Excellent play and production, not very accurately described in the blurb!
Janie and I were both really taken with this play/production. In some ways, not really our type of play. Indeed, had the Hampstead blurb for this production described the play more accurately, we might have chosen not to go, on the basis…
haven’t we seen enough of these Jewish families with grudges plays?…can get all that at home…not another narrator looking back at his family upbringing play…
…which would have been a terrible shame, because this one really is excellent, both as a play and a production. Well drawn characters – you end up caring about all of them – even the old dragon of an alcoholic, mischief-making grandmother.
Suzanne Bertish, Anna Francolini and Ryan Kopel all put in superb performances, ably directed by Josh Seymour.
The house was not full on the Saturday evening we attended. Perhaps the blurb, which made us imagine that the play was about modern art, attracted a smaller audience than a more accurate blurb might have done.
Who knows? In any case, it still has a couple of weeks to run at the time of writing and we would recommend this highly if there are still some tickets available when you read this.
The above is a very relevant early example of my “work”, not least because Victoria (whose father I was spoofing in that lyric) directed and appeared in It’s A Funny New Game.
Anyway, I took the very slight detour from my regular routes twixt W2 and NW8 to revisit the Canal Café Theatre and see friends Mark Keegan and John Random in their football-oriented comedy show, It’s A Funny New Game.
The show is timed to coincide with the advent of a football world cup and much of the comedy is thus topical. What else would you expect from former Newsrevue stalwarts?
It was lovely to meet up with some of the old Newsrevue crowd the night I attended: Barry Grossman, Graham Robertson and even a special guest appearance from Harriet Quirk, which was a lovely surprise.
The show is bound to be funnier to people who understand the football jokes than it was to me. But some of the humour is universal, as are the characters. Egotist Barry Mousetrap – a theatrical football manager who struggles to separate compering a show with managing a football team. The god-fearing, temperance-touting Victorian referee played by John Random, who also excelled as a 120-year-old Uruguayan retired footballer, who recalls being chased by adoring female fans in the style of Pete & Dud: “Calm down girls, back off, form a orderly queue”…or words to that effect.
I enjoyed the video fillers that enabled some costume changes and provided some relief from the on-stage mayhem. The Sense & Sensibility spoof particularly pleased me (I’m partial to a bit of Jane Austen) although the football puns in that one were all wasted on me as I couldn’t contextualise them.
I could contextualise the Mastermind sketch, in which the England goalkeeper takes “inadvertently naming each member of England 2026 World Cup squad” as his specialist subject. This worked so well because, even if you didn’t know the names that were yet to come, you sort-of know that some of the names are going to be quite difficult to dovetail into a simple question and answer. Bellingham made me laugh out loud.
It was a game of one half, this show, as the whole show lasts about the length of one half of a football match. I think that’s about the right length for such a show.
But if you were not sated by my write up or by seeing the show, there is a book, linked below, available through that link or through other reputable and disreputable outlets.
Well done lads. Top performances. Now it’s time for your ice bath.
Shakespeare it isn’t. Google Flow picture morphing The Bard with Meself.
I was reminded of one of my favourite Peter Cook quotes, when seeing a preview of this one.
I go to the theatre to be entertained… I don’t want to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug addiction… I can get all that at home.
I also predicted with word perfect accuracy what Janie would say as soon as she felt able to express her opinion on the play:
Everything but the kitchen sink…
…and of course, kitchen sink drama should be what The Royal Court is all about.
I’m being a tad unfair, but only a tad. The core subject matter(s) of this play – sexploitation, sexual violence and the nether worlds where computer/AI fakery morph with human fakery – are hugely important topics in 2026 and worthy of coverage in drama.
The problem I have with a 65 minute long play, depicting 52 (that is not a misprint) different scenes, is that the drama is barely able to emerge through the fog of scene and personnel changes on stage.
It reminded me a bit of Martin Crimp‘s work – but unfortunately the Crimp that baffles us rather than the Crimp that does the business for us.
The actors did their best and several of them are among the best stage actors around at the moment; Lucy McCormick, Maimuna Memon and Nicholas Rowe stood out for me.
This relatively short run has sold out ahead of even opening, so my thoughts on the piece won’t be affecting readers go/no go decisions anyway. In any case, the formal reviews (which are starting to come out and which the search term if you click here will find) are surely less harsh than my and Janie’s judgements.
Georgie Dettmer clearly has a lot to say and is surely capable of saying the things she wants to say through playwriting. I would like to see how she gets on with chunkier scenes, trying to explore some of those dramatic depths.
I go to the theatre to be entertained… I don’t want to see plays that jump around a myriad of important topics at a rate of 50 matters per hour… I can get all that at home.
A very kind invitation from Claudia Lesley, who had scored a clutch of excellent seats for this production early in the run and thought of us. It was a great opportunity for Janie to met up with her old school pals, Claudia and Anthea. Plus what looked to be a very promising production of Equus, a play that I had studied at school but, apart from the movie version, had never seen.
Janie and I are both partial to a bit of Shaffer too. I had read or seen (or both) most of his oeuvre. Actually one of Janie’s and my early dates was a Shaffer:
Janie even (perhaps inadvertently) forgave Shaffer for his proclivity for theatrical dames who are not Janie’s favourites. Judy (e.g. Gift Of the Gorgon) and Maggie (in several Shaffers throughout my life, starting with The Public Eye and more recently Lettice and Lovage, which I saw back in the day).
Lindsay Posner is a superb director who possibly wanted to continue the family (if not stage dame) tradition for Shaffer plays, by choosing Toby Stephens (Dame Maggie’s son) to play Martin Dysart, the psychiatrist. Great choice. Toby Stephens absolutely smashed it in that role.
Noah Valentine was excellent as the troubled boy. Indeed the whole cast was excellent.
Equus is a long play and the Menier has a bum-numbing seating, but somehow this didn’t seem to matter, as the production was so good, the time seemed to fly by without physical discomfort for us. For the actors, possibly more discomfort, as it was a very well-choreographed production that surely required great feats of strength and dexterity at times, especially from the ensemble “horses”.
Before the show, Janie and I had a hair-raising drive across London with multiple demonstrations and road-blockages in place. I had strategically worked out a route, which worked well, but hadn’t counted on unscheduled (and unconnected) road closures nearer to the theatre blocking off my chosen parking places.
Still, we got to Borough Market on time for a pre-theatre supper of fish at Fish!, with Claudia and Anthea, which was a very pleasant way to start the evening. Not our usual way round for theatre (eating before rather than after) but the only sensible way to have done this one.
I suppose this piece “does what it says on the tin” by not being funny. For us, I’m afraid, this play, which we saw in preview, is not entertaining or enlightening either.
We’re huge fans of The Bush and are rarely disappointed when we visit either the main house or the studio, but this one missed the mark for us.
Which could easily be a line from this play…indeed it could be many lines from the 90 minutes of achingly mawkish conversation and attempts at comedic patter, as the tragedy-struck couple in this two-hander try to use performing stand-up comedy together in an open mic session as therapy.
We thought that both performers, Tia Bannon & Jerome Yates, dragged as much as could be dragged out of the script. For us, it was the conceit of the play and the predictable story that emerged through their attempts at making comedy out of tragedy, that didn’t work for us.
Here’s the trailer.
The run has been extended even prior to the show opening, so the idea of it has clearly sold well. Running until 13 June if you want to take other people’s word for it rather than ours.
Janie and I thoroughly enjoyed this simple five-hander, about a purportedly successful young woman returning to her home town near Manchester.
Much of the play is set in the pub, which gives the piece a bit of a soap-opera-like feel, as does the play’s narrative arc. But there is depth to the emotions and interactions in this play that take the piece into dramatic territory that works wonderfully well as live theatre.
Janie and I would highly recommend this production.
The performance starts (or pre-starts) with an element of immersive experience. The Charlene character is singing karaoke in the pub. Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, seeing as you asked. Go on, give it a go. It’s not easy to belt, so hats off to Olivia Forrest for fooling Janie for a few seconds before we walked in.
Members of the audience were invited by barman/DJ Valentine (Aaron Stanley) to give it a go. No, Janie and I resisted the temptation. But one pair of women from the audience gave a pretty serviceable account of Flowers by Miley Cyrus, then a cunning chap volunteered to sing Tequila, which must be the “minimum effort, maximum reward” option for karaoke. Finally , one brave fellow tried singing Crocodile Rock, perhaps secure in the knowledge that his falsetto la, la-la-la-la-las could almost make up for the inadequacy of the rest. That’s karaoke for you.
Mercifully, the play proper started after that. Rowan Robinson, Deka Walmsley, Olivia Forrest, Sophie Stanton and Aaron Anthony all acted their roles superbly well. Well directed by Katie Greenall, whose name was new to us, but we’ll be looking out for that name again henceforward.
Having praised the pre show Bad Romance karaoke rendering, I should also, for balance, praise Sophie Stanton’s karaoke Brass In Pocket towards the end of the play. Not an easy one.
I guess you might describe it as stand-up theatre. Just one performer, Yousef Sweid, telling and acting out his story:
Yousef was raised as a Christian-Arab-Palestinian-Israeli kid in Haifa, and is now raising two Jewish-Arab-Austrian kids in Berlin. Only he’s facing a custody battle, so things are getting complicated…
On entering the theatre, Janie and I ran into my old pal from the health club and Lord’s, Stephen Barry, who I hadn’t seen or heard from for quite some time…
…with his wife, Lindy. Being the Royal Court Upstairs, we were able to sit together and chat a while before the play started. Stephen does wonderful charitable work with refugees from that part of the world, but in any case, it seems, has become even more of a Royal Court regular than me and Janie, although this is the first time I remember overlapping with him there.
Anyway, returning to Between the River And The Sea…
…this beautifully written and performed piece seemed, to us, pitch perfect in illustrating the human side of the tragedies unfolding in the Middle East. Yousef Sweid is highly charismatic and his story is told with eloquence, charm and humour. Not everyone can tell their stories in this way, but everyone from that part of the world has their stories about their childhoods, their friendships, their animosities and their tragedies.
I would challenge anyone who has a heart to hear the final few sentences of the piece without being profoundly moved. I’m sure Stephen wouldn’t mind me letting on that he quietly shed a few tears
This Royal Court run is sold out – it probably sold out soon after I bought our tickets some months ago.
As I often find myself saying, but mean with special intensity in this case – this production deserves to be seen by a much wider audience.
Another excellent evening of theatre at the Hampstead Downstairs. We saw a preview of this one, which technically opens on Monday 16th and only runs until 11 April. If the thought of it grabs you, we suggest you grab a ticket while stocks last.
The play is about venture capital, tech-entrepreneurism, purportedly-ethical-investing and all that sort of thing.
But if that all sounds like a massive turn-off theatrically, don’t be put off. Aaron Loeb has written three all-too-believable, three-dimensional characters who are ensnared, and ensnare each other, in a web of their back stories, ethical dilemmas, rapid technological advancement and the resulting commercial/regulatory environment…with real human interest.
(Aaron Loeb, if by chance you are reading this – that is meant as a compliment).
One conceit of the play – that “the powers that be” might not appreciate a discovery that solves so many problems that their markets and jobs might be eroded – reminded me of an Ealing film I remember seeing on the TV and thinking about a lot as a child – The Man In The White Suit.
Enough about the piece. the acting was excellent throughout. Lloyd Owen, Letty Thomas and Millicent Wong all played their parts superbly well. All three (especially Lloyd Owen and Millicent Wong) were on stage for most of the 100 minutes the play runs, which must take some energy. Chelsea Walker directed the production, making 100 minutes pass without seeming like it was far too long without an interval. But 100 minutes is, by definition, a bit too long without an interval – the audiences aren’t getting any younger, you know.
But my minor quibble is there merely to show balance. This is yet another triumph for the Hampstead Theatre Downstairs. I do hope, for the sake of the wider audience that should see this production, that the production transfers.
We both thought this play/production was really excellent. The Bush Studio is one of our trusted venues these days – we rarely leave that place disappointed. This time we felt we had seen a very original piece of writing and some excellent performances.
The scenario is a simple one. A housing association block acquires a stench in the building which residents suspect might be caused by the demise of one no-longer-visible resident. But the residents seem powerless to get action out of the bureaucratic jobsworths “from the housing”.
The play is performed in a narrative rather than dramatic style, although the narrator/performers do slip in and out of characters – several each – while telling the story. A style that sounds iffy when described but it really worked for this piece. Below is the teaser/trailer fort his production.
The story is sad at many levels, yet there is a great deal of humour and humanity in the play. Performers Marcia Lecky, Safiyya Ingar & Sam Baker Jones all do a great job of bringing the story to life. Jess Barton directed the piece with a simple but very effective style.
The piece speaks volumes about the our society in the 2020s by telling a simple story, not by preaching or screeching about the issues that underlie that story. Farah Najib has written a really excellent short play here – we’ll be looking out for more of her work – that’s for sure.
This was our first visit to the Finborough for a while. We were pleased to see that the former pub underneath the theatre – which had been a closed down space on our last few visits since covid – is now a trendy Indian restaurant named Yogi’s. One to try…but not tonight.
1.17am is a two-hander, in which two twenty-something young women, Katie & Roni, whose close friendship has been shattered since he untimely death of Katie’s brother, spend a heart-wrenching 75 minutes delving into their shared truths, half-truths, white lies and fantasies.
Sarah Stacey’s directing is to be commended for making the piece flow so well. The play is a seamless one act play which could become laboured in less capable hands.
The production is running at The Finborough until 7 March 2026 – if you read this review in time and you like this sort of thing, we suggest that you book it before it’s too late.
