Simon Ward reviews Combustion at the Arcola Theatre If presented with the premise of a four-hander play set in a Bradford garage, one might demur. Adding in an English Defence League thug would scarcely make it seem more palatable. Yet Combustion explodes such expectations. It is a triumph: […]
Simon Ward reviews The Plague at The Arcola Theatre Albert Camus’s 1947 novel ‘La Peste’ uses the symbol of the plague to discuss France’s wartime occupation and her colonial relationships in Algeria and elsewhere. A nation may be infected for a time, then recover; but, as we learn, the […]
Charlotte Pegram reviews Thebes Land at the Arcola Theatre The stage is filled with a large cage that functions as a prison and a basketball court. As the audience files in the prisoner inside the cage sits with his head in his hands; he does not seem comfortable […]
Simon Ward reviews Drones, Baby, Drones at the Arcola Theatre This is a polemical piece, and none the worse for that. The title is taken from a speech by a former US Defense Secretary, and if it makes you feel queasy about a certain insouciance around the use of […]
Kenny Morgan is based on playwright Terence Rattigan’s real life love affair with the titular actor – a tale of torment that Mike Poulton tells now in imagined fact rather than Rattigan’s fiction, resulting in a script dusted with ironic discussion of the arts and performance. For someone unfamiliar […]
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 […]
With the distinctively unique smell of dry ice clogging my nostrils I shuffled down the isle of seats in the gloomy half-light of the Arcola theatre. Musing away the minutes before the show started, I dwelt on previous theatre experiences; dry ice always puts me in mind of […]
An evening’s entertainment comprised of five short plays by different writers is always going to somewhat resemble a packet of Revels – some you like, some less so and some you’re like: which vicious bastard disguised toffee for coffee and, more importantly, whose paying for my new dentures? […]
This year marks the 10 year anniversary of The Miniaturists. Since 2005, The Miniaturists has been bringing together the best in new short-form plays by established and emerging playwrights, helping to popularise the short play evening format with theatre audiences. Over the past decade, writers including David Eldridge, […]
It’s a strange concept: a play based on a movie script, and an awful script at that. Mark Ravenhill’s 2005 comedy Product, is essentially a pitch for the screenplay Mohammed and Me, a 9/11-inspired drama fuelled by Islamic paranoia and built on a foundation of appalling writing and […]
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