Tezza's Theatre Place

Paul McEwan. Oscar Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost. Unicorn Theatre. Photo Manuel Harlan Halloween may be over, but the festive season is often a time for a haunting or two – think Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. One story of things that go bump in the night is Oscar Wilde’s  The Canterville Ghost  currently having a spooky outing at the Unicorn Theatre. American diplomat Hiram Otis (Nana Amoo-Gottfried) is a happy man. He works for the US State Department and lives in a nice part of New York State with his celebrated interior designer wife Lucretia (Beth Cordingly) and children – inventor Washington (Nathaniel Wade), keen gardener Virginia (Safiyya Ingar) and the mischievous film-making twins, Stars (Mae Munuo) and Stripes (Rose-Marie Christian). Their lives are good and their days are full. However, that is about to change as Hiram’s bosses have decided to post him, and therefore his family, to England. Otis crosses the pond first and sets about finding a house for the family...

What is ‘power’? According to an online dictionary, power is the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events. However, even with this definition, whilst many people believe they have power, very few actually do. There is a moment in Game of Thrones when Queen Cersei, explains the concept to Lord Baelish in three words, “Power is power”. Knowing who actually wields power is one of the conundrums that remains at the end of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 play  Salomé  which is Lazarus Theatre Company’s final production in their season at Greenwich Theatre. Things are not going well in the Roman province of Judea. Herod Antipas (Jamie O’Neill), the Tetrarch does not have a secure hold on the reigns of power in his country, Herod has many distractions in his life. There are rivals for his throne – which he basically holds at the will of Caesar – and there is unrest in his province. Chief among those causing unrest is a Judean prophet by the ...

https://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/the-importance-of-being-earnest-brockley-jack-studio-theatre/ The Importance of Being Earnest Shakespeare’s plays are very flexible. They can be set in pretty much any time and location and they will still on the whole work. Other writers are not so lucky and are really fixed in time and space. Agatha Christie and Oscar Wilde are two authors that come to mind in this instance. And this theory of mine was borne out with a visit to the Brockley Jack Studio to see  The Importance of Being Earnest . It’s nearly time for tea and butler Lane (Daniel Desiano-Plummer) is setting out the cucumber sandwiches and bread & butter. His master Algernon Moncrieff (Daniel Hall) is expecting guests for tea and wants everything to be perfect. Unfortunately, before they arrive, Algernon gets a visit from his good friend Earnest Worthing (Riley Jones). Normally a welcome distraction in Algernon’s life, Earnest could not have arrived at a...