Tea drinking features heavily in Dipo Baruwa-Etti’s posh kitchen-set play The Clinic at the Almeida Theatre. But this tea may or may not have intoxicating or calming effects; even those who fervently dislike infusions get a taste for it. And that is The Clinic, a mix of contemporary family drama and something more difficult to put a finger on.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: Paradise at the National Theatre
Love London Love Culture round up the reviews for Kae Tempest’s play Paradise, reimagining a Greek legend now playing at the National Theatre.
‘Strikes gold’: PARADISE – National Theatre
Kae Tempest makes a stirring National Theatre debut with Sophocles adaptation Paradise, starring a superb Lesley Sharp.
‘Celebrating the breadth & creativity of the theatre industry’: THE MEANING OF ZONG / AFTERPLAY – BBC Sounds
The Meaning of Zong and Afterplay showcase the power of audio drama to transport an audience’s imagination and to see the familiar a little differently.
With light at the end of the tunnel for live performance and some of our biggest institutions announcing summer programmes at their venues, the BBC’s new Lights Up Festival has arrived at a moment of optimism, not just acting as a reminder of all …
NEWS: Andrew Lincoln will star as Scrooge in The Old Vic’s In Camera production of A Christmas Carol
Andrew Lincoln will star as Ebenezer Scrooge in this year’s Old Vic: In Camera version of Jack Thorne’s A Christmas Carol from 12-24 December 2020.
‘Ralph Fiennes & Sophie Okonedo are well matched’: ANTONY & CLEOPATRA – National Theatre (Online review)
I’ve always found Antony and Cleopatra a bit of a slog. There, I’ve said it. Too many scenes which flit about all over the place, too many minor inconsequential characters, deaths which seem interminable.
NEWS: Girl From The North Country returns to the West End in December 2019
The critically-acclaimed hit Girl from the North Country, written and directed by Conor McPherson with music and lyrics by Bob Dylan, is to play London’s Gielgud Theatre in for a limited season from 10 December 2019 to 1 February 2020 (press night is 16 December).
‘Okonedo more than delivers’: ANTONY & CLEOPATRA – National Theatre ★★★★
Or Cleopatra and Antony as it turns out. Ralph Fiennes is plenty good in Simon Godwin’s modern-dress production of Antony & Cleopatra for the National Theatre, but Sophie Okonedo is sit-up, shut-up, stand-up amazing.
‘There are moments here to be savoured’: ANTONY & CLEOPATRA – National Theatre ★★★★
At three and a half hours all in Antony and Cleopatra is a long haul, but with Fiennes and Okonedo making Shakespeare’s verse sing, there are moments here to be savoured.
‘Delivers on so much of its promise’: Antony & Cleopatra – National Theatre
After a genuinely exhilarating Julius Caesar at the Bridge Theatre a few months ago, Shakespeare’s subsequent tale Antony and Cleopatra has arrived at the National starring Ralph Fiennes and Sophie Okonedo.
‘Reminding us of how much we stand to lose’: THE GREATEST WEALTH – The Old Vic
Paying tribute to the NHS in its 70th year, the specially-commissioned monologues of The Greatest Wealth made for a great night at the Old Vic.
NEWS: Casting for Old Vic’s series of monologues celebrating the NHS includes Art Malik, Meera Syal & Jade Anouka
The Old Vic has announced casting for The Greatest Wealth, curated by Lolita Chakrabarti and directed by Adrian Lester to celebrate 70 years of the National Health Service.
THE RESISTABLE RISE OF ARTURO UI – Donmar Warehouse
There’s something special in the timelessness of some pieces of theatre, their themes and arguments as relevant to audiences today as they were when they were written years, decades, even centuries ago. Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui falls into the middle category, written in 1941 as an allegorical response to his nation’s fall to Nazism, and was magisterially revived at Chichester a few years back.
Two sinful Off-West End musicals: The Sorrows of Satan & The Wild Party
Not long left to see two Off-West End musicals I can recommend: The Wild Party at The Other Palace and The Sorrows of Satan at Tristan Bates Theatre. Here’s why I think you should.
Ian Foster’s News Round-Up
Bruce and Trevor Horn are delighted to announce that together they are creating a new work of musical theatre – provisionally entitled The Robot Sings with an original story and score by the duo.
NEWS: Michael Pennington joins Lenny Henry in Arturo Ui, Full cast announced
Lenny Henry is joined in the cast of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Michael Pennington, who recently played King Lear at the Royal & Derngate Northampton, as Dogsborough.
THE WILD PARTY – The Other Palace
There is an incredible array of top talent assembled – powerful singers, athletic dancers and intelligent actors – but The Wild Party lacks the wit and humour of Chicago so that its effect is limited because the book is so thin.
THE WILD PARTY – The Other Palace
Drawn from Joseph Moncure March’s 1928 poem of the same name the show is an unrelenting tale of bastardry in 1920s New York. Frances Ruffelle’s Queenie and her husband Burrs are a pair of fading Vaudeville artistes.
THE WILD PARTY – The Other Palace
March’s jazz-age tale of a tempestuous couple holding a gathering to end all gatherings allows for a real parade of vivid caricatures to come passing through in search of gin, blow, sex and some defining characteristic or other.
THE GRINNING MAN – Bristol Old Vic
Written by Carl Grose and directed by BOV AD Tom Morris, The Grinning Man is a deliciously dark fairytale of a show, sharing DNA with the likes of Kneehigh and The Light Princess in its theatrical playfulness and musical complexity.