Yesterday I watched Skye Hallam’s excellent one-woman show, Heads or Tails, one of the headline acts at the new Living Record Festival. It’s a gently confessional monologue about the afterlife spoken by 25-year-old Steph, who has – as they say – been “taken too soon”.
NEWS: Lockdown measures force West End production of Disney’s Frozen to be postponed
The West End production of Disney’s Frozen, planned to open at the newly refurbished Theatre Royal Drury Lane on 14 April 2021, with previews from 2 April, has been postponed due to the current national lockdown and Covid-19 restrictions.
NEWS: Theatremakers from all four nations are celebrated in The Stage 100 list
The Stage has unveiled its annual The Stage 100 list. The list has been re-imagined this year to celebrate individuals who have gone above and beyond in helping theatre survive the biggest crisis the industry has ever faced.
‘The acting is uniformly good’: S-27 – Finborough Theatre (Online review)
With S-27, the Finborough once again punches well above its weight, making another compelling contribution to the brave new world of streamed theatre.
NEWS: West End producers react to the news that London is moving into Tier 3
There was devastating news for West End theatres today when Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that London – plus parts of Essex and Hertfordshire – would move into Tier 3 from 16 December 2020.
NEWS: Government tier system announcement receives a mixed reaction
There has been a mixed response from theatres up and down the country to the Government’s announcement detailing which areas of England will fall into which Tier when the second lockdown comes to an end on 2 December 2020.
NEWS: New Coronavirus restrictions will limit capacity in Tier 1 & 2 theatres & close those in Tier 3
When England moves back into a Tier system at 12.01am on 2 December 2020, indoor theatre performances will be allowed in Tiers 1 and 2 with an audience of 1,000 socially distanced people or 50% occupancy, whichever is smaller. However, in Tier 3 such events will not be allowed.
‘Both humorous & moving’: MISFITS – Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch (Online theatre)
Misfits, from the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, comprises four excellent fractured monologues, written by Kenny Emson, Sadie Hasler, Guleraana Mir and Anne Odeke, which focus on Essex,
‘Positively electrifying stuff’: LITTLE WARS (Online review)
There’s plenty to enjoy in Little Wars’ jokes, and then, later on, the final harrowing monologues about the genocide are both powerful and deeply moving.
NEWS: Oliver Dowden confirms theatre rehearsals & streamed performances without audiences can go ahead
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has confirmed via social media that rehearsals can go ahead at arts venues during the forthcoming four-week Coronavirus lockdown from 5 November to 2 December 2020 as they are regarded as ‘places of work’. Live-streamed performances are also allowed but audiences are not permitted.
NEWS: Coronavirus rules mean return to theatre lockdowns across UK
Scores of productions devised to comply with social distancing have become casualties of the national lockdown that will run for one month from 5 November to 2 December 2020 in response to the continuing Coronavirus crisis.
‘You just have to trust in the story you’re telling now’: Georgina Barley brings her debut play Lovesick to the White Bear Theatre
Actress and writer Georgina Barley refused to feel defeated by the cancellation of her debut play Lovesick six months ago due to the Covid crisis. Instead Georgina put her mind to creating a version of the piece that could be staged post-lockdown and she can’t wait to share it with audiences at London’s White Bear Theatre from 13-17 October 2020.
‘Melancholic & funny’: IN A NUTSHELL – Lost Dog (Online review)
Theatre is just different organisms in close proximity. It’s a great image, and one of many that float gently to the surface in Ben Duke’s In a Nutshell, a monologue which explores with a marvellously tentative touch the nature of theatre, meaning theatre as it was until the pandemic struck.
NEWS: West End reopening of The Mousetrap will be postponed
Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap – the longest-running show in the world, which had been due to resume performances at London’s St Martin’s Theatre on 23 October 2020 – is to have its reopening postponed.
‘Blends wry reminiscence, personal experience, poetry & music’: AN EVENING WITH AN IMMIGRANT – Bridge Theatre
This is a masterly revival of An Evening with an Immigrant, Inua Ellams’ 2016 autobiographical one-man show which is both poetic and engaging.
NEWS: The Lion & Unicorn Theatre will reopen for live performances from 30 September 2020
Beginning on 30 September 2020, The Lion & Unicorn Theatre’s first Covid-secure performances since lockdown will be a mix of brand-new work and some old favourites, as well as productions from the venue’s team of in-house Associate Artists.
NEWS: ‘Covid edit’ of new play Lovesick opens at the White Bear Theatre
There was disappointment for writer and actress Georgina Barley in April this year when the planned run of her debut play Lovesick at London’s White Bear Theatre was cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, but six months later a new ‘Covid edit’ version of the piece is back in the venue’s programme, directed by Helen Tennison and running from 13-17 October 2020.
NEWS: Nimax Theatres will open all 6 West End theatres in sequence from October 2020 with social distancing
Nimax Theatres will open all six West End theatres in sequence from 22 October 2020 with social distancing under Covid-19 secure government guidelines. The special season will beginning at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue with This is Going to Hurt, written and performed by ex-NHS doctor Adam Kay.
‘Hare allows much more of his own personality to emerge’: BEAT THE DEVIL – Bridge Theatre
The first short play is Beat the Devil in which David Hare stakes first claim to what will surely be a new genre or at least a familiar theme in the coming months – the Covid monologue.
‘Intermittently affecting blend of personal struggle & political outrage’: BEAT THE DEVIL – Bridge Theatre
David Hare gets in first with his Coronavirus monologue Beat The Devil at the Bridge Theatre, evocatively performed by Ralph Fiennes.