Oh my word I enjoyed this more than words can say.
I think the best way to put this into words would be a massive keysmash with excited bouncing in my chair. But that's not appropriate for a blog like this.
... What am I saying? Every review for something I love is essentially just a verbal keysmash.
Still...
Loserville is most definitely Grease for the modern era. Set in the 1970s, it tells the tale of Michael Dork, attempting to send the first Electronic communication. The battle for email supremacy is fought between him and his arch nemesis... Eddie Arch, son of the owner of Arch Systems. Throw in the Clever Girl, Holly, the Nerdy Writer, Lucas Lloyd (writing Galaxy Battle, and getting inspiration from the greatest of places) and so many more brilliant characters.
Saturday 15 December 2012
Monday 10 December 2012
Sunday 2 December 2012
Goodnight Mister Tom (27/11/2012)
Goodnight Mister Tom is, was and always will be an emotionally traumatic, beautiful and heartwarming story, no matter what medium it's told in. Stories of young children being evacuated during the second world war are plentiful and touching, and seeing a story I had grown up with transferred to stage, was nothing short of lovely.
Wednesday 14 November 2012
Friday 2 November 2012
55 Days (1/11/12)
One thing I'm always bemused about is staging a play so that the audience are seated either side of the action. Personally I find it distracting (in a lull I spotted a sleeping man and a Vic Reeves Lookalike) and a little bit annoying, as the audience are either treated to the back of the actors' heads or the actors in question shouting their lines so as to be heard by everyone.
Wednesday 31 October 2012
Our Boys (30/10/2012)
Our Boys is a bit of an enigma. The play itself passes off as a sort of hospital-cum-army drama, a cross between the boring bits of casualty and the marvellous bits of... Well.
Suddenly you hit a bit of a brick wall with trying to describe something like this. It's understated, laddish, and a little bit brutal... But its also genuine, sad, heartwarming and upsetting. Our Boys has a balance which few other plays (at least this year) seem to have found.
Suddenly you hit a bit of a brick wall with trying to describe something like this. It's understated, laddish, and a little bit brutal... But its also genuine, sad, heartwarming and upsetting. Our Boys has a balance which few other plays (at least this year) seem to have found.
Saturday 20 October 2012
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (20/10/2012)
Possibly the longest play I've ever seen, or shall ever wish to see, COAHTR is not easy on the audience. Everything is agony, from the heat of the Deep South to the running time of Three and a Quarter hours. Still, its exactly the kind of agony that's worth it.
Saturday 15 September 2012
Wednesday 5 September 2012
Monday 27 August 2012
The Last of the Haussmans (22/08/2012)
In a change to the regularly scheduled pictures, here's a 290 word review of Last of The Haussmans @ The National Theatre. Enjoy!
Matinees of plays you’ve been waiting for for a long time
are very often disappointing in twofold. One, you’ve been waiting a long time
to see it, and so have built your hopes up for an exciting and entertaining
play, and two, matinees can be more flat in energy than a performance on a day
where there’s only one show.
However, even discounting that, I was less than impressed
with Last of the Haussmans. A play with an interesting premise, I found that it
lacked in more places than it tickled, and it was a bitter sort of taste that
was left floating around, possibly with all the alcohol that littered the
stage.
With a saving grace in Rory Kinnear, who, as far as I was
concerned, held the entire thing together by regularly – and deservedly –
stealing the show with brilliantly timed one liners and a beautiful
relationship with physical comedy and a can of beer, I must confess the other
big names let themselves down. Helen McRory had her moments of light, but there
weren’t enough of them, and Julie Walters’ character was either underwritten or
underplayed, I’m not sure which.
The set, however, was utterly beautiful, and the use of the
revolve in the Lyttleton was almost as gorgeous as the hanging dreamcatchers
and patchwork colours of the 1960s which made up some kind of background to the
story. Though only enough, I think, for some riotous shouting and a bit of
misplaced music.
Not the best production I’ve seen at the National, I have to
say. But I wasn’t tempted to walk out, simply because I hoped it would get
better.
Runs through October 11th 2012
Not the best, nowhere
near.
Thursday 16 August 2012
The Doctor's Dilemma (15/08/2012)
Runs through 12th September 2012
Topical, Charming, Morally Dubious...
Saturday 11 August 2012
Sporting Stories Before Bedtime (10/08/2012)
(Sporting) Stories Before Bedtime @ Criterion Theatre
Runs various themed dates throughout the year
Just blooming Fantastic!
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (09/08/2012)
Runs through 27th October 2012
A Visual Spectacular
Saturday 21 July 2012
A Midsummer Night's Dream (19/07/2012)
Runs through September 5th 2012
I pray thee, gentle mortal, let me see it again!
Wednesday 18 July 2012
Thursday 12 July 2012
Macbeth (Globe2Globe Festival)
Macbeth (Polish) @ Globe Theatre
Globe2Globe Festival
An Interesting, if somewhat unsettling experience, I enjoyed it, though.
An Interesting, if somewhat unsettling experience, I enjoyed it, though.
Hamlet (Globe2Globe Festival)
Hamlet (Lithuanian) @ Globe Theatre
Globe2Globe Festival
A Shame it was only on a few nights
A Shame it was only on a few nights
Much Ado About Nothing (Globe2Globe Festival)
Much Ado About Nothing (French) @ Globe Theatre
Globe2Globe Festival
Wonderfully French
Sunday 8 July 2012
Playwright's Playwrights: Look Back In Anger (06/07/2012)
Look Back In Anger @ Duke of York's Theatre
A Different Play every Friday at 2pm Through 20th July
Utterly Amazing.
Thursday 5 July 2012
GATZ (4/07/2012)
23 Performances Only - Must Close 15th July
8 hours long - but I didn't want it to end!
The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Part 2 (Preview 2/7/2012)
The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Part 2
Essential Viewing for anyone with interest in Drama, theatre, Shakespeare or acting.
The Hollow Crown: Henry IV pt 1. (Preview 2/07/2012)
The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Part 1
Don't Miss Out!
Sunday 1 July 2012
Saturday 30 June 2012
Wednesday 29 February 2012
PREVIEW: My Name Is Antonino Calderone / The MAC, Birmingham / 28.02.2012
My Name Is Antonino Calderone is a play based on a book based on a true story. This alone should be enough to get you interested.
To say it's about the Mafia (Or the Cosa Nostra, as it is referred to in the piece) should make it even more appealing. It's a fascinating reconstruction - or at least a rendering of the sort-of-confession Calderone offered to the authorities in a one-man monologue. Intriguing to say the least.
As fascinating as it sounds, I'd like to point out several things.
One, the play is only two shows old, tonight was its third and it shows. They're making continuous edits to the script, having gone so far as to cut (at least) twenty-five minutes from the show, which currently runs at two hours, plus interval. It's a really nice thing to have the Director tell you that beforehand, because really, I would have been put off by The Actor having a script before him.
Two, cor-blimey there are a lot of words in there. There's a lot of clever detail and there's a lot of Italian - to be perfectly honest, two things you'd expect in a piece about the Mafia, but that's neither here nor there - which, with a piece as heavy as this, gets a little bit lost. That's not to say that The Actor doesn't attempt to convey every single word, but... with so much to say, and without the pace slowing down too much, we found ourselves zoning out occasionally.
Three, the second half was far more satisfying than the first. It was more anecdotal, more satisfying and I, for one, was certainly more gripped. The Actor settled into his role, and he seemed, for what it's worth, to find some kind of empathy with a character he is culturally separated from. It takes a while, obviously, to find a niche when retelling the story of a man who was very, very real, without becoming a parody, and though The Actor took a while to settle into it, he succeeded with the task remarkably.
As it is, I think with polish, My Name Is Antonino Calderone will be a pretty good show. There's no doubt that the pacing needs sorting out, and that the script needs to be more fine-tuned, but I have no doubt that it will be. After all, that's what Previews are for, right? (And hey, it wasn't bad for £4.50)
My Name Is Antonino Calderone; Still in Previews
Star Rating: ★★★
(Oh, my. Google has just told me that The Actor is Tim Woodward.
And Now I am a moron.
He was in Mad Dogs, which was why I recognised him. Oh, bumf. I wish I'd realised that before.)
To say it's about the Mafia (Or the Cosa Nostra, as it is referred to in the piece) should make it even more appealing. It's a fascinating reconstruction - or at least a rendering of the sort-of-confession Calderone offered to the authorities in a one-man monologue. Intriguing to say the least.
As fascinating as it sounds, I'd like to point out several things.
One, the play is only two shows old, tonight was its third and it shows. They're making continuous edits to the script, having gone so far as to cut (at least) twenty-five minutes from the show, which currently runs at two hours, plus interval. It's a really nice thing to have the Director tell you that beforehand, because really, I would have been put off by The Actor having a script before him.
Two, cor-blimey there are a lot of words in there. There's a lot of clever detail and there's a lot of Italian - to be perfectly honest, two things you'd expect in a piece about the Mafia, but that's neither here nor there - which, with a piece as heavy as this, gets a little bit lost. That's not to say that The Actor doesn't attempt to convey every single word, but... with so much to say, and without the pace slowing down too much, we found ourselves zoning out occasionally.
Three, the second half was far more satisfying than the first. It was more anecdotal, more satisfying and I, for one, was certainly more gripped. The Actor settled into his role, and he seemed, for what it's worth, to find some kind of empathy with a character he is culturally separated from. It takes a while, obviously, to find a niche when retelling the story of a man who was very, very real, without becoming a parody, and though The Actor took a while to settle into it, he succeeded with the task remarkably.
As it is, I think with polish, My Name Is Antonino Calderone will be a pretty good show. There's no doubt that the pacing needs sorting out, and that the script needs to be more fine-tuned, but I have no doubt that it will be. After all, that's what Previews are for, right? (And hey, it wasn't bad for £4.50)
My Name Is Antonino Calderone; Still in Previews
Star Rating: ★★★
(Oh, my. Google has just told me that The Actor is Tim Woodward.
And Now I am a moron.
He was in Mad Dogs, which was why I recognised him. Oh, bumf. I wish I'd realised that before.)
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