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Video transcript: Arthur Miller’s play Broken Glass is one that doesn’t get staged very often, and usually, there are a couple of reasons for that.
It could be that it’s problematic, or it could be that it’s just overlooked. And I think it’s definitely the latter.
With this production at the Young Vic, it is set in America, but in the lead-up to the Second World War, and a woman has lost all feeling in her legs.
And the doctor can’t find any physical reason for this, so starts exploring the psychological reason behind it, which involves delving into her past, her life, and her relationship with her husband in particular.
And with a modern lens, it exposes the patriarchal structures that restricted women at that time. It also exposes the abuse of power.
Minjeong Kim in The Comfort Woman, Omnibus Theatre. Photo: Abbie Sage
The Comfort Woman at the Omnibus Theatre is the story of innocence violently ripped away and the fight for survival that ensues.
Drawn from the real accounts of survivors, it centres on 13-year-old Minja, who lives in a small village.
She plays with her friends and has a crush on an older boy, but one day she is lured away by a false promise of doing some honest paid work.
Minjeong Kim plays Minja and all the other characters. Her expressive performance at times populates the stage so it doesn’t feel like a monologue.
She beautifully captures the joy and bubbly innocence of Minja before her kidnapping. Her chastising mother, giggling friends and the cool swagger of the boy she has a crush on.
Then come the men, the soldiers and medics and the fear, despair, stoicism and shame as her story unfolds alongside other girls who’ve similarly been kidnapped.
The Sound of Absence at the Omnibus Theatre is an introspective monologue about grief with piano accompaniment.
Lenore (Yanina Hope) lives a long way from her father and arrives home too late to see him before he dies.
Her relationship with her father was complex, something we discover through her recollections and stories, and the play explores how that, and time, shape her grief.
It is an intimate performance, designed to draw us into Lenore’s world and feelings as she navigates denial, anger and regret.
Her father, emotionally and later physically absent from much of life, becomes a surprising empty spot for Lenore.
Vladyslav Kuznetsov’s piano performance is skilled and, at times, a haunting and atmospheric backdrop.
However, it can also be a distraction. The music can be overbearing, intruding into the dialogue and sometimes drowning it out.
The refrains are challengingly repetitive, something which is particularly noticeable in pauses where music fills in the ‘absence’ of dialogue.
Tom Varey and Liz Francis in After Miss Julie, Park Theatre
There is a scene in After Miss Julie at the Park Theatre involving a pet bird, which had the audience gasping and some covering their mouths.
It is a shocking moment in a play that exposes an uncomfortable conflict between the classes and genders.
Writer Patrick Marber has taken Strindberg’s play Miss Julie and set it decades later, in 1945, after the war has ended and Labour has swept to victory in the election.
A party is in full swing in an aristocrat’s house, but down in the kitchen, tired cook Christine (Charlene Boyd) and her unofficial fiancé, chauffeur/valet John (Tom Varey), have their work interrupted by the toff’s daughter Julie (Liz Francis).
She’s recently been jilted and is in a flirtatious mood. Her mother, we learn, tested gender boundaries and like her, Julie feels the repression of her sex by the patriarchy and, fueled by drink, fights against it.
Working-class John is well-read and has travelled, and wants to do more with his life.
Despite his relationship with Christine, he is receptive to Julie’s attention, spying an opportunity.
If you could age in reverse and go back to a younger age simply by taking a pill, would you? And would you do anything differently?
This is the premise of Rea Dennhardt Patel’s play The Undying at the Soho Theatre.
Amba (Vaishnavi Survaprakash) and Prav (Akaash Dev Shemar) are in their 90s and have been married since their early 20s. Amba buys a bottle of TwiceLife™ pills, which will halve their age, but Prav is initially reluctant.
They both have different ideas about what life should be like with a second chance at youth, and cope in different ways. How far back do you have to go and to what lengths, to be at peace with yourself?
The acting was strong throughout, supported by a solid script which is sprinkled with wit and irony. A live music accompaniment adds to the story.
Simply and imaginatively staged with a few pieces of lounge furniture and a backdrop of screens on which words describe key moments in Amba and Prav’s life.
These are used as an effective tool to indicate where the couple is in their life timeline and are one of the few parameters given for the TwiceLife™ concept.
Video transcript and additional thoughts below: “Man and Boy at the National Theatre is a Terrence Rattigan play. It is set in New York during the crash of the 1920s/1930s, and it centres on a father and son.
The father, Gregor, played by Ben Daniels, is a millionaire who is trying to save a deal that will save his empire, and he flees to the apartment of his estranged son, played by Laurie Kynaston.
And so there are two dynamics going on, because there is the saving of the deal, trying to save the financial empire, but also that relationship between father and son. What caused this estrangement and how do they navigate that?
Ben Daniels as Gregor is absolutely superb.
He is a delicious mix. He is the master manipulator in getting people to do what he wants them to do, but he does it with so much charm and charisma. He’s a joy to watch.
Keala Settle and Hal Fowler in Mrs President, Charing Cross Theatre. Pamela Raith Photography.
Mary Todd Lincoln is a grieving woman in a man’s world, and in John Ransom Phillips’ play, Mrs President at the Charing Cross Theatre, she is fighting not only to find her own identity but against her grief and the ‘creative vision’ of a celebrity photographer.
Mrs President tell’s Mary’s (Keala Settle) story through a series of encounters at Mathew Brady’s (Hal Fowler) photography studio.
It jumps through time to various points in her life, showing her as a child, first lady, grieving mother and eventually widow, with Mathew Brady attempting to capture his version of each.
Mary’s record in history as first lady isn’t that complementary. She is often presented as a hindrance to her husband and a hysteric who spent lavishly.
More recently historians have speculated that she suffered from depression and bipolar disorder and in Keala Settle’s portrayal, she is devoted, grief-stricken, vulnerable and perhaps naive.
Toyin Ayedun-Alase and Andy Sellers in Mother Dad at the Omnibus Theatre
Mother Dad at the Omnibus Theatre tells two stories of different imperfect parents trying to do the best they can.
Toyin Ayedun-Alase is a 16-year-old mum who wants to be independent but quickly realises that independence can feel lonely.
As she and her daughter grow up, she is resolute in her desire to make sure her daughter does not follow in her footsteps, but this determination, combined with the demands of work, creates a distance between them.
Ayedun-Alase brings real sensitivity to the role, capturing first a youthful naivete, stubbornness and then growing confidence with moments of doubt beneath it.
Andy Seller plays a married dad of twin girls, and trying to be a good, hands-on parent. He feels the pressure to stay calm and collected, but struggles when that composure begins to crack.
Video transcript: Guess How Much I Love You at the Royal Court Theatre is a new play by Luke Norris.
It starts off with a couple having a 20-week scan. The wife is pregnant. And I don’t want to say anything else particularly about the plot, because this was a play that surprised me.
It went to places that I wasn’t expecting it to go. And I think that is part of the brilliance of it.
It has scenes where you think you know what is going on and the direction of travel, and then it sort of drip feeds bits that just change the dynamic and what you think about what is going on.
The performances are absolutely superb. Rosie Sheehy and Robert Aramayo make a very convincing couple.
Video transcript: Woman in Mind at the Duke of York’s Theatre sees Sheridan Smith play a woman who is hit on the head by a rake, and she starts to hallucinate an alternative life.
The alternative life is very different from her real life. In her real life, she has a boring, inattentive husband and a son who doesn’t seem to want much to do with her.
Whereas in her fantasy life, her hallucination, her husband is very attentive, and she has a very good relationship with her daughter.
And Sheridan Smith is quite on edge. Right from the start, you can see that there’s this tension going on, this sort of debate going on between the reality and the fantasy, I suppose, of what life could be, or what she would like it to be.
