The second play in the current Donmar team's farewell season and it's Jamie Lloyd's turn, directing John Osborne's 1964 play Inadmissible Evidence. Each of the two acts is a condensed day in the office of Bill Maitland (Douglas Hodge,) a lawyer specialising in divorces (the first paragraph of Osborne's programme bio details the writer's own five ( Read more... )

The theological theme from last week continues, plus the beginning of the 9/11 theme that will of course be a recurring one this 10th anniversary month, with the first production in the Royal Court's autumn season. Although in the case of Alexi Kaye Campbell's The Faith Machine 9/11 isn't a thematic crux, more a structural one as the opening scene ( Read more... )

In recent years the RSC's new writing commissions have had a tendency to cram in an overt Shakespeare reference in the plays' themes. This year's offerings seem to have gone the other way, with shows whose relevance to the company have been rather unclear to me (I'm judging this on two-thirds of the current Hampstead season, having skipped the ( Read more... )

This UK premiere of the US musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee apparently came about as director Jamie Lloyd wanted something light and fun to work on after a succession of intense productions. Actually I was thinking on the way out you could extend that to the Donmar Warehouse's recent work in general, where even where the musicals ( Read more... )

Rounding off the Sondheim 80th birthday celebrations that seem, themselves, to have lasted 80 years, we get the Donmar Warehouse's take on Passion. Based on a 19th Century Italian novel, the story follows Giorgio, an Army Captain in love with Clara, a married woman. Leaving her behind when he's stationed in a remote mansion with numerous other ( Read more... )

Or, John the Baptist: Beyond Thunderdome, because as soon as you walk into the Hampstead Theatre's auditorium it's obvious how much inspiration designer Soutra Gilmour has taken from Mad Max. There's a huge gravel pit, a raised metal grille and men in tattered combat gear hanging off scaffolding. This is a world where at the centre is a prison cell ( Read more... )

Should the Donmar Warehouse be worried? Normally it's standing room only there but this is the second production in a row where the unsold seats must have been well into the double figures (which doesn't sound much but in a 250-seat theatre it's a larger percentage of the auditorium.) While not the unmitigated disaster that was Serenading Louie, I ( Read more... )

DISCLAIMERAMA! This is a review of a preview performance, the show officially opens to critics on Wednesday.

So a gay-themed play by an unknown (over here at least) writer gets a big West End production. It's an interesting approach, although (and I want to stress this is nothing to do with my thoughts on the quality of the play or the production ( Read more... )

Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain seems to get used as a star vehicle quite often; a few years ago it was Julia Roberts' Broadway debut, and now in London it's James McAvoy who's the big name returning to theatre. This was my sister's birthday present (a bit early as she'll be in Cairo by the time it actually comes around) and although she ( Read more... )

Piaf by Pam Gems is a play about the famous rice dish. Oh wait, that's Pilaf1. Non, c'est actually un play about Edith Piaf, of "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" fame, and appropriately enough this song comes at the very end, after we've seen all the things she might have had cause to regret. In Jamie Lloyd's very fast-paced production at the Donmar ( Read more... )