Dirty Great Love Story started as a 10-minute poetry duet featuring the two writers, Richard Marsh and Katie Bonna. It then went on to Vault Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and became a massive success in various theatres across the UK. Poetry in a play? I was reluctant, to say the least. It seems that every time we […]
It must be difficult basing a play around a group as well-known and held in such high esteem as the Marx Brothers while still retaining the sense of individual character that a standalone play offers. Such a concept can be an opportunity to investigate and explore the wider, metaphysical nature of its subject matter in […]
The whole theatre/pub culture in London is pretty fantastic if you ask me. The first time I attended a performance in one of these venues, I was so amazed by the city’s determination to have quality theatre in as many places as possible. Given that the King’s Head Theatre is the oldest theatre/pub in London, […]
2016 was the second year of the London branch and a time when many more theatres opened their doors to us, including the National and, just recently, the Almeida, signalling the coup that we now have access to virtually every new writing theatre in the city. Which is astounding given where we started from. We’ve […]
A timely and shaded production that breathes much-needed life into the faces of primary school history posters. Based on Friedrich Schiller’s text from 1800, Mary Stuart- both adapted and directed by Robert Icke- is unexpectedly riveting. Following the story of Mary Queen of Scots and her cousin, Elizabeth I, it recounts Mary’s final days in prison […]
Am I the only person who actually enjoys clichés once in a while? I mean, not every production is the most inventive but is that really the worst thing? When your job title is “critic” it can be difficult to just…. enjoy. Old Red Lion Theatre’s production of Benighted reminded me that sometimes a cliché […]
Patricide is not a subject many people wish to tackle, especially not in the confines of the theatre. Thebes Land tells the story of a man, who calls himself T, writing a play about a patricide named Martin. The show encompasses both the interviews between Martin and T and the rehearsals leading up to the […]
Rural Illinois in 1979. A flagging old man wastes away on a couch watching sports on his tiny TV and sneaking swigs of whiskey when alone. This is Dodge (Ed Harris), the moribund, impotent pillar of the play. His wife Halie (Amy Madigan) calls out from above. She can’t get over her all-American son Ansel’s […]