“There isn’t an actor who does not love the Richmond Theatre”, starts the chapter on tonight’s venue in the highly recommended doorstopper London’s Great Theatres by Simon Callow and Derry Moore. Pre-lockdown intensive renovations went ahead at this beauty on Richmond Green. A blue plaque refers to theatre architect legend Frank Matcham. Insisting that we … Continue reading When Darkness Falls – from Guernsey to Richmond Theatre
Strongly recalling visits to London’s National Theatre (another prominent example of 1970s brutalism architecture), it appears the Gillian Lynne Theatre in Covent Garden also mastered an auditorium without bad seats. For the price we paid, we are more than happy with our seats in the first row of the balcony to the right, despite the apparent restricted view: Even the … Continue reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the West End’s Gillian Lynne Theatre
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
Having followed The Polly Clamorous Collective (that is Aurora Richardson, Jamie Bell, Isabelle Woolley and Stefanie Bruckner) for a while at least online I am excited to see them and a first visit to the Camden People’s Theatre also adds a new venue to my audience experience. Its façade and entrance almost vanishes between Euston’s … Continue reading Harmonised frustration – Herstory by The Polly Clamorous Collective at the Camden People’s Theatre
Summer has arrived in Twickenham when you lay in the park and the people around you start practicing Shakespeare, accompanied by the screeches of passing parakeets flying over. A week of outdoor performances by the Richmond Shakespeare Society is indeed an annual tradition, each year in front of the scenic nymphs’ (or rather correctly oceanides’) … Continue reading Watching an interrupted Midsummer Night’s Dream in Twickenham’s Fountain Garden
Richard McElvain’s performance of The Chess Player based on Stefan Zweig’s short novel is radical and respectful, frightening and enlightening – a good tale is being promised in the story which forms the framework on a cruise ship and we will not be disappointed. McElvain has not only adapted Zweig’s Schachnovelle, post-humously published in the … Continue reading Defining and living quality time with Richard McElvain as The Chess Player in London, Barnes
Sadie takes the Stage 