Joyous and enchanting, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives is an energetic, entertaining show with a lot to say. From the moment the play starts it’s completely captivating, and two hours simply fly by.
Though no one comes out well in The Daughter-In-Law and the script simmers for too long before it starts to boil over, this is a clear and engaging revival of a lesser known English play.
The observations and insights that Bartlett injects in No Talking have an accumulative effect so that by the end of the play, we see the ‘magnitude’ of the absent conversation.
An exciting couple of months coming up on the Fringe – this month I’m checking out Theatre N16’s new venue for a couple of shows, for one thing, and next month The Bunker Theatre will be a bit of a hotbed for new writing.
The fact that the opening scene, in which disenchanted art teacher Melissa tries to hang herself with her favourite scarf, isn’t the most dramatic moment in Moormaid immediately tells you quite a lot about Marion Bott’s play.
Moormaid is a puzzling and pretentious play that will probably alienate as many people as it attracts – though visually striking, it struggles to tell an engaging story.
Exploring amongst other things the relationship between emotions, art and war, Moormaid is not easy to pigeonhole. Written by Marion Bott and directed by Zois Pigadas, at its heart is Melissa (Sarah Alles) – a young, married art teacher in Berlin.
Gemma Lawrence spoke to Love London Love Culture’s Emma Clarendon about the world stage premiere of Mike Bartlett’s Not Talking. The production at the Arcola Theatre, London continues until 2 June 2018.
