Review: BLUE MIST, Royal Court TheatreOctober 13, 2023Three boys meet at Chunkyz to gossip, swap stories, and grow up against the backdrop of a society that’s not made for Muslim men. Blue Mist is staged with unfaltering energy across all areas of the production. Directed by Milli Bhatia, the strongly conversational dialogues have a snappy pace manipulated by dynamically stark lighting (Elliot Griggs) and alluring sound design (Elena Peña).
Review: GENTLEMEN, Arcola TheatreOctober 10, 2023When toxic tradition clashes with inevitable progress, the very structure of the crème de la crème of higher education comes into question. Matt Parvin’s Gentlemen is the cerebral lovechild of Laura Wade’s Posh and Alan Bennett’s The History Boys whose third cousin once removed is Mamet’s Oleanna. Directed by Richard Speir, it’s a cynical glance at the unhealthy microcosmos of the Oxbridge lot.
Review: DANNY ELFMAN'S MUSIC FROM THE FILMS OF TIM BURTON, Royal Albert HallOctober 8, 2023Seventeen projects and nearly four decades of artistic alliance have produced beloved classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow, and Edward Scissorhands. Ten years after the first musical celebration, Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton returns to the Royal Albert Hall. John Mauceri conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra alongside the Crouch End Festival Chorus in a concert full of surprises.
Review: FRANKENSTEIN: AN IMMERSIVE SHOW, Crypt, St. Peter's ChurchOctober 5, 2023Benjamin’s study of Victor’s mental health is exceptionally refreshing, but ends up feeling a tad apocryphal in the context, especially when considering the major changes to Shelley’s narrative. All in all, it’s a decently eerie night out in the lead-up to Halloween, but it isn't the must-see version of Frankenstein it could be yet.
Review: THE STANDARD SHORT LONG DROP, The Vanguard, CamdenSeptember 28, 2023Rachel Garnet’s new play is the chance to explore workers’ rights and mortality. It’s a tense black comedy, jam-packed with philosophical arguments and tied together by Natasha Rickman’s controlled vision. It’s, however, in spite of the pair of razor-sharp performances, a tad too lengthy to hit right.
Review: WOODHILL, Shoreditch Town HallSeptember 27, 2023The verbatim script is thoroughly chilling. Rough poetry and arresting repetition guide the audience in a world of state-mandated violence, carried out not by the criminals but by the officers and staff who are meant to keep them safe. The fear, desperation, and frustration of those involved in the case are personified in voiceless figures ruled and restrained by the invisible force of music. It pushes them around and turns them into puppets; it slays them into zombie-like non-humans and makes them into the perpetrators themselves. A brilliant allegory.
Review: BEAUTIFUL THING, Stratford EastSeptember 25, 2023The show is generally delightful, but one can’t shake the feeling that there’s so much more to explore. Simpson-Pike crafts a beautiful revival that ends with an adorable moment that ties the community together, but the script seems to forget the main reason the two boys connected in the first place.
Review: UNTITLED F*CK M*SS S**GON PLAY, Young VicSeptember 23, 2023Directed by Roy Alexander Weise, the project is structurally disruptive but ultimately too meandering and overlong. A narrator (Rochelle Rose) lays the tropes bare with bitter observations. She amplifies the intentional faux pas, but the framework gets a bit stodgy by the second round of narrative repetition.
Review: VANYA, Duke Of York's TheatreSeptember 22, 2023There are vanity projects, and then there are Vanity Projects. This is a Vanyaty Project of exquisite substance that reconfirms Andrew Scott is one of the finest performers of his generation. A production years in the making, Simon Stephens’s one-man adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s human tragedy Uncle Vanya has landed in the West End in the safe hands of Scott.
Review: IT'S HEADED STRAIGHT TOWARDS US, Park TheatreSeptember 20, 2023It’s tough humour, not always politically correct nor consistently hilarious. All aspects of their personal lives and careers are ammunition. On-set misdemeanours, past scuffles, sexual escapades - everything. It’s somewhat of a potboiler for the easily pleased punters and industry professionals: it’s funny, but far from a knee-slapper and insulated in its type of jokes. Their punches are ruthless and the piece is deliciously self-referential, though its real strength is its unexploited dark side.
Review: REBECCA, Charing Cross TheatreSeptember 19, 2023The project has been a top hit in its native Austria since it opened in 2006, garnering a steady following across the world and subsequent runs in Asia and Europe. The original is fabled to feature incredible sets and a sumptuous staging - it’s a shame those elements haven’t transferred.
Review: SORRY WE DIDN'T DIE AT SEA, Park TheatreSeptember 15, 2023At its core, Sorry We Didn’t Die at Sea is a tad too simplistic to make a proper splash. It has a Beckettian aura to it, but this is, sadly, left unexploited. Absurdist black humour shape-shifts continuously into smart thriller and back in engaging flourishes that explode in often magnetic moments.
Review: RED PITCH, Bush TheatreSeptember 14, 2023Tyrell Williams’ tale of football, friendship, and societal shift has smashed records and garnered outstanding feedback across the board. More than a couple awards and the surprising surge in sports-themed plays we’ve had have put it back on the map for another limited run. Could this playwriting debut be eyeing a West End transfer at this point? It’s already a success, it might as well become a commercial hit too.
Review: INFAMOUS, Jermyn Street TheatreSeptember 13, 2023The main problem is that the characters tend to dwindle down to two-dimensional figurines. We’re met by a garish personality and extravagant attitude, but we’re never offered enough reason and rationale to support them. There’s a bountiful of themes buried inside - from the more evident dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship to bare resentment, political strategy, and class restraints in it - but De Angelis skims through for the benefit of cheap laughs and funky sarcasm.
Review: GOD OF CARNAGE, Lyric Hammersmith TheatreSeptember 7, 2023It’s good fun, but the last half hour of the 90 interval-less minutes drags. The dissection of their personalities and attitudes towards society doesn’t really go anywhere, but it’s an amusing, hyperbolic, melodramatic cut-out of a pretentious dispute between well-off fantoccini made to detonate in a controlled environment.
Review: AS YOU LIKE IT, Shakespeare's GlobeAugust 31, 2023Its strength is obviously in its joyous and uncompromising queer nature. McDougall casts it entirely gender-blind, making it a piece where gender doesn’t matter, even though its role is at the very core of it. They turn it into an exploration of the performative quality of identity with plenty of tongue-in-cheek moments that tug at the artifice of drama.
Review: THE ODYSSEY: THE UNDERWORLD, National TheatreAugust 27, 2023Every member of the company brings their best to create an all-around remarkable performance. From the little kids to the older performers, it’s exciting to see what can be done when resources are used to include the community in a large-scale project like this. It’s encouraging to realise that, sometimes, the taxpayers are funding ventures that truly matter.
Review: AS WE FACE THE SUN, Bush TheatreAugust 24, 2023Ultimately, it’s one of those shows that matter in an ephemeral way. It’s a wonderful showcase of what the Bush are doing to secure the future of theatre, but the play itself could be better. Scenes could be tightened and made less about trying to display the young talent and more about the story itself. But, in this case, it does the job.
Review: NEXT TO NORMAL, Donmar WarehouseAugust 22, 2023It’s a musical of profound emotional intelligence and accuracy. Informed and thought-provoking, it encourages reflection and promotes a healthy dialogue on the matter. It’s a touching, life-size picture of a family who can’t overcome their pain. Too many productions are haphazardly labelled as “a must-see” these days, but this is the real deal.
Review: DEATH NOTE THE MUSICAL, London PalladiumAugust 22, 2023It’s definitely not your regular staged concert. While there isn’t as much character exploration in this instance, the fact-driven numbers are enough to give a morsel of what a complete production could do.