Silent Music
Duet for One
by Tom Kempinski
OT Theatre Productions at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond until 18th March
Review by Steve Mackrell
Tom Kempinski’s Duet for One premiered at the Bush Theatre in 1980 and was followed by a successful run in the West End with Kempinski’s then wife, Frances de la Tour, in the cast. It was subsequently revived at the Almeida Theatre in 2009, again followed by a West End transfer, this time with Juliet Stevenson.
Duet for One is, in fact, an affectionate homage to the world renowned cellist Jacqueline de Pre, who died prematurely aged 42 in 1987. She had made her debut as a cellist when aged sixteen, at the Wigmore Hall, following which her career blossomed, and she came to be regarded as one of the greatest cellists of the 20th Century. By 1969 she was experiencing numbness in her hands and feet and was subsequently diagnosed in 1973 with multiple sclerosis. Unfortunately, this was an aggressive form of the disease and, fourteen years later, it was to take her life … with suggestions she may have taken a lethal injection in an assisted suicide.
Read more…The Real Mother Monster
Medea
by Robinson Jeffers, adapted from the play by Euripides
Fictionhouse at the @SohoPlace Theatre until 22nd April
Review by Louis Mazzini
Lurking in the darker corners of Greek mythology are Medea and her husband Jason, he who – with Medea’s help – found the Golden Fleece. Their horrifying story may be nearly two and a half thousand years old, but what Medea does when Jason finally, inevitably, betrays her is all too familiar today. In his lyrically visceral Medea, freely adapted from Euripides, the American poet Robinson Jeffers does not attempt to garner sympathy for Medea. For him, she is precisely what she was when Euripides first told the story – a witch who is capable of acts of unimaginable evil and whose only defence is the possibility, no more, that the gods have directed her actions.
Read more…Truths Riotously Acknowledged
Pride & Prejudice*(*Sort Of)
by Isobel MacArthur, after Jane Austen
Tron Theatre Company and Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, at Richmond Theatre until 18th February, then on tour until 24th June
Review by John Davies
Anyone expecting a prim and proper, po-faced reworking of a Jane Austen classic will be very disappointed. Here is a Pride and Prejudice for our era – think speed-dating with karaoke. In Isobel McArthur’s adaptation the corsets are off and everyone is free to be more honest (brutally so at times). This makes for both a funny and insightful exploration of the novel and the social structures of the day. The production has comedy at its heart and – as the writer points out – rightly so, as so many previous productions have simply omitted or ignored the humour that courses through the novel. As she said when interviewed – Pride & Prejudice* is “a Riot” and so is this production.
Read more…Insta-Grammar Lessons
Bloody Influencers
by Ena Begovic and Ben Mansbridge
East London Theatre Collective at the Barons Court Theatre until 11th February
Review by Denis Valentine
Bloody Influencers, a debut piece written by its performer Ena Begovic with Ben Mansbridge, takes a timely look into the highs, lows and a host of things in between of the current allure of the social media influencer lifestyle.
The show starts before the show starts with Daisy (Ena) pulling audience members on stage for selfies and Instagram story uploads; known tropes of the social media generations. From the opening moments of the curtain officially coming up, it is clear that the audience is going to be taken on the journey by a character fully immersed at the deep end of the social media top end.
Read more…Ghost of a Chance
When Darkness Falls
by James Milton and Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey Productions at Richmond Theatre until 11th February, then on tour until 29th April
Review by Steve Mackrell
When Darkness Falls is a relatively new play, by James Milton and Paul Morrissey, which opened at the Park Theatre (Finsbury Park) in 2021, followed by a short regional tour in autumn 2022, and has now turned up at the Richmond Theatre.
In essence, this is a ghost story, and for maximum enjoyment you really need to be an aficionado of horror plays in the style of The Woman in Black. Otherwise, if you don’t like plays about supernatural activity and the shock of things that go bump in the night, then this is probably not for you.
The play is set in Guernsey, rather surprisingly for horror, although it transpires that in fact the island is a hot bed of folklore with many legends and superstitions of the occult. The play, which is a two-hander, depicts a meeting between John Blondel (played by Tony Timberlake), who runs Guernsey’s historical society, and a visitor (played by Thomas Dennis), who is researching paranormal activities. Together they have arranged to record a series of podcasts about local folklore and tales of ghostly apparitions given Guernsey’s rich tradition of spooks and ghouls.
Read more…Nothing Island
Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare, adapted by Debris Stevenson
National Youth Theatre Rep Company at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 10th February
Review by Andrew Lawston
The concept of Much Ado About Nothing being updated to the world of reality TV may well spark scepticism at first glance, or an even more adverse reaction. But after just a few seconds’ thought, Shakespeare’s comic tale of young people manipulated into coupling up – and breaking up – for the amusement of others, becomes a natural fit for the domain of dating programmes like Love Island. And rather than acting as mere set dressing, the reality TV theme pervades Debris Stevenson’s new adaptation (or “remix” according to the programme) of the play for the National Youth Theatre, providing a timely and caustic commentary on disturbing trends in reality TV and social media.
Read more…Start Crossed Lovers
Noughts & Crosses
by Malorie Blackman, adapted by Sabrina Mahfouz
Pilot Theatre at The Rose Theatre, Kingston until 11th February, then on tour until 1st April
Review by Brent Muirhouse
As soon as the first seconds of light slowly pulsated on the boards of the Rose Theatre, accompanied by a disconcerting mechanical hum, it became clear that just as in Malorie Blackman’s 2006 novel the intention of this stage version of Noughts & Crosses was to create an unsettling experience for those watching on.
Read more…Man Management
A Society (For the Cutting up of Men)
by Daniel Carter
Network Theatre at Network Theatre, Waterloo until 5th February
Review by Heather Moulson
Boom! The London Vault Festival has opened, and we are straight in with A Society (For the Cutting up of Men). As the play opens, a vibrant bonhomie with eight women, dressed in eccentric costumes of Victorian skirts and hobnailed boots, promises a lively take on early feminist issues.
This colourful beginning keeps the weighty piece flowing. Genuine comic moments about dramatic music in books, and a backlash against chastity, work beautifully. Young Victorian women question the role of men and a non-patriarchal society, and assert their determination to infiltrate the male world. Adaptions of Virginia Woolf’s wry observations and of Valarie Solanas’ SCUM (the Society of Cutting up Men) manifesto is a great unconventional concept that verges on the true yet on the absurd.
Read more…Kill Joy
Thrill Me
by Stephen Dolginoff
Teddington Theatre Club at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre until 4th February
Review by Steve Mackrell
Thrill Me is an award-winning musical thriller, written by American playwright and composer, Stephen Dolginoff, which premiered off-Broadway in 2005. In the UK, it was performed at the Hope and Anchor theatre pub in Islington in 2019, and subsequently had a one-month run last year at the Jermyn Street Theatre.
The play is based on the true-life story of a couple of twenty-year-old students, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who kidnapped and murdered a fourteen-year-old boy in Chicago in 1924. However, the underlying interest of the drama is not so much the murder itself, but in the exploration of the motives of the two students, and in particular, their fascination with Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of Ubermenschen, “supermen”. This relates to the belief that certain individuals with superior intellect can act with disregard to the conventional rules of society, thereby rendering themselves above the law, and thus, not liable for their actions. The play shows how they both test this concept, with a bold plan to carry out a “perfect” murder.
Read more…Hope Reigns Eternal
The Shawshank Redemption
by Stephen King, adapted by Owen O’Neil and Dave Johns
Bill Kenwright at Richmond Theatre until 4th February, then on tour until 5th May
Review by Mark Aspen
Agony can be short and excruciating, or long and drawn out, like grief. But when the agony is extended over decades and decades, it effect is hard to comprehend. The long term loss of freedom is one such agony, and is the subject of the play, The Shawshank Redemption. Stephen King’s 1984 short novel is perhaps best known from Frank Darabont’s highly acclaimed film, made some twelve years later. However, this stage version brings out the claustrophobic horror of incarceration with stinging sharpness.
Director David Esbjornson has sculpted The Shawshank Redemption as a very uncomfortable play to watch, as it is meant to be. Grit your teeth, though, through the harrowing and raw early scenes, and you are rewarded with a thoughtful study of its powerful themes, the integrity of Andy, unjustly sentenced to two life sentences, and the hope of Red, the long-term prison “fixer”, who bond as friends. The mutual support of their unlikely friendship gives them the resilience to find coping mechanisms for the interminable agony of their captivity.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 