Reviews

REVIEW: The Motherf**ker With The Hat, Lyttleton Theatre ✭✭✭

Reviews, West End
Motherfucker With The Hat review National Theatre

It’s not that this is a bad play; it’s more that it is not really a play at all. It’s a series of separate scenes, mostly two-handers, which chiefly concern the central character, Jackie. It doesn’t really have any compelling over-arching theme, there is no lyrical, poetic or political beauty to the language, and it does not attempt to shine a light on society or culture in any significant way. It looks and sounds like a short film – not a coherent, magnificent drama worthy of the Lyttleton stage.

REVIEW: Joking Apart, Theatre Royal Windsor ✭✭✭✭

Regional, Reviews
Joking Apart by Alan Ayckbourn at Theatre Royal Windsor

As with so many theatres of a certain age, the bar at the Theatre Royal is proudly lined with photos of bygone productions from the golden age of repertory theatre; and there, sure enough, were the production shots of a 1986 production of this very play, Joking Apart – all duffle coats, cravats and tweed jackets, floral print dresses, and big, frizzy hair-dos, taking you straight back to the 1970s. But the lesson of this fine production is that this is a timeless play that holds up as true a mirror to our foibles now as ever it did before.

REVIEW: The Seagull, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Reviews, West End
The Seagull at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Betts’ adaptation (re-imagining is perhaps more accurate) certainly tries to evoke the same effect Chekhov must have had on his original audiences. There is a robust modernity about the language which makes the situations and characters instantly understandable, relatable and recognisable. This comes at a real cost to the lyricism that Chekhov penned, but, in the end, the clarity of the understanding is worth it. For some, no doubt, the text will be too coarse, too vulgar – but it distils the essence of Chekhov’s intent in a coherent and tangible way.

REVIEW: Bend It Like Beckham, Phoenix Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Reviews, West End
Bend It Like Beckham at London's Phoenix Theatre

Act Two is practically perfect. It starts with a fabulous number for the girls, Glorious, and it never looks back. It’s full of great music from Goodall and the range of styles he covers is significant. He uses Punjabi tunes effectively, there is a terrific solo for Jules’s mother, There She Goes, a melodious duet which is gentle and joyful, Bend It, then a stirring quintet and an overwhelmingly joyous piece which celebrates the wedding of Pinky and Teetu in contrapuntal tandem with the celebration of the football grand final win. By the time the second Act is over, the longeurs of the first have been brushed aside, and the infectious sense of harmony and happiness is irrepressible.

REVIEW: Alpha Beta, Finborough Theatre ✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
Alpha Beta at the Finborough Theatre

It’s exactly as bleak as it sounds; the entire play is one long, petty, extended, circular argument, stretched over nine miserable years. There’s very little respite (apart from a blissful five minutes in Act Three) – the two deliberately wind each other up and go after each other for the whole production.

REVIEW: The Jew Of Malta, Swan Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Regional, Reviews
The Jew Of Malta at the Swan Theatre

This is a play where the inhabitants of a Nunnery are slain by poisoned porridge; where the daughter of a Jew becomes a Christian Nun, twice; where, having purchased a Thracian slave, owner and slave engage in a bout of one-upmanship about the vile deeds they claim to enjoy; where Friars are referred to as “religious caterpillars”; where the Jew inquires if theft is the basis of Christianity; where a Friar casually asks if the Jew has been “crucifying children”; and where no one, really, has any redeeming features. It all but screams farce, even if some of the subject matter is repugnant and, sadly, deadly accurate.

REVIEW: Second Soprano, King’s Head ✭✭✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
Second Soprano at The King's Head Theatre

In this theatre season where commemoration and remembrance of the outbreak of the First World War are much to the fore, many of the most successful dramatic ventures are small-scale. In some ways this fine double-act, written by Martha Shrimpton and Ellie Routledge, and performed by Shrimpton and Olivia Hirst, is the mirror-image of Stony Broke in No Man’s Land, which I reviewed here recently. Both are virtuosic displays of actorly craft, using multiple genres, creating manifold roles, and mixing mood and manner, music and words to create an ineffable and individual blend of humour and pathos. As a result the act of commemoration is made more complex and ultimately, I would say, more moving, than a simple, full-on narrative or historical approach.

REVIEW: I Went To A Fabulous Party, Kings Head ✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
I Went To A Fabulous Party at the King's Head Theatre

The King’s Head has a notable tradition in supporting contemporary drama on gay themes, but sadly as things stand this new 65-minute play by And Davies does not add very many leaves to those laurels. It is not by any means without potential and with a longish run ahead in Edinburgh in August there is scope for development and refinement of both the text and the depth and authenticity of the acting.