The overwritten script needs significant cutting and dramaturgical streamlining, but it has a dynamic premise that looks at an often-ignored demographic.
TRESTLE – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★
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.
TRESTLE – Southwark Playhouse
Small is beautiful. And that is because two-handers can sometimes reach parts that other, bigger, plays fail to touch. This is certainly the case with Stewart Pringle’s Trestle.
THE LOUNGE – Soho Theatre
Whatever your thoughts are about the inevitable march towards death, The Lounge is likely to touch on them in some way or another. Set in the lounge of a care home with characters ranging from residents to staff to hapless visitors, this three-hander is a funny and moving overview of attitudes.
Buzzcut Festival: Day Three highlights include Silent Dinner & Free Haircuts
With the glorious sunshine and packed building, it’s a great day to see some of the outdoor work. Sexcentenary, a collective of older women addressing issues around gender, feminism and ageing are performing around Govan.
CIRCUS DIARIES: Life On Wheels, by Bella Kinetica
The first full length theatrical show from roller-skating and aerial duo Bella Kinetica is a scrapbook of animated sound clips, a series of vintage moments that chart aspects of a lifelong friendship.
PLAQUES AND TANGLES – Royal Court
Once upon a time, quite recently, you couldn’t move for plays about youth. Now, there’s been an avalanche of dramas about ageing, usually in the context of dementia and family life. Maybe all of our main playwrights have suddenly grown up, or maybe the endless quest for novelty has deposited us on the shores of the current trend-setting idea. Nicola Wilson’s Royal Court debut is yet another play about Alzheimer’s, ageing and memory, but is it any different from Florian Zeller’s The Father, April de Angelis’ After Electra or Emma Adams’s Animals?