Tezza's Theatre Place

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 ...

Liberty Rides Forth! As I sit at my desk, a blank screen with a flashing cursor in front of me, I sometimes say a silent prayer asking for some form of divine intervention to give me an idea of what to write. This is the same problem facing the hero of David Kent’s new musical  Liberty Rides Forth!  Which has just started its run at the Waterloo East Theatre. In a suburban flat, things are not going well for Trevor (William Hazell). He has a simple life plan, write a hugely successful novel, make millions and get the girl – someone from his office called Susie who he has loved from afar for a long, long time. Unfortunately for Trevor, his plan has one major problem – he can’t write. Trevor is keen, he has done his research on how to write and has started lots of books in various styles but, to date, he hasn’t actually finished one and been able to add those magical words ‘the end’ to his magnum opus. Fortunately, Trevor is about to get some assistance in the shape of three...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/186923/review-antigone-greenwich-theatre-london/ You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family the saying goes. Given the number of dysfunctional families that seem to inhabit the plays of the ancient Greek writers, I can really empathise with this. To give an example, take the tale of  Antigone  which is currently on a UK tour and which I saw recently at the Greenwich Theatre. The battle for Thebes is over and, as the dust settles the cost is counted. As well as the loss of lives in general, the leaders of the two opposing forces – Eteocles and Polyneices – are also among the dead, having fought and killed each other. This would be a tragedy in normal circumstances but, what makes it worse is that these two were brothers – cursed sons of Oedipus and Jocasta – and with their death, it is now up to their uncle Creon (Nicholas Cass-Beggs) to take up the mantle of ruler of Thebes. One of his first moves is to declare Polyne...