My recent theatre trips have included The Rubenstein Kiss and Mary’s Babies. Here’s a round-up of my on-the-night reactions to each – plus a must-watch video review from my 82-year-old neighbour.
‘A timely reminder of the cost of political principles’: THE RUBENSTEIN KISS – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★
All in all, Joe Harmston’s production brings James Phillips’ extraordinary empathy with his subject to a tender and sensitive conclusion in The Rubenstein Kiss whilst weighing up the noble aspirations of idealism with its harsh legacies for those who inherit them.
REVIEW ROUND–UP: The Rubenstein Kiss at Southwark Playhouse
The award-winning play The Rubenstein Kiss from James Phillips about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who allegedly passed US atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, is currently having its first London revival at the Southwark Playhouse. Love London Love Culture rounds up the reviews.
‘Riveting, thought-provoking drama’: THE RUBENSTEIN KISS – Southwark Playhouse ★★★★
There couldn’t be a better time to revisit James Phillips’ 2006 debut play The Rubenstein Kiss and its story of idealism, especially in the current climate of global and national uncertainty, anti-Semitism and zealotry.
‘You can hardly breathe for tension & pity’: THE RUBENSTEIN KISS – Southwark Playhouse
Ideological hostilities across the world, fake news and paranoia, a resurgent deep left, uneasy relations with Russia, antisemites questioning the patriotism of Jews: no bad time to revive James Phillips’ powerful play The Rubenstein Kiss.
NEWS: Full cast is announced for The Rubenstein Kiss at Southwark Playhouse
Devil You Know Theatre Company has announced full casting for the first London production since 2005 of the multi-award-winning play The Rubenstein Kiss by James Phillips, directed by Joe Harmston for a limited season at Southwark Playhouse from 14 March to 13 April 2019, with a national press night on 18 March.
‘Still works as a bright satire of the art world’: HOGARTH’S PROGRESS – Rose Theatre, Kingston
Hogarth’s Progress is an ambitious production that, although not entirely flawless, alternates moments of great fun with thought-provoking, timeless questions on the arts, life and politics, and effortlessly captivates the audience.
‘Compelling viewing’: HOGARTH’S PROGRESS – Rose Theatre, Kingston ★★★★
The contrast in styles between Nick Dear’s The Art of Success and The Taste of the Town is striking but both make for compelling viewing in Anthony Banks’ production of Hogarth’s Progress.
‘Feels misguided’: HOGARTH’s PROGRESS – Rose Theatre, Kingston
The oft-misquoted George Santayana once said “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” and taking a glance at Nick Dear’s Hogarth’s Progress, you can’t help but feel it is most apposite for the folks at the Rose Theatre Kingston.
NEWS: Keith Allen & Bryan Dick share title role in Hogarth’s Progress double bill, Full casting
Keith Allen and Bryan Dick will star as William Hogarth, older and younger, in the double bill of Nick Dear’s Hogarth’s Progress at Rose Theatre, Kingston. Full casting is now announced.
NEWS: Keith Allen & Bryan Dick will lead the cast of Rose Theatre’s double-bill Hogarth’s Progress
Rose Theatre Kingston has announced the full cast for Nick Dear’s double-bill Hogarth’s Progress. Anthony Banks directs Bryan Dick as the younger William Hogarth in the first major UK revival of Dear’s The Art of Success, and Keith Allen as the older William Hogarth in the world première of The Taste of the Town.
‘Science has never been so sweet’: THE RAIN GOD – Vault Festival
But for the most part, this is a beautiful story of the relationship between a child and the story of The Rain God at The Vaults.
RAMONA TELLS JIM – Bush Theatre
Heartwarming debut play about young teen love is very good fun, if a bit slender and insubstantial.
News & interesting titbits: Globe & Bush staffing changes, Long Day’s Journey transfer
You go away for a week, hoping they’ll put any exciting news on hold but no, there were headlines aplenty…
Michelle Terry being revealed as Emma Rice’s successor as Artistic Director of the Globe. I think this is a brave and inspired choice, for Terry is a deeply intelligent actor.
Photos & podcast: On Benjamin Britten, WH Auden & Gypsy Rose Lee
A New York artistic commune in the early 1940s – occupied by British exiles Benjamin Britten, WH Auden, American novelist Carson McCullers (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) and stripper Gypsy Rose Lee amongst many other artists – is the setting for Zoe Lewis‘ new play Britten in Brooklyn, which has just premiered at London’s Wilton’s Music Hall.
BRITTEN IN BROOKLYN – Wilton’s Music Hall
Exiled in America for his beliefs and a national disgrace Benjamin Britten must decide which way his conflicted political ideals lie but the constant parties, doomed affairs and John Dunne, the mysterious stranger provide an easy distraction.
BRITTEN IN BROOKLYN – Wilton’s Music Hall
Washed up in wartime, Britten, his friend and romantic obsession W H Auden, the tedious waif-like poet and novelist Carson McCullers, and stripper turned thriller writer Gypsy Rose Lee shared a bohemian squat in a dilapidated row house in Brooklyn Heights from where they tried to influence the US’s entry into the war with pacifist writings and socialite dinner parties.
NEWS: Ruby Bentall joins Sadie Frost in Britten in Brooklyn, Q&A on 8 Sep
Final casting has been announced for the world premiere of Zoe Lewis’ Britten in Brooklyn, which will play for a strictly limited season of 21 performances from 31 August to 17 September 2016.