Shakespeare – and not just any Shakespeare, but King John – with a food fight. Yeah, this is not your everyday performance …
Category Archives: Theatre
The Whip
I guess you can understand the 2018 British government hopelessly casting around for some good news somewhere, but even by those standards, one particular (now-deleted) tweet seems desperate in the extreme.
Did you know? In 1833, Britain used £20 million, 40% of its national budget, to buy freedom for all slaves in the Empire. The amount of money borrowed for the Slavery Abolition Act was so large that it wasn’t paid off until 2015. Which means that living British citizens helped pay to end the slave trade
The Sunset Limited
This will be a short review, because it’s difficult to say much at all about it without either giving away too much or reducing an incredibly powerful conversation to a mere description.
It’s also impossible to write anything at all about The Sunset Limited without one spoiler. It’s not much of one, because it becomes clear within the opening lines, and is quickly confirmed, but if you don’t want even that much, stop here and just go see it …
Starry Messenger
Matthew Broderick apparently played this part when it was on Broadway back in 2009 and seemingly loved it so much he came to London to play it here. And I can see why.
This is a lovely, deep portrait of an unassuming man in mid-life crisis. It’s such an utterly believable character, and played so beautifully, it feels incredibly intimate even in such a large theatre …
Actually
Light entertainment it is not! The play centres on whether or not what happened between two college students was rape. First the woman, then the college, and finally the man have to each reach their conclusions …
The Lehman Trilogy
When I first got the email for this, it looked interesting but three hours seemed too long, so I hadn’t planned to book. But a friend, Miriam, talked me into it, and I’m so glad she did …
The Man in the White Suit
This is, as you’d expect, just a gloriously silly bit of fun. It’s been adapted for the stage, and given a few modern references here and there, but mostly left unchanged.
It actually starts rather slowly, and I thought could have used quite a bit of tightening in the first act. But hang in there – it really accelerates in pace …
Two Ladies
Yes, I know. I have made very little progress in transferring the travel section of my website, and I’ve also been rubbish at keeping the theatre reviews up to date, so let’s begin filling in the blanks with Two Ladies …
The Greatest Play in the History of the World
The Trafalgar Studio 2 is an intimate theatre at any time. It seats 100, and is usually not full (though it was tonight). In one of the front-row bench seats, you have your feet on the non-raised stage. The sense of intimacy was heightened by Julie Hesmondhalgh greeting us with a mug of tea in her hand, and chatting with us before the performance like we’d come round to her place for tea …
Continue reading The Greatest Play in the History of the World
Ben Lovejoy 