Given the current offering at The Globe as part of the Summer of Love season, Emma Rice’s seminal work for Kneehigh fits right in – it almost feels as though the programme was concocted to showcase this show as its crown jewel.
THE ISLAND – Southwark Playhouse
Shovel, tip, repeat. The monotony on Robben Island continues, a worthless activity that Winston (Edward Dede) and John (Mark Springer) carry out simply because they looked the wrong way at a prison guard that morning. In the first fifteen minutes of The Island, John Terry highlights the crushing futility of existence as Winston and John labour to physical exhaustion.
DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA – Old Red Lion
Danny (Gareth O’Connor) gets in to fights and drinks beer in dingy American bars. He’s quick to anger, but lacks punch in his simmering delivery. The first half of Danny and the Deep Blue Sea continues in much the same vain, devoid of intrigue or drive.
LOOP – Theatre N16
Music spans generations, connects people through a love of the melody and the beat. It brings The Boy (Aaron Price) and The Girl (Rubie Ozanne) together in LOOP, Alexander Knott’s newly written play that charts a family across the decades.
VIXEN – Vaults Theatre
Vixen is a homeless girl in a world that only seeks to take advantage. Vixen is a fiery redhead who can take care of herself, lashing out at any man that tries it on. Vixen eschews typical human contact, constantly wary that there is an ulterior motive.
5 GUYS CHILLIN’ – King’s Head Theatre
A chill-out that summarises the current state of Britain’s chemsex scene – drugs, sex parties and damaged backstories are all part of the package. 5 Guys Chillin’ is a verbatim consolidation of how this sub-sector is perceived by those on the inside.
THE PULVERISED – Arcola Theatre
In an abstract sense, it feels as though an apocalypse is approaching. In reality, it is simply the devastating onslaught of globalisation.
BECOMING MOHAMMED – Pleasance Theatre
Blood is thicker than water; family comes first. The idea that a relative takes precedence over friends or partners seems archaic and old school, yet it still holds fast today. But what if siblings grow apart or move to separate countries, can they still be expected to be an integral part of each other’s lives?
THE BRAILLE LEGACY – Charing Cross
For the blind, there is no need to have colour in the world. Thom Southerland’s production of The Braille Legacy is devoid of such frivolities – a black and white revolving set by Tim Shortall; monochrome costumes by Jonathan Lipman; harsh, exposing cold white spotlights in Tim Lutkin’s lighting design.
SPRING OFFENSIVE – Clapham Omnibus
The Spring Offensive, a so-called charge after the winter snow had thawed on the front lines each year throughout World War One, a final push for the Germans to break allied lines before US reinforcements arrived and turned the tide of battle. Of course, it didn’t work.
GUARDS AT THE TAJ – Bush Theatre
verything Jamie Lloyd touches seems to turn to gold, the current Midas of the directing world. A long-standing partnership with designer Soutra Gilmour is certainly one of the reasons that his plays are so stylised, so specific, but Lloyd is also able to bring out the humanity in every character – their darker sides shine through as much as their honourable qualities.
IT’S NOT YET MIDNIGHT… – Roundhouse
It’s Not Yet Midnight is devised to highlight the success of collaboration and the danger of trying to accomplish everything solo. Working together, the acrobats build towers four people tall; they somersault and flip and vault high into the air knowing that their fellow performers are waiting to catch them as they fall back down to earth.
FINDERS KEEPERS – Park Theatre
Finders Keepers is a biblically-inspired story with a modern update – Mr Pharaoh (Clare-Louise English) and Daughter (Jo Sargeant) have their simple lives interrupted when a baby is abandoned on their doorstep. Except the baby is a puppet.
MISS NIGHTINGALE – The Vaults
Miss Nightingale storms the stage to start the show just as it ends – with energy, enthusiasm and a patriotic desire to support the troops. Unfortunately, these kinds of scenes are often where Matthew Bugg loses his way slightly on the show, releasing his otherwise tightly held grip and clear conceptual realisation in favour of getting the audience on their feet, involved and dancing.
AN EVENING WITH AN IMMIGRANT – Tara Arts
A quote by Naguib Mahfouz resonates with Ellams’ story, “Home is not where you are born; home is where all your attempts to escape cease”. Ellams and his tightknit family are constantly attempting to escape, to belong.
MONTAGUES AND CAPULETS – CoLab Factory
Rave culture is not the typical setting for Romeo & Juliet. An abandoned warehouse; double denim and tracksuits; being slipped acid in the middle of a mosh pit. But this is a story about gangs, territory and how you can’t choose who you fall in love with.
DARK VANILLA JUNGLE – Theatre N16
It feels fictional but never absurdist, outlandish but never untenable. Andrea’s (Emily Thornton) situation is shocking and slightly outrageous, but is ultimately believable.
BARRED FREEDOM – Cockpit
Set a 1970s prison, half of the performances are given by an all-male cast, half by an all-female cast. The downside to this concept – in order to see both sides of the story, it is necessary to see the show twice on different nights.
BARRED FREEDOM – Cockpit
Set a 1970s prison, half of the performances are given by an all-male cast, half by an all-female cast. The downside to this concept – in order to see both sides of the story, it is necessary to see the show twice on different nights.
E15 – Battersea Arts Centre
This is not the beginning of the end of the housing crisis, despite what LUNG Productions would have us believe. This is a campaign that has been raging for four years with the simple hope of finding new homes within Newham for 29 single mothers.