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2002 2001 |
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Plays
Everyman:
an Immorality Play at the Riverside Studios, London
Stefanovski turns tradition upside down by confronting a doubting Death
with six self-assured, self-absorbed and hedonistic mortals. Death is
having an identity crisis due to a lost love and professional difficulties
caused by current secular obsessions with youth, eternal life and plastic
surgery.
Annette Mees
Black
and Blue at BAC, London
It is its examination of human nature that is perhaps the most shocking
thing about the production - the audience is made to question our own
nature as well as those of the characters.
Amy Matthews
Conflicts
of Interest at the Rosemary Branch Theatre, London
'Who can you trust?' Each play cloaks this question in a different outfit;
with political backstabbing, existential questioning and, of course, infidelity
rearing its head a number of times.
Ruth Sheldon
Love's
a Luxury at the Orange Tree, London
I don't know if it is fair to say that the usual stereotypes are here;
the put-upon husband, the jealous wife, the pretty parlour maid et al.
Perhaps this was the height of originality in 1942.
Mark Tyson
M.A.D.
at the Bush Theatre, London
'There's more meaning in my mum smoking than there is in a thousand banners,'
John says rather obtusely, but we know what he means.
Dolan Cummings
Hamlet
at the Old Vic, London
Hamlet deals with so many themes (death, madness, loss of parental bonds,
fear of maturity) that have dominated alternative teen culture over the
past decade that it screams out for reinterpretation.
David Bowden
The
Man Who at the Pleasance Theatre, London
The production is most engaging when it invites the audience to challenge
the 'health' of their own perspective; an ambition suggested by the wastepaper
basket that hangs from the wall of an otherwise minimalist set.
Ruth Sheldon
Queer
Counsel at the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon
Nick Bamford's intense drama of sexual identity, religious dogmatism,
death and redemption sidefoots lazy criticism with passion, depth and
a good deal of humour.
David Bowden
Babba
Ghanoush and Bagels at the Oval House Theatre, London
Political theatre is often obvious, dull and preaches to the choir. It
is amazing to see a physical comedy production which only succeeds when
it is political and falters when it abandons its political context.
Annette Mees
The
Final Days of Simon Bacon at the Palace Theatre, Southend
Watching the play is an authentic Essex experience, more so even than
donning a baseball cap and doing endless laps in a Vauxhall Nova around
the seedy amusement arcades on Southend seafront.
Patrick Hayes
The
Flats at the Chelsea Theatre, London
Karen is from a more privileged background and offers Nat a serious vision
of his future, in a college her 'Daddy' can help him get into. And then
there is her sheer sexual allure.
Brendan Rimmer
Badnuff
at the Soho Theatre, London
'You're here because you're not normal,' Maggie tells the kids, and she
is right. It isn't normal to 'borrow' babies, to flash one's genitals
or to beat people up on a whim.
Dolan Cummings
The
Sweetest Swing in Baseball at the Royal Court, London
Rebecca Gilman and Gillian Anderson, living up to her star billing, manage
to make a sympathetic figure of the egotistical Dana, but they win our
sympathy for her as a human being rather than as an artist.
Mark Tyson
The
Wooden Frock at BAC, London
Combining fairytale frothiness and physical humour with dark, uneasy undertones,
The Wooden Frock turns the Cinderella theme inside out.
Ruth Sheldon
Audience/Protest
at the Etcetera Theatre, London
It is pleasing to be reminded that enjoyable theatre and socially-conscious
polemic are not mutually exclusive.
David Bowden
Continental
Divide at the Barbican, London
It
is likely that David Edgar's play will be more studied than performed.
It is worth sitting through it, though, not in order to either empathise
or sympathise with the characters, but rather to see this effective group
portrait of the compromised, alienated, stagnant, frustrated lives of
the 'baby boomer' dreamers and to recognise how they fail to understand
the world today and lie to themselves in order to cover up this sense
of defeat.
Patrick Hayes
Majnoun
at the Riverside Studios, London
Language is the clearest barrier to understanding and that is explored
here in detail. Many of the jokes are in Arabic, meaning only certain
parts of the audience laugh.
Tom Ogg
Dona
Rosita, the Spinster at the Orange Tree, Richmond
The play is of its time; even if we are undecided as to whether being
single is something to celebrate or something to be angst-ridden about,
there no social stigma about being single and the term 'spinster' has
become an anachronism.
Mark Tyson
Calico
at the Duke of York's Theatre, London
In a world dominated by the attempt to patch up estrangement through therapy,
we need more Calicos, more works that show us the social and intellectual
mechanisms that force some to act in a manner that has to be described
as mad.
Patrick Hayes
Brave
New World Solent People's Theatre, Portsmouth
Though Brendon Burns' feverish pace leaves little room for character development,
he nonetheless crams the book into an entertaining hour and ten minutes.
David Clements
How
I Got That Story at Finborough Theatre, London
Why didn't it make me laugh? It's like watching anything from the past
that you may have found funny at the time. That moment has passed and
it no longer grips you.
Stephen Nash
Edge
at the King's Head Theatre, London
There is a tendency to despise the cult of Sylvia Plath. To show curiosity
about her suicide is deemed pornographic and unscholarly. It is an interest
only suitable for angsty teenagers clutching copies of The Bell Jar.
Natasha Hulugalle
Waiting
for Godot at the Cockpit Theatre, London
The example of Beckett, perhaps more than anyone, rubbishes the notion
that to be creative we need to 'free ourselves' from the constraints of
the normal, that to be creative we need to be the kind of person who will
cut off an ear or be driven to suicide or madness by our passion.
Stuart Simpson
And
All the Children Cried at BAC, London
When it was written, And All the Children Cried was an intervention into
a national debate about Hindley and whether or not she should be released
from prison. The balance of the play can not help but be affected by Hindley's
death.
Mark Tyson
The
Adding Machine at the Courtyard Theatre, London
Rice's assumption is that once we gain an awareness of our alienated situation
we will act to change it. The sad truth is that many today who are aware,
having abandoned the project to change things, would envy Zero's memory
loss and strive towards his innocence as an ideal.
Patrick Hayes
A
Streetcar Named Desire at the Gatehouse Theatre, London
The lack of dramatic commitment by the cast can perhaps be put down to
the lack of any definite vision from the director Julie Dark. It just
does not seem as though there was any particular reason or dramatic vision
behind the staging.
Brendan Rimmer
The
Oddest Couple at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London
Given the actors' talent and writer's experience The Oddest Couple punches
below the weight of those behind it, mainly because the format limited
the play to something more akin to an end of year review.
Luke Robins-Grace
A
Doll's House at the Rosemary Branch Theatre, London
To its credit, the Dale Theater Kompani does not try to show A Doll's
House in a contemporary setting, and interestingly we are left with a
nineteenth century take on a very modern issue.
Stuart Simpson
Age-sex-location
at Riverside Studios, London
Marcus Markou certainly makes a strong case for having brought something
new and innovative to the theatre with this production. The strangeness
and yet all too human phenomenon of the internet chat room is brought
to the stage with some interesting results.
Stephen Nash
Strange
Orchestra at the Orange Tree Theatre, London
Ackland is interested in ideas but he does not use his characters as mouthpieces,
this preserves the dramatic integrity of the characters but the level
of the debate tends to reflect their naivety and youthful idealism.
Mark Tyson
La
Pucelle at the Oval House Theatre, London
At the end of La Pucelle I was slaughtered along with the rest of the
audience by the cast, and in this review I am tempted to return the favour.
But that would be to fail to learn from what happened.
Dolan Cummings
Family
Matters at the Bridewell Theatre, London
To talk of the accessiblity or elitism of Family Matters would be to do
an injustice to the spirit behind the production. It simply transcends
any preconceived definitions of contemporary opera.
Amy Matthews
Allport's
Revenge at the Finborough Theatre, London
If one chooses to see Allport's Revenge as a philosophical play, it fails
badly. It succeeds, however, if one looks at it instead as an examination
of how a family responds to an extreme situation that requires unpleasant
action.
Patrick Hayes
Semblance
of Madness at the Etcetera Theatre, London
The double whammy here is that the nurse's investigation takes place in
a drama therapy session taken by a patient who was once an acclaimed actress.
These theatrical types! Crazy, eh?
Shirley Dent
Crave
at BAC, London
In this case, the 'concept' that the company gave itself served to do
little more than force the text into a straightjacket from which it could
not break free.
Chris Wilkinson
King
Lear at the Greenwich Playhouse, London
For the most part, the cast handles the language well, although at times
things seem a bit forced, like when people suddenly seem angry - a sign
that the language is in control and not the actor.
Stephen Doran
Trip's
Cinch / Three More Sleepless Nights at the Lion and Unicorn, London
After two hours, and two very different takes on the way men and women
behave towards each other, it becomes clear that the two plays share one
thing, and it isn't that they both examine the same theme, but that both
plays portray the most basic of human relationships as deeply problematic.
Stuart Simpson
Singin'
in the Rain at the Richmond Theatre, London
Although Bryan Cardus acquits himself fairly well with the singin', his
dancin' inevitably appears arthritic compared to the athleticism of Gene
Kelly.
Graham Lee
Sweeney
Todd at the Royal Opera House, London
This whole process, the publicity and hype preceding the opening, smacked
of a smug, self-satisfied suggestion that, in
some abstract way, the
musical work (and perhaps Sondheim himself) ought to be grateful for this
marvellous opportunity.
Amy Matthews
Pugilist
Specialist at Soho Theatre, London
With one 'Big Stache' newly in custody and another 'Bearded Lady' still
at large, Pugilist Specialist is as timely now as it was last summer,
and the war on terror shows no signs of letting up this side of Armageddon.
Dolan Cummings
UP4AMEET
at the Oval House Theatre, London
Underneath all the comic misunderstandings and the gratuitous nudity of
the evening's entertainment, there is a hard-hitting comment about the
blasé use of the internet.
Stephen Doran
Film
Club at the Riverside Studios, London
Film Club combines words, video, music and dance. It is visually stimulating
and enjoyable as a piece of escapism, but I think it is aiming higher
than that.
Mark Tyson
The
Alchemist at the Courtyard, London
This Alchemist attacks the job in hand with gusto, bringing an almost
pantomime quality to the proceedings. Subtle it is not.
Shirley Dent
Five
Gold Rings at the Almeida, London
Yes, Laurens' use of language is interesting. But does that mean all other
aspects of the theatrical are somehow jettisoned?
Ursula Strauss
Jason
and the Argonauts at BAC, London
The name of the game is imagination, and the use of minimal set, props
and costume is brilliantly intuitive.
Sophie Carmichael
The
Man Who Would Be Sting at BAC, London
If Ben Elton is the stadium rocker of the new musical theatre scene, Niall
Ashdown is the soulful indie band.
Mark Tyson
Young
Emma at the Finborough Theatre, London
The play manages to create a workable blend of innocence and humour within
an otherwise unsettling environment, reflecting the life of WH Davies
himself and so many of our iconic figures.
Stephen Doran
Kismet
at the Arcola Theatre, London
This is no ground-breaking piece of musical theatre, but what is done
is done well.
Amy Matthews
All
Fall Away at the Latchmere Theatre, London
'Tis the season to be jolly...unless you're a single mother about to be
thrown out on your ear by an evil landlord.
Stuart Simpson
I
Just Broke Up! at the White Bear Theatre, London
Billed as a modern farce, there is very little original humour in this
production to offer anything other than a cheap thrill.
Stephen Doran
The
Slab Boys at the Traverse, Edinburgh
The audience of a certain age seems to be content to be amused for a couple
of hours, and this I am afraid to say, is all that The Slab Boys has to
offer.
Sean Cannon
An
Evening with the Critics: Play in a Day at the Soho Theatre, London
Do theatre critics know what they're talking about? Are they just failed
playwrights? It is childish to insist that 'you shouldn't criticise unless
you could do better', but you don't have to think like that to be intrigued
by a project like this.
Dolan Cummings
Sleeping
Around / Separate Tables at the Gateway Theatre, Edinburgh
How often can you say that on two consecutive visits to a theatre you
enjoyed two excellent shows at very reasonable prices in a wonderfully
presented environment?
Sean Cannon
The
Master and Margarita at the Menier Theatre, London
What in the name of Jehovah did Cherub think they were doing turning the
lynch-pin character of the book - Satan or Woland - into some terrible
pastiche of a Moulin Rouge rapper?
Shirley Dent
Gilt
at the Traverse, Edinburgh
It is a play full of the darker side of humanity, but a play that forces
you to look at yourself and be aware of your humanity and the need to
monitor constantly your own actions, as far too often we act without thought
in the desperate need to satisfy ourselves.
Sean Cannon
Camarilla
at the Old Red Lion, London
For the bemused leftie trying to get a grip on post 9/11 imperialism,
terrorism and spin-cycle democracy, Van Badham's latest play is Nu-Politics
101.
Luke Robins-Grace
Squint
at Chelsea Theatre, London
I was hoping for an exciting, original, innovative play, but this felt
more like something a sixth former would have thought up, given the theme
'addiction and its true nature'.
Sophie Carmichael
The
People Next Door at Theatre Royal Stratford East, London
Who are the people in your neighbourhood? In a post 9/11 world with terrorists
supposedly hidden in our midst, a new type of 'stranger danger' has captured
the Western imagination. The People Next Door explores our current paranoia
about those we do not know and, with great humour, shows us why we should
not assume the worst of the strangers around us.
Munira Mirza
The
Illustrious Corpse
at Soho
Theatre, London
Ali the intellectual would, one hopes, never
be so crass as to explain the end of Old Labour and the rise of New Labour
as no more that the loss of youthful idealism...
Stuart Simpson
Animal
at Soho
Theatre, London
The writer's (Kay Adshead) key strength
is characterisation and human interaction. While the political and thematic
side of things is good, it is not quite good enough.
Tom Ogg
Nine
Parts of Desire
at Bush
Theatre, London
Written and performed by Raffo, a self proclaimed
Halfsy (the daughter of an American mother and Iraqi father) Nine Parts
of Desire is truthful in its portrayal of individual women, both Iraqi
and America. You can see this and hear this.
Shirley Dent
Musicals
Is
Musical Theatre Alive and Well and Living in London?
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at the Landor
Theatre,
and Passion at the Bridewell Theatre
Lack of innovation in musical theatre leads to the
real danger of lack of variety in the performance and production of this
genre as a whole, and that includes opera as well.
Amy Matthews
The
Wizard of Pop
at the Jack Kane Centre, Craigmillar, Edinburgh
Lucy then finds herself on a Musical Road that leads
to Craigmillar Castle. There lurks Simon Cowell, the Wizard of Pop himself.
To return home Lucy has to reach the castle and become Britney Spears
for the day.
Shaun Hadnett
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Films
Monsieur
N Antoine de Caunes
Despite
the comic potential of this tale of hubris and noble descent, de Caunes
plays it alarmingly straight, weaving a detective mystery around the central
drama.
David Haviland
Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Michel Gondry
It
sounds confusing, and it is at first, but the chronology is quite clear
once you grasp the film's logic. The screenplay is another triumph from
Charlie Kaufman, displaying all the craft and ingenuity of his previous
work, but with a new level of emotional depth.
David Haviland
Wondrous
Oblivion Paul Morrison
The
script feels at times like a checklist of racial stereotypes, but the
film is so liberal, so obviously without malice, that these quibbles are
easily overlooked.
David Haviland
Wonderland
James Cox
Director
James Cox employs a range of tricks to turn in an undeniably stylish feature,
but the fractured narrative and grainy desaturation feel like genre staples,
and as a result the film is directionless.
David Haviland
Capturing
the Friedmans Andrew Jarecki
The
film succeeds in making us doubt the veracity of the specific allegations,
but presents the Friedmans nonetheless as a damaged, dysfunctional family.
David Haviland
Monster
Patty Jenkins
In
this account, poverty, unhappy childhood, dysfunctional family, and dubious
sexual status all add up to a disturbed, easily swayed individual who,
when shown a bit of affection, is prepared to murder in order for that
affection to last.
Nathalie Rothschild
The
Passion of the Christ Mel Gibson
For
some, it seems, Gibson's audio-visual approach has succeeded where the
mere Word of God fails.
Dolan Cummings
Gothika
Mathieu Kassovitz
Gothika
will at least help us to re-evaluate the suspenseful What Lies Beneath
- as it's not good for much else.
David Haviland
The
Girl Next Door Luke Greenfield
It's
a fair point; porn is a deeply unpleasant industry, but it seems hypocritical
and self-defeating to preach this way in a film that's pretty close to
soft porn itself.
David Haviland
Mambo
Italiano Émile Gaudreault
The
film is shot in bright primary colours and pastels, to give a wonderfully
bright, tacky feel, and the story moves with fluidity and pace.
David Haviland
Woyzeck
(DVD) Werner Herzog
Kinski
gives an electrifying performance, and the cinematography and soundtrack
are beautifully simple, with the timeless quality of fairy tale.
David Haviland
Le
Souffle (DVD) Damien Odoul
Le
Souffle is a film that some will praise, but few will see twice.
David Haviland
Dawn
of the Dead Zack Snyder
Feature
debutant Snyder's crew inherit a mall that seems to have been constructed
more for zombie resistance than retail, as if written into the building
regulations.
Graham Barnfield
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