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HAMPSTEAD THEATRE

Eton Avenue

Swiss Cottage

LONDON NW3  3TU

BOX OFFICE:  020 7722 9301

website: www.hampsteadtheatre.com

 

 

Reviews by Philip Fisher for Theatreworld Internet Magazine


TRICYCLE THEATRE

Kilburn High Road (nearest underground - Kilburn)

BOX OFFICE:  020 7328 1000

 

THE DEAD SCHOOL

by Pat McCabe

 

Now playing until 13 March

 

 

This co-production by Irish companies Livin' Dred and Nomad brings Patrick McCabe's 1995 novel to the stage with mixed results.  

 

Despite imaginative direction by Pádraic McIntire and the collective efforts of a five strong ensemble led by Sean Campion, the underlying story does not seem strong enough to support 2½ hours of running time.

 

Set in a fading, crumbling schoolroom designed by Maree Kearns, the play tells the interlocking stories of a seemingly cursed headmaster, Raphael Bell played by Campion and one of his junior colleagues, Nick Lee as Malachy Dudgeon.

 

It does so from before the cradle to (in at least one case) the grave, using a surreal style of writing and presentation that brings to mind both Enda Walsh and Samuel Beckett, with a touch of music hall thrown in.

 

Indeed, the soundtrack designed by Cormac Carroll adds greatly to the entertainment, Bell being characterised by folk and classical music, while Dudgeon's life is played out to the songs of Van Morrison.

 

Both have troubled early lives before apparently finding their metier at St Patrick's College, a Dublin school peopled by typically obnoxious children, not to mention an awkward priest and shocking parents' representative.

 

What the pair have in common is a degree of hopelessness and eventually, a tragedy that joins them together as community pariahs.  Before then, poor Malachy loses his wife to a wannabe rock star and the teaching duo struggle to gain and retain the respect that their positions deserve and require.

 

Pat McCabe spends a considerable amount of time rooting around in this pair's often fevered brains trying to make sense of the lives that they are leading, perhaps concluding that depression seems a reasonable reaction to their experiences. 

 

The strongest elements of the production are achieved thanks to the energetic efforts not only of Campion and Lee but also their trio of colleagues, Carrie Crowley Gemma Reeves and Peter Daly (particularly unsettling in his role as The Beggarman), each of whom dashes around playing multiple roles with great energy and commitment.

 

The histories of two ordinary men are told imaginatively in song, physical performance and comedy sketch, often at breathless pace although with considerable repetition. 

 

This style can be attractive and to a degree papers over the cracks of a wafer thin storyline that tells us little new about either the human condition or the life and politics of Ireland.

 

 

 

 

Reviews by Philip Fisher for Theatreworld Internet Magazine Internet Magazine

 

 


 

 

 

MENIER CHOCOLATE FACTORY

51-53 Southwark Street SE1 1TE

Box Office: 020 7378 1712

 

 

 

 

Reviews by Sarah Monaghan for Theatreworld Internet Magazine


 

THE GATE THEATRE

(Notting Hill Gate)

BOX OFFICE:  020 7229 0706

 


KING'S HEAD THEATRE

Islington

BOX OFFICE:  020 7226 1916

Underground : Angel (Northern Line)

Highbury and Islington (Victoria Line)

Reviews by Clive Burton for Theatreworld Internet Magazine


THE OVAL HOUSE

52-54 Kennington Road, London SE11

(Oval underground)

BOX OFFICE: 020 7582 7680

Oval House Theatre Upstairs / Downstairs

 

 

Every Year, Every Day, I Am Walking

 

Now playing until 13 March

 

 

This simple production from Magnet Theatre in South Africa deserves to fill the Oval House during its run. It is a straightforward story, elegantly and enthusiastically played by two charismatic performers (whom it is impossible to dislike) and it manages to charm, challenge, and illuminate its central theme – the almost casual way in which ordinary people frighteningly become refugees – while all the time entertaining its audience.

 

This is a play almost without words, but one in which the touching (sometimes heart-rending) story of Aggie and her sister comes across more powerfully because it is both particular and personal and representative of many thousands more.

 

In the end, I suppose this 75-minute play is about the enduring human spirit, the faith and trust that is the basis of families and the challenges they face, and the sometimes casual nature of fear and violence that persists in Africa today.

 

Don’t let that rather pessimistic theme put you off, however.

 

Director Mark Fleishman has not forgotten that theatre can’t just present us with a black wall of evil. We need to be inspired and entertained at the same time as opening our eyes to problems and issues, and this play does those things too, with irrepressible energy and a lot of style.

 

 

 

 

Reviews by Michael Spring for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

 

 


ALMEIDA THEATRE

Almeida Street, London N1 1TA

BOX OFFICE: (020) 7359 4404

 

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

by William Shakespeare

 

Now playing until 10 April

 

 

It is fortunate that the leading trio each acquit themselves well in Michael Attenborough's very funny, modern dress revival.

 

Had they not done so, Lloyd Hutchinson playing the minor role of the lewd Lucio would have taken all of the plaudits with his impeccable comic timing and warm wit.

 

Measure for Measure is more contrived than most of the Bard's works but directed with a light touch can be fun, as well as exposing human foible most effectively.

 

Speaking with exceptional clarity in a cast, all of whom enunciate with care, Ben Miles plays a Viennese Duke who inexplicably abdicates his throne, leaving the licentious city in the hands of an able, if repressed deputy.

 

However, Rory Kinnear's Angelo has hidden depths, proving a sordid and wholly unprincipled leader eager to get his own way at whatever cost. Kinnear offers a fascinating study of a recognisable type, the public disciplinarian whose private life plumbs shocking depths of depravity.

 

While the Duke skulks around in monkish robes, despite the efforts of an upstanding assistant, David Killick's Escalus his deputy rules with a rod of iron, hypocritically condemning a handsome young rake Claudio, Emun Elliott to death for getting his girlfriend with child.

 

Claudio's only hope is his holy sister, Isabella, a nun in the making, who takes time out to plead for his life.

 

Anna Maxwell Martin puts everything into the depiction of a woman who would willingly give her life to save the brother who is responsible for his own troubles. The one thing that she will not sacrifice is what Angelo demands increasingly lustfully, her honour.

 

Shakespeare deftly sets this up and then continues the trickery after the interval, with exchanged women in bed (cut from the stage in this production) satisfying and then entrapping Angelo and swapped condemned men revving up the drama.

 

The final unveiling is ironically performed by our friend Lucio, who is finally silenced by the threat, not of death or whipping but much worse, marriage to a woman whom he has wronged.

 

Strangely in a Shakespearean comedy, marriage is used more to make social comment than as a convenient means of allowing spectators to leave the theatre happy. Indeed, the Duke's surprise request for the hand of Isabella is received in a most unorthodox way.

 

The simple, intimate setting of the Almeida, helped by the contemporary clothing helps to make what can be a difficult play seem very accessible, as does a running time of well under three hours.

 

Each of the main actors is worth seeing, as is the redoubtable Mr Hutchinson. They are well complemented by the likes of Trevor Cooper playing the tapster Pompey with aplomb and Sean Kearns who gives a brief but notable performance as the reluctant hangman fodder, Barnardine.

 

One hopes that Michael Attenborough might now have got a taste for staging Shakespeare at the Almeida after this undoubted success. He clearly has a great affinity for the plays.

 

 

 

 

Reviews by Philip Fisher for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

 


NEW END THEATRE

Hampstead

BOX OFFICE: 0870 033 2733

(Nearest Underground: Hampstead [Northern Line] - 2 minutes walk

 

 

 


 

THE BUSH THEATRE

Shepherds Bush Green

London W12

BOX OFFICE:  020 7610 4224

e-mail: info@bushtheatre.co.uk

 

The Bush Theatre is above the O'Neill's pub on the corner of

Shepherds Bush Green and Goldhawk Road W12

 

 

 

Reviews by Lucy Popescu for Theatreworld Internet Magazine


THE LYRIC THEATRE

King's Street

Hammersmith

BOX OFFICE: 08700 500 511 

 



Reviews by Lucy Popescu for Theatreworld Internet Magazine


 

FINBOROUGH THEATRE

The Finborough Arms Pub

Finborough Road, SW10

(5 minutes from Earl’s Court & West Brompton Stations)

BOX OFFICE:  0870 4000 838

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews by Michael Spring for Theatreworld Internet Magazine

 

 


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