Sheila Atim has ‘aced’ another performance and made her musical mark at the Finborough. Reviews are in for her and the European premiere of writer-director Ché Walker’s Time Is Love / Tiempo es Amor, now running at London’s Finborough Theatre til 26 January 2019. We’ve rounded up the highlights. Time to get booking!
2019. In the last remaining barrios of East LA…
Blaz returns from prison, but something ain’t right. His lifelong love Havana Cortez is keeping a secret. His old partner Karl seems to know what it is. Havana’s best friend Rosa hates him even more than usual, but this was not always the case. And the detective who locked him up can’t stop with the women. Serena The Sex Worker is our ethereal guide to this menacing world – but why are there pterodactyls overhead?
Playwright and director Ché Walker returns to the Finborough Theatre with Time Is Love / Tiempo es Amor, which has original music by Sheila Atim, an Olivier Award winner for her performance in Girl from the North Country, who also plays Rosa in the European premiere, for which she has just been Offies nominated.
Atim in joined in Walker’s European premiere production by Gabriel Akuwudike (as Blaz), Jessica Ledon (Havana), Benjamin Cawley (Karl), Cary Crankson (Seamus) and Sasha Frost (Serena).
Time Is Love / Tiempo Es Amor runs from 1 to 26 January 2019 at the Finborough Theatre, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED, with performances Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7.30pm, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3pm. Tickets are priced £16-20. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE!
Review highlights
Michael Billington: “Ché Walker’s enigmatic drama, set in Los Angeles, is the theatrical equivalent of film noir… Atim is always hypnotic as a denizen of smoky nightclubs searching for romantic love… I found myself succumbing to the filmic verve of his production.”
Ann Treneman: “The cast is excellent… There are strong performances by Gabriel Akuwudike and Jessica Ledon…
It is Atim who is the undeniable star… You cannot take your eyes off her whenever she appears on this tiny stage. Atim is going to be a huge star and it is great to see her so up close and personal.”
Mark Ludmon: “As part of a series of dichotomies led by love and betrayal, Walker sets up a recurring motif of deep meaningful love compared with more physical, sensual attraction. The play’s language and imagery infuse this urban world with spirituality… It succeeds thanks to some excellent performances, its poetic language and an atmospheric musical soundscape composed by Sheila Atim.”
Tim Bano: “With every role that Sheila Atim aces – and she aces every role she takes – she reaffirms that she should, and will, be a huge star… Atim’s captivating performance elevates Che Walker’s play of betrayal in LA.”
Laura Kressly: “By the last ten minutes, the energy of the language and the characters’ burning need for meaningful relationships in Time is Love has set the place alight.”
Aleks Sierz: “Welcome back Ché Walker; your verbally dexterous LA story Time Is Love really sings with passion and tragedy… This production – with its crazy funny lines and vivid verbal images – feels gut-gripping.”
The Independent: ‘Those excluding people of colour are robbing themselves’
The multi-talented, Olivier award-winning actor Sheila Atim talks to Holly Williams about Time Is Love and the benefits of diversity in theatremaking.
The Times: Sheila Atim’s culture fix
As Time Is Love opens, Sheila Atim shares her cultural fix including her favourite books, film, TV series, box set, play, music, painting, guilty pleasure, dinner party guests and the ‘song that saved me’.
The Observer: Ones to watch in 2019
Time Is Love star Sheil Atim heads the theatre must-watch list in the Sunday newspaper’s preview of the events that will shape our world in the next 12 months.
Evening Standard: 10 shows to see in January
Time Is Love is in esteemed company in this round-up of the shows that must be seen in London this month.
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