Tag Archives: London

Writer: Luke Barnes Director: Samson Hawkins Reviewer: Richard Maguire If only all new directors had the energetic vision of Samson Hawkins. He directs Luke Barnes’ new play, Katie Johnstone, as if it were an Olympic sport. His actors are athletes in this precise, tight production. And despite all the mess on stage, it’s as clean as a referee’s whistle.  Katie Johnstone is part of the Directors’ Festival running at the ...

Writer: Stephanie Martin  Director: Sarah Meadows  Reviewer: Stephen Bates  There are some parties where it is preferable to be a fly on the wall rather than an invited guest. Such is the case in Stephanie Martin’s new one-act play, in which Sophie throws a drinks party in an attempt to rekindle her fading friendship with Sarah. However, there is an ...

Reviewer: Mark Clegg Jim Henson’s furry creations have been around for over sixty years, but they really secured their place in pop culture history in the late 1970s with The Muppet Show, its perfect blend of anarchy, knowing humour and sweet sentimentalism meaning that it was an immediate hit with all ages. Thanks to eight movies, countless other projects and ...

Writer:  Robert Graves Director:  Fidelis Morgan Reviewer:  Richard Maguire This is an odd one: a ‘lost’ Robert Graves play which documents the aftershocks of war and, surprisingly, has two characters, one male and one female, struggling to come to terms with their homosexuality. Very funny and almost embarrassingly melodramatic, it’s difficult to label this play with a genre. Perhaps, as ...

Writer:  Emma Rogerson, Will Owen, Jonathan Brandt, Niall Urquhart, Christine Roberts Director:  Kasia Różycki Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Ovid’s Metamorphoses is an uncategorizable collection of stories and myths, based on Greek and Roman Gods, some familiar, some little known. All of the tales feature some kind of transformation, which come either as rewards or punishments. Ovid’s hotchpotch approach, however, does not quite ...

Devised by Haste Theatre Associate Director: Ally Cologna Reviewer: Lucy Lambert Where the Hell is Bernard invites us to imagine an authoritarian dystopia where occupants are drilled in obedience and productivity. Forbidden to explore or play at will, we meet the childlike members of Pod 17, locked in a mechanised efficiency; loyal subjects of an ambivalent ruler. For reasons that ...

Book, Music and Lyrics: Erik Ransom  Director: Andrew Beckett  Reviewer: Scott Matthewman The most fundamental and accurate observation that Grindr: The Opera makes comes in its first number. The advent of the mobile smartphone, whose GPS technology allows for distance-based searching, transformed the online dating space – particularly for those who, far from looking for Mr Right, were looking for Mr ...

Writer:  Daniel Keene Director:  Edwina Strobl Reviewer:  Richard Maguire Working in partnership with The Refugee Council, Boxman is the desolate story of Ringo, an asylum seeker sleeping rough in London. Ringo lives in a world of shadows, where invisible to passers-by he’s haunted by ghosts of the past. Boxman is a quiet and understated portrayal of loss. Eschewing the traditional narrative of ...