★★★★☆ Ivan Hansen who co-wrote and performs the piece also personally greets people individually at the door and with a beguiling, child-like but assured hand, leads the audience along a series of warm, tender vignettes to a world of living memories tinged with nostalgia, and always punctuated with loud laughter.
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★★★☆☆ The title suggested a new take on Moliere by Hull born writer Richard Bean – who came to the fame with Made in Dagenham and One Man, Two Guvnors. There are similarities, but this is bawdy, full-throttle farce with a leading character who delights in openly demonstrating the way he plays one side against the other . . . There’s a great comedy here struggling to get out: meanwhile the irreverence, energy and zest of this production still leaves you smiling.
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★★★★☆ As with any Laurence Boswell production we enjoy the interplay of characters. Rubin looks daggers and spits blended scotch – being a malt man – and like any halfway decent spider knows exactly where the prey is in his web. Considered in his movements, Mr. Abraham is an actor who knows exactly what his body is doing and when and how to use it; there’s no waste and nothing lacking.
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★★★☆☆ A synopsis would read like a Shakespearean tragedy. Twin brothers are separated shortly after birth because their single mum, Mrs Johnstone, is struggling to provide for an already large family, and her employer, the wealthy Mrs Lyons, sees an opportunity to gain the baby she cannot have herself. A pact of secrecy is sworn between them.
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★★★☆☆ This small theatre is an ideal venue for a little company like the Tobacco Tea Company that had loads of energy and was putting on a relatively new play needing intimacy and directness. The piece is a new take on an old and well-worn story, known to most people now because of the Benedict Cumberbatch version on television.
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★★★★☆ Contemporary relevance to the AIDs crisis aside, the reputation and legacy of Rent is based on its music. What’s most interesting about these tunes is that they straddle the anthem-quality of classic show tunes whilst being inflected by a considerably more modern sensibility.
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