Rev Stan's Theatre Blog
London theatre reviews and interviews
Category: New writing
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Part of Riverside Studios Bitesize Festival, Fuckboy is a play about gender dysphoria that packs a lot into its 50 minutes. Written and performed by Freddie Haberfellner, it explores how it feels to navigate a disconnect between one's sense of self and assigned gender through four interweaving timelines in the life of Frankie. There's a…
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Word-Play, Royal Court Theatre July 2023 l-r Yusra Warsama, Issam Al Ghussain, Kosar Ali, Simon Manyonda, Sirine Saba. Photo Johan Persson Rabiah Hussain's play Word-Play starts with a PR team in crisis mode, having just heard the Prime Minister use a particular word (we don't know what that word is) in a live interview. The…
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Grace Saif with Tom Mothersdale in Sea Creatures, Hampstead Theatre, April 2023, Photo: Marc Brenner Cordelia Lynn's play is set in an old fisherman's cottage, which has been extended over the years and now includes a glass-fronted kitchen area from where you can take in the view of the sea. The cottage and its contemporary…
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Mark St Germain's play Freud's Last Session at the King's Head Theatre in Islington is a compact yet powerful play which imagines a clash of intellect and reasoning between two famous minds. Consulting couch on the set of Freud's Last Session, King's Head Theatre July 2022. Designer: Brad Caleb Lee It's England on the day…
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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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There is a vulnerability in the ordinariness and something epic in its simplicity. Rhys Ifans and Rakie Ayola in On Bear Ridge by the NTW and Royal Court Theatre. Photo by Mark Douet Warplanes occasionally roar across the sky above John Daniel (Rhys Ifans) and Noni's (Rakie Ayola) grocery store and butchers on Bear Ridge.…
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Repeated phrases become vacuous in their repetition suggesting that the political narrative has similarly become empty. Fuel Theatre's Summit in rehearsal Ten minutes into Summit and I'm irritated. It's not the woman loudly crunching on her supper next to me although that is annoying, rather the fact that on stage the same point is being…
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Despite the continual presence of others, the feelings of isolation and vulnerability remain. Breathe is a play about teen suicide told through the eyes of teenagers. Breathe at The Bunker – courtesy of DF Photography In fact, it's produced by youth theatre company Athenaeum which gives it an interesting and insightful lens through which to…
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While there are some excellent individual scenes as a whole Reared just doesn't quite gel. I found myself wanting it to delve further. There is a moment in Reared which reminded me of Jez Butterworth's The Ferryman when Aunt Maggie Far Away is having one of her lucid moments and telling the children stories. Paddy…
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Considering this is a scratch performance it is only the scripts in hands that really give it away as a work in progress. The costumes, props and set seem pretty fleshed out, only the physical necessity of holding the script slightly holding up the flow. It is a colourful, vibrant piece with darker edges utilising…