Pop and quirk; bright lights, electric costume and pink hair, welcome to the contemporary Eastern theatre company, Theatre Margot. The stage is bare, bar a black door at the back; the door that symbolises a bleak view from the Cherry Orchard.
The Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola Theatre is back for its ninth year. Offering reimagined classics, obscure masterpieces, and interesting new work, Grimeborn is one of the summer festival highlights in London, taking opera aficionados on a journey of discovery. One of the productions definitely worth seeing is Gariné by Dikran Tchouhadjian, the first opera composer of the Ottoman Empire and known during his lifetime as “the Armenian Verdi” and “the Oriental Offenbach”.
It’s rare to walk down a high street without spotting either a bookies, or a chicken and chip shop. It’s a sign of our times at present, a marker of 21st century London. Both seemingly unassuming settings, what dramatically could happen? Well, in Lynette Linton’s refreshing new production, Chicken Palace, the chicken and chip shop setting is given a lease of life. Having made her debut at new writing festival, Angelic Tales, 3 years ago with her production STEP, Linton has gone from strength to strength in her writing career. Ahead of Chicken Palace‘s debut, Theatrefullstop were lucky enough to speak to the playwright about her inspirations for the play, working with Theatre Royal legends Rikki Beadle-Blair and John Russel Gordon, and offers advice to aspiring playwrights!
Hi Lynette! How are you feeling ahead of the first performance of your new play, Chicken Palace, due to show at Stratford East Theatre Royal?
For those who are not aware, the Meltdown Festival returns for its 22nd outing this year! With a host of celebrity names having curated the festival in years past, this year’s host is following suit. A multi award winning musician and lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of new wave band Talking Heads, David Byrne brings an eclectic line up of musical performances and exciting theatrical experiences. Having been noticed and admired by the man himself in New York, the celebrated and forward thinking Gob Squad join this year’s line up. Theatrefullstop were lucky enough to speak to one of its performers, Sharon Smith, about the importance of collaboration, making work, no matter the budget and being a fan of David Byrne’s work!
Will they, won’t they? The question that plagues every sitcom as audiences dedicate their evenings to watching the sexual tension between those two characters you just know will get together eventually. James Fritz takes the well-known trope and strips it of its television environment, suddenly isolating the eponymous “greatest love story of our time” couple from a world in which it’s acceptable to break up and get together again across ten years. We’re faced with characters doubting themselves and each other, forcing the audience to consider the flaws behind the perfect TV relationship.
DugOut returns to the Fringe with this new devised show, about a group of small town nobodies, who take on the local property-mogul casino owner Mickey, to save their favourite local boozer “The Sunset”. Punctuated by slick music and lightning fast movement sequences, The Sunset Five is exactly the sort of show you want to fill your days with at the Fringe.
Bruce is essentially a square sponge, a little bigger than a human head, with a slit two-thirds down creating the crease for a large, gaping mouth. He has circular ping-pong ball eyes, in an expression of ambiguous surprise. His life force is comprised of the actors/puppeteers Tim Watts and Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd, who are part of Weeping Spoon Productions, based in Perth, Australia.
Danny Braverman’s one man show, Wot? No Fish!! is one of the most thoroughly endearing pieces of theatre you’re likely to see this summer. It portrays the marriage of Braverman’s great aunt and uncle, Ab and Celie Solomons, which spanned from 1926 to 1982. Beyond the biographical content, the play provides a broader view of life in the Jewish community, as London passed through seismic, societal changes brought on by war, its aftermath and modernity itself.
CASA Festival makes a welcome return to the UK, offering audiences a slice of Latin American culture through theatrical productions. Founded in 2007 by Artistic Director, Daniel Goldman, the festival is renowned for showcasing a range of theatrical voices from the Latin American scene.
CASA Festival makes a welcome return to the UK, offering audiences a slice of Latin American culture through theatrical productions. Founded in 2007 by Artistic Director, Daniel Goldman, the festival is renowned for showcasing a range of theatrical voices from the Latin American scene.