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Post by Jan on May 1, 2024 17:30:28 GMT
Julius Caesar - Questors Theatre (Ealing)
This is really quite good. It is better than the last RSC production of the play but that is not saying much. Set in 1930s Italy. Don’t be put off by the fact it appears to be amateur theatre, the venue and auditorium are fantastic, far better than most commercial venues, and the creatives and cast are mostly drama school trained professional or semi-professional well up to fringe standard.
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172 posts
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Post by bee on May 2, 2024 6:38:27 GMT
Julius Caesar - Questors Theatre (Ealing) This is really quite good. It is better than the last RSC production of the play but that is not saying much. Set in 1930s Italy. Don’t be put off by the fact it appears to be amateur theatre, the venue and auditorium are fantastic, far better than most commercial venues, and the creatives and cast are mostly drama school trained professional or semi-professional well up to fringe standard. I saw this last night and also liked it. A brisk, solidly acted production. I only discovered Questors Theatre a couple of years ago in spite of living in the area for nearly 20 years now. I've been to a few productions since then and they have all been decently done, some better than others but as Jan says none would have looked out of place at one of the "proper" fringe venues. The venue is a 10 minute walk from Ealing Broadway station so worth checking them out if you live in West London.
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Post by Jan on May 2, 2024 6:49:49 GMT
Julius Caesar - Questors Theatre (Ealing) This is really quite good. It is better than the last RSC production of the play but that is not saying much. Set in 1930s Italy. Don’t be put off by the fact it appears to be amateur theatre, the venue and auditorium are fantastic, far better than most commercial venues, and the creatives and cast are mostly drama school trained professional or semi-professional well up to fringe standard. I saw this last night and also liked it. A brisk, solidly acted production. I thought David Erdos as Casca was outstanding. As Ealing Broadway is on the Elizabeth Line travel times from outside West London can also be reasonable.
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Post by cavocado on May 2, 2024 19:20:31 GMT
I also saw the Questors' Julius Caesar and enjoyed it. One thing I didn't understand was the significance of the schoolgirl being onstage throughout. I think she was reading a biography of Caesar and then occasionally playing a minor character. Can anyone shed any light on her purpose/significance?
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172 posts
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Post by bee on May 2, 2024 19:33:08 GMT
I also saw the Questors' Julius Caesar and enjoyed it. One thing I didn't understand was the significance of the schoolgirl being onstage throughout. I think she was reading a biography of Caesar and then occasionally playing a minor character. Can anyone shed any light on her purpose/significance? Not me, I was similarly perplexed by that. I've just had a quick scan of my programme and there's no hint in their either.
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Post by cavocado on May 2, 2024 19:47:25 GMT
I also saw the Questors' Julius Caesar and enjoyed it. One thing I didn't understand was the significance of the schoolgirl being onstage throughout. I think she was reading a biography of Caesar and then occasionally playing a minor character. Can anyone shed any light on her purpose/significance? Not me, I was similarly perplexed by that. I've just had a quick scan of my programme and there's no hint in their either. I wondered if it was a slightly clumsy way of representing 'us' - as in modern day citizens learning from history, hence the book? But why a schoolgirl? And why have her playing Caesar's wife with her school blazer still on? I thought I must be missing something.
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Post by Jan on May 3, 2024 8:50:28 GMT
I also saw the Questors' Julius Caesar and enjoyed it. One thing I didn't understand was the significance of the schoolgirl being onstage throughout. I think she was reading a biography of Caesar and then occasionally playing a minor character. Can anyone shed any light on her purpose/significance? My take on the framing device: She's studying Julius Caesar and reading a book about it and falls asleep and dreams the play. At moments she intervenes directly in the action at those points where prophecies are delivered - she's Caesar's wife telling him not to go to the forum and she's the soothsayer - because she's standing outside the action and already knows what's going to happen next. In addition she's fulfilling a Brechtian role in constantly reminding us that it's just a play we're watching so we are engaged politically rather than emotionally. I don't think it was particularly well done but it was an interesting approach. Of course things like that have been done before - in the Norris Macbeth I seem to recall the Porter was on stage almost the whole time fulfilling a similar role.
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Post by cavocado on May 3, 2024 16:22:00 GMT
I also saw the Questors' Julius Caesar and enjoyed it. One thing I didn't understand was the significance of the schoolgirl being onstage throughout. I think she was reading a biography of Caesar and then occasionally playing a minor character. Can anyone shed any light on her purpose/significance? My take on the framing device: She's studying Julius Caesar and reading a book about it and falls asleep and dreams the play. At moments she intervenes directly in the action at those points where prophecies are delivered - she's Caesar's wife telling him not to go to the forum and she's the soothsayer - because she's standing outside the action and already knows what's going to happen next. In addition she's fulfilling a Brechtian role in constantly reminding us that it's just a play we're watching so we are engaged politically rather than emotionally. I don't think it was particularly well done but it was an interesting approach. Of course things like that have been done before - in the Norris Macbeth I seem to recall the Porter was on stage almost the whole time fulfilling a similar role. That makes more sense - thanks Jan.
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172 posts
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Post by bee on May 8, 2024 7:07:53 GMT
Questors Theatre - The Slaves of Solitude
Back at Questors last night for this adaptation of a 1947 novel by Patrick Hamilton. It tells the story of Enid Roach, a single woman living in a boarding house just outside London during WW2.
This was OK. Initially I found it a bit dull. Some of the characters felt like stereotypes (especially the American soldiers) and the story also felt like the kind of thing we've seen before in dramas about the home front during WW2. The actors do a pretty good job however, so I eventually got drawn in and started to care. It's all pretty low key though, nothing especially dramatic happens,it's more of a snapshot of a few incidents in someone's life with a somewhat ambiguous ending.
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Post by lt on May 8, 2024 10:57:13 GMT
Julius Caesar - Questors Theatre (Ealing) This is really quite good. It is better than the last RSC production of the play but that is not saying much. Set in 1930s Italy. Don’t be put off by the fact it appears to be amateur theatre, the venue and auditorium are fantastic, far better than most commercial venues, and the creatives and cast are mostly drama school trained professional or semi-professional well up to fringe standard. In my experience, I don't think fringe standard is necessarily lower than WE at all? I suppose it depends on what you're calling fringe? But I've seen excellent acting at the Playground Theatre (definitely fringe), the Kiln, Bush, Menier, Riverside, Orange Tree, Park etc. I've done an acting course myself at Questors (I have no pretensions about my acting skills at all, definitely just for fun) but I wouldn't say the acting is on a level with professional theatre. I frequently heard the phrase "just as good as the WE" but from the productions I saw that was not the case.
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Post by marob on May 14, 2024 16:08:37 GMT
JB Shorts 24 - at 53two, Manchester. 6 short plays, all by established TV writers. It’s been going for 15 years, but I’d only heard of it because a performer I’d liked in something else was cast in this. Sadly the one he was in was a bit of a dud, but the rest were pretty good. Range from a very broad and very funny take on modern politics to a couple that were genuinely quite moving. Will be going back whenever there’s a 25th instalment.
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Post by Jan on May 14, 2024 17:31:44 GMT
Julius Caesar - Questors Theatre (Ealing) This is really quite good. It is better than the last RSC production of the play but that is not saying much. Set in 1930s Italy. Don’t be put off by the fact it appears to be amateur theatre, the venue and auditorium are fantastic, far better than most commercial venues, and the creatives and cast are mostly drama school trained professional or semi-professional well up to fringe standard. In my experience, I don't think fringe standard is necessarily lower than WE at all? I suppose it depends on what you're calling fringe? But I've seen excellent acting at the Playground Theatre (definitely fringe), the Kiln, Bush, Menier, Riverside, Orange Tree, Park etc. I've done an acting course myself at Questors (I have no pretensions about my acting skills at all, definitely just for fun) but I wouldn't say the acting is on a level with professional theatre. I frequently heard the phrase "just as good as the WE" but from the productions I saw that was not the case. I was thinking of fringe venue like Finborough. At the Questors several of the actors *are* professional actors though - Drama school trained, Equity members, in Spotlight etc. but just not paid for the work they do at Questors.
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2,670 posts
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Post by n1david on May 19, 2024 13:34:27 GMT
Quick shout out for SINGING I'M NO A BILLY HE'S A TIM which I saw last night at the tiny Old Red Lion pub theatre. A neat three-hander based on the premise that a Glasgow Rangers fan (Billy) and a Glasgow Celtic fan (Tim) are locked up in the same cell on the day of an Old Firm (Rangers v Celtic) match. Hilariously funny at times, with often extremely off-colour but very sharp jokes which might be lost on someone without an understanding of West of Scotland vernacular ("One Hun Soup" is one still making me smile the day after) Touches on some real issues around Scottish sectarianism, including the presence of the Orange Order and institutional prejudice. Absolutely theatre for a specific audience, I suspect most of the punters were from the same part of the world as me, and it doesn't surprise me that it's been touring Scotland on and off for the last 20 years, and is a favourite in am dram (the language absolutely rules it out of ever being a school production!)
Some unlikely plot twists towards the end to resolve the story didn't spoil the show, and I doubt that many younger Scots are even aware enough of Donald Finlay KC to warrant his inclusion in a script updated to refer to Gaza and Ukraine. But it was a fun night, powerfully acted with enough grit to think about afterwards. Given the 25-seat auditorium wasn't sold out, and the accompanying gender-swapped version was papered, I doubt it will be back any time soon, but the people there had a really good time, gave it a universal standing ovation and maybe left thinking a bit more about their attitude towards religion and religious difference afterwards.
Nicely chosen location too given the Old Red Lion is two doors down from The Shoap, London's first Scottish deli and café, so thirsty punters could nip out at half time for a pint of Tennant's and a macaroni pie.
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2,670 posts
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Post by n1david on Jun 17, 2024 22:16:35 GMT
Another quick report on here for MAGGIE AND ME, which I saw on its last night of its tour around Scotland (and Northampton) in Edinburgh as a National Theatre for Scotland production.
It’s an adaptation of Damien Barr’s memoir, which tells the story of his childhood in the shadow of the Ravenscraig steelworks in Lanarkshire. A poor neighbourhood, difficult parenting, dealing with his sexuality in the time of Thatcher and Section 28. And let’s not forget that Barr, like me, grew up in a country where homosexuality was not decriminalised in the way it had been in England and Wales until the 1980s.
The play is quite a different animal than the book; it introduces the character of “older DB”, the writer of the book, and the premise is that current DB is struggling to revisit his childhood in order to write his book. The play is written by James Ley, who wrote the homage to Edinburgh LGBT bookshop ‘Love Song to Lavender Menace’, which is one of my favourite plays ever. The play ‘Maggie and Me’ is a bit of a fever dream, it’s a fantasia of 1980s Lanarkshire, and two days later I’m still processing what I saw and I’d love to see it again.
A stunning central performance by Gary Lamont as older DB, and a realistic performance as “wee DB” by Sam Angell made this show really work for me - the West of Scotland (like many other areas of heavy industry) was a weird and sad place to live in the early 80s, and the use of the character of Thatcher as an all-pervading influence accurately reflects how it felt for me as a young person at that time. My grandfather worked at Ravenscraig and lit one of the blast furnaces there so there was a real personal connection to me. I had to explain to my husband that Carfin Grotto, a major location in the play, was a real place and not part of the fantasy world created for this play.
I really hope this has a future life, I thought it was a really inspired work, packed probably with too many ideas, but as a broad contemporary of Damien Barr, this hit deep in my psyche, and I wept for a good few minutes at the end of the show, identifying with the feart young boy that was the young DB. That was me.
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4,820 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on Jun 18, 2024 8:52:58 GMT
Thanks for the review @n1david. I loved Lavender and also the book Maggie & Me.
Has Lavender ever crossed the boarder ? I caught it at the fringe and assumed it would.
I hope both have a long and healthy life
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1,668 posts
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Post by Dave B on Jun 20, 2024 22:55:02 GMT
Some Demon - Arcola
2023 Papatango Prize winner, set in a residential eating disorder unit. Four patients and two nurses. Long, running at around 3 hours but a really strong cast and it really nicely balances the grim reality of some eating disorders with dark comedy. Good direction, good cast. A slight trim perhaps would help but still sitting at an comfortable four stars.
The Beckett Trilogy - Coronet
Lovely to see Coronet selling out every night, so much so that they added standing tickets (at 3h45 min, well done to those who managed that!) which is lovely to see too. A shame Postie isn't around to comment as I know he likes his Beckett. I liked this, I enjoyed most of it but I found some of it a struggle. I felt like I maybe needed a bit more of a primer on the works (my own fault perhaps for going in unprepared), more than once I felt ...well not smart enough to fully understand what was going on. I'm also a little lost on some of the performance, it is a mammoth one man show and really wordy but I have the distinct impression some of the wording wasn't quite right and there may have been some missed/flubbed lines. I'm possibly doing Conor Lovett a disservice, would love if anyone happened to be there and could correct me! I'm gonna go with three stars but for anyone smarter than me (not hard some would say), it could perhaps be a four or even a five star piece.
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172 posts
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Post by bee on Jul 7, 2024 7:44:13 GMT
Kafka - Finborough Theatre
Maybe a bit of a waste of time reviewing this since it closed last night, but here goes.
This is a one man show performed by it's writer Jack Klaff. He takes on the characters of various people, some of whom were part of Kafka's life, and some who were promoters of his work afterwards (Alan Bennett pops up at one point). In common with a lot of the shows Finborough has put on recently, it hasn't been produced in a while, 1994 being the last time apparently.
I liked this on the whole, though I found it a bit hard to keep up at times, not being very knowledgeable about Kafka's life. It's all delivered in a rambling stream-of-consciousness sort of way, which in general worked but was a bit exhausting by the end of the 90 minutes.
It seemed to go down well with the audience, and made me want to find out more about Kafka, so maybe in that sense it did its job.
3 - 3.5 stars.
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1,392 posts
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Post by Steve on Jul 16, 2024 17:25:30 GMT
Saw "The Voice of the Turtle" at Jermyn Street Theatre this afternoon, and LOVED it! Its ending on Saturday or I would have started a thread as it felt like a solid 4 stars, a romantic comedy that works. If you saw David Eldridge's "Beginning," where two stragglers at a party begin a relationship, this was just like that, only written in 1943 by John Van Druten. The play was even made into a film in 1947 where the putative romance was between The Sound of Music's glorious Baroness, Eleanor Parker, and Ronald Reagan lol. Some spoilers follow. . . Basically, Skye Hallam's consummate society girl, Olive, wants to ditch her weekend date, soldier Bill (Cabaret's Nathan Ives-Moiba), as she's found a better prospect, and she dumps him at her best friend's apartment so as to make an easy exit. That actress best friend, Imogen Elliott's Sally, has herself recently been dumped by a Bigwig Theatre Producer, and she's sworn off love, but because all the hotels in NYC are booked, she lets the soldier stay the night, and that's the beginning. . . What's notable is in this play is that before terms like "aspergers" and "OCD" became common place, it's pretty clear that Sally, who can't stop saying everything she's thinking, who thinks of inanimate objects as having feelings, and who can't not answer a phone or not check everything before going to bed, could easily be described as a bit OCD, somewhere on the spectrum. Its a tremendously open and affecting performance by Elliott, her every thought instantly verbalised, and it's lovely the way Ives-Moiba's dumbfounded soldier finds her every quirk so endearing. With Skye Hallam's scheming dynamic character sparking up enjoyable drama in her every appearance, this was, for me, just as good as Eldridge's "Beginning." Indeed, the title refers to the coming of spring time in the Bible, in which the voice of turtle doves can be heard in the spring, a sort of spring awakening or beginning. Its all quite lovely, with three distinctly different, authentically portrayed characters, bouncing amusingly off each other. 4 stars from me. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png)
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Post by lt on Jul 20, 2024 12:14:04 GMT
Dying For It - Playground Theatre This is a play I've been keen to see for some time. The satire originally written by Nijokai Erdman was banned by Stalin and is freely adapted by Moira Buffini. It tells the story of Semyon who decides to end it all, but when the news spreads of his plan, strangers start coming forward to ask him to die for their cause.
It felt as if the production started quite slowly, but after the first 10 minutes or so, the play fully came alive and was really entertaining with laugh out loud moments. Without giving any spoilers, one scene is particularly hilarious, but there were also some much darker instances in the play too.
This was a production with free admission, performed by graduating actors from the Drama Studio London, and I thought the cast was uniformly excellent.
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