by Amy Toledano
It’s the early 1930’s and, “Julian Marsh is puttin’ on a show!”. Pretty Lady is the latest production from the famous director, and all of the local, out-of-work actors are thrilled to have jobs again. But show business is never easy, and this one in particular is no stranger to the trials and tribulations that come with rehearsing a smash hit.
by Amy Toledano
In a man’s world, Budding Rose Productions is creating space where women take the lead, playing the kings, the warriors, and fools. And while our four actresses bring guts to this unique show, the potential for a feminist, Shakespearean world isn’t completely met. The characters feel quite 2D and a desperate need of fleshing out is in order to deliver such a powerful message.
By Laura Kressly
British theatre’s slavish reverence for classic texts stifles innovation, resulting in safe, similar productions of the same collection of canonical works. This attitude needs to be challenged, and RashDash’s Three Sisters proves they’re the company to do it. Their female-centred, millennial take on Chekhov’s story of three women trapped in the Russian countryside pining for their old lives in Moscow is a gloriously irreverent and refreshing interpretation.
by guest critic Kudzanayi Chiwawa
Director Marianne Badrichani brings us this adaptation inspired by Sacha Guitry, a 20th Century playwright, actor and director. It includes short plays and extracts of his works, performed by an ensemble of three – Edith Vernes, Sean Rees and Anais Bachet.
The backstage comedy has been around for what feels like as long as theatre itself, and it’s difficult to improve upon or innovate it. Simon Bradbury’s attempted dark comedy Curtain Call takes a different direction, instead using the genre to look at ageing, failure and unrequited love. The overwritten script needs significant cutting and dramaturgical streamlining, but it has a dynamic premise that looks at an often-ignored demographic.
A playwright wants to write a play about patricide, but with an actual criminal onstage instead of an actor. Initial research leads him to a young man called Martin Santos, serving consecutive life sentences in Belmarsh for killing his father. As weeks pass and the two men get to know each other, stereotypes and expectations are upended in this moving story of masculinity, violence and theatre.
by guest critic Maeve Campbell
In 2011 Osama Bin Laden was killed, Pope John Paul II was beautified, and Kate and Wills tied the knot. Nearly as many people watched another televised wedding that year as a new reality-TV religion swept the globe. This is where The Marriage of Kim K, a new opera penned by Leoe Mercer and Steven Hyde, begins.
