Public Domain is a verbatim musical winner which lifts the lid on life online and joins an august group of productions streamed from Southwark Playhouse. Strongly recommended.
‘Stories that have the compelling power of truth’: THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP – Soho Theatre
A verbatim piece about the subject of transatlantic deportation, The Special Relationship is a well researched, strongly contemporary piece.
Doubling up at Camden Fringe: When It Happens & Class at Tristan Bates
This year I have the great privilege of getting to cover lots of the Camden Fringe shows, my only regret is that I can’t see them all (literally impossible, so many shows running, Londoners check it out, it is a treasure trove of varied goodies).
‘The starkest, most eloquent & humane warning to history’: NOTES FROM THE FIELD – Royal Court Theatre ★★★★★
Notes From the Field is an even more searing, brilliant, majestic account – an examination, profound in its detail and presentation by Anna Deavere Smith of disenfranchisement and the broken ‘soul’ of America.
Text of the Day: Fatherland
Random and topical thoughts and quotes gathered by My Theatre Mates contributor Aleks Sierz, first published on www.sierz.co.uk.
‘Absorbing from start to finish’: WHY IS THE SKY BLUE? – Southwark Playhouse
What effect is pornography having on young people’s sexual and mental development? This is just one of the questions raised in Abbey Wright’s brand new piece Why is the Sky Blue?
THE LISTENING ROOM – Theatre Royal Stratford East
Can violent criminals be rehabilitated, and can their victims ever forgive them? The Listening Room says yes. This verbatim piece tells the stories of three violent crimes, primarily from the perspective of the perpetrators. Some character background sets the scene for climactic moments where they commit their offences, but at least half of each of […]
LISTS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD – #EdFringe
Things that are good about Lists for the End of the World
1. It’s funny, sad and moving all at once
2. Though the concept is simple, it’s structurally dynamic
MY COUNTRY; A WORK IN PROGRESS – Touring
Unfortunately, it’s a pretty terrible piece of theatre. The primarily verbatim script is the worst of racist Brexit voters pontificating on political issues interspersed with extracts of speeches by the likes of Michael Gove, Boris, David Cameron and Nigel Farage.
MY COUNTRY; A WORK IN PROGRESS – National Theatre & touring
Oh dear. The first play explicitly about Brexit is being staged by the National Theatre in a production that has all the acrid flavour of virtue signalling.
SEE ME NOW – Young Vic
Verbatim theatre always raises theatrical and ethical issues. The use of the words spoken by real-life, as opposed to fictional, people always argues in favour of authenticity (which is not the same as truth).
SEE ME NOW – Young Vic
Verbatim theatre always raises theatrical and ethical issues. The use of the words spoken by real-life, as opposed to fictional, people always argues in favour of authenticity (which is not the same as truth).
A YEAR FROM NOW – Vault Festival
Lip-synced verbatim is a new experience for this reviewer, and if you’re not used to it there is a brief moment where you need to get on board with the style. Luckily Red Belly Black are so precise with their movements and mannerisms that it’s impossible not to love A Year From Now.
Edinburgh Fringe: Tank
Like their debut production The Beanfield, Breach Theatre’s second show Tank recreates a contentious historical event in a distinctive meta-theatrical mashup up forms and styles. In the 1960s, Dr John Lilley built a Caribbean villa to research cetacean communication with NASA money.
MINEFIELD – Royal Court Theatre
Six veterans of both British and Argentinian armies feature in a disappointingly ultra-cool Falklands War drama.
ANOTHER WORLD: Losing Our Children to Islamic State – National Theatre
New verbatim play about the terror state is worthy, but completely unenlightening and sadly undramatic.
FIVE GUYS CHILLIN’ – King’s Head Theatre
“Netflix and chill” takes on new meaning in Five Guys Chillin’. Well, the “chill” part does, and is also substituted with “chill out”. Rather than awkward hetero teenagers using the word to arrange a sexual encounter, in this context it’s multiplied by whatever factor the host fancies to make a drug fuelled sex party, usually […]