Tezza's Theatre Place

As theatre has moved online, there have been some valiant attempts to make use of technology in order to bring productions to an audience, starved of live shows. The latest in these events is  The House That Slipped  presented by Teatro Vivo. Prior to the show, I received a quiz, or questionnaire to complete, Show starts with a very friendly technical run-through, which is interesting as the 2070 technology is far above ours in 2020. Soleen (Bernadette Russell) then came on and taught us our first bit of 2070 etiquette, how to say hello. Next, we were whisked off to 12 Laburnum Drive, where we got to meet the residents Kevin Baxter (Michael Wagg), his wife Sandra (Sarah Finigan), her sister Julia (Kas Darley) who is living with the Baxter’s, through no fault of her own and finally Yasmin (Tasha Magigi) from the flat upstairs. After the introductions, the group tells us what their current situation is. Whilst being on lockdown during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, they had some...

Michael Ball Photography BrinkhoffMögenburg It’s always nice when two of your favourite things come together – for example, musical theatre and ABBA. So when I was asked if I wanted to go and see the new version of Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice’s musical  Chess  at the Coliseum. I leapt at the chance. Set during the height of the cold war,  Chess  is the story of two Chess Grandmasters – Frederick Trumper (Tim Howar) from the USA and Russian Anatoly Sergievsky (Michael Ball) – battling it out to be world champions under the watchful eye of The Arbiter (Cedric Neal). Both men are totally different. Trumper is loud, brash, arrogant and often ends up arguing with his ‘second’ Florence (Cassidy Janson). On the other hand, Anatoly is a family man, married to Svetlana (Alexandra Burke) and, by all appearances, a dedicated ambassador of the Soviet Union, particularly under the watchful eye of his state-appointed ‘second’ Ivan Molokov (Philip Browne). As t...