger.
Read more…Art, Tinted or Tainted?
Nachtland
by Marius von Mayenburg, translated by Maja Zade
Delman, Friedman at the Young Vic, Waterloo until 20th April
Review by Heather Moulson
Despite a striking set comprising sad paraphernalia from a deceased one’s home, an intricate design by Anna Fleischle, Nachtland is a play that initially seems deceptively simple. A sparring sister and brother, and his wife clear out their late father’s possessions with an air that gives the impression of a gentle comedy … until the speedy bleak turning point, the discovery of a painting with a signature allegedly of Adolph Hitler.
Read more…Outpourings on Tap
Stepping Out
by Richard Harris
Teddington Theatre Club, at Hampton Hill Theatre until 9th March
Review by Heather Moulson
Opening in the setting of an appropriately authentically atmosphere of a grim scout hall, the tap dance class in Stepping Out is rife with potential for tapping their souls as they tap their soles. Since its original production in 1984, the show has been updated with the use of smartphones, card machines and the shadow of COVID, but none of these hold anything back from the original text.
Read more…Arty Party
Art
by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton
OHADS at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre, until 2nd March
Review by Polly Davies
On a cold and wet night, the Studio at Hampton Hill Theatre was packed for the ever-popular Art by Yasmina Reza. First shown in translation from the French in London in 1996, the play has aged well, and this production, directed by Harry Medawar, is as sharp and witty as ever. A simple plot, three middle-aged men talking about their friendship in a series of conversations, comes alive as the convincingly played characters explore their shaky relationship with understanding and with some beautifully timed touches of comedy.
Read more…Mozart’s Flute Does Its Magic
The Magic Flute
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 30th March
Review by Patrick Shorrock
This was a very good revival of Simon McBurney’s splendidly theatrical 2013 production of The Magic Flute. As operas go, the Flute is a challenge to put on, making formidable technical demands of a large cast and requiring lots of changes of scenery.
Read more…Canvassing Opinions
Art
by Yasmina Reza
OHADS at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre, until 2nd March
Review by Steve Mackrell
Yasmina Reza’s articulate comedy, Art is very much an actor’s play, and raises intriguing questions about the nature of art and friendship. The plot concerns three long-term friends, Serge, Marc and Yvan. Serge has purchased an expensive painting which is basically a 4 x 5m white canvas with a few faint diagonal lines at the base. Proud of his purchase, Serge invites his friend Marc to admire the painting at which point their vastly different tastes in art become increasingly apparent. Battle lines are drawn once Marc dismisses the painting as “a piece of white shit” whence all pretence of civilised communication between the two men is laid bare. What starts as a minor disagreement over a painting develops into serious arguments which questions the very nature of their friendship. The civilised relationship between Serge, the modernist, and Marc, the traditionalist, degenerates into anger. Then, to try and reconcile their differences they turn to a mutual friend, Yvan, to mediate.
Read more…Nuclear Family
The Children
by Lucy Kirkwood
Putney Theatre Company at Putney Arts Theatre until 24th February
Review by Steve Mackrell
A plot which involves a retired couple of physicists and a disaster at a nearby nuclear power station are not subjects likely to inspire great enthusiasm for an evening of entertainment at the theatre. But the Putney Theatre Company’s production of The Children served up a fascinating play full of intelligence, comedy and challenging dramatic content.
This thought provoking and award-winning play, which opened at the Royal Court in 2016, was written by Lucy Kirkwood, whose other notable plays include Chimerica, NSFW and The Welkin.
Read more…Double or Quits?
The Circle
by W Somerset Maugham
Theatre Royal Bath Productions and the Orange Tree at Richmond Theatre until 24th February
Review by Mark Aspen
Do we learn from history? No, of course not. Can we learn from family history? Well, um, perhaps not. This second question is the premise of Somerset Maugham’s The Circle, written in 1921 in the reactionary aftermath of the Great War.
The term “dated” is annoying often applied to plays whose characters do not conform to today’s mores, which usually misses the point that these are works with much to teach today’s world. (Is Shakespeare dated? Is Aristophanes?) There is certainly much for today to learn in The Circle, including the inestimable value of marriage (from an author whose own short-lived marriage was almost a façade), and the multifarious emotions disguised in the word love.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 