REVIEW: A Naff Play About Spies
Reading Time: 2 minutes“A Naff Play About Spies” is well named. Is it a bit naff? Are the spies a bit naff? Is the dialogue a bit clunky? Yes, yes and yes. Is it still good fun? Also yes.
Category ★★★☆☆
REVIEW: I’d Like a Job Please
Reading Time: 2 minutes“I’d Like a Job Please” follows Sarah Snelson, a recent graduate, on her hunt for a job. After an uninspiring start, her recruiter ex-Navy Tracey Pavement, she gets a sales role at “Swell”, where all is not what it seems.
REVIEW: The Pink List
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Pink List is the second one-man show created by and starring Michael Trauffer. He tells the story of a gay man in 1957 Germany, still being persecuted under the anti-gay laws that were instituted by the Nazis when they were in power. The framing is of one man on trial for suspected homosexual activities, as he looks back on his childhood, his time in liberal Berlin, and the horrors of the concentration camps.
REVIEW: Rain Weaver
Reading Time: 2 minutesThis time, "Rain Weaver" at the Cockpit Theatre, part of the Camden Fringe, touched on themes that felt familiar to me, reflecting aspects of my own experiences.
REVIEW: Report to An Academy
Reading Time: 2 minutesThis one-man provocative drama tells the story of Red Peter, an intelligent ape that was captured in West Africa for use in a European zoo.
REVIEW: Gwyneth Goes Skiing
Reading Time: 2 minutesFollowing on from last year's critical and popular success of their show Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story Linus Karp and Joseph Martin return with another silly premise, turning the scandalous Gwyneth Paltrow ski trial into a musical comedy littered with humour you'd see in drag shows, and with about as much general silliness and bawdiness too. From songs, to audience participation, trials, puppetry and “live” video calls from the drag queen Trixie Mattel, a lot is thrown at you across the 80 minutes to mixed effect
REVIEW: Marcel Lucont’s Whine List
Reading Time: 2 minutesMarcel Lucont’s Whine List is an interactive stand up comedy show. Prior to the show beginning, the audience are given questionnaires where they describe things such as their worst day at work, and worst amorous encounter. The show then revolves around these stories with Marcel, played as the classic sneering French man, reacting to the stories, asking questions, and making jokes. This is interspersed with a few poems, and greatest hits of stories previously told. This means that 90% of each show will be entirely different and fresh each time. Useful for return viewings! This show has been running in one form or another for 8 years now, and has now also been turned into a podcast.
REVIEW: The Strange Case of Dr Dillon
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Strange Case of Dr Dillon tells the remarkable story of the first trans man known to have medically transitioned, who became a pioneering doctor in his own right.
REVIEW: The Box
Reading Time: 2 minutesAs you enter the theatre space, the set design gives a sense of walking into a minimalists arts exhibition. The stark white walls and bright lights accompany a large, red paper wrapped box that sits alone in the middle of the stage. On one side of the stage stands a clothes railing and on the other, a drinks trolley laid with a bottle of wine, glasses and a hammer.
A couple enters, they are both staring at the box. The woman, played by Sarah Lawrie -is already quite drunk, kicking the box, toying with it whilst she inspects it. The man, portrayed by Martin Edwards tells her firmly not to touch the box. “It’s not time yet” Neither of the characters appear to know what is in the box and the audience are left to wonder what’s inside the box and why is it here?
As the play continues we are led into the couples imaginary world- where the lines between reality and fantasy are dangerously blurred. Both Lawrie and Edwards have a good grasp on the script and the relationship. They worked well together and helped push the story through its twists and turns. The audience are taken on an emotional rollercoaster ride as the play examines the harrowing consequences of a mistake and how it can affect those we love the most.
Two elements of the show that felt out of place were the music and movement. They both felt a bit cliche, overdone and predictable. The piece began to take on a GCSE devised theatre quality rather than the slick, sophisticated piece it could have been. Instead of enhancing the key moments within a scene, it took us out of the world and away from the relationship. At times it felt like a tactic to entice an emotional response rather than aiding the emotional journey of the piece.
Overall I thought the piece did well. It is always interesting to see how grief, shame and guilt can impact a relationship and decide whether its make or break. However, with the disconnected nature of parts or script, movement and music. The play failed to find a nice synergy and left audience members feeling robbed of a true connection and well as any resolution for the characters in this story.
REVIEW: The Good, The Bad, The Silly
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe Good, The Bad, The (very) Silly follows the story of when “...an outlaw in the Wild West stumbles upon a peculiar saloon run by a wacky barman. As eccentric characters enter the saloon one-by-one, the outlaw and his new-found assistant must discover the truth behind the Saloon’s mysterious effects.”