Production Notes

Wednesday, 3 April 2013

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE RUNNING DEC 2012 - APRIL 2013

Third Year of University has pretty much kicked into high gear and I've had to backseat a lot of my extra-curricular work. As is, I will be restarting my reviews after the 24th April 2013.

All the Best,

Kirsty

Saturday, 15 December 2012

Loserville (15/12/2012)

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.

Echoa (05/12/2012)

A fantastic piece which really surprised me in every sense of the word.

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.

The Trojan Women (12/11/2012)

Well this was certainly not what I had expected.

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.

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.

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.

Love and Information (13/09/2012)

Love and Information @ The Royal Court Theatre

Runs through 13th October 2012

Short, sharp bursts of perfection.

Wednesday, 5 September 2012

Silent Shakespeare (04/09/2012)

Silent Shakespeare @ The Lion And Unicorn (Pub) Theatre

Runs 4th - 8th September 2012

A short run but definitely sweet

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.

The Last of the Haussmans @ National Theatre

Runs through October 11^th 2012

Not the best, nowhere near.