“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
As someone who has worked in the UK most of my post-uni life, I am intrigued by Try Harder, Yusuf Niazi’s playwright debut: What are young people willing to do nowadays in order to get a job? At the point the story starts, Lucy, Sam and Grace are all desperate for money, so desperate that … Continue reading Try Harder at the Omnibus Theatre – a genuinely good debut
Come From Away is a love letter to the wonders of air travelling and being connected, of pilots and the warm welcome another person’s home can offer when lost and unprepared: In the era of chunky Nokia phones and Hugh Grant romcoms, a provincial airport somewhere in Newfoundland unexpectedly hosts thousands of passengers which were … Continue reading Come From Away at the Phoenix Theatre – I want to go again
You have truly made it in show biz if you have been abducted by a mega fan: Tom Reynolds’ radical admirer is the gun-equipped, wide-eyed epidemiologist Astrid Barton (Ciara Murphy) who has obsessively watched every piece of video footage of her favourite actor. In a room decorated with signed film posters and photographs, he is … Continue reading Chop Me Up Or Let Me Go at the Bread And Roses Theatre in Clapham
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
Back at the Actor’s Centre at the Tristan Bates Theatre I am invited to the opening night of Syndrome, a new play by Tina Jay and directing debut of Jack Brett Anderson. Admittedly I know little about the Gulf War of the early 1990s and always thought of all soldiers’ trauma as terribly tragic, unjust … Continue reading Standing ovations for Syndrome at the Tristan Bates Theatre
Located just under Waterloo Station, I match anyone to find a venue in London better connected than The Vaults. But because train timetables are still not as reliable as in, say, Japan I arrive at the Vault’s front desk only exactly on time, am then directed through the purple-haired, crunchy wearing Vault Festival crowds and … Continue reading If you do not shout STOP, nothing will change – NUMB at the Vault festival
I wanted to discover Camden's Etcetera Theatre for a long time Dissociated is a play about Alex who was allowed to feel empowered and strong for the last time at her sixth birthday when hitting a pinata. Afterwards the repeated sexual abuse started, followed by the traumatic experience of not being taken seriously by her … Continue reading Dare to be a victim – Dissociated at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden Town
Wouldn’t life be easier if none of us were adults with responsibilities, but we all became random items from a toy box? Pedro for example lives for dressing up as dairy cow Daisy whose only worry is on which side of the meadow the grass is greener and if her friend Darren, a locomotive, passes … Continue reading Not so happy after all – Offstage at the Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden
Seeing an ensemble of six actors at the same time in a small space like the Hope Theatre above the Hope & Anchor pub in Islington is rare. But in this tale about Max – who lost his girlfriend Tess in a car crash he and his brother Chris survived – the stage seems never … Continue reading Still thinking about it: Testament by Sam Edmunds at the Hope Theatre
Sadie takes the Stage 