Tezza's Theatre Place

©Nobby Clark – L -R Sara Stewart, Theo Ancient and Tom Kanji. Before Narnia, and long before Hogwarts, there was a book where children were the heroes encountering magic, good versus evil and the saving of Christmas. The book, written by John Masefield was  The Box of Delights  and 83 years later, Piers Torday’s adaptation of the story opens once more at Wilton’s Music Hall. At the start of the Christmas Holidays, young orphan Kay Harker (Theo Ancient) is on a train to his guardian Caroline Louisa. Whilst on the train, Kay meets a vicar by the name of Charles (Tom Kanji) and his companion, the vivacious Pouncer (Sara Stewart). The two of them seem to warm to Kay and Charles introduces him to a card game called ‘find the lady’. When the two leave him, Kay is upset to find he appears to have lost his wallet. However, he cheers up somewhat when he meets an old man by the name of Cole Hawlings (Nigel Betts). Cole is a friendly chap, who seems to know a lot about Kay alre...

Mother Goose Cracks One Out I’ve been reviewing just over four news and so far I’ve attended over 700 shows. Not a bad number but, in all that time, I’ve never managed to get to one of the famous Above the Stag pantomimes. However, this year, that is no longer true, as I attended the 2018 offering  Mother Goose Cracks One Out . In the generic northern mill town of Rugburn – Yorkshire side of the Pennines – Mother Goose (Matthew Baldwin) a kind-hearted hairdresser, runs her business assisted by her reluctant but dedicated son Gay Tommy (Liam Woodlands-Mooney). The two of them are very poor because Mother Goose is not only useless with money but is also very generous, giving away haircuts to the needy – which seems to be everyone – and generally being a bit of a soft touch. Her landlord and squire of the town Amos (Christopher Lane) is demanding his rent as he needs the money since his mill is not doing well. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be anyone happy in Rugburn, except mayb...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/197527/review-father-of-lies-vault-festival/ Sasha Roberts and Tom Worsley in Father of Lies One of the amazing things about the Vault Festival – currently in full swing under Waterloo Station – is the sheer variety of productions that can be seen. I’ve watched a feminist show using the magic of Madonna’s music to get the point across, a farce based around the Holocaust, not to mention a dodgy one-act play about a bus stop and a cello. However, my latest venture to the festival was my first horror show as I went into the Cavern to see Bête Noire Productions’  Father of Lies . Father of Lies  is written and performed by Sasha Roberts and Tom Worsley, two very amiable young men with a taste for the macabre. Their production is based on a true story of a murder, or maybe a double murder, that took place in Würzburg, in what was then West Germany in 1973. It is part presentation and part reenactment as the two guys take the audience t...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/173175/review-contactless-hen-and-chickens-theatre/ If you live in or visit London, the chances are you will have at some point used the Underground, or Tube. I could go on here and tell you lots of interesting facts about the tube but will resist, even though it is a fascinating network. Instead, I will tell you about a new show called  Contactless  which is currently at the Hen & Chickens Theatre. Contactless  written by Tom Hartwell, is all about the Tube. From the first accidental recording of the famous ‘Mind the Gap’ voice to the daily worries of Tube travel,  Contactless  covers them all. The performance really covers three individual stories, interspersed with a series of sketches. So, we have the story of Susan (Jeryl Burgess), wife of the ‘Mind the Gap’ voice (Adam Elliot) who has worked at Embankment for over thirty years but is now facing massive changes with a new regime closing the ticket offices and a ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/168794/the-inevitable-disappearance-of-edward-j-neverwhere/ The Inevitable Disappearance of Edward J. Neverwhere  is a new piece of work that is currently at BasicSpace in Peckham. Before we start, there is one thing that needs to be made clear. We are not looking at your average tale with Edward J. Neverwhere here. Edward (William Sebag-Montefiore) is not real, he is the paper creation of a young boy who needs a friend of his own to help him cope with the awful home life he has. The boy shares everything he can with Edward, including his most prized possession and for his part, Edward promises to always be with his young friend. However, things change and as the boy changes, so does Edward, who finds that the only certainty in life is that one day it will end. Paper dominates this performance of  The Inevitable Disappearance of Edward J. Neverwhere  and on entering the performance space the audience is free to wander around and r...

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...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/164967/review-death-takes-a-holiday-charing-cross-theatre/ According to Earthwatch website ecologogy.com, 151,600 people die each day. Now, that’s quite a statistic and only goes to emphasise the fact that on the day you are born you start to die. Okay, not the most cheery way to start a review but just imagine if it was your job to go and collect more than 151,000 people every day and take them to the next stage, whatever that may be. Now, it’s 1922 and you have collected all those that died during The Great War and the Spanish flu epidemic that followed. Wouldn’t you be wanting a bit of downtime at some point? To see how that turns out, you need to pop along to the Charing Cross Theatre where they are presenting the European premiere of  Death Takes a Holiday  (Thom Southerland directs, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and book by Peter Stone and Thomas Meehan). Duke Vittorio Lamberti (Mark Inscoe) and his family are driving home to t...

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 ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/156215/the-hound-of-the-baskervilles-brockley-jack-studio-theatre/ For many families, Christmas means that along with decorations, presents, too much food and the Dr Who Christmas special, there is the annual trip to the theatre to see a well-known face appearing in one of the many pantomimes currently in theatres up and down the country. That’s all well and good but, if you fancy taking your family to something a little different this festive season, then I would definitely recommend you head off to the Jack Studio Theatre and go and see their Christmas offering  The Hound of the Baskervilles . If you don’t know the story, the  The Hound of the Baskervilles  concerns the curse of the Baskerville family which appears ready to work its evil way on Sir Henry Baskerville (Andrew Fitch) unless there is some skillful detective work by Mr Sherlock Holmes (Joey Bartram) and his erstwhile companion and assistant Doctor John Watson (Adam El...

http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/review-peter-pan-olivier-theatre/ There are days when I get up, face the morning commute, spend an hour stood on a crowded bus with my head thrust into some stranger’s armpit and I really wish I had never grown up to be an adult. Of course, that was impossible, after all, death taxes and growing up are about the only things you can count on happening in life. However, if you want to escape the humdrum and learn the story of the boy that never grew up, the place to be is the Olivier Theatre where Peter Pan has taken up residence for the festive season. The action takes place in Victorian England where Mr and Mrs Darling are heading off to a party leaving their three children, Wendy (Madeleine Worrall), John (Marc Antolin) and Michael (John Pfumojena) under the care of their ‘nurse’ Nana (Ekow Quartey). However, unbeknown to the parents outside their window lurks the shadowless figure of Peter Pan (Paul Hilton) accompanied by h...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/154011/review-another-night-before-christmas/ I bet most of you reading this at one time or another really believed in Santa Claus. You couldn’t get over how this old man travelled around the world in one night dropping off exactly the presents you had wished for in your letter to him. The whole thing was amazing and Santa was one of your utter heroes. Then, someone either by design or accident told you the truth and not only did you lose some of your childhood innocence but your Christmas would never be the same again. Wouldn’t you love to get that innocence back? Well, pop yourself along to The Bridge House Theatre and see their Christmas show,  Another Night Before Christmas . On Christmas Eve, Social Worker Carole (Rachael Wooding) is heading home from her work’s Christmas party. She is tired, fed up and just really wants to get her feet up in front of the television. As she walks, she spots a man (George Maguire) sitting on a stool...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/153493/the-tempest-the-print-room-at-the-coronet-review/ Hugh John and Paul Hamilton – Photo by Marc Brenner William Shakespeare has probably given the English language more new words – according to Shakespeare online he invented over 1700 words – and individual quotes than any other playwright. In fact, I think barely a day goes by when someone in my vicinity inadvertently quotes Shakespeare’s works. I’m not sure which of the Bard’s works have produced the most oft-used quotes but if I was to take a guess, I would suggest it is  The Tempest  – a new version of which I saw recently at the Print Room at The Coronet in Notting Hill. The story of  The Tempest  is fairly well known. A ship carrying Alfonso, the King of Naples (Paul Hamilton), his son and heir Ferdinand (Hugh John), the king’s brother Sebastian, Antonio, the Duke of Milan (Callum Dixon) and Gonzalo (Steven Beard) a kindly elderly courtier, flounders in a horr...