Tezza's Theatre Place

Paul Hunter (Albin), Simon Hepworth (Mercédès) and Michael Matus (Georges) in La Cage aux Folles [The Play] at Park Theatre. Photo by Mark Douet. So, you’ve gone and done it. You’ve met the love of your life, wined and dined them and finally proposed. They’ve accepted and now it’s time to think about the wedding preparations. But before the big day itself, something else needs to happen. The two sets of parents need to meet. A daunting enough experience for any young couple, but if the respective families come from very differing backgrounds, then the problems can really mount. Welcome to the first English version of  La Cage aux Folles (The Play)  at the Park Theatre. Georges (Michael Matus) and Albin (Paul Hunter) are a fairly normal couple living in Saint Tropez. Well, normal may not be the ‘mot juste’. George is the owner of a nightclub called, La Cage aux Folles, and his partner Albin, is Madame Zaza, the star of the club’s cabaret. George loves his business, even if...

Patrick Baldwin. Cécile Leterme, Christophe Grégoire, Camille Cayol I love the fact that theatre is so much more than just a proscenium arch and a stage. Immersive, site-specific, promenade, there are so many ways in which a play can be put on to entertain an audience. For example, at the Barbican, Cheek By Jowl productions have brought their version of  Périclès, Prince de Tyr  by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins. In a very blue hospital ward, a man (Christophe Grégoire) is lying in bed. Although a radio is playing, the man appears to be in a coma. He is being looked after by a Doctor (Cécile Leterme) and two nurses (Guillaume Pottier and Martin Nikonoff). As he lies there, the man’s family (Camille Cayol, Valentine Catzéflis and Xavier Boiffier) come in and sit with him. All though is not as it would seem, and in a series of switches between the reality of the hospital room, and the journey of Périclès he travels a world of pirates, magic and double-crossing to f...