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‘An excellent group of actors convincingly play off one another’: FARM HALL – Jermyn Street Theatre

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This scenario is a ready-made play, a situation where some of the greatest scientific minds of their time are confronted with the consequences of their personal and political actions. The transcripts of the Farm Hall recordings were published in the 1990s, and other plays have been produced using their contents. However, Katherine Moar’s play, which has its first full production at the Jermyn Street Theatre, makes good use of the material to create a compelling drama, in which a large cast is handled well.

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‘Visceral, animalistic & strange’: MACBETH – Southwark Playhouse

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It is an unusual Macbeth that comes to life with the Porter’s scene, the play’s disconcerting post-murder comic interlude – even more so when it is performed without words. Dale Wylde’s mimed scene is a weird and captivating interlude. It encapsulates the strengths and weaknesses of Flabbergast Theatre’s version at Southwark Playhouse.

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‘As a metaphor, the idea is powerful’: Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons – Harold Pinter Theatre

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Sam Steiner’s play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons at the Harold Pinter Theatre has followed a well-documented path from student drama to West End, thanks partly to the simplicity of its central concept (a society much like ours restricts everyone to a maximum of 140 words, written or spoken, per day), but also its structure as a two-hander with a pair of attractive parts for an attractive male and an attractive female lead.

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‘Ludicrous, funny, then sinister’: THE WALWORTH FARCE – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

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It is more than 15 years since Enda Walsh’s play The Walworth Farce arrived in London and, like many big hits, the scale of its popularity then has been matched by the speed with which it has been forgotten. It is well due a revival, and the Southwark Playhouse’s revival, directed by Nicky Allpress is exciting.

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‘Energetic, clever & questioning production’: TITUS ANDRONICUS – Shakespeare’s Globe

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Jude Christian’s new production of Shakespeare’s least reputable play, Titus Andronicus, has an all-female cast telling us immediately that perceptions of power will be tested to destruction. The presence of a guillotine on stage strongly suggests they will also be chopped up into little pieces.

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‘Original & fascinating’: HAMLET – Southwark Playhouse

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Lazarus’ production of Hamlet at the Southwark Playhouse (Borough Road branch) strips the older generation from the play, leaving us with only the younger characters. Battered, used and confused, the play reveals how focusing on their experience can show us a familiar text in a new and disturbing light. Hamlet is, among many other things, a tale of an older generation destroying their successors to serve themselves.

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‘Flawed but fascinating show’: SARAH – Coronet Theatre

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Sarah at the Coronet Theatre is an authentic alcoholic’s tale, sentimental and entirely self-centred, but transformed in the telling if, just for a moment, we can buy into the drinker’s mindset. His name is Scott, and the fact he is telling us this at all hints at some sort of redemption. He may be alive, but this is not a redemptive story.

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‘Adds little to our understanding of the play’: ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL – Stratford-upon-Avon

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All’s Well is the definition of a tricky play, with its combination of the fantastical and the emotionally brutal, its historically specific yet confusingly vague setting and its hard-nosed, difficult to love characters. Embracing the oddness is probably the only way to make it work on stage but, despite some promising ideas and strong individual performances, Blanche McIntyre’s production does not feel coherent.

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‘Ludicrous & surprisingly moving’: THE REST OF OUR LIVES – Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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The Rest Of Our Lives at Summerhall, Edinburgh ends in a remarkable moment of mass dancing as the audience descends on the stage, suddenly finding themselves at full emotional stretch thanks to an unashamed expression of personality from these two delightful performers.

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‘Remarkably revealing & painfully honest’: THE SILENT TREATMENT – Edinburgh Festival Fringe

In Edinburgh Festival, Festivals, Films, Musicals, Opinion, Other Recent Articles, Plays, Regional theatre, Reviews, Scotland by Tom BoltonLeave a Comment

Sarah-Louise Young is brisk, charming and authoritative, engaging the audience in vocal warm-ups as they take their seats. Her confident stage demeanour sets the scene for one-woman show The Silent Treatment at Summerhall that becomes remarkably revealing and painfully honest.

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‘Carefully choreographed & absorbing’: THE LAST RETURN – Edinburgh Festival Fringe

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Sara Joyce’s production of The Last Return for Druid Theatre at the Traverse is carefully choreographed and absorbing. Sonya Kelly has re-imagined Ionesco for the post-colonial era, and leaves us feeling we’ve seen something we won’t forget in a hurry, even if its exact meaning is elusive.

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‘Elements of the story connect in ways that surprise’: PATRIOTS – Almeida Theatre

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Peter Morgan’s new play Patriots at the Almeida Theatre is a history lesson, filling in the gaps in our understanding of how we ended up where we are now. Specifically, it connects events in Russia after the fall of Communism with the high profile deaths in the UK of Russians who had fallen out with Vladimir Putin and, more implicitly, with the invasion of Ukraine and the state of Russia today.

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‘It is definitely the kind of theatre we need’: THE DANCE OF DEATH – Arcola Theatre

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Lindsay Duncan and Hilton McRae reveal the full depths of The Dance of Death’s ambiguity in production that is funny and strangely touching. Directed by the Arcola’s own Mehmet Ergen, the couple – married in real life – interact with a naturalness that takes the edge off their barbed attacks on one another, even as they push one another further and further and, almost, over the edge.

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‘Kirkwood’s ambition is admirable’: THAT IS NOT WHO I AM – Royal Court Theatre

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That Is Not Who I Am by Dave Davidson – Royal Court Theatre, London (This review consists almost entirely of spoilers) The nudge-nudge cover story for this play – that it’s the debut by someone who has worked in ‘the security industry’ for 38 years – is fairly transparent, and suspicions are confirmed when the Royal Court’s … Continue reading That Is Not Who I Am