Dangerous Games
Fatal Attraction
by James Dearden
Smith and Brant Theatricals and ATG at Richmond Theatre until 26th March, then tour continues until 7th May
Review by Eleanor Lewis
Anyone not familiar with Paramount Pictures’ 1987 film Fatal Attraction would nonetheless probably be familiar with the term ‘bunny boiler’ (a term born in that film) to describe a violently unstable (female) ex-lover. The film, in which a married man spectacularly fails to put his one night stand behind him, is now a stage play written by James Dearden who also wrote the screenplay, which is probably why it’s such a strong theatrical adaptation.
Amongst the many elements of Fatal Attraction the story – it’s a cautionary tale, a fable for our time and a great thriller – there is also the reflection it presents of the changing sexual mores of our western world. In the late ‘80s the film had a different ending to the one it has now, on stage. In 1987 focus rested on the rage of the rejected lover Alex, any moral condemnation of married Dan was almost perfunctory and tempered with a large dollop of sympathy. In 2022, after 35 years progressing towards equality for women, the MeToo era, and greater awareness of mental health issues, the lines are still blurred but the focus has significantly shifted.
Read more…Pop Art Popped
The Collaboration
by Anthony McCarten
YV Company at the Young Vic, London until 2nd April
Review by Heather Moulson
Entering through graffiti-lined walls, we, as an audience, walk into a Studio 54, a setting which is very New York and atmospheric. We appreciate the culture of disco hits and slide shows of that era, even if it’s a little deafening!
The “greatest exhibition in the history of modern art”, that was the expectation in 1984 when Andy Warhol the established (maybe too established) doyen of American pop art, and wild kid on the art block, Jean-Michel Basquiat agreed to work together on a joint collaborative project, culminating in an exhibition in the autumn of 1985.
Read more…Couldn’t Possibly Say
Yes, Prime Minister
by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn
Barnes Community Players at the OSO Arts Centre, Barnes until 20th March
Review by Gill Martin
What a time to stage Yes, Prime Minister.
The world facing a third world war. A maddened Russian despot invading and shelling its neighbour.
Crippling fuel bills as UK sanctions supplies from the former Soviet Union.
The PM cosying up to Saudi Arabia for its oil, despite its shady human rights record and a mass execution.
The homecoming of an innocent mother held hostage for six years in Iran — her ordeal, shall we say, not helped by the PM when he was a bungling Foreign Secretary.
Russian oligarchs worth billions finding their assets — including a rather famous London footie club — frozen as a sanction for their links with Putin.
And, oh yes, the small matter of a PM facing prosecution in the Pandemic Party-gate Scandal.
You couldn’t make it up.
Barnes Community Players didn’t have to.
Read more…Reality Is Filthy
Tom Fool
by Franz Xaver Kroetz
Orange Tree Theatre Productions at the Orange Tree Theatre Richmond until 16th April
Review by Mark Aspen
Freedom is a much vaunted word, but perhaps one of the most precious freedoms is having the will to determine the course of one’s own life. Otto Meier, the father of the failing family in Franz Kroetz’s controversial play Tom Fool (originally Mensch Meier), feels trapped in “the system”, but it is arguably a system of his own making. Kroetz, one of German’s most prolific modern playwrights, maintains that “a dramatist must be tough on his characters”, but in this dissection of the tedium of their working (or not working) lives, it is the characters who are tough on themselves.
Read more…Butterfly with Wings
Madama Butterfly
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Sembla and Ellen Kent Productions at Richmond Theatre until 15th March, then on tour until 6th May
Review by Mark Aspen
Madama Butterfly must surely be one of the most moving of Puccini’s well-known operas, in its overarching theme of trust betrayed and the raw emotion of its tragic ending, it leaves even the most hard-hearted touched to tears. However, even the pathos of this most poignant of endings was magnified when director-producer Ellen Kent’s new touring production visited Richmond Theatre. At the curtain call, the cast broke out the Ukrainian flag and sang the Ukrainian national anthem to the proud music of the orchestra. The soloists are mostly Ukrainian and its orchestra the Orchestra of the Ukrainian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Kyiv, under the baton of Ukrainian conductor Vasyl Vasylenko. Never could there have been such an enthusiastic response from an audience, who rose to their feet as a single body.
Nevertheless, even if were not for the heightened circumstances of a horrific war, this artistic integrity of this Madama Butterfly stands on its own as a piece of operatic exquisiteness. It is a literal interpretation true to Puccini’s intentions that points up the music and poetry of the piece.
Read more…True Minds
Shakespeare in Love, the Play
by Lee Hall, based on the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard
Teddington Theatre Club at Hampton Hill Theatre until 19th March
Review by Celia Bard
The film, Shakespeare in Love, was one I very much enjoyed, and I wondered how well the screenplay would translate into a playscript. By the end of this production I was in no doubt. Lee Hall has opened the door into the world of theatre and invited audiences to marvel at the antics of an Elizabethan theatrical company planning its next production. Hall has produced a masterpiece that draws on an intimate knowledge of Elizabethan England, Shakespeare and his plays, and the rivalries that beset Shakespeare’s theatre, the Globe and that other theatre, The Rose. The action in Shakespeare in Love, the Play, is often chaotic, but there is also love – both tender and vociferous, comedy that makes you chortle and pathos that draws on the heartstrings. Expect also to be mesmerised by the Elizabethan convention of cross-dressing, mistaken identity and comic subplots. Award yourself points if you succeed in identifying the number of different plays, characters, important personages of the period, referred to in this play.
Read more…Sultry Spanish Seduction
Carmen
by Georges Bizet, libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy
Sembla and Ellen Kent Productions at Richmond Theatre until 14th March, then on tour until 8th May
Review by Claire Alexander
Richmond Theatre was packed last night to see Ellen Kent’s production of Bizet’s Carmen. Richmond may only be a tube ride from the grand opera houses of central London but this is a rare opportunity to see top class opera on your own doorstep.
When I opened the programme to see that the orchestra was the Orchestra of the Ukrainian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Kiev, and the conductor (Vasyl Vasylenko) their artistic director, and most of the singers either Ukrainian, Moldovan and even Russian, the evening suddenly achieved a new poignancy. And so somehow did the story of Carmen and Don Jose’s fatal choice between duty and family.
Read more…All the Fun of the Fair
Così Fan Tutte
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 22nd March
Review by Andrew Lawston
Against a glittering golden curtain, a rousing rendition of Ukraine’s National Anthem brings the audience together before Così fan tutte has even begun.
This revival of director Phelim McDermott’s 2014 production of Mozart’s comic opera begins with a flourish that sets a playful tone for the evening, as the skills ensemble of sword swallowers, contortionists, fire-eaters, and acrobats take turns to climb from Don Alfonso’s surprisingly capacious trunk onto the Coliseum’s forestage.
As the carnivalesque ensemble melt into the background of a bar in a faded recreation of 1950s Coney Island, Don Alfonso begins to harangue his two young friends Guglielmo and Ferrando about the essential duplicity of women.
Read more…Troll Models
Snow White
by Ben Crocker
Questors at the Judi Dench Playhouse, Ealing until 27th March
Review by Nick Swyft
What did you miss at Christmas? Was it the song and dance, men dressed as women and women dressed as men? Was it cries of ‘he’s behind you!’ and the riotous audience participation? Was it a classic tale of an oppressed child making good in the end? Due to pandemic restrictions Questors lost the chance to give us all this. Nevertheless, undeterred, they gave us an excellent and colourful panto for spring (not yet Easter).
Read more…Poignancy Propelled
Letters and Longings
by Emma Louise Tinniswood
Step on Stage Performing Arts at Hampton Hill Theatre, until 5th March
Review by Heather Moulson
We sat down to a curtain-less set, with a pensive blue backdrop, that was simple yet effective. The dramatic lighting by Ken Lau, and the sleek direction by Emma Louise Tinniswood brought this dark, vibrant piece alive, with predominately white costumes whose simplicity matched the mood of this grim era. Each scene was striking in its own way with tableaux from talented young actors from Step on Stage Performing Arts.
Mark Aspen 