In Metamorphoses 2 five different myths are updated by five different playwrights to comment on a range of current topics, from #MeToo to the refugee crisis.
‘Sombre & provocative’: FCUK’D – Bunker Theatre
A young man waits impatiently for his little brother Matty to finish school. Alone on a football pitch amongst piles of dead leaves, he frets over his alcoholic mum, the state of their home and the letter from social services informing them that Matty will be taken away. He considers his options in a rhythmic, […]
‘Sombre & provocative’: FCUK’D – Bunker Theatre
A young man waits impatiently for his little brother Matty to finish school. Alone on a football pitch amongst piles of dead leaves, he frets over his alcoholic mum, the state of their home and the letter from social services informing them that Matty will be taken away. He considers his options in a rhythmic, […]
‘A genuinely exciting piece of theatre’: HOW TO DISAPPEAR – Edinburgh
Initially How to Disappear seems to be a new addition to the classic, British State-of- the-Nation plays in its searing critique of the government’s welfare policy. But Morna Pearson has great fun in turning the genre on its head.
PARLIAMENT SQUARE – Bush Theatre
Perhaps one of the biggest strengths of Fritz’s writing is his ambiguity and the fact that Parliament Square poses more questions than it answers. The stakes are high.
THE END OF HOPE – Soho Theatre
You only find round beds with pink satin sheets in particular places or owned by particular people. But it’s safe to say that a woman wearing a full, fur-suited mouse costume complete with face/head mask is not one of these.
HIR – Bush Theatre
Issac is returning home after a three-year stint as a US marine where his job was to pick up body parts after front line attacks. He longs for the peace and quiet of his nuclear family and the familiarity of middle America so he can make peace with the demons of war.
MY COUNTRY; A WORK IN PROGRESS – Touring
Unfortunately, it’s a pretty terrible piece of theatre. The primarily verbatim script is the worst of racist Brexit voters pontificating on political issues interspersed with extracts of speeches by the likes of Michael Gove, Boris, David Cameron and Nigel Farage.
BECOMING MOHAMMED – Pleasance Theatre
Becoming Mohammed, in its story of a young white man’s conversion to Islam and the subsequent familial negotiations of his journey, not only adds to the diversity on the London fringe but reframes the stigma against white, western Christians converting to Islam, and the inherently peaceful nature of the religion.
Buzzcut Festival: Day Two highlights include Free Lunch & Stuntman
Part of the reason I wanted to come to Buzzcut is that I find it hard to write about live art. I don’t dislike it, far from it – I have a broad but uninformed appreciation of it. But my theatrical home is built from Shakespeare, text-based narratives and the great American playwrights.
CUSTODY – Ovalhouse
How do we cope when we don’t get what we want? How do we beat a system that is set up to make you fail? Custody asks just these questions, as we are taken on a two-year journey of a family’s struggle for justice for their loved one, twenty-nine year old Brian, who died whilst in police custody.
MADE IN INDIA – Soho Theatre
The all-female play looks at the complex and controversial landscape of commercial surrogacy in India through the microcosmic relationship between three parties – the surrogate, the doctor and the mother.
ASSISTED SUICIDE: THE MUSICAL – Royal Festival Hall
It’s uncomfortable to watch a play that conflicts with your politics or world view, and Liz Carr’s Assisted Suicide: The Musical does just that. The gay actor and comedian aligns with cuddly liberal ideology other than her avowed opposition to legalising assisted suicide in the UK.
Howard Barker’s play doesn’t drase minorities, The Print Room Does
As The Print Room’s controversially cast production of Howard Barker’s In the Depths of Love opens this week, here’s a guest contribution from Daniel York.
THREE SISTERS – Union Theatre
ith existentialism one of the cruxes of the story, this Three Sisters is a bleak echo of present day narcissism and hopelessness. Phil Willmott’s staging of a new, pared back translation doesn’t stagnate, though. Combined with a strong cast, this is production uncannily suits our times.
GLOCKENSPIEL – Tristan Bates Theatre
In the programme notes for Steven Dykes’ Glockenspiel, we are told that 40% of current personnel have been deployed more than once, and 27% of those veterans deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from anxiety disorders and/depression.
THE TRACKERS OF OXYRHYNCHUS – Finborough Theatre
In the first part of Tony Harrison’s The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, Victorian archaeologist Grenfell struts and frets around a group of silent Egyptians sifting through scraps of papyrus.
An industry-wide new year’s resolution: Open letter to the Print Room
An industry making resolutions? Now that’s something I can get behind – people working together for a common goal is what theatre is about, on a microcosmic level anyway, and more unity is surely a good thing in a world becoming increasingly polarised.
FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS (Parts 1, 2 & 3) – Royal Court Theatre
American, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks doesn’t shy away from epic projects. Six years ago, she wrote a play a day to create 365 Days/365 Plays, then went on to write the nine-part Father Comes Home From the Wars. Parts one, two and three centre around Hero, a strapping young slave on a remote Texan farm.
Edinburgh Fringe: Generation Zero
A nameless couple meet online, fall in love and build a life together. Their lives are comfortably boring, with day jobs, road trips to the beach, holidays in a Yorkshire cottage and lazy weekends snuggling in bed, listening to records.
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