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…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.
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Apart from reviews, we occasionally publish previews (largely as interviews with directors or producers) and views in the form of our Theatre Thoughts.
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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.
Mark Aspen 