Cargo is a powerful piece of drama. Taking over studio 2 in the Arcola theatre, it transforms the space into a shipping container. The audience are seated in the round on (uncomfortable) shrink-wrapped palettes. The lighting is dim and the sounds are those of huge cargo ships as […]
It’s not often you get a chance to see a little-known 17th century French comedy put on in London, let alone one performed in French and English on alternate nights – so when the chance to watch The Doctor in Spite of Himself came up, I was understandably […]
Draw on your memories of the very worst nights out as a late teen/early twenty-something. Exactly. You’d rather not remember. Screwed gives centre stage- or centre space on the sticky dance floor- to Charlene and Luce, two friends who have dedicated the majority of their lives to drinking, […]
Far removed from the school hours spent uncomprehendingly tripping through Hamlet’s soliloquy a line at a time, Howard Barker’s Gertrude – The Cry is abundant in sexual manipulation, self-destructive obsession and finally a female perspective on what is arguable Shakespeare’s most famous play. Perhaps Mr Eaton would have […]
A quarter mile long and packed with a myriad of human stories, the tale of the Titanic is epic in proportions, and yet Thom Southerland and Danielle Tarento’s production retells the tragedy with heart felt simplicity. After its hugely successful run at Southwark Playhouse in 2013, the musical […]
‘Middle-aged man in crisis deals with his issues in an anonymous hotel room’ is becoming an overcrowded genre. The film Lost in Translation (whose movie poster this production deliberately echoes, though with what purpose is unclear), and much more recently the brilliant Anomalisa were of this sort, and […]
‘This is Living’ takes place on a small stage soaked in water. A sodden platform that confines the two central characters in a purgatory-like space for the play’s two-hour duration. As the action unfolds we see that this minimalist setting works perfectly with the narrative themes; drifting through memories […]
With immersive theatre growing in popularity, it comes as no surprise that companies such as CoLab, are trying to get audience members more involved. CROOKS tackles this with a focus on audience participation – putting groups of ten people at the centre of its narrative action, actively providing […]
For a man perhaps not in the first trembling blush of youth, trucking down Upper Street singing ‘Glitter Boots set me free’ and ‘Let me be a Space Vixen’ was not my moment of greatest gravitas, it’s true, but this is a show where you check your dignity […]
I have never been to a production of Shakespeare where the wonderful words of the great Bard himself are so entirely irrelevant as in Shit-Faced Shakespeare. Lights go down, plastic wine caps are unscrewed (classy theatre goers that we are) and we eagerly await a play which has […]