The National Theatre has announces 15 productions of new plays and fresh adaptations by leading writers. Olivier Theatre My Brilliant Friend 12 November 2019 to 18 January 2020 (Press day is 26 November). Plays in rep, with further performances to be announced Following a sell-out run at Rose Theatre Kingston, the two-part adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend by April De Angelis is reworked …
WISH LIST – Royal Court
You could call it the Corbynisation of new writing. In the past couple of years, a series of plays have plumbed the lower depths, looking at the subject of good people trapped in zero-hour contracts and terrible working conditions. Like Ken Loach’s dreary film, I, Daniel Blake, these plays have integrity, but very little dramatic content.
WISH LIST – Royal Court Theatre
New play about casual work and disability is a thinly written Corbynesque drama.
LOVE – National Theatre
No remedy for the January blues this, but one of the most brutally affecting pieces of theatre you could ever bear to see. Alezander Zeldin’s Love follows what life can be found in the anonymous surroundings of a halfway house, a hostel run by the council for people in need of temporary accommodation. People are only meant to be there for a maximum of six weeks but with the system in meltdown, some have been there for over a year, living beyond what anyone could ever call reasonable.
Text of the Day: Love
Random and topical thoughts and quotes gathered by My Theatre Mates contributor Aleks Sierz, first published on www.sierz.co.uk.
LOVE – National Theatre
Alexander Zeldin’s world premiere of Love is by no means a stereotypical interpretation of the emotion. Natasha Jenkins presents a semi-immersive set, a run-down, stark social housing unit that bleeds out into the audience space – the front rows directly sit in the way of the production itself.
LOVE – National Theatre
New devised piece about poverty and temporary accommodation is extremely powerful, but also deeply flawed.
LOVE – National Theatre
As a conscience-pricker, the NT’s Christmas feelbad offering, it is effective. When the magnificent Anna Calder-Marshall as the old mother finally staggers through the audience towards the stage death of the year, there was a standing ovation and I think it was mainly for her.
BEYOND CARING – Manchester
Alexander Zeldin’s perception of life on the lowest rung of the employment ladder is precise, darkly comic and painstakingly accurate.