Empathetic revival of Zinnie Harris’s 2000 play about a lost world and small island longings
The post Further Than the Furthest Thing, Young Vic appeared first on Aleks Sierz.
‘Sets a crisp pace & witty tone’: BLACK SUPERHERO – Royal Court Theatre
“I’m holding out for a hero” is Bonnie Tyler’s famous song, and it could be the theme tune for David (Danny Lee Wynter) in Black Superhero. He’s long held a torch for friend King (Dyllón Burnside), who is playing superhero Craw in a low-brow movie franchise.
‘An often thrilling production’: DANCE OF DEATH – Coronet Theatre
Usually, European productions find a home at the Barbican but The National Theatre of Norway has gone west to Notting Hill for the UK transfer of Dance of Death performed in the original Norwegian with English surtitles. This often thrilling production that explores the melodrama and violence in a 25-year marriage is compelling stuff, demonstrating how to make 120-year-old material feel brand new.
‘A dazzling, excoriating new version’: ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST – Lyric Hammersmith ★★★★★
Daniel Rigby won a BAFTA for his portrayal of the beloved comedian Eric Morecambe in a 2011 TV film. The spirit of Morecambe – endearing, absurd, inspired, with a slight edge of danger – permeates Rigby’s performance in this savagely brilliant reinvention of Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s police corruption satire Accidental Death Of An Anarchist at the Lyric Hammersmith.
New post-show Q&A: Terri Paddock digs out her platforms for a chat with The Way Old Friends Do cast & creatives at the Park Theatre
Calling all ABBA and new writing fans! I’m delighted to return to the Park Theatre for the premiere of The Way Old Friends Do, written by and starring Ian Hallard and directed by Mark Gatiss.
‘Visceral, animalistic & strange’: MACBETH – Southwark Playhouse
It is an unusual Macbeth that comes to life with the Porter’s scene, the play’s disconcerting post-murder comic interlude – even more so when it is performed without words. Dale Wylde’s mimed scene is a weird and captivating interlude. It encapsulates the strengths and weaknesses of Flabbergast Theatre’s version at Southwark Playhouse.
NEWS: Test your nerve in the thrilling site-responsive experience Facts not Opinions’: Stretched to the Limit
Step back in time and enter the world’s first Victorian Testing and Experimenting Works on London’s Bankside for an evocative and surreal new site-responsive performance. Expect to be tested to your limits during Illuminate Productions’ ‘Facts not Opinions’: Stretched to the Limit.
‘Captivated from beginning to end’: AFTER THE ACT: A SECTION 28 MUSICAL – New Diorama Theatre ★★★★
After The Act, produced by Breach and commissioned by New Diorama, dares to go where not many shows do these days. Billed as a “documentary musical” and based around the controversial Section 28 law that was passed in 1988 under Thatcher’s Conservative government, we hear the voices of real people who lived their lives during this time, seeing the effects and impact this law had on the country’s people and society.
‘Powerful & thought-provoking’: FOX – Touring
Following a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019, and a Covid-induced hiatus, Katie Guicciardi’s FOX is finally out on tour. Inspired by real-life events, this witty one-hander offers a candid insight into the isolation of new motherhood. Mummy joined a room full of tiny humans and their grown-ups for a baby-friendly performance of FOX at Greenwich Theatre.
‘Tip your hat & get down there’: GUYS & DOLLS – Bridge Theatre ★★★★★
Daniel Mays has played a lot of tough-guy roles but has by nature a rather innocent and worried-looking face. It is this quality that Nicholas Hytner spotted as perfect for his Nathan Detroit in Guys & Dolls at the Bridge Theatre: lowlife but hapless, indecisive about the faff and cost of marrying his tolerant fiancee of 14 years standing, Miss Adelaide (an irresistible Marisha Wallace).
REVIEW ROUND-Up: Marjorie Prime at the Menier Chocolate Factory
Love London Love Culture’s Emma Clarendon rounds up the reviews for the revival of Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize nominated play Marjorie Prime at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory.
‘The changing tone is very engaging’: FURTHER THAN THE FURTHEST THING – Young Vic Theatre
Malevolent forces shaping small communities is a strong premise for all kinds of drama, from the arrival of outsiders that tend to be the focus of horror to the power shifts of Pinter plays that upset the status quo with new authorities forming that overshadow the existing order. Zinnie Harris’ 2000 play Further Than the Furthest Thing combines these ideas with broader notions of industrialisation and the religious management of a community relatively untroubled by the outside world until one if its returning sons brings change.
‘Feels depressingly timely’: RUSH – Chickenshed Theatre
In a week when the UK government doubled down on its harmful and divisive rhetoric with regard to refugees and immigrants, Chickenshed’s new spring show Rush feels depressingly timely. At its core the story of three women from different generations of the same family, the show also tells a much wider tale that both celebrates black culture and laments its erosion across the centuries.
‘When it fully works, it’s wonderful’: GUYS & DOLLS – Bridge Theatre ★★★★
For any theatre enthusiast who has been living under a rock, Nicholas Hytner’s new production of Guys & Dolls at the Bridge Theatre is unique because it is immersive, in the manner of this venue’s previous acclaimed versions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Julius Caesar.
VIDEOS & PHOTOS: From Feydeau & farce to internationalism and inclusivity, there’s lots to discuss in the A Tailor for Ladies post-show Q&A
This new production of Georges Feydeau’s early 1886 farce A Tailor for Ladies, which Penny Tomai has translated and co-adapted with director Lee James Broadwood, marks Medley Theatre Company’s debut, with a two-week season at London’s Cockpit Theatre where an international ensemble switches up halfway to allow actors to take on different roles.
‘Clever, funny & frustratingly relevant’: BRILLIANT JERKS – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★
Joseph Charlton’s witty and incisive play Brilliant Jerks at the Southwark Playhouse portrays the evolution of a brilliant idea into a multi-billion-dollar ride-hailing app, laying bare the cut-throat and toxic workplaces and casualties as the money keeps rolling in.
‘There are several beautiful moments of tender humanity’: THE JOURNEY TO VENICE – Finborough Theatre
The memory play is a theatrical genre which allows the playwright to locate their characters in the here and now while at the same time travelling back in time. It is the form adopted by Bjørg Vik, a Norwegian writer and journalist who died in 2018, for her short play, The Journey to Venice.
‘As a metaphor, the idea is powerful’: Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons – Harold Pinter Theatre
Sam Steiner’s play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons at the Harold Pinter Theatre has followed a well-documented path from student drama to West End, thanks partly to the simplicity of its central concept (a society much like ours restricts everyone to a maximum of 140 words, written or spoken, per day), but also its structure as a two-hander with a pair of attractive parts for an attractive male and an attractive female lead.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Under the Black Rock at the Arcola Theatre
Love London Love Culture’s Emma Clarendon rounds up the reviews for Tim Edge’s play Under the Black Rock, starring Evanna Lynch, at London’s Arcola Theatre.
‘The epitome of feel-good fun’: THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF MUSICAL – Noel Coward Theatre
Back in 2009, when The Great British Bake Off first appeared on our TV screens, nobody could have predicted that a show about people making cakes in a tent would even get a second series, let alone become a national and international sensation. But the…