Cindy Marcolina - Page 6

What did our critic think of KIM'S CONVENIENCE at Park TheatreIn July 2018, a little series titled Kim’s Convenience was released internationally on Netflix.

Betty Parris and Abigail Williams’ lives are ruled by suspicion and spiritual insulation, where even playing is considered a sin. Everything changes when the latter starts working on John Proctor’s farm. Part of Jermyn Street Theatre’s Footprints Festival, The Good John Proctor bookends The Crucible, taking all its themes and putting them under the lenses of childhood. Regrettably, it’s underwhelming, muddled, and way too long for what it is.

Now, we’re not here to tell you how to spend your money, so, by all means, if you want to see some people off the telly in real life, they’re discounting ticket prices left and right. However, be aware that there are better ways and better plays to invest cash on.

This self-identified “musical biography” doesn’t dig much further than the introduction paragraph of Turing’s Wikipedia entry. It’s contextually erratic and misses all the details that would make the audience fall in love with Alan rather than sit passively in front of him. The songs are unchallenging in both semantics and melody, while the narrative immediately becomes shallow and insubstantial. It’s a flawed, boring attempt at finding the next British theatre hit. 

Featuring music by Justin Hurwitz and elegant lyrics by Broadway babies Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, it stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as its star-crossed lovers. The final chapter in the Royal Albert Hall’s Films in Concert series is a bona fide tear-jerker. Hurwitz conducts the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra while Gosling and Stone fall in love on screen. It’s magical.

Running the Room isn’t a bible nor a manifesto. It doesn’t want to write a set of rules for directing plays, nor it wants to impart a Weltanschauung on how to become a director. It’s a source of inspiration and, more practically, a generous look into the practice of a selected group of people, who just so happen to be women.

Jack Thorne gives his audience a backstage pass in his new play, which has now transferred to the West End after a stellar run at the National Theatre. Helmed by Sam Mendes and starring all the original cast: Johnny Flynn as Burton, Mark Gatiss as Gielgud, and Tuppence Middleton as Elizabeth Taylor. Their roaring, gripping success continues.

It would be interesting to see the show free from all the fancy listening gear so we can bask in the thrill of seeing Tennant and Jumbo grapple with their actions without a middleman. After all, isn’t part of the beauty of theatre that the audience isn’t separated from the story by a screen of any kind? The run is sold out (as it should be!) and they’re probably already in talks for a transfer (as they should!), but one wonders if this is actually what the future of drama is: a Shakespearean ASMR experience that will be dubbed as immersive. Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

The Hall knew what they were doing when choosing their festive programming. All decked out with shiny trees and classy wreaths, it welcomed young and old in their most cheery gear. The sparkliest, reddest crowd with the most interesting and creative jumpers were eager to watch their favourite elf.

Michael Dylan, Dave Hearn, and Amy Revelle share the comic timing of long-time friends. Strategically precise physical languages and a penchant for a quick, perfectly calibrated comeback make Steven Canny and John Nicholson’s a good-natured, lighthearted comedy. There are a few lulls in the first act, but these are rightfully outnumbered by energetically random bits that will have the crowd howling. Just what the doctor ordered these days.

Matthew White’s latest creation is stunning and Sondheim’s score remains beautiful. White doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to condemning the actions depicted, though at the very end his vision seems to suddenly shift all the violence into the necessary evil that kick-started Japan’s technological advancement. Questionable, but interesting.

It’s finally December, and there’s nothing British theatre does better than one-off festive entertainment. London has started swarming with mince pies, Christmas shows, pantos, and jolly gigs. In preparation for a pre-recorded stint on the radio later in December, recording artist and broadcaster Clare Teal joined the BBC Singers for a lovely night of show tunes and cheer. From Cole Porter to Stephen Sondheim, from Richard Rodgers to Irving Berlin, it was a bona fide walk through the who’s who of musical theatre with an added dash of Christmas nostalgia — a delightful production in all aspects and the perfect kick-off to the Advent. 

Richard Schoch explores what daily life would have been like in the Shakespeare household and how the buildings that surrounded him have become hotspots. He describes how the unassuming residence on Henley Street was turned into a museum in the 19th century, long after the deaths of its original inhabitants, cementing the turn in the playwright’s popularity after the snub of the 1700s.

All in all, Two Strangers is a pleasant night out for the rom-com lovers: it romanticises The City That Never Sleeps and leaves the audience with a delightful ending that solves very little of the plot. It won’t change the world of musical theatre, but it’s nice and fuzzy. Like a good pair of comfy Christmas socks.

Nineteen Gardens is one of those layered pieces. Some will see a callous attempt at arbitrary retaliation, others will find an extremely detailed representation of English society. An excellent chance for discussion.

Nouveau Riche and Jessica Hagan reunite after Queens of Sheba for a new comedy that explores the absurd pressures thrust upon women by society. A bad breakup and her family’s constant comparisons to her happily wedded younger sister push Ama to look into having a baby on her own. It’s nothing short of an odyssey. There’s plenty to like in Hagan’s writing, but this play is, unfortunately, incohesive and inconclusive. 

An alleged hit at the Fringe in 2022, it disappears on a bigger stage and sadly becomes a steady trudge.

While this version of the bestseller isn’t as consistently shocking as its original material, it’s sharp, entertaining, vicious, thrilling, morbid, uncomfortable, and alarmingly irresistible. It's one for the feminists who want to be challenged and the gender-studies-TikTok-girlies who love to forensically dissect human nature. Definitely one to see. 

I, Daniel Blake was the film on everybody’s lips in 2016. Written by Paul Laverty and directed by Ken Loach, it saw a man from Newcastle having to fight the system tooth and nail to receive Employment and Support Allowance after a heart attack. It’s a political, heartbreaking, life-affirming movie that angered politicians and validated the common people. Adapted by Dave Johns - who played Daniel Blake on screen - the stage show is equally powerful, but imperfect.

An accomplished, evocative solo project, the piece sits between a play with songs and a straight drama infused with socio-politics: much like its creator, it’s impossible to pigeonhole it. She is casually funny between candid reflections that are strong in their stance. While these are sanitised and skittish most of the time, they culminate in an invigorating, rightfully angry invective against the typically English refusal of acknowledging a past of imperialism, colonisation, and the scars that we still bear. This climax puts the whole story into perspective, tying it into the ongoing social discourse.