Tezza's Theatre Place

Paul McEwan. Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost. Unicorn Theatre. Photo Manuel Harlan Halloween may be over, but the festive season is often a time for a haunting or two – think Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. One story of things that go bump in the night is Oscar Wilde’s  The Canterville Ghost  currently having a spooky outing at the Unicorn Theatre. American diplomat Hiram Otis (Nana Amoo-Gottfried) is a happy man. He works for the US State Department and lives in a nice part of New York State with his celebrated interior designer wife Lucretia (Beth Cordingly) and children – inventor Washington (Nathaniel Wade), keen gardener Virginia (Safiyya Ingar) and the mischievous film-making twins, Stars (Mae Munuo) and Stripes (Rose-Marie Christian). Their lives are good and their days are full. However, that is about to change as Hiram’s bosses have decided to post him, and therefore his family, to England. Otis crosses the pond first and sets about finding a house for the family...

Where is Peter Rabbit? One of the big problems for parents is what to do with their little ones during the school holidays. Days out are great, but with the British weather, the chances are limited to experience the great outdoors. However, fear not, for if you pop down to the Theatre Royal Haymarket, you can keep the ankle biters entertained and happy as one of literature’s best-known bunny comes to the West End at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in  Where is Peter Rabbit? Beatrix Potter (Joanna Brown) welcomes us to her magical world and, tells us that she has lost Peter Rabbit (Charlotte Harrington). She enlists the help of Jemima Puddle-Duck (Grace Osborn) and, as the two of them search for the errant rabbit, they share some of Beatrix’s stories with us – assisted by the voices of Griff Rhys Jones and Miriam Margolyes. These include the wonderful tale of bitter enemies Tommy Brock (Samuel Knight) and Mr Tod (Matthew Whitby), not to mention Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and Lucie and the ta...

Whenever we hear of the downfall of a famous person, someone is bound to say that their problem was ,they flew too close to the sun - or something along those lines. A strange expression but a famous one and I wonder how many people know where it originated.  Well, if you get yourself along to the Unicorn Theatre for the first UK production of Katrin Lange’s Icarus, you just might find out. Icarus (Marshall Defender Nyanhete) is the eldest son of Daedalus (Selva Rasalingam) and is an unhappy boy. His father, who is a builder by trade, has gone missing.  The family last heard of him arriving in Crete where he was starting work on a hush hush job.  But since then, not a word or, more importantly, any money has come back to Icarus, his mother, and siblings.  The plucky youngster decided to go and find his father and sets off, complete with a home-made jumper on his adventure. In Crete, Icarus and Daedalus meet up and he learns that his father is working for King ...

There’s not many things that get me travelling out to West London in the early hours of a rainy Wednesday morning, but sometimes, the reviewer’s life means sacrificing sleep so that you can get to the Lyric Hammersmith in time for a 09:30 performance of  Father Christmas . Based on the 1973 book written and drawn by Raymond Briggs,  Father Christmas  tells the story of the man himself from the moment he is dragged out of his sleep on the morning of the 24th December until he finally gets back into bed on the evening of the 25th. Now, this is not the jolly Santa shown in so many adverts. Oh no,  Father Christmas  is an old man who is, well let’s not beat about the bush, a bit of a curmudgeon. He lives in a fairly ordinary house with his cat, dog and two reindeer and you get the feeling he is less enthusiastic about Christmas Eve than the majority of the world. Still, he is nothing if not a professional, and deep down he does still love his job, and so he dons...

Ben Adams as Dad, Bea Holland as Mum and Guy Rhys as Bernard in Not Now Bernard at the Unicorn Theatre. Photography by Camilla Greenwell Want to get some peace and quiet and keep the little ones entertained for a while? Well, you can do no better than pop along to the Unicorn Theatre for their production  Not Now, Bernard . Based on David McKee’s book of the same name, this is the story of Bernard (Guy Rhys) a young boy who just wants to be noticed by his parents. Unfortunately, his Mum (Bea Holland) and Dad (Ben Adams) are too preoccupied with important things like watering plants, and watching the cricket to respond to his warnings that there is a monster in the garden that wants to eat him with anything more than a perfunctory ‘not now Bernard’. Then one day, he goes out to play in the garden and, while he doesn’t return, something larger and hairier does. Having not read the original book I wasn’t sure what to expect from this production, but as soon as I entered the aud...