Timeless
Constellations
by Nick Payne
Putney Theatre Company at the Putney Arts Theatre until 27th September
Review by Heather Moulson
Constellations is a promising title and, entering the auditorium one is struck by a set lit with hushed blue lighting that is simple but effective. It is a space that could say everything, and it does.
Nick Payne’s two hander, originally produced at the Royal Court Theatre in 2012, tells of a romance between a cosmologist and a beekeeper, but it is a romance that takes place in many parallel forms and differing directions, and it is intense and funny and vibrant. In Rob Wallis’s intelligently directed production, all its moods and its aching tenderness are flawlessly covered. A thoughtful piece on the possibility of multiple realities against the backdrop of a genuine love story, it is a multiverse giving myriad choices, all set within a very believable relationship.
Read more…Timeshift Turandot in Turan
Turandot
Instant Opera at the The Courtyard Theatre at TownHouse, Kingston University, on 11th and 12th October
Preview: Opera critic Helen Astrid discusses the forthcoming production of Puccini’s Turandot with Instant Opera’s Artistic Director, Nicholas George
HA: Puccini’s last opera Turandot is often described as both monumental and enigmatic. What draws you personally to this opera?
War at the Opera
Tosca
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
The Royal Ballet and Opera at Covent Garden until 7th October
Review by Michael Rowlands
The Royal Opera’s new production by Olivier Mears was given the stellar media treatment, by the brave and controversial decision of the Royal Opera to cast Anna Netrebko as the leading lady for the first four nights, to be followed by Aleksandra Kurzak for the rest of the run. Ms Netrebko has been, earlier in her career, in proximity to President Putin. She helped him congratulate the takeover of the Dombas, “it would be a mistake not to”, and she made a statement concerned with the victims of Ukraine. She is apparently an Austrian Resident, pays taxes there and she says she not returned home since the war started. Is she a Unity Mitford figure? or a Co-Co Channel? Or an innocent bystander? Russia is already at war with us, though political manipulation and through cultural events – so where she stands, and we all stand, does matter in this climate.
Read more…Back in Time
The Last Five Years
by Jason Robert Brown
Barn Theatre and The Theatre Royal Bath at the Reading Rep Theatre until 12th October, then on tour until 3rd January 2026
Review by Sam Martin
Hal Chambers’ production of The Last Five Years, a co-production between Reading Rep, Barn Theatre and Theatre Royal Bath, is a powerful and emotionally intricate exploration of love found and lost. This intimate two-hander, starring Martha Kirby and Guy Woolf, pulses with energy, wit and heartache. The story is brought vividly to life through exemplary performances, intelligent design, and a finely tuned directorial vision that lifts Jason Robert Brown’s cult musical into a new light.
From the outset, Chambers’ direction demonstrates an assured understanding of the complexities of the show’s unique structure (two timelines moving in opposite directions) and he uses that to craft a piece that feels both immediate and universal. The staging, far from being ornamental, plays a vital role in shaping the emotional narrative. The use of screens to define the space is particularly effective. Visually elegant and conceptually loaded, they reinforce the emotional barriers between the characters, giving the production a claustrophobic edge that reflects the slow, inevitable breakdown of the relationship. This subtle but persistent physical reminder becomes a powerful metaphor for the characters’ inability to move beyond the walls they have both put up.
Read more…Austen Allegro
Emma
by Ava Pickett, based on the novel by Jane Austen
RTK Productions at The Rose Theatre, Kingston until 11th October
Review by Polly Davies
The Rose Theatre’s Emma is a joy. I can think of no better antidote to the dreary, non-stop outpouring of news that we are now blessed with daily. Ava Pickettt’s fast-paced witty script shows, if there was ever any doubt, the brilliance of Jane Austen’s storytelling. A tale seemingly set intrinsically in the strictly mannered world of the 18th Century has been re-interpreted in the hands of a skilful playwright to look as if it was always intended for today’s world. And in Ava Pickett’s hands it is not only a good story, it is very, very funny. If you love Austen’s Emma, you will love this. If you have never heard of Austen’s Emma you will still love this, because the story it tells is as relevant now as it was when first written. To drop in the well known “Not well done Emma” line and make it fit amongst the modern world of TikTok messaging, and photo-sharing is pure genius.
Read more…
In a Stew about Scraps
God of Carnage
byYasmina Reza
Teddington Theatre Club at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre until 27th September
Review by Steve Mackrell
Two married couples, a physical fight between their children, then a verbal fight between the adults. That’s the backdrop to Yasmina Reza’s comedy God of Carnage currently being presented by Teddington Theatre Club at the Hampton Hill Theatre.
Originally written in French, and translated into English by Christopher Hampton, the play was first performed in Zurich in 2007 and follows her earlier notable plays Art in 1994 and Life x 3 in 2000. In Hampton’s translation, we are in North London, firmly located in serious bourgeoisie territory, with four fully paid-up members of the Camden chattering classes. We meet two sets of parents, four diverse characters in all, each with their own distinct personality, views and social attitudes.
Send in the Clones
A Number
by Caryl Churchill
Questors Productions at the Questors Studio, Ealing, until 27th September
Review by Andrew Lawston
Cloning is a subject of endless fascination to creators of science-fiction, but is perhaps less commonly explored in theatre, which traditionally prefers to use twins to tell similar stories. Caryl Churchill’s short play A Number provides rich dramatic pickings through its simple story of a man meeting with several clones of his son, in the intimate confines of The Studio at The Questors Theatre.
Read more…Morse Code
Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts
by Alma Cullen, based on characters by Colin Dexter
Production Solutions at Richmond Theatre, until 20th September, then on tour until 11th April 2026
Review by Eleanor Lewis
Perhaps it’s unfair to begin this review with a line such as An Inspector Makes Noises Off but it is tempting considering the start to this much anticipated play featuring the debut of a TV favourite onto the Richmond stage. The opening scene involves a production of Hamlet, playing at a theatre in Oxford. During a poignant interaction between Hamlet and Ophelia the actor playing Ophelia dies, bloodily, on stage. An authoritative voice (Morse) calls out from the audience (the actual audience) to halt the action and Morse marches from his seat towards the stage waving his warrant card. He is immediately followed by Hamlet’s director striding down from the back of the auditorium with equally authoritative protestations and then a short but loud section of the familiar Morse TV theme tune is played, presumably to let us know that things have now really begun.
Read more…Fabulous, Fearless, in Full Voice
Mozart’s Women – A Musical Journey
English National Opera and Factory Films at the London Coliseum, 12th September
Review by Helen Astrid
It’s not often you get to hear an entire evening of Mozart’s female divas. This occasion at ENO, Mozart’s Women – A Musical Journey, proved to be just the ticket for a binge of 18th Century arias, duets and small ensembles to be seen later this year on Sky Arts and Freeview. (This will be presented alongside the previously announced Sky Original limited series Amadeus.)
On stage, a carefully curated ensemble of rising young singers performed, accompanied by the ENO orchestra under the assured baton of Clelia Cafiero, Principal Guest Conductor at the Opéra de Tours. In a bold staging choice by Artistic Director Annilese Miskimmon, the musicians were assembled on stage rather than in the pit, framed by red velvet drapery and resplendent chandeliers that transformed the Coliseum into a glittering salon.
Read more…Lifetime Rewards
Sixtieth Anniversary in Music : Preview
Donovan at Richmond Theatre, 12th October, Preview 12th September
Interview and preview by Vince Francis
So, yours truly was up with the lark on Friday morning, on his first assignment for a while, as part of a carefully calibrated plan to intercept the District Line’s first service following a strike. The objective of this dawn foray was to rendezvous in Notting Hill Gate with a hero of the musical, and social, revolution that was the 1960’s, namely Donovan, and I am pleased to report the objective was achieved.
We took a table in the hotel bar and, refreshments served, Donovan, happy to provide as much background as might be required, proved to be an effortless raconteur and most generous with his stories. Our conversation explored a rich and varied life in music, which has led him from his birthplace in Glasgow, to the hotbed of the folk music scene that was 1960s Hertfordshire, through to the transcendental meditation craze in the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, where he taught John Lennon how to fingerpick, and tours to the U.S.A., and on to more current activities.
Much has been documented about his life and career in all media, but to summarise, Donovan, more formally Donovan Phillips Leitch, was born on 10th May 1946 in Mary Hill, Glasgow. At the age of 10, his father moved the family to Hatfield in Hertfordshire,
“… ’cause I’m 10 and it’s the 1950s, and Glasgow’s bombed, of course. All the old cities are bombed, so we moved down in that great migration down to the south from the big industrial towns …”
Read more…
Mark Aspen 