Tezza's Theatre Place

https://www.carnstheatrepassion.com/review-loved-lucy/ ★★★★★ Review By Terry Eastham One of the most difficult things for an actor to be asked to do is to play an icon, whether living or dead. No matter how the actor may be able to portray every facet of the individual there will always be some who say it’s not right and it will be impossible to please everyone in their portrayal. However, at the Arts Theatre, you will find an actor who is her subject to the tee as Lee Tannen’s lovely two-hander  I Loved Lucy  returns to London. Photos by Alessia Chinazzo Background Based on Lee’s book of the same name, the story follows the relationship of Lee (Matthew Scott) and his idol Lucille Ball (Sandra Dickinson) in the last ten years of Lucy’s life. She may no longer have been a massive film and television star but Lucy was still a Hollywood star and Lee had a wonderfully close relationship with her. Lucy is everything Lee hoped she would be. Warm, friendly, feisty an...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/178118/review-of-dessert-at-southwark-playhouse/ Dessert: L-R Stuart Milligan, Teresa Banham, Graham Turner – photo credit Catherine Ashmore As the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6, verses 9-10 “ those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. ” Yet, we all do want money. Millions are spent every week on various lotteries. The strange thing is, that wherever we end up on life’s rich list, there is always someone who we envy for having more. And occasionally this envy can spill over into action as demonstrated by Oliver Cotton in his play Dessert at the Southwark Playhouse. In a rather nice country house, four people are enjoying a dinner party: Sir Hugh Fennell (Michael Simkins) and his lovely w...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/173436/review-stick-and-twisted-hivemind-hen-chickens-theatre/ When you stop and think about it, all of us have to improvise every single day. The bus doesn’t come, or there are no jacket potatoes left in the canteen, there are systems issues at work, etc. Every day something happens that makes us change from our normal and expected routine and make up our next action on the spot. And that, my friends, is the essence of improvisation. However, I think I can safely say that the majority of us wouldn’t be happy standing on a stage, under harsh lighting, frantically improvising stories for a paying audience, would we? Well, that’s what improv group Hivemind do in their show  Stick and Twisted  which I saw at the Hen & Chickens Theatre last night. The show itself is unique every time it is performed and therefore there is no point in telling you exactly what I saw, so to give you a rough idea. Hivemind are 5 very personable folks going...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/169787/lucy-mccormick-triple-threat-soho-theatre-review/ According to the Collins English Dictionary, the word ‘gobsmacked’ means astounded and astonished. Personally I think this is too simplistic as we all know when we’ve been gobsmacked don’t we? Well, if you’re not too sure what it means then I would suggest you get yourself along to the Soho Theatre to see  Lucy McCormick: Triple Threat  and roughly an hour after the show starts, you will be 100% certain that you were gobsmacked. Lucy and her backing team present a show that is, in effect, the New Testament, or at least the story of Jesus. Playing all the major roles herself, Lucy takes the story of the Son of God from conception, through birth, adoration, betrayal, crucifixion and finally to ascension. How she does this, I can’t tell you for two very good reasons. Firstly,  Lucy McCormick: Triple Threat  is definitely one of those shows that needs to be seen to be belie...

http://www.carnstheatrepassion.com/review-thats-jewish-entertainment/ Did you know, in the early 1940’s all the major movie studios – bar one – had one thing in common, any idea what that was? They were all headed up by a Jewish man. Now you may wonder how this came about. If you do, then get yourself along to Upstairs at the Gatehouse where Aria Entertainments are staging That’s Jewish Entertainment. This lovely revue show takes its audience on a journey spanning over a hundred years. From the mass migration of Jews in the 19th Century, from the shtetl or Eastern Europe. Onto a new dawn in the United States of America. As they travelled, the jews took their culture with them. That culture has always been steeped in music and drama. For many of the dispossessed jews arriving in the USA, entertainment became more than just a cultural thing – It became a career. From the stages of Vaudeville they exported their skill in entertainment. Fully embracing the commercial side of show busi...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/167017/a-clockwork-orange-park-theatre-review/ Did you know that as at the time of me writing this, there are over 88,000 people languishing in one of Her Majesty’s jails in the United Kingdom. According to the Home Office, the cost of keeping one prisoner in jail is just over £33,000 per year. Multiply the first figure by the second and that’s a lot of money that could be spent on other things. It’s no wonder that rehabilitation is one of the main purposes of the penal system. So, if you are, for example, Minister of the Interior and a doctor comes to you with a bold new treatment that is guaranteed to reform any prison inmate and within two weeks make them a safe, member of society, able to be released once more into the world then you would give it a try wouldn’t you? This is the backbone of Action the Word’s award-winning production of  A Clockwork Orange  which has just opened at The Park Theatre. Based on Anthony Burgess’ novel of...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/165886/the-hiv-monologues-ace-hotel/ The HIV Monologues (c) Eliza Goroya According to the National AIDS Trust, in 2015 nearly 90,000 in the UK received HIV specialist care. That’s quite a figure. HIV is no respecter of gender, age, sexual orientation or religion and between 2006 and 2015, there has been a 73% increase in the number of people accessing HIV care. It’s a difficult subject to talk about, and one probably avoided at most dinner parties. But Patrick Cash’s new play  The HIV Monologues  which I saw at the Ace Hotel, Shoreditch, is a wonderful way to get the conversation started. ‘Resting’ actor Alex (Denholm Spurr) has a lot going on at the moment. Not only is he about to go on a first date with Tinder match Nick (Kane Surry) but tomorrow, he is going to a hospital to audition for a role in a play by writer Barney (Jonathan Blake). Alex and Nick’s date is going well – after Nick’s horrendous opening flirting and dreaming up ...

http://www.carnstheatrepassion.com/review-hip-the-2017-vault-festival-until-feb-5th/ Remember the old song,”if you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise”? Well, let’s bring it right up to date with some new lyrics so, altogether now “If you go down to the Vaults this month you’re sure of a big surprise”. Yes, the annual Vaults festival is back causing thousands of people to go underneath Waterloo station, walk along the fascinating road known as graffiti street and enter a subterranean world where not just every night is a different but every hour brings surprises galore. Last night I had my first visit to the festival of 2017, to see Jolie Booth’s one woman show Hip. Now, the first thing about this show you need to know is that this is not an ordinary show. Any production that starts with a notice at the entrance stating “This is an Extra-live Performance. Audiences are invited to respond to a show in whatever way feels natural; Latecomers’ are permitted” is n...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/158698/the-trackers-of-oxyrhynchus-finborough-theatre/ Many plays that are performed take place over a limited time span. Anything from a few hours to a couple of days. However, there is the odd one that spans a time period from the 5th Century BC to 2017, a range of some 2500 years. Not an easy feat you may think and to cover this in seventy-five minutes is nigh on impossible. However, it is not only possible but is currently happening at the Finborough Theatre where  The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus  has returned to London after nearly thirty years. The story starts in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt where archaeologists and Oxford Dons Grenfell (Tom Purbeck) and Hunt (Richard Glaves) are searching amongst the ancient papyrus fragments matching the pieces to make documents. Whilst most of the re-united fragments are fairly mundane – mostly pleas from the local peasantry – Grenfell is looking for something in particular. Prodded by a vision of the God ...