Theatre review: Please Please Me

As the title gives away, Tom Wright's Please Please Me deals with the Beatles - or at least with the outsider credited with making the world sit up and pay attention to them, their gay, Jewish manager Brian Epstein. That's Brian Epstein. We first meet Brian (Calam Lynch) working in his family's department store, nominally in the closet but with his various encounters with rough trade (all played by William Robinson) often proving dangerous, his father (Arthur Wilson) is well aware of what's going on. Following the advice of one of his regular hook-ups, he visits the Cavern Club to catch the band that's got Liverpool's teenage girls screaming, and despite having no experience in the field decides he has to become their manager - and convinces them to give him a go.

Theatre review: Genesis Inc.

Marking the 40th anniversary of the first test tube baby, Hampstead Theatre stages Genesis Inc., Jemma Kennedy’s satire of the monetisation of reproduction. The tangled plot follows two couples whose experience of the titular IVF clinic throws them together in unexpected ways: Bridget (Laura Howard) is an ambitious financier who’s had her eggs frozen there in case she wants a baby in the future, and overhears that Harry Enfield’s intermittently South African Dr Marshall wants to float the company on the stock market; she decides to pitch to represent him. Meanwhile her best friend Miles (Arthur Darvill) is a gay, Jewish music teacher who’s just got a job in a Catholic boys’ school, and has gone partly back into the closet in the belief that it’ll help him keep his job. Bridget is bearding for him, but with the fertility clinic on her mind, she wonders if the time has come for her to have a baby, and whether instead of an anonymous sperm donor she should ask Miles.

Theatre review: Richard II (Shakespeare's Globe)

Back to the Globe for the second night in a row, and right back to the beginning of the octet that ends with Richard III. In fact I can now say I've seen all of Shakespeare's Histories at this venue, now that Richard II has been added to the list. Charles Edwards plays King Richard, who was crowned as a child - in fact Simon Godwin's production opens with the additional scene of the young Richard's (Thomas Ashdown or Frederick Neilson) coronation. On a golden throne on a golden stage, he's showered with golden confetti that'll probably be stuck in the theatre's nooks and crannies for years to come (I know from groundlings that it's been stuck in their nooks and crannies for a while.) All this bling is in honour of a king who's grown up with the certain knowledge that his power is god-given, and who behaves accordingly. But when he banishes and disinherits his cousin Bolingbroke (David Sturzaker,) he finds that he's pushed the wrong man around.

Theatre review: The Taming of the Shrew (Propeller)

The second of Ed Hall's Propeller shows that Dugald Bruce-Lockhart has revived for another tour is perhaps my least favourite Shakespeare comedy, and a problematic one in anyone's book, The Taming of the Shrew. Baptista Minola (Chris Myles) is a wealthy Paduan merchant whose younger daughter Bianca (Arthur Wilson) is much sought-after by the men of the city. But their hopes are threatened by Baptista's decree that before she marries her elder sister has to find a husband first - Katherine (Dan Wheeler) is notorious for her terrible temper. Some of her suitors hatch a plan to pose as tutors to get close to Bianca and compete for her affections; while for the obstacle in their way they've enlisted Petruchio (Vince Leigh,) who's willing to take on Katherine in return for her sizeable sodwry. But a wife with a mind of her own doesn't suit him and he proceeds to "tame" her into submission.

Theatre review: Twelfth Night (Propeller)

It's July, which means it must be time for one of my annual theatrical highlights: Having toured their current season since last autumn, the brilliant all-male Shakespeare troupe Propeller end at Artistic Director Ed Hall's London base, Hampstead Theatre. This year the company revisit a hit double bill from a few years back, and the reins are handed to Associate Director Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, who revives Hall's productions of Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew. From my perspective, Propeller are giving themselves a challenge this year: At the end of the current run I'll be returning to see if they can make me love the Shrew, a problem comedy I've never been a fan of. First though a much better play, but one so popular I seem to see it at least twice a year. Can they make Twelfth Night feel fresh?