How many plays pass the Bechdel Test? Originally featured in a comic strip, and popularised in film criticism, it simply states that to pass this test your story has to have: 1) at least two women in it; 2) who talk to each other; 3) about something other than a man. Well, one of the brilliant things about Irish writer Margaret Perry’s new dark comedy, Paradise Now! is that it passes this test with an A Plus grade.
‘A powerfully resonant, relevant & riveting watch’: It’s True, It’s True, It’s True – Breach Theatre (Online review)
The BBC film version of a Renaissance rape trial is powerfully resonant, relevant and a riveting watch.
‘This proves that staying in really does have its compensation’: ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS – National Theatre (Online review)
These shows, originally filmed as part of the flagship’s NT Live project, are now available on its YouTube channel. The first is Richard Bean’s gloriously silly farce, One Man, Two, Guvnors, starring the irrepressible and Tony-award winning James Corden.
‘All his work is relevant & touches almost everyone’s own experiences’: David Tudor talks to us about John Mortimer and The Dock Brief
Theatre veteran and The Dock Brief director David Tudor tells us about working with John Mortimer, why his writing is timeless and what he’s learned over the years.
NEWS: John Mortimer’s bittersweet comedy The Dock Brief returns at Cockpit Theatre
John Mortimer’s hilarious tale of an unsuccessful barrister and an unsuccessful criminal, The Dock Brief, will receive a revival at the Cockpit Theatre later this spring. Time to get booking!
WATCH: Take a look at the chilling trailer for Camden Fringe show Boris Rex
Following Boris Johnson’s promotion to prime minister, the trailer for satire Boris Rex has taken on new levels of meaning. Have a watch, and take a look at images from the show, then book your tickets.
NEWS: Possible new Prime Minister receives satirical Shakespearean treatment in hit show Boris Rex
Soon after he might have been crowned the new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and his rise to power will be satirised Shakespearean style on the London stage, when Brighton Fringe hit Boris Rex comes to the Tristan Bates Theatre. Book your tickets now!
PHOTOS: Take a look at the Bride Of Wankenstein cast having their costumes fitted PLUS win film tickets!
What fiendish fashion will the cast of Bride of Wankenstein be wearing when they take to the Hen & Chickens Theatre stage from 9 to 13 October 2018? We can only guess from these behind-the-scenes images of their costume fitting. To see the costumes these evil geniuses have created, you’ll have to book tickets.
Text of the Day: The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Random and topical thoughts and quotes gathered by My Theatre Mates contributor Aleks Sierz, first published on www.sierz.co.uk.
Text of the Day: Young Marx
Random and topical thoughts and quotes gathered by My Theatre Mates contributor Aleks Sierz, first published on www.sierz.co.uk.
Text of the Day: Saint George & the Dragon
Random and topical thoughts and quotes gathered by My Theatre Mates contributor Aleks Sierz, first published on www.sierz.co.uk.
Text of the Day: Victory Condition
Random and topical thoughts and quotes gathered by My Theatre Mates contributor Aleks Sierz, first published on www.sierz.co.uk.
RAMONA TELLS JIM – Bush Theatre
Heartwarming debut play about young teen love is very good fun, if a bit slender and insubstantial.
LOOT – Park Theatre
Anniversary revival of Joe Orton’s black farce about money and death is a delight from start to finish.
AGAINST – Almeida Theatre
New American drama about God and violence is a bit baggy, but it is also often brilliantly perceptive.
THE GOD OF HELL – Theatre N16
Written as a response to George W Bush’s Republican Party’s war on terror following the attacks in September 2001 only 12 years after this play’s premiere America seems to be run by a God of Hell now whilst Bush, in hindsight, seems like a competent clown.
GLORIA – Hampstead
This play’s subject is alienation, at work and in the home. (But mainly at work.) In contemporary society, office work seems to symbolize a life of modern drudgery.
HIR – Bush Theatre
Hir is set in a settlement somewhere in California’s Central Valley, where plywood houses have been built on landfill sites, and dozens lie empty, abandoned during an economic downturn. All is not well in the Connors’ cheap abode: fiftysomething Arnold is a plumber who lost his job to a Chinese-American.
DEPOSIT – Hampstead Theatre
In this general election, the intergenerational conflict between youth and old age is never far from the surface. The oldies have never had it so good; the young ones are Generation Rent, crippled by debt and zero hope of owning their own homes. This aspect of the housing shortage is the subject of Matt Hartley’s play, Deposit.
AN OCTOROON – Orange Tree Theatre
This is phenomenal. And pretty wild. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s An Octoroon is the most intelligent and most theatre-savvy play on today’s London stage: it is a satire on staging race, an account of black identity, a criticism of plantation life, a celebration of genre fun and a tribute to a forgotten work from the Victorian era.