Golden Delicious
The Rhinegold
by Richard Wagner
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 10th March
Review by Mark Aspen
Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen) is, of opera’s many monumental works, the most momentous. It is not, however, without subtlety and wit, both in its music and its narrative, which leaven its philosophical ponderings. However, director Richard Jones’ delicious new production of The Rhinegold, the prelude within the tetralogy that is the Ring, takes on the Wagnerian purists, to lighten it further with frippery and, dare one say … fun (try capturing a splenic toad in a Bierstein!).
Wagner intended his interpretation of Nordic mythology to hold allegorical insights of philosophic and indeed spiritual truths; but also it was to be a co-operation of all the arts (a Gesamtkunstwerk to use his term) that can be enjoyed on many levels. ENO has added in a few more levels to widen its appeal as spectacle or musical mastery, as a work of art, as story-telling or simple entertainment. And for the most part it succeeds splendidly.
Read more…California Screamin’re
California Suite
by Neil Simon
OnBook Theatricals at the OSO Arts Centre, Barnes until 25th February
Review by Heather Moulson
The glamourous Beverly Hills Hotel is the go-to for well-heeled visitors from all over the world. In our visit we were greeted by a very busy late-seventies set. Our hotel suite was a standard background for four vignettes of hotel guests sharing their lives and their traumas at different times in that same suite, the eponymous California Suite. We knew to expect poignant and zippy humour from the master of wit, Neil Simon, so the bright campiness of the room only heightened the expectation.
Read more…Fast Tracksides
Blood Brothers
by Willy Russell
Bill Kenwright Productions at Richmond Theatre until 25th February, then on tour until 29th April
Review by Brent Muirhouse
The iconic Blood Brothers has been performed in so many guises since its first performance in October 1981, that it would be easy to wonder if it still seems relevant and engrossing for audiences as musical theatre almost 42 years later. Yet this production, directed by Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright at Richmond Theatre is a stunning showcase of the power of theatre in both displaying both story and melody, in an inseparable tandem much like the play’s eponymous siblings.
Read more…Spelling Test
Bell, Book and Candle
by John Van Druten
Alces Productions and Take Note Theatre at The Tabard Theatre, Chiswick until 11th March
Review by Lottie Walker
Nostalgia is big news at the moment. We seem to be seeking comfort in the less complicated, in a past that we view through rose tinted spectacles; so this trip back to the mid-20th century promised a real treat of escapism. However, the concern with a play such as Bell Book and Candle, written in 1950, is that it is not quite old enough to be a period drama, but is possibly so old it can appear dated. This co-production of Alces Productions and the Tabard’s own Take Note Theatre falls into the trap of not being able to make its mind up whether it is a parody or straight revival. It has been directed as a semi-pastiche. If only director Mark Giesser had had the courage of his convictions and gone for a full on parody, we might be looking at the next big thing to transfer to the West End. As it is we are left in a twilight world of semi-stylised performances that serve to accentuate how dated the play actually is, rather than sending themselves up.
Read more…But On Reflection
The Mirror Crack’d
by Agatha Christie, adapted by Rachel Wagstaff
Original Theatre and JAS Theatricals at the Rose Theatre, Kingston until 25th February, then tour continues until 4th March
Review by Steve Mackrell
You probably know what you’re letting yourself into, when you decide to see a stage adaptation of an Agatha Christie mystery. And it’s certainly not to see anything provocative or challenging, but safe in the knowledge that an iconic Christie whodunit will provide a safe evening of comfortable entertainment.
Indeed, we are entering Agatha Christie Land, where time is seemingly suspended and reality abandoned. Included in our expectation of a Christie package, would probably be a Manor House, somewhere in Middle England, a modest glass of sherry in late afternoon, some strange goings-on and a satisfying ending where justice prevails. Throw in a murder victim, a bumbling detective, several suspects with various motives, and then the guessing game can begin. Is it the husband, the butler, the maid, jealous colleagues or a host of other possibilities?
Read more…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…
Mark Aspen 