Tezza's Theatre Place

How does one measure a life and one’s progress from baby to a corpse? According to Shakespeare, “ All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. ” The seven ages of man is a concept that resonates with many people, and none more so than the aged clown in Justin Butcher’s moving play   Scaramouche Jones or The Seven White Masks . Shane Richie, Scaramouche Jones (credit Bonnie Britain). The play starts late on the 31st of December 1999 with the white-faced clown Scaramouche (Shane Richie) coming down the stairs to his dressing room after finishing his last show of the 20th Century. Scaramouche has plans to mark the millennium in a unique way, for tonight is not only his 100th birthday but also, the final day of his life. However, before shuffling off this mortal coil, Scaramouche wants to tell his story. One which starts at the end of the 19th Century an...

Can one ever choose where the heart leads one? That is the problem for the protagonist in Tim Fraser’s  Candy  at the King’s Head theatre. Will (Michael Waller) is an ordinary northern lad. He’s young, OK looking and reasonably well educated. He lives at home with his mum and Great Aunt, has a pretty good job that he is good at and enjoys nights out with the lads. One of the lads is his old mate from school, Billy. Who has returned home from London. Billy has a band, and really wants Will to go and see them. Reluctantly, Will agrees and goes along. An action that will have a profound effect on his life. For the lead singer in Billy’s band is a lady called Candy, when Will sees her, it is love at first sight. Candy epitomises everything Will thinks of as the perfect woman and he is smitten from the moment the spotlight picks her out. There is only one problem, Candy is actually Billy in drag. Whilst Will knows this, and has no feelings – aside from friendship for Billy – h...

Of all the things members of the LGBT+ community go through in their lives, probably the hardest is the first time they decide to ‘come out’. Everyone has their own story to tell, and they are all unique in some respect. My own involved the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question, a famous male singer, and a very perceptive elderly lady. Actor, magician, theatre and opera director Freddie Brook has spent the past few years collecting some of these stories and turning them into a one-man verbatim show called  Just Don’t Shout it from the Rooftops  which he has recently been performing at the King’s Head in Islington. Over the course of the roughly 45-minute run, Freddie brings to life a range of individual coming out stories and demonstrates the many different approaches both the outee and the recipients of the information take to the news. There is the young lad who, in the words of his less than sympathetic parents, ‘ruined the family holiday’, the soldier who took on a re...

Riot Act – Credit Dawson James It’s Pride Month and that means that London is full of building flying rainbow flags and the theatre scene is gayer than ever with a plethora of LGBT+ themed shows hitting the stages of the capital. Some are just OK, some are good and a small number are absolutely awesome. I was lucky enough to get to experience the latter type of show as Alexis Gregory’s  Riot Act  arrived at the Arcola Theatre, This one-man show is a verbatim portrayal of conversations Alexis has had with three gay men, whose stories are told in three separate monologues over the sixty-minute run. First, we have Michael-Anthony Nozzi, one of the few remaining people who were present at the Stonewall riots in 1969. Michael paints a graphic picture not just of the Stonewall Inn itself but also the area around Greenwich Village. This completely changed my perception of the events of June 28th. Over the course of the monologue I learnt so much about the event, its background an...

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2018 Bleach – Paris Fringe The Vault Festival continues to amaze and entertain with a whole range of shows and productions that cover every taste and interest. Virtually everything I have seen in the years I have been covering the Vault Festival has been somewhere between good and awesome – in fact, only one show comes to mind that I really didn’t like. However, occasionally there is a production that totally takes your breath away and leaves you with a profound sense of seeing – and maybe participating in – something exceptionally special. A case in point is Dan Ireland-Reeves’  Bleach  which runs at the festival until the 10th February. Tyler Everett is a lad who has a degree under his belt and has, like so many others, come to London to make his fortune. Unfortunately for Tyler, his life is not like Dick Whittington’s and he is currently living in a small – or compact and bijou in estate agent speak – bedsit. His initial entry into the employment world sees him startin...

Simon Callow – A Christmas Carol – Arts Theatre – Photo By Laura Marie Linck. A one-person show needs to have everything right if it is to hope to succeed. A great script, fine staging and an actor who can grab an audience and hold them in the palm of their hand. Fortunately,  A Christmas Carol  at the Arts Theatre has all of these elements covered. It may surprise you to learn that Charles Dickens 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, has never been out of print. Over the last 175 years, it has been turned into multiple plays, films, television shows, operas, etc. It follows the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, a London-based moneylender, who Dickens describes in these immortal words as “ a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! ” On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his old business partner Jacob Marley who is offering Scrooge the chance to change and redeem himself. Well, I’m sure you know the rest and if you don’t then that’s yet ...

Peter Groom in Dietrich Natural Duty – Photo by Monir El Haimar Sometimes it’s amazing how a celebrity is well known but actually isn’t. Take Marlene Dietrich for example. I grew up knowing Marlene and her songs, especially “Lili Marleen” and “Falling in Love Again” but have never seen any of her films or even seen a recording of her performing. In fact, beyond the image, I knew nothing about Dietrich until I made a visit to Wilton’s Music Hall to see the amazing  Dietrich: Natural Duty . Created and performed by Peter Groom.  Dietrich: Natural Duty  is a wonderful tribute to a truly remarkable singer, actor and all-round performer. Peter, looking absolutely stunning, really brings Marlene Dietrich to life in a one hour show co-written and directed by Oliver Gully. Everything is there. The flawless makeup, the beautiful hair, the gorgeous gown by Kathleen Nellis, and the attitude are on a simple stage and Dietrich is back in the limelight once more. The show is basica...

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https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/198793/banana-crabtree-simon-by-david-hendon-drayton-arms-theatre-review/ CJ de Mooi as Alan in Banana Crabtree Simon There is a wonderful newspaper cartoon I saw once where a man was talking to his wife and said: “ How is it I can remember the tune from a twenty-five-year-old advert but can’t remember what I’ve just walked over to ask you? ”. This sort of thing happens all the time as you get older. For example, I can sometimes sit for what feels like hours looking at the screen trying to remember what word I wanted to type next. We put these little memory anomalies down to various things. But what if they are the harbinger of something far worse than just ordinary forgetfulness? That is the prospect facing the protagonist in David Hendon’s play  Banana Crabtree Simon  which is receiving its world premiere at the Drayton Arms Theatre. Banana Crabtree Simon  (a fruit, the road he lives on and his son’s name) are the three words th...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/197480/review-ballistic-kings-head-theatre/ Ballistic: Jack – Photo by Tom Packer Did you know, in the first 60 days of 2018, there have been 18 gun-related incidents in American High Schools? Now that’s a lot. Every year, someone goes on the rampage in a school, a park, at their work or out of a hotel window. It’s become so commonplace now that, whilst we are shocked by the images on the news, we still watch them as part of our evening’s viewing. Afterwards, the politicians and pressure groups come out with their standard cliches and the perpetrator joins the long list of such people – normally described as a loner with a love of porn and video games – who we sort of forget, unless their name comes up in a pub quiz. The reality is we never entirely know the person themselves or their motivation for doing what they did. The same cannot be said of the vengeful lad in Alex Packer’s show  Ballistic  at the King’s Head Theatre. Him, we get t...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/196487/really-want-to-hurt-me-at-the-old-red-lion-theatre-review/ When you were a kid, did virtually every adult you ever met tell you ‘ ah yes, schooldays, best years of your life ’? I know I got told that a few times. Of course, for some people, the days at school are easy, fun and enjoyable. For others, those that may be a little bit different, they can be your worst nightmare come true. A fact that is at the heart of Ben SantaMaria’s play  Do You Really Want to Hurt Me , at the Old Red Lion, Islington Performed by Ryan Price,  Do You Really Want to Hurt Me  is a one-act monologue of a gay boy’s time at senior school in Exeter in the mid-1980s. Starting in 1984, we follow the boy’s story as he tries to come to terms with his sexuality and becoming a man at a time when homophobia was rampant and the AIDS virus had become newsworthy, with media outlets talking about the ‘Gay Plague’. Fortunately the boy has a Walkman and, thanks ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/188725/review-awkward-conversations-with-animals-ive-fcked/ Some things really should not be written about. If a writer has the temerity to write about the subject, then that writing definitely should not be turned into a play. And, if it is turned into a play, it should never be performed with the original title. And if all the above have been ignored, then we are left with Rob Hayes one-act play  Awkward Conversations With Animals I’ve F****d  at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre. Told as series of individual monologues,  Awkward Conversations With Animals I’ve F****d  is the story of Bobby (Linus Karp), a young man with serious social issues. Bobby lives alone in a bedsit with very few possessions and the first time we meet him, he has spent a night of ‘passion’ with a dog he met wandering the streets the previous evening. Whilst the conversation is one-sided, it flows rather well. Bobby is obviously an intelligent and articu...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/172060/guide-me-o-thou-great-redeemer-camden-peoples-theatre/ One of the most frustrating things about being a reviewer is when you see something and have to write about it but can say virtually nothing as the show itself is one of those site-specific shows where to say too much would really give everything away. A case in point is  Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer  which is getting its premiere at the Camden People’s Theatre. So let’s see how far I can go with telling you something of my experience. When I arrived, I was sent down into the basement to a door with a notice on the outside “Queen Mother Remembrance Society, please knock and wait”. A few seconds after knocking, the door was opened by our host David (David G. Lees) who welcomed each of us in turn with a personal remark. David himself is a tall Glaswegian who is currently living in London but is moving – albeit reluctantly – back to his hometown soon. And that’s the reason for...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/169430/run-stephen-laughton-the-bunker-review/ RUN AFPhotography Human beings are fragile things. For example, a trip when getting in or out of a taxi cab can break a small bone and render a person immobile for six weeks. We faint if it gets too hot and cease operating completely if it gets too cold. If human bodies are bad then our feelings and personalities are even more fragile. Sometimes all it takes is a word or sentence out of place to ruin a friendship, destroy a relationship or even change a life completely. At the same time as being so fragile, people can be amazingly strong. Both physically and mentally they are able to withstand things that would floor a lesser individual. A fine example of this dichotomy in the human race can be found in Stephen Laughton’s  Run  which, after a sell-out run at the Vault Festival last year has now transferred to the Bunker Theatre. Yonni (Tom Ross-Williams) is a seventeen-year-old London boy ...