Tezza's Theatre Place

Chaplin Birth of a Tramp – Photographer credit Davor@OcularCreative Charlie Chaplin is one of those actors that I thought I knew a bit about. I knew he was born and lived around the Elephant and Castle area – there used to be a pub named after him by the shopping centre. I also knew he was a star of many silent movies but fell out with Hollywood during the McCarthy era and moved to Switzerland. Of his life before fame, I knew nothing but thanks to the good folks at Arrows & Traps, and writer Ross McGregor, and their play  Chaplin: Birth of a Tramp , at the Jack Studio Theatre, I now know a lot more than I did before. The show starts in 1928 Hollywood where Charlie Chaplin (Conor Moss) is auditioning Virginia Cherrill (Laurel Marks), for the female lead in his next film. Cherrill has no real acting experience, but Charlie remembers her from a modelling shoot on Santa Monica beach. During the audition, Charlie’s brother, and business manager Sydney (Toby Wynn-Davies) comes i...

Falling In Love Again – Ramona Von Pusch (Marlene Dietrich) Ashton Spear (King Edward VIII) – Photo Phil Swallow. What would you give up for love? I know people that have given up their job, the family and their friends, even moving to another country all in the name of love. But few people would give up everything they have worked and been trained for since birth. However, in the early part of the twentieth century, one man did, and his story forms the backbone of Ron Elisha’s play  Falling in Love Again  at the King’s Head Theatre. It is the 10th December 1936 and King Edward VIII (Ashton Spear) is in his study contemplating his future. Tomorrow he is due to sign the Act of Abdication, renouncing his throne forever. Tonight though, he is still king and, because of this, he has an unexpected but very welcome visitor to his Fort Belvedere home. The visitor is Hollywood screen goddess Marlene Dietrich (Ramona Von Pusch) who has taken a break from filming in London and come...

We think of the Restoration as being the start of a more enlightened age where things changed for the better. King Charles II learned from the mistakes of his father and, on the whole, his reign was not a bad one. However, the balance of power was, as had always been the case, very much skewed in favour of men with women very much in a secondary position. However, two ladies have gone down in history as being the ‘Spice Girls’ of their day. Intrigued? Then pop along to see  Oranges and Ink  by Claire Louise Amias which is having its world premiere at the Tristan Bates Theatre Nell Gwyn (Sarah Lawrie) and Aphra Behn (Claire Louise Amias) are two best friends united by theatre. Before becoming mistress to the King, Nell had been an actor and had appeared in a play written by Aphra. In fact, Aphra had pretty much given Nell her big break. Since then, Nell’s life has changed. Living in a lovely house in Pall Mall, dressed in exquisite gowns, today, Aphra has come for a favour....

Andy Nyman (Tevye), credit Johan Persson. The Book of Exodus says that after crossing the Red Sea, Moses led the Hebrews into the Sinai, where they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Fortunately for the inhabitants of a small Russian village at the turn of the last century, all they had to do was move across the river as they took the highly successful Menier Chocolate Factory production of  Fiddler on the Roof  across the Thames to the Playhouse Theatre. The story centres around Tevye (Andy Nyman) a poor Jewish milkman, his wife Golde (Judy Kuhn) and their five daughters, Tzeitel (Molly Osborne), Hodel (Harriet Bunton), Chava (Nicola Brown), Shprintze (Elena Cervesi/Lia Cohen/Shoshana Ezequiel/Valentina Theodoulo) and finally Beilke (Sofia Bennett/Lottie Casserley/Talia Etherington/Isabella Foat). Like all of the Jewish inhabitants of Anatevka, the family lives an uneasy life by the side of the Christian Russians who are the dominant people in the village. Still...

Ciarán Hinds (Hugh), Colin Morgan (Owen), Adetomiwa Edun (Lieutenant Yolland). Image by Catherine Ashmore Love it or loathe it, the British Empire is a rich source of material that is ready-made for novels or plays – usually suggesting the English were bad while everyone else good. However, some writers have approached the subject in less obvious ways and one of those is Irish playwright Brian Friel, whose 1980 play  Translations  has recently been revived at the National Theatre. 1833 and in the quiet community of Baile Beag, life continues much as it always has. The inhabitants are an insular lot who speak Irish, Greek and Latin – thanks to a knowledge of the classics and the teachings of the Catholic church – but who don’t speak English, the language of their rulers. In the local ‘hedge’ school, aspiring teacher Manus (Seamus O’Hara) is working with Sarah (Michelle Fox) a local girl with a severe speech impediment. His father, schoolmaster Hugh (Ciarán Hinds) has not ye...

Pippin: Credit Michael Smith In the year 769, the great King Charlemagne welcomed his first born son into the world. Quite a lot is known about the child, but this is not some boring history lesson, as in the mid-1960s composer Stephen Schwartz decided the son’s story was an ideal subject for a musical. A few years later, and with a book a by Roger O. Hirson, the show was born. Its name is  Pippin  and is currently being given a well deserved run out by Sedos at the Bridewell Theatre. Narrated by the Leading Player (Corin Miller), this is the story of young Pippin (Joe Thompson-Oubari) and his travels as he tries to find out where he belongs in the world. Yes, he is the eldest son of Charlemagne (Kris Webb) and heir to the throne – much to the annoyance of his stepmother Fastrada (Vicky Terry) and half-brother Lewis (Paul Nicholas Dyke) – but he feels there should be more to his life than this. Having completed university, Pippin sets out to find his place. He tries bei...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/197726/review-hidden-figures-ww2-colab-factory/ HIDDEN FIGURES: WW2 Time for some magic. I want you all to sit back and relax. Now name three people you can think of from  World War II  – but not anyone related to your family. Think hard about them. OK. I’m going to make a prediction. Everyone you are thinking of have three things in common: One, they are men. Two, they are white and three, they are English/American. Because those were the only people that took part and won the Second World War weren’t they? We all know, that in reality millions from all walks of life were involved in the war. Quite a lot will have fitted the stereotype above, but a significant number didn’t. All have a story to tell and some of these stories are truly amazing and can be discovered in the immersive show  Hidden Figures: WW2  at the Colab Factory. This really is an immersive production which starts well before you arrive at the location. The i...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/193202/edward-ii-review-greenwich-theatre-london/ Lazarus Theatre’s Edward II 2017 – Photo by Adam Trigg “ Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely ” or so the saying goes. But, what is power in this context? For example, an absolute monarch appears to have total power over their domain but, in reality, this is an illusion and their hold on the throne and all that goes with it is very fragile and subject to the will of many others. Lazarus Theatre Company demonstrates this superbly in their new production of Marlowe’s  Edward II  at the Greenwich Theatre. Edward I is dead and his fourth son inherits the throne and assumes the title of Edward II (Timothy Blore). Edward is young, only 23 at the time of his accession, and his youth shows when, despite all the warnings of his court, Edward invites his favourite minion Piers Gaveston (Oseloka Obi) to return to England and join his court. Although not a nobleman by bir...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/186047/review-richard-iii-cockpit-theatre/ As Napoleon once said, “ Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them .” And nowhere is the idea of ambition explored in greater style than in William Shakespeare’s  Richard III . This tragic story can be seen in a new production by Front Foot Theatre at the Cockpit Theatre. Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Km Hardy) has a simple wish. He wants to be King of England. The problem is that between Richard and the throne is his brother George, Duke of Clarence (Thomas Walker Barron), the current king, and another brother, Edward IV (Oliver Hewett) and his two sons, the Prince of Wales and Duke of York. However, Richard is not going to let a minor thing like this stop him achieving his ambition and, he quickly puts his Machiavellian brain to work on the problem. Clarence is soon dispatched an...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/180877/review-outlaws-to-in-laws-kings-head-theatre/ Outlaws to In-Laws 70 years is, according the bible, the amount of time that a person has on earth – Psalm 90, verse 10: “ The days of our years are three score and ten. ” Of course, in reality, people often live much longer. But, over the course of seven decades its amazing how much the world in which we live can change and this is the central message of  Outlaws to In-Laws  which is part of the centrepiece of the King’s Head Theatre’s Queer Festival 17. Outlaws to In-Laws  is not a single play but is an evening comprising of seven plays by individual authors, each taking place in a separate decade between the 1950s and 2010s. The first,  Happy and Glorious  by Philip Meeks take place on the day of the Queen’s coronation in 1953. In a ‘gentleman’s club’ overlooking Westminster Abbey, Edward (Alex Marlow) and Peter (Elliot Balchin) are welcoming a new member in the shap...