Food, a blessing, or a curse? functional or aspirational? Transcendent or transient? Sat at home demolishing a big bag of crisps I wonder…But as a gateway to your heritage, and a link to the past? Now you’ve got me sat up straight, orange-dusted hand removed from the packet, intrigued. “am I fat?” straight in, Pepa Duarte, writer and solo performer ...
Way out in Norwood Junction, something sinister is going on in Stanley Halls… carved pumpkins, Halloween music, a bar and enough cobwebs to make Shelob feel at home! Join an immersive experience as you wind your way through this historic building. With Halloween plans in disarray, club nights and events cancelled, what can the city’s freaky masses do safely within ...
Candle House collective, and Evan Neiden (the creator) are clawing (see what I did there?) at the frontiers of the artform we call theatre, with mixed results. With the future of theatre looking rocky at best and doomed at worst, they, like various bright-minded folks, have used the technological wizardry at their fingertips to push the limits of what art ...
National Theatre Live on YouTube ‘Heavy but rewarding’ Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play allows for expert actors to embody complex and unhappy humans. In the blue wash, misery and love dance a highland jig in a small London flat, and we the audience are enraptured. Tom Schutt’s set is as if some artistically minded giant has cleaved a building block ...
National Theatre Live on YouTube ‘Utterly believable, important work’ Lorraine Hansberry’s final work, Les Blancs, invades our living rooms, driving out the sound of my washing machine and whinging puppy. It is a work that demands to be seen. Written in 1970 and finished off by Hansberry’s husband, this epic drama hasn’t had its time in the sun when it comes to ...
National Theatre Live on YouTube ‘Flashy and spirited, but adds no depth to Shakespeare’s famously raucous comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream can produce peals of laughter or full-body groans of despair. Steeped in myth and set in antiquity, it is fitting that Game of Thrones star Gwendoline Christie should join the cast as queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta, and queen of the fairies, Titania. ...
National Theatre Live on YouTube ‘This story has never felt more relevant’ This 2019 stage adaptation of Small Island, courtesy of Helen Edmundson, is the final evolution of Andrea Levy’s award-winning, deeply affecting novel – unless we get a ballet, which would be wonderful, or a video game, which would not. But how does it fare when compared to the book ...
National Theatre Live on YouTube ‘Hamilton’s less musical British cousin’ Alan Bennett’s royal romp, performed at the Nottingham Playhouse, quickly deep-dives into the tortured mind of 18th-century ruler King George III. There may be ruffles and tights aplenty but this is far from your classic period affair. Following in the footsteps of Nigel Hawthorne and David Haig, the title role ...
National Theatre Live on YouTube ‘Famous actors, punchy action and political turmoil’ Neither regularly staged nor loved by many (apart from T. S. Eliot apparently), Coriolanus is the ugly duckling of Shakespeare’s history plays. No matter how much imagination you pour into the vessel, the cracks are almost always visible. Unless you’re a fan of the minutiae of 5th-century Roman politics – ...
Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage ‘Emotional, complex and unique’ It’s great that big theatres are releasing their back catalogues during lockdown like ageing music stars – and believe me, I’m grateful – but these are often from way back when. Like Creation Theatre’s production of The Tempest, TOM is a piece crafted more recently, and as such has an important and modern message of ...