Author: chelseajina

REVIEW: Manhunt

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Robert Icke’s Manhunt offers a nuanced take on the U.K.’s endemic battle with toxic masculinity

In 2010 the U.K. experienced the biggest manhunt the country has ever seen. After Raoul Moat was released from prison on the 1st of July 2010, the days that followed wrought murder, aggression and the frenzied flight of a man the world would undoubtedly forever perceive as a monster. Manhunt retells the events of the days surrounding this tumultuous event, offering an incredibly complex portrait of a man besieged by the horrors the patriarchy subjects all to. 

At the play’s commencement, we are confronted with the image of Raoul himself. Performed with astounding shading by Samuel Edward-Cook, his physical image is immediately highlighted by the crimes he is accused of. Who he appears to be and who he actually is seem to be in conflict, and questions of perception versus truth rear their heads. Is Raoul who we think he is? Is he, in fact, who believes himself to be?

A cacophony of his fictionalised trial, childhood, his own children and the supposed love of his life, Sam, we are submerged into the chaos of Raoul’s mind. What is real and what is imagined blend, rendering objectivity hard to reach, echoing the apparent state of Raoul’s mind itself. As the story evolves, the various factors at play come to light. Raoul’s actions in 2010 soon don’t seem to be simply the behavior of some insane monster, but rather the result of a myriad of factors that stoke toxic masculinity at large. While Raoul is most certainly not presented as innocent, his behavior is drawn out as a result of the conditions of patriarchy that we live in. It feels almost revelatory, to experience this while watching these events unfold primarily through Raoul’s point of view. 

The cast, made up of Samuel Edward-Cook, Trevor Fox, Leo James, Patricia Jones, Danny Kirrane, Angela Lonsdale, Sally Messham, and Nicolas Tennant, give excellent performances and excelled as an ensemble. Edward-Cook’s marathon of a performance seems to be both an emotional and physical feat. 

Manhunt provides unique insight into the insipid mentality of toxic masculinity, and the very harsh threat it poses, while maintaining an investigative mindset that reveals the inherent need not to socially shut out those who cause harm, but work towards creating conditions that prevent said harm from occurring in the first place. An unexpected production to say the least, Manhunt will leave you breathless, mulling over its contents for days to come.

REVIEW: Outsider

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

A feat to witness, Outsider displays incredible athleticism and enrapturing choreography 

Various slacklines cut across the stage, tightropes that give the production a new sense of height. They stay there, unused but looming, as twenty dancers from Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève perform below. Their presence creates an atmosphere of tense apprehension, further entrenched by composer Julius Eastman’s music; four pianos that seem to rally each other, their anxious desire for something both tantalizing and breathtaking. Outsider was performed as part of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels Festival at Sadlers Wells.

Choreographer Rachid Ouramdane makes incredible use of simple, repeated movements to create a maze of bodies. The dancers weave in between each other with awe-inspiring ease and speed. Reminiscent of bees, perfectly in tune with one another, the dancers flip between partners, run simultaneously through what seem to be invisible lanes, and move with such intricate timing that they appear as one single organism. No dancer can exist in this world alone — they are all a product of their shared work. Truly, only at infrequent, short intervals do any dancers occupy the stage in isolation, and when they do, they appear to be in peril. They are stuck, spinning, yearning, until they are joined by another, wherein they reconnect and commence their journey once more. Partner work is imperishable in this world. Dancers consistently find one another and move together like honey. Their partnerships seem so natural, so smooth, that they appear almost liquid. Partners are interchangeable but ultimately invaluable and exceed pairs. They consistently form groups, performing incredible feats that push dancers to reach the higher echelons of the stage, reaching for what is above. 

Ouramdane’s choreography embodies athleticism beyond its usual inferences in dance. Linking ballet to the high performance athletes that occupy the stage’s sky, the choreographic language feels athletic to its core. Dancers truly run across the stage, they hoist other dancers to shockingly unexpected heights, displaying the incredible strength and speed that the public typically does not associate with dance. When the athletes ascended to their tightropes, the audience seemed to hold their breath. The dance that is their balance ties the piece together and illuminates the dancers’ desire to reach said heights. Their yearning for what occurs above becomes clear and gives new meaning to the production. The athletes on their tightropes are folded further into the story as they begin to interact with the dancers below, seemingly providing them a perhaps false hope that they too can ascend to the sky like they have. 

The enjoyment of Outsider exists beyond watching incredible athletes and dancers perform beautiful choreography. Its message has the potential to mean many different things to many different people, depending on what space you occupy within your own world and community. What are they reaching for? What exists up there? What keeps the masses from achieving their own ascent?

REVIEW: What If They Ate The Baby

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

a delightfully tense, absurdist investigation of the facade of the ‘perfect’ housewife and American mid-50s suburbia 

New York City-based Theatrical duo Xhloe and Natasha have arrived at Soho Theatre with a double bill of shows: What If They Ate The Baby and A Letter To Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First, performing on alternating nights. What If They Ate The Baby is an experimental thrill that considers the falsehood of the perfect image of the doting housewife of 1950s-esque suburbia. 

Xhloe and Natasha take on the roles of two women: Dotty and Shirley. Over the course of an hour, the piece cycles with repeated dialogue that evolves over time, punctuated by dance breaks that hint at an intriguing interior life. Dotty and Shirley’s lives are not,  by any measure, what they seem. Between spaghetti  casseroles and obsessive cleaning, questions about sex and dead bodies under the floorboards emerge, throwing the audience into exciting and gritty territory. 

A set reminiscent of a 1950s cookie-cutter kitchen, with black and white linoleum tile floors, the table and window an eerie combination of colours that feel, in an undefinable way, slightly ‘off.’ The atmosphere is off-kilter and intentionally obscure, setting the audience up for brewing questions from the get-go. 

Xhloe and Natasha give excellent performances, embodying their characters repressed desires and fear of being watched with carefully orchestrated revelations. Dotty, dressed entirely in pink, and Shirley, dressed entirely in yellow, move with choreographed specificity, their body language a means of communication in and of itself. Their makeup, exaggerated rosy cheeks and lips, seems to melt away as the piece progresses in time with the devolution of their story and image. Never missing a beat, Xhloe and Natasha genuinely amaze with their synchronicity and punchy performances, the architecture of the complex web of desires and fears that drive the piece slowly coming to the fore. 

Xhloe and Natasha have achieved a great feat as writers of this piece. Using a topic that has seen many iterations in entertainment, they manage to cultivate a unique experience of the lives of these women. The continued relevance of the suppression of women’s voices and experience has regenerated interest in the setting of What If They Ate The Baby. Any Theatre-goer interested in a unique perspective and distinct execution of the hidden lives of suburbia would be hard pressed to find a more interesting production to attend. 

REVIEW: Hagay Dreaming

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

A living fantasy of light, dance, music and chant, Hagay Dreaming takes audiences into an enchanting new realm of performance.

The product of a collaboration between Taiwanese-American artist Shu Lea Cheang and Truku artist Dondon Hounwn, Hagay Dreaming tells a visual story drawn from that of the indigenous Truku tribe of Taiwan. The performance combines Shu Lea Cheang’s futuristic mixed-media art style and Dondon Hounwn’s ancestral tribal music and rituals to create a wholly unprecedented experience. Hagay Dreaming tells the story of a hunter who whilst hunting in the mountains gets caught up in a sudden downpour of rain. Seeking shelter in a hollowed-out tree, the hunter falls asleep. When he awakes he meets a group of people who he perceives as women, but finds exist outside of gender norms. This group identifies themselves as Hagay, nonbinary beings that pass on ancestral wisdom to the hunter. They teach the hunter inherited traditional knowledge, leading the hunter to, following his return home, spread the wisdom. Gender is moved outside of the binary Western conception and allowed to live in a multifaceted space of the Gaya living principles of the Truku people.  

The impact of Shu Lea Cheang’s and Dondon Hounwn’s collaboration in Hagay Dreaming reaches far beyond its impressive concept. The ‘techno-fantasia guided theatre of revival’ embraces Tate’s cavernous, concrete space that well and truly transports audiences to what feels like another land. The performance is both riveting and meditative, creating an atmosphere both enchanting and excitable. The music of the piece, produced by Sayun Chang and sung by Shan Shan Chen, combines chant and other traditional singing styles and electronic music with such deftness that one’s ears are consistently surprised and enthralled by what they are hearing. For a moment you may feel tempted to hit the club, the next you are in a transitive state, lulled by haunting vocals. Visually, the piece is incredibly intricate and layered. Choreographer Dahu (Wei Yao Chiu) creates a distinct narrative through movement with impressive complexity that consistently compliments the music as well as the myriad of other visual stimuli at play.  Shu Lea Cheang’s futuristic media-driven art drives home the juxtaposition of tradition and future, compelling the audience to understand that moving forward does not mean abandoning one’s ancestors, that modern conventions can and do exist in the same reality as tradition. A cacophony of choreographed lasers, projections, light and colour, Shu Lea Cheang’s work is a true feast for the eyes. 

Words cannot truly describe the experience offered by Hagay Dreaming. If you have the chance to go, you would be remiss to miss it. Part of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpel at the Tate Modern.

REVIEW: Our Mighty Groove

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

In Club Groove, where audience is both spectator and participant, the energy is high and community is cultivated through dance

Serving as the opening show at Sadler’s Wells East, Our Mighty Groove displays an updated structure over 10+ years after its debut in 2013. Showing off the flexibility of Sadler’s Wells East’s space, and unlike its 2013-version wherein the audience was immersed throughout the production, the 2025-audience begins its night as a typical theatre-spectator, and ends standing on the actual dancefloor with the performers.

Choreographer and co-founder of Uchennna, Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu, brings Our Mighty Groove to a new plane, mixing Uchenna’s classic piece with the opportunities for experimentation provided by Sadlers Wells East, as well as the addition of young dancers from East London to Uchenna’s lineup. The evening is divided into two halves, including a 40-minute interval in which the space is transformed. Starting off the evening strictly as spectators, we are slowly introduced into the characters and stories of the club; the club-goers that have dedicated themselves for years to cultivating the energy of the club, to young Gen-Z influencers who imbue the space with contemporary zeal. This wide range of characters found common ground at Club Groove, despite coming from entirely disparate circles. This is the power of Club Groove – here, everyone is welcome, and it is felt, even as a spectator.

The challenge of igniting energy very quickly following a 40-minute interval was faced with impressive skill. The dancers, all unbelievably talented, envelope the audience in boundless, inspirational energy. The opportunity to get close to the dancers we recently watched in admiration from afar, as well as the excitement of finally engrossing ourselves in the space created a kind of delayed-gratification that allowed even those who might feel rather self-conscious dancing in a crowd to let go just a little bit. A night of witnessing such incredible dancers perform hypnotic choreography of a wide range of styles generated tangible excitement. The dancers each embodied a specific variation of dance typical of the club, from waacking to hip hop, that coalesced to create a diverse yet cohesive whole.

The music reflects this diversity of style. A collaboration between Ghanaian-based Kewku Aacht and London-based Warren ‘Flamin Beatz’ Morgan-Humphreys, the soundtrack fuses jazz, funk and disco, influenced by Kewku Aacht’s decades-long experience with club and rave culture. Featuring predominantly Ghanaian musicians in its recording and production, the soundtrack bridges styles and spirits across continents.

Our Mighty Groove celebrates life through dance. In the club we are together, in body and spirit, an idea especially true at Club Groove. This is a show everyone can, and should, enjoy.

REVIEW: As Long as We Are Breathing

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

The true story of Miriam Freedman, Holocaust survivor, through a multidisciplinary exploration that is as hopeful as it is heart wrenching.

At the top of As Long As We Are Breathing, the audience is instructed to breathe. Subtly, void of expectation, our eyes close and we listen as Caroline Gruber, who plays the older Miriam in this production, takes us through a guided meditation. We keep coming back to breath. This eases us into the world of the play, submerging us in the appreciation of what it means to breathe therein be alive. At the time, breathing seemed like a given. To breathe freely, confidently, is what it means to be human. We hold onto this feeling, and as we learn more about Miriam’s life, the simple act of breathing feels increasingly precious. 

Miriam Freedman, now 90 years old, has an incredible story to tell. Born in Slovakia a few years preceding the Nazi regime, she went by the less-Jewish ‘Eva’ in her homeland. A child who loved to play and run, sporty in every sense, movement drives her zest for life. To move, to breathe, and to play, is to live for Miriam. This is starkly contrasted by her experience in hiding during the Holocaust. Moving or breathing too loudly meant getting caught. As Long As We Are Breathing takes us through the life of Miriam Freedman as she survives the Holocaust and makes her way to London, when she discovers yoga and meditation, which offers her a means to process her trauma. Her relentless appreciation for these tools is highlighted, offering a new appreciation for the audience. Zoe Goriely, who plays a young Miriam, embodies a myriad of experiences that pave the path of Miriam’s life, wildly varied in their nature. She speeds about the stage, excitedly portraying Miriam as a child playing with the other kids outside, Miriam in hiding, Miriam losing her father, Miriam experiencing liberation, Miriam making her way to England, Miriam making peace and forgiving; a whole life is packed into one performance with admirable deft. Caroline Gruber holds the production together with narrative capacity, serving as an anchor for the piece. James Hinchliffe’s impressive musical capabilities provide the soundtrack to the production, flitting between instruments and truly painting the auditory picture of the world of the play.  

Playwright Diane Samuels has created a truly touching homage to the life of Miriam Freedman. Her valuable legacy is beautifully enshrined by this piece, a story which will hopefully and deservedly be told again and again and again. 

REVIEW: The Gift

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

A horrid gift turns Colin, Lisa, and Brian’s world upside down in this absurdly funny production.

Colin is a relatively average guy in his mid-forties. He works a decent job that pays him a decent wage. He lives in a decent flat. He hangs out with his sister, Lisa, and her husband, Brian, who is also his best (and only) friend. To use kind language, Colin could be described as quirky. He has some habits that may rub people the wrong way. He is obsessive, obstinate, and a tad relentless. He seems to be unaware of what others think of him, or perhaps he just really does not care. However, when the obsessive-switch flips, he has the potential to tediously and religiously pick apart every action he has ever enacted, detailing with minute detail every factor at play. Grievances his childhood-peers may have from thirty years back weigh as heavily on his mind as those of his current colleagues. Thus, when a shockingly unsavoury package finds its way to his doorstep, disguised in a cake box, he is sent on a dizzying journey to discover who the foul-handed culprit is. Lisa and Brian get swiftly swept up in the chaos of the journey, which has a surprising number of twists and turns, a topography nearly as perilous as the sanctity of their own relationship.

The Gift, written by Dave Florez, is a delightfully humorous play that offers a lighthearted take on the whodunit-esque variety of theatre. The play is joyfully self-aware and incredibly tongue-in-cheek. While it relies on a familiar structure, there is no shortage of surprise. It does not seek to make a broad, powerful statement of any socio-political nature, for its purpose is to provide a brief stretch of comic relief from this decidedly dreary world. Director Adam Meggido captures its tone perfectly, crafting an energetic and idiosyncratic atmosphere in Park Theatre’s Park200 space. The ensemble, made up of Nicholas Burns (Colin), Laura Haddock (Lisa), and Alex Price (Brian) have exciting chemistry, and truly draw the audience in. Burns serves Colin’s chaotic-good energy with commendable vehemence, a fire that is enthusiastically kindled by Price’s nature as his best friend who cannot help but push him to the edge just a bit. Haddock’s mature essence balances out the energy perfectly, without sacrificing her own kind of concealed mischievous nature that bonds the group as a whole. 

The Gift is a decidedly fun watch and most certainly offers a great way to spend an evening absorbed in something that takes your mind away from the deluge of the human experience. In this sense, the play takes us back to the theatre of yore, intended to serve as a means of escape.

REVIEW: La Manékine

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

MimeLondon kicks off this January with a bang by means of La Manékine, a haunting yet hopeful tale told with rapturous skill by French theatre company La Pendue 

La Manékine, based on the Brothers Grimm short story The Girl Without Hands, tells the chilling tale of a young girl who is mistakenly sold off to the Devil by her father. She takes off on an adventurous yet twisted journey filled with unexpected characters and poignant metaphors. While the story itself is incredibly engaging, the real stars of the show are the incredible skills displayed by the company, cast, and creative crew of La Pendue. Hailing from Grenoble, France, La Pendue enlist a variety of puppets to tell this story – hand puppets, carried puppets, masks, and more – that not only give the piece its unique and delectable quality, but also provide a wholly unanticipated performance. The aesthetic employed by La Pendue for this piece is exquisitely fitting for an allegorical, old-timey tale that evokes the Everyman plays of yore. The production is shrouded in darkness, the backdrop displays soft, grainy images in black and white, costumes, dark and drapey, do not distract from the artistry of the puppets. The puppets themselves are a sight to behold, in their myriad of forms. Estelle Charlier, the mind behind the piece’s artistic direction, puppets, and masks, as well as one of the two performers onstage, is an incredible theatrical-auteur of this work. In addition to Charlier, Anthony Lopez, Andi Luchsinger, Martin Kaspar Orkestar, Romuald Collinet, are the skilled artists behind the creation of these sets and costumes; their work is vital to the brilliance of this piece.   

Estelle Charlier and Martin Kaspar Orkestar are the sole performers onstage for the duration of the production. Martin Kaspar Orkestar, who doubles as the mind behind the music of the production, is a literal one-man band. He sits holding an accordion, a clarinet, surrounded by multiple drums, and a few other instruments that seem to appear like magic. His music throughout the piece is itself magical, shimmering, hopeful yet seeped in horror, setting the chilling tone that drives the narrative forward. Martin Kaspar Orkestar’s ability to play a mind-boggling number of instruments quite literally simultaneously with such deft skill was incomprehensible in the best way. He sings too. Very well.

Kaspar Orkestar works in exciting collaboration with Estelle Charlier, who plays most of the piece’s characters. Charlier shifts between characters with remarkable ease and clarity, swapping out puppets and masks in a flash, and shifting tone and physicality with the flourish of a puppeteering-magician. Her ability to breathe life and personality into various kinds of puppets with an incredible sight to behold. 

La Manékine gripped the audience from the very onset and left us desperate for more. While their run at MimeLondon may be sold out, you would be remiss not to keep an eye out for the soonest return of this amazing production. 

REVIEW: The Pact

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Leaning into the inherent campiness of panto, The Pact offers an enjoyable, funny, and inventive take on the canonical theatrical form 

Entering the Asylum Chapel, we are immediately thrust into the world of the play. Greeted by one of the nuns at the door, we are cast in the role of the congregation. The venue, a deconsecrated chapel, supports this conception. The chairs are set in the typical fashion of a service, and the nuns busy themselves onstage, performing funny and pedestrian moments from their daily lives. The devil sits in the corner, watching and plotting. The production begins with a hymn, sung by the nuns as part of their choir service. They are all phenomenal vocalists, and the eerie tune echoes throughout the space. Calcifer, i.e. the devil, hilariously portrayed by Heather Woodhouse, directly engages the audience, leading everyone to loudly boo at various intervals throughout the piece, a fun means of keeping us on our toes. The nuns of the congregation, performed by Willow Macdonald, Jacob Louis Baker, Grace Le Bachelet, Maria Rangoni, Morgan Carson, Alice Gold, and Amiot Hills, are all independently suffering. Some feel depressed, a few struggle with their ‘sins’, and others have started questioning their faith. They continue to look to god for guidance, but find their prayers unanswered. Consulting a large and ancient Nuns Handbook, they instead turn to the devil for guidance. They find themselves making a pact with the devil, which will turn their worlds upside down and send them on a genuinely wild adventure that transcends physics in the very best way. 

The Pact is a raucous, creative take on the typical pantomime that pokes fun both at the archaic aspects of religious tradition, as well as of pantomimes themselves. It is queer, it is slapstick and thoughtful, and it is brimming with surprises. The cast is incredibly talented and the production was by no measure predictable. One literally cannot envision what happens next. 

The Asylum Chapel is a wonderful space and a crucial player in this production, but the incredibly cold temperatures wrought by December put an unfortunate literal and figurative damper on the experience. Nevertheless, the audience bundled up and accepted the uncontrollable nature of the weather, and appreciated the space that formed as much a part of this play as the performance itself.
A pantomime like no other, catching The Pact at the Asylum Chapel is a great way to spend an evening, as long as you wear enough layers.

REVIEW: Khatia Buniatishvili and Academy of St Martin in the Fields

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

 Khatia Buniatishvili and Academy of St Martin in the Fields grace Barbican’s Hall with a captivating performance of Mozart 

Pianist Khatia Buniatishvili is no stranger to the Barbican. A frequent face on their stage, she returns as an Artist Spotlight performing two Mozart pieces that make an appearance on her recent album, accompanied by the always impressive Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Buniatishvili frequently graces the Barbican stage, and performing in London is said to hold a deep significance for her. She says, “I love performing at The Barbican. I find the public is so relaxed… there’s always a new wave of people coming. England always feels like a surprise to me, and I love that. It’s refreshing, and I feel that energy when I play there.” 

This energy, the playful comfort, was profoundly noticeable in Buniatishvili’s performance. She walks onto the stage in glittering dress, drawing the audience closely in. She seems to shimmer, not purely by means of her literally shining dress, but by her confident and joyful spirit. She commands the stage and the orchestra, playing front and centre, leading the musicians in a profoundly enjoyable piece of music. Starting with Don Giovanni Overture (7’), the sombre yet quirky tone offers a grand and intriguing entry point to the work. Buniatishvili couples this with Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major K488 (26’), a multifaceted experience that moves from elation to unabating pain with shocking seamlessness, reflecting the similar experience we are all bound to have as people, highlighting the core human values that transcend time. This is followed by Mendelssohn: Hebrides Overture (10’) and Haydn: Symphony 104 (29’), in which the Academy of St Martin in the Fields truly shines. 

Like many people in their twenties, I do not frequent classical performances. They seem inaccessible, an artform that circumvents my breadth of understanding. If I were to envision an evening watching two of Mozart’s concertos, not to mention Mendelssohn and Haydn, I would picture an older, wealthier, pretentious crowd and a performance that I might enjoy but would probably not understand. What was so exciting about this performance was that I was proven wrong. Khatia Buniatishvili’s talent and adoration for what she does speaks volumes. She truly embodied the music, almost dancing while she played, literally putting-her-hands-in-the-air-like-she-just didn’t-care during the short bursts in which her hands weren’t occupied by the piano. The organic nature with which she truly felt what she played was reflected by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, who bounded behind her with abundant passion. This evening highlighted the need to democratise classical music culturally, allowing for a younger audience to have the chance to enjoy this transcendent artform, particularly if someone as talented and excited as Khatia Buniatishvili is gracing the stage.