Wagner and the Bayreuth Festival. Review by Graham Buchan. Wagner divides opinion. Even amongst opera lovers there are those who cannot abide his works, whilst others elevate him to almost God-like status.
theatre
The Crumple Zone. Review by Barbara Lewis. For anyone nervous their personal relationship might not withstand the stress of the festive period, “The Crumple Zone” offers a manic reassurance that we can survive the impact of an emotional crash, but the pain is excruciating.
Rigoletto. Review by Julia Pascal. Concept is all. And director Jonathan Miller’s decision to set Verdi’s disturbing melodrama in 1950s New York Little Italy is genius.
Pirates of Penzance. Review by Barbara Lewis. Sasha Regan’s all male operetta productions faithfully capture the febrile atmosphere of student interpretations in which adolescent boys, with raging hormones, play all the parts male and female, compounding the absurdity of Gilbert and Sullivan’s plots.
Truth to Power Café. Review by Barbara Lewis. Jeremy Goldstein is celebrating the 20th anniversary of his company London Artists Projects, whose missions include taking his “Truth to Power Café” across the world.
Tattooer. Review by Barbara Lewis. Love them or loathe them, tattoos have global appeal. But Japan’s version of permanently etching ink into the skin is culturally specific.
One Small Step. Review by Barbara Lewis. Japan’s Umeda Arts Theater, based in Osaka, began collaborating with London’s Charing Cross Theatre in 2019. It’s now back after a break for the pandemic and then a joint venture with London’s Menier Chocolate Factory last year.
Why Am I So Single?! Review by Barbara Lewis. From Jane Austen to “Friends,” the pursuit of heterosexual love has been the goal of romantic comedy. Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, the makers of the international musical hit “SIX,” have turned that on its head with a musical comedy that celebrates “love friendship” between a non-binary man and a woman.
Plantation A. Review by Barbara Lewis. In 1957 Alain Robbe-Grillet reinvented the novel with an almost abstract, almost plot-less narrative and a central character named only as A… Now composer Edward Jessen has reinvented opera with “an experimental sonic theatre work” and a lone soprano (A…) singing words whose meaning we can only guess at.
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.
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.
Kyoto. Review by Barbara Lewis. Oil – the fuel of Western capitalism – was the issue in 1997 when the Kyoto Protocol delivered the first set of targets to limit its use. Nearly three decades later, far too little has changed.
By Barbara Lewis • plays, theatre, year 2025 • Tags: Barbara Lewis, plays, theatre