Tezza's Theatre Place

Andy Nyman (Tevye) image by Johan Persson. As we get to the end of another year of reviewing, my mind has turned to the traditional list of my top ten shows for 2018. It was pretty much settled until last night when a visit to the Menier Chocolate Factory to see the new production of  Fiddler on The Roof  has caused a rethink in the rankings. It is 1905 and in the Russian shtetl of Anatevka, Tevye (Andy Nyman) a farmer lives with his wife Golde (Judy Kuhn) and his five daughters Tzeitel (Molly Osborne ), Hodel (Harriet Bunton), Chava (Kirsty MacLaren ), Shprintze (Lia Cohen/Shoshana Ezequiel/Valentina Theodoulou) and Bielke (Sofia Bennett/Lottie Casserley/Matilda Hopkins). The family are very poor – barely on the breadline, it could be said – but somehow Tevye manages to keep his spirits up and, amongst his fellow Jews in the village, he is respected as a stout member of the community. This day, there is good news for the family. Tevye has met a drifter by the name of Perc...

For the first five minutes as I sat watching  Dennis of Penge  at the Ovalhouse, I was wondering what exactly I had got myself into. Annie Siddons story had started with a strange Prologue followed by an even stranger sermon to chicken. Now I’m no stranger to the bargain bucket but I don’t think I’ve ever been moved to write about it let alone share my finger licking good experiences with a theatre audience. Unlike Annie and her co-performers Asaf Zohar and Jorell Coiffic Kamal. So, there I was, sitting there thinking this could be a very long two hours when we moved on to “Introducing Wendy” and without realising it, I was completely hooked on this tale of Wendy, Dennis, Neil, Hortense, Clovis, Deb, Sylvie and the other denizens of SE20. All of whom, Annie breathes life into through her writing. Now don’t go thinking  Dennis of Penge  is a regular play, because it definitely isn’t. On the Ovalhouse website, it is described as “part gig, part poetry, part thea...

Andrea Miller, Emily Jane Kerr, Christian James, Tori Allen-Martin, Prince Plockey and Christopher Lyne in H.R.Haitch (Credit of Nick Rutter) Back, in the midsts of time, royal weddings were so easy. The reigning monarch would check their progeny and marry them off to another monarch’s child thus securing alliances and securing their own future. Love was never a feature of the deal but if it happened between the youngsters then that was just an added bonus. Nowadays, prince and princesses of the realm, lead a more normal life. They go off to school, university and then jobs. They get to meet and mix with, ordinary members of the public and, who knows, maybe they even get to fall in love all by themselves. This then is the central premise behind  H. R. Haitch  which recently opened at the Union Theatre. London 2011 and revolution is in the air. The coalition government has fallen and there is a new party in charge under a new Prime Minister Nathan (Prince Plockey). One of ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/198612/review-northanger-avenue-by-jack-saville-white-bear-theatre/ Sharing a house is pretty much a fact of life for people that want to live in London. Most people here will at some point share a house with friends or often complete strangers who find each other through social media or various websites. The concept of house sharing is a potentially rich seam for a playwright to mine and writer Jack Saville has done that in his play  Northanger Avenue  at the White Bear Theatre. In deepest Lewisham, 23-year-old teacher Tom (Chris Born) has found a great property to move into. The rent is amazingly cheap and the room is huge. All he has to do is convince the current occupants that he has excellent housemate potential. So far, he has met Sam (Rob Oldham) a young vicar with some interesting theological ideas that, if pursued, might possibly stop him becoming Archbishop of Canterbury. Tom asks about the previous housemate – Dan – but befo...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/197726/review-hidden-figures-ww2-colab-factory/ HIDDEN FIGURES: WW2 Time for some magic. I want you all to sit back and relax. Now name three people you can think of from  World War II  – but not anyone related to your family. Think hard about them. OK. I’m going to make a prediction. Everyone you are thinking of have three things in common: One, they are men. Two, they are white and three, they are English/American. Because those were the only people that took part and won the Second World War weren’t they? We all know, that in reality millions from all walks of life were involved in the war. Quite a lot will have fitted the stereotype above, but a significant number didn’t. All have a story to tell and some of these stories are truly amazing and can be discovered in the immersive show  Hidden Figures: WW2  at the Colab Factory. This really is an immersive production which starts well before you arrive at the location. The i...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/197698/review-fckinglifemate-bread-and-roses-theatre/ Is one’s life plan pre-ordained? It’s true that for certain people it pretty much seems to be. For example, Prince Charles, will one day be king and his son will follow him and so on. Although as Edward VIII proved, it is possible for even the Royals to get away from their allotted life. So, if the monarchy can carve a new future for themselves, maybe everyone can. Let’s hope that true for the characters in Scott James’ new play  F*ckingLifeMate  at the Bread and Roses Theatre in Clapham. Told as a first-person monologue interspersed with acted scenes,  F*ckingLifeMate  is the story of Kirsty (Kelsey Short) a fifteen-year-old girl growing up on a traditional rough council estate in Thamesmead, South East London. Life is not good for the residents of this estate and the most that the majority of them have to look forward to is repeating the cycle of their parents’ lives – ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/194550/madonna-or-whore-the-vault-festival-review/ When you think about it in the great scheme of things, sixty minutes is not a long time. Two episodes of a standard sitcom or the average lunch break. Let’s be honest, I can put off writing a review for longer than an hour and not notice the time pass. However, Holly Morgan’s production  Madonna or Whore? , down at the Vault Festival, managed in just sixty short minutes to affect me so much, it may even have changed my life in some small way. The show itself is based on the “Madonna–whore complex” first identified by Sigmund Freud. Under the rubric of psychic impotence, this psychological complex is said to develop in men who see women as either saintly Madonnas or debased whores. I’m guessing right now you’re thinking “that sounds like it’s not for me”. I can understand that, as my first reaction was also along those lines. But stick with it as Holly has not only written a fantastic one a...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/193347/bitches-down-under-review-above-the-stag-theatre/ January must be the most depressing month in the calendar. Christmas is over, the decorations are down and everywhere is looking drab and boring. The weather is awful and the credit card bills for the festive season have arrived. The best thing to do to escape the January blues is to take a holiday somewhere hot but, if your wallet won’t quite stretch to that then the next best thing is to share someone else’s holiday. So, I would recommend that you get yourself down to the Above the Stag and join the folks for  Bitches Down Under . The plane has barely touched down at Sydney airport before Drew (Liam Nooney) and his fiancé Garth (Ethan Chapples), along with their favourite “fruit Fly” Pam (Hannah Vesty) are in a bar at Bondi Beach. This holiday is very special for Garth and Drew as not only is it their first visit to Mardi Gras but afterwards they are flying off to New Zealand – P...

https://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/review-bananaman-the-musical-at-southwark-playhouse/ Bananaman The  Musical  – Matthew McKenna (Bananaman) Photo by Pamela Raith Ever dreamed of being a Superhero? Yep, me too. I would love to wake up one day transformed from my normal weeble-like body into a man of muscles who can fly, save the world and generally be loved and admired by everyone. However, as they say, be careful for what you wish for. A point that is nicely demonstrated in  Bananaman The Musical  receiving its world premiere at Southwark Playhouse. Living in 29 Acacia Road – possibly one of the most boring roads on the planet – geeky teenager Eric Wimp (Mark Newnham) dreams of excitement. Unfortunately, the most exciting thing in Eric’s life is finding out what strange combination of ingredients his mother (Lizzii Hills) has put together for his lunch. School life is no better for Eric and about the only positive in his life is his friend...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/191539/slavas-snowshow-at-the-royal-festival-hall-review/ Yellow clown in snowstorm – Photo credit V Mishukov I’m really not keen on clowns. Let’s be honest, I’m pretty terrified of them and have been for quite a few years now. I know it’s irrational, but there it is. So when I was asked to go and review a clown show at the Royal Festival Hall, I decided to face my fears and go for it. Apart from clowns, I had no real idea what I was in store for and  Slava’s Snowshow  was a complete surprise on every level. I sort of got the idea something was different when I walked into the auditorium and saw just how messy it was. Normally the RFH is a beautiful wood panelled performance space overlooked by pods that could have come from the set of Star Wars. Today, however, the sides were covered with a black curtain and there were small pieces of paper on every surface. I took my seat among the hundreds of children that had been brought to the sh...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/190333/review-christmas-farce-waterloo-east-theatre/ A theatre show is often like a swan. Out on stage, all is serene and beautiful whilst backstage there is a hive of activity going on. There have been various shows written about life backstage at a theatre –  Noises Off  springs to mind, though I’ve still not got around to seeing it. However, if you would like to see life backstage during a Christmas show, then you can do no better than toodle off to the Waterloo East Theatre to see Shaun Kitchener’s play  Christmas Farce . Thirty minutes – or in theatrical parlance, The Half – before curtain up and Alice (Natalie Lester) is the only person in the Green Room of a regional theatre. The fact it is Christmas is demonstrated not only by Alice’s OTT festive jumper but also with the gaudy decorations festooning the place. These are the handiwork of back-stage worker Makenzie (Marc-Gee Finch) and, while they are a tad tacky, they do...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/187131/review-three-mothers-waterloo-east-theatre-london/ Europe is awash with migrants. War, genocide, economic conditions and deportation have caused a mass of dispossessed people to be wandering around seeking everything from a new life away from fear to just somewhere warm to rest their head. The funny thing is, anyone reading this opening will believe they already know about the migrant issue. It’s on the news all the time and has become a bit of political hot potato. But, the current situation is not the first time Europe has suffered a migrant crisis. You only need to go back seventy years to find another time when migration was a major problem for the countries of Europe. Today and the past are at the heart of Matilda Velevitch’s play  Three Mothers  at the Waterloo East Theatre. Told as three intertwining monologues,  Three Mothers  tells the story of three women separated by time and space. First, there is Khady (C...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/184224/review-absolute-certainty-at-the-white-bear-theatre/ Absolute Certainty – Credit Brittain Photography Mental illness is something that we are all terrified of in some respects. How many times have articles about mass murderers, serial killers and the like included an interview with someone who is dumbfounded as the perpetrator ‘ looked and acted just like everyone else ’? In fact, an awful lot of the thriller genre relies on mental health issues not being identified in order to keep the suspense going. And mental health is at the heart of Laila Bouromane’s debut play  Absolute Certainty  having its first run at the White Bear Theatre. At a fairly nondescript greetings card manufacturer, someone is slightly out of kilter with the rest of the team. That someone is Michael (Mike) Dunhill (Andy Murton) a member of the accounts team who basically likes to keep himself to himself. He doesn’t get involved and attempts at conversation ...