Multiverse of Possibilities
Constellations : A Preview
OHADS at Hampton Hill Theatre, 18th – 22nd April
Drama critic Thomas Forsythe discusses OHADS’ forthcoming production of Nick Payne’s acclaimed play Constellations with Director Wesley Henderson Roe
Wesley is a well-respected director with a string of hit shows to his name for many local societies. In addition, as a trained set designer he is much in demand for his scenery planning and building skills. He was awarded the Arts Richmond Accolade in 2013 for services to amateur theatre.
TF: Hello Wesley,it’s great to meet up with you again and to have the chance to chat about Constellations. I recall that the play had several nominations at the Olivier Awards about ten years ago, after it had had a fairly rapid rise from the Royal Court into the West End. What drew you to directing this play?
Read more…Back to the Good Life
Home, I’m Darling
by Laura Wade
Bill Kenwright Productions at Richmond Theatre until 8th April, then on tour until 13th May
Review by Andrew Lawston
The opening moments of Home, I’m Darling feature the classic 1950s song Mr Sandman. For a large part of the audience, the song recalls a key moment in the film Back to the Future, in which Marty McFly and cinema audiences are treated to an initially rose-tinted and glossy advertising vision of the 1950s, before the era’s uglier elements are reinforced. It’s a fitting opening to this play, in which a married couple have decided to embrace the stereotypical gender roles of the 1950s.
Read more…New Expression
For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy
by Ryan Calais Cameron
The Royal Court, Nouveau Riche and New Diorama at the Apollo Theatre, West End until 7th May
Review by Denis Valentine
For Black Boys… is a multi-layered show with many different elements to it. Firstly as just a show and spectacle it is great fun to watch, with many funny moments and delivered in a way that at times turns the audience from observers into a one-bodied movement with its actors on stage. It is also delivered by six outstanding performers who excel in several different crafts, whether that be acting, singing or dancing, to deliver something that can at times be considered highly humorous but then cuttingly dramatic, relevant and poignant.
Read more…Bohemians Like You
La Bohème
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Ellen Kent Productions and the Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv at Richmond Theatre, then on tour until 7th May
Review by Andrew Lawston
Puccini’s beloved opera La Bohème comes to Richmond Theatre for one night only, produced and directed by Ellen Kent, and the house is packed. A production of an Italian opera, set in Paris, and comprising mostly Ukranian, Moldovan, and Romanian artistes, the show feels extremely timely. And it becomes even more so when you consider that a large section of the plot is driven by people who can’t afford to heat their rooms.
Staged simply but effectively against a painted backdrop of the Paris skyline, this is clearly a production which has been designed for touring, but the set across all four acts is richly detailed and vibrant. Familiar arias are sung with ferocious energy, as though being performed for the very first time.
Read more…Spring Tide
You Bury Me
by Ahlam
Paines Plough at The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond until 22nd April
Review by John Davies
“Cairo will push you to your absolute limits and then suddenly…you’re in love”. But how do you explore your identity and relationships under oppression? How do you focus on a partner, while looking over your shoulder for who might be coming to get you? How do you love freely, if you can’t live freely? This play explores these issues in a high-energy, high-emotion production that pushes its audience to try and connect with the lives of a group of young friends in Cairo and to understand the harsh realities, decisions and feelings they face.
The play is set a few years after the Arab Spring and Cairo is under military control. We meet six young people living in Cairo – Osman, a journalist who is determined to keep fighting against the oppressive regime; his gay friend Rafik and sister Maya; Maya’s gay friend Lina; and Lina’s brother Tamer, a Christian who is in a relationship with Alia, a Muslim. Teenage relationships and sexual encounters are played out with an eye to who might be watching. Not simply because of possible spiteful comments from classmates and disapproval of friends, but the real fear of criminal charges or being ‘disappeared’.
Read more…Broadway on Tap
42nd Street
by Harry Warren, lyrics by Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer
HEOS Musical Theatre at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 1st April
Review by Vince Francis
The musical 42nd Street comes from a long line of adaptations from literature in all its varied forms, think West Side Story (inter alia) and Shakespeare, Guys & Dolls and Damon Runyon, even Madama Butterfly and Pierre Loti. This example was originally written in 1932 as a “scandalous potboiler” of a novel, by Bradford Ropes, a perhaps relatively unknown novelist and screenwriter, but one with a fairly impressive string of novels and films to his name. The Amazon blurb tells us the novel reveals;
“ … the needy, seedy, slangy side of that grimy gulch called Broadway, once upon a time, a twisted comic valentine to musical comedy and to every one of the human vices. It’s Valley of Dolls decades before Valley of the Dolls.”
Read more…Relay Race
Gone Too Far
by Bola Agbaje
National Youth Theatre Rep Company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, until 1st April
Review by Eleanor Lewis
An errand to the corner shop to buy milk and a scrambled journey through the rest of that day’s events on a housing estate in Peckham don’t immediately scream Entertaining Plot Line with Wide Ranging Cultural Education and Lots of Comedy, but that is the basis of Bola Agbaje’s excellent play Gone Too Far, and it works a treat.
Two brothers are dispatched by their irritated mother (Jessica Enemokwu) to fetch milk and while on this mission they encounter a kaleidoscope of racism, confusion, resentment and rage amounting to a general struggle for identity and validation everywhere they look. Issues pop up at every turn: social media’s current fave, the white, middle-aged ‘Karen’ appears, wearing her assumptions on her sleeve; the Police make recognisable fools of themselves; the local gang leader occupies a fatherly role, giving thoughtful lessons in respecting each other, but sells drugs to anyone who’ll buy, including the pitifully vulnerable.
Read more…Rich, Wry and Relevant
Force of Habit
by Roz Wyllie
Kibo Productions, in partnership with Solace Women’s Aid, at the Barons Court Theatre until 1st April
Review by Gill Martin
‘There should be a siren when love starts to leave,’ laments the rueful Martha, ‘but it’s not like that. It’s a daily creep.’ That’s the plaintive line that sums up a love story that ends not with a bang but a whimper.
Kibo Productions opens its first show of the year with Force of Habit, directed by Leo Bacica, a bittersweet romantic comedy, that is rich, wry and relevant.
We, the audience in the very intimate space of a fifty-seat theatre below the bustling Curtain’s Up pub in Baron’s Court, West London, witness the passion and the pangs as two actors break the fourth wall to share their lives.
Read more…Tomorrow, Today
Young Writer’s Festival 2023
Arts Richmond at The Exchange Theatre, Twickenham, 26th March
Review by Heather Moulson
The Young Writer’s Festival, showcasing the best of poetry and prose from the authors of tomorrow never fails to amaze with the quality of the creativity of young minds. The event is the highpoint of Arts Richmond’s yearly competition to encourage writing by children and teens. There was an impressive turnout for this annual celebration of young talent, and we were treated to a promising line-up of readers all clad in black, and all with a solid theatrical background, an interesting variety of ages and talent.
Read more…Death in Bruges
The Dead City (Die tote Stadt)
by Erich Korngold, libretto by Paul Schott
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 8th April
Review by Patrick Shorrock
It is always wonderful to see an opera company operating at the height of its powers. This new production of Korngold’s Die tote Stadt from ENO blazes with the conviction that this opera deserves the very best an opera company can give it. This brilliant production – both musically and theatrically – is very much proof that ENO is not an opera company on its last legs, despite its brutal treatment (and temporary reprieve) by the Arts Council.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 