Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews for Robert Icke’s final production as associate director at the Almeida Theatre, The Doctor.
‘Delving beneath the surface of labels & stereotypes’: THE DOCTOR – Almeida Theatre
The performances are superb in The Doctor at the Almeida Theatre, Juliet Stevenson is as formidable as her character and Ria Zmitrowicz’s dry one-liners are a refreshing light relief particularly as the persistent tension can become a bit numbing.
‘Theatrically inspiring & often astonishing’: THE DOCTOR – Almeida Theatre
In The Doctor at the Almeida Theatre Juliet Stevenson is mesmerising in a brilliantly written ethical debate that is both thrilling and challenging.
‘Sadness & tragedy in some of the narratives’: ARISTOCRATS – Donmar Warehouse
My problem with Aristocrats is that there is often a lot happening and sometimes it too easily diverts attention from the central narrative.
‘Oddly unemotional, disjointed & not entirely satisfying’: ARISTOCRATS – Donmar Warehouse
Director Lyndsey Turner is clearly impatient with the tradition of playing this melancholy drama as a tribute to Chekhov, and her production is thoroughly anti-naturalistic.
‘In a summer of great Irish drama, this feels unsatisfactory by comparison’: ARISTOCRATS – Donmar Warehouse
There’s little for the cast to improve because the faults in Aristocrats lie with Friel. This production draws-out all of the core themes but cannot overcome the play’s reliance on heavy exposition and failure to satisfactorily resolve its own questions about the past of these characters.
NEWS: Paul Higgins & James Laurenson join the cast of Brian Friel’s Aristocrats at the Donmar Warehouse
Paul Higgins and James Laurenson will join the previously announced Elaine Cassidy, David Dawson, David Ganly, Emmet Kirwan, Aisling Loftus, Ciaran McIntyre and Eileen Walsh in the cast for Brian Friel’s play Aristocrats, at the Donmar Warehouse from 2 August to 22 September 2018 (press night is 9 August).
The Busy World Is Hushed post-show Q&A video: Who would you give up your beliefs for?
Can we love someone whose belief system we fundamentally disagree with? If we love someone, can we denounce what we believe just to please them? Watch full video of Terri Paddock’s post-show Q&A with the cast of The Busy World is Hushed.
REVIEW ROUND-UP: The Seagull at the Lyric Hammersmith
Anton Chekhov’s classic play The Seagull is brought to modern life in a new version, adapted by Simon Stephens and directed by Sean Holmes. It’s running at London’s Lyric Hammersmith until 4 November 2017. Here’s what critics have been saying about it so far.
THE SEAGULL – Lyric Hammersmith ★★★
Simon Stephens’ version makes no bones about how an obsession for fame can lead to ruin, hell and damnation or all three. Adelayo Adedayo’s Nina is burning to be a ‘celebrity’, idolising Nicholas Gleaves’ driven novelist, Boris.
THE BUSY WORLD IS HUSHED – Finborough Theatre ★★★★
It’s a rare play that gets both into your head and under your skin. Watching The Busy World is Hushed sends both a mind reeling trying to keep up with the ideas and questions posed by the characters, but also cuts to the heart with some frank, honest reflections on grief and love.
NEWS: Off Broadway’s The Busy World is Hushed gets Euro premiere at Finborough
Acclaimed American playwright Keith Bunin gets his UK debut this week when his play The Busy World is Hushed receives its European premiere at the Finborough Theatre. Directed by Theatre503 founder Paul Higgins, the premiere production runs for eight weeks from tonight.
TWILIGHT SONG – Park Theatre
Sadly, despite a few crisp one-liners and a catchy title I’m surprised was never used elsewhere, Twilight Song emerges as a frail Rattiganesque slice of sixties’ repressed sexuality contrasted with an awkward contemporary tryst between Adam Garcia’s cash-strapped estate-agent-turned-hustler and Paul Higgins’ desperate mothers’ boy.
TWILIGHT Song – Park Theatre
Completed shortly before his death in 2014, Kevin Elyot’s Twilight Song now belatedly receives its premiere courtesy of the Park Theatre. The play doesn’t emerge as one of his strongest though; the shadow of the excellent My Night With Reg lingers long over the scant 75 minutes here.
NEWS: Additional casting announced for Simon Stephens’ new version of The Seagull, TICKETS ONSALE
The Lyric Hammersmith has announced further casting for Simon Stephens’s new version of Anton Chekhov’s highly renowned play, The Seagull, directed by Artistic Director Sean Holmes.
NEWS: Theatre N16 announces new season
In his first season as artistic director of Theatre N16, Scott Ellis presents a slew of new writing.
Olympilads by Andrew Maddock, produced by Lonesome Schoolboy and directed by Niall Phillips, reunites the team that presented He(art) at Theatre N16 earlier this year.
NEWS: Adam Garcia Leads Cast of Kevin Elyot’s Final Play, Twilight Song
Adam Garcia, Bryony Hannah and Paul Higgins will lead the cast in a new Park200 production of Twilight Song, the final play by Kevin Elyot and set on summer evenings in the 1960s and the present day.
FEATURED SHOWS: Cosi Cosi at the King’s Head, Reviews are in!
Have you seen the reviews for our current Featured Show, or rather Shows: the King’s Head Theatre inspired pairing of Mozart’s classic opera Cosi Fan Tutte with modern play Cosi? … Scroll down for links and pull quotes from some of our favourite reviews.
My theatre diary: Plays to make you think – Widowers’ Houses, Visitors, Hope and Sirens
If your brain has started to turn to mush after too much turkey and mash, get yourself along to one of these four plays quick. I can personally recommend each for provoking serious thought, discussion and reflection on urgent issues including local government, austerity, dementia, discrimination, feminism, urban housing and corruption, to name a few. […]
Podcast: How to find Hope when the streetlights are turned off
It’s frightening how prescient Jack Thorne’s Hope is. Just this week, new research released by the Labour Party showed that streetlights are being switched off in three-quarters of England’s councils in order to save money. And there’s a likelihood that even more will be “plunged into darkness” after the Government’s most recent announcement of […]