Bravely, as it must have been in 1955, the play unravels some of the prejudices and preconceptions that bedevilled race relations in 50s America. Like many a notable work it plays out society’s tensions in the (unfulfilled) life of an individual. Yet this is no blunt instrument to bash society’s sensibilities. The play works as a piece of theatre and not mere polemic by observing and playing on a web of sensitivities
Read More
A merry mash-up of spoof gothic horror, cheesy sci-fi and singalong rock, it’s as well-known as a Dad’s Army repeat. There was a time when its celebratory take on gender-bending was ground-breaking, but transvestism is now so mainstream that very little in the show will come as either a shock or a surprise. But that does not mean that is has become stale.
Read More
Dominating the show is the wonderful Steve Nallon as Mrs T. The intonation, the stare, the silences as terrifying as the insults, are the image, maybe the Spitting Image, of the real thing. Nallon, with his broad shoulders, has only to make the slightest move to resemble a 44-tonne lorry forced to make a 3-point turn in an alley.
This was not a lady for turning. Until the dead sheep bared its teeth.
Finding the Will, with their Bard Heads strand, have come up with a clever idea for their raison d’être – they take a Shakespeare character who, in a monologue one-act play, reveals their back-story and tells what happened to him or her in the future, years after the play has finished, as it were. I like Jules Hobbs and Richard Curnow and their Bard Heads.
Read More
The Pretend Men present a phrenetic pastiche of American 1970s TV cop shows in a cinematic, physical theatre production, squeezed into just over an hour. The scenario is a familiar one; genuine, honest Jimmy Johnson is determined to avenge his brother’s death by taking on the bad guys with the help of a renegade cop coaxed out of retirement for one last chance at redemption. Along the way we meet parodies of world-weary Police sergeants, wise cracking barmen and assorted low life . . .
Read More
Through a series of flash-backs involving the youthful Sally and Raymond we discover what her memories are made of. Young Sally is a bit flighty, a bit flirty. He’s a bit nerdy, a bit introvert, fiddling with wires, circuit boards and articulated pieces of metal. She brings him out of himself, he gives her a rock to cling to. She has ambitions to become an actress or a singer, anything to escape her boring home and parents.
Read More