MARIANKA SWAIN ~ WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW

Tango connection

Posted on March 12, 2018 by mkmswain

Argentine tango superstar Germán Cornejo discusses his new show Tango after Dark.

Read my full Dancing Times article here

Crazy for You, New Wimbledon Theatre

Posted on March 8, 2018 by mkmswain

The UK tour of Gershwin musical Crazy for You has reached its London leg, and is still in fine, energetic form. Originally a Depression-era work, it joins retro pleasures like 42nd Street in providing much-needed Brexit escapism: a world in which all our problems can be solved with tap and jazz hands.

Read my full BroadwayWorld review here

Posted in Dance, Journalism, Theatre | Tagged broadwayworld, charlotte wakefield, claire sweeney, crazy for you, gershwin, london, musical, new wimbledon theatre, review, tom chambers, tour | Leave a comment

Summer and Smoke, Almeida Theatre

Posted on March 8, 2018 by mkmswain

That this 1948 Tennessee Williams play is rarely performed seems nothing short of a travesty, thanks to the awe-inspiring case made for it by Rebecca Frecknall’s exquisite Almeida production. Aided by the skyrocketing Patsy Ferran, it also makes a case for director Frecknall as a luminous rising talent in British theatre.

Read my full theartsdesk review here

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged almeida, america, london, love, matthew needham, mississippi, patsy ferran, rebecca frecknall, review, romance, sex, summer and smoke, tennessee williams, theatre | Leave a comment

Macbeth, National Theatre

Posted on March 7, 2018 by mkmswain

We begin and end with a grisly decapitation. And that’s rather the problem with this intermittently engaging Macbeth, which starts in the throes of some unspecified dystopian hellscape, and thus has nowhere to go.

Read my full BroadwayWorld review here

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged anne-marie duff, broadwayworld, london, macbeth, national theatre, review, rory kinnear, rufus norris, shakespeare, theatre | Leave a comment

Macbeth leads March’s Top 10 new London shows

Posted on February 28, 2018 by mkmswain

From Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams to a new epic and a lush romance.

Read my full BroadwayWorld article here

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged almeida, best, book tickets, brief encounter, broadwayworld, caroline or change, cheap tickets, comedy, declan bennett, emma rice, empire cinema haymarket, fanny and alexander, gay, gore vidal, hampstead theatre, kevin doyle, kiss of the spider woman, london, lyric hammersmith, macbeth, march, martin shaw, matthew lopez, menier chocolate factory, musical, national theatre, new, old vic, penelope wilton, play, playhouse theatre, rory kinnear, samuel barnett, shakespeare, show, stephen daldry, summer and smoke, tennessee williams, the best play, the great wave, the inheritance, the plough and the stars, theatre, ticket deal, top 10, visit london, west end, young vic | Leave a comment

Frozen, Theatre Royal Haymarket

Posted on February 21, 2018 by mkmswain

No, it’s not that Frozen – although the immortal words “Let it go” do appear in the second half. Otherwise this is a far cry from the Disney juggernaut. Bryony Lavery’s 1998 play deals with the abduction of a child, and asks whether evil can be easily defined – or forgiven.

Read my full BroadwayWorld review here

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged book tickets, broadwayworld, cheap tickets, child, crime, criminal, doctor foster, evil, frozen, jason watkins, london, missing, mother, murdered, play, review, serial killer, suranne jones, theatre, theatre royal haymarket, visit london, west end | Leave a comment

Girls & Boys, Royal Court

Posted on February 16, 2018 by mkmswain

“It just seems to be a thing that we do, this incomprehensible violence thing.” So says the narrator of Dennis Kelly’s new one-woman play, performed in a staggering tour-de-force from Carey Mulligan. She’s been reflecting on an American mass shooting (and the fact that yet another has taken place just this week is sickening) and wondering whether violence is innate, and if so, whether it’s a particularly male impulse.

Read my full BroadwayWorld review here

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged broadwayworld, carey mulligan, child, dennis kelly, drama, female, girls and boys, london, love, lyndsey turner, male, marriage, mass shooting, metoo, mother, new writing, parent, play, review, royal court, sexism, theatre, toxic masculinity, violence | Leave a comment

Long Day’s Journey Into Night leads February’s Top 10 new London shows

Posted on February 14, 2018 by mkmswain

From O’Neill and flamenco to punk and Pippin.

Read my full BroadwayWorld article here

Posted in Journalism, Theatre | Tagged best, book tickets, broadwayworld, bush theatre, carey mulligan, charing cross theatre, cheap tickets, comedy, dance, donmar warehouse, eno, Eugene O’Neill, february, flamenco, flamenco festival, frozen, gilbert and sullivan, girls and boys, harold and maude, iolanthe, jeremy irons, jubilee, lesley manville, london, london coliseum, long days journey into night, lyric hammersmith, monica dolan, opera, pippin, play, punk, royal court, sadlers wells, sale, save, Sheila Hancock, southwark playhouse, suranne jones, the b*easts, the york realist, theatre, theatre royal haymarket, ticket deal, top 10, visit london, west end | Leave a comment

Andreas Gurky, Three Billboards, Pinter and mermaids

Posted on February 13, 2018 by mkmswain

On my (new and improved!) February MoveTo Town and Country Arts page:

Exhibition The Hayward Gallery reopens in style with a retrospective of Andreas Gurky
Film Frances McDormand is riveting as the foul-mouthed avenging angel in Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Theatre Sixty years on, Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party strikes the current mood of uncertainty and a past that slips out of our grasp
Commuter corner Imogen Hermes Gowar’s sumptuous debut novel The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock is a heady period whirl with a magic realist twist

Read the full page here

Read the latest edition of MoveTo Town and Country here

Posted in Art, Fiction, Film, Journalism, Theatre | Tagged andreas gurky, art, book, buy, commute, commuter, exhibition, film, frances mcdormand, harold pinter, harold pinter theatre, Hayward Gallery, home, Imogen Hermes Gowar, lifestyle, london, magazine, martin mcdonagh, moveto, moveto town and country, movie, novel, oscars, photographer, photography, property, review, stage, stephen mangan, the birthday party, The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, theatre, three billboards outside ebbing missouri, tickets, toby jones, west end, zoe wanamaker | Leave a comment

Thank you for the music

Posted on February 13, 2018 by mkmswain

A new exhibition celebrates ABBA – the band that gets everyone dancing.

Read my full Dancing Times article here

Posted in Art, Dance, Journalism | Tagged abba, abba super troupers, band, costumes, dance, dancer, dancing times, exhibition, festival hall, magazine, mamma mia, music, pop, southbank centre, swedish | Leave a comment

MARIANKA SWAIN ~ WRITE HERE, WRITE NOW

Tango connection

Crazy for You, New Wimbledon Theatre

Summer and Smoke, Almeida Theatre

Macbeth, National Theatre

Macbeth leads March’s Top 10 new London shows

Frozen, Theatre Royal Haymarket

Girls & Boys, Royal Court

Long Day’s Journey Into Night leads February’s Top 10 new London shows

Andreas Gurky, Three Billboards, Pinter and mermaids

Thank you for the music

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