Tezza's Theatre Place

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/196487/really-want-to-hurt-me-at-the-old-red-lion-theatre-review/ When you were a kid, did virtually every adult you ever met tell you ‘ ah yes, schooldays, best years of your life ’? I know I got told that a few times. Of course, for some people, the days at school are easy, fun and enjoyable. For others, those that may be a little bit different, they can be your worst nightmare come true. A fact that is at the heart of Ben SantaMaria’s play  Do You Really Want to Hurt Me , at the Old Red Lion, Islington Performed by Ryan Price,  Do You Really Want to Hurt Me  is a one-act monologue of a gay boy’s time at senior school in Exeter in the mid-1980s. Starting in 1984, we follow the boy’s story as he tries to come to terms with his sexuality and becoming a man at a time when homophobia was rampant and the AIDS virus had become newsworthy, with media outlets talking about the ‘Gay Plague’. Fortunately the boy has a Walkman and, thanks ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/196428/review-the-york-realist-donmar-warehouse/# Lesley Nicol (Mother) and Ben Batt (George) in The York Realist at the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Robert Hastie. Photo by Johan Persson The kitchen is the heart of the home. It is the place where we receive our sustenance and is the only room that everyone in a house is likely to visit and meet other members of the household. This is particularly true in a small property such as a cottage on a farm, the setting for Peter Gill’s 2001 play  The York Realist  which has been revived at the Donmar Warehouse. Yorkshire farm labourer George (Ben Batt) lives in a tied cottage with his elderly Chapel going mother (Lesley Nicol) and his life pretty much revolves around the farming calendar. The two of them roll along nicely together. George’s mother is getting on in years and is not as fit as she once was, but she always ensures he has a hot meal waiting and a clean shirt ironed. There is only...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/196211/review-the-tempest-brockley-jack-studio-theatre/ The Tempest at Brockley Jack Studio Theatre Cole Porter famously wrote “ Brush up your Shakespeare, Start quoting him now, Brush up your Shakespeare, And the women you will wow ” nice words but for the Controlled Chaos Theatre Company fairly pointless as they present their all-female version of William Shakespeare’s  The Tempest  at the Brockley Jack. I’m sure you know the basics of the story. Prospero (Jo Bartlett), rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda (Michelle Pittoni), have been stranded for twelve years on an island after Prospero’s brother Antonio (Shereener Browne) – aided by Alonso, the King of Naples (Orla Sanders) – deposed him and set him adrift. Gonzalo (Alma Reising), Prospero’s friend and the King’s counselor, had secretly supplied their boat with the essentials of life, including some of Prospero’s prize books. On the island, Prospero has caused his ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/196133/a-serious-play-about-world-war-ii-vault-festival/ When you have won every comedy award possible, what else is a production company to do? Well, in the case of Willis & Vere, who did so well last year at the Vault Festival with their show  The Starship Osiris , the next challenge was to move from comedy to drama. So this year, they have brought their new show  A Serious Play About World War II  to the Vault and I was lucky enough to get to see it. This is no ordinary production. It begins with Ian Fleming (no relation I think) playing some mournful music on a violin. The music sounds like it is Jewish in origin and the reason for that becomes clear when George Vere and Adam Willis come on to the stage to talk about this project. George and Adam have carried out a lot of research before writing their show which tells the story of holocaust survivor Hirshel Günzberg. A Jewish boy was taken to Auschwitz when he was ju...

https://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/carmen-1808-union-theatre-london-review/ Carmen – Credit Scott Rylander Ah, the classics. As everyone knows there are two types of performances that involve people singing on stage. There is opera – grand stories, big voices, elitist and not for the plebs – and there is musical theatre – shallow plots, jazz hands, available to the Saturday night, ‘gotta catch a show crowd’. And as everyone really knows, the last sentence is rubbish. Opera can be accessible and musical theatre can be amazingly deep in plot and composition. And, of course the two genres can be mixed which is precisely what Phil Willmott has done with  Carmen 1808  at the Union Theatre. Spain in 1808 is under the control of Napoleon Bonaparte and his troops. Our narrator, the painter Francisco Goya (Alexander Barria) sets the scene. The Spanish nobility have accepted France’s rule and the French army – along with their new comrades in the Span...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/195858/review-mad-as-hell-jermyn-street-theatre/ Vanessa Donovan and Stephen Hogan in Mad as Hell, credit of Eddie Otchere. There is always a frisson of real excitement when I find out the production I’m off to see is a world premiere. Knowing I will be one of the first people to view and comment on a show is both exciting and humbling at the same time. So, it is with some trepidation that I write about  Mad as Hell  receiving its world premiere at the Jermyn Street Theatre. In a Jamaican bar, a local girl is having a good time. Her name is Eletha Barrett (Vanessa Donovan) and works as a dance hostess with an enlarged moral sense. Yes, she will accept money to dance with men but that is as far as it goes. Sitting watching her is a middle-aged white guy (Stephen Hogan) in a rumpled suit. The two strike up a conversation and Eletha seems unimpressed with the man, even when he boasts that he is the renowned actor Peter Finch. Peter may be...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/195750/review-the-soul-of-wittgenstein-the-omnibus-theatre/ Wittgenstein: Richard Stemp and Ben Woodhall- Photographer Lidia Crisafulli When looking for a profound opening statement to a review, it’s not often I delve into the world of musical theatre. But this quote from  The King and I  immediately sprang to mind as being very appropriate to  The Soul of Wittgenstein  which has opened the Omnibus Theatre. The quote goes – “If you become a teacher, by your pupils you’ll be taught”, and it fits the bill perfectly. Late 1941 and a middle-aged man – real name Ludwig Wittgenstein (Richard Stemp) – is getting ready for work. He is unhurried in his preparations and meticulously irons each item of clothing before putting it on. We move now to Guys Hospital where, in a private room, a young man by the name of John Smith (Ben Woodhall) is lying in bed. He is joined by Ludwig dressed in a porter’s jacket and here to administer John’s ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/195454/review-arnika-theatre-voliere-bridewell-theatre/ Arnika – Image by Tom Crooke/Bobbin Productions In these days of Brexit and Trump, knowing which country a person is from seems to be more and more relevant than before, so where are you from? I’m British, I have a friend who is Australian, another is American and so on. Simple, I have my identity and so do you. Now imagine that you were from an area of the Europe where your nationality has not just changed hands once but since 450 BC, has actually switched ‘locations’ seventeen times, and since 1900 has been seen a change of owner four times. That is the fate of Alsace, the location for Mick Wood’s new play  Arnika , part of Théâtre Volière’s Marchland festival at the Bridewell Theatre. 1951 and in a village in a forest in the Vosges mountains of Alsace, there is tension in the air. The Mayor of the town, and local hotelier – Josef Seltz (Anthony Orme) – is getting ready for an unwelc...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/194968/moments-and-empty-beds-hope-theatre-review/ Moments and Empty Beds – Credit: Nick Reed Having two separate one-act plays on the same night is a bit of a gamble really. You never know what the audience are going to do. Are the two plays complementary or do they clash against each other thematically? What about the set, the actors needed? Yes, it’s a brave Artistic Director that goes for a two-show performance. Luckily, Matthew Parker at The Hope Theatre laughs in the face of danger and has brought a great double bill –  Moments and Empty Beds  – by Julia Cranney to Islington. Moments  is a two-hander about Ava (Julia Cranney) and Daniel (Simon Mattacks), two single people living in London who occasionally see each other on the bus to work. Ava is a young lady working in a call centre, while Daniel is a middle-aged security guard at a car park. One thing they do have in common is that they are both on their own. Daniel is es...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/194550/madonna-or-whore-the-vault-festival-review/ When you think about it in the great scheme of things, sixty minutes is not a long time. Two episodes of a standard sitcom or the average lunch break. Let’s be honest, I can put off writing a review for longer than an hour and not notice the time pass. However, Holly Morgan’s production  Madonna or Whore? , down at the Vault Festival, managed in just sixty short minutes to affect me so much, it may even have changed my life in some small way. The show itself is based on the “Madonna–whore complex” first identified by Sigmund Freud. Under the rubric of psychic impotence, this psychological complex is said to develop in men who see women as either saintly Madonnas or debased whores. I’m guessing right now you’re thinking “that sounds like it’s not for me”. I can understand that, as my first reaction was also along those lines. But stick with it as Holly has not only written a fantastic one a...

https://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/collective-rage-a-play-in-five-betties-review/ Collective Rage at Southwark Playhouse. Sara Stewart (Betty 1) Photo by Jack Sain Terminology around the LGBT+ community can seem like a bit of a nightmare. People get so worried about saying the right thing and using the right words that they forget everyone they are talking about or to is a person, an individual in their own right. Bringing the whole thing back to people is Jan Silverman whose play  Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties  is getting its UK premiere at the Southwark Playhouse. Told both as monologues to the audience and interactions between the characters, and using a play within a play device, Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties is exactly that. Five, and I apologise for the terminology, ladies, named Betty, are brought together in this one act story of rage, desire, lust and love set in New York. Betty 1 (Sara Stewart) is a socialite, married to ...