Young Vic artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah has announced a new season of work, Welcome Back and Welcome Home, welcoming theatre-makers and audiences back through the doors for the first time since the venues’s 50th Birthday celebrations in October 2020.
News, Reviews and Features
These are all of our in-house news and features as well as syndicated article excerpts from our 45+ theatre bloggers. You can also access All Our Mates' Posts in comprehensive list form and view individual author pages.
‘The talent of the cast is outstanding’: I COULD USE A DRINK – Stream.Theatre (Online review)
Written by Drew Gasparini and produced for the UK premiere by Liam Gartland and Alex Conder, I Could Use A Drink is a song cycle following the relatable and challenging stories that many people (particularly young people) face.
‘The wordplay whizzes along’: THE SORROWS OF SATAN (Online review)
Directed by Adam Lenson, with Molly Lynch as The Woman and Stefan Bednarczyk as the mute accompanist, The Sorrows of Satan takes inspiration from Marie Corelli’s 1895 novel, but moves the action to a freer age in 1924.
‘It keeps you immersed at all times’: HOUSE MOTHER NORMAL – New Perspectives (Online review)
New Perspectives and Tim Crouch have transformed novel House Mother Normal into a digital installation for the Brighton Festival which you can explore either in person or on your screens.
‘Poignant. Hopeful. Honest’: Wayne Steven Jackson brings his show From Me To Us to BAC
Love London Love Culture chatted to Wayne Stephen Jackson about bringing his show From Me To Us to the Battersea Arts Centre, available to watch from 10-16 May.
NEWS: Linzi Hateley returns as the Narrator in Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at special performances
Linzi Hateley – who starred in the original London Palladium production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – will make a return to the musical during the show’s strictly limited season at the theatre.
‘They definitely get away with murder!’: A KILLER PARTY – Stream.Theatre (Online review)
A Killer Party is a camp musical comedy murder mystery based around the world of showbiz – what’s not to like?
As Phantom & Six announce reopening dates, plans speed up for Broadway’s return
It turns out New York is moving even faster, with the state (and its neighbours, New Jersey and Connecticut), according to the New York Times on Monday, “lifting almost all their pandemic restrictions, paving the way for a return to fuller offices and restaurants, a more vibrant nightlife and a richer array of cultural and religious gatherings for the first time in a year”.
‘Bubbly & sprightly like champagne’: THE SORROWS OF SATAN (Online review) ★★★★
A new musical play, The Sorrows of Satan, by Luke Bateman and Michael Conley has opened for a run of streamed performances. We were invited to preview the quirky comedy adaptation of the Faust story filmed at the stunning Brocket Hall.
‘Intelligent & ambitious’: ROCKY ROAD – Jermyn Street Theatre (Online review)
A tense, psychological thriller, Shaun McKenna’s new play Rocky Road is a two-hander set across a couple of flats where new tenant Kirsten Foster meets building manager Tyger Drew-Honey. There is a mystery we slowly become privy to – old wounds, ethical dilemmas.
Are we all going to rush to the theatre as soon as social distancing is no more?
Do we have to become responsible for our own Covid safety? So, the man who (allegedly) said he didn’t mind if the bodies were piled high, he didn’t want to impose another lockdown — until he, in fact, did — is now embarking on another experiment in which that may indeed turn out to be outcome. On 21 June, all social distancing is to be scrapped in the UK.
‘A fun & diverting change’: THE SECRET CONNECTION (Online review)
For The Secret Connection Dr Will Houstoun has taken his act online and threaded together various tricks and illusions to baffle and delight.
‘Silly playfulness lies at the heart of its appeal’: A KILLER PARTY – Stream.Theatre (Online review) ★★★★
The UK premiere of the hilarious and charming musical A Killer Party provides many much needed laughs.
NEWS: Full casting announced for Les Misérables – The Staged Concert
The principal cast for the return of Les Misérables – The Staged Concert at London’s Sondheim Theatre on 20 May 2021 will be Jon Robyns as Jean Valjean, Bradley Jaden as Javert, Lucie Jones as Fantine, Gerard Carey as Thénardier, Josefina Gabrielle as Madame Thénardier, Shan Ako as Éponine, Harry Apps as Marius, Jamie Muscato as Enjolras and Charlie Burn as Cosette, with Dean Chisnall playing the role of Jean Valjean at certain performances.
‘The inclusivity of the game is genuinely impressive’: THIS IS REALITY 2000 – Objective Entertainment (Online review) ★★★★
This Is Reality 2000 is a ‘Big Brother’ style interactive zoom gameshow designed to bring together friends in a night of “nostalgic noughties references, videos, trivia and a pumping Y2K – themed soundtrack”.
‘Ridley excels at these forensic character studies’: TARANTULA – Southwark Playhouse (Online review)
Tarantula isn’t perfect and is certainly too long but Ridley’s latest twin works have been ideally suited to the nature of hybrid theatre, utilising the intimate and seemingly one-to-one focus that only a camera can create while building on the energy and vibrancy of live performance.
The long aftermath of trauma is the subject of Philip Ridley’s latest monologue for Southwark Playhouse building on the writer’s established relationship with the venue and the sensational The Poltergeist which premiered last November to an online …
‘This is not just Zoom transferred to the screen’: The F*ck Am I Doing – Cow Collective (Online review)
The digital revival of The F*ck Am I Doing marks the inaugural production of new writing initiative, The COW Community, founded by recent graduates of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
FEATURED POST: Mercurius Theatre’s Jenny Eastop looks forward to an exciting collaboration as director & producer with S&S Theatre Productions
Jenny Eastop, the multiple Offie-nominated director and producer for London-based Mercurius Theatre, will be playing a vital role in the transformation of the prestigious S&S Award into S&S Theatre Productions, dedicated to producing radical new musical theatre with partnerships between the UK and the USA.
‘Flawed but very funny piece’: TENNIS ELBOW – Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh & Pitlochry Festival Theatre (Online review) ★★★★
There is little doubt that a tightened-up version of Tennis Elbow would be better, but the sheer pleasure in language displayed here already goes a very long way.
‘Captures all the fun, eyebrow-raising, awkward silences of the beloved song contest’: EUROBEAT: THE PRIDE OF EUROPE – Stream.Theatre
It’s the merry month of May, which means it is… Eurovision! To celebrate, stream.theatre is hosting a virtual revival of Craig Christie’s witty parody of our country cousins across Europe, Eurobeat: The Pride of Europe.