Review: A FACE IN THE CROWD, Young Vic
“I love you like Mary Shelley loved her monster.” Being in the right place at the right time can change your life. So, when young producer Marcia Jeffries stumbles upon a drunken Larry Rhodes while she’s recording a radio segment somewhere in the southern States, it seems like it’s fate. A gifted singer songwriter with a charming bluntness to him, Rhodes is immediately offered a slot on her show and his rise to stardom begins. Based on the 1957 film that launched Andy Griffith’s career, A Face in the Crowd is now only a creaky musical with an attractive cast. Written by Elvis Costello and Sara Ruhl, it’s Kwame Kwei-Armah’s swansong as Artistic Director of the Young Vic.
Review: MY ENGLISH PERSIAN KITCHEN, Soho Theatre
On the press night for My English Persian Kitchen, the smell of chopped onion, mint, and garlic wafts down the stairs of Soho Theatre. Hannah Khalil’s atmospheric play, combining true storytelling and live cooking, turns these scents into stories rooted in real life. Fresh from the Traverse programme at Edinburgh Fringe, the show comes to Soho for its London run.
Review: ANTONY & CLEOPATRA, Shakespeare's Globe
'Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.' Aside from a couple of Horrible Histories songs, most people probably know Cleopatra for her unique manner of death - almost certainly an apocryphal story (it's far more likely that she simply poisoned herself), but that and her ill-fated relationship with Mark Antony clearly piqued William Shakespeare's interest.
Review: SOME DEMON, Arcola Theatre
Laura Waldren lifts the veil off an eating disorder unit. While the characters try hard to cope with an alienating structure that fails many of its patients, Waldren examines institutional callousness and human failure. Chosen from a staggering 1,468 scripts, Some Demon it’s an excellent pick. Though far away from an easy watch, it’s rife with urgent necessity.
Review: LIFE OF PI, Theatre Royal, Glasgow
After conquering the West End and Broadway, the 5 star ‘theatrical phenomenon’ embarks on its biggest adventure yet. Don’t miss the West End and Broadway spectacle on its first ever UK tour.
Review: THE TRIALS AND PASSIONS OF UNFAMOUS WOMEN, Brixton House Theatre
A courtroom is a place of tradition, of cold reason rather than emotional responses. This is a fact which is highlighted in The Trials and Passions of Unfamous Women, a new play produced by LIFT, Brixton House and Clean Break, a company which works to bring the stories of women who are criminalised to a wider audience. The play takes us on an exploration of the court system through the eyes of women, fluctuating between classical stories of female trials and modern testimonies.
Review: OLIVE JAR, Grand Junction
What is theatre fundamentally about? Why do we create any form of literature or performance? Why do we tell stories? Stories are such a formative part of life, forging our knowledge of the world and helping to bring communities together.
Photos: In Rehearsal for THE HOUSE PARTY At Chichester's Minerva Theatre
Laura Lomas’s The House Party spins Strindberg’s Miss Julie into intense, fizzing life for today’s generation. Directed by Holly Race Roughan, in a co-production with Headlong in association with Frantic Assembly, it runs at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre from 3 May – 1 June, with a press night on Friday 10 May. See photos from inside the rehearsal room below!
Review: JEN®FA, London Coliseum
Opera is not short of stories where women are violated and abandoned by the men in their lives but Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa is an especially cruel tale.
Review: MACBETH (AN UNDOING), Rose Theatre
A production that promises to be a 'fresh take' on one of Shakepeare's most famous plays is apt to produce a weary sigh or two. After previously playing at Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum last February, Zinnie Harris now brings her promising yet unfocused version of the Scottish play to the Rose Theatre.
Review: BEN & IMO, Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
Written by Mark Ravenhill and directed by Erica Whyman, Ben & Imo tells the story of the composition of Benjamin Britten’s (Samuel Barnett) Gloriana with musical assistant Imogen Holst (Victoria Yeates) over a period of nine months in the coast town of Aldeburgh. The play is based on Ravenhill’s BBC Radio 3 presentation, Imo and Ben.