Abney Park is a beautifully atmospheric and haunting cemetery in the heart of Stoke Newington, and huge credit to director Lil Warren for using it to stage 09 Lives’new production here. The Valour of Robin Hood is a new play by first time playwright Amii Griffiths, and it’s great fun.
Ashita No Kaze (Winds of Change) Vol 2 Japanese Contemporary Plays and Playwrights Festival is a month long initiative celebrating Japan’s brightest playwriting talent. A collaboration between Yellow Earth, StoneCrabs and OneTwoWorks, the festival’s ethos to start up conversations with both the playwright and translator gives the festival a uniqueness. We talk to Yellow Earth Co-Founder and Artistic Director Kumiko Mendl about this year’s festival!Alan Bennett’s amusing yet hard hitting play of love and loss takes audiences into the rehearsal room of a piece which explores the joys and tribulations of art as we know it. Educational in parts, Bennett is clearly trying to send a clear and concentrated message to the audience, one which he does with upbeat charm and subtle intent.
The mythical Phoenix, rising from the ashes is emblematic in everyday culture of something that is destroyed and then reborn. It was after a massive fire engulfed and reduced Battersea Art Centre’s historic Grand Hall in 2015 that a Phoenix rose in the form of a hashtag, #bacphoenix, which inspired thousands on Twitter in an outpouring of generosity and support.
Dance Nation showcases the distinctive, refreshing voice of writer Clare Barron with highly engaging performances from its eminently likeable, predominantly female cast, most of them playing pre-teens, all of them adults.
In this adaptation of Albert Camus’ La Peste, entitled The Plague, Neil Bartlett creates a contemporary version of the existential novel that is chilling. While the adaptation is very loyal to Camus’ novel, there are two noticeable elements missing from Bartlettt’s version: exact date and location.
