With the Royal Court I often find that it’s the smaller shows upstairs in the Jerwood that are actually the most powerful explosions across the London theatre scene. Clean Break’s Inside Bitch is no different.
Courtesy of Ali Wright.
Technologically impressive, with a fascinating sci-fi concept that ultimately falls short when searching for depth or meaning. Tesseract is divided into two halves like many pieces of conventional theatre, yet more unconventionally, Tesseract’s first act is a 3D film, the second a live performance. Armed with 3D glasses, Charles Atlas’s film exhibits incredibly impressive visuals, the clarity and scope makes for an immersive experience. For want of better terminology, the performers look as though they are truly popping out of the screen in such clear lucidity, far more-so than any 3D cinema experience.
Having celebrated 70 years last year, the NHS is one of the UK’s most crucial institutions; offering free
medical care to residents in need. A system used by many of us, we’ve all have our own experiences of the service that have gone on to shape our opinions of it. With issues such as funding, staffing, mental health and the UK leaving the EU in late march dominating the headlines, it can be easy to forget the voices of those who work behind the scenes to make the NHS what it is today. Having worked on the frontline of the EAU (Emergency Assessment Unit) for four years, Shey Hargreaves offers an insight into how working in a high pressure role where she’d often support families going through tough experiences has ultimately helped to create her latest show, ‘Sick’, which is currently on tour.
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Flamboyant, relevant and highly entertaining, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie delivers a hilarious yet moving narrative following a 16 year old boy who dreams of becoming a drag queen in working class Sheffield. Tom MacRae’s musical is packed full of witty comedy, it explores identity, ambition, and the crushing reality of bigotry in school and even at home.
An unexplainable claustrophobic nuisance gradually pervade my untested frail limbs when the stage sparkles to life, diverting me from my dreamy yearning for white wine and Madagascan-vanilla ice-cream at the interval. The sordidness of the rocky and craggy scenography anaesthetises me from the glamorous formality of the auditorium, with blinding torches on robust helmets remorselessly stinging my confident imperturbability like a treacherous mosquito. I am catapulted, descending anxiously underground via a wobbly and unstable lift, in the surreal reality – if you pardon my jeu de mots or, in other terms, wordplay – of the gritty life of 1980s miners.
From the moment this production of Equus begins, it succeeds in engulfing its audience into the world it creates. Peter Shaffer’s text returns to the London stage in a co-production between Theatre Royal Stratford East and the English Touring Theatre and it’s a production that delivers on every level. It conjures up disturbing imagery in its staging choices that echo the characters feelings, as well as pay detailed attention to every movement made by the actors. This all results in creating a world that both fascinates and repels its audience for all the right reasons.
“They fuck you up, your mum and dad.” Anyone who’s ever had a parent can relate to Philip Larkin’s famous opening to This Be The Verse. Larkin goes on to write “but they were fucked up in their turn”, a line that drips with the stark reality that damage is quite often an inherited gift. I mention this because bequeathed melancholy is pertinent to French playwright Florian Zeller’s work.
Courtesy of Marc Brenner.
Iskandar R. Sharazuddin’s Silently Hoping taps into the topic of ‘duality’ – being of mixed raced heritage and questioning cultural identity. The concept of identity is a complex one, something that will continually be explored within wider conversations. Drawing from his Southeast Asian-British identity, Iskander looks to explore this crucial topic. Ahead of Silently Hoping‘s run at this year’s Vault festival, Iskander talks to us about his approach towards creating the show, working with director Mingyu Lin and the show’s plans beyond Vault festival.
Currently on a UK tour, The Isle of Brimsker has captured the imaginations of many. A tale of a lone lighthouse keeper joined one day by a mysterious runaway, Frozen Light’s mission to create accessible work rings true. Having met in 2006 whilst studying the Applied Performance Masters course at the University of Kent, both Lucy Garland and Amber Onat Gregory created their very own form of multi-sensory theatre for audiences with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) and this would become the blueprint for their theatre practice today. Mid-tour, Lucy talked to us about how her time as a support worker has shaped her practice, creating the The Isle of Brimsker specifically for audiences with PMLD and what audiences can expect from the show.
Dinner 18:55 is a heart warming and eye opening portrayal of the importance of intergenerational relationships; a realistic look into just how important it is for society to look past age and share experiences. Through verbatim vignettes brought to life by a diverse cast, the audience is drawn into the friendships that have been made through the course of the 6 months spent developing this community piece – and ‘community’ really is the perfect word to describe it. From heart breaking stories of difficult childhoods, to stories of family recipes passed down and hectic Christmases in huge families, this production is an emotional rollercoaster full of love and understanding that brings the whole room together.
