Sunday Roast
Table Manners
by Alan Ayckbourn
Questors Productions at the Juli Dench Playhouse, Ealing, until 19th July
Review by Andrew Lawston
In the grip of yet another heatwave, the Questors Student Group 77 are taking us back to 1973, for a chaotic Alan Ayckbourn weekend of dysfunctional family fun with Table Manners.
Annie is looking after her bedridden mother, and is in need of a break. She asks her brother Reg and sister-in-law Sarah to take care of her for a few days so that she can abscond with her sister Ruth’s husband Norman for an illicit weekend away in East Grinstead. Plans go awry when Norman shows up to collect Annie, as does her other potential boyfriend, the well-intentioned local vet Tom. When the short-sighted Ruth also arrives, the stage is set for farcical fun.
Read more…My Name Is, Er, Bond?
Bonding
by Cyril Blake
Seabright Live at Wilton’s Music Hall,Wapping until 11th July, then on tour until 26th August
Review by Eleanor Marsh
An eclectic audience, in an almost full house, were in attendance at Wilton’s to see a play about James Bond. They knew their stuff, all had their favourite Bonds and cheered lustily for them when asked and the set pieces of Martini glass gag and gun barrel sequence got them cheering. They were in for a good night.
The premise of this one man play is an autobiographical study of parent-children relationships, male bonding and what masculinity means, all seen through the eyes of a James Bond fan and his dad, with a little help from 007 himself. The play comes full circle and there was a palpable moment of “oh, of course” from the audience in the final few minutes. It’s a good device to use jackets symbolising each Bond actor and era to add interest and clarity to the piece. It is also a nice touch that the actor’s impression of each icon is performed very knowingly tongue in cheek.
Read more…Stirred, Not Shaken
Bonding: The Myth, The Legend and The Legacy of Bond
by Cyril Blake
Seabright Live at the Corn Exchange, Newbury until 8th July, then on tour until 26th August
Review by Sam Martin
Newbury’s Corn Exchange was transformed into a time-travelling, nostalgia-drenched homage to the world’s most famous spy this summer, as Cyril Blake brought his one-man show Bonding: The Myth, The Legend and The Legacy of Bond to the stage. Written and performed by Blake, and deftly directed by Matthew Parker, this production is far more than a tribute to Bond’s shaken-not-stirred bravado. It’s a touching and unexpectedly vulnerable look at family, identity, grief, and the myths we inherit, and sometimes outgrow.
The show follows Steven Lewis, a man whose life has been inextricably ‘bonded’ to the Bond franchise, thanks to a deep-rooted connection with his father. Through an inventive mix of storytelling, impersonation, comedy, and candid reflection, Blake skilfully explores how our favourite fictional worlds become entwined with real-life memories. From childhood games to adult grief, Bonding maps out a personal history that mirrors the changing face of Bond across the decades.
Read more…Backstroke
Airswimming
by Charlotte Jones
Teddington Theatre Club at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre until 12th July
Review by Steve Mackrell
A strange title, said someone in the foyer before the show. Possibly. But it transpired to be an apt choice for this gem of a play where “airswimming” refers to buoyancy and keeping one’s head above water in times of desperation; in this case, a story of two women trying to keep sane after being wrongly incarcerated in a mental asylum.
Read more…Volcanic
Les Indes galantes
by Jean-Philippe Rameau, libretto by Louis Fuzelier
The Grange Festival at The Grange Northington, Alresford until 2nd July, then on international tour until 4th December
Review by Mark Aspen
With temperatures soaring towards the highest ever in Hampshire, it seemed almost redundant for Rameau to take us on a musical journey to hotter climes, but this proved to be a most remarkable voyage of discovery.
Incredibly, although Les Indes galantes, written in 1735, is one of the most recorded of Rameau’s works, this is its first fully staged production of the whole opera ever presented in the United Kingdom. It is, however, an opéra-ballet, a form that has certain complexities that, nearly three centuries later need addressing with ingenuity. These include intricate techniques, unfamiliar today, that make heavy demands on the singers; a tightly interwoven musical score set for large orchestration; and the fully integrated expression of dance within the action. These hurdles are brilliantly overcome by the unlikely combination of ensembles; the baroque orchestra Cappella Mediterranea, using period instruments, and the baroque choir, Chœur de chambre de Namur; with the contemporary dance company Structure Rualité, based on hip-hop and street-dance styles.
Read more…Hot Horrors
The Rocky Horror Show
by Richard O’Brien
Trafalgar Theatre Productions at the New Wimbledon Theatre until 5th July, then on tour until 13th June 2026
Review by Thea Diamond
The streets of Wimbledon are bustling with summer excitement, not only being at the peak of the heat wave, but also with the opening week a certain world-famous tennis tournament. To add to the party atmosphere, it’s Wimbledon’s turn to host the Rocky Horror Show, coinciding with the end of Pride month. This musical holds a huge part in queer history, having debuted just six years after homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales.
Its now familiar yet hugely bold and bonkers story starts with two recently engaged 1950’s squeaky clean college kids, Brad and Janet, who are on their way to meet with their high school science teacher, wheel-chair bound Dr Scott (Edward Bullingham). They get a flat tyre and are stranded in the middle of nowhere on a dark and stormy night, and this is where the subversive chaos intensifies.
Read more…Companies Act
Company
by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth
BROS Theatre Company at the. Hampton Hill Theatre, until 5th July
Review by David Marks
“Phone rings, door chimes, in comes company…” is one of the most recognisable lyrics in musical theatre. Stephen Sondheim’s Company is one of his most accessible shows, with several of its songs recognised as classics. It is also one of his most popular. Notable cast members of many, many productions since the show’s initial Broadway run in 1970 include, amongst many other luminaries of Broadway, West End and Hollywood royalty, Elaine Stritch, Jane Russell, Adrian Lester, George Chakiris and Patti Lupone.
Everyone who has seen Company has a favourite production or performer. The show has die-hard superfans. For BROS Theatre Company at Hampton Hill Theatre this week, therefore the pressure is on. BROS is never afraid of a challenge, though and everyone rose to this one with aplomb.
Read more…Cliff Hanger
Sunshine on a Plate
by Elizabeth Blake
In association with Phoenix Arts at the Lantern Theatre, Brighton until 27th June
Review by Eleanor Marsh
Clarice Cliff is now a renowned name in ceramics. Her “Bizarre” designs (the “sunshine on a plate” of this play’s title) speak of decadence, fun and not taking anything too seriously: perfect for the hedonistic between-the-wars era. But Clarice’s background was not decadent, hedonistic or privileged. She was a working class lass from Stoke on Trent who started work on the production line in the potteries at the age of thirteen, as did so many of her school friends and neighbours. Clarice, however was different – very different. She had a wonderful imagination coupled with the drive to succeed, a winning combination by any standards. To climb to the great heights she did within her own lifetime, in an era where women had virtually no voice, was achievement indeed.
Read more…Horrific Beauty and Lyrical Intensity
Fidelio
by Ludwig van Beethoven, libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner and Georg Friedrich Treitschke, after Jean-Nicolas Bouilly
Garsington Opera Festival at the Wormsley Estate, Stokenchurch until 22nd July
Review by Mark Aspen
Complete darkness, rarely experienced, is terrifying. Many years ago, I became briefly lost in a limestone cave, just a series fissures really, without any light. Then, that moment when I re-emerged into the living world is forever etched in my memory: grass that was oh so green, wild flowers in profusion, butterflies, and above all sunlight! That feeling of freedom was overwhelming.
Hence it is with a frisson of horror that I find deep empathy with Floristan, the cruelly incarcerated political prisoner in Fidelio.
Read more…Warning Trigger
4.48 Psychosis
by Sarah Kane
Royal Shakespeare Company at The Jerwood Upstairs, the Royal Court Theatre, Chelsea until 5thJuly, then at the Other Place Stratford until 27thJuly
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Twenty-five years ago, Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis received its first performances after her suicide the previous year. A quarter of a century later, that production has been revived – with the same cast and director – at the Royal Court Theatre in its intimate Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. 25 years is a long time in theatre. Kane’s work has inevitably become less closely linked to her life and tragic suicide and now seems to be standing on its own feet, having morphed from iconoclastic to classic.
And, while it may have the same performers – Daniel Evans, Jo McInnes, and Madeleine Potter – they are now 25 years older, and the cultural context is different. There is more awareness of mental health issues, and the pain that comes with them. Perhaps this makes this play seem less daring and unusual than it was when it was new.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 