Tezza's Theatre Place

The Chair by James C Ferguson Once again, it was time to dive headlong into the online performing world as Encompass Productions’ Liam Fleming brought another selection of short stories to the internet with Bare E-ssentials 3: with a Vengeance. The evening started with  RULES  by Lucy Jamieson, directed by Rachael Owens. Oh, it’s a nightmare when words sound similar. Alex (Esme Cooper) has been to the doctor with a water infection. The doctor prescribes tablets for cystitis, but she mishears and has been telling people she has syphilis. Her flatmate Jess (Karina Holness) sorts out the linguistic mistake but points out Alex only seems to get these issues when she has sex. Jess pushes Alex to give her details, something that her friend seems reluctant to share. Eventually, Alex spills the beans so to speak, much to the absolute horror of Jess. Sometimes there are things that flatmates should not do or know about each other. Jess’s reaction to Alex’s news is understandable but in...

Every Seven Minutes by Ken Preuss Once again, Encompass Productions brings us a selection of short one-act plays.  The evening started with Every  Seven Minutes by Ken Preuss Performed by Ryan Brannon and Cate Olivia Directed by Jonathan Woodhouse Two godlike type people in the “every seven minutes room” whose job is to ensure that things that happen every seven minutes occur. For example, apparently, every seven minutes a double rainbow appears, and these two make it happen. The chap (Ryan Brannon) takes it all in his stride and doesn’t care what the consequences are of his actions. So, every seven minutes he makes a person drown, but doesn’t have any interest in who that person is or what their circumstances are. To him, it’s just a job, whereas the girl, who is new in the role, seems to have trouble disassociating her actions from emotions. She rebels against the system that affects the lives of random people every seven minutes, leading to an unexpected end of the p...

Sex Crime – Photo by Matt Spike According to Oscar Wilde, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and in many ways that’s true. Even an unflattering parody means that you have arrived and been noticed. I say this because this form of flattery is taken to an extreme length in Alexis Gregory’s play  Sex/Crime  at the Soho Theatre. Two men stand in a dark room with plastic covered walls. There is not much to see. A large red sofa and a metal stand, both also covered in plastic, are the room’s only furnishings. The two men – no names, so let’s call then A (Jonny Woo) and B (Alexis Gregory) – are, in fact customer and client. The service offered is to recreate the killings of a gay serial killer. On offer are various gruesome scenarios. All of which emulate the work carried out by ‘Him’ as they refer to the real killer. Both men have their own role in the ‘game’ but, as things progress, the lines between client, customer, killer and client become blurred leading to a final...

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...

PBGSTUDIOS: Ashley Byam, Keeran Blessie, Declan Spaine. People go to university for many reasons. For the majority, the main one is to get a degree and, following that, a good job. However, along with the educational aspects, university is also a place to make life-long friendships and maybe even meet your one true love. But what happens afterwards? A question that is addressed in Jake Brunger’s  Four Play  at the Above the Stag Theatre. Seven and a half years after having met, and fallen in love, at university, Pete (Keeran Blessie) and Rafe (Ashley Byam) are still together and still in love. They have a lovely apartment and live the perfect DINK life – wearing designer clothes, shopping at Sainsbury’s, drinking Chablis and enjoying snacks containing sun dried tomatoes. Life couldn’t be any better for these two. But there is a niggling doubt that has wormed its way into their relationship. After over seven years together, Rafe and Peter couldn’t have a firmer relationshi...

Fiona Marr as Grace Lancaster in SOUTHERN BELLES. Credit Scott Rylander. Tennessee Williams was an outstanding playwright whose shows have become hits the world over. However, there is one of his plays ( And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens ) which is not only rarely performed but, due to its subject matter was never performed during Williams’ own lifetime. Luckily, the King’s Head Theatre has decided to bring the play out of the theatrical closet as part of its Queer Season in a production of two of Williams’ one-act plays joined together under the title  Southern Belles . First up was  Something Unspoken . Miss Cornelia Scott (Annabel Leventon) is an ageing spinster and daughter of the south who lives in a wonderful house that she shares with her servants and her secretary/companion of 15 years Grace (Fiona Marr). The two ladies have cohabited for so long that you would think there are no secrets between them but, today, there is tension in the air. Not only is C...

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...

AFTERGLOW – Jesse Fox, Danny Mahoney, Sean Hart photo Darren Bell. Being honest, an open relationship wouldn’t work for me. However, I have friends who have the ability to keep sex and their relationship separate and really enjoy both. Whilst I agree that is fine in theory, for me, that separation would not be that easy and emotions always become involved somehow. In many respects, this is the issue that is at the heart of S. Asher Gelman’s play  Afterglow  at the Southwark Playhouse. Josh (Sean Hart) and his husband Alex (Danny Mahoney) are enjoying life. They live in a nice apartment in New York, have jobs they both, on the whole, enjoy and are having a baby together. Sexually, they have an open relationship with only one rule – no overnighters – and are happy to play together or separately. When we first meet them, they are having a passionate threesome with twenty-something masseur Darius (Jessie Fox), an event that all three of them really enjoy. In fact, Josh enjo...

One of the distinctive features of a short play is that the writer has to introduce their characters fast and the audience have to make their mind up about them at once. On the whole, this works. A short play doesn’t have the time for huge character development so you are probably going to feel the same about the characters at the end as you did at the start. But this is not a hard and fast rule as Simon Stephens demonstrates in his one-act play  Country Music  which has recently opened at Clapham’s Omnibus Theatre. Starting in a car sitting in a lay-by,  Country Music  is the story of Jamie (Cary Crankson) a troubled teenager who has done something bad. He has stolen a car – along with various snacks for the journey – and picked up his schoolgirl girlfriend, Lynsey (Rebecca Stone) to run away to Southend. Whilst the plan sounds good in theory, Jamie has a volatile personality that varies between extreme excitement and violent lows, and is pretty unsuited to thi...

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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....

(c) Nick Rutter. From left to right_ Freddie Hogan, Lewis Brown What does the word ‘undetectable’ mean to you? If you were a fan of detective stories, it’s a crime that cannot be solved. If you are a reader of some of our more right-wing papers, then we are talking about illegal aliens living in the country under the radar. If you are a gay man, then it is something far more serious that will affect your life forever.  Undetectable is also the title of Tom Wright’s new one-act play which is receiving its world premiere at the King’s Head Theatre. As far as gay relationships go, Bradley (Lewis Brown) and Lex (Freddie Hogan) are very unusual. Despite dating for three months, this twenty-something couple have not actually slept together yet. And their relationship is going from strength to strength. For instance, this very night, Lex has introduced Bradley to his, rather judgy, housemates, something he has been loathe to do with other men that he has gone out with. So, tonight is...

Do you know who Ada Lovelace or Charles Babbage are? The chances are that you will say no to the first and yes to the second name. Well, back in the 19th Century, Ada Lovelace carried out pioneering computing work on the Analytical Engine with Charles Babbage. Ada is one of the great unsung heroines of science whose works are only known by the men they collaborated with. Of course, that was the 19th Century and things are so much different today aren’t they? Unfortunately not. Historically the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) specialisations have always been perceived as the purview of men. This is one of the themes running through Katie Granger’s play  Ares  being performed during the final week of the Vault Festival in Waterloo. This one-woman show tells the story of Alice (Andrea Hall) a young lady who has moved from a humble farm – where she was brought up by her father after her mother abandoned the family – through to becoming an astrophysicis...

Everyone has their own version of hell. One of mine is the idea of going on a cruise. Trapped in a metal box with nothing to look at most of the time except endless stretches of water. Still, at least on an Earth-based cruise, there are various stop-off points where you can explore the local scenery and get away from the rest of the inmates on the ship. For the passengers and crew of the Odyssey, the ship at the heart of new play  Floaters , getting away is not an option. The Odyssey is not one of the queens of the sea, majestically carving a path through one of the great oceans. Instead, she is a state of the art space liner, on her maiden voyage filled with crew and passengers, heading out on an 18-month journey around the solar system. This is the luxury cruise ship of them all, with a huge range of luxury amenities for the whole family. Including gyms, bowling alleys, archery ranges and yoga studios and three Olympic sized swimming pools! The beautifully prepared advertis...