It’s that time of year when days get shorter, nights get longer and tale telling revolves around the supernatural. Just a couple of days ago the last thing I saw on stage, Here, was (partly) a modern day take on the ghost story. Now for good measure comes Grey Man, a piece of digital theatre written by Lulu Raczka, which investigates similar spooky territory. The piece has been subtitled “A Stage And Screen Experiment” which, as it turns out, is exactly what it is.
‘When family history & personal convictions become inextricably linked’: GUINEA PIGS – The Space (Online show) ★★★★★
If you could meet your 15-year-old-self, what would you say? Would your point of view be any different from theirs? Or perhaps the only deviation would be time has honed your views with greater clarity and nuance? Written by Elin Doyle and directed by Laura Kirman, Guinea Pigs is about a teenager whose father is connected to the British nuclear testing programme – its aftermath having major physical and emotional repercussions.
‘Exciting & challenging’: SCENE UNSEEN – English Touring Opera (Online show)
Jessica Walker and Joseph Atkins bring a touch of cabaret to English Touring Opera in this intimate show, co-produced by Royal & Derngate, captured on film and directed by James Dacre with animation by Thomas Hicks.
‘Dialogue whizzes back & forth like leather on willow’: STUMPED – Original Theatre (Online show)
When in 1964 Samuel Beckett (Stephen Tompkinson) and Harold Pinter (Andrew Lancel) play in the same cricket match in the Cotswolds, you might expect something out of the ordinary. Filmed live at Lord’s, the ‘home of cricket’, Original Theatre’s Stumped imagines what might have happened in such a meeting between two playwrights known for pauses and a sense of the absurd.
At the theatre after an extraordinary day that saw us bid farewell to Her Majesty the Queen
Welcome to today’s edition of ShentonSTAGE Daily, after an extraordinary day that saw us bid farewell to Her Majesty the Queen, after a reign of 70 years that saw her appoint 15 prime ministers — the latest of whom Liz Truss she met only on Tuesday. Truss will now be reporting in a weekly audience to King Charles III (coincidentally the title of Mike Bartlett’s 2014 play which imagined the future that awaited him — and us — that transferred to the West End and Broadway).
‘Comic invented history which entertains & informs’: Three Women & Shakespeare’s Will / Mrs Pack (Online Show)
Three Women & Shakespeare’s Will comes from the pen of Joan Greening who has made something of a speciality of writing about historical figures connected to the arts, albeit in imaginary settings/situations. Thus in recent years she has given us the relationship dynamics of three literary sisters in At Home With The Brontës and a trio of Rosetti’s Women and their influence on the titular painter.
‘Transports the viewer to different locations & into diverse lives’: MILES / THE FALL – Original Theatre Company (Online Show)
Riverside Studios has partnered with the Original Theatre Company to make their three competition-winning plays from debut writers available for on-demand viewing. Across three nights in July, these three plays were performed in the small space at Riverside Studios with all-star casts and simultaneously live-streamed to an international audience. Separate release dates for Miles and The Fall will follow, but watching them as a collective is just as valuable, transporting the viewer to three very different locations and into diverse lives.
‘Strong, character-driven piece’: The Brontës: A Musical – The Space (Online Show)
An epic musical available on-demand from The Space, The Brontës is the latest depiction of the famed Yorkshire family of writers in the 19th century.
‘Remarkable work’: JUST AN ORDINARY LAWYER – Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Online Show) ★★★★
Just An Ordinary Lawyer is one of two shows which Tayo Aluko and Friends have available both live and online on-demand at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, and this one focuses on Nigerian Tunji Sowande (1912-1996), concert singer, cricket fan and Britain’s first Black judge.
‘Out of the ordinary’: ODDS ON – Touring (Online Show)
So, it was with a sense of keen anticipation that I approached Dante Or Die’s latest piece entitled Odds On which is currently on a “digital tour”. It’s a piece about the world of online gambling and its effects on an individual who gets sucked into a vortex and only narrowly avoids disaster. Having revelled in their earlier piece, and noting that Tim Crouch was on board as the project’s dramaturgist, I expected it to be out of the ordinary – and it was.
‘The state of the climate & mental health are core concerns’: BOILING FROG – Camden Fringe (Online Show)
Jo Emery Productions brings this show to the digital strand of Camden Fringe. Boiling Frog is a series of interconnecting monologues across 90 minutes.
‘Captures the heart’: FINDING MAGIC – Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Online Show)
A Zoom performance by Beverley Bishop, directed by Peter Beck, Finding Magic includes an audience recorded at the time of the livestream, to give a sense of interactivity.
‘It’s all rather charming, really’: THE LATE HARNESS REBELLION – Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Online Show) ★★★
Tamás Milhofer brings his show The Late Harness Rebellion to the digital strand of the Edinburgh Fringe with the collaboration of Unmuted Participants.
‘Your choice, your experience’: TREE CONFESSIONS – Camden Fringe (Online Show)
Written by Jenny Lyn Bader and narrated by Kathleen Chalfant, Tree Confessions is a 34-minute audio show which most recently streamed as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe.
‘Quirky & complex piece’: THE FALL – Original Theatre (Online Show)
New play The Fall, by Drew Hewitt, forms part of the triple bill of readings staged at the Riverside Studios and now available via on-demand streaming.
‘Gets the audience involved at every turn’: Puncture the Screen: Keep The Lights On (Online Show)
Kill The Cat’s live-stream of Keep The Lights On comes to YouTube on-demand in a 40-minute work in progress piece as part of Puncture the Screen which is a matrix based game to “turn off the lights” of the performance space.
‘Taut but puzzling tale of revenge’: RETRIBUTION DAY (Online Show)
In advance of its appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe, this film version of Retribution Day, described to me by its creators as “a marmite piece” is a taut but puzzling tale of revenge.
‘Clever, sharp & heavily detailed’: THE END OF THE NIGHT (Online Show)
A tight 80-minute three-hander (two other minor characters appear briefly), Original Theatre’s The End of the Night is not an easy watch but it is quite brilliant, and lends itself perfectly to the digital format.
‘Know us by our courage, not by our fear’: VOICES FROM UKRAINE – Finborough Theatre (Online Show)
The second pair of plays from #FinboroughFrontier’s quartet of pieces #VoicesFromUkraine reflecting on the situation in the war torn nation is now available. They join the first couple to form a suite of programmes focusing on life in the country as the inhabitants are invaded by a hostile force and their response to the situation.
‘Lovely hybrid between audiobook & theatre experience’: KISSES ON A POSTCARD (Online Show)
Streaming in two versions, a concept album at two hours available for free, and a four hour one for purchase, Kisses on a Postcard is an episodic piece which can be enjoyed in short bursts between 20 and 40 minutes each.