BLM: the Opera!
Blue
by Jeanine Tesori, libretto by Tazewell Thompson
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 4th May
Review by Patrick Shorrock
On Saturday 22nd April, it is thirty years since the murder of Stephen Lawrence by a gang of youths. Both the MacPherson and the Casey Reports – a little over twenty years apart – accused the Metropolitan Police Force of being “institutionally racist”. So it may be seen either as timely, or as provocative, for ENO to be putting on a 2019 opera from America about a young black man murdered by a white policeman. In either case, we cannot pretend that the issues it raises are historic or confined to the United States; and this is the relevance of Blue.
Read more…Moor Grousing
Bracken Moor
by Alexi Kaye Campbell
Q2, at the National Archives, Kew until 22nd April
Review by Claire Alexander
It is unusual to see a play firmly set in the early part of the 20th Century written by a contemporary writer. But this is what Alexi Kaye Campbell has done with Bracken Moor, set as it is in a Yorkshire mining community in 1937, on the edge of wild Bracken Moor. Think Wuthering Heights. It is the inter-war years, and the hedonism and rebound of the twenties has settled into the economic reality of the late thirties. We meet the Pritchards and the Averys – the latter, Vanessa and Geoffrey have come to visit Harold Pritchard (and his wife Elizabeth), the owner of a struggling mine, which he has inherited from his father. The Averys have brought their 22 year old son, Terence, with them and it quickly becomes clear that Terence and Edgar (the Pritchard’s son) were inseparable childhood friends. It is not obvious immediately but clearly something terrible has happened to Edgar.
Read more…Trop Tard
Wish You Were Dead
by Peter James, adapted by Shaun McKenna
Joshua Andrews and Peter James at Richmond Theatre until 22nd April, then on tour until 29th July
Review by Mark Aspen
Prior to the Covid lockdowns, we used to spend a couple of weeks each summer exploring the Alps by car, and enjoying the road trip across the countries in between … or sometimes rather enduring the bits on the way. In the programme for Richmond Theatre’s latest offering, it is clear that our experiences were not unique. The author Peter James tells how one such not-so-enjoyable road trip became the inspiration for the setting of his latest short novel in the Grace series, about the exploits of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, Wish You Were Dead.
In Shaun McKenna’s exclusive stage adaptation of Wish You Were Dead, it is, I hasten to add, only those experiences of the settings that are recalled, and not the all-too exciting adventures of Roy Grace and his wife, the pathologist Cleo, nee Morley, as their bolthole escape to rural France turns into a nightmarish holiday in hell. The less than welcoming patronne, the overtired ex-chateau chambre d’hôte, the spurious claims of famous previous guests are all familiar, but thankfully not the attentions of vengeful gang bosses.
Read more…Relativity and Sensuality
Constellations
by Nick Payne
OHADS at the Hampton Hill Theatre until 22nd April
Review by Steve Mackrell
Is our future pre-determined? Or, being mere mortals, can we make our own free choices in life? This is the conundrum explored in Nick Payne’s modern classic with both wit and intelligence, a play simultaneously challenging and funny, but ultimately very poignant. First performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 2012, the critically acclaimed Constellations also enjoyed a brief West End revival in 2021 with the novelty of four different rotating casts, including an all-male pairing. The play is a two-hander, and is a tragic-comic love story, using the dramatic device of parallel universes – meaning separate worlds co-existing with the real world.
Read more…Darker Impulses
Lord of the Flies
by William Golding, adapted by Nigel Williams
Leeds Playhouse and Belgrade Coventry at The Rose Theatre, Kingston until 22nd April, then on tour until 6th May
Review by Brent Muirhouse
Even though this reviewer sat in the relative cushioned safety of the stalls of Kingston’s Rose Theatre, and Lord of the Flies is a very well-known work of fiction, such was the brutality in this modern portrayal of William Golding‘s classic novel on stage, that nobody in the audience could have truly felt at ease. With an inclusive cast that was far more interesting for their diverse ethnicities, gender identities and backgrounds (something director Amy Leach rightfully talks about the importance of in the programme), the play reimagined the original story of a group of privileged British schoolboys stranded on a deserted island following a war-time evacuation, exploring themes of power, violence, and the dark impulses that seemingly lie within the human psyche.
Read more…Small Pleasures
Venus and Adonis
by John Blow, libretto by Anne Kingsmill
Ode on St Cecilia’s Day
by Henry Purcell, text by Nicholas Brady derived from poems by John Dryden and others
Richmond Opera at the Normansfield Theatre, Teddington until 16th April
Review by Patrick Shorrock
The Normansfield Theatre, with its gold leaf and beautiful floral paintings at the side of the stage, is an astonishing Victorian jewel to find in suburban West London. Inside, it’s a cross between Wigmore Hall and the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (although the seats are much more comfortable than the latter!) It was the house of Dr John Langdon Down (after whom Down’s syndrome is named) who made it a place is where people with learning disabilities could be cared for and educated, which it still is.
It was an ideal setting for these two small English pieces from late 17th century, both overshadowed by the mighty Handel who followed them and produced works of greater substance. That said, they are not without their charms.
Read more…Dark, Disturbing and Powerful
Machinal
by Sophie Treadwell
Youth Action Theatre at Hampton Hill Theatre until 15th April
Review by Heather Moulson
When it opened in New York in 1928, Machinal featured a young actor making his Broadway debut, Clark Gable. The play was a runaway success. An early example of Expressionist theatre in the US, the play is loosely based on the trial of Ruth Snyder, who was convicted of murdering her husband. It created a lot of attention in an era when a woman’s role was confined to being a wife, mother, and homemaker.
With a bold painted set, designed by Tom Wright and Priya Virdee, of cogs and doors that symbolised turmoil, the production opened up to a New York office where the staff, like a Greek chorus, talked in a refrain as they bullied the secretary for being late.
Read more…Never Mind The Quality …
Quality Street
by J.M. Barrie
Northern Broadsides and New Vic Theatre at Richmond Theatre until 15th April then on tour until 7th July
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Old-fashioned, cheaply packaged, gaudily wrapped, and entirely lacking in nutritional value, Quality Street toffees were named after a well and truly forgotten play of J.M. Barrie, which Northern Broadsides have imaginatively disinterred and taken on tour.
Barrie’s play was hugely popular in its day and used by a Halifax toffee manufacturer as a marketing ploy. Now the well-known toffees – which retain a place in the nation’s affections, and, for reasons not entirely clear to me, are seen as a great treat at Christmas – are used to sell a play that nobody has heard of.
Read more…Old Father Farting
Terrible Thames
by Terry Deary and Neal Foster
Birmingham Stage Company at Tower Bridge Quay until 29th October
Review by Vince Francis
“Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” Thus quoth Dr. Samuel Johnson in 1777 and it has remained true ever since.
One of the opportunities London currently affords the Birmingham Stage Company’s production of Terrible Thames, part of the Horrible Histories series. As a life-long London lover, your intrepid correspondent will always leap to the challenge of a new experience in the great city, and theatre on a riverboat, courtesy of Wood’s Silver Fleet, felt like one to land.
Read more…Pan Cakes
Peter Pan
by Chris Cuming, adapted from J.M.Barrie
Reading Rep at Reading Rep Theatre until 29th April
Review by Nick Swyft
Curtain up and the music starts, and I thought this is going to be great. The music mixed sinister with magical to just the right degree. Added to which just about anything by J.M.Barrie is sure to be good, and I remember being enthralled by the world he creates in Peter Pan from a young age.
I was there with a selection of grandchildren, and was keen to find out if they reacted the way I did. The problem with children is that when questioned by adults, they tend to clam up, but you can always tell at the end if they really enjoyed it or not. All I got when I asked what they thought of it was a dutiful ‘good!’, so maybe I didn’t ask the right questions. It was nevertheless a good night out for them.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 