Not just blind luck [by Matt Baker] In a similar vein to last year’s White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Silo Theatre presents a production that’s success banks almost entirely on each individual show. Appropriately titled, actress Natalie Medlock literally has no idea whom she is about to meet, the show more or less improvised around some narrative points and direction via text […]
Abstain [by Matt Baker] Contrary to its premise, Like A Virgin does not so much uncover the conversations, secrets, and revelations of people’s first experiences, as it does half-heartedly pontificate on these matters without exploring them alongside its audience. What little narrative exists lacks natural development, with the numerous scenes piling up instead of amounting to anything substantial. Any attempt at […]
Jesus Lives! [by Matt Baker] Jesus Christ Superstar is a deceptively difficult musical. What seems at first a song-list with the appropriate momentum to a presumptuously well-known plot can also be exposed as an inadequate foothold for character journeys and development. Thankfully, director Oliver Driver has handled this difficulty with excellent casting decisions. Conceptually, the most important thing interpreting the Superstar […]
Set them free [by Matt Baker] As a double-bill, The Cagebirds and The Collector are a clear and legitimate programming decision by Wild Boy Productions, with each play containing inherent, parallel themes of being trapped, isolation, choice, and freedom. As a Halloween double-bill, however, the choice is not totally clear – other than as a marketing gimmick. As a text, The […]
Grimm sparks grins [by Sharu Delilkan and Tim Booth] It was impossible to ignore the writing on the wall as we walked up the stairs to the Basement Studio. A closer look revealed the actual script that had been penned by none other than Ghastly Dash Grimm: A Tale Of Unease’s writer/director Benjamin Henson. Ben Anderson’s dramatic stage design was […]
Give them another [by Matt Baker] The Hobson Street Theatre Company has something significant on their hands: real people with real stories. Founded four and a half years ago, it began as an activity on offer at the mission, eventually developing into a legitimate theatre company, and its company is legitimately developing. The central conflict for drama is there, a classic […]
Dionysus would approve [by James Wenley] For a story that has passed from an oral tradition, and then written down by Homer, it’s intriguing how The Paper Cinema tell their Odyssey mainly through visual imagery and sound, filmed and played live. Even with the technological mediation (or perhaps because of) I felt connected with a story that has been retold and […]
Soup for the Imagination [by James Wenley] Now in its second year, The Feast has the potential to be one of the most important avenues for development of new work. Created through Red Leap Theatre’s incubator program, the company’s physical theatre devising process is used as a springboard for the development of new work from its participants. The Feast marks the […]
Clever, Compassionate and Concise [by Sharu Delilkan] It appears as if the play has already begun as we file into Q’s Loft space. Solo actress Adura Onashile busily writes on the blackboard with her back facing us and occasionally turns around to mouth words to her ‘other actors’ on stage. Before long you find yourself sucked into Henrietta Lacks’ world, […]
Icarian Heights [by Matt Baker] “Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics” is not the definition I would use to describe Perfect Place. While there are no new stories under the sun, Colin Garlick’s complete lack of an attempt to re-imagine, or at the very least thinly veil, one iota of the stories he has haphazardly drafted onto […]
Copyright © 2024 | MH Magazine WordPress Theme by MH Themes