Published in Love a Good Play

·Pinned

Jerusalem

Apollo Theatre. May 15, 2022. I waited 13 years to see this play. I was not disappointed. It’s breathtaking in its audacity and nerve. Johnny “Rooster” Byron is the archetypal English anti-hero. Gypsy. Drug Dealer. Pied Piper. He lives off-grid in squalor and liquor, pays no taxes, heeds no authority. He’s revered by teens and…

Jez Butterworth

2 min read

Published in Love a Good Play

·Apr 7

The 47th

April 6th, 2022. The Old Vic. Genius. It’s flipping genius. Mike Bartlett has once again taken real life and imagined what’s next. His Charles III was magnificent and this is too. Bartlett is like a modern-revisionist Shakespeare. And I am here for it. Told in blank verse, this is the…

USA

2 min read

Published in Love a Good Play

·Apr 5

Henry V

April 4, 2022. Donmar Warehouse First let me say Harington plays a blinder as Harry. And he’s more unlikeable and less heroic than I have seen him played before (Jude Law, Matthew McFadyn). Harry’s convoluted claim on France is now set against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine…

Kit Harington

2 min read

Published in Love a Good Play

·Mar 18

Straight Line Crazy

March 17, 2022. The Bridge Theatre. — Back at the Bridge for new work from David Hare. The man is prolific. And teaming Fiennes, Hare and Hytner again is a guarentee to pack out the newly full capacity Bridge. Fiennes is magnificent. He never fails to deliver. …

David Hare

2 min read

Published in Love a Good Play

·Mar 8

Cock

Ambassadors Theatre, March 7, 2022 — Mike Bartlett’s 2009 play is back with a super starry cast. Taron Egerton is back on stage. I saw his first play after RADA, Last of the Haussmann at the NT with Julie Walters, Helen McRory and Rory Kinear. It was wonderful. Here he shares the stage with Jonathon Bailey…

Taron Egerton

2 min read

Published in Love a Good Play

·Feb 26

The Collaboration

The Young Vic. February 26, 2022 — Order vs chaos Light vs dark Old guard vs new Establishment vs freedom Both with fears. Both incredible artists. Both coming to art from different ideologies. This is all about the two performances that are stunning. Bettany is excellent as Warhol; all self-conscious ticks and discomfort. He shines in the…

Theatre

2 min read

Feb 24

Wuthering Heights

National Theatre. February 23, 2022 Emma Rice’s Wuthering Heights was always going to be unlike anything else. She reinvents, that’s her gig. This is possibly one of the best things that the NT has done under Rufus Norris. It defines original. Part rock opera, part musical, part puppetry, part ballet…

Theatre

2 min read

Published in Love a Good Play

·Jan 31

A Number

The Old Vic. January 31, 2022. Lennie James and Paapa Essiedu. Lynsey Turner directing. Es Devlin designing. Caryl Churchill’s play. This ooozes class. The premise is simple. One father with a chequered past. A number of sons who have all been created from the same son. Replicas. Clones. Brothers? Nature…

Theatre

2 min read

Published in Love a Good Play

·Jan 20

Cabaret

The Kit Kat Club (Playhouse Theatre), January 19, 2022 2022 may have just peaked. This whole experience is wonderfully crafted, from the moment you descend the stairs to the Club, the immersive prologue en route through backstage and to the bar. This is a true theatre experience. I have never…

Cabaret

2 min read

Published in Love a Good Play

·Dec 28, 2021

Theatre Review of 2021

Another Interrupted Year — Number of Plays seen:14 Best New Play: Best of Enemies by James Graham Best Revival: The Dumb Waiter at the Old Vic Best Director: Jeremy Herrin — he’s EVERYWHERE that’s good. Best Actress: Siobhan McSweeney in Happy Days. Magnificent. Best Actor: Ben Miles in The Mirror and the Light. A career-defining moment. Best Half Time set up: Bridge Theatre always wins. The Play That Got Away: Force Majeure. Cancelled due to Covid in the cast. A sign of the times.

1 min read