Focus and Humour in Perspective
Sense and Sensibility
by Jane Austen, adapted by Jessica Swale
Putney Theatre Company at the Putney Arts Theatre until 24th June
Review by Vince Francis
I haven’t visited Putney Arts Theatre for a while now, and thus welcomed the opportunity to have a look at Putney Theatre Company’s production of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility.
Sense and Sensibility was Jane Austen’s first novel, originally published anonymously in three volumes in 1811, which offers a commentary on middle-class society and, particularly, the position of women in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. However, such a dry summary does a disservice to the intricacies of the plot and the detailed observation of characters, hierarchies, and social mores, not to mention the wit, which became Austen’s particular trademarks.
Read more…West End-side Story
West End Showcase
Dramacube Productions, at the Wonderville Theatre, Haymarket until 18th June
Review by Sadie Williams
I’ve regularly enjoyed Dramacube shows at the Cecil Hepworth Playhouse in Walton and at Hampton Hill Theatre but there was a little extra prestige about the latest production which was being staged at London’s Wonderville Theatre.
The Wonderville Theatre is just a stone’s throw from His Majesty’s Theatre, currently home of Phantom of the Opera, and opposite The Theatre Royal Haymarket. Competition for a full-house was always going to be tough but this was no problem for the Dramacube cast with every seat taken.
Read more…Mid-Strife Crisis
Veiled
by Annabel Miller
Blend Productions at the Studio, New Wimbledon Theatre, 14th June
Review by Brent Muirhouse
Regardless of the fact it was one of the warmest days of the year so far, entering a sold-out performance amidst packed seating at the New Wimbledon Theatre for a new play unequivocally indicated that Veiled was certainly a hot ticket. What it didn’t necessarily indicate was that writer-performer Annabel Miller’s solo performance would also light up the stage; but within a few clever, incisive, and keenly relatable lines of dialogue, the rapturous audience attested immediately to its true quality.
Read more…No Time to Choose
On the Beach
(Part One of The Contingency Plan)
by Steve Waters
The Questors at the Studio, Questors Theatre, Ealing until 17th June
Review by Polly Davies
On the Beach is part of a double bill under the collective title of The Contingency Plan playing in the Studio at Questors until June 17th. Originally performed in 2009 it has been tweaked a little to make the references to current events topical. Set over the same time-period, with an overlap of characters, the two plays show very different perspectives on the same events. Under David Emmet’s direction what they share is the ability to shock. Steve Water’s plays are not a simple polemic about climate change, but the relentless progression of its effects is the theme than unites them. Whilst Resilience is as much about political inertia as about an impending disaster, On the Beach uses that inevitability as a family drama, the explanation of a lifetime of disengagement.
Read more…No Small Change
Resilience
(Part Two of The Contingency Plan)
by Steve Waters
The Questors at the Studio, Questors Theatre, Ealing until 17th June
Review by Polly Davies
A bright sunny Sunday afternoon is not the best preparation for a matinee performance of a play about climate change, but David Emmet’s direction and the excellent characterisation of the ensemble cast meant that I was engrossed in the story within minutes of the start. The crisis at the heart of this play is real, and the play gives a credible foretaste of what climate change could mean in practice here in the UK.
Read more…Heir Raising
Mitridate, re di Ponto
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Vittorio Amedeo Cigna-Santi after Jean Racine
Garsington Opera, at Wormsley, Stokenchurch until 2nd July
Review by Mark Aspen
Brattish princes, pining princess, warring kings and musical fireworks, Mitridate, re di Ponto has it all, but then a young Mozart was trying to make an impression.
Famously Mozart wrote Mitridate when he was only fourteen, but this was by no means his first. He had been writing opera and singspiel before he has ten years old, and had had at least five pieces staged by the time Mitridate premiered at the Teatro Regio Ducale in Milan, on Boxing Day 1770, conducted by … Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Mitridate tangles overlapping love triangles in the royal family of the eponymous Mitridate (Mithridates), King of Pontus; dangerous but even more so during a time of war, when Pontus was fighting Rome in 63BC. Sibling rivalry hits in with a vengeance, as two princes clash on political, military and familial loyalties, ramping up almost to the point of literal internecine warfare. Moreover, the brothers vie for the affections of one lady, the Queen apparent … their father’s fiancée! There are rumours that the King has been killed in battle, so another emotional instability is added to the mix.
Read more…Stepping Out
One Last Waltz
by Luke Adamson
JLA Productions at the Bridge House Theatre, Penge until 17th June
Review by Denis Valentine
One Last Waltz is a play that takes a real look into the world of Alzheimer’s and how its onset can affect not only the person suffering from it, but also those around and close to them as well.
Writer and director Luke Adamson along with director Joseph Lindoe have done a fine job in creating a theatrical piece around a serious and sad topic, but injecting it with enough humour and plain modern-day recognisable realism that audience members can still find joy and hope in what they are seeing from the characters in front of them.
The first two characters introduced to the audience are Alice (Judy Tcherniak) and her daughter Mandy (Janna Fox) who, we learn in the first part of the play, hope to go on a trip to Blackpool to relive some old memories and help the process in grieving for Alice’s recently deceased husband.
Read more…Breaking Free
Cry Freedom
compiled by Anne Warrington
Poetry Performance at Hampton Hill Theatre, 4th June
Review by Michelle Hood
This pot pourri of poems, prose and folk songs, compiled and produced by the indefatigable Anne Warrington, under the generic title of Cry Freedom, was a one-off production at Hampton Hill Theatre and presented by the local Teddington group Poetry Performance. This was a brave and ambitious venture for the group, aimed at helping to bring their work to a wider audience, and judging by the full auditorium on a sunny Sunday afternoon, their mission was completely successful. In hiring Hampton Hill Theatre, this happy band of poets, together with help from friends, were able to showcase their talents by bringing two hours of excellent entertainment to the stage in front of an appreciative audience.
Read more…Rice Pudding, Lord Byron, and Tortoises
Arcadia
by Tom Stoppard
The Questors at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 10th June
Review by Andrew Lawston
Past and present collide, complement, and inform each other in an assured new production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia at Questors Theatre in Ealing.
In 1809, Septimus Hodge attempts to tutor Thomasina Coverly, deflecting her uncomfortable questions about “carnal knowledge” to the mathematical conundrum of Fermat’s Last Theorem. It emerges that Thomasina has heard of “carnal knowledge” via gossip concerning Septimus’s dalliances with another guest at Sidley Park, Mrs Chater.
The poet Ezra Chater arrives, challenging Septimus to a duel. Septimus outfoxes the poet smoothly by praising his new book, resulting in the poet signing the tutor’s advance copy.
Read more…Internal Conflict and Unshakable Belief
Murder in the Cathedral
by T.S. Eliot
Richmond Shakespeare Society at St Mary’s Parish Church, Twickenham until 3rd June
Review by Brent Muirhouse
Any play that starts with a single supersonic scream at a pitch a common pipistrelle bat would be frightened by, is a play that immediately grabs attention. This is exactly the beginning of the Richmond Shakespeare Society’s staging of Murder in the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot’s play that explores the final days of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, leading up to his assassination in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 