For The Wind in the Wilton’s at Wilton’s Music Hall Piers Torday has adapted the up-Thames rural setting of Kenneth Grahame’s book to be an urban take, London’s own stretch of river. And the weasels? You’ve guessed it: the Wild Wood is the City, the weasels and stoats the financiers and developers.
VIDEO & PHOTOS: Theatre & politics make for a thrilling Triggered post-show Q&A
One of the few things I enjoy even more than theatre is talking politics. So chairing a post-show discussion about a brilliant new political play, written and directed by a Westminster insider and lifelong activist, really is my idea of bliss. At the White Bear Theatre, I got to do just that for Triggered, Emma Burnell’s new play about a fictional deselection of a Labour MP ahead of the 2019 General Election.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial at the Wyndham’s Theatre
Take a look at what critics have had to say about Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial at the Wyndham’s Theatre, the play about the trial of the year.
‘Continues to resonate’: OTHELLO – National Theatre
Othello at the National Theatre is a production that has thought very carefully about the things it wants to say and, particularly, what Othello has meant at different points in its performance history. Clint Dyer’s perspective is not on fire just yet but it soon will be, bringing a meaningful reflection on Shakespeare’s tale to the stage while clearly distinguishing it from all of those that have come before.
‘Endearing, funny & charming’: PICTURE PERFECT CHRISTMAS – National Gallery ★★★★
Endearing, funny and charming, the National Gallery’s Picture Perfect Christmas is truly the perfect event for wholesome family fun. Writer and director Francesca Renee Reid bases the production on Avercamp’s ‘A Winter Scene With Skaters Near A Castle’, with a beautiful castle set and snowy landscape.
‘Either way the play does make you feel’: BAGHDADDY – Royal Court Theatre
At best Baghdaddy at the Royal Court Theatre is a surreal trip into traumatic memory, at its worst it’s a self-indulgent mess. If you think that American crime are worse than Saddam’s you’ll love this show; if you like playwrights wagging their finger at you, you’ll love this show; if you believe that parental trauma can be inherited and then self-consciously joked about, you’ll love this show.
‘Contains some remarkable writing’: HERE – Southwark Playhouse
When individual members of a family are facing a variety of problems, can looking back at their collective past help to resolve matters or does that simply serve to make things worse? This is the premise behind Here by debut playwright Clive Judd, the 2022 winner of the Papatango Prize for new writing currently in production on Southwark Playhouse’s main stage
REVIEW ROUND-UP: A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic Theatre
What have critics said about the Old Vic Theatre production of A Christmas Carol directed by Matthew Warchus and starring Owen Teale as Scrooge. Love London Love Culture’s Emma Clarendon finds out.
‘Cleverly done & beautifully portrayed’: A SHERLOCK CAROL – Marylebone Theatre ★★★★
What happens when you cross A Christmas Carol with Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle and add a murder mystery and a love interest (Rosie Armstrong) from the past? It’s A Sherlock Carol at Marylebone Theatre.
New post-show Q&A: Denmark will never be the same again in Lazarus Theatre’s Hamlet & Terri Paddock is going to find out why
Hot on the heels of my post-show Q&A for Doctor Faustus, I’m pleased to announce I’ll return to Southwark Playhouse in January to continue my long-time association with Lazarus Theatre Company, discussing their brand-new production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
‘Really playful & intriguing mystery’: A SHERLOCK CAROL – Marylebone Theatre ★★★★
Written and directed by Mark Shanahan, A Sherlock Carol at London’s Marylebone Theatre is a clever show which nicely combines aspects of Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle effectively.
‘Flawed but fascinating show’: SARAH – Coronet Theatre
Sarah at the Coronet Theatre is an authentic alcoholic’s tale, sentimental and entirely self-centred, but transformed in the telling if, just for a moment, we can buy into the drinker’s mindset. His name is Scott, and the fact he is telling us this at all hints at some sort of redemption. He may be alive, but this is not a redemptive story.
‘I especially liked the slapstick-style comedy’: RAPUNZEL – Watermill Theatre, Newbury ★★★★
There’s nothing quite like reviewing a festive family production when the auditorium is full of excitement from the four busloads of primary school children sitting ready and waiting the wonders that are about to come alive on the stage. At 10.30am, spirits were running high for Rapunzel at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury.
‘Remain on the edge of your seat, though you might fall off laughing’: THE MASSIVE TRAGEDY OF MADAME BOVARY – Jermyn Street Theatre ★★★★
What could be more seasonal than Flaubert’s tale of wifely frustration, romantic illusions, disastrous adulteries and ruinous shopaholic debt? This adaptation of The Massive Tragedy of Madame Bovary at the Jermyn Street Theatre is a clown-skilled four-hander by John Nicholson – founder of the gleefully clever Peepolykus.
‘The power is in the modern parallels’: RICHARD THE SECOND – Omnibus Theatre ★★★★
Anna Coombs’ adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard II sees the story slimmed down for five actors, with three of the cast playing more than one character. It focuses the attention on King Richard (Daniel Rock) and his cousins, the loyal Aumerle (Lebogang Fisher) and Henry Bollingbroke (Raheim Menzies), and the power tussle between them for the crown
‘Razor-sharp &captivating’: FRANTIC ASSEMBLY: OTHELLO – Touring ★★★★★
Lean, mean and totally uncompromising, Frantic Assembly bring a newly updated and gritty version of Shakespeare’s Othello to The Lowry as part of their UK tour. Razor-sharp and captivating, Frantic Assembly’s pulsating and athletic physical style adds new depth to Shakespeare’s text.
‘It’s the performances that make this Christmas show shine’: PINOCCHIO – Unicorn Theatre
The use of fairytale, music and the goodie/baddie dichotomy remain in Pinocchio at the Unicorn Theatre, but the eggy, set gags and joke routines of panto are thankfully left out. Colourful, detailed design (by Jean Chan) and puppetry (by Chris Pirie) give the show a festive lushness, but it’s the performances that make this Christmas show shine.
‘Feels like a lost treasure restored’: LONDON WALL – Tower Theatre
Office-based plays are relatively few and far between particularly those from the 1930s, so the revival of John Van Druten’s London Wall at the Tower Theatre is particularly interesting, not least for its focus on the female staff of a busy London law firm who struggle to be seen as equals by their male colleagues who treat them either as secretaries or a prizes to be won.
‘Hard, clever, truthful, sometimes funny’: BLACKOUT SONGS – Hampstead Theatre
Blackout Songs is another sharp, pared-down studio production: in 95 minutes Joe White delivers a necessarily painful two-hander about youthful alcoholism and the disaster of colliding addictions. We watch two lovers, over an uncertain wavering timeline, who can neither control nor remember their lives and real selves: we get flashes, snapshots of their meeting, coupling, celebrating, fighting, betraying.
‘Can only be described as magical’: THE SNOWMAN – Peacock Theatre ★★★★★
Based on the well-loved Raymond Briggs classic, The Snowman stage show can only be described as magical. Having grown up watching the TV adaptation, the piece has always been an integral part of the Christmas countdown in our family, we’ve got the books and each year eagerly await it being aired on TV.