Tezza's Theatre Place

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/179160/review-the-wasp-jermyn-street-theatre/ Lisa Gorgin and Selina Giles in The Wasp – Photographer Andreas Grieger I suppose I was very lucky at school. Although being short, wearing glasses and having ‘FA Cup’ ears, I don’t remember ever being bullied about theses things. Though I did get my ears fixed and once ‘lost’ a pair of NHS glasses as I hated them, so maybe things did get said after all. The point is, that whatever may have happened it was obviously pretty mild and so I’ve forgotten about it. I’m one of the lucky ones. For some people school is a place they go to to be tortured either mentally, verbally or physically. For them, school doesn’t end when they hit 16 and leave. For them, these events may live in their mind for years to come, and this is the premise behind Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s play  The Wasp  at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Outside a nondescript coffee shop, two women sit and drink tea. Heather (Selina Giles) is...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/155230/review-my-gay-best-friend-the-space/ One of the accepted facts of life is that of all the essentials in a woman’s life the GBF is one of the most important. It’s about the only relationship that a man and a woman can have together where the possibility of sex is guaranteed not to raise its ugly head. What’s a GBF you ask? Why it’s  My Gay Best Friend , and there is a wonderful one-act play of that name written by and starring Louise Jameson and Nigel Fairs which I was lucky enough to catch at The Space performing arts and community centre. The story starts with a ringing phone and an outgoing voicemail message saying Gavin (Nigel Fairs) is not available to take your call, please leave a message. As the lights go on, we see a grubby toilet in which stands Rachel (Louise Jameson) shining in a gold sequined dress and ‘matching’ silver sequined jacket. Rachel is distraught. She is about to take to the stage in an Eastbourne club’s annual ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/154832/review-day-job-fanny-pack-theatre-bread-and-roses-theatre/ Day Job – Photo by Minglu Wang Most people have a secret ambition to be something other than who they are. In my own case, I would love to be a professional theatre reviewer, working for one of the great daily papers and getting paid lots of money to go and watch theatre every night. Until that happens, I still need to live and so, like lots of people I have a  Day Job  which coincidentally is the name of the latest production from Fanny Pack Theatre and which is currently playing at the Bread and Roses in Clapham. Day Job  is made up of a group of individuals with interlinked stories of women in their workplace. The linkage is provided by the fact that they all at some point get the same, rather crowded, bus and interact with the driver – someone everyone seems to underestimate dismissing her with the words “what do you know, you’re just a bus driver”. The stori...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/153080/review-beefcake-london-new-cross-theatre/ Masculinity is an odd concept. After all, if someone is described as masculine that is a compliment isn’t it? Well, as with so many things in life, it’s all about the context. For some, masculinity is a badge of honour, for some it’s a stereotype and for others, it’s an extremely negative view of a certain type of man. To get an example of two of these types pop along to The London Theatre, New Cross to see  Beefcake . The show itself consists of two highly individual monologues that look at masculinity from very different viewpoints. The first is  The Cake , written and performed by Luke Rollason, a Bouffon Clown and the proverbial ‘nice guy’ who just wanted to meet and date a woman. To this end, he has been listening to self-help CDs which guarantee a man that women will fall for them if they obey the rules set by the seller of the help. In his desperation, the character even turns to ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/151981/mule-is-a-seriously-great-production-from-start-to-finish/ According to the old song, “ A mule is an animal with long, funny ears, He kicks up at anything he hears, His back is brawny and his brain is weak, He’s just plain stupid with a stubborn streak ” However, there is a much nastier side to the word and demonstrated in Kat Woods harrowing one-act play  Mule  at the Omnibus in Clapham. Based on a true story,  Mule  starts with a series of projected text messages (good work by Video Designer Carrie Shearman) between two sisters from Ireland. One having recently lost her job is heading off to spend the summer in Ibiza, while the other stays home and relays messages. As time goes on, things seem to be going okay, and then suddenly the messages stop, the phone goes unanswered and voicemails aren’t replied to. The home-based sister is getting more worried and upset and eventually calls in the Police to find her sibling, w...

The British have given much to the world of theatre. Aside from Shakespeare, there are Andrew Lloyd Webber and Alan Ayckbourn to name but two. However, in one particular genre, the Brits are outstanding, although often not fully understood by non-brits, and that is farce. I mention this as one of the finest examples of a farcical play has recently opened in the  West End  at the Vaudeville Theatre. The play is  Dead Funny  – a title that is very, very apt. http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/dead-funny-is-simply-a-wonderful-night-out/ In a nice suburban middle class house, Eleanor (Katherine Parkinson) is waiting for her husband Richard (Rufus Jones) to return home from a hard day practising specialised medicine. Tonight is a special night. The couple have been having problems and seeing a counsellor who has given them some rather off the wall and, highly embarrassing homework to help rekindle the physical side of their marriage....

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/150674/mums-the-word-the-hen-and-chickens-theatre/ I never went to a boarding school. Age eleven I was down the local comprehensive five days a week and returning to my loving home for dinner in the evening. However, those that did go through the public school system often say it had a profound effect on their lives and they made relationships that lasted forever. I used the word relationships there deliberately for, as can be seen in Robert Hughes’ new play  Mum’s the Word  at the Hen and Chickens Theatre, you can’t always call these coming together of people friendship. The ‘Wine and Dandy’ bar in Soho and Jess (Danielle Williams) is sat at a table by herself, a waiter approaches and kisses her. Even in Soho, this overly familiar type of behaviour would normally be considered odd, but the waiter is in fact, Jess’s boyfriend Aidan (Lewis Clarke). Tonight though Aiden is just a waiter as Jess is meeting some friends – well when I say fr...