Category: Hampstead Theatre
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Modern families, money and the morals of genetics are just a few of the narrative tensions in Alexis Zegerman's play The Fever Syndrome at Hampstead Theatre. The Fever Syndrome, Hampstead Theatre April 2022. Photo © Ellie Kurttz The family at the centre of the story is that of Richard Myers (Robert Lindsay), an eminent geneticist…
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Florian Zeller's new play The Forest is like looking at broken mirror pieces, it is you, yet the angle is a little bit different in each piece. It follows Pierre, a successful surgeon who's married and the father of a grown-up daughter, as he juggles his professional and family life with having a mistress. The…
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Peggy Ramsay (Tamsin Greig) is a play agent, but she is more famous than the playwrights and the work that she represents. Written by Alan Plater, a client of the real Peggy, the play is set in her office in the late 1960s and covers a day in her life. Peggy For You, Hampstead Theatre…
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There's a moment right at the end of 'Night, Mother which tugged on my heartstrings and that surprised me. The play is set in rural America, where a mother (Stockard Channing) and daughter Jessie (Rebecca Night), who has epilepsy, live together. It's quickly apparent that Jessie is the household organiser, making sure her mother has…
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In the bedroom set on the Hampstead Theatre stage, three grown-up sisters are arguing or is it bickering? Even that becomes a point of contention. It will be a scene familiar to many with siblings, the shared upbringing that can be a comfort but equally provide all the right triggers to arguments. The Memory of…
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The stage at Hampstead Theatre is part set, backstage equipment and lighting rigs. Zubin Varla's Felice is trying to prep the area for a performance, after which he practices a few lines from a play he's writing, delivering them to a camera on the stage, the image projected onto the back wall. The Two Character…
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I don't want to turn this lockdown theatre walks series into Ben Whishaw stories, but I do have a Ben Whishaw story connected to Hampstead Theatre, but I'll come onto that. Hampstead Theatre Jan 2021 Normally I'd get the tube to Hampstead as the Santander Cycle docks don't stretch that far but having the time,…
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Humour is personal, what one person finds hilarious might fall flat for someone else. And it is really difficult to get right, comic timing is a great skill. Now I love dark comedy, the uncomfortable laugh that makes you think but I'm also partial to the silliness of a good farce. Here are my favourite…
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While there might not be quite as many meaty stage roles for actresses as there are actors (is that changing?) the plethora of acting talent I've seen over the past 10 years made this quite tricky to narrow down. Hence the list of 11 rather than a neat 10 (and presented in no particular order).…
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The 2016 production of Mike Bartlett's play Wild at the Hampstead Theatre is available to watch online and here are my 60-seconds worth of thoughts recorded after watching last night. You can see Wild via Hampstead Theatre's website all this week and if you'd like to read my review from 2016 you can find it…