Category: New plays
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT It feels a while since I saw a play in which the staging had the wow factor. Did the play of The Lives of Others based on the film have a similar impact? With this cast, Keira Knightley, Luke Thompson, Stephen Dillane, and director Robert Ike, I went in with very high expectations,…
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If scientists could extract memories and replay them through virtual reality headsets for others to experience, whose memories would be worth preserving and who benefits? That’s the premise of Noga Flaishon’s play Memoriam at the Southwark Playhouse. Rachel (Rachel Barry) works at the company that preserves memories and then puts an edited version up for…
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Sometimes theatre can feel like it’s trying to smash you over the head with a sledgehammer when talking about particular issues. And one of the things I particularly liked about Ilford Boy at the Darmar Warehouse is that yes, it does cover really big issues like homophobia and racism, but it does it…
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: There’s a scene towards the end of Some Woman at the National Theatre, where I sat there thinking, “You’re going down this road, are you? You’re really going down this road.” It had been quite an interesting play up until that point, had some interesting ideas, but it just got a little bit…
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Dolly at the Omnibus Theatre is not always an easy watch; it references many incidents from the uncomfortable to the downright terrifying that women endure at the hands of men. The sad fact is that there will likely be something that is familiar to every woman in the audience. We first meet Dolly (Jessica Clark)…
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Theatre ticket prices for West End plays and musicals have gone up and up, but there is more to London’s theatre scene – and cheaper options for getting your stagey fix. I call them off-West End theatres. They aren’t far from the centre of London but deliver quality productions with ticket prices that are more…
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A happy childhood in a play is like having a Chekhov’s gun: you are waiting for it to go off, for something to go wrong and Darkling at the Bush Theatre is no different. I confess I knew nothing of Bhopal, where the play is set, and so my thoughts were going in all different…
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What is in your heart that you would really like to say to your partner but don’t? That’s the premise of Rhiannon Ella Tomes’ play Best Wishes, Kind Regards at the Bread and Roses Theatre. Her (Danielle Horton) and Him (George Wright) are in a relationship that is slowly going south. They don’t argue, there…
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Beige is a powerful play but not an easy one to describe. Joy (Jessica Nlabu) is instructed in how to be and behave. Initially, it feels like an audition or interview conducted by a sharp-suited, stiletto-wearing Shannon Kurlander. But as the play progresses, Kurlander starts to feel more like the personified voice of a general…
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Sick Dog is the second play I’ve seen this summer about a young person with a terminal illness, and while Before I’m Dead focused on a relationship with a therapist, this centres on a relationship with a care robot. Scientist Winnie’s (Cara Crofts) illness is not revealed, but what is clear is that she is…