REVIEW: Blackout, Drayton Arms Theatre ✭✭

Blackout at the Drayton Arms

Blackout Drayton Arms Theatre 13th October 2 Stars Young playwright Tim Cook has picked up a strong reputation within Fringe theatres, with his play Crushed picking up the award for Best New Play at this year’s Brighton Fringe. One of his earlier efforts, Blackout, is current playing at the Drayton Arms, an intriguing ‘post-apocalyptic psychological thriller’ set during a blackout in Swindon. Cynical Mark (Tim Cook) has a new next door neighbor; the hyperactive and over-imaginative Tracy (Amani Zardoe). Afflicted with this new-found darkness, they keep each other company but are alarmed to discover that they are still in darkness when the sun does not rise the next morning. It is an interesting premise and the play is peppered with some dramatic moments and sharp lines of dialogue. The main barrier seems to be that neither of the characters are particularly likeable. Mark is so misanthropic that you can’t feel … Read more

REVIEW: Volpone, Brockley Jack ✭✭✭

Volpone at the Brockley Jack Theatre

Everyone involved in this production acted with commitment and a good sense of pace and projection within this intimate space, but the success of the whole remains fundamentally dependent on mastery of a refractory text that like Volpone’s gold, flatters to deceive, unless the actor is very careful.

REVIEW: Amazing Grace, Nederlander Theatre ✭✭

Amazing Grace at the Nederlander Theatre

While the tunes and harmonies for the new material might not be memorable, the orchestrations and playing is first rate. Kenny Seymour and Joseph Church, together with the 13 piece orchestra led by Aaron Jodoin, make great, evocative and stirring sounds. And when the title tune finally comes, the fusion of its simple majesty, the brilliant harmonisations of the cast and the clever arrangements, see the whole musical end on an intensely satisfying note.

REVIEW: Old Times, American Airlines Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Old Times at the American Airlines Theatre

Where Hodge does elect for difference is in the manner of playing. No low-key, slow boil quiet broiling here. No, the parts are played with vigour, brasher than you would expect to see on an English stage or one that thought Pinter was wrapped in mothballs. The result is the sexy edge is more angular, the stakes are higher, the comedy quite a bit funnier. All deliberately so. It reaps rewards often, but perhaps best of all in the sequence where the theft of underwear is discussed, or the body in the bed is remembered or the show tunes are so badly serviced. This is brave on Hodge’s part looked at one way; looked at another, it is simply just doing it.