Tezza's Theatre Place

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....

https://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/collective-rage-a-play-in-five-betties-review/ Collective Rage at Southwark Playhouse. Sara Stewart (Betty 1) Photo by Jack Sain Terminology around the LGBT+ community can seem like a bit of a nightmare. People get so worried about saying the right thing and using the right words that they forget everyone they are talking about or to is a person, an individual in their own right. Bringing the whole thing back to people is Jan Silverman whose play  Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties  is getting its UK premiere at the Southwark Playhouse. Told both as monologues to the audience and interactions between the characters, and using a play within a play device, Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties is exactly that. Five, and I apologise for the terminology, ladies, named Betty, are brought together in this one act story of rage, desire, lust and love set in New York. Betty 1 (Sara Stewart) is a socialite, married to ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/189248/review-xposed-lgbtq-new-writing-night-hen-chickens-theatre/ Fluid (Jack O’Neill) There are times when I really wish I could write. Not these reviews but something worthwhile. They say everybody has a book inside of them but I’ve yet to find mine. As for writing a play, fat chance. Maybe that is why I enjoy nights such as  Xposed  which was a new writing night of eight short plays at the Hen & Chickens Theatre. The evening started with a play called  Fluid , written by Nick Maynard, Directed by Shafeeq Shajahan and performed by Jack O’Neill. This was a monologue with Jack’s character being a rough, ‘chavy’ boy from Bolton on a stage supposedly performing a rap for the eager audience – which included his mum, brother, girlfriend and friends. Only our lad has other ideas and is going to use this opportunity to tell everyone something that he has been hiding. Immediately the play started, my thoughts turned to “ oh great...

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/180076/review-blue-stockings-the-yard-theatre/ The cast of the National Youth Theatre production of Blue Stockings at the Yard Theatre – CREDIT Helen Murray It’s just coming up to that time of year when the new university students enrol and start their three year journey that will culminate in them putting on a cap and gown, walking across some form of stage, shaking hands with someone wearing an even more ornate cap and gown then receiving a rolled up piece of parchment while their proud friends and families look on and “social mediarise” the event like there is no tomorrow. Graduation Day ceremonies are beautiful to watch as students of every creed, colour, gender, pick up their awards. Of course, it hasn’t always been like this, and this is the central theme of Jessica Swale’s play  Blue Stockings  which the National Youth Theatre is currently presenting at The Yard Theatre. It is 1897 and leading academic Dr Maudsley (Dajay Brown) ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/179160/review-the-wasp-jermyn-street-theatre/ Lisa Gorgin and Selina Giles in The Wasp – Photographer Andreas Grieger I suppose I was very lucky at school. Although being short, wearing glasses and having ‘FA Cup’ ears, I don’t remember ever being bullied about theses things. Though I did get my ears fixed and once ‘lost’ a pair of NHS glasses as I hated them, so maybe things did get said after all. The point is, that whatever may have happened it was obviously pretty mild and so I’ve forgotten about it. I’m one of the lucky ones. For some people school is a place they go to to be tortured either mentally, verbally or physically. For them, school doesn’t end when they hit 16 and leave. For them, these events may live in their mind for years to come, and this is the premise behind Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s play  The Wasp  at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Outside a nondescript coffee shop, two women sit and drink tea. Heather (Selina Giles) is...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/170188/review-expensive-shit-soho-theatre/ Expensive Shit 2017 Photo credit Eoin Carey Ever look at the title of a show and wonder not only what it means but also why those particular words had been chosen? For example, ‘Urinetown’ is such a bad title for a musical that it’s even referred to in the opening number. Another show with an intriguing title is Adura Onashile’s  Expensive Shit  which has just opened at the Soho Theatre. The play tells the story of Tolu (Kiza Deen) and revolves around two toilets. The first is in ‘The Shrine’ nightclub, Lagos 1974 and the second is an unnamed club in Glasgow in 2013. In Lagos, Tolu and her female friends (Veronica Lewis, Jamie Marie Leary, and Maria Yarjah) practice their dancing, then they practice again. Tolu is relentless in getting them to practice dancing to Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat music. The reason for all this practicing? Like many of their contemporaries, the girls want to get noticed a...

http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/review-handbagged-brockley-jack-theatre/ Ever wanted to be The Queen? not a Queen but The Queen? It can’t be a bad life really. You get to travel around for free, everyone does whatever you tell them and it’s a job for life. Of course, there are snakes as well as ladders in the monarchy game. As Queen you have no actual power, can’t vote and every Tuesday you have to spend some time with the current Prime Minister – someone you may not personally like or respect – and listen to them whitter on about how great things are. In the UK, for an eleven year period, the roles of Monarch and Prime Minister were both held by women. Nobody knows what passed between them at their weekly meetings, but playwright Moira Buffini has come up with some ideas and her award-winning play  Handbagged , currently running at the Jack Studio Theatre, is the fruition of her thoughts. Unusually for a play about the monarch and her PM,  Handb...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/163247/review-fiona-doyles-play-abigail-the-bunker/ Abigail at The Bunker – Tia Bannon and Mark Rose – Image courtesy of Anton Belmonté “ Some enchanted evening you may see a stranger. You may see a stranger across a crowded room. And somehow you know, you know even then….. ” and so the song goes on. Often it is true as well. Two people meet, something clicks and something starts between them. All well and good you might think. But people are complicated things. Everyone comes loaded with a trolley full of luggage behind them which affects their relationships in profound and sometimes quite unexpected ways. Not sure if I’m spouting a load of drivel here? Well, pop along to The Bunker and the world premiere of Fiona Doyle’s play  Abigail  then decide. A man (Mark Rose) and a woman (Tia Bannon) meet. There is a distinct difference in age between them but despite this, there is an obvious attraction between them. They get involved in a rel...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/155230/review-my-gay-best-friend-the-space/ One of the accepted facts of life is that of all the essentials in a woman’s life the GBF is one of the most important. It’s about the only relationship that a man and a woman can have together where the possibility of sex is guaranteed not to raise its ugly head. What’s a GBF you ask? Why it’s  My Gay Best Friend , and there is a wonderful one-act play of that name written by and starring Louise Jameson and Nigel Fairs which I was lucky enough to catch at The Space performing arts and community centre. The story starts with a ringing phone and an outgoing voicemail message saying Gavin (Nigel Fairs) is not available to take your call, please leave a message. As the lights go on, we see a grubby toilet in which stands Rachel (Louise Jameson) shining in a gold sequined dress and ‘matching’ silver sequined jacket. Rachel is distraught. She is about to take to the stage in an Eastbourne club’s annual ...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/153080/review-beefcake-london-new-cross-theatre/ Masculinity is an odd concept. After all, if someone is described as masculine that is a compliment isn’t it? Well, as with so many things in life, it’s all about the context. For some, masculinity is a badge of honour, for some it’s a stereotype and for others, it’s an extremely negative view of a certain type of man. To get an example of two of these types pop along to The London Theatre, New Cross to see  Beefcake . The show itself consists of two highly individual monologues that look at masculinity from very different viewpoints. The first is  The Cake , written and performed by Luke Rollason, a Bouffon Clown and the proverbial ‘nice guy’ who just wanted to meet and date a woman. To this end, he has been listening to self-help CDs which guarantee a man that women will fall for them if they obey the rules set by the seller of the help. In his desperation, the character even turns to ...

http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/review-of-half-a-sixpence-at-the-noel-coward-theatre/ Hand on heart now, how many of you reading this right now, play a Lottery game in some form or another? And how many of you players do so because of the money the various organisations distribute to good causes throughout the length and breadth of the UK? Let’s be honest, we play the lottery to win the money and change our lives. However, maybe we should be careful what we wish for, because when a life is changed by money then all of the values that were held dear are looked at from a different perspective. Not sure if I’m talking through my hat here? Well get yourself down to the Noël Coward Theatre and go and see Cameron Mackintosh’s latest smash hit transfer from the Chichester Festival –  Half A Sixpence. Its 1904 and young Arthur Kipps (Charlie Stemp) and his best friend Ann Pornick (Devon-Elise Johnson) are playing. There is sadness in their games though as to...

https://www.londontheatre1.com/news/151981/mule-is-a-seriously-great-production-from-start-to-finish/ According to the old song, “ A mule is an animal with long, funny ears, He kicks up at anything he hears, His back is brawny and his brain is weak, He’s just plain stupid with a stubborn streak ” However, there is a much nastier side to the word and demonstrated in Kat Woods harrowing one-act play  Mule  at the Omnibus in Clapham. Based on a true story,  Mule  starts with a series of projected text messages (good work by Video Designer Carrie Shearman) between two sisters from Ireland. One having recently lost her job is heading off to spend the summer in Ibiza, while the other stays home and relays messages. As time goes on, things seem to be going okay, and then suddenly the messages stop, the phone goes unanswered and voicemails aren’t replied to. The home-based sister is getting more worried and upset and eventually calls in the Police to find her sibling, w...