Ella Road’s new two-hander is set in the world of track athletics, but the two characters, Ann (NicK King) and Sophie (Charlotte Beaumont) are not just any runners.
Mates blogger: Tom Bolton
Tom Bolton is one of over 45 theatre bloggers who are part of the MyTheatreMates collective. This page features Tom'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.
Tom Bolton is an author and researcher, based in London. He comes from Stratford-upon-Avon, where Derek Jacobi in The Tempest got him hooked on theatre. He sat on the Olivier Awards judging panel, and started reviewing for Londonist in 2010. He is particularly keen on disinterred classics, new writing and physical theatre, and spends a week at the Edinburgh Festival every year looking for more. Tom blogs independently at tombolton.co.uk and tweets @teabolton.
The latest from Tom on MyTheatreMates
‘Director Michael Longhurst brings ski slopes to Covent Garden’: FORCE MAJEURE – Donmar Warehouse
Adapted from Ruben Östlund’s film, Force Majeure is an exercise in family breakdown set among a group of well-off Swedes on a skiing holiday.
‘Always compelling to watch’: MEASURE FOR MEASURE – Shakespeare’s Globe
For her last production at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Blanche McIntyre expertly conjured the life of a city onto a tiny stage. Her Measure for Measure is another city play, but of a very different kind.
‘A triumphant evening’: THE COMEDY OF ERRORS – Barbican Centre (RSC)
Like all theatre companies, the Royal Shakespeare Company has experienced a tough 18 months.
‘Michael Pennington’s voice is remarkable’: THE TEMPEST – Jermyn Street Theatre
The Jermyn Street Theatre is a tiny place to stage a play that is more usually seen filling all the space on offer at the RSC or the National Theatre, but the scale gives Tom Littler’s production of The Tempest particular meaning.
‘A well-chosen & beautifully cast pair of plays’: FOOTFALLS & ROCKABY – Jermyn Street Theatre
In the tiny, pub theatre-esque Jermyn Street Theatre Samuel Beckett’s two monologues, Footfalls and Rockaby, exert a powerful hold.
‘It’s hard to take your eyes off Cush Jumbo’: HAMLET – Young Vic Theatre
Cush Jumbo’s Hamlet has been a long time in the making. In fact, what with the pandemic and the Young Vic’s long lead times for shows (which allow for some serious forward planning), I booked my tickets around three years ago.
‘A sad & elegaic play that seems to have gained significance’: HOME – Chichester Festival Theatre
Although David Storey is a somewhat forgotten writer, wildly successful from the late 1960s to the late ’70s as both a playwright and novelist, but then just as suddenly out of fashion, Home is the play that is consistently revived.
‘Raw history not yet ready to be consigned to the past’: THE NORMAL HEART – National Theatre
First staged in 1985, just before the AIDS epidemic had fully entered public consciousness, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart rails against the refusal of US authorities to acknowledge anything was wrong.
‘A ridiculous – & ridiculously enjoyable – show that boasts the finest score in musicals’: ANYTHING GOES – Barbican Theatre
As soon as the title number’s patter chorus kicks in, there’s a smile on every face at the Barbican Centre, where Cole Porter’s Broadway classic Anything Goes runs until 6 November 2021.
‘Charming performers fill the stage heroically’: CHANGING DESTINY – Young Vic Theatre
The Young Vic is configured in the round for Changing Destiny, Ben Okri’s adaptation of a 4,000 year old Egyptian myth.
‘A powerful play from an author we need to hear’: LAVA – Bush Theatre
The lava in the title of Benedict Lombe’s new, fierce, autobiographical play is anger. It flows over the stage, filling the crevasses of the set, and through Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo’s smouldering performance, which soon bursts into flame.
‘In most respects a treat to watch’: UNDER MILK WOOD – National Theatre
The National Theatre’s staging of Under Milk Wood is far from the first time Dylan Thomas’ poem has been adapted for the stage. It’s easy to see the temptation to perform a work so packed with characters, drifting through a strange, semi-mythical setting encountering one another.
‘One of the most absorbing & significant plays every written’: HAPPY DAYS – Riverside Studios
Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days is, as Lisa Dwan observes, often described as ‘the female Hamlet’. Dwan has played every other female Beckett lead but even she was intimidated by a role previously inhabited by Peggy Ashcroft, Brenda Bruce, Fiona Shaw and Juliet Stevenson, among others. It is understandable. Happy Days, first performed in 1961, is a mighty play, and 60 years later still unlike anything you’ve seen.
‘The writing is nuanced & structured’: HYMN – Almeida Theatre (Online review)
In an empty Almeida Theatre, two heavyweight actors – Adrian Lester and Danny Sapani – bring serious male energy to Lolita Chakrabati’s new play Hymn.
‘Powerful, funny & thoroughly engaging’: NAKED – Cockpit Theatre (Online review)
NAKED is a powerful, funny and thoroughly engaging piece of physical theatre. It is the first show from performers Luke Vincent and Paige-Marie Baker-Carroll of the NAKEDpresents queer collective.
‘We are transported somewhere far from Covid’: UNCLE VANYA – Harold Pinter Theatre (Screening)
Cut off in its prime in March, Ian Rickson’s Uncle Vanya returns to us from an empty theatre, filmed for cinema release.
‘A remarkable play’: LES BLANCS – National Theatre at Home (Online review)
The National Theatre’s 2016 production of Les Blancs was directed by Yaël Farber and used the full resources of the Olivier stage to transmit its full force.
‘A strangely disconcerting play’: PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD – Druid Theatre (Online review)
The online release of productions from Druid Theatre’s 2005 season of JM Synge’s complete works is a lockdown boon.
‘A powerful picture of a dark day for democracy’: THE BATTLE OF THE BEANFIELD – Breach Theatre
The Battle of the Beanfield is the first show by Breach Theatre, now known for the excellent It’s True, It’s True, It’s True about Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi.