Duty to the art must be done, Robert Holman is a veteran writer, it’s his newest play, and a great cast: would go a long way to see Sylvestra Le Touzel and indeed young Matthew Tennyson.
Mates blogger: Libby Purves
Libby Purves is one of over 45 theatre bloggers who are part of the MyTheatreMates collective. This page features Libby'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.
Libby Purves was theatre critic for The Times from 2010 to 2013. Determined to continue her theatre commentary after losing that job, she set up her own site www.theatrecat.com in October 2013. She personally reviews all major London openings, usually with on-the-night publication, and also gives voice to a new generation of critics with occasional guest 'theatrekittens'. In addition to her theatre writing and myriad other credits, Libby has been a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Midweek for over 30 years. She is also the author of a dozen novels, and numerous non-fiction titles. In 1999, Libby was appointed an OBE for services to journalism.
The latest from Libby on MyTheatreMates
‘Seething with life & feeling’: INDECENT – Menier Chocolate Factory ★★★★★
Rather than return cautiously with a safe old feelgood favourite the Menier’s artistic director David Babani has taken – deep breath – a new American-Jewish Broadway play about a 1923 scandal about a lesbian play in Yiddish from 1907, and its 1940s aftermath in a doomed attic in the Lodz ghetto
‘The great lines keep on coming’: THE MEMORY OF WATER – Hampstead Theatre ★★★★★
Libby Purves is tempted to see The Memory of Water at Hampstead Theatre again, just to feel a more solidly packed audience laughing and gasping around her. That’s how much fun it was.
’It’s a decent enough Christmas show’: FROZEN THE MUSICAL – Theatre Royal Drury Lane ★★★★
Phew. The Broadway-rooted, Disneylicious, long-awaited red-carpet premiere night of Frozen featured (of course) an ice-blue carpet. And the throng bursting out to meet the paps afterwards was met by actual snow-blowers, so that our soggy heatwave outfits blended nicely into the evening’s actual rain as we skittered out of range.
‘It’s very funny’: SYD – Colchester & Touring ★★★★
On comes Arthur Smith in Syd, and we see that undimmed by lockdown-year is his tendency to merriment and causing merriment, whether in Barry-Cryer-type gags, geezerish challenges to the audience, or unmatchable stories.
’It works & you’ll not regret seeing it’: OPERATION MINCEMEAT – Southwark Playhouse
Just as I started to wonder about the treatment of war and death in Operation Mincemeat, like all good comedy troupes @spitlip turned the piece round to empathetic humanity.
‘Lloyd Webber pulls the perfect rabbit from his big, glittery-witty, musical revolving top hat’: CINDERELLA – Gillian Lynne Theatre
Cinderella’s brilliant trick is the show’s have-cake-and-eat-it ability to debunk all the traditional glamour and romance while actually indulging it.
‘It’s an interesting, accomplished attempt’: THIS BEAUTIFUL FUTURE – Jermyn Street Theatre
When Chirolles Khalil’s production of This Beautiful Future at Jermyn Street Theatre works it is by laying out before us the hopelessness of innocence in a savage wartime world, and underlining the banality of evil.
‘Their glee will ripen as the run goes on’: BASKERVILLE – Colchester ★★★★
It’s good sense for Colchester’s Mercury Theatre to reopen with Baskerville, a family-friendly lark: Ken Ludwig’s take on Sherlock Holmes’ adventure with the Hound of the Baskervilles.
‘The fun lies in the pile-up of nonsense’: THE WINDSORS ENDGAME – Prince of Wales Theatre ★★★★
Given our national relish for both monarchy and rude jokes, my instinct is that The Windsors Endgame will reign and reign.
‘An awful sort of treat’: OLEANNA – Arts Theatre ★★★★
This is a grand intellectual teaser of a show, and under Lucy Bailey’s almost mischievous direction does a good job of shaking up fashionable preconceptions about David Mamet’s 1992 play Oleanna.
‘Fails to connect’: DIE WALKÜRE – Hackney Empire
I have never known Die Walküre fail to connect before, particularly in the hands of a talented team. Let’s hope this cycle gets right back on track as they progress towards a future Siegfried.
‘The roars of joy kept coming’: ANYTHING GOES – Barbican Theatre ★★★★★
In Anything Goes at the Barbican there are celebrity gangsters and torch-singers, big stock-exchange money and big energy, jazzy lapdancers and a touching belief that poor old England is best represented by a silly-ass in tweeds who doesn’t understand words like smooch.
‘Happens to hit some nicely topical nerves’: GIN CRAZE – Royal & Derngate, Northampton
Hats off to James Dacre’s Royal & Derngate for bravely slapping on brand new musical Gin Craze in the very week Lloyd Webber and four other London shows got abruptly pinged-off by test ’n’ trace (more like trick-or-treat, frankly: isolation blackmail).
‘In itself a celebration’: SOUTH PACIFIC – Chichester Festival Theatre ★★★★★
Almost the most magnificent part of Daniel Evans’ production of South Pacific is that it’s happening at all: despite the distanced glimmer of blue paper masks, Chichester affirms that big musical theatre is back with almost insane defiance:
‘There are moments of real credible connection’: RED SKIES – Touring
Eastern Angles’ Red Skies is a great idea, much of it well performed and imagined, but if ever a play needed cutting, especially in the second half (unwisely, as long as the first or longer) this is it.
‘Surprisingly beautiful’: AFTER LIFE – National Theatre ★★★★
Where Jeremy Herrin directs and Bunny Christie designs, you expect something pretty damn theatrical before After Life ends, and this we get.
‘Direction & sound are faultless’: RAYA – Hampstead Theatre ★★★★
Some say that the tight, 80-minute three-hander Raya tackles too many things at once – middle aged reawakening of old liaisons, the menopause, grief, haunting, student sexual accusations, therapy, parenthood and the unwisdom of defining yourself round sex. But hey, that is adult life. Hassles do not arrive neatly separated and convenient for the dramatic unities.
‘An unmissable joy’: UNDER MILK WOOD – National Theatre ★★★★★
Under Milk Wood is a perfect piece to contemplate after a year when the shrinking worlds of lockdown made every neighbourhood a village and every one of us was connected in fate and behaviour whether we liked it or not.
‘It is the music of its humanity which echoes long afterwards’: BACH & SONS – Bridge Theatre ★★★★★
Bach & Sons at the Bridge Theatre is a lovely play: domestic and intellectual, dryly wise and recklessly passionate. It harmonizes the bawdy and the holy, the loving and the lyrical.