Category: Theatre

Firebird by Phil Davies, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 2 October 2015

This was a very harrowing short piece, brilliantly done. Deservedly, this one got a transfer to Trafalgar Studios, so there is a good stub to be found with the production details, some interviews etc. We saw the original version at the Hampstead Downstairs, but it looks as though it was a straight transfer, same cast, same production team.

The play is basically about a young girl in Rochdale who is befriended and groomed by an older, Asian man with debts and bad friends. The Children’s Society collaborated on the work, by all accounts.

We saw it on a Friday evening after a poor early evening meal at Harry Morgans. We were talking about it all weekend; it raised such startling issues and was so well acted.

Ed Hall himself directed this one – unusually for a downstairs production – top quality stuff.

Here is the trailer:

There were also reviews post transfer:

Many more reviews can be found if you google for them using Trafalgar rather than Hampstead.

Medea by Euripides, a new version by Rachel Cusk, Almeida Theatre, 26 September 2015

This was a very powerful modern adaptation of Medea, wonderfully acted, directed and produced.

Kate Fleetwood was superb as the increasingly crazed Medea; so was Justin Salinger as the creepy, unreasonable Jason.

Of course, this was a modern adaptation, so it doesn’t quite end as the bloody original, but it does naturally end in tears.

Both of us were really struck by the power of this production; Janie has a natural aversion to ancient works but this modern adaptation did enough to keep her engrossed.

As always these days, an excellent Almeida stub with all the details and resources you might want if you want to know more, including links to pretty much all the reviews as it was universally heaped with praise – click here.

So I need say no more.

F*ck The Polar Bears by Tanya Ronder, Bush Theatre, 12 September 2015

This play/production at the Bush Theatre made for a very good evening.

The communications head for a giant energy company faces issues of climate change in the discomfort of his own increasingly dysfunctional household. This sort of play is fun but it also makes you think. The Bush does this sort of play well.

Click here for the excellent Bush stub with all the information you might want about the play/production.

It didn’t get fabulous reviews, despite the fact that we really liked it:

Oh well. We did.

 

When We Were Women by Sharman MacDonald, Orange Tree Theatre, 5 September 2015

I had been really looking forward to this one. I recalled seeing and liking the companion piece, When I Was A Girl I Used To Scream And Shout, many years ago.

Sadly,  this one was rather grim and dark by comparison. Well acted, well directed, but neither Janie nor I much liked the play.

Here is a link to the Orange Tree’s stub for the production, which was reasonably well received – the stub includes some good quotes from the reviews.

As usual, we didn’t feel we’d wasted our time and enjoyed our evening out, not least our Don Fernando dinner which we almost always enjoy as an occasional treat after the Orange Tree.

 

Bakkhai by Euripides, Almeida Theatre, 22 August 2015

Janie’s not normally one for classics, but this was promised as a new version of Bakkhai, so we went for it.

In truth, Bakkhai cannot modernise in the way that, say, Medea (which, as part of this Almeida Greeks season, really was modernised) can.

Still, this was a superb production so we both really enjoyed it. Ben Whishaw is exceptional, but the whole cast was good, as was the design, choreography, the lot.

Excellent Almeida stub with all the details, including links to most of the major reviews, saving me the trouble – click here. Those reviews were almost universally very good.

Nuff said.

 

 

Nahda by Sevan K. Greene, Sandpit Arts, Bush Attic, 17 July 2015

An interesting looking production in the Bush Attic; we thought we’d give it a go despite it starting quite early (19:00) on a Friday. Janie made it to mine with bags of time to spare.

Excellent stub for this production on the Bush site, sparing me the trouble to explain it all – click here.

This short piece was really a few sketches presented together, overlapping more in their subject-matter (female and second generation identity) than the stories themselves.

We enjoyed it and were glad we invested the time to see this production.

I hope the Bush use that attic space more after the refurb (I am writing in December 2016). We thought it had great potential for this sort of studio work, much like the Royal Court Upstairs and Hampstead Downstairs.

 

 

36 Phone Calls by Jeremy Brock, Hampstead Theatre Downstairs, 11 July 2015

Another of those winners at the Hampstead Downstairs. A really excellent one man performance in which you witness a chap’s life unfurl through a few dozen phone calls conducted on his several different phones.

It reminded me a little of The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau, except the one person in 36 phone calls is a man rather than a woman and there are more calls and more devices in this new play – welcome to 21st century communications.

This excellent Hampstead Theatre stub provides all the resources you need if you want to know more about this play/production – click here.

Lee Ross was exceptionally good as the unravelling man, Martin.

I think we might have taken away some food from Harry Morgans after the show that time; the diary silent on the matter. But I do recall this play giving us plenty to chat about afterwards.

 

The Invisible by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Bush Theatre, 4 July 2015

This was an interesting play about a legal aid lawyer and her cases. It raised a great many issues about that corner of our society.

Click here for the Bush Theatre stub, which explains the play/production well.

I have a playtext for this one; which is a good read.

It worked better as agitprop than as drama, in truth, although there were also some good dramatic moments.

Well written, well acted, well produced.

It got me and Janie talking about the issues anyway. Well worthwhile evening.

 

buckets by Adam Barnard, Orange Tree Theatre, 30 May 2015

An interesting short play, this one, lots of tiny vignettes not really connected other than a general theme around bucket lists.

The title actually is “buckets” with a small “b”. Not sure if that is significant or just modern “mess with capitalisation” stuff.

There’s real “what was that all about” weirdness about this play – I’m pretty sure Janie said that as we left – but still we enjoyed some of the scenes and performances. We had plenty to talk about afterwards.

It reminded me, actually, of the sort of experimental stuff Sam Walters used to do above the pub back in the “original Orange Tree” days.

Excellent on-line resource with all the details, in the modern Orange Tree way – click here. Lots of review quotes in there but tellingly the one from the Guardian is excluded. In his gentle, pro-Orange Tree style I think Michael Billington sums it up very well – click here.

Yes, we went for Spanish food at Don Fernando afterwards, That’s normally what we do.

 

Each His Own Wilderness by Doris Lessing, Orange Tree Theatre, 18 April 2015

This one didn’t really do the business for us.

We found the bohemian older generation a bit too bohemian and the surprisingly conservative younger generation irritatingly conservative.

Perhaps it all meant more in the late 1950s, but it certainly didn’t pack a punch in the way that its contemporaries (Wesker, Delaney, Osborne and the like) did.

Good cast, well directed…here’s a link to the Orange Tree resource on the play/production…including some review quotes indicating that some reviewers really liked it…

…but others didn’t:

You get the idea. I think we might have escaped early and cut our losses at half time on this one. Janie might remember for sure but I have no recollection at all about the ending and do recall not caring.

Spanish food at Don Fernando rounded off the evening nicely nonetheless.