Bess Wohl’s history play is an imaginatively-written, brilliantly chilling and resonant account of life at a Nazi summer camp, starring Patsy Ferran and Luke Thallon.
Mates blogger: Aleks Sierz
Aleks Sierz is one of over 45 theatre bloggers who are part of the MyTheatreMates collective. This page features Aleks's posts on MyTheatreMates. Take a look at our full list of theatre bloggers and our aggregated feed of all our Mates' posts. We’re always looking for new theatre bloggers. Could that be you? Learn about how to join us.
Aleks Sierz FRSA is a theatre critic, and author of the seminal study of new 1990s playwrights, In-Yer-Face Theatre. His other books include Rewriting the Nation, The Theatre of Martin Crimp, John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger, The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights and Modern British Playwriting. His latest book (co-authored with Lia Ghilardi) is The Time Traveller’s Guide to British Theatre. He also works as a journalist, broadcaster, and lecturer. Aleks blogs independently at www.sierz.co.uk and tweets at @alekssierz.
The latest from Aleks on MyTheatreMates
‘The writing has a comic crackle & pop that sizzles & screeches’: IS GOD IS – Royal Court Theatre
American playwright Aleshea Harris’ dazzlingly satirical 2018 extravaganza is about two women seeking justice and getting even, and it comes to the Royal Court from New York, trailing shouts of enthusiasm.
‘A good story well told’: THE MEMORY OF WATER – Hampstead Theatre
I remember seeing Shelagh Stephenson’s contemporary classic at the Hampstead, when this venue was still an ageing prefab, and enjoying Terry Johnson’s racy staging,
‘I respected the gesture more than I admired the art’: ROCKETS & BLUE LIGHTS – National Theatre
At its best, the subjective and poetic image creation in Rockets and Blue Lights at the National Theatre is both audacious and striking. At its worst, it is over-complex, confusing and overly didactic.
‘Just a bit too educational to be truly pleasurable’: CHANGING DESTINY – Young Vic Theatre
The Young Vic’s main stage reopens with Booker Prize winner Ben Okri’s short play Changing Destiny, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah
‘Fine attention to emotional detail’: OLEANNA – Arts Theatre
The great thing about Lucy Bailey’s 80-minute production of Oleanna is its sense of balance. And I have to say that it changed my mind about the power balance in the drama.
‘Able to jump from silliness to seriousness in mid-sentence’: LAST EASTER – Orange Tree Theatre
By the end of Orange Tree Theatre’s production of Bryony Lavery’s Last Easter the certainty that friendship and love are life’s true miracles is quietly and effectively realised.
‘A gem of a two-hander’: CONSTELLATIONS – Vaudeville Theatre
I finally caught up with Michael Longhurst’s restaging of his 2012 Royal Court production of Nick Payne’s Constellations, a gem of a two-hander.
‘Equally impressive’: SWEATBOX / BLIS-TA – Clean Break (Online review)
Although some theatres are tentatively reopening, the creative vigour of other companies like Clean Break is undimmed.
‘It’s good but unexceptional’: WALDEN – Harold Pinter Theatre
Amy Berryman’s ambitious debut play Walden about siblings, climate change and space travel is full of ideas, but what happened to the emotions?
‘A smart & sassy study of loneliness & obsession’: HARM – Bush Theatre
Harm, which has already been screened on BBC Four with Leanne Best, is a new monologue by Bruntwood Prize-winning playwright Phoebe Eclair-Powell and now the one-woman show stars Kelly Gough, familiar most recently from the BBC’s Casualty.
‘A dark masterpiece’: THE SEPARATION – Living Record Productions (Online review)
The camera can take you to places where the naked eye rarely goes. Like close. Very close. Close up. And then some. This is exemplified by Fraser Watson’s brilliant filming of The Separation, a 17-minute short written by Dan Horrigan and Haven Taranta.
‘Thoughtful, punky & fun’: SAVING BRITNEY: PROLOGUE – Old Red Lion Theatre (Online review)
Uncertainty can sometimes provoke creativity. When the opening of Shereen Roushbaiani’s one-woman show, Saving Britney, at the Old Red Lion theatre was cancelled in January, its creators David Shopland and Roushbaiani, put together this online performance as a kind of taster for the live show, which now opens in May.
‘Moving moments as well as violent ones’: ANGELA – Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh & Pitlochry Festival Theatre (Online review)
Mark Ravenhill’s new play Angela is a fragmentary sonic autobiography, both tender and occasionally fraught.
‘This really is a great adaptation’: THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (Online review)
This film version of the Oscar Wilde classic The Picture of Dorian Gray is a brilliant critique of the digital age.
‘A musical & historical love letter to the city of Sheffield’: THE BAND PLAYS ON – Sheffield Theatres (Online review)
The Band Played On, the latest show from Chris Bush, is a tuneful celebration of stoicism, resilience and humour.
‘Disturbing, moving & eloquent in its brilliant advocacy’: TYPICAL – Soho Theatre (Online theatre)
Typical, a film version of a powerfully poetic and painful 2019 monologue about institutional racism, is brilliant.
‘Captures the men’s glowering rage & moments of acute vulnerability’: SHOOK (Online review)
The latest example of this problematic switch from stage to screen is the strongly acted Shook, Samuel Bailey’s debut play, which won the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize and had a run at the Southwark Playhouse in November of that year.
‘Warmly assured, instantly engaging & softly inspiring’: HEADS OR TAILS – Living Record Festival (Online review)
Yesterday I watched Skye Hallam’s excellent one-woman show, Heads or Tails, one of the headline acts at the new Living Record Festival. It’s a gently confessional monologue about the afterlife spoken by 25-year-old Steph, who has – as they say – been “taken too soon”.
‘The themes are both relevant and mildly hopeful’: DECEMBER – Old Red Lion Theatre (Online review)
I watched the streamed version of December, written and directed by Alexander Knott, and performed in the Old Red Lion Theatre and pub.