In A Very Expensive Poison Lucy Prebble has serious arguments to outlay about the relationship between international governments and narrative misdirection, but the broadly comic approach to presentation feels at odds with the meaning of the play.
‘A great political play’: HANSARD – National Theatre
Hansard is a great political play, one that tells us everything about the society we have become and why the impasse of the last three years cannot be easily broken.
Best of the Blogs: The Mates give their verdicts on Appropriate, The Doctor, Cabaret & more
Best of the Blogs: The Mates give their verdicts on Appropriate, The Doctor, Cabaret & more.
‘The past is never just the past’: APPROPRIATE – Donmar Warehouse
Jacobs-Jenkins explores how even fairly recent national history can be sanitised and reduced when examined from only one perspective in Appropriate at the Donmar Warehouse.
‘Will be long remembered’: LES MISERABLES – THE STAGED CONCERT – West End
Like its predecessors, 2019’s Les Misérables: The Staged Concert will be long remembered as another notable event in the musical’s performance history, heralding the return of Michael Ball to a show he helped to establish, but this time in the role of Javert.
‘Thoughtful arguments grounded in a recognisable reality’: ACTUALLY – West End
Actually has its issues as a drama and the heavily discursive competing narratives approach limits how the play is staged that can feel repetitive at times, but Ziegler has created a scenario and two complicated people who feel credibly drawn.
‘Oh what a show! Raw, fresh & intense’: EVITA – Open Air Theatre
With plenty to say about the shallow foundations of political leaders hiding behind their PR machines, Jamie Lloyd’s triumphant Evita is raw, fresh and intense – “oh what a show!”
‘Proves valuable & illuminating’: SOUTHERN BELLES – King’s Head Theatre
As the conclusion to a strong season of unusual Williams revivals, Southern Belles proves valuable and illuminating, concluding with an important moment of solidarity that leaves the audience with a sense of hope and the value of community to take home.
How the Mates Rate: The Night Of The Iguana at the Noel Coward Theatre
Clive Owen has returned to the West End for the first time in 18 years to play the Rev. T. Lawrence Shannon in Tennessee Williams’ The Night Of The Iguana in a new production directed by James Macdonald. So what did the Mates think of this production?
‘There is something life-affirming about it’: THE VIEW UPSTAIRS – Soho Theatre
Max Vernon’s musical The View UpStairs making its European debut at the Soho Theatre and running for just five weeks, commemorates the 1973 arson attack on a gay bar in New Orleans which was the most significant event of its kind until 2016’s Florida shootings.
Best of the Blogs: The Mates give their verdicts on The Night of the Iguana, Shit-Faced Shakespeare, The Falcon’s Malteser & more
A large percentage of the theatre community may be heading up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the next week or so but our editor Lisa Martland’s Top Picks from the last week’s productions in the West End, London Fringe or beyond prove there’s plenty of diverse work to enjoy elsewhere.
‘Clive Owen makes a superb return to the stage’: THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA – West End
Gripping performances from Clive Owen and Lia Williams, and James Macdonald’s slow-burn direction allows Tennessee Williams’ writing in The Night Of The Iguana to cast its spell.
‘You can practically hear doors flinging open to Yarrow all over town’: JOSEPH & THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT – West End
The staging and orchestration of the Palladium’s new version of Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat looks to the future, as a whole new set of children fall in love with this perennial musical.
Best of the Blogs: The Mates give their verdicts on Adrian Mole, Noises Off, The End of History & more
Carrying on a new series, our editor Lisa Martland has picked out her Top Picks including three musicals: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ The Musical at the Ambassadors Theatre (Libby Purves), Fiver at Southwark Playhouse (Emma Clarendon) and The Color Purple at Curve Leicester (No Billington).
‘Thorne’s writing is meaningful & engaging’: THE END OF HISTORY – Royal Court Theatre
In The End of History Thorne shuffles various perspectives within the family, examining their different experiences of the same events from multiple angles, and while these differences drive wedges between them, ultimately and with hope for the future, he explores the ties that keep people together.
‘Simply a wonderful night at the theatre’: PRESENT LAUGHTER – The Old Vic
The Old Vic’s production of Present Laughter finally feels as though we’re shaking off some of the restraints that have shackled Noel Coward to the past.
‘Has nothing to say & misses the point’: BITTER WHEAT – West End
Bitter Wheat is not only frustratingly irresponsible in its treatment of the events that led to the #MeToo movement, it is also a poorly constructed drama.
‘Brings a fresh, more contemporary feel’: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – Bridge Theatre
It is the slight rearrangement of the text and its implication for the female characters that is Nicholas Hytner’s most notable achievement here in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre.
Best of the Blogs: Education, Education, Education to Custody to Country Music
Carrying on a new series, our editor Lisa Martland picks out seven of her Top Picks from the last week of theatre (2-9 June 2019). Amidst her top choices are Maryam Philpott’s journey back to a time of political optimism in The Wardrobe Ensemble’s Education, Education, Education at Trafalgar Studios.
‘Highly stylised & fast-moving production which has a lot to say’: EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION – Trafalgar Studios
However light its frame, ultimately Education, Education, Education has serious points to make about the short-termist approaches to education funding used cynically as a political tool to win voters.