Cupid Caught in Web
Strategic Love Play
by Miriam Battye
Paines Plough at The Soho Theatre until 23rd September, then on tour until 21st October
Review by Brent Muirhouse
The staging of Strategic Love Play immediately plays a strong hand and invites the audience to study the awkwardness of first date realities in 2023 from a full 360 degrees. Much like a world filled with multitudes of algorithms attempting to match and pair couples, we analyse the habits, reactions, and subtleties of sentences of the two characters – here named simply as ‘Man’ and ‘Woman’ – around which the play’s narrative quite literally revolves.
Read more…He’s My
About Bill
by Bernie Gaughan, music and lyrics by Matthew Strachan
Take Note at the Theatre at the Tabard, Chiswick until 9th September
Review by Claire Alexander
We never meet legendary trumpeter Bill Fitzgerald (fictitious it would seem – I can’t find him on google – but in the image of the memorable jazz musicians of the mid-twentieth Century), but his presence pervades the stage throughout the performance of About Bill. Written by Bernie Gaughan and music and lyrics by Matthew Strachan, it is an evocative and poignant musical drama of Bill’s life seen through the perspective of the many women in his life, from the schoolgirl crush, to the flawed romance with the recovering addict in his later years.
Most impressive is that Kim Ismay (for whom I understand the piece was written) plays all the women with absolute verve and versatility.
Read more…High Quality Ditchwater, But Still Dull
Céphale et Procris
Music by Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, libretto by Joseph-François Duché de Vancy
Ensemble OrQuesta at the Arcola Theatre, part of the Grimeborn Festival, until 2nd September
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was the first woman to write a French opera, which makes her a perfect candidate for Grimeborn. Her opera is certainly no worse than those written Rameau – and sometimes better – but there is no getting away from the fact that French opera at that time was pretty stiff and stilted. The libretto is dreadful, starting with an allegorical prologue in praise of Louis XIV and never recovering, as all the characters, whether divine or human, do everything in their power to thwart the love of Céphale and Procris. They eventually succeed by convincing each of the lovers that the other is unfaithful, with the result that he accidentally kills her with an arrow. Othello it ain’t.
Read more…Bacon But-Nots
How to Be Jewish Again
by Gillian Fischer
GFO at The Hen and Chickens Theatre, Highbury until 24th August
Review by Heather Moulson
In her one-woman show, writer-broadcaster-actress Gillian Fischer is urged to reconnect with her Jewish roots. After following a passion for bacon, Gillian wanted to revert to Judaism. However, after research with a slideshow, despite the vast number of people converting to Judaism, people reverting back to their Jewish faith was zero! In How to Be Jewish Again, we share her hilarious uphill climb.
Born to Jewish parents in Glasgow, and a former blonde, Fischer talks about her family moving to Israel when she was seven. At eighteen, our heroine did military service, drove a tank, and was presented with a bible. By life choices, Fischer grew away from her religion.
Read more…Extreme Opera @ Turandot Com
Turandot
Music by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, based on a fable by Carlo Gozzi
The Opera Makers and Ellandar at the Arcola Theatre, part of the Grimeborn Festival, until 26th August
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Puccini’s Turandot is extreme opera in every sense. It’s an astonishing score that blends orientalist chinoiserie with an Italian lyricism that has been twisted out of shape by erotic obsession and affronts conventional tonality every bit as much as the Tristan chord. And the lead roles are, if anything, even harder to sing than Wagner. On top of that, they are both monsters in their own way: Turandot, in response to an act of rape thousands of years ago, insisting on the slaughter of men who want to marry her if they fail to answer her riddles; and Calaf – so obsessed with getting Turandot to love him, after he has answered her riddles – that he is prepared to endanger the life of his father and his devoted servant by offering himself up for execution if she can find out his name. Was it any wonder that Puccini was unable to complete the opera and failed to provide the overwhelming love duet that might provide some kind of rationale for their behaviour?
Read more…Many Twixt
Slippery When Wet
by Leanne Devlin
at the Barons Court Theatre until 2nd September
Review by Denis Valentine
Slippery When Wet is a one-woman show written and performed by Leanne Devlin with Emma Copland directing. The main story of the show centres around a young woman’s flirtation and desire to date a character known simply as Love. Within the show, the theme takes a look at the modern-day trials and tribulations that the 2023 dating world can bring. Audience members are treated to watching Devlin’s character navigate obstacles of a relationship formed on Instagram and held together by things such as the latest Tik-Tok dance and waxing trend.
Read more…Double Time
The Portrait of Manon
by Jules Massenet, libretto by Georges Boyer translated by Lindsay Bramley
L’Heure Espagnole
by Maurice Ravel, libretto by Franc-Nohain translated by Lindsay Bramley
Opera Alegría at the Arcola Theatre as part of the Grimeborn Festival until 26th August
Review by Patrick Shorrock
This is a delightful evening of two French rarities, perfect fare for the discerning opera anorak. The Portrait of Manon, Massenet’s one act sequel to his earlier five-act opera Manon, is stuffed with musical reminisces of its predecessor, a piece full of gorgeous arias and duets that provide wonderful opportunities for the best singers, but hazards in plenty for those whose technique and vocal control is not immaculate. I have wonderful memories of Valerie Masterson and John Brecknock – both marvellous in the ENO production of Manon in the 1980s.
Read more…Unbridled Fun
The Two Horsemen
by Liam Brennan and Tom Jacob-Ewles
The Camden Fringe at The Aces and Eights until 23rd August
Review by Brent Muirhouse
Despite their show’s name hinting otherwise, The Two Horsemen, part of the Camden Fringe at the gloriously fun Aces and Eights certainly wasn’t half an improv act performance missing the same number of stallions once over, but rather one with the horsepower befitting of a Porsche Carerra, careering through comic highways and running purely on quick wit and joyous absurdity.
Plenty of gimmicks, and a loose theme staged around the fame-hungry nature of one of the pairing, create a narrative stable in which a range of improvised sketches and scenarios are played out. We’re introduced to the medieval ‘tavern circuit’ of the improv scene by an emcee who purportedly has the bubonic plague and, some sneeze-related gags aside, we’re told that Liam (Liam Brennan) and Tom (Tom Jacob-Ewles) are legends of the (admittedly very niche) scene.
Read more…Mambo Italiano
Wife Material
by Heleana and Sophia Blackwell
Heleana and Sophia Blackwell at The Camden People’s Theatre until 19th August
Review by Heather Moulson
Dressed in vintage glamour, married couple Sophia and Heleana shoot straight from the hip. Anyone expecting a cosy ideal of marriage are soon brought up short, as we are drawn into niggles, bad habits, duvet covers and lockdown. Both skilfully draw on their Italian and West Indian roots, with hilarious results, in their slickly devised show, sharply directed by multi-award winning comedian Maria Shehata.
Read more…Watch Out
Scavengers
by Bryan Oliver
Urban Wolves Theatre Company at The Etcetera Theatre until 20th August
Review by Brent Muirhouse
Strolling into Scavengers, in the deceptive and darkened staging of the Etcetera Theatre, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d taken wrong turn and trespassed into somebody’s dwelling. Sitting there at a table, fiddling between make-up and mobile, sits Zeb, who is acting in no particularly remarkable way, yet is about to take centre stage in Bryan Oliver’s new play at The Camden Fringe, which offers an exploration of human survival in a post-apocalyptic world with more than one moment being closer-to-reality than you’d hope.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 