Theatre review: Cow | Deer

Katie Mitchell has been noticing that Foley art is a thing that exists, and building shows around it, on and off for years now. To be honest I probably wouldn't have booked Cow Vertical Bar Deer, which Mitchell co-creates with Nina Segal and Melanie Wilson, if it hadn't been a co-production with the National Theatre of Greece and I'd not felt like being supportive. In the end it's not quite my cup of tea but didn't feel like a waste of my time either. The show is entirely wordless, with the cast of four responding to Wilson's pre-recorded soundtrack of animal and machine noises by using Foley techniques to create the rest of the sounds heard by the titular animals: A heavily pregnant cow in a field, and in a nearby wood a deer, whose levels of fecundity the informational postcard we're given at the start doesn't disclose.

Theatre review: The Truth About Blayds

The Finborough's rediscoveries of once-popular, now forgotten works by famous authors have previously included the first time I saw J.M. Barrie's Quality Street, and now many years later another writer whose early plays were overlooked once he became better known as a children's author takes to the same stage: A. A. Milne is now remembered for creating Winnie-the-Pooh, but in 1921 his play The Truth About Blayds was getting compliments from the likes of Dorothy Parker. It's not been seen on the London stage since, but David Gilmore's production reveals it as, if not quite a lost classic, at least worth a look more than once a century. Oliver Blayds (William Gaunt) is the last of the great Victorian poets, crossing paths with Tennyson and Browning, and compared favourably to Wordsworth.

Theatre review: Deaf Republic

Deaf Republic takes its cue from poetry, in a variety of forms: The source material is Ukrainian-American poet Ilya Kaminsky's book of the same name, while the play itself is co-written by its directors Bush Moukarzel and Ben Kidd, aka Dead Centre, and BSL poet Zoë McWhinney. In a fictional Eastern European town occupied by enemy soldiers, a child is watching a puppet show when a soldier commands the crowd to disperse. But the child is Deaf and when he fails to obey the order he's shot dead. The next morning the entire town has also become profoundly Deaf in protest, communicating in their own mix of British and Ukrainian sign language designed in part to add an extra level of inscrutability for their enemies. The soldiers brutally try to break the protest and prove the people are only pretending, but meet with a wall of silence.

Theatre review: Born With Teeth

After a quiet start to his time as half the Artistic Director of the RSC Daniel Evans is having a busier second year, following up his role as a Christopher Marlowe lead by directing a play about the man himself. Liz Duffy Adams' Born With Teeth takes as its premise an academic theory that Marlowe might have contributed to Shakespeare's early Henry VI plays, as well as from the persistent rumours that he was murdered for his work as a spy. In a private back room in a pub we see the two playwrights - aware of each other but not yet acquainted - meet for the first time after being asked to complete an unfinished draft of the play that is now known as Part I. Kit Marlowe (Ncuti Gatwa) is the established, bad-boy superstar of Elizabethan theatre, and plays up to this image to the somewhat star-struck Will Shakespeare (Edward Bluemel,) dominating the conversation and making sure he reserves all the best scenes from the outline for himself.

Theatre review: The Pitchfork Disney

Max Harrison, the latest of the select group of directors who seem to specialise in Philip Ridley's twisted fantasies, now takes on the writer's first, and one of his most famous works for the stage: The Pitchfork Disney sets for tone for Ridley's worlds that live somewhere at the intersection of a very recognisable East London and a surreal apocalyptic wasteland. Presley Stray (Ned Costello) has just returned from a daily trip to the shops, to bring back supplies of chocolate for himself and his twin sister Haley (Elizabeth Connick,) seemingly the only time that either of them ever leaves the run-down flat where they grew up. Ten years previously when they were eighteen, their parents both died in mysterious, suspicious circumstances, and since then they've cocooned themselves, finding a twisted kind of comfort in telling each other tales of an apocalypse that only they survived.

Theatre review: Fat Ham

After Hamlet on the Titanic and a musical version set to Radiohead* the RSC has its third go at the story this year: I've not got the best history with the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, having found a number of past winners underwhelming at best, but in general it still seems to be a respected award, so James Ijames' 2022 winner must have made for one of the few times actors have actively wanted to be called Fat Ham. Fat Ham, I hear it and I know, Fat Ham, Fat Ham, I know you wanna take me home, Fat Ham, and get to know me close, Fat Ham, Fat Ham, when your heart goes Fat Ham is a self-aware, modern-day adaptation of Hamlet that takes the "ham" part of the title (and, I guess, the Danish part of the story) and turns the royal family into one that's made a living out of pork products, raising pigs, butchering them and cooking them in their restaurant.

Theatre review: Juniper Blood

Mike Bartlett's latest play sees him return to a Chekhovian setting and theme of a rural location consumed by possible ecological disaster, although without quite the formal use of Chekhov's structure of Albion: Juniper Blood features a much smaller cast and three acts rather than four, but it does still feel in many ways a successor to his earlier work. It starts almost as a comedy of disparate groups of farmers and urbanites forming an awkward blended family: Lip (Sam Troughton) is the monosyllabic heir to a farm that's been in his family for generations; quite how he ended up in a relationship with the well-off, earnest Ruth (Hattie Morahan) isn't entirely clear, but shortly before his father's death he agreed to take over the business, with his partner buying into it and investing in repairs and changes to turn it into a more sustainable, organic concern.

Theatre review: Twelfth Night or What You Will

Despite its wintery title the season Twelfth Night is most commonly associated with is Autumn, usually accompanied by some variation of the dreaded phrase "Shakespeare's melancholy farewell to comedy" in the blurb. Well there's certainly something autumnal about Robin Belfield's production at the Globe, but it's more pagan harvest festival than sad falling leaves. Under a gold wooden sun and featuring a wicker man, Jean Chan's design is all brashly colourful carnival outfits. It's a mood that's infected almost everyone in Illyria, including its Duke who's often seen opening the play lounging moodily on cushions. Instead Solomon Israel's Orsino is definitely up for the party, and is just a bit annoyed that the girl he fancies isn't joining in, or returning his interest - and all because she's still in mourning for all the men in her family dropping dead over the course of a couple of months, honestly some people, such drama queens.

Theatre review: Brigadoon

Brigadoon! Aha! Take it now or leave it, now is all we get, nothing promised no regrets!

About 18 months after Drew McOnie was announced as Artistic Director of the Regents Park Open Air Theatre we get his first directing gig in the post, the sort of thing that gets seen as a statement of intent for his tenure. And what we get is Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe's (music) Brigadoon, which is certainly... a statement. On the 1st of May 1944, American airmen Tommy (Louis Gaunt) and Jeff (Cavan Clarke) crash in a part of Scotland so remote there's nothing on the map. But on this one day the place is far from desolate, as they encounter the bustling, suspiciously old-fashioned town of Brigadoon, where the people are mainly occupied with moving milk, beer and tartan cloth backwards and forwards, while preparing for a wedding that night. While Jeff gets pursued by the local maneater Meg (Nic Myers,) Tommy finds a more serious romantic interest.

Theatre review: A Man for All Seasons

Robert Bolt's 1960 play A Man for All Seasons is considered something of a modern classic, and one that seems to attract actors to revisit its lead over the years - Martin Shaw previously played Thomas More in 2006, and returns nearly two decades later for this touring production finishing its run at the Pinter. Covering the familiar ground of Henry VIII's spilt both from his first wife and the Catholic Church, it does so from the point of view of More, the Lord Chancellor whose refusal to undermine the Pope's authority and subsequent fall from grace saw him posthumously considered a martyr and saint by the Church. When we first meet him he's managing to hold on to his power and influence, but as soon as it becomes impossible to accept Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon without also endorsing the idea that the Church ruled wrongly on the issue, he quietly resigns his position.

Theatre review: Good Night, Oscar

Documenting perhaps the first, definitely not the last, nervous breakdown on live TV, Doug Wright's Good Night, Oscar goes behind the scenes of an episode of The Tonight Show from 1958. Moving from its usual New York home to Hollywood for a week, the show is hoping for a ratings smash, and host Jack Paar (Ben Rappaport) wants to open with one of his own favourite regular guests, who always gets a big audience reaction: Actor and musician Oscar Levant (Sean Hayes,) who's become as well known for his near-the-knuckle witticisms and acerbic comments as he has for his virtuoso piano-playing, where he specialises in the works of his old friend George Gershwin. Oscar is often fashionably late, but with this episode coming from the headquarters Jack has the network head himself, Bob Sarnoff (Richard Katz) pressuring him to find a last-minute replacement.

Theatre review: Saving Mozart

The Other Palace's latest attempt to come up with the next big historical pop musical to rival SIX takes us to 18th century Austria for Charli Eglinton's (book, music and lyrics) Saving Mozart. Eglinton's idea is that it was the women in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's (Jack Chambers) life who did the saving (of his memory, at least; given he died penniless aged 35 they didn't do the best job of saving Mozart himself.) With their father Leopold (Douglas Hansell) essentially seeing them as a way to money and influence, young Wolfgang (Carla Lopez Corpas, alternating with Izzie Monk) and his older sister Nannerl (Aimie Atkinson) are toured around the Royal courts of Europe as musical prodigies. But Leopold's treatment of Nannerl is even more cynical than it first appears: Once she's served her purpose in pushing Wolfgang to greatness, she's to be ditched from the act and married off.

Theatre review: Inter Alia

Playwright Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin's next collaboration after Prima Facie has a lot to live up to after the earlier play's international success; but in fairness the publicity for Inter Alia has leaned heavily on that connection, and this is another story told by a powerful woman in the legal system, with a Latin legal term as its title, so it's not like the comparisons aren't being enthusiastically invited. This time the narrator is a judge: Jessica (Rosamund Pike) has been in the position for a couple of years now and is settled into a role that, as she often tells us, requires a lot less talking and a lot more listening than her previous job as a barrister. She enjoys the wider perspective she now has as well as the fresh approach she feels she brings to the bench, even if she has to contend with barristers who show her less respect than her male colleagues.

Theatre review: Till The Stars Come Down

Beth Steel's Till The Stars Come Down has been compared to Chekhov, and though it owes as much to Coronation Street it does centre on three sisters: In a Northern former coalmining town Hazel (Lucy Black) and Maggie (Aisling Loftus) are helping youngest sister Sylvia (Sinéad Matthews) get ready for her wedding. While Hazel lives down the road with her husband John (Adrian Bower) and teenage daughters Leanne (Ruby Thompson) and Sarah (Cadence Williams, alternating with Lillie Babb and Elodie Blomfield,) and Maggie rather abruptly moved away for work some months earlier, Sylvia has stayed at home ever since their mother's death, keeping their father Tony (Alan Williams) company. So her wedding represents both moving on from the past, and a day where she can be the focus of attention rather than the supportive one, but she's got a bad feeling something's going to go wrong.

Theatre review: The Winter's Tale (RSC/RST)

Having clawed her way off my list of creatives I avoid like the plague with a decent Macbeth and a very good King Lear, Yaël Farber now makes her RSC debut by continuing her successful recent strategy of tackling Shakespeare plays where not having a sense of humour is not really an obstacle. Yes, I know The Winter's Tale is officially classed as a comedy, but you know as well as I do that having one scene where a con-man (Trevor Fox) pickpockets a hot young shepherd (Ryan Duval) doesn't make it a laugh riot, any more than having a scene where a porter does a dozen puns about equivocation doesn't make Macbeth a knockabout farce. The story of two kings who violently turn on members of their own family, Sicilia's Leontes (Transphobia Inc Employee Bertie Carvel) has been best friends with his Bohemian counterpart Polixenes (John Light) since childhood.

Theatre review: The Estate

As a result of having to close the Dorfman for the best part of a year for maintenance works, the final season of RuNo shows at the National Theatre's smallest space is launching just as the ones in the two larger venues are coming to a close. The opener for this three-play season comes from a first-time playwright, Shaan Sahota, and mixes lively political comedy with a much bleaker look at generational trauma in a patriarchal society. Angad Singh (Adeel Akhtar) is a minor member of the Shadow Cabinet, but when the leader of his party has to resign because of a scandal, he becomes a surprise favourite to replace him. This big upheaval in his career coincides with one in his personal life, as his father dies unexpectedly, leaving him his entire property portfolio. Though his sisters Gyan (Thusitha Jayasundera) and Malicka (Shelley Conn) are used to being overlooked, not even being mentioned in the will still comes as a slap in the face.

Theatre review: Burlesque

I haven't really been following all the gossip about the troubled production of Burlesque, but I did suspect everything might not be going swimmingly early on when Todrick Hall was initially announced as one of the stars, then as the director and choreographer, and finally as one of the co-writers. Given that those things would ideally be worked out in the reverse order, it did give the impression of a temp getting hired to help out on a project for a couple of weeks, then ending up running it a few months later when everyone who actually knows what they're doing quits, why yes I do speak from experience. Also Hall has publicly stated that the show got rushed into the Savoy when it suddenly became available and nobody was prepared for it, so that was a clue as well. Anyway the finished product only really shows signs of its troubled origins when the lights are on and there's people on stage.

Theatre review: Four Play

The King's Head's new venue may be so deep down in the ground that you occasionally spot Peter Cushing down there telling a prehistoric bird it can't mesmerise him because he's British, but it seems to be able to attract decent casts to make the trek regardless, including a number of recent West End musical stars for its revival of Jake Brunger's Four Play. Rafe (Lewis Cornay) and Pete (Zheng Xi Yong) have been together for seven and a half years, and have only ever slept with each other. They're outwardly the picture of domestic bliss, but lately Pete in particular has been wondering if they're missing something. They hatch a plan to approach a mutual acquaintance they both fancy, not for a threesome but to each arrange a night with him, catering to the different fantasies they harbour about him.

Theatre review: Sing Street

John Carney's 2016 sleeper hit Sing Street tried out a stage adaptation in New York and Boston in 2019, and presumably Covid was part of the reason things went quiet for it after that. Now the full-blown musical by Enda Walsh (book,) Carney and Gary Clark (music and lyrics) gets its London premiere in Rebecca Taichman's production at the Lyric Hammersmith, and as I loved the film and quickly added its original songs to my playlist it had a lot to live up to. Set in 1980s Dublin, a time of hardship when even middle class families are struggling to make ends meet, teenager Conor (Sheridan Townsley) is taken out of his private school and sent to one run by the notoriously abusive Christian Brothers, where he quickly makes a nemesis out of the sadistic principal Brother Baxter (Lloyd Hutchinson.)

Theatre review: The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare's Globe)

George Fouracres seems to be absolutely speeding his way through the big Shakespearean comic roles at the Globe, and has already got to Sir John Falstaff - the slightly alternate Merry Wives of Windsor version who tends to be portrayed as a bit fluffier than the manipulative old thief of the Henriad. Although maybe not so different in Sean Holmes' new take, which leans into the fact that, like many a later farce, this one also builds its embarrassments and misunderstandings on some pretty dark motivations. So Fouracres' Falstaff has to win the audience's sympathy through the humiliations he's put through - he's a bombastic bully who makes jokes about drowning puppies, and plots to seduce two married women less out of lust than malice: He'll enjoy humiliating their husbands by cuckolding them, and maybe burgle their houses as well while he's there.