The Dumb Waiter and A Slight Ache

For the latest in-house production at Greenwich Theatre, director James Haddrell is following in the footsteps of Jamie Lloyd (and Pinter at the Pinter) by staging a double bill of Harold Pinter’s short plays A Slight Ache and The Dumb Waiter. They are paired in part because they were both written in the 1950s (The Dumb Waiter in 1957, A […]

Misc. Mini-Reviews: Peaky Blinders / The Hamlet Voyage / An Intervention + Wagatha Christie preview

This might need some explanation… From the relative lack of posts over the past few months, you’ll have realised that I’ve not got back to pre-pandemic levels of commitment & motivation; I’m still going to see quite a lot of things, but I’ve been less inclined to write about them. Between the excessive heat, my […]

Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear

The game is afoot once more, as Blackeyed Theatre have adapted the Sherlock Holmes story The Valley of Fear into a brand new stage show. This production is currently touring the country, and follows on from the events of The Sign of Four – with Luke Barton and Joseph Derrington reprising the roles of Holmes and […]

Shake The City

“Equality isn’t a moment!” Shake The City tells the forgotten story of the Leeds clothworkers strike of 1970, as four women band together in their own makeshift Women’s Liberation Movement in Harehills. Equal pay is a concept that people struggle with today, so you can imagine the hostility with which these perfectly reasonable demands were […]

Most popular posts of 2021

Unsurprisingly, in terms of hits 2021 was the worst year on record – I don’t actually remember writing as much as I did, so I’m glad that you’re still reading the minimal output I provide! And despite the lack of motivation, I still managed to complete a couple of challenge weeks. I was obviously still […]

Bad Nights and Odd Days

The latest production on offer at Greenwich Theatre is Bad Nights and Odd Days: a collection of short plays from Caryl Churchill. It features the works Abortive, Seagulls, Three More Sleepless Nights, and Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen – the latter added following the anthology’s initial announcement. Seagulls sees Valerie facing the loss […]

Macbeth (Lazarus Theatre)

“All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” Power and glory loom large in Lazarus Theatre‘s new production of the Scottish Play, with the associated pageantry punctuating the beginning, middle & end. This particular Shakespeare play has proved very popular over recent months, its eventually tyrannical title character and the ensuing civil war clearly striking […]

A Christmas Carol (European Arts Company)

‘Tis the season, and all that, so it’s hardly surprising that another version of A Christmas Carol is now doing the rounds. European Arts Company are currently touring a one-man production, making use of the very same performance script as a certain Mr Charles Dickens used back in the 19th century. It’s interesting to discover […]

Sirens

Meet Xoe, Pia & Lou – also known as the Sirens! I’m sure you’ve all heard about the seductive, man-eating bird-women from Greek mythology, who lured sailors to their deaths with their beautiful & hypnotic singing voices, right? The original femmes fatales. But what if that was all a complete pile of bullshit? That’s right, it […]

Flux

Inspired by the centenary of partial female suffrage in 2018, Smoking Apples set themselves the challenge of telling a woman’s story, exploring the objectification of the female form by using puppets, and working with an all-female cast. Flux is the result; a 60-minute mostly visual story about Kate, a female scientist in the male-dominated labs of the […]