Word-Play by Rabiah Hussain, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 29 July 2023

The Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square by Stacey Harris, CC BY-SA 2.0

This was our first visit to the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs since before the pandemic. Until then, we were fairly regular visitors to that small space. Our previous visit, in 2019 had been a rare miss for us…

Word-Play was definitely not a miss for us, far from it, although Janie did find the short scenes with the actors playing different characters in different times and places more than a little disconcerting.

But we both agreed that the acting by all five cast members; Issam Al Ghussain, Kosar Ali, Simon Manyonda, Sirine Saba, and Yusra Warsama, was superb. Many of the scenes worked terrifically well, especially the more intimate ones. Word-Play is a very ambitious piece of writing and we shall certainly look out for Rabiah Hussain’s work again.

Here is a link to the Royal Court resource for this play/production.

This link should find plenty of reviews, most of which are good or very good – one or two not so.

It’s running until late August 2023 and we would certainly recommend this innovative piece of theatre if you get to this page in time to get a ticket.

Giving by Hannah Patterson, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 4 June 2016

Janie wasn’t sure that she was in the mood for the theatre when we set off for Swiss Cottage that evening, especially when I said that the subject matter was big donor philanthropy. “More your sort of subject than mine,” she said.

Still, there was the promise of a different oriental restaurant to try afterwards, Singapore Garden, a result of Janie’s research. Plus the fact that the play was billed as a short one; 90 minutes without an interval.

Janie’s spirits were further dampened when we took our seats, as a group of four people asked us to budge along our row to the end. At first Janie simply said no, so they split their group around us. Frankly, I couldn’t understand why they hadn’t gone to the other side where there were at least two blocks big enough for their group. Still, I told Janie that I thought she had responded rather abruptly, so Janie relented and we ended up tucked in the corner. “They didn’t even say thank you and I’m stuck with a lousy view,” fumed Janie.

After a while, I turned to the gentleman next to me and arranged for us to sit more centrally while they took the four corner seats, which seemed fairer in the circumstances. One woman in front of us turned round and said to Janie,  “good on you; I hate it when people badger me like that.”  Oh for the relative simplicity of allocated seats.

Anyway, it turned out that this was a really good play/production. The set is simple but clever, as furniture representing different locations get tucked away into the walls of other locations; not original but well done in this play. The acting from all four was excellent.

The plot satisfying enough. We aren’t really made to dig too deep into the moral dilemmas around conscience-salving donors, but there is enough intrigue, love interest and moral uncertainty to keep you guessing and to make you think. Well worth the 90 minutes and the modest price for tickets downstairs. We continue to see the Hampstead Downstairs as a gem of a place with a terrific hit rate from our point of view.

Downstairs productions don’t get formal reviews, of course, but it is covered well on monkeymatterstheatre.com, also on the oughttobeclowns blogspot. The latter points out how very special  Sinéad Matthews is as an up and coming actress. We first spotted her more than 10 years ago, in The Wild Duck at the Donmar, when she was but a nipper.

Later, to add compliment to remedy, we thoroughly enjoyed our Singapore Garden dinner. Where has that place been all our lives? Well, it’s been in Swiss Cottage/South Hampstead for some while I gather.

Wildefire by Roy Williams, Hampstead Theatre, 7 November 2014

A play about modern policing in the inner-London suburbs, the central character being a policewoman who might have bitten off more than she can chew in that environment.

Roy Williams is a highly skilled playwright and this subject-matter is right up his street.

Lots of subplots – domestic violence, police corruption (or is it) in attempts to infiltrate criminal gangs etc.

In some ways the play was all over the place and in that sense unsatisfactory. We went on a Friday after work (and Harry Mograns) – we were quite exhausted by the end of it, despite the fact that it is a short piece (not even 90 minutes long).

But it was gripping and had some great scenes and some superb acting in it – we were glad to have seen this piece.

Here is a link to the Hampstead resource on this play/production.

Below is a little “behind the scenes” vid with Roy Williams & more:

On the whole the critics were underwhelmed by the piece – click here for a link to the reviews.