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December 2017

My best of theatre list for 2017 - with some rom-com, Chekhov and Christmas surprises

If you'd told me at the start of the year that there would be a rom-com, a Chekhov and a Christmas play on my best of list, I'd have laughed in your face. Just goes to show you should always expect the unexpected...here are my favourite plays of 2017, in no particular order and links are to my reviews.

An Octoroon - Orange Tree Theatre - publicity photo by The Other Richard
An Octoroon - Orange Tree Theatre - publicity photo by The Other Richard

Dirty Great Love Story, Arts Theatre

Let's face it most rom-coms are a bit rubbish - they generally aren't that funny - but this tale of modern romance had me guffawing with laughter and I wasn't on my own.

An Octoroon, Orange Tree Theatre

This is a play that reminded me why I love going to the theatre and I could write pages on it. Thought-provoking, sometime uncomfortable to watch and yet it was still entertaining. It's transferring to the National Theatre in June and I'll definitely be getting a ticket.

Apologia, Trafalgar Studios

In my review I said: "Apologia is a play of sharp humour and depth that slowly breaks down the defences to reveal something raw and emotional. You will laugh and you will have a lump in your throat." It was also a great play for female characters.

Out There on Fried Meat Ridge Road, White Bear Theatre and Trafalgar Studios 2

This odd-ball, misfit comedy was a breath of fresh air and it got a much deserved transfer so I got to enjoy it a second time.

Hamlet, Almeida

Up there as one of the best Hamlet productions I've seen, it made me see the play anew.

BU21, Trafalgar Studios 2

Writer Stuart Slade took real testimonies from terrorist attacks around the world and used them to create a story around a fictional attack in London. The result was an honest, awkward and funny piece that was also really clever.

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My 5 biggest theatre disappointments of 2017

Not everything is brilliant or lives up to expectations. These are the plays that disappointed me the most in 2017.

Obsession, Barbican Theatre

Ivo Van Hove had two plays in my best of list last year but Obsession, starring Jude Law, felt at times pedestrian and aloof where it should have been passionate and tense.

HamletAgainst, Almeida

While I always enjoy watching Ben Whishaw on stage the play itself was so disappointing. On reflection, in my review I think I was still trying to like it  but it was just so doughy, lacking any punch or defined focus.

Woyzeck, Old Vic

Was really excited to see John Boyega on stage but like Against, the play was a disappointment. You can see where it is going early on - there is a particular line which is like having a gun on stage - but it takes a long, long time to get there. It also felt like it was trying too hard to be shocking and edgy.

Nuclear War, Royal Court

I'm a huge fan of Simon Stephens but I wasn't a fan of this at all. It felt like an experiment that shouldn't have made it out of the rehearsal room. It was so abstract and difficult to make sense of its 45 minute running time felt too long.

Hamlet, RADA

Ah yes the Tom Hiddleston/Kenneth Branagh Hamlet I was so excited about this. Love Tom Hiddleston but I'm not a fan who sees everything he does through rose-tinted spectacles (Ben Whishaw/Against is a case in point) and this felt like a huge opportunity missed. It's a small, intimate space and the play was staged in the round with the stalls seating effectively 'on stage' but it seemed as if Kenneth Branagh had directed it for a huge West End theatre.  There was no subtlety, no surprises, no innovation and given that the last two Hamlet's I've watched have been among the best I've ever seen it was really disappointing. I'm still a little bit cross about it.

Related: My best of theatre list for 2017


My theatre 'StOlivier' awards 2017

Step aside best actor/actress/play etc this is what was noteworthy for me in theatre land, in 2017.

Menagerie award The Ferryman was an award winning play in many way but for me it deserve an extra gong for fur and feathers - a cute little rabbit and a goose both made scene stealing appearances. Babies? Schmabies. Real, live animals on stage are the thing.

Exhibit A: Roman Tragedies, Barbican Theatre
Exhibit A: Roman Tragedies, Barbican Theatre

Event theatre and star studded audience award Ivo Van Hove's  six hour Roman Tragedies at the Barbican was an event for many reasons not least for allowing audience members to wander onto the stage between scenes and perch wherever they could get a seat. Photos, without flash, and tweeting (see exhibit A) were also encouraged. It also attracted probably the most thespy audience I've seen so far: Simon Stephens, Rupert Goold and Kate Fleetwood, Kyle Soler and Pheobe Fox, John Heffernan, Angus Wright, Jamie Lloyd, Ruth Wilson, Ian McDiarmid, Jonjo O’Neill, Jeremy Herrin and Leo Bill.

Best kiss When Paddy Considine and Laura Donnelly's characters kissed in The Ferryman, Royal Court it was so charged with years of repressed feelings it took my breath away and broke my heart a little bit.

Best spit - Not since I (probably) gave an award to the cast of Richard III for all spitting on Ralph Fiennes has their been a gobbing incident worthy of note but step forward Jasmine Hyde who spat so spectacularly on Harry Melling during Jam, Finborough Theatre.

Hottie of the month kinda lives on...these were my particular favourites in 2017: Theo James, Andrew Garfield, Douglas Booth and James Norton but if I had to choose one it would be Theo because I'm such a huge fan and it was the first time I've seen him on stage.

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My 3 current theatre turn-offs

No Entry

There are so many things that inspire my choices of what to see at the theatre but there are a few things that are actually a turn-off, besides musicals.

Here are three things that have me running in the opposite direction. What are yours?

1. BREXIT

It's everywhere, everyday, the reminders, the opinions - and I'm happy to share mine in a different forum - but if I see BREXIT in the synopsis for a play something inside me dies a little bit.

2. Immersive theatre

When it is done well it's brilliant, but more usually it's just awkward, exposes bad story-telling or reminds you of why there are conventions in the first place. It feels like a term that is bandied about to make a production sound daring and exciting.

3. Male-centricity

Guess what, the world isn't just made up of men and a play that has only men in it, is starting to be a big turn off. Was seeing the world purely through male eyes ever a novelty?

Image by Erica M on Flickr

 


Review: Network, National Theatre - 70s TV news drama has fresh relevance

Today the battle might have shifted towards garnering clicks, likes and downloads but the fundamental desire to tap into the zeitgeist, to be popular, is the same as it was back when Paddy Chayefsky wrote the screenplay for Network 40 years ago.

Bryan Cranston, Network, National TheatreAnd the story of the fall and rise of news anchor Howard Beale (Bryan Cranston) in the battle to attract viewers and revenue isn't just relevant for these particular themes but it also taps into a whole host of contemporary issues. It's quite startling.

Howard, faced with the ending of his career, says he will commit suicide on air.

His chance at an apology, a final dignified broadcast, turns into a rant about life being bullshit which pushes up ratings and becomes something to be exploited by ambitious TV producer Diana Christensen (Michelle Dockery).

Inadvertently, he has tapped into some key feelings of societal discontent: high unemployment, rising fuel prices and globalisation which exploits cheap labour outside of America. Any of that sound familiar?

Diana's exploitation of the mentally unstable Howard is a precursor to reality TV and perhaps YouTube and social media where it is just as fine to laugh at people as it is with. Where sensationalisation takes over.

Network touches on fake news and echo chambers; giving people what they like, what resonates with their preconceived ideas and feeding fears or pressing emotive buttons rather than presenting balance, varied opinions or challenging ideas.

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10 plays I'm really looking forward to seeing in London 2018

Julius Caesar, Bridge TheatrePrompted by the Daily Telegraph's rather uninspiring and quite frankly lazy list of upcoming theatre treats - three plays which have already opened? Oh come on - here's my list of what I'm already really excited about seeing in the first half of 2018*.

1. My Mum's A Twat, Royal Court Theatre - Patsy Ferran, I love Patsy Ferran and this is the first of two plays she's doing in 2018 and it's a solo piece *insert big smile here*

2. Julius Caesar, Bridge Theatre - Ben Whishaw playing Brutus alongside David Morrissey and Michelle Fairley and the chance to mingle with the Roman mob? Already booked to see it twice.

3. The Brothers Size, Young Vic - Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney who also penned Oscar best picture winner Moonlight (which I loved) and starring Sope Dirisu who was brilliant in One Night In Miami at the Donmar and the RSC's Coriolanus.

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Review: The Twilight Zone, Almeida Theatre - sinister and silly fun

It doesn't really matter if you aren't familiar with the 1950s/60s American TV series The Twilight Zone you'll soon get a feel for what it was like when you watch this stage version at the Almeida Theatre.

OK, so there will be some references you'll miss but if  you want to do a teeny bit of prep just watch this video clip of the The Twilight Zone TV series intro sequence.

The Twilight Zone Almeida TheatreI don't know if the way the play is structured mirrors the TV series or not (I never watched it) but what you get is a series of individual stories that are broken up into different sized chunks and then weaved together.

The effect it to have several stories running simultaneously, often breaking off at a cliff hanger, to move onto another, then another before coming back to continue a particular story.

There are recurring motifs, images and skits (for want of a better word) that link everything together.

Even the set is a mixture of other-worldliness and 60's TV.  It resembles the inside of a box - or an old fashioned TV - painted to look like a star-studded night sky.

Sets for different stories are wheeled in place or carried with an exaggerated flourish from behind panels which open at the sides.

These also allow the cast to slip on and off stage sometimes unseen in what feels like the human equivalent of a slight of hand trick.

Sets, costumes, props are all period in keeping with the TV series - even the performances - and this is part of what makes it fun. There are some suitably dodgy 60s style wigs for instance.

Stories range from a mysterious extra passenger on a bus journey that has been interrupted by bad weather to a child that has gone missing from her room but can still be heard calling out for her parents.

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Review: Cell Mates, Hampstead Theatre's slow starting cold war thriller

Cell Mates Hampstead TheatreOverheard some people arguing at the interval as to whether Cell Mates would get any better. The detractor won and they left but they should have stayed because it did get a lot better.

Simon Gray's cold war comedy thriller is based loosely on real events surrounding double agent George Blake who was imprisoned for 42 years but escaped with the help of a petty criminal Sean Bourke whom he met at Wormwood Scrubs.

The first two acts focus on George (Geoffrey Streatfeild) and Sean (Emmet Byrne) meeting, striking up a sort of friendship and then the immediate aftermath of the escape.

Gray chooses to focus more on the relationship between the two men rather which left me curious about the breakout. 

But it also left me curious about their relationship as I wasn't wholly convinced why Sean was helping George.

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Review: The 12 things I liked about A Christmas Carol, Old Vic Theatre

Bbbefb41-c505-48e0-82ed-5983143b4bf4As someone who can mildly be described as not being a Christmas person the fact that I came out of the Old Vic after watching A Christmas Carol with a spring in my step, whistling Christmas carols is an achievement. So, in a faintly Christmassy style here are 12 things I liked, in no particular order and prefaced with a spoiler alert.

1. The lights

I've heard it described as a 'constellation' and that is wholly appropriate description for the multitude of old fashioned lamps hanging above the stage that cuts through the centre of the auditorium. Firstly there something festive and cosy about them but also lamps feature in various sizes and guises throughout the play.

2. Scrooges hair

A combination of bed-head and looking like he'd been unconsciously pulling at it while counting his money it was perfect for Rhys Ifans' Scrooge. It worked really well with his slightly dishevelled look that said 'I don't waste  money or time on fripperies such as smart clothing and grooming'.

3. Scroogey Scrooge

He looks upon charity with utter scorn but more than that, so long has he been like this, he doesn't even notice or consider it wrong - or does he? Given how his family persist with him, there are hints of a past, of a different man and Rhys Ifans plays it to perfection...

4. Happy Scrooge

...as he does the Scrooge that has seen the light and is desperate to make up for his uncharitable ways. He displays the sort of joy that could only come with rediscovery, he wears it like an old favourite coat found at the back of the wardrobe after many years. It bursts out of him and is really infectious.

5. Bells

Nothing says Christmas like the sound of tinkling hand bells, particularly when snatches of Christmas Carols are played by the cast building up to a lovely ensemble finale.

6. Snow

So giddy did this production make the audience that when it started snowing on the stalls there was a spontaneous applause. It was a magical moment, that added to the Christmassy feel. There was also a very cleverly done snowball fight in which 'thrown' snowballs looked like they were exploding on contact.

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