With a twisting plot and strong characters, Chinglish leaves you laughing but aware of an inevitable chasm of difference between the two cultures that means something will always be lost in translation.
The White Feather is everything musical theatre should be – it will make you think deeply about bravery, war and the nature of humanity all the way home. If there is any justice this exciting production will be given a longer run or a second home so it gets the wider viewing it deserves.
Viewed one way, Hoffman’s play is not a play about AIDS and its repercussions; it is a play about ignorance, discrimination and fear. Viewed that way, it is still a play of enormous power and relevance. Indeed, viewed as an AIDS play it is still an important piece – the research today suggests that levels of misapprehension and misunderstanding about AIDS are almost as high now as they were in the 80’s.
Thirty years on from its first season in New York, where critics hailed it for its powerful message, As Is uses humour and sensitivity the apathy and ignorance that surrounded AIDS in the 1980’s, an apathy that continues as more people than ever are contracting HIV in the present day. The play by William H Hoffman won the Obie and Drama Desk Awards and was nominated as one of Time Magazine’s Best Plays Of The Year. The cast of As Is featured Steven Webb (House of Boys, The Inbetweeners) and David Polynor (The Tempest, Peter Pan) who last performed together in The History Boys at the National Theatre in 2006/7. They are joined by Dino Fetscher (Banana and Cucumber on C4/E4), Jane Lowe (Bad Girls, Spooks), Giles Cooper (Pride), Natalie Burt (Blandings), Russell Morton (Molly Wobbly’s Tit Factory, Piaf) and Bevan Celestine ( I Wish To Die Singing, Empires). As … Read more
The best aspect of this production is the musicianship on display from the gifted Dean Austin and the four members of his band who, with piano, accordion, guitar, bass and percussion, create the gorgeous soundscape for Brel’s work. Austin sings as well, and each time he does a sense of truth and a stylish understanding of the fabric of the music accentuates whatever is occurring, makes it better, more delicious.
This is a terrifically mature presentation of a difficult, but eminently attractive, and entertaining, piece of musical theatre. It is Keates’ best work to date and in Erivo he has a star of true power who delivers the goods in every way.
