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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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