The Wife of Willesden. Adapted by Zadie Smith from Chaucerâs âThe Wife of Bathâ. Kiln Theatre, London. Until 18 December 2021. Review by Carla Scarano.
Zadie Smithâs brilliant adaptation of âThe Wife of Bathâ from Geoffrey Chaucerâs The Canterbury Tales triggers a rethinking of womenâs roles in society.
plays
Leopoldstadt Wyndham’s Theatre until October 30th 2021 Tom Stoppardâs Leopoldstadt would have been better as a TV mini-series rather than this sprawling, over-populated two and a quarter hour play without an intermission. It is a long watch and although eminently worthwhile, feels too much like a history lesson.
Mustard is the only English thing in the rural Irish home of the young protagonist, named as E, of writer-performer Eva OâConnorâs one-woman show. Review by Barbara Lewis.
The Reichstag is Burning …matches songs, ranging from the 1920s to the near contemporary, with the crucial stages of Hitlerâs ascent to dictatorial power, not least the burning of the Reichstag. Black Box Live at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Hartstone-Kitney Productions.
Covid Lockdown Breath Machine, Online. The Edinburgh Fringe has always been the place to push at the limits of what theatre is. This year, that is truer than ever as the uncertainties of COVID-19 have driven a digital shift.
Oleanna, by David Mamet. Arts Theatre. Review by Graham Buchan. David Mamet has had a substantial forty-year plus career writing plays and films which drill into the deeper recesses of the American psyche with unrelenting precision.Â
An âabsurdly normalâ love story and it admits the appalling truth that all love stories, not just the high romance of Romeo and Juliet, are essentially tragic: they end in loss and when Alzheimerâs strikes, the cruelty is exaggerated because a once charismatic personality disintegrates.
At the start of 2020, Southwark Playhouse commissioned a group of playwrights to write short plays. The aim was for them to be performed on stage by the Elders Company, the playhouseâs drama group for anyone aged 65 and over, but then lockdown came along.
If you can embrace it, lockdownâs shift from the real to the virtual is a liberation that makes anything possible.
![Susannah De Wrixon and Kwaku Fortune crop[4837]](https://londongrip.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Susannah-De-Wrixon-and-Kwaku-Fortune-crop4837-180x180.jpg)
Before lockdown, Bewleyâs CafĂ© Theatre in the bustling heart of Dublin was the place to grab a short lunch-time play, a bowl of soup – and maybe even chat up a stranger. For now, those days are gone, but Bewleyâs has joined forces with online events company The Lock Inn to open the tiny venue to a potentially limitless audience.
The Dirty 30 II: Electric pay-per-view. Review by Barbara Lewis. Instead of loud applause and cheers, âyou were spectacularly fabulous,â pops up on the side of the screen from an online viewer, as the imaginary curtain goes down on the Degenerate Fox theatreâs online adaptation to the times weâre in.
by Barbara Lewis • comedy, plays, theatre, year 2022 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, comedy, plays, theatre •
As You Like It. Review by Barbara Lewis. Shakespeare famously was for all time, and yet this version of As You Like It feels uniquely relevant to our age.