Still, if you don’t mind the preachiness or the admonishment, The Wind of Heaven boasts a suitably earnest cast and fine staging.
Mates blogger: Shanine Salmon
Shanine Salmon is one of over 45 theatre bloggers who are part of the MyTheatreMates collective. This page features Shanine'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.
Shanine Salmon was a latecomer to theatre after being seduced by the National Theatre's £5 entry pass tickets and a slight obsession with Alex Jennings. She is sadly no longer eligible for 16-25 theatre tickets but she continues to abuse under 30 offers. There was a market for bringing awareness that London theatre was affordable in an era of £100+ West End tickets – Shanine’s blog, View from the Cheap Seat, launched in April 2016, focuses on productions and theatres that have tickets available for £20 and under. She is also quite opinionated and has views on diversity, pricing, theatre seats and nudity on stage. Her interests include Rocky Horror, gaming, theatre (of course) and she also has her own Etsy shop. Shanine tweets at @Braintree_.
The latest from Shanine on MyTheatreMates
‘A fun & informative night of politics’: CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS – Colab Factory
What makes Crisis What Crisis special is the strong storyline and convincing performances in combination with game play.
‘A rewarding watch’: THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS – Cervantes Theatre
Adapting a multi-generational family saga for the small stage takes ambition, confidence and knowing just where to cut, The House of the Spirits has all three covered.
‘The cast can certainly sing’: SOHO CINDERS – Charing Cross Theatre
With a few modern updates, this new interpretation of the Cinderella story in Soho Cinders boasts several top notch musical theatre ballads.
‘Involving, emotionally harrowing two-hander’: CHEMISTRY – Finborough Theatre
Chemistry is an at times unsettling, but always compelling evening. It humanises the stigmatised and touches the soul using a wonderdrug – intimate performance.
‘This is cabaret in its purest form’: LORNA DALLS – Crazy Coqs ★★★★
Lorna Dallas is the essence of old school cabaret distilled. She oozes glamour and combines the look of Blanche Deveraux with a spirit of a proper Illinois broad.
‘What we need is a production about now’: GASPING – The Space
Presenting a revival of Ben Elton’s early 90s environmental farce Gasping in The Space, located just minutes from Canary Wharf, is appropriate.
‘Sometimes the best stories are messy & unresolved, & real’: LITTLE BABY JESUS – Orange Tree Theatre
Wunderkind actor-writer Arinzé Kene (how can one man be so talented?) knocks it out of the park with the revival of his 2011 play Little Baby Jesus.
‘It does what it says on the tin’: AFTERGLOW – Waterloo East Theatre
After a run at the Southwark Playhouse, Afterglow, S. Asher Gelman’s story of polyamory in modern American, returns with a new cast.
’Wants to make you think’: LAST ORDERS – Old Red Lion Theatre
The Knock Knock Club (Reece Connolly, Christopher Keegan, Caroline Buckley) investigate the venue and present their findings in Last Orders, as part of the London Horror Festival.
‘It is genuinely terrifying’: GHOST STORIES – West End
Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s Ghost Stories has been entertaining audiences since 2010 both on the stage and in a 2017 film adaptation and this revival at the Ambassadors Theatre is a welcome return.
‘Vulnerable & versatile presence’: VELVET – Above the Stag Theatre
Tom Ratcliffe’s one-man show Velvet follows a tributary of the River Weinstein to the English audition scene – a world of bits parts and capricious agents. Essentially, it’s a riff on the old joke, “who do I have to blow to get this job?”
‘Lovely adaptation of a well-loved book’: ANGELA’S ASHES THE MUSICAL – Croydon
In terms of performances and book Angela’s Ashes The Musical is a great show and a lovely adaptation of a well loved book. But less so an exceptional musical.
‘A useful reminder of how we got here & what’s required to fix it’: THE PERMANENT WAY – The Vaults
If the devil is in the detail, David Hare’s old polemic against rail privatisation, Permanent Way, is a satanic ejaculation.
‘An engaging tale told from a single perspective’: WHAT GIRLS ARE MADE OF – Soho Theatre
Cora Bissett’s What Girls Are Made Of is an engaging story, framed – in truth or hope, as one of naivety, overreach and reinvention. But it’s also a tale told from a single perspective;
‘A refreshing tale brilliantly told’: QUEEN OF THE MIST – Charing Cross Theatre
Pint of Wine’s production of Michael John LaChiusa’s Queen of the Mist transfers from the Brockley Jack Studio to the traverse stage of the Charing Cross Theatre, keeping its original cast in tact.
‘Sometimes rhapsodic & always beautiful’: CHIAROSCURO – Bush Theatre
Chiaroscuro succeeds as a celebration of how the lives of different black women are thriving, whatever their sexuality.
‘A guarantee of quality’: THE STRANGE CASE OF JEKYLL & HYDE – Brockley Jack Studio Theatre & Touring
Arrows and Traps’ residency at the Brockley Jack is a guarantee of quality. This new adaptation, from director and writer Ross McGregor, of the classic novel sets the scene in 21st century America; amongst school shootings, right wing rhetoric, sexuality and the science that makes Jekyll & Hyde seem a possibility rather than a fantasy.
‘Unlikely to either open minds or stimulate them’: A VERY EXPENSIVE POISON – Old Vic
Though it’s in places informative, A Very Expensive Poison is a very expensive means of sapping the intrigue and human interest from one man’s inhumane death
‘Charming, witty & high-energy’: MACBETH THE MUSICAL – White Bear Theatre
Hands up if you’ve seen MacBeth. Now keep your hands up if it was a musical version. Now keep them up if it was a musical performed by (what I assume for legal reasons aren’t actually) muppets.