Category: Theatre
Interference Pattern
Gary Mepsted’s psycho-sexual comedy drama about the twisted consequences of an affair comes with a warning that it is only suitable for over 18s. But it isn’t as grown-up as it thinks it is. The title refers to a physics phenomenon whereby the interference of two or more waves produces … Continue Reading Interference Pattern
The Importance of Being Earnest
What’s in a name? Everything for hapless Jack, whose decadent alter ego Ernest pays him a surprise visit courtesy of his mischievous friend Algernon. Hi-jinks ensue and romance blossoms as everyone learns the importance of being earnest. Skylight Theatre sets this much loved comedy of manners and identity confusion in … Continue Reading The Importance of Being Earnest
Rachael’s Cafe
Friendly, mini-skirted Rachael spends her days serving home-cooked food and tea in the café she owns in Bloomington, Indiana. But her life isn’t as straightforward as it sounds – because Rachael was born Eric. This one-hour solo show comes to the Brighton Fringe after a successful run at last year’s Edinburgh Festival. … Continue Reading Rachael’s Cafe
Land’s End
Borders are fascinating, in part, because of the possibility of space in between. What could exist between two things? And what would it mean for identity, cultural or moral, to live there? This is the subject of Belgian theatre company Berlin’s latest project, a mix of media, technology and live … Continue Reading Land’s End
Motor Show
The walk from Brighton’s busy city centre to Black Rock, a patch of wasteland butting onto the coast, shadowed by a multi-storey car park, feels long – particularly late in the evening on a cold, windswept Thursday. As the Palace Pier twinkles into the distance and white seafront terraces give … Continue Reading Motor Show
White Rabbit, Red Rabbit
This intriguing piece of political meta-theatre frames its exploration of the complicity inherent in conformity in terms of the relationship between playwright, performer and audience. Devoid of a director, a set and acted by a different person each evening, it strips back the stage magic to ask: what’s really going … Continue Reading White Rabbit, Red Rabbit
The Rest is Silence
dreamspeakthink’s latest piece achieves the near Herculean task of bringing something fresh to a play that has been constantly and exhaustively re-staged, most recently with Michael Sheen as the eponymous Dane. Set in the present day, it snips and reconnects the threads of Shakespeare’s text in unexpected ways, resulting in … Continue Reading The Rest is Silence
The Conquering Hero
Last year’s rare revival of Allan Monkhouse’s ‘Mary Broome’ was a success for the Orange Tree. But this staging of the writer’s state-of-the-nation play from the early ’20s fails to shake off the dust of the archive. The large-scale recruitment demanded by World War I divided British society at a … Continue Reading The Conquering Hero
Barbarians
The volume of ‘Barbarians’ rarely drops below a shout. But Barrie Keeffe’s searing late-’70s depiction of a Britain that chews up its young and spits them out into a brutalising wasteland of broken promises and joblessness works best at high volume. Three linked plays about three lads explore with bruising … Continue Reading Barbarians
The Overcoat
Bank clerk Akaky McAkay has lived a low-key life. Since his birth during Elizabeth II’s coronation, his greatest joy has been to re-type loan applications and read Russian literature in bed. But the world is changing, even for the quiet man in the corner. When new management threatens his livelihood, … Continue Reading The Overcoat
Big and Small
Cate Blanchett is superb in Sydney Theatre Company’s new interpretation of German playwright Botho Strauss’s Brechtian exploration of alienation. Unlike some of the big names to tread the boards in London recently, she knows how to capture an audience. But she does so in a production that feels disjointed and … Continue Reading Big and Small
Neighbourhood Watch
Alan Ayckbourn’s brand of Little Britain social comedy has wrapped itself around many subjects over the years. Here, directing as well as writing, he tackles a Big Society-ish world with disarming wit. When a garden gnome is lobbed through a window, the Daily Mail-inflamed residents of Bluebell Hill Development take … Continue Reading Neighbourhood Watch
Mary Rose
Matthew Parker’s version of this ghost story by JM Barrie is often mournfully beautiful, capturing the play’s dark swell of loss and need. It’s 1919 and Harry has returned to his family home after years abroad and time in the army. But the Sussex house, although locked up, is not … Continue Reading Mary Rose
A Clockwork Orange
Why bother adapting Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange after Kubrick? The author wasn’t happy with the film but as Stephen King’s dismal TV version of his own novel The Shining demonstrates, faithful doesn’t equal definitive. Add to the mix the tabloid scaremongering about copycat killings that saw Kubrick ban his film from being shown … Continue Reading A Clockwork Orange
Interview: Clever as Clever
Following the success of their debut production, Public Interest, exciting young theatre company Clever as Clever returns to the New Diorama Theatre with Four Days of Grace. This one-actor show tells the story of Grace, a young mother trying to put the pieces of her life in place. Restricted to … Continue Reading Interview: Clever as Clever
How’s the World Treating You?
Frank More just wants to teach history. But from losing his trousers in an army transit camp in 1946 to losing his marbles as a failed washing machine salesman in 1966, will he ever succeed? Roger Milner’s surreal three-act comedy about post-war British snobbery and double standards – unseen in … Continue Reading How’s the World Treating You?