Tezza's Theatre Place

So, I wrote a review for this play for http://www.carnstheatrepassion.com/review-snapshot/ but I also wanted to write another. to see if I could effectively write two reviews for the same play but make each review distinct in its style. So, if you fancy another read of my thoughts then read on................ As I charge headlong into the twilight years of life I do start to wonder if human beings really should be in relationships at all.  I know as we go through our teens, twenties, etc we all look for that one person to settle down with but as a species, are we really that monogamous? This question has sprung to mind after seeing George Johnston’s new play Snapshot at The Hope Theatre in Islington. Foreign Currency trader Daniel (Joey Akubeze) is doing OK. Let’s be honest he is doing better than OK. Well educated - private school then Magdalene College, Cambridge - He now earns a significant salary - the likes of which we mere mortals can only dream - and has a lov...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/169857/review-natives-glenn-waldron-southwark-playhouse/ Boundless at Southwark Playhouse. Fionn Whitehead and Ella Purnell. Photo credit Richard Davenport Do you remember your fourteenth birthday? Funnily enough, I do remember mine. It was my last birthday in Essex before heading off to start a new life in Lancashire. For the three teenagers in Glenn Waldron’s new play Natives premiering at the Southwark Playhouse, their fourteenth birthday will be something they never forget. Never identified by name, three characters celebrate their birthday in completely different ways. For A (Ella Purnell) this means hanging out with her fashionable girlfriends shopping for an outfit for someone else’s birthday party. A’s life is about designer labels, who’s in and who’s out and how many ‘hearts’ every post on social media achieves. She and her friends are shallow, superficial socialites and would ultimately turn on each other faster than rats trapped in ...

http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/review-handbagged-brockley-jack-theatre/ Ever wanted to be The Queen? not a Queen but The Queen? It can’t be a bad life really. You get to travel around for free, everyone does whatever you tell them and it’s a job for life. Of course, there are snakes as well as ladders in the monarchy game. As Queen you have no actual power, can’t vote and every Tuesday you have to spend some time with the current Prime Minister – someone you may not personally like or respect – and listen to them whitter on about how great things are. In the UK, for an eleven year period, the roles of Monarch and Prime Minister were both held by women. Nobody knows what passed between them at their weekly meetings, but playwright Moira Buffini has come up with some ideas and her award-winning play  Handbagged , currently running at the Jack Studio Theatre, is the fruition of her thoughts. Unusually for a play about the monarch and her PM,  Handb...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/153624/this-house-garrick-theatre-review/ Ever thought about being an MP? I have to admit there have been times when I have. After all, the salary isn’t bad – nor is the pension – you get a nice office in central London, subsidised meals and bars, free travel to your constituency and back – first class naturally – and the work can’t be that hard can it? Well if you had been an honorable or right honourable member during the mid to late seventies, then you would have found the work very hard going indeed and nobody in parliament worked harder than the party Whips, who were trying to either prop up or destroy a government permanently on the edge of failure. Turbulent times which have been fantastically recreated in James Graham’s political drama  This House  which has just opened in the West End’s Garrick Theatre. Set in the turbulent political period between 1974 and 1979  This House  looks at the events of that time from the p...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/152905/review-princess-the-good-girls-gone-bad-lost-theatre/ Without straying too far into gender stereotyping, lots of young girls (and one or two boys as well) dream of one day being a Disney-style princess. Of course, that’s not a realistic career goal and most people do grow out of it. However, Disney princesses have also grown up and are no longer the weak young innocents hoping a handsome prince on a white charger will pop up and save them from whatever vile thing is trying to hurt them. Today’s princess is more likely to be some Xena type ready to defend herself against all comers. All this talk is merely a way to tell you that I recently saw Stuart Saint’s new production  Princess – The Good Girl’s Gone Bad  at the Lost Theatre. Using a combination of dance, music, video and mime, Stuart’s piece tells the story of a girl (Jennie Dickie) who wants to be a fairytale princess and then one day is taken by her trusted rabbit (Morgan...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/151981/mule-is-a-seriously-great-production-from-start-to-finish/ According to the old song, “ A mule is an animal with long, funny ears, He kicks up at anything he hears, His back is brawny and his brain is weak, He’s just plain stupid with a stubborn streak ” However, there is a much nastier side to the word and demonstrated in Kat Woods harrowing one-act play  Mule  at the Omnibus in Clapham. Based on a true story,  Mule  starts with a series of projected text messages (good work by Video Designer Carrie Shearman) between two sisters from Ireland. One having recently lost her job is heading off to spend the summer in Ibiza, while the other stays home and relays messages. As time goes on, things seem to be going okay, and then suddenly the messages stop, the phone goes unanswered and voicemails aren’t replied to. The home-based sister is getting more worried and upset and eventually calls in the Police to find her sibling, w...

The British have given much to the world of theatre. Aside from Shakespeare, there are Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn to name but two. However, in one particular genre, the Brits are outstanding, although often not fully understood by non-brits, and that is farce. I mention this as one of the finest examples of a farcical play has recently opened in the  West End  at the Vaudeville Theatre. The play is  Dead Funny  – a title that is very, very apt. http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/dead-funny-is-simply-a-wonderful-night-out/ In a nice suburban middle class house, Eleanor (Katherine Parkinson) is waiting for her husband Richard (Rufus Jones) to return home from a hard day practising specialised medicine. Tonight is a special night. The couple have been having problems and seeing a counsellor who has given them some rather off the wall and, highly embarrassing homework to help rekindle the physical side of their marriage....

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/150919/review-sam-shepards-fool-for-love-found111/ Adam Rothenberg and Lydia Wilson – Photo Darren Bell There are times when going to the theatre can be a confusing experience. While a production is engaging and holds the attention, when it finishes, there is a sense of ‘what did I just see’ and you leave the theatre wondering if you had missed something or were maybe not intellectually up to the ideas of the playwright. I mention this, as I encountered this phenomenon last night at the Found111 presentation of Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love. In a run down Mojave Desert motel, May (Lydia Wilson) is sat at the end of the bed looking upset and not making eye contact with tall cowboy Eddie (Adam Rothenberg). Eddie is trying to placate May and reassure her that he will not be leaving her again. Not only is he promising her that he will stay but he is trying to convince May that she should move to Wyoming and set up home with him. The two obviously ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/150674/mums-the-word-the-hen-and-chickens-theatre/ I never went to a boarding school. Age eleven I was down the local comprehensive five days a week and returning to my loving home for dinner in the evening. However, those that did go through the public school system often say it had a profound effect on their lives and they made relationships that lasted forever. I used the word relationships there deliberately for, as can be seen in Robert Hughes’ new play  Mum’s the Word  at the Hen and Chickens Theatre, you can’t always call these coming together of people friendship. The ‘Wine and Dandy’ bar in Soho and Jess (Danielle Williams) is sat at a table by herself, a waiter approaches and kisses her. Even in Soho, this overly familiar type of behaviour would normally be considered odd, but the waiter is in fact, Jess’s boyfriend Aidan (Lewis Clarke). Tonight though Aiden is just a waiter as Jess is meeting some friends – well when I say fr...