The Flies
March 13, 2009
Camden People’s Theatre
11-29 March 2009.
A plague of flies has been inflicted on the inhabitants of Argos by the Gods to torment them and constantly remind them of the heinous crime of Regicide committed in their city. Queen Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus have murdered her husband Agamemnon and usurped the throne. Read more
Breakfast with Emma
March 13, 2009
Rosemary Branch Theatre
11 March – 9 April 2009
The Emma of the title is not the Jane Austen one, but Madame Bovary as invented by Gustave Flaubert – which Faye Weldon has fashioned into a domestic confrontation between Emma and her husband. Charles is a poor unsuccessful doctor who had been completely under the domination of his mother until he married a convent educated, beautiful butterfly of a wife. Read more
Whiter Than Snow
March 12, 2009
Unicorn Theatre
11-21 March
Whiter Than Snow is the story of the Frantz family travelling players, all persons of restricted growth, or as Frieda, the daughter of the piece points out, ‘short’. Accompanied by Vera, the family Sign Language Interpreter and Sam, their loyal stage manager, they move from place to place with their show, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Except that in their version it is Snow White and the four dwarfs, because “the other three got a better offer”. Read more
The New Electric Ballroom
March 11, 2009
Riverside Studios
3 to 29 March 2009
Enda Walsh has been in the news lately for his screenplay (co-written with Steve McQueen) for Hunger, the highly acclaimed film about the Maze prison hunger strikes of 1981. But The New Electric Ballroom, seen at last year’s Edinburgh Festival, finds him back in his more theatrical helter-skelter groove; this is a powerful, poetic play for three sisters in a remote Irish fishing village who are unlikely to get as far as Cork City, let alone Dublin or Moscow. Read more
Austentatious
March 9, 2009
Landor Theatre
4 – 28 March 2009
Austen purists should probably avoid – if they haven’t left by the interval, then Elizabeth Bennet’s climactic, New York-based tap-off with her Pirate Queen sister Lydia, will surely send them running back to their texts to double-check the footnotes. Read more
Obama on My Mind
March 6, 2009
Hen and Chickens Theatre
5-21 March
Waking up with Obama on your mind? Me neither actually. Since the almighty election fuss and the much hyped inauguration, the superhero of American politics has disappeared rapidly from the British tabloids. But never fear, Teddy Hayes is here, with his comedy musical homage to the people behind the scenes: the weird and wonderful characters on the Obama campaign trail. Having been workshoped at the Baron’s Court Theatre Obama on My Mind now arrives in North London for its world premiere where it goes clunkety, clunkety, clunk with some poor directorial decisions and a worrying lack of storyline. Read more
Oliver Twist
March 5, 2009
Riverside Studios
3 to 22 March 2009
It’s a brave choice to stage Oliver Twist when you have the highly publicised Cameron Mackintosh production playing just down the road. And if high kicks and good ol’ cockney spirit is what you’re after then you’d best stick with the Drury Lane production as you won’t find much of that down at Riverside Studios. Read more
The Mozart Question
March 5, 2009
New End Theatre
3 March – 14 April
From the opening notes played on the violin we are hooked by Paolo Levi’s story of how he borrowed the violin that his mother had shown him, had it repaired, and, with the aid of a street performer, whose playing had captivated him, learns about his parents’ secret past and why he must never play Mozart in his father’s presence whilst he is still alive. Read more
Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?
February 28, 2009
Arch 468
17 February – 22 March
Set up like a small apartment, the venue space of Arch468 affords a performance area that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. As the four actors of Drunk Enough to Say I Love You? saunter from the kitchen to the living room, the living room to the loft, viewers are free to follow them—often becoming part of the scene. Read more
Isfahan Calling
February 27, 2009
Old Red Lion
24 February to 14 March 2009
There is an inordinate amount of huffing and puffing in Isfahan Calling, Philip de Gouveia’s new play about a covert radio propaganda exercise in the desert. The idea is to discredit the regime in Tehran and demoralise Iranian army units across the border. Read more
