by Zahid Fayyaz
Now a very popular Netflix sitcom, Kim Convenience reverts back to its theatrical roots for a second run in the current London theatre season. Previously at the Park Theatre, Ins Choi’s production is now on at Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios. With Choi playing the patriarch of the family, ‘Appy’, this is a family drama with both humour and pathos in equal measure.
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by Laura Kressly
Jacob Zuma, the retired president of South Africa, is in hospital for some tests. On checking into his room he discovers his nemesis, former Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils, in the room opposite. The two men have a long and complex history that unfolds over the course of Gail Louw’s play as a dialogue-driven wrestling match. Though their relationship has plenty of material to fuel discussions and augments about revolution, women, race and South Africa’s history, the plot meanders through topics rather than telling a cohesive story. Strong performances make this an engaging production minute-by-minute, but the overall result is not satisfying.
by Laura Kressly
Time. Generally, I never seem to have enough of it. Occasionally – rarely – I have too much to wade through before reaching something I’m eagerly anticipating – a holiday, the weekend, time with a friend I haven’t seen in awhile, or a desperately needed lie-in. Yet for Norman and Vivian, the elderly couple in Ridiculusmus’ new show about ageing, time is a languid, sluggish force. Every weighty moment is stretched to its limits, threatens to stall, and is marked by discomfort, weakness and struggle.
by Laura Kressly
Bertie has lost her job, her boyfriend and her flat. She’s broke and drifting through life without direction or purpose when her cousin asks her to housesit her coastal town home for a few months. Whilst struggling with her depression and out for a walk one night, she collides with an elderly woman who changes the course of Bertie’s life. Bebe Sander’s story of intergenerational friendship between two women forgotten by the rest of the world is funny, sweet and unexpectedly disarming.
by guest critic Maeve Campbell
Hal Asby’s 1971 film Harold and Maude is a masterpiece. Harold is nineteen and
obsessed with death. He meets Maude, a week off eighty, who lives her life to its fullest
and is constantly seeking new experiences. Opposites attract, and what plays out is one
of the most charming, unusual and sincere romances in celluloid history. Thom
Southerland’s Charing Cross Theatre revival is lovely but misses out on the sincerity
that helped garner the film’s cult classic status.
by guest critic Gregory Forrest
German physicist Werner Heisenberg talks of pairs and duality. The one thing against the other. The one in terms of the other. Directed by Marianne Elliott and written by Simon Stephens, this is an evening of girl meet boy, of random encounters, and the unpredictability of (human) nature.
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