Good, Old-fashioned Entertainment
Heartbreak House
by George Bernard Shaw
Rhinoceros Theatre Company, at the Hampton Hill Theatre until 3rd June
Review by Andrew Mayot
Described by its author as “a fantasia in the Russian manner on English themes”, Heartbreak House was written by George Bernard Shaw during the First World War, and it was intended to say something about what Shaw termed “cultured, leisured Europe before the war”. The script was published in 1919 and, in a preface, Shaw stated that he had been unable to find a West End manager willing to produce the play, not on grounds on quality, but because there was virtually no demand for “serious drama” during the conflict. Curiously the play was first staged, in translation, at Vienna’s Burgtheater in November 1920 after the American premiere was postponed because of concern that it might influence the presidential election.
Read more…Splash of Cold Fear
The Incident Room
by Olivia Hirst and David Byrne
BCP and Wild Duck Theatre, at Kitson Hall, Barnes until 3rd June
Review by Harry Zimmerman
“I’m Jack. I see you are still having no luck catching me. I have the greatest respect for you, George, but Lord, you are no nearer to catching me now than four years ago when I started.”
West Yorkshire. 1977. A sixteen year old schoolgirl is brutally murdered. Her death is linked with five similar fatal attacks. The chilling description of “The Yorkshire Ripper” is coined by the press, and will dominate the headlines for the rest of the decade. The murders perpetrated by Peter Sutcliffe left an indelible mark on the national psyche and the perennial coverage by the media at the time compounded the pressure on the police, who, operating out of the cramped Millgarth Incident Room in Leeds, became the central focus of the biggest manhunt in Britain.
Read more…Ghostly Delights
2.22, A Ghost Story
by Danny Robins
Runaway Entertainment at the Apollo Theatre, West End until 17th September, then on tour until 25th May 2024
Review by Andrew Lawston
From A Christmas Carol to the works of M.R.James, via Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, it is notable that many of the most enduring ghost stories are now period pieces, full of sputtering gas lamps and other Victorian or early Twentieth Century trappings.
In this respect, 2:22 A Ghost Story is a breath of fresh air. The play takes the staple ghost story setting of an old Victorian house in which an old widow has spent long years grieving for her husband, and instead shows a contemporary family stripping away all the details of yesteryear in order to create a modern dream home.
Millennial
One Thousand Reviews!
The Mark Aspen website is treasury of reviews, previews, interviews and just views.
We are proud to announce that we now have over one thousand reviews posted on
Our thanks go to:
The theatre companies, theatre venues, producers and PR agents for the opportunity to review their enthralling shows;
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We look forward to the next review millennium !
Apart from reviews, we occasionally publish previews (largely as interviews with directors or producers) and views in the form of our Theatre Thoughts.
There also is an archive of reviews more than ten years old, which are not on line.
Provocative Poignant Parable
Toothpaste Kisses
by Keir Buist
Three Dot Theatre at the Kenton Theatre, Henley-on-Thames until 25th May, then on tour at the Edinburgh Fringe
Review by Nick Swyft
Armed with a short ‘blurb’, as a teaser, I went to see Toothpaste Kisses by Keir Buist at the Kenton Theatre in Henley. Not knowing what was going to happen, and how it would all turn out, kept me engaged throughout the one hour and ten minute performance, and so I won’t give away any spoilers here. I don’t think it’s too much to say, however that the play is about fatherhood.
Keir Buist wrote, directed and performed the play, and so it was very much a one man show. For a play like this, it is a high risk strategy, requiring all these skills to be top notch. I’m more than happy to report that Keir excelled in all of these roles, providing a production that brought a manly tear to the eye of this reviewer, and judging by the sniffles around me, to many other audience members too. This was provocative entertainment at its best.
Trills without Frills
The Magic Flute
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder
Harrow Opera at the Compass Theatre, Ickenham until 28th May
Review by Michelle Hood
Perhaps one of the most popular and frequently performed opera ever written, The Magic Flute can never really fail to excite because of the sheer beauty of its music. A timeless classic and, despite its abstract and allegorical storyline, the imaginative brilliance of the score always uplifts and stimulates.
Mozart’s masterpiece was premiered in Vienna in September 1791 and yet, just two months later, Mozart died prematurely aged 35. This was the only opera ever written by Mozart for a popular audience in which he collaborated with a well-known comic actor of the time, Emanuel Schikaneder, who wrote the libretto and also played the part of Papageno in the first production.
Given the complex fantasy world in which The Magic Flute exists, the opera has been staged in countless imaginative ways and in many different time periods and costume. In this production, by Harrow Opera at the Compass Theatre, Ickenham, no liberties have been taken and the production is stripped back to its basic essentials, and is also sung in English.
Read more…In Her Own Lunchtime
All’s Nell That Ends Nell
by Little Nell
Trafalgar Studios Theatre until 23rd May
Review by Heather Moulson
An enigmatic icon of Rocky Horror royalty tapped danced her way onto a very camp set, a splendid throne and quite literally, a table with legs. Here was Laura Elizabeth Campbell aka Little Nell, backlit with an impressive slideshow, who gave us an honest and open account of her life and success. As she, resplendent in a sequinned dress, invited us into her rich and generous past we were drawn in from the start.
When I saw Little Nell in The Rocky Horror Show in 1974, she was only nineteen years old, and a former tap dancing busker, discovered by Jim Sharman and Brian Thomson in Kensington High Street. And what a discovery! Australian director, Sharman was asked to put on a production for the Theatre Upstairs at The Royal Court, with a budget of a £1,000, a three week rehearsal and a three week run. While searching for a project, he was shown a musical written by a young Richard O’Brien. Nell became a natural part of the team of powerful Antipodeans.
Read more…What the Dickens
Bleak Expectations
by Mark Evans
Anthology Theatre and Glass Half Full Productions at the Criterion Theatre, West End until 3rd September
Review by Eugene Broad
In this effervescent spoof, every Dickensian motif one can imagine is pastiched, riffed on, subverted, gently ridiculed, poached, and served to the audience with a hearty helping of winks, nods and elbow nudges.
The whimsical plot of the radio show’s first season is condensed into two hours of Dickensian spoofery. To summarise, the “ghost of future self” narrator (each week, a different celebrity guest; this week was Sally Phillips, perhaps best known as “Shazza” from Bridget Jones’ Diary) recalls their younger self’s life-story.
Read more…Clocking the Miles
Around the World in 80 Days
by Jules Verne, adapted by Juliet Forster
Tilted Wig and York Theatre Royal at Richmond Theatre until 20th May, then on tour until 22nd July
Review by Mark Aspen
Busy, busy, busy. “This play is about the joy of movement … in every sense”, says Juliet Forster, the director of Tilted Wig’s high-energy version of Verne’s 1872 classic adventure story. Appropriately for a tale about a race against time, here is a production that cannot stand still. And stacks are packed into its eighty days as they are reduced to a couple of mad-cap hours.
This take on Around the World in 80 Days packs stacks of theatrical genres too, circus, spoof, pantomime, thriller, farce, travelogue and definitely physical theatre. The inventive directorial force and dynamic cast leave even the audience exhausted.
Read more…By Night
Mayfly
by Joe White
Putney Theatre Company at the Studio, Putney Arts Theatre until 20th May
Review by Heather Moulson
The opening scene of Mayfly jumps shockingly out at us, with the shock of a near tragedy as young Harry takes the first steps of carrying the awful load he bears from a splintered family. Attempted suicide, sexual propositions, grief, loss – he shoulders the lot as the play unravels. Morgan Beale in this role smoothly carries these burdens, which are all thrust upon Harry by a twist of fate.
Read more…
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