Month: February 2023

DOM the play by Lloyd Evans is always funny, well performed and occasionally has some thoughtful things to say, though those thoughtful things are never really explored and the tone is always light. Almost every person depicted in the show is caricatured, from the Remainer North London couple having a ridiculous, childlike tantrum on the… Continue reading DOM the play

Don’t expect any uplifting sequences in Oklahoma directed by Daniel Fish. This is a production that explores a more disturbing side of America. Gun displays line the walls, songs are often given a minimal country and western tilt and, just so the audience isn’t lulled into any dreamlike state, it feels as if the house… Continue reading Oklahoma

Never work with children and animals, they say. The ever-popular musical Annie does not heed this particular warning, featuring not only performers still in primary school but a dog (in this case, Amber with an understated performance as Annie’s adopted stray Sandy). Originally opening on Broadway in 1977, Annie boasts a Tony award-winning book and… Continue reading Annie

Using elements of fringe and physical theatre, a circus setting, and an abundant supply of acting energy, no-one could dispute that this production goes around, and around, in all sorts of ways. It’s a production that started life as mobile street theatre, touring York, and is a co-production between that city’s Theatre Royal and theatre… Continue reading Around the World in 80 Days

The lethal paranoia of the Soviet Union’s Stalinist regime sent millions of people to the gulags (labour camps) where many died due to the appalling conditions. A sizeable number were executed for the flimsiest of supposed crimes. Theatre practitioners were not exempt. Theatre of Gulags lets us glimpse the experience of four of them in… Continue reading Theatre of Gulags

Before Cavalli, before Monteverdi, in the beginning there was Emilio De’ Cavalieri. He was one of a group of Florentine aristocrats seeking to reproduce the combination of words and music that made up Greek theatre, and his La Rappresentatione, staged during the Rome Carnival of 1600, is acknowledged as the first opera, as we understand the… Continue reading Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo

As this racy, modern version of Hamlet demonstrates, Stratford Festival in Ontario is still the go-to location for high quality Shakespearean productions. Director Peter Pasyk’s vision of what many believe to be Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy and greatest play can be unconventional but is always satisfying. To start with, he updates the drama to the 21st… Continue reading Hamlet

It is an understatement to say live entertainment has had a rough time in recent years. Theatres emerged from lockdown to find a cost-of-living crisis has reduced the income households have available for a night out. COVID turns out to be the gift that keeps on giving and some audience members have become so unaccustomed… Continue reading The National Lottery’s Big Night of Musicals

“Parisian life—endless fun and games,” exclaims good-time girl Gabrielle. That seems about right for this glorious, frolicsome romp where it seems any time is party time. Offenbach wrote his burlesque comedy to cash in on the World Exhibition to be held in Paris in 1867. Gardefeu, a young man about town, wants to seduce a… Continue reading La Vie Parisienne

Niall Moorjani’s grandfather was eleven years old in 1947 when India was divided by the British colonial rulers into two separate countries with horrific consequences. On the Crypt’s thrust stage with the heavy rumble of trains above, Niall switches between speaking directly to us about the context of those events and sitting in a chair… Continue reading Mohan: A Partition Story