Lucy Holz

REVIEW: Ghosts

Published on April 26, 2025April 26, 2025 by Lucy HolzLeave a comment

An Ibsen classic reworked into a blazing melodrama

First staged in 1882, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts was banned, panned and poorly received. A play that covered incest, syphilis and illegitimate children was shocking to audiences at the time, but not so much to The White Lotus loving crowd of today.

Adapted by Gary Owen, the version aims to ‘preserve what was truly startling about the original’. Owen, known for his affinity for female characters undergoing tremendous suffering and hardship, injects an additional layer of sexual violence into this ‘dusty old classic’, with rape becoming a central theme.

Still a shocking production in 2025, Owen has done his job of creating ‘a snarling, swaggering young play’, revealing surprises at every turn. Believably re-contextualised into modern-day England, the creative team have transformed this production so seamlessly, it presents like an original play.

Directed by the Lyric’s artistic director Rachel O’Riordan, this play dissects the many ways in which abuse manifests, and how survivors can so easily become perpetrators without even realising. Making use of an expansive stage, O’Riordan directs her actors to physical perfection, creating an engaging and visually dynamic production.

Fairly exposition heavy, the text does often feel quite on the nose. Set design by Merle Hensel hammers home the point even further with walls bedecked with images of the back of the Captains head, the man of the house whose ghost the family continues to live with even after his death.

Sound design by Donato Wharton creeps into a horror-like score, with lighting design by Simisola Majekodunmi including frequent use of stage blinders to drive home key moments. Smoke billows out from behind see-through panes, giving a more literal meaning to the idea of ‘ghosts’.

The ensemble are strong and cohesive, a highlight being Deka Walmsley playing an affable but scarred labourer showing the many unconventional ways love can take shape. Callum Scott Howells gives a stellar performance as Oz, who originally appears as just a character for comic relief, but morphs into something far more sinister.

Owen’s adaptation of this classic story allows a more nuanced discussion around abuse than was ever possible in the 1800’s. While other plot elements around syphilis and euthanasia are dropped, the exploration of this theme is a welcome update. This version might be shocking, but it is also sensitive and well worth the trip to Hammersmith to see.

REVIEW: The Importance of Being Oscar

Published on April 2, 2025April 2, 2025 by Lucy HolzLeave a comment

“A whirlwind tour through the life of a literary icon.”

Although he is universally remembered as a literary genius, Oscar Wilde led a fraught life. Celebrated for his extraordinary writing talent, Wilde is just as well known for his notorious trial and sentencing for ‘gross indecency’, otherwise known as homosexuality. His punishment of imprisonment and 2 years hard labour marked the end of his celebrated literary career, except for a single poignant poem, performed powerfully by Alastair Whatley in the second act of The Importance of being Oscar.

Closer to a lecture than a play, this one-man production follows the tumultuous life of Oscar Wilde, from his departure from his native Ireland to London, all the way to his death in a seedy Paris bedsit with unforgettably hideous magenta wallpaper. Rather than playing Wilde himself, Whatley talks his audience through significant events and relationships in the life of the poet, frequently pausing to recite a brief scene from a play or page from a letter.

The piece opens with a dedicated section to the playwright Micheál Mac Liammóir, and his magnificent prowess as the actor who first performed the play. Director Mike Fentiman describes Whatley as ‘dancing with the ghosts of both Mac Liammóir and Wilde’, as the audience hears stories from both of these revered writers.

Whatley gives a sublime performance, making the audience guffaw at well-known Wilde witticisms and giving us insight into lesser-known moments of levity from his various letters to lovers and friends. Although a powerful piece of writing, he does lose the audience somewhat in his reading of Wilde’s final poem, which does not deliver as well to a live audience as a scene from The Importance of being Earnest.

However, for the majority of the production, Whatley keeps us captivated, with little in the way of props or set pieces to help him. Despite the external noises of a bustling Piccadilly, the audience waits with baited breath to hear the outcome of the Wilde trial, even though we all know what it will be. Fetiman directs Whatley to perfection in this scene, as we watch the prosecutor, judge and two defendants battle it out in a Victorian courtroom.

Chris Davey has created an intimate and atmospheric lighting design, with soft spotlights and a gentle wash. Sound design by Barnaby Race is minimal but vital, providing us with the heart-wrenching final words of Wilde to his partner Robbie Ross.

Background knowledge and an interest in the writer is crucial to audience enjoyment of this work and thus for any fan of Oscar Wilde, this play will be an absolute delight.

Tickets are available here.

REVIEW: Giselle…

Published on March 17, 2025March 17, 2025 by Lucy HolzLeave a comment

The iconic romantic ballet performed like never before

Recently staged by English National Ballet, Giselle is considered the highest achievement in romantic ballet, remaining a popular fixture in repertoire lists of dance companies worldwide. But this performance is not of Giselle but of Giselle… – instead this story retraces the history and context of the famous piece through striking performance art.

Part lecture, part retelling, this performance provides detailed background on the ballet and its connection to the art form. The result is a fascinating story of how Giselle is connected to the formation of modern ballet as we know it. Everything from ballerinas dancing en pointe and wearing tutus to male dancers acting as props to support the graceful movements of their female counterparts.

Created by François Gremaud with dutch dancer Samantha van Wissen, this work is their second piece centred around tragic female characters in the classical arts. Once the lecture section of the piece is complete, van Wissen goes on to comedically orate the ballet itself, retelling the entire plot from start to finish with interesting facts and amusing pieces of dance and mime.

A magnificent feat, van Wissen speaks and dances for nearly 2 hours, keeping the audience engaged with various techniques from jokes to audience interaction. Assisted by 4 onstage musicians, the performance is scored with music by Luca Antignani, based on the original Giselle score by Adolphe Adam. The musicians are spectacular, able to stop and start their pieces with perfect precision and unison even without a conductor.

Performed entirely in French, the choice to not present the piece in English makes the content more challenging to absorb as an audience member. Although surtitles are provided for the majority of the text, they are often mistimed, either giving away a joke too early or providing it too late, after it has already been told. It’s difficult to fully appreciate the movements and expressions of van Wissen, as to actually understand what she’s saying the surtitles must be constantly monitored.

There is no reference to the performance being entirely in French, which is a confusing choice as it has a profound impact on the viewing experience. At the conclusion of the performance the audience is gifted with a copy of the play text, which is also entirely in French. Although a nice souvenir, with a London-based English speaking audience, it would have made more sense to gift an English version by the surtitle translator Sarah Jane Moloney.

Despite this, the performance is a fascinating deep dive both into Giselle and the ballet genre itself, and is a real treat for any ballet fanatic. This mischievous text is both humorous and informative, bringing together the musical and the theatrical in a riveting piece of performance art.

REVIEW: Son of a Bitch

Published on March 2, 2025March 3, 2025 by Lucy HolzLeave a comment

The ultimate mum monologue

Marnie, like all women, has felt the pressure to have kids. And now she’s had one, she regrets it, or does she? Son of a bitch follows the descent of a woman into chaos of the motherhood she never really wanted.

A whirlwind 60-minute monologue, this is perhaps one of the only one-person shows that could easily be 30 minutes longer. Writer and performer Anna Morris has created a wonderfully rich world with such distinct characters that the audience are completely immersed, giving Morris a well-deserved standing ovation.

Marnie loses it at her 4-year old son mid-flight and the moment goes viral. The resulting fallout explores what it means to have the child everyone is telling you that you should want, and finding out that parenthood isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. A deeply relatable topic to every woman in the audience, Marnie isn’t afraid to vocalise the taboo thoughts so many of us have around having children.

Portraying parents, friends, children and countless other characters, Morris is a chameleonic force, transforming from one person to the next with practised ease. Her portrayal of Marnie’s father is particularly impressive, with a pronounced physicality and Northern accent that brings giggles from the audience every time.

Not limiting the plot to one woman’s struggle, Morris explores the stories of women of older generations who had no choice but to have children, gay people of the 90’s without alternatives to a child-free life, women who still have struggle even with live- in help and everyone in between. Rather than spreading the story too thin, the inclusion of these characters enriches the plot and expands the relatability of the narrative.

Directed by Madelaine Moore, the show is presented on a thrust stage, presumably designed to mimic the aisle of the airplane where Marnie loses her composure. During lightning quick scene transitions a glowing spiral is illuminated by strip lights, with a set designed by Cory Shipp, the real focal point of the stage are the captions.

Morris has single-sided deafness and supports Action on Hearing Loss, with all shows featuring integrated creative captioning. Designed by Megan Lucas, it’s refreshing to see an accessibility measure implemented in a non-performative way, that is genuinely part of the performance. Texts, announcements and dialogue are all creatively captioned, adding extra flair and comedic moments to the spoken words.

Morris has written the kind of one-woman show many performers aim to create, witty, impactful and unique. A cleverly constructed tour de force, Son of a bitch is not to be missed.

REVIEW: It Runs in the Family

Published on February 24, 2025February 24, 2025 by Lucy HolzLeave a comment

Farce at its finest

Providing the full showbiz experience, The Mill is the only dinner theatre in the United Kingdom, now celebrating more than 40 years in business. Nestled on the banks of the Thames just outside of Reading, this iconic venue captures the essence of British theatre, with an exciting 2025 programme including works such as The Importance of Being Earnest and My Fair Lady. Today is a Ray Cooney farce, It Runs in the Family.

The story follows a frazzled Dr. David Mortimore (Steven Pinder), a renowned neurologist preparing to deliver the prestigious Ponsonby lecture before he is interrupted by a series of comical events. Characters stream into the doctors common room, escalating the story further and further til it reaches boiling point.

A riot from start to finish, the ensemble piece boasts a large, robust cast who perfectly capture the archetypes they’ve been cast as. Elizabeth Elvin as the bustling, no nonsense matron who succumbs to a workplace infatuation after some accidentally administered barbiturate. Titus Rowe as the stern but gullible police sergeant, effectively stealing each scene he enters with his charming demeanour and Welsh lilt.

Rachel Fielding plays the forgiving wife Rosemary Mortimore, who keeps the story moving with her practical attitude while dressed in a fabulous festival of beige designed by Natalie Titchener. Embracing the Y2K aesthetic, Francis Redfern as Leslie is the quintessential emo teenager, adorned with double belts, heavy eyeliner and skintight jeans. Alex Marker has created a strong set to accompany the action that is both naturalistic and full of hidden nooks and crannies, perfect for the physical comedy that ensues.

James Bradshaw is a standout as Dr. Hubert Bonney, generating the biggest laughs with his brief solo musical numbers and flamboyant line delivery. Directed by Ron Aldridge, this play originally premiered in 1987 but has weathered well, with classic tropes and misunderstandings that still generate plenty of laughs.

But The Mill is more than just the show, with ticket price including a 2-course meal, recently revamped from a buffet service to an elegant à la carte affair. The food is fresh, hearty and traditional, with bass, pie and duck among the offerings for main and lemon tart, chocolate mousse and bread and butter pudding on the menu for dessert. With swift, smiling service and delicious meals, the production is completely elevated by the accompanying dining experience. A beautiful meal followed by a 2 hours of hilarity, The Mill has perfected the art of hospitality and entertainment, creating an unforgettable experience for every patron who walks through the door.

REVIEW: Boys from the Blackstuff

Published on February 16, 2025February 16, 2025 by Lucy HolzLeave a comment

A tragic story that doesn’t quite land

Liverpool in the 1980’s was a tough time to be working class, and no-one knows that better than these boys from the blackstuff, five tarmac layers who have been laid off and searching for work for over a year.

Unable to survive on unemployment benefits alone, these men are forced to do odd jobs for shady bosses in exchange for cash in hand and no security. Followed by the Office of Unemployment or the ‘sniffers’, the men are already on thin ice with the authorities when the play begins.

Boys from the Blackstuff has been adapted by James Graham from the BAFTA award winning TV series of the same name. Originally created by playwright Alan Bleasdale, this serial was considered a dramatic response to Thatcherism and its impact on the working classes.

Condensing 5 episodes into a play is a tough job, which Graham takes on admirably, albeit involves extensive exposition to cover all the plot points. Trying to include every moment that occurs in the series, the play is lengthy yet still feels rushed, as multiple characters and storylines are briefly introduced but never fully fleshed out.

Focusing on some characters but leaving others almost completely out of the story, the audience are constantly playing catch-up. We spend a lot of time with the iconic Yosser Hughes, only to miss all of the character development from the series, rendering him exactly the same man at the end of the play as he was at the beginning.

However, the performances are grounded and immediate, with Sean Kingsley as a standout playing the wonderfully deplorable building site manager Malloy. An exasperated Loggo is played beautifully by Jurell Carter, giving the boys a much needed reality check about the ingrained racism of some of the innocent ‘stories’ told at smoko.

A 14-strong ensemble, this production is backgrounded by a magnificent set created by Amy Jane Cook. Large pieces of corrugated iron create multiple artificial landings for the construction site scenes, with a bare centerstage free to be transformed into various indoor spaces. Director Kate Wasserberg makes use of this with dynamic staging choices, keeping each space buzzing with life and utilising every corner of the stage.

However Wasserberg has been unable to capture the grit of the story. With dance-like stage transitions and extensive group singing, it’s hard to believe these are people really living in the ‘gutters’. A lengthy slow-motion fight sequence and a highly stylised death scene using abstract projections are also completely at odds with this story grounded in the harsh reality of the time period.

Although it’s an urgent story that still holds relevance, this production doesn’t quite translate, lacking the ring of authenticity through the erratic storytelling and heightened direction.

Boys from the Blackstuff tours across the UK at different venues until July – tickets here.

REVIEW: More Life

Published on February 16, 2025February 16, 2025 by Lucy HolzLeave a comment

Frankenstein with a technological makeover

If you were given a second chance at life, would you take it? What if it was just an echo of a life, ‘a ripple in the water?’ This is the question More Life poses to an audience kept constantly on the edge of their seats.

Brought back to life by the same Meta-adjacent AI company who killed her in the first place, Bridget (Alison Halstead), finds herself living in a completely new world. It is 50 years after her death and almost everyone she knows has now died, leaving her to put her trust in all the wrong people.

The Frankenstein of this story is scientist Vic, played by a manic Marc Elliott. Desperate to make his project ‘work’ to drive what he sees as the progression of humanity, he is held to account only by his empathetic assistant Mike (Lewis MacKinnon), as we are shown two opposing sides of this transhumanist debate.

Created by the Kandinsky Theatre Company’s founders Lauren Mooney and James Yeatman, this Royal Court commission is masterful in both its ideas and presentation. Made in collaboration with a 6-strong cast of actors, the script has continued to evolve in the rehearsal room.

The result is a truly ensemble piece, as the actors sing together, voice each other’s characters and demonstrate brilliantly believable rapport. Tim McMullan plays Harry, a sinister husband to Bridget who, throughout his extended life has managed to lose his humanity along the way. McMullan is exceptional, paired with his new wife Davina (Helen Schlesinger), who symbolises how considered and self-centred his life has now become since Bridget’s death.

Set by Shankho Chaudhuri is versatile and interesting, transforming from a windowless laboratory to a futuristic homestead with only a few minor tweaks. Small nooks provide the perfect shelving for ornaments, but also seating for actors, who use standing microphones to create various vocal effects.

This piece thrives under James Yeatman’s masterful direction, utilising the performers to remarkable impact. Even in two-hander scenes, the ensemble is never far away, providing sound effects, humorous interjections and singing together as an ominous choir. Each actor embodies their characters with great immediacy and presence, only to seamlessly melt back into the nameless ensemble once their scene is complete.

This sensational piece of sci-fi theatre considers what the future will look like and more importantly, what life in the future will be. This play reminds the audience what makes life worth living and due to the current absence of life-extending technology, it’s never been more important to live it than now.

More Life runs at the Royal Court until 8th March.

REVIEW: Ordinary Madness

Published on February 15, 2025February 14, 2025 by Lucy HolzLeave a comment

A poignant series of stories for modern times

‘Ordinary Madness is about the beauty in the dirt, the extraordinary in the mundane, the hard shell with the soft centre, about that bluebird in our soul that wants to get out.’

Based on 6 short stories written by American poet and novelist Charles Bukowski, Ordinary Madness is a dramatic composition of the written word. A reworked version of their previous production Life with a little L, this show is created in the ‘unique stage language’ of the Art Theatre London ensemble.

Beginning with a microphone stand on a bare stage, the opening of this show features several short poems written by Bukowski, read from a book by the actors. It’s a rocky start, not reflective of the quality of the majority of the production, which involves the stories being both narrated and physically acted out by the performers.

And they are brilliant performances, with the 5-actor ensemble embodying a wide range of characters, most just regular people struggling to get by in 1960’s/70’s America. From a man who marries a Texan heiress to a 4 year-old infatuated with her criminal daddy, this is a production that tests the capabilities of any performer.

James Viller’s comic portrayal of a man in love with a mannequin is a highlight, and Victoria Valcheva plays the mannequin in question with almost eerie accuracy. Lighting by Benjamin Vetluzhskikh compliments each scene perfectly, creating points of difference to help the audience recognise new spaces and themes.

Francesca Wilson Waterworth shows exceptional versatility with perhaps the most diverse range of characters to play. It is a joy to watch her transform from a lonely wallflower to a sex kitten landlady to a curious 4 year-old.

Directed beautifully by Anya Viller, each story is incredibly dynamic and unique. Making use of the minimalistic staging by set designer Alexandra Dashevsky, Viller ensures the entire space is utilised, transforming it from house to caravan to stairwell to car.

Despite the exceptional performances, the show drags. Just shy of 2 hours without an interval, this production is a couple of stories too long. With no cohesive through line tying everything together, there’s nothing to keep the audience engaged over such a long period. The stories are well written, directed and performed, but are more suited to a variety performance or gala than added together over such a lengthy stretch. Injecting an overarching story or additional character arc may have served to increase momentum, as currently the show feels static.

Despite this, Viller is right when she says these are ‘stories about all of us’. Each character is recognisable, each sad tale familiar. The stories are steeped in everyday misogyny, Art Theatre London showing us that the US 70 years ago is sadly almost interchangeable with modern society today. It is a stunning display of creative prowess laid out on a bare stage for all to see.

Runs at Riverside Studios until the 9th March.

REVIEW: Giselle

Published on January 17, 2025January 17, 2025 by Lucy Holz1 Comment

Classic romantic ballet performed to perfection

Considered a representation of the highest achievement in romantic ballet, various versions of Giselle populate the repertoire lists of ballet companies worldwide. Commissioned by English National Ballet in 1953, this Mary Skeaping version restores many original scenes, creating a cohesive version that effectively stitches together the two disparate halves of this ballet.

The story of a woman betrayed by a cheating fiancee, while the first act showcases a peasant celebration of a wine festival, the second revolves entirely around the supernatural. The Wilis, the ghosts of brides who have died before their wedding, lure various young men to their deaths by forcing them to dance til exhaustion.

Erina Takahashi gives a stellar performance as the peasant girl turned Wilis Giselle, driven to madness and eventually death by her fiancees betrayal. Takahashi perfectly captures the fragile humility of her character, making her truthful interpretation of the iconic ‘mad scene’ even more impactful.

Her final few performances before retirement after a 30-year long career, it is a privilege to watch Takahashi dance for the first and last time. The original choreography by Jean Corelli and Jules Perrot has been revised by Marius Petipa and it’s hard to imagine the titular role danced any better.

Francesco Gabriele Frola plays Albrecht, the disguised Duke of Silesia, while Fabian Reimair is the scorned suitor Hilarion. Frola and Takahashi have a beautiful partnership, performing the act 2 pas de deux with lightness and warmth.

Costumes by David Walker are breathtaking, with the Wilis dressed in ethereal tutus that fall softly around the ballerinas. Precious Adams plays a formidable Myrtha, commanding men to dance to their death before her as Queen of the Wilis.

Sets are also designed by Walker and are just as sensational as his costumes, providing hyper-realistic backdrops for some exceptional dancing. Lighting designed by David Mohr and recreated by Charles Bristow truly helps these sets come to life. Gavin Sutherland conducts the English National Ballet Philharmonic to a lovely rendition of the score, creating a particularly haunting soundtrack to the ‘dance of the Wilis’.

Skeaping’s choreography brings back much of the mime from original versions which is the only dampener on this production. Completely uninterpretable, the movements of Giselle’s mother Berthe when explaining the legend of the Wilis add very little to the story, even with a translation in the program.

Despite the additions of pantomime, this version of Giselle is a beautiful blend of traditional and modern and is a practically perfect production that captures the essence of romanticism in ballet.

REVIEW: The Maids

Published on January 12, 2025January 12, 2025 by Lucy HolzLeave a comment

True-crime meets farcical fancy

Tucked away in the West End, Jermyn Street is an intimate 70-seat studio theatre, perfect for staging daring and exciting pieces of work. This fresh take on the scandalous 1947 play by Jean Genet was translated into English by Martin Crimp and debuted in 1999. Revived in co-production with Reading Rep by director Annie Kershaw, The Maids is an exploration of class warfare with a fanciful twist. Annie Kershaw is amongst a new generation of directors and has come through Jermyn Street Theatre’s Carne Deputy Director Scheme in addition to winning the The Young Vic’s Genesis Future Directors Award – definitely one to watch and that I’ll be looking out for in future programmes.

Loosely based on a 1933 case of two maids brutally murdering their violent mistress and her daughter, The Maids follows an evening in the life of two live-in servants, Solange and Claire. These sisters are played beautifully by Anna Popplewell and Charlie Oscar, capturing the souls of working class characters never given the chance to live life outside the walls of the aristocratic apartment where they serve.

Beginning with a fantasy, the sisters act out their visceral dreams to be both be and murder their cruel mistress. Oscar stuns with her powerful presence as Claire, impressively transforming from the Mistress back into a bedraggled servant. We see Claire’s internal struggles unfolding before us, she is brave enough to secure secret information from the household that will send the Master to jail, but becomes easily and instantly overwhelmed by the hopelessness of her situation.

Carla Harrison-Hodge injects some much-needed humour into the piece, stealing the show with her excellent portrayal of the manipulative Mistress. Dipping into perfectly timed farce, Harrison-Hodge is both charming and sickening, the ideal third player in this fantasy scene.

Stagecraft is sublime with lighting by Catja Hamilton illuminating some fabulous jump scares and subtle score by Joe Dines creating an ominous atmosphere. The padded walls of Cat Fuller’s stark white dressing room set evoke the feel of a psych ward cell, perhaps foreshadowing the future of our murderous maids and certainly representing how trapped they feel in the present.

Running at 90-minutes straight through, this play feels like it’s over before it’s begun. Kershaw has directed the two and three-hander scenes at a perfect pace, keeping us totally enthralled for the first 3/4’s of the play. However, the inclusion of some lengthy monologues that stray into the realms of heightened magical realism bring the pacing to a screeching halt, giving the play a disappointingly anti-climactic finale. Despite this, the production is mesmerisingly slick, with an onstage kitchen timer keeping everyone on edge as the clock ticks away. A thrilling revival with a stellar cast, Kershaw has directed a truly exciting production.