Month: March 2017

Ionesco/Dinner at the Smiths’, Latvian House

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By guest critic Archie Whyld

On arriving at the front door of Latvian House I am by a very smart, besuited Italian butler who refuses to let me in and won’t really give me a clear reason as to why. Had the performance begun? He suggests I get a drink at the bar in the basement but won’t allow me to take the most obvious and direct route to said bar; instead I use the tradesman’s outdoor, wrought iron steps entrance. The bar seems to be in Riga, Latvia, what with all its eastern Europe chic. I stand at the bar waiting to order. No one comes. Meanwhile Latvian drinkers enjoy interesting looking beers, chat in hushed tones and completely ignore me. I stand, thirsty, with multi-coloured disco ball lights streaking across my face. Is this all part of the performance? Or am I in a dream?

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Snow in Midsummer, Swan Theatre

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In 2012, The RSC drew ire for its Orphan of Zhao casting in which there were a whole three East Asian actors. Though the production went ahead, RSC artistic director Greg Doran showed willing to listen and bring about change, meeting with Equity’s Minority Ethnic Members Committee. Now, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s modern adaptation of a Chinese ghost story with an entirely East Asian cast is on stage at the Swan. It’s commendable progress even though there’s still a long way to go in British theatre.

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Bagmanimous, VAULT Festival

by guest critic Jo Trainor

Nonsense. Complete and utter, glorious, nonsense. This was Brendan Murphy’s very first outing of Bagmanimous and it was an hour of brilliantly silly joy. 

Man dates, “That’s limes”, and a list of famous sharks. The Bag Man, teaches the audience how to be gracious in defeat, and magnanimous in victory by putting the room through its paces. There are magical quests, intense quiz rounds, and bag inspections, and although we don’t do tremendously well, the Bag Man tells us all we’d learnt something new which is just as important. The show is team effort so get ready to participate. 

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The Club, VAULT Festival

By guest critic Martin Pettitt

Set in a dingy nightclub office in the late 1990s, owner George is battling to save his club, Tardis, on its busiest night of the year. As the club is set to be filled with celebrities, he is stuck between his overdue rent payments and the money he owes to gangster Dave Sharky. Joined by friend and tenant Nick, they try to come up with a solution to the ever-worsening situation.

The stage set consists of a table littered with various paraphernalia: bottles of alcohol, drugs, a teddy bear and a mounted dildo. The action takes place in this space over the period of a night where everything is at stake. George is a well-travelled fraudster and neurotic and Nick is an artist obsessed with making plaster casts of ladies arseholes – the juxtaposition makes for a fun dynamic.  

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Kings, VAULT Festival

Ebi, Bess and Hannah are homeless, living in tents in Archway. The three have a mutually beneficial relationship – nineteen-year-old Hannah has older and wiser people looking after her, and her doe eyed youth brings in a lot more money from their begging trips. The three are happily ticking along until Caz turns up. Another homeless young woman, Caz has a magnetic presence that either draws people to her or repels them; there is no in between. The new group dynamic is tense and dangerous, with the very real sense that anything can happen.

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Swifties, Theatre N16

 

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By guest critic Alistair Wilkinson

The fetishism of absorbing someone else’s life and making it your own is the theme explored in Swifties, particularly how to give your world meaning when everything seems so dismal. The play puts in to question why celebrities exist – is it for people like Nina and Yasmin, whose obsession with their idol Taylor Swift has totally taken control over their own identity?

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The Long Trick, VAULT Festival

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Tristan is the stuff of Cornish legends. The Robin Hood-esque figure who lives along the Helford River gives much needed gifts to local people the moment they reach utter despair – or so people believe. The reality is rather different. Tristan does live on the Helford, on a boat with his teenaged daughter Kelsey. He can’t find a job so steals electronics from second homes and sells them on to make a living. He occasionally helps out locals when he’s feeling flush, but his virtue is up for debate. When Tristan meets Gale, a vegan activist who suddenly appears in Cornwall after years of drifting around Europe, his world is transformed, but not quite in the manner he expects.

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Freak, VAULT Festival

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A thing wot I learnt from theatre: there are people in the world that have a genetic disorder which gives them super stretchy skin. Whilst this is a great/horrifying party trick, historically it meant that people with this condition could join a travelling sideshow.

Nathan Penlington could be called a freak by those inclined to use such dated, derogatory language. He has a rare genetic disorder that, in him, manifests as hypermobility and chronic pain. But in other people it can make their skin stretch excessively. Penlington’s long-running fascination with sideshows combined with his own health issues, led him on a journey to a town in Florida with a unique history. His findings in the States, his research into sideshow culture and history, and a dash of disability rights combine to make solo performance/TED Talk work-in-progress Freak.

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