REVIEW: Natives at Southwark Playhouse

A, B and C are a girl and two boys from three different countries, whose names are never revealed. Today is their fourteenth birthday and we watch them struggling to get on with their families and with their peers. We witness their coming of age and their judgement of the world through the screen of their phones. The distinction between social media and real life is so subtle that, like them, we are tempted to ignore it and, through the screen of their phones, we filter their malaise and interpret their ordeal. Three very different but somehow analogous stories of trolling, online shaming, exposure to violent and pornographic contents and need for social approval, which converge at breakneck speed toward the same desperate solution. Their stories don't involve any grown-ups. The adults aren't there to help, too busy building their careers, mourning their losses or focusing in their daily routine. 

Glenn Waldron's Natives is an insistent reminder of the wall we often raise between us and the younger generations. A barrier that in our grown-up minds separates our important issues from their teenage problems, which we don't see as a big deal. The difficulty to communicate with the other side of the barrier can only be solved if we are ready to listen and if we are willing to adopt their ever-changing channels and languages. Albeit the depiction of the three characters might appear shallow, this should be considered as Waldron's deliberate attempt to outline the personalities of fourteen-year- olds, with their endless doubts and sudden mood changes.

REVIEW: A Woman Alone at Etcetera Theatre

Maria enters the scene wearing only a succinct and revealing slip dress, the curlers still in her hair and a crimson lipstick to match a smokey eyeshadow. She's wildly dancing and singing on the loud notes of Jefferson Airplane's Do You Want Somebody to Love. Suddenly, she stops, as she notices our presence across the room, or better, the presence of someone new in the opposite building who's looking at her. Behind her, we can see several lines of clothes hung to dry: bedsheets, baby wraps, underwear and some eye-catching cocktail dresses and shimmering garments in clear contrast with the rest. In a corner of the room an ironing board and, across, a large pile of clothes on the floor. 

When she introduces herself to the new neighbour, she directs her speech to us, as if we were the ones looking through the window, and so we learn how fortunate she is, because her husband treats her like porcelain and provides for her every need. She has a fridge, a modern tumble-dryer, radios in each room and even a TV in the bedroom. Shame, though, that he keeps her locked in the house, although this is definitely for her own sake, since the 'misadventure' she had with that boy who fell in love with her . . . Amongst her core duties, she has to take care of her baby and also of her severely injured brother-in-law, who's entirely cast in plaster, except for a wandering hand, with which he groped all his nurses, making them run away. Fortunately, though, he's quite respectful of his brother's wife, and always asks permission before laying his claw on her. 

REVIEW: The Eisteddfod at Etcetera Theatre

In Welsh, the 'eisteddfod' is a festival of literature, music and performance, with a tradition dating back to the 12th century. As a title of Lally Katz's play, this is linked­ to the annual competition that the two characters – Abalone (Heath Ivey-Law) and Gerture (Leila Ruban) – aim to win with their performance of Macbeth. The two siblings – who have been left orphaned after a tree pruning incident – spend their days isolated and absorbed in games of pretend, where they embody their deceased parents or a young couple of lovers. With time, though, Gerture starts losing interest in their shared parallel world and Abalone becomes increasingly jealous of her need for privacy. Their relationship is at best toxic and at worst a disturbing incestuous courtship.

Despite the underlying presence of the highest theatrical tradition – with interwoven references to Chekhov's Three Sisters, Kane's Blasted, Ionesco's The Chairs, Pinter's The Lovers and Shakespeare's tragedies Macbeth and Hamlet - The Eisteddfod appears devoid of meaning and quite hard to frame. During what has been one of the longest hours of my life, I've unsuccessfully tried to find explanations for a number of issues, which affected every value of this production.

REVIEW: Big Guns at The Yard

Terrorism. A word that not many of us like to hear and, yet, we keep hearing far too often – especially lately. Nina Segal's Big Guns is a play about terrorism and about its disruptive effect on the normal course of people's lives. She wrote it with a harsh, insistent and disturbing attention to detail, which made me feel uncomfortable and occasionally nervous. Half-way through the play, there is a spine-chilling scene where the auditorium is completely enveloped in darkness and filled with a daunting soundtrack. The two women on stage (Debra Baker and Jessye Romeo) are agitated and talk into a microphone over each other, 'There is a man and the man has a gun' says one, 'and maybe he's always been here. Maybe he's always been here, watching us'. For a moment, I feel a creeping sense of fear and I have to remind myself that I'm just watching a show in a theatre. When the lights go up, I heave a sigh of relief and I see a couple of audience members leaving the theatre. Perhaps they had to catch a train or, perhaps, they thought this was a bit too much.

The sloped set with a platform in the middle, designed by Rosie Elnile and lit by Katharine Williams, presents some original features. Initially flooded by a red neon glow, is at the same time a nest where the characters can feel protected and a cliff on the edge of the catastrophe, where they struggle to keep the balance.

REVIEW: Threesome at Union Theatre

Despite being normally a traditionalist, I must admit that the Union Theatre has benefitted quite remarkably from last year's relocation across the road. The new reception is less claustrophobic and offers both a bar and a cafe with lovely baked snacks. Also, the sitting area is more spacious, although still tends to be heavily congested towards the beginning of the show. The auditorium feels larger and, with a staircase coming down on stage right, allows for some interesting cast entrances.

Threesome begins with a short video clip where Sam (Chris Willoughby) and Kate (Gemma Rook) are sipping a cocktail by the bar of what seems to be a night club. Soon we learn that they're going through a marriage crisis and – in a desperate attempt to revive their sexual life – have decided to find a girl disposed to join them in a threesome. In the smoking area of the club Sam and Kate hook up with Lucy (April Pearson) who, after an initial reticence, agrees to take them to her flat (which is recreated on stage). 

REVIEW: Pandora at Pleasance Theatre

In conjunction with International Women's Day, the Pleasance Theatre and Etch presented Pandora, a unique blend of acting and live music, performed by Grace Chilton and Paksie Vernon. In this hour-long single act, ancient legend is overlaid with domestic drama, whilst we follow the parallel stories of two women, which, unexpectedly, head in the same direction.

In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman created by the gods, her name meaning 'the all-gifted' or 'the one who gives all the gifts'. According to the myth, the king of the gods Zeus, sent her to Earth with a jar (which in English literature became a box), containing the evil of the world. Moved by curiosity, Pandora opened the jar, releasing all the plagues and diseases that afflict humankind, but managed to replace the lid before the last of them escaped, which was hope. From the tale of Pandora originates the popular belief that, despite often being a torment, hope is always the last to die.

REVIEW: The Diary of a Hounslow Girl at Bernie Grant Arts Centre

It requires a lot of stamina for an actor to single-handedly carry out a fast-paced 90-minute performance with only three short pauses of a minute, but Nyla Levy nails it. Despite a few slips of the tongue, the young actress honours the role of sixteen-year-old Shaheeda in The Diary of A Hounslow Girl, which she inherited directly from its writer and original performer Ambreen Razia.

First presented in 2016 at London's Ovalhouse, Razia's debut play is the emotional and amusing coming of age of a British-Pakistani girl, who struggles to find a balance between her mother's pressure to become a good Muslim woman and the curiosity to be like any other teenager, go to parties, try some drugs and hang out wth boys.

REVIEW: In Other Words at The Hope Theatre

When I enter the auditorium of The Hope Theatre, Arthur (Matthew Seager) and Jane (Celeste Dodwell) are sat on two armchairs in front of the public. They seem playful and happy to be together. Occasionally, they exchange a few words and I can't stop thinking of how cute they are. In Other Words is the story of their 50-year long relationship, from their first bumpy encounter in a bar to their last glimpse of sanity. Arthur is affected by Alzheimer disease and he struggles to recognise his wife, except for when a special song is playing loud – the same Frank Sinatra song that brought them together so many years before. 

Actor and playwright Matthew Seager conceived his debut play In Other Words after a 10-week workshop of sensory stimulation in a dementia care home. During this experience, he was stunned to observe how the patients responded positively when exposed to familiar tunes. Following a period of further development at The Arches in Glasgow and at The Lyric Hammersmith – and benefitting from the collaboration with the Alzheimer's Society and Playlist For Life – Seager has successfully produced an accomplished piece, which depicts a realistic plot with intense and vivid colours. 

REVIEW: Handbagged at Jack Studio Theatre

It is thought that, during her eleven years of service as the UK's first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher never had a cheerful relationship with the Queen. This is also confirmed by biographer John Campbell, who described their relations as 'punctiliously correct' but with 'little love lost on either side'. No official statement was ever made in those regards, but a serious constitutional crisis was feared in 1986, when Her Majesty's press secretary leaked anonymous rumours of a rift between the two women, which were promptly denied by the Palace.

For eleven years, Thatcher and Elizabeth II met every week – as per protocol – to discuss government business. What was said during those meetings is absolutely confidential and no written record was ever kept of it. With this in mind, playwright Moira Buffini imagined the two women's possible conversations during some of the most crucial circumstances of the Prime Minister's mandate. The outcome is a brilliant – and fairly enlightening – fictional account of those private encounters, which are set in a drawing room at Buckingham Palace. 

REVIEW: Roundelay at Southwark Playhouse

In a society where we are continuously exposed to sexual references, and all taboos seem to have been already broken, there is still a certain resistance towards sex involving older bodies. In an attempt to overcome this inhibition, playwright Sonja Linden has written Roundelay, a circus-themed collection of vignettes inspired by Arthur Schnitzler's 19th century play La Ronde. 

Initially banned for its explicit contents, La Ronde was meant to question the morals and ideology of the contemporary Austrian society and show how sexual attraction disregards the differences between classes. With this purpose in mind, Sonja Linden has created a vivid metaphor of the circus of life, where the boundaries that get surpassed no longer relate to the characters' social position but, instead, to their age. 

REVIEW: Boy Stroke Girl at Etcetera Theatre

How important is the gender of a person to fall in love with them? Is gender identification a biological requirement or just a social labelling?

Written and directed by Ian Dixon Potter, Boy Stroke Girl tries to answer some of these questions by presenting a tale of unconditioned love, which goes entirely over the boundaries imposed by society. In part metaphorical and in part naive, it presents the story of Blue (Ilaria Ciardelli) and Peter (Giambruno Spena) – I don't think that's coincidental – who meet one day in Caffè Nero and discover to be both huge fans of Doctor Who. After a brief chat, they agree to meet again and go to the movies together, but there is a problem. Blue's deliberately ambiguous appearance doesn’t allow Peter to work out whether he has met a boy or a girl. What is just an insignificant detail for the young man, though, turns out to be a much bigger issue for his friends and family, who don't make a secret of their disapproval for the growing relationship. 

REVIEW: Orbits at Drayton Arms Theatre

Within the eclectic and diverse offering of the London theatre scene, I always appreciate when a pub theatre decides to host a play that draws from the repertoire. This demonstrates that the pleasure and duty of keeping the tradition alive is not only down to the playhouses and that classical culture can be shared everywhere. I'm convinced that there are always new ways to see 'old stuff' and learn from it, whilst reaching an audience that isn't necessarily familiar with the mainstream channels. 

This has been the case for Wally Sewell, a playwright who was commissioned, in 2014, a self-referential play on Bertolt Brecht's Life of Galileo for the Ealing Autumn Festival. Invited to write a Pirandelloesque script on what Galileo thought of how Brecht had depicted him, Sewell found an even more self-referential insight in the relationship between the dramaturg who fled Nazi Germany for his Marxist ideas and the closeted Broadway actor Charles Laughton. Bringing his contribution to the English version of Life of Galileo, the latter hoped to find in Brecht's genius a help to revive his career, whereas Brecht saw in his collaborator a much needed link to the American theatre scene. Little is known about their personal friendship, except for the fact that, before heading back to Berlin, Brecht wrote for his friend a special book of poems.

REVIEW: Bucket List at Battersea Arts Centre

My admiration for the Battersea Arts Centre grows every time I get a chance to visit it. Not only, this beautiful building has survived a disastrous fire in 2015, but it has also risen from its ashes even stronger and keeps offering a wide programme of initiatives that promotes the local community and its diversity. Bringing up the most urgent matters of our times, BAC uses various art forms to explore topics like migration and international politics, sending out a clear message of inclusion and social justice. 

Within this vision, the ongoing Cash, Capitalism and Corporations season hosts, until the 4th March, Bucket List, a powerful insight on the political relationships between US and Mexico. Written and directed by Nir Paldi, Bucket List highlights how the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) worsened the Mexicans' quality of life, as experienced directly by Milagros (Tamsin Clarke), a young girl born on the very day the treaty was signed.

REVIEW: Focus Group at Ovalhouse

Inspired by Mister Squishy – a short story by David Foster Wallace – Focus Group (or How to Stare Down and Transfigure Loneliness) is an insight on the melancholic and work-centred life of Terry (Terry O'Donovan). Employee of an advertising agency, he's a focus group moderator in charge of researching on the brand image of Mr Kipling individually wrapped cakes. 

When the auditorium doors open, we are invited by Terry and his colleagues Clare (Clare Dunn) and Stu (Stuart Barter) to choose a side of the traverse stage and take a seat. Right in the middle is a yellow table on a large yellow carpet and, by the edges, a microwave on top of a filing cabinet, an armchair and a couple of foldable chairs. Jackie Shemesh's stage is based on primary colours and the same guidelines generally apply to the costumes. The elementary props are counterbalanced by an elaborate sound and lighting design which moulds the scenes producing a cinematographic time-lapse effect. This is a play that shows rather than tell, putting the right emphasis on simple but meaningful gestures. 

REVIEW: We Raise Our Hands In the Sanctuary at The Albany

We are in the early 1980's and the LGBT crowd is becoming more open and unashamed but social acceptance is far from being a reality and AIDS is considered a gay plague. It is during these years that the clubbing scene becomes the platform where gay people can express themselves and music is their first language. Particularly within the black community, homosexuality receives a strenuous opposition, starting from the family, and this discrimination adds up to a more generalised racism. 

First developed with the support of the Albany Theatre's Hatched new writing programme, We Raise Our Hands In the Sanctuary tells a story of struggle with inclusion, employment and self-establishment, where friendship oscillates between convinced brotherhood and crude opportunism. Part drama and part cabaret, it witnesses the raise to fame of DJ Michael (Jahvel Hall), inseparable from his mate and future business partner Joseph (Oseloka Obi), a trainee stage electrician. Employed by club promoter Paul (Dean Graham) and lead (or mislead) by the extravagant drag performer Brandi (Carl Mullaney), the two friends are called throughout the 1980's to face the ups and downs of the entertainment industry and their relationship won't remain unscathed.

REVIEW: Death Takes a Holiday at Charing Cross Theatre

It's the year 1922, a wealthy family is driving home after celebrating the engagement of Grazia (Zoë Doano) and Corrado (Ashley Stillburn) when, due to excessive speed, the young bride-to-be is thrown out the car. Seconds before the crash, we see her standing on the seat in a black lace dress of gothic flavour, defying the wind with her arms outstretched and singing the uplifting 'In the middle of Your Life' with the rest of the company. Astonishingly, she survives the accident unscathed, landing safely in the arms of a nameless man dressed in black. Her carefree attitude has unwittingly seduced Death (Chris Peluso) and he decides to take a weekend off to spend it with Grazia at the family's villa in northern Italy. Assuming the human features of prince Nikolai Sirki from Minsk, Death strives to grasp the meaning of love and will soon find out that this feeling is even stronger that death itself.

REVIEW: The Wild Party at the Hope Theatre

Before theatre as we know it, oral storytelling was how tales were shared amongst the community. Mingled Yarn Theatre is devoted to preserving this tradition by offering classical texts, new plays and adaptations to audiences in various venues across the UK. At the Hope Theatre for a short run, the company is presenting 'The Wild Party', a piece written in 1926 by Joseph Moncure March and remained unpublished until 1928, due to its outrageous and sex-fuelled content.

Queenie is a vaudeville dancer who shares an apartment in Hollywood with Burr, the clown who jumps on stage after her act and also her possessive lover. When Queenie's wild spirit clashes with Burr's jealousy, a drug and alcohol-fuelled party becomes a whirlwind of sex and blood. Set in the golden age of jazz and played by only two actors (Joey Akubeze and Anna Clarke) 'The Wild party' is the detailed account of that doomed evening and its ugly outcome.

REVIEW: He(Art) at Theatre N16

He(art)is a one-hour long drama that sees two couples of actors play alternate scenes in the round, with their stories boundto collide. The four of them are always in sight and, whilst two are centre stage, the others sit in the corner. The play opens in an art gallery, where Niall's set design isboth functional and original. There are a variety of small propshanging from the golden ceiling (either inside plastic bags or secured to a hook) ready to be picked up at the right moment.The use of lighting is minimal and some musical inserts help to frame the scenes with smooth and well-rehearsed transitions. Careful direction makes sure that the actors never stay too long in the same spot and I don't mind them occasionally turning their backs on me.

REVIEW: Abigail at The Bunker

Preparing an interview to Abigail's director Joshua McTaggart, I had a chance to learn a lot about The Bunker before having visited it personally. As its artistic director, Joshua started this new venture almost a year ago with Executive Producer Joel Fisher and together they have created a platform that fosters the creative process and invites the audience to spend time in the venue before and after the show. Thanks to a series of ancillary initiatives – like exhibitions, live music and talks – theatre enthusiasts, new writers and actors alike now have a welcoming space for their discussions. 

REVIEW: A Christmas Carol at the Lyceum Theatre

During this festive season, the recently formed London Musical Theatre Orchestra has honoured the theatregoers with a special gift. On the same date the novel was first published in 1843, the musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is performed in the capital for the very first time. Written by Mike Ockrent and Lynn Ahrens, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by the same Lynn Ahrens, this concert version of the Broadway sensation has filled the Lyceum Theatre with beautiful melodies and meaningful dialogues, in a true Christmas spirit.