Rev Stan's Theatre Blog
London theatre reviews and interviews
Category: Soho theatre
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The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs is one of those plays that unashamedly bursts off the stage, much like the lesbian choir around which the story revolves. The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs, Soho Theatre, May 2022. Photo: Helen Murray Fed up with being invisible, Connie (Shuna Show) puts the choir forward for an audition to perform…
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Myah (Amanda Wilkin) is adrift. She goes from one dead-end job to another, trying to fit in until one day she gets called on to be the 'diversity quota' in her company's photos. Amanda Wilkin in Shedding A Skin, Soho Theatre. Photo: Helen Murray She snaps, the restraints are off, and this departure is both…
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Headed into town for my weekend lockdown exercise and visited the Soho Theatre – we go back a long way, to pre-blog days and pre-fame days for two notable names. Soho Theatre in January 2021 It was at the Soho Theatre I first saw Ben Whishaw on stage. He'd just come to my notice in…
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Fleabag the play is back. It started off life at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013, won awards then transferred to the Soho Theatre. The ridiculously successful TV series, which I loved, followed and Phoebe Waller-Bridge subsequently revived the play for a sell-out run in the West End last year. To raise money for covid-19 charities…
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Harriet Madeley's The Colours is a verbatim play based on interviews with people with life-limiting illnesses and those working in palliative care. Morfydd Clark and Mark Knightley in The Colours: Photo: Hannah Anketell While researching the play, Madeley herself was diagnosed with a potentially life-limiting illness but rather than fraught emotional meaning-of-life drama this a…
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2018 was my first year at the Edinburgh Fringe which produced a bumper crop of excellent plays (look out for transfer details) but London has delivered some gems too. Out of the 50-odd fringe plays there are 10 that really stand out but what strikes me most when revisiting them is how many evoked such…
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Edward's writing has the wit and bluntness of the Manchester vernacular but is inflected with a sugar-free poetry. The Political History of Smack and Crack. Photo: The Other Richard It's Manchester in the 1980s. Neil (Neil Bell) and Mandy (Eve Steele) are kids, too young to be out at night when they get caught up…
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Fresh from Edinburgh Fringe: The Political History of Smack and Crack draws on writer Ed Edwards' own experience of narcotics dependency to examine how the politics of the 80s trapped people in poverty and addiction. Ed Edwards Here the former circus performer talks about the importance of entertainment in theatre ahead of the play's London…
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Its rich lyricism is matched by an angry energy but also a sense of love, loyalty and camaraderie. Elliot Warren and Olivia Brady in Flesh and Bone. Photo: Owen Baker Flesh and Bone is an everyday tale of 'oi oi savaloy' East End working classes but told with a revealing Shakespearean lyricism. It opens with…
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* I'm excited and nervous about the forthcoming stage adaptation of Patrick Ness’s novel A Monster Calls (the book is a favourite) but I couldn’t think of a better actor than Matthew Tennyson to take on the lead Conor. The production will have a run at the Bristol Old Vic from May 31 and the…