Cindy Marcolina - Page 52

The May Fair Hotel welcomed a vast array of women ready to celebrate their fellow sisters' achievements in the British theatre world on Wednesday 26 March.

Leon Fleming tackles mental issues, family, poverty, struggle, and hope in his new play Kicked in the Sh*tter. Her (Helen Budge) and Him (James Clay) - brother and sister with an unprivileged upbringing of poverty - show what it means to live in a constant state of instability caused by depression and anxiety, in a place where everyone seems to be against them. It is through their eyes that Fleming's audiences see the actual overwhelming despair that comes when everything becomes too much to handle, and the play becomes a relevant, valid depiction of mental illnesses told in sincerity and with a no-nonsense attitude.

Pop-up Opera are back with a new take on Vincenzo Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Shying away from an elitist view of one of the composer's most notable works, the company created an accessible, unpretentious, and smart production.

Counting credits including We Will Rock You, Wicked, and The Last Ship, Rachel Tucker shows off her vocal range brilliantly, but she is ultimately underwhelming at her limited intimate solo shows at Zedel, giving the impression that a lot more could have been done production-wise.

For Eva (Gina Isaac), Aditi (Ulrika Krishnamurti), and Dr Gupta (Syreeta Kumar), the first's desire to have a baby has three distinct meanings: the achievement of a lifetime, a way out of poverty, and capital. Set in a clinic in Gujarat, Western India, these three women come to terms with the politics, economics, technology, and ethics of surrogate motherhood.

Debbie Tucker Green's latest work, a profoundly affectionate, passionate devotion to someone (-noun) has its premiere with an unexpected staging in the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Upstairs.

In a space as small and potentially claustrophobic as The Hope Theatre, all you need to make a play with such a heavy theme go wrong is getting even a minimum detail wrong. It's not the case at all for In Other Words, a play written (and performed) by Matthew Seager and directed by Paul Brotherston.

Following an acclaimed premiere Off-Broadway in 2015, I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard sees its UK debut at the Finborough Theatre directed by Jake Smith.

Directed by Russell Lucas and brilliantly presented in the round in a room that isn't really designed for a production as such, The Understudy sees a brilliant U.K. premiere as part of Canal Cafe Theatre's American Season.

Deep in the belly of the Vault Festival, among the dark red lights, tinsel, and old, dirty vaudeville atmosphere Who Shot Wayne Sleep? finds fertile ground to shine too dimly to be relevant. The smells of humid basement and aged liquor only heighten the cheap middle-age entertainment that The Martini Encounter has to offer with their new cabaret show.

Once again, the tiny Jermyn Street Theatre is home to a scarily relevant production. In a political climate inhabited by immeasurable dangers for women (but then again, when has it not been like that?), Cautionary Tales for Daughters is mandatory viewing for everyone.

The hauntingly intimate Jermyn Street Theatre sees the British premiere of Tom Jacobson's The Twentieth Century Way.

Anthony Rapp graces the intimately beautiful stage of the St. James Theatre's studio for a series of live concerts. Last seen on the American tour of If/Then (music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Bryan Yorkley, and nominated for two Tony Awards), Rapp takes his rapt audiences on a journey made of songs dear to his heart, introducing them one by one with brief albeit always poignant stories.

Two Bit Classics, Joannah Tincey and Nick Underwood have brought their successful touring two-actor production of Pride & Prejudice to London. Through a mixture of dialogue and third-person narrative, Tincey and Underwood inhabit all the characters of Jane Austen's beloved novel, which means quick successions of back-and-forth exchanges, sometimes even carried out by the same actor.

Hosted in the ambiguously small The Hope Theatre, decked in ruby velvet and rather decadent furniture for the occasion, this 25th Anniversary production of Bryony Lavery and directed by Matthew Parker, Her Aching Heart is funny, energetic, and deliciously overdramatic.

Theatre503 sees the world premiere of Sleeping Trees' new pantomime, Scrooge and the Seven Dwarves. After the huge success of Cinderella and the Beanstalk, the award-winning trio comes back with a brand new, original, muscles-aching-from-laughter show.

In the sparkling new-staging revisitation of Baddies: The Musical, the antagonists are simply too bad to exist, so in order to keep doing their jobs in our beloved stories, they need some good ol' rebranding. However, the risk is colossal. In a world where there are no villains at all, how will we know who the good guys are? And most of all, who's behind the decision they're too bad?

After a successful world tour that saw over 75 artists with over 150 acts touch the hearts of more than twenty-five cities in both hemispheres, La Soiree comes back home where they started off their adventure eight years ago. The show graces the atmospheric setting of the Spiegeltent at Christmas in Leicester Square, and act after act the show is jaw-dropping. From a powerhouse singer to a trapeze artist, from a hola-hooping sensation to vaudeville slapstick comedians, you can rest assured you won't be disappointed.