Author: chriswood14

The Crumple Zone is a formerly off-Broadway dramatic comedy written by Buddy Thomas, enjoying a run in London’s Waterloo East theatre, directed by Helen Bang. The play occurs solely in the flat of Terry (James Grimm), Alex (Jonny Davidson), and his ‘away touring’ wife Sam (Sinead Donnelly). In Sam’s absence, Alex has been having an affair with Buck (James Mackay), that Terry has been forced to watch in close quarters. Whilst grappling with the conflict of how to act as his best friend is cheated on by her husband, Terry also grapples with his own life; bereft of love, and affection, and resorts to bringing home an unusual pushy stranger called Roger (Nicholas Gauci) for a one night stand. 

From a comedic perspective, the play triumphs as its dense script is executed flawlessly. Grimm sets a high standard from his sharp, snappy delivery of Terry’s verbose sassy wit – the source of the majority of the show’s humour. But the whole cast had excellent chemistry on stage together, which led to the back and forth jovial bickers between characters always hitting the mark. 

In its more serious moments, the play and cast do suitably capture the agony and irony of trauma and tears whilst in a room draped in tinsel and other cheap festive paraphernalia, a wonky Christmas tree, and remnants of alcoholic drinks scattered around. 

Much of the play is spent dwelling on the morally reprehensible behaviour of Alex and Buck’s infidelity. The play never truly condemns this, aside from the sneers and comments of Terry. It tries and fails to truly establish the depth of conflict in Alex’s mind. Perhaps because there was no real conflict at all – but again, this could have been developed further. 

The moments of moral exploration are where the script feels shallow. Alex offers up clichés such as ‘you don’t understand’ over and over again, meaning Davidson’s portrayal of angst comes across simplistic. Similarly, Mackkay’s Buck morphs into a cheap villain at the climax, and again the opportunity for complexity felt limited by the script. 

Upon her return, the character of Sam is meek and spineless, and Donnelly plays her like a thrice-kicked puppy, unboxed and abandoned on Christmas day. The play ends just as a glimmer of recovery emerges, and Terry and Sam resolve to go visit Terry’s mother on Christmas day. The final moments are both beautiful and bleak. You crave more to the story, you want growth. It’s as though you’ve merely watched the pilot for a new sitcom about how Sam and Terry put their lives together again. I know I’d watch that.

Land of the Free is the latest show performed by award winning theatrical ensemble Simple 8. Written by Sebastian Armesto and Dudley Hinton, and also directed by Armesto, Land of the Free tells the story of John Wilks Booth – the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln shortly after the end of the American Civil war in 1865. 

This is a British production from British writers, but covers a part of history that its British audience won’t typically have been exposed to through its school curriculum. Contrasted, for example, to famed West End British production Six, this play isn’t a retelling from a new perspective. With narration from the ensemble between scenes to provide historical context, as well as the erection of literal signs that tell the audience when in time a scene takes place – Land of the Free is an engaging, well taught historical fiction bordering on a history lesson. I’ll concede that at times it felt a little bit like I was being taken through a theatrical reenactment of a Wikipedia page – particularly exacerbated by the occasional tangents the plot deviated onto, but it was an interesting Wikipedia page nonetheless. 

The entire cast of the production can be commended for their excellent performance. Most actors covered multiple parts, switching between roles flawlessly – though I would call out the noteworthy Brandon Bassir – who spent most of the play in the role of Booth himself, playing him with a combination of subtle malice, earnestness, and vulnerability. In addition, Clara Onyemere in the role of Lincoln showcased the President with a stoic goodness, and flashes of  mild arrogance – direction that can be commended as one could argue it was a sense of complacency that allowed Booth the opportunity to fulfil the deed. 

The word ‘Tyrant’ is used by Booth throughout the , before he eventually fires a bullet into the skull, just below the President’s left ear. At the side of the stage is a now famous photograph of Donald Trump, blood dripping down from his left ear, after the bullet aimed at his head missed by millimetres. This is never referenced in the play, but is crucial to the underlying message. The parting message of Booth in the production is that he sees himself as a hero. That he did what he did to protect America from a great evil. Here, Land of the Free carefully reminds us that political violence does not only affect one side. A hero to one is a villain to another. As a society we must reject it entirely, otherwise we may lose a leader capable of great goodness. 

After a run at Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, In Everglade Studio is enjoying a short run at the Hope Theatre in April 2024. Written by Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller, and Co-Directed by Brimmer-Beller and Phoebe Rowell John. 

Set in 1974, In Everglade Studio is about four people who come together over a single night in a recording studio in London with the goal of creating a whole record’s worth of hits in a single evening, unaware that the materials in the walls of the basement studio are toxic, and driving them to insanity. The audience is informed of this by a brief audio track of a future documentary that plays to the room, suggesting bizarre and tragic events of the night we’re about to watch. 

Skye (Emily Moment) is a white English artist heavily influenced by American country music, brought to the studio by mixed-race music producer Clarke (Nathaniel Brimmer-Beller), alongside white session musician Baron, (Aveev Isaacson, possibly donning a scouse accent). The trio are shortly joined by Matilda (Hannah Omisore), a young black woman, invited by Clarke to provide creative input onto Skye’s music. Racism is core to the tension that drives the plot. As the chemicals in the walls seep into our characters minds, Skye’s non-racist facade begins to fade, and aggression evolves in baby steps away from passive and becomes more direct. The play is enthralling as we watch the drama unfold and the relationships deteriorate. 

Emily Moment portrays the slow descent from arrogant musician into something more sinister superbly well, through dirty looks, body language, and subtly barbed verbal jabs, there’s always a slight ambiguity to what’s going on in Skye’s head right up until the mask falls and shatters onto the ground. Opposite Moment, Omisore well encapsulates a shy, unassuming, almost meek Matilda, who doesn’t quite know how to own the talent she possesses because of the place society has put her as a black woman. Omisore then transitions the performance brilliantly into what is first strength in the face of adversity, then into a retaliatory madness as we reach the climax. Brimmer-Beller puts in a solid performance as Clarke, a man putting his desire to make money from the night in the studio ahead of his personal feelings on racism, though this was perhaps slightly undercooked, the extent of his internal conflict (or lack of) on this matter could have been developed more. Isaacson’s Baron serves as a mild foil to Skye, and provides quips of comic relief, and is performed well by Isaacson. 

Music is a key feature of In Everglade Studio, with whole songs performed intermittently during the play, though this was done as part of the plot as the cast were recording songs in the studio, rather than how a musical might see its cast break out suddenly into a number. The songs throughout are excellently written and composed by Brimmer-Beller and Isaacson, and well performed live on stage by the whole cast. They were smartly used to convey mood, or allowed the cast to use expression and movement to suggest the current state of relationships to the audience. The only critique that they were sometimes a bit long, and would slow the pacing, particularly early on in the performance. 

In Everglade Studio finishes in an unrecognisable place from how it begins, owing to the characters going insane, and exacerbated by the tensions of not really liking each other that much to begin with. The journey the characters go on over the fateful night is thoroughly entertaining, gently funny at times, but predominantly satisfying for a uniquely chaotic spin on a victim of racism overcoming the attitudes they’re faced with that seek to bring them down.