Pitfalls of Parenthood
God of Carnage
by Yasmina Reza, translation by Christopher Hampton
Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Mary Wallace Theatre until 4th June
Review by Celia Bard
The play God of Carnage, a farcical comedy, runs for about ninety mins without any breaks or change of scenes. Throughout the play, characters hurl a barrage of insults at each other, many concealed by a thin veneer of civilised behaviour. The two sets of parents have met to discuss the behaviour of two boys, one of whom has attacked the other with a stick, resulting in the breaking of two incisors and damage to a ‘half a nerve’ in a tooth.
Theatrically, these types of argument make for interesting theatre, as they often succeed in revealing multidimensional levels of character when emotional buttons are pressed. The play is funny and presents the kind of humour that makes you laugh aloud either through verbal wit or farcical comedy.
Read more…A Diptych Hinged on Poison
Mozart and Salieri
by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, libretto after Alexander Pushkin
and
Suor Angelica
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Giovacchino Forzano
Rose Opera at Normansfield Theatre, Teddington until 29th May
Review by Eugene Broad
Poisonous motivations and, well, actual death by poisoning, links this double-bill put up by the Rose Opera. Featuring two one-act operas, the first was Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri, based on a short drama by Pushkin.
Featuring the eponymous composers, the opera Mozart and Salieri served as the direct inspiration for the masterful and charming but (almost certainly) historically inaccurate 1984 film, Amadeus. Salieri (Ian Helm) broods in his atmospheric Viennese bachelor pad, resplendent with harpsichord, draped velvets, and candelabra, lamenting to himself how despite decades of disciplined labour of his mastering all elements of music, fate smiled on Mozart instead, giving him a “holy gift” (or innate talent) despite having an “idlers mind”. Unannounced, Mozart (William Smith), full of child-like innocence and inanity, drops by. He confides in Salieri with respect and admiration, almost as if Salieri were an elder sibling or father figure, sharing his compositional self-doubt in crystal tenor (“at night / insomnia tormented me / and two or three ideas came to mind / today I’ve put them down. And I wanted / to hear your opinion, but I see / you don’t have time for me”).
Read more…Social Climbing Seventies Style
Abigail’s Party
by Mike Leigh
Teddington Theatre Club at The Coward Studio, Hampton Hill until 28th May
Review by David Marks
Abigail’s Party is one of those plays that is so well known it has become the stuff of legend. Its famous lines, background music and artwork are so familiar that they’ve become part of the national consciousness. So it was with no little trepidation that I entered the Coward Studio at Hampton Hill Theatre to see TTC’s production of this modern classic.
I need not have worried. Set designers Wesley Henderson Roe and Fiona Auty, together with props mistress Jacqui Grebot had conspired to transport their audience back to the 1970’s with excellent attention to detail – from “leather look” sofa to wine bottle candle stick. The space was configured in the traverse, which worked well to bring the audience into the action. Because of this configuration, however only half the audience were able to see Beverly and Laurence’s “kitchen” – the most ingenious use of a fire escape I’ve ever seen. Gary Stevenson’s lighting design was the icing on the design cake; as well as “stage” lighting, ceiling light fittings and the obligatory lava lamp all added to the general ambience. As did the soundscape from Charles Halford, who must have had lots of fun researching the “sound of the 70s” for the pre-show music. Demis Roussos and Jose Feliciano made their obligatory performances, too.
Read more…Naughty Trisexual Megalomania
The Rocky Horror Show
by Richard O’Brien
Trafalgar Theatre Productions and associates at Richmond Theatre until 28th May, then on tour until January 2023
Review by Mark Aspen
Tonight I lost my virginity. Yes, it came as a surprise to me too, especially as I have three children and three grandchildren. But it seems that if you have not seen The Rocky Horror Show before, then you are a virgin. At least that’s what the lady in the seat next to me said. She was wearing stockings, suspenders and a basque. The gentleman with her was not wearing trousers, but he did look quite, er … fetching, in fishnet tights.
There are lots of conventions to trap the unwary audience member in this cult musical, although there is a useful virgin’s guide. Moreover, the audience need to know their lines, or have ready ripostes when cued by a character’s half-beat pause. It’s a bit like the pantomime, but a hundred times naughtier.
Read more…Fagatha Christie – Almost
Maynard’s End
by Jeremy Gill
Q2 at The National Archives, Kew until 21st May
Review by Mark Aspen
Miss Marple meets Midsomer Murders in Q2’s premiere of Jeremy Gill’s post-pandemic parody of a much-loved genre, the murder mystery. His is a gentle take on the form: it is no harsh send-up, but a lovingly massaged homage to a peculiarly English theatre genre that was popular following both World Wars. (There is some interesting psychology there.)
Gill sets Maynard’s End in 1968, perhaps late for the genre, but in a period-perfect setting. The design trio of Harriet Muir, Bob Gingell and Tamsyn O’Connor create props, costume and, tellingly, hair styles with great authenticity, within a neatly versatile set.
The only period detail missing was the smoking, even the hashish was eaten (by mistake, in a laced cake) rather than smoked. Otherwise the play could almost be described as a Fagatha Christie (whoops, couldn’t resist that!). Nevertheless, Q2 would not want to risk catching on fire a building that is home to the Doomsday Book! And what a magnificent location is The National Archives: what other local theatre nestles in parkland with lakes, and fountains and swans?
Read more…Blame Game
Apologia
by Alexi Kaye Campbell
The Questors Theatre at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 21st May
Review by Eleanor Lewis
“Every generation, blames the one before,” states the lyric of Mike Rutherford and BA Robertson’s 1988 hit, The Living Years. The song, about a conflicted relationship between father and son, hits a nerve with almost everyone, generational dissonance being a given in the course of most family life. For children of the activist counterculture ‘60s generation though, the dissonance is particularly acute and reaches that much further.
The central character of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s Apologia is one such ‘60s idealist, Kristin Miller (Pamela Major). An active campaigner throughout her professional life as a respected art historian, she continued as she became mother to two sons. In later life her opinions are many and strong and she seems largely oblivious to the needs and feelings of those around her, including her children.
Read more…Intense Conviction
La Bohème
after Giacomo Puccini, new English libretto by Philip Lee and David Eaton
KHT and Making Productions at King’s Head Theatre, Islington until 28th May
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Putting on La Bohème these days can be tricky, as Puccini’s characters can easily come across as rather middle-aged and respectable. By the time your operatic career has developed sufficiently for you to sing Mimi or Rodolpho, you are probably going to be too old to pass muster as a young person living on the edge. I remember how David Freeman’s Opera North production asked some interesting questions about whether these young people are making a stand against convention or simply afraid of middle age and responsibility. He had one of the characters – now a grand old man of the artistic establishment – introduce each act with reminiscences about his time as a young Turk.
Read more…Avoid Being Void
When We Are Married
by J.B. Priestley
Teddington Theatre Club at Hampton Hill Theatre until 21st May
Review by Alex Tustain
In 1908, when this play was set, imagine the consequences of discovering, after 25 years, that your church marriage had been conducted by someone unauthorised to do so and it would seem your marriage was null and void! You have been ‘living in sin’ for 25 years! This is what happens to three couples upstanding in their small Yorkshire community and of course the consequences of this to the individual couples and their families would have been devastating and shocking to the core, to their standing in the community. Add to this a small community where gossip travels fast, especially when you have a less than honest and most indiscrete housekeeper to spread it!
Read more…Jubilee Japes
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by William Shakespeare, adapted by Paul Stacey
Reading Rep at Reading Rep Theatre until 5th June
Review by Nick Swyft
Shakespeare’s plays have been with us for for over four hundred years and their presentation is constantly updated to relate to modern audiences. So it is fitting that the final play in the Reading Rep: Reborn season (which celebrates the reopening in its new playhouse on the King’s Road campus in Reading following the pandemic) should pay homage to the Bard. Reading Rep has been going for around ten years and continues to go from strength to strength.
This production, based with some apologies (and a few generous cuts) on Shakespeare’s text, is a play within a play, within a play, within a play … etc. Confused? … You will be! While the format is entertaining, there could be a limit to how far you can go with this.
Read more…Brooding Edginess
Dead Boy Café
by Grant Corr
Questors at The Studio, Ealing until 21st May
Review by Heather Moulson
This was my first visit to The Questors, and I was very impressed by this lovely theatre set in the leafy Ealing. It certainly deserves its stellar reputation, and it made me appreciate that I was late coming to the party. Dead Boy Café, currently playing at the Questors’ Studio is well worth a visit.
This is the première, belated by the pandemic, of a gripping new play, written by Grant Corr, the winner of The Questors’ National Playwriting Competition 2019, who has moved on to further success by having several of his plays staged. Dead Boy Café is a worthy winner giving a hundred minutes of strong writing and sharp dialogue … although it could have got away with an interval.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 