The thin blue line
November 13, 2014
Roy Williams’ police drama Wildefire is blazing editorial in Maria Aberg’s operatic Hampstead production, but individuals are lost in the smoke.
______________________________________________________________
Arms and the man
November 12, 2014
Stephen MacDonald’s Not About Heroes at Trafalgar Studios is a safe frame for searing First World War poetry, but doesn’t match its creative audacity.
______________________________________________________________
Arms and the man
October 28, 2014
Pat Barker’s Regeneration is effectively if conventionally translated to the Richmond stage via Nicholas Wright’s adaptation and Simon Godwin’s economical production.
______________________________________________________________
Mum’s the word
October 12, 2014
Paul Miller’s opening season at the Orange Tree gets a boost from Deborah Bruce’s empathetic gem The Distance.
______________________________________________________________
School of hard knocks
October 2, 2014
Roger Allam relishes his monstrous writing teacher, but Theresa Rebeck’s industry satire Seminar at Hampstead Theatre offers terribly anaemic drama.
______________________________________________________________
Lost in translation
September 10, 2014
Richard Gober’s revival of his 1992 work April in Paris at Richmond Theatre is a curiously inert theatrical time capsule.
______________________________________________________________
Playing politics
July 26, 2014
Tony Kushner’s depiction of elegant inaction in A Bright Room Called Day at Southwark Playhouse makes for exceedingly wearisome drama.
______________________________________________________________
The Bard reborn
July 23, 2014
Lee Hall and Declan Donnellan’s stage version of Shakespeare in Love retains the film’s screwball charm while smartly upping the meta-theatricality.
______________________________________________________________
Songs of innocence and experience
July 8, 2014
Terry Hands and Clwyd Theatr Cymru produce an affectionate if flawed version of Dylan Thomas‘s profoundly musical Under Milk Wood at Richmond Theatre.
______________________________________________________________
Trouble shared
June 2, 2014
Owen McCafferty’s spellbinding Quietly at Soho Theatre, a study of violence, truth and forgiveness, has gained extra resonance since its Dublin premiere.
______________________________________________________________
I dreamed a dream
May 15, 2014
Ushers: The Front of House Musical at Charing Cross Theatre is an in-jokey romp, and, in its tale of thwarted ambition, occasionally offers something deeper.
______________________________________________________________
The age of wisdom
May 10, 2014
David Shire and Richard Maltby, Jr’s wry, witty Closer Than Ever at Jermyn Street Theatre is a masterclass in storytelling through music.
______________________________________________________________
Swinging Sixties
May 9, 2014
Sunny Afternoon, Joe Penhall and Ray Davies’ new musical about the Kinks at Hampstead Theatre, plays it too safe,
but guarantees a good time.
______________________________________________________________
Wild wild west
May 1, 2014
The dilemma of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at Richmond Theatre: horrifying, anachronistic gender politics, but brilliantly fearless dancing.
______________________________________________________________
Extra time
April 10, 2014
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton’s problematic 2000 musical The Beautiful Game gets a spirited revival at the Union Theatre.
______________________________________________________________
Going through the motions
March 13, 2014
Darker Purpose’s King Lear at The Cockpit delivers
a solid rendering, but, with an uneven cast and lack
of cohesive vision, offers nothing new.
______________________________________________________________
Love hurts
February 28, 2014
Vicky Jones’s taboo-puncturing debut
The One at Soho Theatre is a real high-wire
act – and an unexpected knockout.
______________________________________________________________
Mix and match
February 9, 2014
Running on Empty at the Soho Theatre explores unconscious states through drama, dance and music, but lacks the focus to combine its elements into a greater whole.
______________________________________________________________
Now you see me
December 14, 2013
Phil Porter’s Blink at Soho Theatre serves
up contemporary romance with a dark twist
– a refreshing rejoinder to this season of boisterous cheer.
______________________________________________________________
Dark night of the soul
November 22, 2013
The theatrical adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train is engrossing, but, in an overwhelming production, takes its ‘noir’ brief too literally.
______________________________________________________________
The war at home
November 16, 2013
Polly Stenham’s That Face, which exploded onto the Royal Court stage in 2007,gets a strong revival at the Landor Theatre.
______________________________________________________________
Crime and punishment
November 2, 2013
Katie Hims’ intelligent, refreshingly witty Billy the Girl at the Soho is a strong addition to Clean Break‘s repertoire.
______________________________________________________________
Reality TV
October 26, 2013
Thomas Eccleshare’s Perle, a contemporary meditation on grief playing at the Soho Theatre, is a multimedia theatrical gem.
______________________________________________________________
Sympathy for the devil
October 5, 2013
Anders Lustgarten’s intriguing Black Jesus, premiering at the Finborough, ultimately prioritises political polemic over drama.
______________________________________________________________
Past mortem
September 29, 2013
Chris Thorpe’s There Has Possibly Been An Incident at the Soho Theatre is a timely exploration of our need to create a narrative
for momentous events.
______________________________________________________________
Till death us do part
September 26, 2013
Scenes from a Marriage, a theatrical updating of Bergman’s 1973 classic, has lost none of its power to discomfit, despite a flawed production at St James Theatre.
______________________________________________________________
Sing when you’re winning
September 6, 2013
Gotta Sing Gotta Dance at Richmond Theatre is a smart, feel-good compilation show and musical-theatre-geek heaven.
______________________________________________________________
Holding out for a hero
August 14, 2013
Colleen Murphy‘s Armstrong’s War at the Finborough is a smart, witty examination of Canada’s role in Afghanistan and the healing power of storytelling.
______________________________________________________________
Give the people what they want
July 18, 2013
The musical version of Dirty Dancing is a faithful re-creation of the endearingly cheesy movie, but lacks theatrical flair.
______________________________________________________________
The F word
July 13, 2013
The Finborough’s welcome revival of Pam Gems’ feminist classic Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi adds a brilliantly human dimension to the debate.
______________________________________________________________
Perchance to dream
July 10, 2013
Richard Greenberg’s The American Plan offers a caustic dissection of 1960s social mores in a strong revival at St James Theatre.
______________________________________________________________
The ties that bind us
July 4, 2013
In her début play Responsible Other at the Hampstead, Melanie Spencer sidesteps cliché in delivering a witty, skilful examination of serious illness.
______________________________________________________________
All sugar, no spice
June 26, 2013
A new musical version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fails to capture the deliciously dark spirit of Dahl’s work.
______________________________________________________________
The writing’s on the wall
June 25, 2013
An adaptation of 1938 novella Address Unknown at Soho Theatre offers a compelling indictment of extremism.
______________________________________________________________
The land of lost content
June 19, 2013
Northern Stage deliver a searing study of power dynamics at Richmond Theatre with Dennis Potter’s Blue Remembered Hills.
______________________________________________________________
Till death do us part
June 16, 2013
An uneven production of Blood Wedding at the Waterloo East struggles to deliver Lorca’s dramatic intent.
______________________________________________________________
Sweet as strychnine
June 13, 2013
The acerbic wit and thrilling twists of one-woman show Murder, Marple and Me at the Ambassadors do justice to the Queen of Crime.
______________________________________________________________
Shooting the past
June 11, 2013
Maria Friedman’s revival of Sondheim‘s Merrily We Roll Along at the Harold Pinter Theatre reclaims the soul of the work.
______________________________________________________________
Modern warfare
June 2, 2013
Brad Birch’s cumbersomely titled Even Stillness Breathes Softly Against a Brick Wall at the Soho Theatre is a gripping portrait of 21st-century crisis.
______________________________________________________________
The female of the species
May 23, 2013
Hannah Patterson’s ambitious Playing With Grown-Ups at Theatre503 has an original take on parenthood and sexual politics, but suffers from lack of focus.
______________________________________________________________
The Green Menace
May 20, 2013
Thomas Eccleshare’s Verity Bargate Award-winning Pastoral brings an effective blend of black comedy and eco-horror to the Soho Theatre.
______________________________________________________________
Labour isn’t working
May 13, 2013
Baffling soundscape Herakles! at The Actors’ Church can’t find a satisfying execution for its ambitious ideas.
______________________________________________________________
Devilishly funny
May 11, 2013
Jo Caulfield‘s supremely confident Soho Theatre set proves she isn’t just flying the flag for female comedy, but for great comedy.
______________________________________________________________
In the shadow of Python
May 9, 2013
New musical The Sword and the Dope at The Courtyard Theatre doesn’t bring enough new material to the (round) table, but makes for a genial evening.
______________________________________________________________
The art of war
April 23, 2013
Howard Brenton’s politically charged The Arrest of Ai Weiwei at the Hampstead gains an extra dimension from its democratic global live stream.
______________________________________________________________
Can you tell what it is yet?
April 18, 2013
The eager imitation of every dramatic style known to man can’t salvage the bewildering Between Ten and Six at the Leicester Square Theatre.
______________________________________________________________
Law and disorder
April 17, 2013
Jabine Chaudri’s site-specific My Daughter’s Trial, relocated from the Soho Theatre to Browns Courtrooms, doesn’t quite do its riveting subject matter justice.
______________________________________________________________
Between the Rock and a hard place
March 30, 2013
The Arcola Theatre‘s oddly topical Gibraltar strives for journalistic “truth”, but falls short of theatrical success.
______________________________________________________________
Growing up can be an awfully big adventure
March 29, 2013
John Logan’s Peter and Alice at the Noel Coward Theatre is a powerfully elegiac addition to Michael Grandage’s varied West End Season.
______________________________________________________________
Northern lights
March 21, 2013
The Hampstead Theatre continues its dream run with Hello/Goodbye, Peter Souter’s confident debut and another downstairs sensation.
______________________________________________________________
MARIANKA SWAIN ~ WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW 