Tezza's Theatre Place

From left to right – Top row – Catrine Kirkman, Jennie Jacobs. Bottom row – Hannah Crerar, Philip Lee. (c) Robert Workman. The second paragraph of the United States Declaration of Independence starts as follows: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. Of course, this is rubbish. Men – or more importantly people – are not created equal. Where and to whom you are born will often set the path for your life to come and nowhere was this truer than in the English class system of the 1800s. A theme which is central to the plot of Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore at the King’s Head Theatre. H.M.S. Pinafore is a submarine in the Royal Navy. It is commanded by the urbane Captain Corcoran (Matthew Palmer/Matthew Siveter) a man assured of his place in the world as indeed are those below decks – Able Seamen Rackstraw...

http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/crime-and-punishment-brockley-jack-studio-theatre-review/ When you consider the vast wealth of literature available in the world, you sometimes have to wonder why playwrights decide that certain books should be turned into a piece of theatrical entertainment. For example, imagine taking a novel with around twenty-two listed characters and which the author originally divided into six distinct parts with an epilogue and then distilling all of this down to a ninety-minute one-act play three actors. Personally, I would have given up within the first five minutes. However, Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus have more fortitude than me and so, they gave the treatment to Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1866 novel  Crime and Punishment  and the result of their work can be seen at Brockley’s famous Jack Studio Theatre The play starts with two men in an office. Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, (Christopher Tester) is a young man who, going ...

http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/review-of-half-a-sixpence-at-the-noel-coward-theatre/ Hand on heart now, how many of you reading this right now, play a Lottery game in some form or another? And how many of you players do so because of the money the various organisations distribute to good causes throughout the length and breadth of the UK? Let’s be honest, we play the lottery to win the money and change our lives. However, maybe we should be careful what we wish for, because when a life is changed by money then all of the values that were held dear are looked at from a different perspective. Not sure if I’m talking through my hat here? Well get yourself down to the Noël Coward Theatre and go and see Cameron Mackintosh’s latest smash hit transfer from the Chichester Festival –  Half A Sixpence. Its 1904 and young Arthur Kipps (Charlie Stemp) and his best friend Ann Pornick (Devon-Elise Johnson) are playing. There is sadness in their games though as to...