Blast Furnace
King Lear
by William Shakespeare
The Rhinoceros Theatre Company at the Hampton Hill Theatre until 26th February
Review by Mark Aspen
Storm Dudley, Storm Eunice, Storm Franklin. The week leading up to the opening night of Rhinoceros Theatre Company’s new production of King Lear left most open land in the country as a blasted heath. This tempestuous triumvirate was an appropriate herald to announce the arrival of a remarkably insightful production that captures both the elemental and visceral nature of what is arguably Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy.
Read more…Slightly Foxed
The Cunning Little Vixen
by Leoš Janáček
English National Opera at the London Coliseum until 1st March
Review by Andrew Lawston
Unavoidably delayed due to Storm Eunice, the English National Opera’s new production of Leoš Janàček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen is a visual riot of fantastical costumes and inventive staging, and of course a feast for the ears. As soon as the ENO Orchestra begins tuning up, the windswept West End outside becomes a distant memory. The Coliseum is the perfect venue for this production, as former musical director Sir Charles Mackerras was credited with introducing Janàček’s music to English audiences.
In this deceptively slight tale, a young vixen is captured by a Forester and raised in a human house. Her upbringing isn’t happy, and she eventually escapes into the woods to start a new life, outwitting humans and other animals alike.
Read more…A Force to Be Reckoned With
La Forza del Destino
by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Francesco Piave
Regents Opera, St John’s, Fulham until 5th March
Review by Helen Astrid
Verdi’s La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny or the Power of Fate) is the only opera where the composer has titled his work with an idea or concept, but it is a relevant one. It means that in his world individuals make decisions and choices that have repercussions. Bad decisions, even slight transgressions, have to be punished. It’s a moral order that permeated much 19th Century art and literature of the period.
Verdi composed the opera to end an extended hiatus from music; a three-year span during which he wrote no new operas, and actually told friends that he was no longer a composer. The commission that brought him back to the opera house came from the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1869. After considering a number of subjects for a new opera, Verdi chose a Spanish play called La fuerza del sino – The Power of Fate. It was adapted by librettist Francesco Maria Piave, who also worked with Verdi on several other operas, including Macbeth and Rigoletto.
Keeping on Track
Holloway Jones
by Evan Placey
Richmond Shakespeare Society Young Actors’ Company at the Mary Wallace Theatre, Twickenham until 20th February
Review by Eleanor Lewis
The life stretching ahead of Holloway Jones (so named because her mother is in prison, father absent) is like the track on which she races her BMX bike: ups, downs hairpin corners and plenty of potential for accidents. Having once been given an old bike by one of her former foster carers, Holloway has become a skilled BMX rider and her coach is training her for the Olympic Academy. Aside from her foster carer (only ever briefly referred to), her best friend Gem and her coach, Holloway is largely adrift in the world, so when controlling boyfriend Avery enters her life the train of events is unsurprising.
Read more…Musically Striking
The Bells of St Mary’s : Preview
The Thames Singers at Hampton Parish Church, Hampton 26th February
Preview by Thomas Forsythe with Jonathan Williams
Music critic Thomas Forsythe discusses the Bells of Hampton Church and the forthcoming A Concert for the Bells with St Mary’s Ringing Master, Jonathan Williams
TF: Campanology is a great word for a pub quiz, but it must be exciting to be part of the skilled ringing band making these giants of the musical world sing out so joyously.
JW: St Mary’s eight bells are a key part of our local heritage and has been ringing for nearly two centuries, so yes, it is an exhilarating experience. They were cast together as a set as the present church was being completely re-built in 1831. Our octet has been a call to worship ever since for Sunday services, for weddings and for special occasions … royal jubilees for example.
TF: Though I hear that you are planning a rehanging of the bells, an extensive piece of work. So will they be back in place to ring for the Queen’s Jubilee?
Read more…Six of the Best
WriteFest22
The 15th Annual WriteFest
Progress Company at Progress Theatre, Reading until 19th February
Review by Nick Swyft
The welcome return of Progress Theatre’s WriteFest, after a break of two years due to the pandemic, consisted of six one-act plays. This gives local writers an opportunity to strut their stuff with full stage production and direction in front of a paying audience. Submissions are open to anyone, but this year all the successful ones came from the Reading Playwrights’ group. The message for everyone else is get writing!
Of course, one cannot expect lavish sets with six completely different plays to produce, and for the most part these weren’t necessary anyway. The one exception may have been The Fisherman and his Wife where the changing situations of the pair might have benefited from a more sophisticated set, and some changes of costume. However it’s hard to see how this could have been achieved. As it was the Progress team did a great job of providing exactly the right atmosphere for all the plays.
Read more…Baton of Violence
Killology
by Gary Owen
Putney Theatre Company at the Putney Arts Studio until 19th February
Review by Denis Valentine
Killology is an award winning play written by Gary Owen and now on stage for a run at the Putney Arts Theatre. Although the brief tagline may seem as if it’s going to concern the effects of playing violent video games, it quickly becomes apparent that the play is far more interested in exploring the consequences of personal actions and how they are influenced by human relationships, especially on a paternal level.
The players on stage, Jerome Joseph Kennedy, Morgan Beale, and Theo Leonard each relish their roles and attack the parts with gusto. Excuse the metaphor, but as the play is formed almost like a relay, with the spotlight constantly moving back and forth on stage, not at one point is the baton dropped when it’s anyone turn to run with it.
Read more…Bantz and boisterousness
La bohème
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto translated by Amanda Holden
ENO with the Cincinnati Opera, at the Coliseum, until 27th February
Review by Matthew Grierson
There’s no doubt that ENO’s revival of La bohème, directed by Crispin Lord, is a joy. It’s easy to share the boisterous bonhomie of Rodolfo (David Junghoon Kim) and his roustabout chums as they lark through interwar Paris, the setting having been transplanted a generation or two by Dr Miller. Whether conniving against their landlord, avoiding a ruinous bill or dancing in their garret, they display a recognisably fun and engaging laddishness.
But it’s then harder to join them in the despair of their affairs. So much of their humour is already a put-on that one can’t ever be sure that they are not knowingly acting in the way lovers are supposed to.
Read more…Going Dutch
La Bohème
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Instant Opera at Normansfield Theatre, Teddington until 30th January
Review by Mark Aspen
By the time Puccini penned the score to La bohème in 1896, impressionism was well established in salon art, and there is something of the impressionist in the opera. Its impact comes from its atmosphere, a series of mood scenes. In fact Murger’s novel, on which the opera is based, started life as in a magazine as a series of word-sketches on Bohemian life in Paris, quite literally Scènes de la vie de Bohème.
If it is a mood piece, then clearly it does not need to be set in Paris in 1830. So I should not have been surprised to discover that Instant Opera’s revival of La bohème is set in Amsterdam in 1973-74. Nevertheless, not having seen its original 2019 production, I wondered how it would translate to the free-thinking, free-wheeling, free-love world of Amsterdam nearly a century and a half later.
Read more…Over the Moon
The Red Lion
by Patrick Marber
Teddington Theatre Club at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre, until 5th February
Review by Heather Moulson
Taking us through scenes of Noon, Dusk and Night, we encounter three angry men and a vicious battle of wills, destroying each other and themselves in the Red Lion FC’s team changing room. Although an intense play, this studio production of The Red Lion evokes these clashing rivalries with hard-edged humour.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 