Tezza's Theatre Place

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/186540/review-our-house-at-churchill-theatre/ The cast of Our House UK Tour. Photo by Adam Trigg The 19th of March 1985, and I was sat in an office with a pen in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. At that point, I had a choice to make that would change my life forever. Did I sign and join the RAF or not sign and go off to a different life? Obviously, I signed but, every so often, I do wonder what my life would have been like if I’d just said ‘no’ and left the recruiting office on that day. We never get to see what the alternatives to our decisions would have been but in Immersion Theatre’s touring production of  Our House , which I caught as it arrived at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre, one young man gets a chance to try both versions of reality. Today is Camden lad Joe Casey’s (Jason Kajdi) sixteenth birthday and he wants to do something special with his new girlfriend Sarah (Sophie Matthew). Ignoring the suggestions of his two...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/177561/review-of-yank-at-charing-cross-theatre/ The company of YANK! at Charing Cross Theatre, credit Claire Bilyard 50 years ago, in 1967, homosexuality was partially decriminalised in England. In 2000 it became legal to be gay and a member of the UK armed forces. In the USA, the ban on gay folk serving wasn’t fully lifted until 2011. Why do I tell you this, you may ask. Well, the reason is that during WWII it was illegal to be gay in the armed forces and, despite the desperate need for men and women to serve, LGB personnel were persecuted by the military police for being who they were. Yet, when general conscription has been announced and the military machine is desperate for manpower, it’s inconceivable that the odd gayer didn’t slip past and serve their country. Their stories were never told until now as Joseph and David Zellnik’s musical  Yank!  opens at the Charing Cross Theatre. It’s 1942 and the USA has finally noticed that E...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/171444/becoming-mohammed-pleasance-theatre/ Becoming Mohammed (Jack Hammett) – courtesy of And Many Others It’s surprising how, even with all the social media and communication devices available, families can drift apart. Mine live up in Lancashire and I get to see them once or twice a year. Imagine though if I had been away for a couple of years and then went home to find my brother had fundamentally changed everything about his life. How would I react? A conundrum that is at the heart of Claudia Marinaro’s new play  Becoming Mohammed  at the Pleasance Theatre. In a very sparse living room, a young man is about to start his prayers. Dressed in a simple white robe and kufi, he carefully places his prayer rug to face Ka’ba and begins to perform Salah. Unfortunately, a loud knocking at the door interrupts his prayers and, he hurries his way through to the end. Removing his Muslim clothes the man is revealed as Thomas (Jack Hammett) a ta...