West End Re-Packaged
Matilda the Musical Jr.
by Denis Kelly, based on the story by Roald Dahl, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin
Dramacube, Twickenham Green Cast at Hampton Hill Theatre until 18th December
Review by David Stephens
Having seen the RSC’s spectacular production of Matilda the Musical twice now (once was not enough for my, ahem, children), it was with great excitement that I attended Dramacube’s version at Hampton Hill Theatre on Saturday evening. Upon arrival, I was informed that tonight’s show would be performed by the Twickenham ‘Green’ cast and that the main roles of Matilda, Bruce, Mrs Wormwood, Miss Honey and Ms Trunchball, would all be played by the ‘B’ stream. Flicking through the programme, one immediately realised the magnitude of Dramacube’s undertaking, with no fewer than five different casts set to perform the production over a four day period and with many of the main roles being interchanged between different performers on a nightly basis.
Read more…Feats of Acting
Matilda the Musical Jr.
by Denis Kelly, based on the story by Roald Dahl, music and lyrics by Tim Minchin
Dramacube, Twickenham Purple Cast at Hampton Hill Theatre until 18th December
Review by Evie Schaapveld
Evie Schaapveld is one of our younger reviewers. Eleven years old, she acts with a number of local stage companies.
In the Purple Cast of Matilda I saw many feats of acting and great stage direction. Some of the most notable things were the astonishing choreography and how all the children performed so energetically, and so well keeping their moves in time.
Notably, the background was incredible, elaborate yet so simple, changing from the library bookshelf setting to a blackboard and then to a field. But one of the most impressive things in my opinion was the feat of how they told the story of the Escapologist and the Acrobat, with one of the scenes being told by animation in the background. It was a very creative way of presenting it, as that scene would have been very difficult to do by acting it out.
Read more…Music, Magic and Multifarious Malarkey
Beauty and the Beast
by Eric Potts
Imagine Theatre at The Ashcroft Theatre, Fairfield Halls, Croydon until 2nd January
Review by Mark Aspen
Now, here’s something! I just heard someone on the radio describe panto as “a post-Freudian discourse on the transformative nature of inclusion and on societal barriers to equality issues”. Er, umm … Oh no it’s not! Panto is a great bit of knock-about family fun with a nice happy-ever-after story thrown in; and the usually silent audience get a chance to join in. All together … Oh yes it is! The audience at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls, children of all ages from 3 to 111, would without a doubt agree. Their socially distanced, flow-tested voices were loud and clear … well perhaps just loud from behind their masks. (By-the-way, the age range is from the Shout-out, but it turned out that the upper limit was a granny who was Ill.)
There is in fact plenty for the audience to shout about in Imagine Theatre’s Beauty and the Beast. For a start, they get two comic characters for the price of one, in the comedy duo, Dick & Dom; or as the rest of cast are prone to address them, “Ant-‘n’-Dec”. If that is a wind-up, these two don’t need winding up. They are electric. Maybe it is to compensate for the lack of a dame. (There seems to have been a national shortage of Dames this season. Maybe they are keeping the poor old dears away from the dreaded Omi-Khron.)
Read more…Light as Soufflé
Hay Fever
by Noël Coward
Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Mary Wallace Theatre, Twickenham until 18th December
Review by Gill Martin
To party or not to party. To gather or not to gather. The festive dilemma hangs heavy as plum pudding in the run up to Christmas. What better than a light-as-soufflé diversion? A trip to a Covid compliant theatre where Noël Coward, master of comedy, is back on stage with Hay Fever at the Mary Wallace Theatre in Twickenham, less than a mile from his Teddington birthplace.
This Richmond Shakespeare Society’s production of the 1920s drama has drama aplenty: histrionics, chest thumping, arm flailing, sobbing and swooning, anguish and ecstasy. Talk about playing to the gallery.
Director John Gilbert is known for his eye for style and period costume. And he doesn’t disappoint with this stylish satire that teeters between farce and a comedy of manners.
Read more…Magical Morality Tale
Beauty and the Beast
by Ciaran McConville, after the story by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve
Rose Original, Rose Theatre Kingston until 3rd January 2022
Review by Mark Aspen
Wild and desolate places, like high mountains, can be places of dread, apprehension and fear. Such a place is the setting of Kingston’s Rose Theatre’s retelling of a much retold fairytale. Set in the high Savoy Alps between France and Italy, Beauty and the Beast represents an inaccessible place, and by metaphorical extension, inaccessible places in the human nature. As an allegory, this would have great impact 250 years ago, but would it in the self-congratulatory cynical world of the twenty-first Century?
Before this all sounds too heavy and analytical, you can be reassured that this is a show that all members of the family will enjoy. Younger schoolchildren will find it exciting, once they have gritted their teeth or the scary bits, and it is indeed a gripping and enthralling show or all. The Rose is following its tradition of eschewing pantos for its Christmas offering and instead presenting an experience embodying magic and mystery … whilst gently spilling in meaning (the thing critics are supposed to look for).
Read more…Strictly Panto
Cinderella
by Alan McHugh
Crossroads Pantomimes at Richmond Theatre until 2nd January 2022
Review by Mark Aspen
What have Cinderella and Strictly Come Dancing in common? Well, there’s dancing of course, lots at Prince Charming’s palace. There are glittery high heeled shoes, lots of, one with half the pair missing. Then there’s Anton du Beke, lots of, in Richmond Theatre’s glittering zinging panto.
The glittering Fairy Godmother tells us, yes, we are in Richmond, more precisely “historic Richmond”, although the opening backdrop of the Palace has gained a few more turrets since the Tudor home-from-home on the other side of Richmond Green was downsized in the Civil War. Indeed, the sets and scenery get more magnificent as the show goes on. The climactic gold and silver ballroom set seems to have enough rare precious metals to solve the microchip shortage.
Read more…Upcycled storytelling
Peter Pan
by Jonny Danciger
OSO Barnes, until 19 December
Review by Matthew Grierson
Once the first joke is told about Captain Hook’s lost appendage, Smee hands – sorry, passes – a clipboard to one lucky mum so she can count the manual puns. She should have been given a bingo card to mark each panto tradition, though, so capably does this Peter Pan fulfil the audience’s expectations.
For reference, Mum counts a dozen plays on ‘hand’, though she must be enjoying herself too much to keep track as I’m certain there were more. While that figure may be in dispute, there were definitely only six cast members, though they achieve the impressive feat of seeming like a full and much better-resourced troupe. Of course, Mr and Mrs Darling (Sonny Pilgrem and Maddy Page) double as Smee and Captain Hook respectively, and fruity narrator Louis Pieris is ‘coerced’ into donning the crocodile skin later on. But all six players muck in to act, sing, dance, stooge and shift the scenery.
Read more…Don’t Judge a Sausage by Its Skin
Babe, The Sheep-Pig
by Dick King-Smith, adapted by David Wood
Progress Company at Progress Theatre, Reading until 11th December
Review by Nick Swyft
This is not the 1995 Hollywood spectacular. It is far better. In the film, all the animals were played by… well animals, supplemented by the voices of real actors and some CGI. Here they were played by real people, wearing beautiful animal masks made by the director Beckie Moir (look out for the cockerel in particular).
The plot of Babe, The Sheep-Pig follows the adventures of Babe (Milly Allen), who is won at a fair by the bland Farmer Hogget (Guy Nichols). There are some great asides from Mrs Hogget (Michelle Appleby) who thinks that he is to be fattened up to provide their Christmas dinner.
Read more…A Crime More Serious than Murder
Loot
by Joe Orton
Teddington Theatre Club at Hampton Hill Theatre until 11th December
Review by Celia Bard
For those of a certain age the play Loot always brings back strong memories of the violent death of its creator, Joe Orton, brutally murdered by his partner, Kenneth Halliwell in 1967, who himself then went on to commit suicide. However, such memories need to be put aside when watching a production of Loot although the presence of a coffin on stage throughout the play remains an ironic reminder of Orton’s untimely death. Knowing of the writer’s liking of black humour and irony, one suspects that the writer himself may well have appreciated the irony of the situation.
Read more…A Skeleton of Itself
2.22, A Ghost Story
by Danny Robins
Runaway Entertainment at the Gielgud Theatre, London until 12th February 2022
Review by Heather Moulson
“Deer-in-the-headlights moments” were what several reviewers expected of BBC’s young doyen ghost story scriptwriter when his new play, 2.22, A Ghost Story premiered last August for a two month run at the Noël Coward Theatre. It was indeed given plenty of stars. In fact it enjoyed weeks of sell-out performances in what was described as a record-breaking run. So confident trepidation is an understandable feeling when going to the opening of its winter revival run.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 