Whether you’ve forgotten to prepare a sandwich for lunch, or are looking for a quick fix after school, or a long days work, there’s no doubt that a box of chicken and chips can offer a tasty yet affordable meal solution. An inner city staple, the Chicken and Chip Shop is more than just a fast food outlet, it also encapsulates a microcosm of metropolitan life.
Opera Room, a company that is dedicated to writing and producing new operatic works whilst maintaining a classical flair, presents a new “classically modern” opera by Richard Knight and Norman Welch in the studio space of the Arcola Theatre.
It is a wonderful thing to have the inadvertently selective seats of an Opera performance made available and potentially appealing to a general audience. The availability side of things has been tackled by the Arcola’s Grimeborn Festival, which for nine years has been opening its doors to a wide range of more experimental Opera shows for a refreshingly accessible price. The appealing side has to then be ingeniously approached by the varied selection of Opera makers using the Arcola’s studio spaces, the performers and their wits as vessels. With a performance of Richard Strauss’s Daphne (and a libretto written by Joseph Gregor), it is Jose Gandia as the director and conductor that puts on an enjoyable but in no way extraordinary performance that I have had the chance to see.
Daphne – Richard Strauss – Opera at Home – Grimeborn – The Arcola – 20th August 2015
Garden, is an enlightening amalgamation of new writing, ravishing characterisation and simplicity to please the masses. Strikingly presented for The Pleasance, Lucy Grace evokes, explores and evaluates the monotonous life of one Londoner, in a unique, life fulling, self-defined prophecy kind of way.
Written and performed by Victoria Rigby, Girl From Nowhere follows the journey of Jeannie, a small-town girl who has dreams of escaping her wholesome roots for the excitement of the 1960s rock n’roll scene. Her story is told as a tape recorder confession from the bedroom of her childhood home, though why she is living at home and who the message is for are facts not revealed until the concluding minutes of the show.
The stage is set, a night at Winston’s Nightclub featuring platform stages, pendant lights and a draped glitter curtain, all alluding to the revolutionary century of the 1970’s. A girl enters taking her place on the stage, we ponder upon this beauty as the lights arise, its show time. Beautifully presented for Underbelly Edinburgh Fringe, Camilla Whitehill impresses audiences with her award winning play Where Do Little Birds Go?
Creatively presented for Underbelly Edinburgh, Lost Sock Company engages with its new writing, current interpretation of the sporting industry whilst analysing the concept of fulfilling your individual hopes and dreams. This production of Tether written by Isley Lynn is both realistic, creative and visually engaging.
The Etienne Sisters sets to warm up the Theatre Royal Stratford East Stage this autumn. Written and directed by acclaimed playwright Ché Walker, the drama also features a musical component. The songs featured however would no be made possible without the assistance of a composer and songwriter. Cue both Sheila Atim and Anoushka Lucas, who have teamed up with Walker to create a musical landscape in which the characters inhabit. Ahead of The Etienne Sister‘s debut in Sepetember, Theatrefullstop were lucky enough to speak to singer/songwriter Anoushka Lucas about collaborating with Walker once again, her approach to writing songs for the production and gives advice to aspiring singer/songwriters!
Awe striking imagery, original compositions and breath-taking movement sequences all play a part in this absurd yet conversational piece. Theatre Re present Blinds Man’s Song a physical theatre performance, incorporating elements of Brecht, often denoting an essence of the incredulous and impossible. This wonderfully balanced yet whole hearted production enchants and engages, embodying every fragment of one’s imagination. This production embodies a heart of the fantastical, alluding to the character of the Blind Man, two masked performers, one piano, one violin, a high-tech sound system and one very malleable bed.
As part of the Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola Theatre, Fulham Opera presents Verdi’s final opera in a modern version with Keel Watson as Sir John Falstaff. The independent opera company usually produces large scale works in the intimate space of St. John’s Church in Fulham.
Image by Robert Workman