Theatre review: Julius Caesar(Icarus / Southwark Playhouse)

I wonder if Julius Caesar is another play that's currently on the syllabus, as Southwark Playhouse had a production from Lazarus Theatre Company scheduled which fell through; instead of cancelling, they replaced it with a completely different production of the same Shakespeare play from Icarus Theatre Collective, a company specialising in creative captioning who've previously presented Ionesco at the venue. Max Lewendel's production has apparently gone through extensive R&D, something I wish I could say was better reflected in what's ended up on stage in The Large. Instead we're in a dystopian future, one theoretically embedded in very modern concerns about AI and online mobs, but in design more obviously rooted in the kind of 1980s sci-fi that tried to remake Mad Max on a 30p budget.

Theatre review: Captain Amazing

Captain Amazing dates from ten years ago, so it's just before playwright Alistair McDowell was a big enough name to get the budget for eldritch abominations, deep space mysteries and time-travelling mythical figures. But while it's a monologue dealing with very down-to-earth causes for joy and despair, it's still couched in terms of an SF world - in this case that of comic-book superheroes. Mark Weinman appears in jeans and a T-shirt, along with a long red cape as he takes us through a decade or so of the life of a man, also called Mark, who's been drunkenly pestering people in a club, insisting he's the titular hero. What led him to this point begins at his job in B&Q, helping a customer who will eventually become his wife. Sooner than they might have expected they become parents, and Mark is a devoted dad although not necessarily one who feels he knows what he's doing - especially once the marriage starts to break down.