Ruth Wilson is strong casting in the central role with a, for once, restrained Ivo van Hove directing.
New work, new voices, hybrid approaches: How theatre changed in 2021
It has been another complicated year for theatres with venues unable to welcome in-person audiences for more than five months of 2021 and the tail end of the year returning to enforced closure and performance cancellations.
‘A theatrical experience that you will never forget’: CABARET – West End ★★★★★
A theatrical experience that you will never forget – Eddie Redmayne revels in the role of the Emcee, but Jessie Buckley steals the show in Cabaret.
‘What is unquestionably fabulous is the whole area of design’: DOCTOR WHO: Time Fracture – Unit Headquarters
A full-on immersive event – part play, part museum exhibit, part theme park ride and part party.
‘After The Hairy Ape, I approached this with a degree of trepidation’: ANNA CHRISTIE (Online review)
Anna Christie, which predates The Hairy Ape, won the 1922 Pulitzer prize for drama and therefore had to have something going for it.
‘Each number is sensationally staged’: THE DRIFTERS’ GIRL – West End
The nostalgia musical is back in full force with crowd-pleasing easy listening stories that looks back to the 1950s and 60s for their inspiration.
‘A history lesson you’ll want to revisit time & again’: SIX THE MUSICAL – West End ★★★★★
It’s an 80-minute treat that flies by in a whizz of comedy, vocal excellence, spangly costumes and heart.
‘A fine octet of actors work well as an ensemble’: INTO BATTLE (Online review)
Remembrance Day seemed a perfect moment to review a production set just before and during the First World War, Hugh Salmon’s finely rendered Into Battle.
‘Entertaining, ambitious and educational ‘: TOKYO ROSE — Southwark Playhouse (UK Tour) ★★★★
Burnt Lemon Theatre’s Tokyo Rose shows that you don’t need a big budget to stage a compelling musical.
‘Sombre mood, visual distortions, intense emotions’: THE HAIRY APE — Online
I remember a student I was once trying to get to read more saying “What’s the point, there are just too many books”. Perhaps I’m beginning to have the same reaction to digital theatre – there’s so much more of it out there than I had ever anticipated and although I think I can claim I’ve covered a fair amount of ground there is still plenty to get to grips with.
‘Heartfelt and sincere’: A NEW LIFE (A MINI MUSICAL) — Traverse
A New Life (A Mini Musical) at the Traverse every lunchtime this week is certainly not ‘mini’ in its emotional scope or its ambition.
‘Spine tingling’: CHICAGO – Edinburgh Playhouse (UK Tour) ★★★★
Chicago’s tale of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery whispers back into the Edinburgh Playhouse with a thrum of double bass, a twitching off-beat on the drums and a haunting moan of muted trumpet.
‘The monk playing an electric guitar is a more recent invention’: THE YORK MYSTERY PLAYS – BBC Sounds (Online Review)
It is not with a little sense of surprise that I found myself yesterday experiencing my 800th online production which is the subject of this review. Back in April 2020 I, probably along with the vast majority of people, was only expecting the virus problem to last a matter of weeks and yet here we are and here I am still reviewing daily after 535 days.
‘The Greek legend is more or less intact’: ORPHEUS (Online review)
The Greek myths have endured across the centuries partly because they are timeless stories that can be endlessly updated and reinvented.
‘There’s a musical theatre dream team’: CLOSER THAN EVER – Broadway HD (Online review)
As it’s a recorded stream, you’re at liberty to choose your own encore moments and replay any numbers which particularly take your fancy – and there are bound to be several of those.*
‘In the tradition of the choose your own adventure books’: THE RIME OF THE SECOND SISTER / FOUND – Online
Do these two pieces push the idea of audio theatre to its limits? Probably and the results are highly pleasing
‘Thoroughly gruesome but mesmerising’: UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review)
The real life figure of Ed Gein looms large in horror films and literature. Most famously he was the direct inspiration for Norman Bates in Psycho and his terrible influence can also be found haunting The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence Of the Lambs. But I’m not sure his real story has been told quite so directly as it is in Under The Floorboards which played live at the Edinburgh Fringe and has now emerged as an online performance film at this year’s Festival.
‘Ploughing the particular furrow of absurdist theatre’: MURMUR / WILD WAXFLOWER – Camden Fringe (Online review)
Without much more than a two line description in the Camden Fringe brochure, I plunged headlong into two wildly different but experimental pieces, Murmur and Wild Waxflower.
‘Crisp, intelligent & thoroughly rewarding’: FEAR OF ROSES – Edinburgh Fringe ★★★★
Fear of Roses, by Black Bat Productions at Assembly Roxy, is a crisp, intelligent and thoroughly rewarding three-hander.
‘Two ecology conscious plays’: Tree Confessions/We’ll Dance On The Ash Of The Apocalypse – Camden Fringe (Online review)
Though the big guns which are at the Edinburgh Fringe have now been rolled out, it’s taking some time to pin down what to aim for there. Meanwhile its somewhat smaller sibling is continuing in Camden and so I thought I would take a break from Edinburgh brochure browsing and pick up on a couple of shows from a Festival which is much nearer geographically and boasts some interesting online content. My choices narrowed down to a pair of performances which took ecology as one of their central themes.