Author: Deborah Sims

THE HAPPINESS at the North Wall, Oxford

Happiness is … having overexcited people in the foyer before the performance starts, and not being sure if, in fact, the performance has already started. Happiness is having to do a collective breath and a bit of a knee bounce to loosen you up before even being allowed into the auditorium. Happiness is anticipation. Happiness is wondering what you’ve let yourself in for and being hugely relieved that you haven’t gone to this play . . .

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TOAST on tour

In the programme, Richard Bean says “I’m interested in entertaining an audience rather than changing the world or becoming an auteur”, and he certainly does entertain the audience. Full of sweary banter and genuinely funny jokes, you come out of it feeling like you’ve heard some fun stories down the pub. I didn’t feel I had learned a moral message on leaving the play, but I don’t think Bean wanted to do that. He just wanted to display the much more complicated story of how men’s minds work, and how people find meaning in their life . . .

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THE TRIALS OF GALILEO at the BT Studio, Oxford

The centre of the play is Galileo’s confession about the one he is forced to sign. Hardy conveys the battle within himself with real thespian conviction. Galileo knows he is telling the truth. The mathematics is there, for anyone to attempt (and fail) to disprove. But he’s not willing to die for his truth. He can’t be a martyr. He’s not Jesus Christ . . . The Trials of Galileo is a classic one-man show. A deep exploration in to character with few bells or whistles, this was all about Hardy. And he shines like the sun.

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TREASURE ISLAND at The North Wall, Oxford

Avast me hearties! Step aboard the good ship Creation, as she sails into Christmas and beyond with her new show at the North Wall, Treasure Island. Arrrrh . . . Hoist the mainsails, get your sea legs working, and then sit back as the Admiral Benbow Inn, the Hispaniola, and the terrifying Island itself come to life in front of your very eyes (or eye, if you’re wearing an eye patch). Arrrrh . . . Whether ye be a scurvy sprog, or a salty old sea dog, if you don’t enjoy yourself at Treasure Island then the only explanation is that you must be a landlubber, and there be no cure for that. Arrrrh.

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PARADISE LOST at the North Wall, Oxford

Consider the one-man show. What do you expect? A stand-up comedian, entertaining the audience with something funny that happened to him on the way to the theatre? A furrowed-browed actor delivering an intense emotional monologue? An interpretive-dance adaptation of a 350-year-old epic poem, featuring an almighty battle between all the angels of Heaven and Hell, the Creation of the world, and the Fall of Adam and Eve? . . . Sublime, ridiculous, hilarious, and devastating.

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