The Comedy of Errors. Review by Barbara Lewis. This is the HandleBards’ uplifting summer tour, which after 935 miles of pedalling, brought the cycling players to a picnicking audience in the grounds of Horace Walpole’s Gothic revival mansion at Strawberry Hill, west London.
plays
![374922_Kyoto production photos_ June 2024_2024_Web use 374922_Kyoto production photos_ June 2024_2024_Web use](https://londongrip.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/374922_Kyoto-production-photos_-June-2024_2024_Web-use-180x135.jpg)
Kyoto. Review by Barbara Lewis. If Shakespeare put the English town of Stratford-upon-Avon on the global map, the Kyoto climate treaty arguably did the same for an ancient Japanese capital.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, plays, theatre • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre
![LEAD IMAGE May B © Herve? Deroo LEAD IMAGE May B © Herve? Deroo](https://londongrip.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/LEAD-IMAGE-May-B-©-Herve-Deroo-180x72.jpg)
May Be at Sadler’s Wells. Review by Julia Pascal. I walk into a Paris bookshop and ask if they can offer me play texts by contemporary French authors. The assistant directs me to a shelf of plays by Samuel Beckett. To the French, Samuel Beckett is one of theirs. He wrote in French. He lived most of his life in France. But was he Irish? Anglo-Irish? French?
By Julia Pascal • dance, plays, playwrights, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: dance, Julia Pascal, plays, playwrights, theatre
![Tightrope Tightrope](https://londongrip.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Tightrope-180x98.jpg)
Cutting the Tightrope. Review by Barbara Lewis. The arts have always had a role in saying the unsayable, making it all but inevitable that Arts Council England’s effort to clarify advice issued early this year on the risk of making political statements would only add to the controversy.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre
![Blackeyed_Theatre_Valley_of_Fear_(Credit Simon Vail)102 Digital Res Blackeyed_Theatre_Valley_of_Fear_(Credit Simon Vail)102 Digital Res](https://londongrip.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Blackeyed_Theatre_Valley_of_Fear_Credit-Simon-Vail102-Digital-Res-1024x682-180x119.jpg)
Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear. Review by Barbara Lewis. A cast of five tackles all the complexity of Conan Doyle’s fourth and final Sherlock Holmes novel that is as clever, contrived and satisfying as a cryptic crossword.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre
![BLUE_Credit-David Adly Garcia BLUE_Credit-David Adly Garcia](https://londongrip.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/BLUE_Credit-David-Adly-Garcia-180x277.jpg)
Blue. Review by Barbara Lewis. George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, which triggered waves of Black Lives Matter protests, together with the U.S. Capitol attacks of January 2021, when off-duty police officers were found to be among the rioters, inspired June Carryl to write Blue.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre
![Stink Stink](https://londongrip.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Stink-768x1024-180x240.jpeg)
The Pilgrim Play. Review by Barbara Lewis. An antidote to the glitz that can disguise the mediocre, it’s a welcome return to the roots of theatre and to a focus on consummate acting skill.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre
![Transgression 1 Transgression 1](https://londongrip.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Transgression-1-180x124.jpg)
Transgression, Life in the Aftermath of the Eocene. Review by Barbara Lewis. The Eocene lasted from about 55.8 million to 33.9 million years ago, which has left a lot to happen in the aftermath. By the 1990s of “Transgression”, humanity is being perpetuated by fleeting moments of sexual attraction that give way to years of cruelty.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre
Mr. Jones. Review by Barbara Lewis. Nearly 60 years on, the tragedy of Aberfan haunts us, not least because it could have been avoided. There is no consolation unless you turn to art. Then the dramatic tension between what was and what might have been becomes theatrical gold in the hands of Liam Holmes.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2024 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre
The Box of Delights, Review by Barbara Lewis. By turns, a happy child, a devastated orphan, a traumatised sailor, a beggar, a factory hand and ultimately the writer he had always wanted to be, John Masefield proved that dreams can come true – and when they do, they are all the more magical for the pain suffered on the way.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2023 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre
The Trumpeter. Review by Barbara Lewis. Mariupol, where Ukraine for nearly three months in 2022 resisted Russia’s determination to create a land bridge between Crimea and Donbas, became a byword for horror.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, plays, theatre • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre