Janie Dee

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: Ah, Wilderness!, Young Vic Theatre ✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
Ah, Wiulderness by Eugene O'Neill at the Young Vic Theatre London

The combination of sand, water, and romantic moon makes for a touching image towards the end of the play. It is beautifully lit by the talents of Charles Balfour and, for that one moment, it seems as though the shifting, gritty presence of the comatose sand has been worthwhile. Dominic Rowan’s rascally Sid is full blooded and he makes the most of what the part offers. George Mackay is impressive as Richard, vibrant, compelling and suitably obsessive.

REVIEW: Ah Wilderness!, Young Vic, ✭✭✭✭

Off West End, Reviews
George MacKay and Dominic Rowan in Ah Wilderness at the Young Vic Theatre in London

Ah, Wilderness! Young Vic 4 stars In his 1932 play Ah, Wilderness, Eugene O’Neill returns to familiar themes such as family life, alcoholism and thwarted idealism but it stands out among his work for having a lightness of touch and event moments of comedy. Set in Connecticut on July 4 in 1906, it is a nostalgic family drama that is said to be O’Neill’s reinvention of his own less than happy childhood brought up by a distant, drug-addicted mother. In Ah, Wilderness!, the central character of 17-year-old Richard Miller is roughly the same age that young Eugene would have been in 1906. But, instead of a dysfunctional family, there is a sweet, loving mother and a father who is stern but a big softy underneath, both proud of their poetry-loving son. The play’s charm is beautifully captured in a new, trimmed-down production directed by Natalie Abrahami at the Young Vic. … Read more

REVIEW: A Little Night Music Concert, Palace Theatre ✭✭✭✭

Events, Reviews
A Little Night Music 40th Anniversary Concert at the Palace Theatre, London

Wheeler’s dialogue sparkled and fizzed, even in the mouths of those who were oddly or badly miscast. The sense of the quality of the literary glories of the book was most clear in the case of Joanna Riding’s faultless Countess. Every line was a winner. In the hands of Anna O’Byrne, Anne Ergerman was a complete triumph, the glittering centrepiece of Act One.