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...

  Meeting the man/woman/person of your dreams is difficult enough at the best of times, but in a lockdown situation, it’s pretty much impossible. However, all hope is not lost as, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, there are a preponderance of dating apps where swiping left or right may be the way to meet that special one. Into the field comes a new app,  Manimals , and I was lucky enough to attend a workshop on the App the other night. Before the workshop started, I received instructions on how to set up my Manimals profile, a lot less of a painful experience than for some dating apps. Then, at the appointed time, I opened Zoom and got ready to play – and who knows, meet the partner of my dreams – along with the other workshop members. When we arrived, we were given a briefing by Mimi on the workshop and the technical and access support available to us. We were also warned that the workshop wasn’t really SFW, which intrigued me even more. We then went off in pairs to...

Scott Le Crass As the pandemic spread, and the country went into lockdown, then out, then back, then out then back, creatives everywhere had to adjust their lives and their modus operandi in order to bring theatre to the people and keep their art alive. One of those who has worked very well in this way is Director  Scott Le Crass , and I recently caught up with him for a chat about theatre in the age of COVID. TE: Welcome along Scott. I’ve just been looking back and the last time we talked was in June 2019 just after the opening of your show  Country Music  at the Omnibus Theatre. That was a successful run, wasn’t it? SLC: Yes, we ran for four weeks. I was quite keen for that to happen as a lot of fringe shows I’d done prior to that had had a maximum run of three weeks and I felt that to make it work and try to attract as much of an audience as possible it made sense to do a longer run. I sort of co-produced that production as well, and with a producing hat on as well, I ...

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...

Paul Hunter (Albin), Simon Hepworth (Mercédès) and Michael Matus (Georges) in La Cage aux Folles [The Play] at Park Theatre. Photo by Mark Douet. So, you’ve gone and done it. You’ve met the love of your life, wined and dined them and finally proposed. They’ve accepted and now it’s time to think about the wedding preparations. But before the big day itself, something else needs to happen. The two sets of parents need to meet. A daunting enough experience for any young couple, but if the respective families come from very differing backgrounds, then the problems can really mount. Welcome to the first English version of  La Cage aux Folles (The Play)  at the Park Theatre. Georges (Michael Matus) and Albin (Paul Hunter) are a fairly normal couple living in Saint Tropez. Well, normal may not be the ‘mot juste’. George is the owner of a nightclub called, La Cage aux Folles, and his partner Albin, is Madame Zaza, the star of the club’s cabaret. George loves his business, even if...

LEAVE A COMMENT Dad’s Army is still one of the absolute joys of the television world. Over 9 series, and 80 episodes, we followed the ups and downs of a group of, on the whole, elderly men in a quiet seaside town, ready to put their lives on the line in defence of their country. First transmitted in between 1968 and 1977, the show is regularly repeated on BBC2 on a Saturday night, and still pulls in 2 or 3 million viewers. The highly successful radio spin-off gets regular airings on BBC Radio 4 Extra. With such an iconic show, it might be thought to leave it alone. You can’t improve on perfection – and I’m sure the makers of the recent disastrous movie would concur. However, two men felt there was something more that could be done and last night I was lucky enough to see a performance of the  Dad’s Army Radio Show  at the British Library. The first thing to say is that Jimmy Perry and David Croft’s writing is still as fresh today as it ever was. The three episodes tha...

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...

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...

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...

My first show of 2020 sees me, once again Islington bound, to the fabled King’s Head for Unleash the Llama’s production   JEW…ish . This is the story of TJ (Edie Newman) and Max (Saul Boyer) two millennials that met at university, were members of the polyamory society and shared many experiences together. Now they have left Uni and are in the real world – Max is a not very successful stand-up comic (and part time barista) whilst TJ is a performer who expresses herself through the world of creative interpretive dance. They are still together – sort of – and probably have as many differences with each other as they do things in common. For example, Max is Jewish, and has the stereotypically large overbearing family to go with it, whilst TJ is definitely a Gentile and firmly believes that Max’s family hates her. Given their history can, and indeed should, these two try and make a go of things, or should, and indeed can, they let each other go their separate ways? What a great sta...

For reasons associated with the “Day Job”, I was only able to get to 69 shows this year for London Theatre 1 and the Offies .  However, it has still been a pretty good year for me theatrically, with 24 productions receiving 5 stars. This either means I am getting softer in my old age, or there are some pretty impressive shows out there.  Let’s delve into the top 10 of these and see what we think. No 10 - Operation Black Antler at the Southbank Centre This is the first of two immersive theatre shows in the top 10, and was a real surprise.  To quote the blurb I received - “In Operation Black Antler you are given a new identity as part of a small team; you are briefed and then sent into an undercover operation. You must meet, build empathy with and ultimately try to win the trust of someone whose political and moral views may be the polar opposite of our own. What will you do when the power is in your hands?” - and they weren’t kidding.  Like most immersive th...