“If there’s one thing the Silly Boys (Seamas Carey and Callum Mitchell) are not short of it is courage. Another thing is abundant energy. Another thing is not taking themselves seriously. . . There is plenty of ‘Young Ones’ style anarchy and slapstick violence in this road trip story. That’s a seam of comedy which threads its way through the generations and still manages to look fresh whenever it raises its tousled head. . . “
Read More“Whiskey Charlie is the debut work of playwright Chris White. If this piece is anything to go by we should be on the lookout for more from this emerging talent. With director Jess Clough-MacRae, the pair forms HippoCrypt Theatre Co. . . The cosy basement of vegan restaurant Café Kino on the buzzy strip that is Stokes Croft in Bristol is a perfect place to test run new works, the space comparing very favourably with Bristol’s other two small theatres, the Alma and the Wardrobe . . .”
Read More
“Any play about alcoholics is setting itself a challenge. Drunks in themselves are not particularly interesting. ‘Booze talking’ is usually dull. The interest lies in how they got there or how they got out of there or the truths told under the influence. This offering, based on the novel of the same name by Canadian author and Booker nominee, Patrick deWitt, takes none of these lines, opting instead for a ramble through a struggle with addiction . . . Bertrand Lesca’s direction manages to keep a grip on the episodic nature of the play and generates some kind of momentum towards what becomes clear quite early on as the inevitable outcome . . . “
Read More
” . . . The bulk of the second half was taken up by Peter Clifford whose warm, engaging and self-effacing performance created such a relaxed and happy atmosphere that audience members who would normally dread being called up on stage were almost clammering to be selected. Nearly all of Peter’s tricks were familiar – the interlocking steel rings, the restoring the cut-up rope – in fact all the things I had in my boyhood conjuring set. But Peter brought to each illusion a new and exciting twist. . . “
Read More
” . . . The story is a literary classic, but the Company were finely attuned to that burden, in which many of the audience may “know the story” without knowing the story in its intricacies. I last studied the play in school. There were questionnaires before and after querying the audience’s relationships with the play. While the immersive experience perhaps made it less likely to come away knowing the ins-and-outs, its major plot points were scenes displayed for the group as a whole . . . Overall, a bold and interesting production, variable in quality. . . ”
Read More
“It is almost 70 years since Arthur Miller’s All My Sons was first staged, but for a modern audience it has lost none of its bite. An unflinching examination of greed; of idealism; of self-delusion; of family; of responsibility to one’s immediate surroundings versus wider social responsibility; the themes are just as pertinent today as they were in 1947. . . The most subtly complex of all the characters in the play, Doña Croll is utterly convincing as the maternal centre, doing anything she can to keep the family together. . . As sharp now as when first performed, Talawa Theatre Company pack a powerful punch. ”
Read More