When individual members of a family are facing a variety of problems, can looking back at their collective past help to resolve matters or does that simply serve to make things worse? This is the premise behind Here by debut playwright Clive Judd, the 2022 winner of the Papatango Prize for new writing currently in production on Southwark Playhouse’s main stage
‘The tension builds because we cannot see anything’: Some of Us Exist in the Future (Online review)
One of the three Papatango New Writing prize-winning audio plays now available to listen to at a theatre near you, Nkenna Akunna’s Some of Us Exist in the Future is an ambitious piece which centres on queer immigrant Chiamaka.
‘Captures the men’s glowering rage & moments of acute vulnerability’: SHOOK (Online review)
The latest example of this problematic switch from stage to screen is the strongly acted Shook, Samuel Bailey’s debut play, which won the 2019 Papatango New Writing Prize and had a run at the Southwark Playhouse in November of that year.
‘It’s a noise that is well worth your time’: SHOOK (Online review)
Following a critically acclaimed run at Southwark Playhouse, a transfer to the West End’s Trafalgar Studios was in progress when lockdown intervened. Shook has now emerged in a filmed version so we can see what the “noise” was all about. And it’s a noise that is well worth your time.
‘I think Shook challenged a lot of preconceived ideas’: Andrea Hall talks about her role in the play Shook & its digital release
Actress Andrea Hall chatted to us about Samuel Bailey’s play Shook which is being released to watch digitally.
‘Driven by explosive characterisation & dialogue’: SHOOK – Touring ★★★★
Spectators will go away wiser and sadder from this encounter with Shook, but most of all they will go away remembering Samuel Bailey’s dialogue and Josh Finan’s barnstormer of a performance as Cain.
‘They captured my heart, engaged my mind & punched me in the gut’: In Praise of Theatre in 2018
In my round-up of theatre in 2017, I warned 2018 that it had “big shoes to fill”. Not only did 2018 not need the door to be opened, but it also didn’t even need anyone to hold its coat.