Tag Archives: Old Red Lion Theatre

Writer: Jacqueline Saphra Director: Tamar Saphra Reviewer: Stephen Bates It’s a dog’s life in Jaqueline Saphra’s new one-act play, a creepy canine thriller, directed by her own daughter. Family pet Luna has been a naughty girl, stealing chicken from the dinner table and then…well, best not to tell more. Her punishment is to be shut in a small box room, ...

Writer: Tom Ratcliffe Director:  Andy Twyman Reviewer:  Richard Maguire There’s a school of thought that thinks that there should be a limit on LGBTQ+ plays and films that depict their characters as lonely and suicidal. Such narratives as these can only perpetuate the beliefs that gay lives are sad and self-destructive. LGBTQ+ people, this argument suggests, will mirror the narratives ...

Creators: Broken Words Productions Reviewer: Maryam Philpott H.P. Lovecraft’s stories readily lend themselves to very different kinds of performance and at the half-way point of The Old Red Lion Theatre’s Lovecraft Festival, there has already been dramatic readings, musical compositions, cabaret and biographical sketches. Broken Words Productions’ new show The Lurking Fear takes a more traditional approach to telling a scary ...

Writers & Directors: Dominic Allen and Simon Maeder Reviewer: Maryam Philpott While of the stories of H.P. Lovecraft maybe full of impending doom and demonic characters, his own life was no less dramatic. Turnpike Productions bring their biographical drama Providence: The Shadow Over Lovecraft to the Old Red Lion Theatre’s Lovecraft Festival, using the writer’s life to explore the odd family ...

Creator and Director: Sam Enthoven Reviewer: Maryam Philpott If you’ve ever thought the novels of H. P. Lovecraft were slightly lacking in atmosphere and threat, that perhaps they could be even scarier then Sam Enthoven has created the show for you. The regular Shiversnights have been running for around twelve months combining short-story readings with Enthoven’s eerie soundtrack. Now, for ...

Creators: Clocktopus Cabaret Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Cabaret has become a catch-all term for what we once called a Variety Show. In what used to be primarily a singing and dancing show, often with burlesque, has now evolved into a broader collection of entertainments, occasionally welded together within an overarching theme or story. Using the Lovecraft Festival as their inspiration, Clocktopus ...

Writer and Director: Robert Lloyd Parry Reviewer: Maryam Philpott Although early-February is usually a time for romance, the Old Red Lion Theatre has decided that their horror festival deserves another outing, and instead of St Valentine they have a series of one-act pieces dedicated to and inspired by horror-writer H.P. Lovecraft. Why should spooky stories be confined to October when ...

Writer: Liv Warden Director: Adam Small Reviewer: Stephen Bates “Post-Weinstein. Post-Spacey. Pre-Preston” reads the publicity for Liv Warden’s debut play, Anomaly, Philip Preston being the pivotal, albeit unseen, figure. However, in an hour-long drama that is sharp, sensitive and powered by topicality, the writer concerns herself less with Preston’s misdemeanours than with the impact on his three daughters.  The oldest ...