This December is the first in which I receive an email from Charles Dickens. It includes log-in details and thanks to these, tonight’s audience and actors are all together on a Zoom call: “Hello, my little Christmas crackers!” I recognize most faces from Open Bar’s Shakespeare in the Garden, the theatre company behind the only … Continue reading Open Bar making A Christmess Carol online
Reviewing a recorded play of Charles Dickens’ uber-classic A Christmas Carol, aimed at 4-11-year-olds comes with a challenge when, however hard I try, I do not fit in the target audience. Luckily, I can rely on Eliana, six, and Nico, four, who happily help out, and with the assistance of their parents we all connect digitally and watch this 15 minute show from our screens miles apart together. The video starts … Continue reading Watching Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on cardboard – with Polka Theatre’s key audience as judges
Obviously, I agree to review a Christmas concert, once I discover that it falls on the date my beloved grandma would have turned almost ninety. And especially when it has been set up to raise awareness for the isolation and loneliness of our elder citizens. The Constella OperaBallet’s Christmas Gala 2020 is available to watch … Continue reading The Constella OperaBallet’s Christmas Gala 2020 connects stars with the nation’s care homes and your living room
The piano overture of this little masterpiece of musical theatre already brings some reminiscence of Anatevka – it was Marc Chagall who made the fiddler on the roof a cultural icon in his paintings, reminiscing about the place he grew up in, in what is now Belarus. There is also a cello on stage (played … Continue reading Live and online from Bristol: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk
After a long day of working from home as I have done since March, I am too tired to switch on my camera for this online evening of storytelling and opt for the role as a silent listener. Fellow listeners here are far more interactive, greeting friends and relatives in the southern hemisphere, present their … Continue reading Zoom into Wintery Tales – an online evening of storytelling
It was a relief when the Shakespeare In The Garden troupe from the Open Bar theatre company got the go ahead to tour England’s pub gardens as long as social distancing measures were in place. I bought my tickets immediately as this is something which needs supporting, no matter if I would feel comfortable going … Continue reading You cannot furlough the spirit of summer – Shakespeare in the Garden plays The Tempest in Surrey
The audio recording of Love, Love, Love begins with a warning of strong language and explicit sexual scenes, then a collage of news footage of the UK’s chaotic lockdown start in March follows, especially difficult for theatres suddenly hanging in limbo: The government did not close them but advised their guests not to go. “Missed … Continue reading Mike Bartlett’s Love, Love, Love at the Hammersmith Lyric – for your ears only
The drums and instruments played at Theatre Lab Company’s Medea might be the same I have heard last time at a Kurdish wedding – here at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith the wedding celebrations of Jason and Glauce are held. We hear from the attending servants who curse the famous Argo Jason arrived with at … Continue reading Theatre on demand (Riverside Studios 2014) – Theatre Lab Company’s Medea by Euripides
Did you know that you can point out actors at a party because they will harmonize when singing Happy Birthday? Expect more thrusts on The Ivy scene, people boring others with their knowledge about Japanese whiskey while quoting from Notting Hill for unrequested aspiration - enter the world of struggling actor Stephen. Failing to bond … Continue reading Take a London city break – listen to The Understudy
Critics and fans list The Tiger’s Bride among The Company of Wolves continuously as a favourite of Angela Carter’s fairy tale retellings in The Bloody Chamber which was first published in 1979. My edition counts twenty pages of this interpretation of The Beauty and Beast myth: A young girl has been lost in a card … Continue reading Please respect the paywall: Angela Carter’s The Tiger’s Bride by the Marvellous Machine Theatre Company in Oxford
