Video review: Much Ado About Nothing, Theatre Royal Drury Lane starring Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston

Video transcript: Hayley Atwell and Tom Hiddleston are having so much fun in this production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

This is a playful, cheeky, party-themed production of Shakespeare's play.

And it's vibrant, it's acid pink in both its tone and its design.

There is this brilliant chemistry between the two leads. I loved all of their sparring and interaction, and they both get to shake their booties quite a bit.

There's a lot of dance, there's a lot of singing. It just bursts off the stage.

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Video review: Oedipus, Old Vic - 'I didn't feel like there was any chemistry'

Video review transcript: How did Oedipus at the Old Vic compare to the production at the Wyndham's last year [starring Leslie Manville and Mark Strong]?

I think Wyndham's is definitely the winner for me.

This production at the Old Vic, starring Rami Malek and Indira Varma, mixes dance and play.

And at first, I loved the dance. And then I got frustrated with the dance, because the dance sequences go on for quite some time.

But then, as the play progressed, I just wasn't connecting with it. I didn't feel like there was any chemistry between the two leads, and I wasn't connecting with the characters.

I didn't really care what happened to them, to them, to be honest. I didn't feel like there was any shock or revelation in the same way that there was in the Wyndham's production.

And I found myself actually drawn to the dance and enjoying that more than the play itself.

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Review: Vanya Is Alive, Omnibus Theatre - a powerful play about propaganda, pain and loss

Nikolay Mulakov in Vanya is Alive at Omnibus Theatre 5 (c) Sergey Novikov
Nikolay Mulakov in Vanya is Alive at Omnibus Theatre 5. Photo: Sergey Novikov

Alya is the mother of a soldier. Her son is alive and free. This is what she is told. This is what we are told via performer Nikolay Mulakov.

We are not told it's set in modern-day Russia, but it clearly is. We are also not told that Vanya is, in fact, dead, but it quickly becomes clear that this is the case.

The story is a tangle of lies from which to unpick the truth; the easier path is to believe the lie. Is that how it happens? Is that how lies become the truth?

Nikolay Mulakov's performance is stripped back, quiet and mostly still. It draws you straight to the words, to imagining Alya's story.  We hear about her encounters with her neighbour, a shop assistant and others in the unidentified town or city where she lives.

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Interview: 5 questions with playwright Laura Horton - "I really felt the stress in Edinburgh"

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Writer Laura Horton's (left) new play Lynn Faces is at the New Diorama Theatre

Laura Horton is a multi-award-winning writer and Plymouth Laureate of Words 2021-23, the first woman and playwright in the role. In 5 Questions With…, she talks about how her new play, Lynn Faces, was inspired by a collision of three different events, what it’s like performing for the first time and Edinburgh stress.

(Watch our conversation here.)

Lynn Faces sees a woman form a punk band after coming out of a toxic relationship. Where did the idea come from?

It's been years in the making. The seeds were planted over 10 years ago. I have a friend called Becky, and I pulled a face at her once, and she said, ‘Oh, that's a Lynn face [Lynn from Alan Patridge]’. So then we would greet each other with the gurn that Lynn does.

Then I came out of a very unpleasant relationship and got very drunk in the pub with my friends, and thought: I need to find some confidence, I want to be in a band.

I've always wanted to be a drummer, so I'm going to start this punk band inspired by Lynn from Alan Partridge. It was an idea that my friend Becky and I came up with.

I booked a gig in a basement bar in Plymouth, sobered up, and realised that absolutely none of us could play. I cancelled it. But I'm a writer, and it just stuck in my head.

Quite a few years ago, I met Viv Albertine from The Slits, and we were having a conversation, and I think she identified that I was in an abusive situation before I did.

And she said, ‘You should read my book’. [Clothes, Clothes, Clothes, Music, Music, Music, Boys, Boys, Boys]. It felt like the worlds of punk and Lynn were colliding.

Then I saw a wonderful play called Outlier, a beautiful play with music that Malaika Kegode wrote and performed in. And I just thought this [Lynn Faces] is a gig, albeit these people can't play their instruments, unlike Outlier, which is beautifully presented.

It was lots of components coming together.

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Review: Santi & Naz, Soho Theatre

Santi & Naz credit Paul Blakemore-2
Santi (Aiyana Bartlett & Naz (Farah Ashraf). Photo: Paul Blakemore

Santi & Naz at Soho Theatre is a teenage friendship story set against the backdrop of the run-up to Partition.

Santi (Aiyana Bartlett) is Sikh, loves books and has eyes for a young man in the village who may not be what she thinks he is. Naz (Farah Ashraf) is Muslin, less studious and bolder, but facing an unwelcome arranged marriage with a handsy man.

They are very close, tease each other and support each other. They have their own language and made-up games, but they are also on the path of discovery with new feelings to contend with, all while the outside world is starting to penetrate their innocent bubble.

Written by Guleraana Mir and afshan d'souza-lodhi, the script is textured in Indian culture and vividly transports you from a dark January evening in London.

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Review: A Good House, Royal Court Theatre - punchy, provocative and funny

A Good House Royal Court Theatre
Olivia Darnley, Mimî M Khayisa, Sifiso Mazibuko, Scott Sparrow in A Good House, Royal Court Theatre. Photo: Camilla Greenwell

Thought-provoking, challenging and funny in a play is a difficult combination to get right, but the production of Amy Jeptha's play A Good House at the Royal Court Theatre does just that.

Bonolo (Mimi M Khayisa) and Sihle (Sifiso Mazibuko) are relatively new to the neighbourhood of Stillwater when a mysterious shack appears on a vacant plot with no sign of its inhabitants.

The couple are befriended by their neighbours Lynette (Olivia Darnley) and Chris (Scott Sparrow) to be the face of a campaign to get it removed. Awkwardly polite negotiations about what they should do begin over mature brie and good vintage red wine.

Changing wall hangings, sofa positions and cushions represent the different living rooms in this smart, affluent enclave.

First, it is the homes of Banolo and Sihle and Lynette and Scott, but then we meet young couple Jess (Robyn Rainsford) and Andrew (Kai Luke Brummer), whose house looks out onto the shack.

Their gatherings to discuss what the shack means for the neighbourhood and what they should do expose assumptions, resentments and prejudices around race and social status - particularly when it comes to housing. It raises questions about fitting in, authenticity and how far you should go to assimilate.

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Interview: 5 questions with theatre director Madelaine Moore

Rev Stan and Madelaine Moore

Madelaine Moore is a freelance theatre director and artistic director of female-focused theatre company The Thelmas with Guleraana Mir. Here, she answers five questions about their new production, Santi & Naz at the Soho Theatre, gender equality in theatre, what she likes to watch and what making theatre is like behind the scenes.

Watch the full chat (11 mins) here.

Santi & Naz debuted at the Vault Festival in 2020; what initially drew you to the play?

It came out of a conversation [with Guleraana] around the time of the 70th anniversary of Partition.

There were a few Partition-set plays on at around that time. The stories were really focused on the trauma and awfulness, which, obviously, is the biggest part of it but was there space for another way of telling this story?

When you read the testimonies around Partition, a lot of women's voices just didn't get heard because, to be blunt, they didn't survive. It's really awful when you hear about what happened to women and girls during that period.

At the same time, I'd been thinking about really intense teenage friendships that girls tend to have, that burn really bright and then fizzle. So, we thought about combining those two ideas.

How do we tell this story that's about Partition but isn't really about Partition? It's about two young women experiencing a huge historical and political event in a tiny village right next to the border of the partition.

We brought in Afshan d’Souza-Lodhi, who co-wrote it with Guleraana, who brought another brilliant perspective that enriched the original story, the rough plot we'd come up with. They fleshed out these characters to make them feel relatable and fun.

Even though it's not a fun period of history, there's a lot of fun in the story. We don't want it to be a history lesson; that's not our job, but we want to ignite interest in the period through these two young girls.

The play's been touring the UK with a new cast and is set to open at the Soho Theatre on 21 January 2025. Is your approach to directing it any different this time around?

It's very different because, by the time the tour was booked, I wasn't available for the first two weeks of rehearsal, so we had to get in associate [director] Vikesh Godhwani, who was involved in the Vault version. I handed it over to him, which I've never done before, I'm a control freak, so that was quite scary for me.

We also didn't realise until quite late that the two actors who'd been in it in Edinburgh in 2023 were not available either. I got casting director Polly Jarrold involved. I came back from Edinburgh halfway through the festival to London, did a casting for it without Vikesh, and then handed it over to him via Zoom for two weeks while I was rehearsing something else. 

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My favourite theatre of 2024 (and least favourite)

Theatre 2024 screen shot

I managed to pack in more than 70 theatre visits this year and saw some cracking plays. And some that didn't quite ignite.

My favourite plays of 2024

(In no particular order - links through to written or video reviews):

Oedipus, Wyndhams Theatre (booking until 2 Jan 2025)

Laughing Boy, Jermyn Street Theatre

Shifters, Duke of Yorks Theatre

When It Happens to You, Park Theatre

Little Foxes, Young Vic (booking until 8 Feb 2025)

Alma Mater, Almeida Theatre

Cyrano, Park Theatre (booking until 11 Jan 2025)

For Black Boys... Garrick Theatre

Wormholes, Omnibus Theatre

Waiting For Godot, Theatre Royal Haymarket

The Long Run, New Diorama

The Importance of Being Earnest, National Theatre (booking until 25 Jan, 2025)

Least favourite plays of 2024:

Machinal, Old Vic Theatre - I'm a feminist, but...I found the central female character extremely irritating. Sorry, I know a lot of people really liked this play. It's the second production I've seen, and I had a similar response the first time, so nothing to do with the Old Vic.

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Review: Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Almeida Theatre - agency and impotence in this nasty family drama

Cat on a hot tin roof almeida theatre poster

Seeing Cat On A Hot Tin roof a couple of weeks after The Little Foxes at the Young Vic Theatre, I couldn't help but draw some parallels. Both are period pieces that feature misogyny and unhappy families manoeuvring and manipulating to get their hands on wealth.

In the case of LF, it's about the spoils of a family business deal; in COHTR, it's an inheritance, but the women's lack of leverage in the fight compared to the men is similar. Both also feature strained marriages, but in COHTR, we delve deeper into the reasons.

The patriarch, Big Daddy (Lennie James), is dying, hence the manoeuvring, except in the case of younger, favoured son Brick (Kingsley Ben-Adir), it's left up to his wife Margaret, aka Maggie the Cat (Daisy Edgar-Jones), to make sure they get their fair share.

Brick only has eyes for liquor bottles. The suicide of his best friend - perhaps represented on stage by a mystery piano player (Seb Carrington) - isn't the only thing he is drinking to forget. 

There is little sign of love in Brick and Maggie's marriage, but that isn't unusual among the wider family. Is Brick crueller for simply ignoring Maggie than his father is for showing his blatant disgust for his 'old and fat' wife, Big Mama (Clare Burt)?

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Video review: The Little Foxes, Young Vic Theatre

Video transcript:

I'm going to have to plead ignorance because when I booked to see The Little Foxes at the Young Vic, or rather, when my friend booked for us, I hadn't heard the play. I didn't know it was an American classic.

I knew nothing about it, but that meant I went into it with no expectations but I can fully understand why it is a classic.

This is such a tight, tense family drama. It has very meaty dialogue with lots of subtext, lots of politics going on in the family - man0euverings, manipulations and people trying to outmanoeuver each other.

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