Writer: Lucy Kirkwood Director: Lucy Morrison If you have booked tickets to see That Is Not Who I Am, new writer Dave Davidson’s thriller about identity theft, prepare to be surprised or perhaps, disappointed. No, it is not yet another cancellation due to Covid; the reason is that neither the play nor the playwright actually exists. They are no more than a smokescreen for the real play, Lucy Kirkwood’s Rapture, a work which we are told is deemed to be so explosive that its mere existence needed to be kept under wraps. Kirkwood showed all the instincts of an investigative…
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Book, Music and Lyrics: Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey Director: Nikolai Foster Grease is one of the greatest movie musicals of all time, beloved even by those who claim they don’t like musicals. Since the success of the 1978 film, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s stage musical has seen numerous modifications to reflect the changes introduced for the big screen. This new revival attempts, in part, to return the stage musical to its original roots. And so this story of 1950s “greaser” Danny Zucco meeting nice girl Sandy Dumbrowski over the summer break, only to find that they now both…
Writers: Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert Director: Bob Tomson If a little humour goes a long way in suspense thrillers, the comedy on display in Catch Me If You Can is the equivalent of a long haul flight. Written in the early 1960s by Jack Weinstock and Willie Gilbert, who also co-wrote the hilarious book for How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the play revolves around the disappearance of ad executive Daniel Corban’s new wife from their honeymoon cabin in the Catskill Mountains of upper New York State. The detective in charge of the case, Gray O’Brien’s Inspector Levine,…
Book: Ben Elton Music and Lyrics: Queen Director: Ben Elton We Will Rock You is a love letter to rock and roll with many touching references to Freddie Mercury. It bursts into action with a Star Wars-inspired prologue coupled with some freeze-framed spotlights on the unnamed ensemble. This adds a sense of foreboding and is visually riveting. However, the beginning of the show then gets off to a slow start as we establish the dystopian nature of the society in which these characters live. That is not to say that there aren’t moments of exceptionally staged theatre, just that the narrative…
Writer: Helen Edmundson Director: Rufus Norris Andrea Levy’s novel Small Island, adapted for the stage by Helen Edmundson, may take place over great swaths of the 20th Century, but its highlighting of British racism is sadly all too current. Edmundson’s adaptation, which clocks in at well over three hours, spends most of Act I telling the life stories of three very different people. Hortense (Leonie Elliott), a teaching assistant in Jamaica, tells of being brought up by her God-fearing uncle and aunt, and the affection (and ultimate betrayal) she receives from her cousin Michael. In England, Mirren Mack’s Queenie escapes…
Writer: Carey Crim Director: Katharine Farmer Seated around three sides of an elegant and cosy room, audiences for American writer Carey Crim’s play Never Not Once may feel transported back in time. A Persian carpet is spread across the floor and framed prints are arranged tidily on the far wall, hanging above an invitingly comfortable sofa. Yet the traditional flavour of Roisin Martindale’s set design belies the very modern nature of the relationships seen in the play. Eleanor (Meaghan Martin) is the teenage daughter of same sex parents who is about to become engaged to a fellow student, steady and…
Writer: Caryl Churchill Director: Lyndsey Turner Caryl Churchill is one of our premier science fiction writers, a fact which isn’t celebrated enough. Like all the best SF, Churchill’s work takes futuristic concepts and weaves stories that talk to us in the present. 2002’s A Number is perhaps the most obvious of her works to fit this description. Paapa Essiedu’s Bernard finds his world tilting on its axis when he discovers that there are clones of him walking around. As he discusses the revelation with his father, Salter (Lennie James) the pair start to disagree on whether the clones are new…