Tezza's Theatre Place

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/166447/what-shall-we-do-with-the-cello-review-vault-festival/ The Vault Festival is renowned for the diversity of its productions. Over the course of the festival, there will be a show or two that are pure ‘marmite’, loved by some and disliked by others. An example of this can be found in Atelier Theatre Studio’s UK premiere of Matei Visniec’s  What Shall We Do With the Cello? . The action is set in a waiting room where there are four chairs, a cello and a bow. Suddenly, in rushes, a man (Nick Allen) obviously getting away from the storm outside. He picks up the cello and starts to play. The music is very contemporary, with hard, discordant notes that jar the ears rather than a flowing melody. Soon after the man starts to play, the Lady with the Veil (Simona Armstrong) enters. She is young and pretty but and has a rather prim and proper appearance. The two of them are not alone for long and are soon joined by The Man with the Stick (Mihai A...

In 2016 I reviewed 180 shows either as a full reviewer or an assessor for the Offies. Most of my reviews are done for London Theatre 1  and Neil of LT1 has asked his reviewers for their top shows of the year. The full rundown can be found here , and includes all Neil's reviewers. The list below is my own top 10 - and believe me it was very difficult to whittle it down to only 10, which is why there are honourable mentions at the end. You may agree or disagree with my list but, like reviewing itself, its subjective and if everyone liked exactly the same shows all the time, theatre would be exceptionally boring.  So, away we go with my countdown of the top 10 shows of 2016: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 and 2, Cambridge Theatre No doubt this is the No 1 show of the year for me.   J K Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, have captured the essence of the Harry potter books and brought them to life in wonderful style with these two fantastic play...