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2017

Tag Archive

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Matt Merritt’s #theatre2017 hits: ‘It was ultimately a year about women’

In Features, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Shanine Salmon8th January 2018Leave a Comment

It was ultimately a year about women, with Herstory Festival and Bechdel Testing proving that there was plenty of excellent new writing from women, despite Hampstead Theatre claiming otherwise.

Carole Woddis rounds up 2017

In Features, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis5th January 2018Leave a Comment

With the demise of the repertory system, it is the fringe and alternative theatre that has stealthily and often in unrecognised ways provided the apprenticeship and forcing house in recent years for all that is best in our theatrical, cinematic and televisual life.

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My Top 5 Productions of 2017

In Features, London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Plays, Regional theatre, Uncategorised by Helen McWilliams5th January 2018Leave a Comment

2017 has been a bumper year for Break A Leg, we’ve literally been all over the place in as many theatres as possible and loving every minute.

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HOW TO WIN AGAINST HISTORY – Young Vic Theatre ★★★★

In London theatre, Musicals, Opinion, Regional theatre, Reviews, Touring by Carole Woddis12th December 2017Leave a Comment

Seiriol Davies’s How to Win Against History is not quite like anything I’ve ever seen before. But then again, it is. A pastiche, a satire, a brilliant piece of aesthetic campery on a par with some of the best, wackiest shows of the alternative, gay scene of the late 1980s and ‘90s.

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EUGENE ONEGIN – Arcola Theatre ★★★★

In London theatre, Opera, Opinion, Reviews by Carole Woddis4th December 2017Leave a Comment

Something very exciting is happening in small-scale opera. This is the third one I’ve seen in as many months, all striking in their own ways but Eugene Onegin is by far the most enjoyable.

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THE RAKE’S PROGRESS – Wilton’s Music Hall ★★★

In London theatre, Opera, Opinion, Reviews by Carole Woddis27th November 2017Leave a Comment

This was a labour of love, Selina Cadell and Eliza Thompson’s inaugural production for their newly formed OperaGlass Works for which they raised all the funds, a cool £145,000.

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THE SECRET THEATRE – Sam Wanamaker Playhouse ★★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis25th November 2017Leave a Comment

What with the BBC’s Gunpowder Plot and now Anders Lustgarten’s spymaster drama, we really seem unable to quite slough off our fascination with those grisly times when terrorism came in Catholic terms and we were once again at daggers drawn with our European neighbours.

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TRESTLE – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis21st November 2017Leave a Comment

Stewart Pringle’s Harry and Denise fortuitously keep meeting over the trestle table in the local village hall rented out for evening classes and meetings. Harry is one of the backbone-of-the-community types. Denise runs the zumba class.

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#ntNetwork – National Theatre ★★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis19th November 2017Leave a Comment

Whoever decided to revive Chayefsky’s film via a stage production made an astute choice. Network could hardly be more topical or timely in an era that has become infamous for false truths, ‘fake news’ and where ideas have become truncated and traduced by social media.

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THE RETREAT – Park Theatre ★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis15th November 2017Leave a Comment

With Kathy Burke’s imprimatur attached as director, my expectations were high for Sam Bain’s The Retreat although everything else about the writer was unknown to me.

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CORIOLANUS – Barbican Centre (RSC) ★★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis14th November 2017Leave a Comment

Coriolanus may not be the most frequently staged of Shakespeare’s political Roman dramas although it nearly always gets included when a series of them are run together as here with the latest RSC season, under the banner title of Rome MMXVII.

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POISON – Orange Tree Theatre ★★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis9th November 2017Leave a Comment

There is something exquisitely philosophical and European about Lot Vekemans’ approach, at once logical and precise as she moves her two-hander from a point of unresolved conflict and outright hostility to, if not complete reconciliation, at least a peace-making.

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MACBETH – Bussey Building ★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis5th November 2017Leave a Comment

Devil You Know theatre company director Paul Tomlinson describes his setting as ‘post apocalyptic’ and certainly Peckham’s Bussey building lends itself to such a concept.

SUZY STORCK – Gate Theatre ★★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis4th November 2017Leave a Comment

Some of the most viscerally shattering productions I’ve seen in recent years have turned up at the tiny Gate Theatre, Notting Hill. Magali Mougel’s Suzy Storck is no exception.

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SUZY STORCK – Gate Theatre ★★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis4th November 2017Leave a Comment

Some of the most viscerally shattering productions I’ve seen in recent years have turned up at the tiny Gate Theatre, Notting Hill. Magali Mougel’s Suzy Storck is no exception.

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THE SEAGULL – Pushkin House ★★★★

In International, London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis3rd November 2017Leave a Comment

What extraordinary actors the Russians produce and what a revelation is this newly filmed version by Moscow’s Satirikon Theatre uncomfortable, disturbing, unsettling though it also is.

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ANYTHING THAT FLIES – Jermyn Street Theatre ★★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis31st October 2017Leave a Comment

When I read that Anything that Flies was her debut play by writer, Judith Burnley, I naturally assumed it was a young playwright being given a big chance by Jermyn Street’s new artistic director, Tom Littler.

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BITCHED – Tristan Bates Theatre ★★★

In Festivals, London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis30th October 2017Leave a Comment

Raizada’s dialogue is unflinching in the way she captures speech that symbiotically interweaves between everyday conversations and those portrayed on TV as if both were entwined and feeding off each other.

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A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE – West End ★★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis30th October 2017Leave a Comment

It’s all elegantly if slightly laboriously done in studied anachronistic style, delivered facing out to the audience as if emphasising precisely its decorative home.

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ALBION – Almeida Theatre ★★★★★

In London theatre, Opinion, Plays, Reviews by Carole Woddis24th October 2017Leave a Comment

Rupert Goold’s previous, James Graham’s Ink, went on to enjoy its present run in the West End. For sheer entertainment value, I’ll be amazed if Mike Bartlett’s stirring eulogy for a disappearing but not completely gone England and Englishness doesn’t go the same way.

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