(5 / 5)

Firstly, a comment on this new theatre. Based around the bottom of Battersea Power Station, I was really impressed to see this new theatre, with its new and inventive décor and friendly staff doing so well and with such a brilliant and versatile space. It was perfect for the show I was about to review.

Boy Out The City is a quirky, comical, heart wrenching and heart warming one man, autobiographical story. Written and performed by Declan Bennett, it is the first show I have seen that is based upon the pandemic. I thought there would be more but maybe they are still in the making. I mention this, as I hope this review highlights that this was the perfect show to return to normality with and really picks up on what most of us felt during the last year. Bennett talks about how he and his partner moved from London to the countryside. With his partner also an actor, he gets invited to a job in the States, while Bennett is left alone in his cottage in the middle of nowhere. Bennett talks about mental health, about the bad habits we all adopted to cope, about loneliness, about sexuality but also about nostalgia and how it makes us who we are.

Bennett’s show is absolutely hilarious. Perfect in execution, not a single falter, high energized and full of information, at times it feels very much like sitting with a friend and talking. He is personable, he is down to earth, and this all helps with telling his story.

While he is funny and picks upon things that were huge parts of the pandemic for many (drinking wine at 2am, sleeping till late, being lonely, nothing to do) he also effortlessly moves this into very serious questions and issues in society such an men’s mental health, of sexuality and growing up denying being gay to fit in and avoid violence. These moments, I wouldn’t say, came out the blue, but when they are slotted in, your smile from the hilarity before has gone, and your heart aches for what he has been through.

He isn’t afraid to touch upon, and negatively, about his past and what he thought at the time. Of the mistakes he made just to fit in and be safe. A story that i’m sure many in this community can associate to. In fact, those who also are not but can identify the things they did, growing up, just to feel a part of the world.

We talk about the Pandemic as being different for everyone. Yes, we went through the same rules and regulations, and while mental health issues went through the roof, as individuals, we all coped differently. Bennett is clever and picks up on the ones that he did that we can relate to, and therefore a good chunk of his comedy is laughing at the relatable nature and all we saw and heard during the last year.

He uses the stage well – different points highlight the different parts of his story, from the cottage, to his neighbour, to the bar on St Patrick’s Day, even to his past. Minimal set and props are used but they are effective. Nothing is there just for the sake of it. And I loved this. All too easy do theatre makers find props and set upon props and set to fill a room, when it isn’t needed. I also notice that one person productions also do this, to slightly shy away from their performance. Bennett was loud, he was present, he filled the stage. And that’s one of the many parts that made it perfect. As someone writing their own one woman play, it gave me much food for thought.

Boy Out The City is a cultural revelation after a tough time in the World. It is raw, it is emotional, it is absolutely hilarious and it is essential.

Please do look out for this production which aims to have future life across the country.

(5 / 5)

Do you want to know a secret? Well.. it’s not much of a secret I suppose. But one of my guilty pleasures is Rom-Com books and occasionally Rom-Com films.

I love how they can feel realistic but also completely not. They are set mostly in the lives of (albeit theatrical) “real” people and while they make me sad that my life isn’t a Rom-Com, i’ve got to say, I enjoy it.

Thinking back – I don’t think I’ve ever really seen a Rom-Com on stage before. Yes, there have been romances but nothing so quintessentially British. So, Love Dance, was the perfect show to break into this performance genre.

Love Dance features a typical meet-cute story. A Doctor, leases her flat out to a tenant during her time away from work. Only to come home and find that he is still there, stubbornly refuses, as they disagree on the Month to Date format on the contract. After a period of time, they grow closer and closer, talking about marriage and children and how the Doctor wishes to have a child but not a relationship. Their love grows and the rest is history.

Derek Murphy and Jacoba Williams have the perfect chemistry. It genuinely feels as if the wall of the flat has been taken away and we are peaking into real life. They bounce of one another effortlessly and somehow, they have that gives-you-butterflies feeling when they look at each other.

They exhibit the typical characters you see in a Rom-Com – Murphy plays the funny, teasing but ultimately mysterious Musician and Williams is a strong, independent but bossy Doctor with her whole life ahead of her – she’s put aside her dating life and want for a baby for her career. As typical of a Rom-Com – you think these characters are just so different, but as you peel away the layers, you discover more and more, and actually how perfect they are. And we of course have events that you cannot imagine ever happening in real life, but what makes such a story unique to all the others.

We laugh, we feel sad, we feel happy – all the emotional ups and downs of this genre. And it was complete perfection on its execution – no errors, no awkwardness, just flawless.

My ONLY quibble is that there is a point when Murphy’s character has this bad cough – we see Williams’s character check him out and her face shows her concern. As the play continues, there is mention to it but we never really understand or hear the conclusion, of why it is cured and it felt a little bit of an idea that was added and never came to fruition. It didn’t take anything away from the story, but nor did it add anything.

Love Dance warms your heart. It makes you feel those romantic butterflies. And sometimes makes you feel sad about your own love life. The perfect Rom-Com on stage.

(4 / 5)

Not many productions, books, shows, advice columns talk openly and frankly about sex, love and what it is like for different women.

Friday Night Love Poem is a coming of age story about three different women: a group of women in America, all part of a Christian support group, a Canadian teenager in the early noughties and a British teenager in current times. We see the juxtaposition of not only how sex and love has change through ages, but also what it is like in different communities and also different ages.

The first third of the Production is interesting and does well to steer away from the quintessential and stereotypical Bible bashing American evangelists. There are elements of their extremism but it isn’t what we see often portrayed. It isn’t satirical and therefore makes it more real. There is a sense of recognition; we can relate to elements but some we cannot, as per part of this community. Sex before marriage and LGBTQ+ are questioned and the woman, who is experiencing this confusing time, is conflicting by two parts of this community – the liberal and the stubborn and traditional. The only issue being that they are cycling through a time period of meetings. At first this isn’t clear that their movements to a different position of the stage is the signal for a scene change, and until we get the hang of this, it convolutes the storyline somewhat. When we change to a completely different story, there is music and lighting change, and this works well. Even if it was a change of lights or a change of outfit item, a prop, then it may have been a little clearer.

Our second coming of age story is something recognisable from my own teenage years. The rebellion, the rock music, the interest of older boys, of sex. We go through the moments losing her virginity and realising later that the one you lose your virginity to is not always the love of you life. A huge difference mirroring earlier discussion of sex after marriage. To avoid the x-rated, we are shown her experience through the use of Barbie and Ken. And somehow this is a really interesting and a subtle way to show it but also highlights the youngness of the character, that the idea of sex is in minds of those much younger than we think, and the unmentioned events and non events of sex. The unspoken. In fact, this, in addition to factual sex ed, would be honest and helpful to anyone.

Our last story is more up to date. This is more poetic and fast paced, and is somehow beautiful in this aspect. The elements of porn pressure, of the pressure on young girls and lack of respect of boys, the consequences of this and more. It is heartbreaking but also realistic, shown in a very theatrical way. The poetic monologue expressing her thoughts and feelings, clearly taken from media and what she thinks she should be and do. And then the issue of revenge porn. Something so grotesque is eloquently expressed.

Friday Night Love Poem is a raw and unbridled look at what sex and love means for all kinds of women; ignoring any boundary, ignoring any stigma and in this way, becoming an important piece of theatre on consent and the unspoken realities of women and sex.

Friday Night Love Poem will be on stage at The Space January 18th – 22nd 2022.

(4 / 5)

Take Men in Black. Set it in England. Add some bumbling comedy buffoons and what do you get? Invasion by Bad Clowns Comedy.

Filmed exclusively for reviewers, Bad Clowns Comedy have nicely given us a good quality recording of their show at the Rose Theatre, Kingston. Filmed with different angles and great sound recording, it is one of the best recordings over the past year of Covid that I have seen.

If you were to imagine Men in Black set and written by the British, this would be it. The character’s fumble around, they’re not sure what they are doing, to some degree it could be seen as a spoof. It reminds me much of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost if they brought their films or even their show, Spaced, to the stage. It reminds me also of when Ant and Dec ventured on the film Alien Autopsy, when the narrative is meant to be spooky and serious, but in true British Comedy style, is a comedy of itself. If Ade Edmondson and Rik Mayall decided to make a Sci-Fi theatre show for Bottom, this is what it would be.

Each character has its own flaws – Sam’s character is stars truck by his commanding officer, but lacks common sense and this leads to hilarious errors. Christian is the smarter of the two but exasperated by Sam and still, finds ways to be inadequate as a Special Agent himself. John is the commanding officer, who encompasses both Sam and Christian’s traits, and for sure, should not be a captain – hilariously finding ridiculous ways to stop a bomb, to engage with the set, the characters, the narrative. If this was true life, it would be one hilarious worry.

The three performers bounce off one another and the audience well. When there is the odd mistake or a heckle, they are quick to react and incorporate it into the performance. It only adds to the hilarity. They engage with the audience, using their responses and heckles to incorporate and help the narrative. They address them the entire time and so there is no escape, but makes you feel part of an exclusive club.

Adding multi-media in the form of a large presentation screen, recorded voices with Sci-Fi style orders, they effortlessly pick up on the quintessential elements of known Sci-Fi, from films, tv shows, games as well as British Culture. Some being well known dances that we all followed at school discos, the presentation of pop ups on a computer screen from way back when, with the correct noises and the use of brain control with helmets often seen in Sci-Fi films. It allows us to spot and identify with these parts and shows their intricate research and well written production.

A wonderful part of this production is that they clearly enjoy what they do and are very skilled in improv and going with the flow of the performance. Times where they could corpse or it’s on the verge of this, is still so professionally done and fits… like it was always meant to happen.

Invasion by Bad Clowns, is a hilarious and very British Sci-Fi Comedy production which anyone, whether into this genre or not, would find themselves laughing out loud at.

(3 / 5)

In this small upstairs theatre, we are taken back to childhood and enter the classroom of Miss Margarida.

Based on the original play by Brazilian playwright Roberto Athayde in 1971, the play sees us degraded, bullied, bombarded by two Miss Margarida’s who, are not by any stretch of the imagination, model teachers. There is a sense of oppression, and this is what Athayde had meant for: a satire on the dictatorship in his country, formulating this insistence from an early age in society.

5Go have decided to split the character of Miss Margarida, mirroring one another but in some moments showing some kind of alter-ego; not much different from each other but often one is highly sexually charged, the other much the disciplinarian. There is a lonely school boy on stage – often positioned in previous version within the audience, he takes a small but central role in Miss Margarida’s affections and spite. However, having him on stage but the Miss Margaridas mostly addressing us felt a little disconnected and would have helped the fourth wall break if he sat with us or not be there at all, as majority of the insults were thrown our way, but not his.

Unaware of this play before entering, I did wonder what I would encounter. When 2 hours of insults, of repetition on sexual education, on religion could sound tedious, it was very easy to watch and often provided comical moments, mostly at the audacity and sheer gumption of Miss Margarida and her opinions and views; I imagine, exactly how Athayde intended the play. It flowed smoothly, picking up and becoming hyperreal in moments, making this timeless and appropriate for any era, not just in Brazil in the 1970’s. We feel very under-fire, very spotlighted, sometimes quite literally with lights shined upon us, often something felt with oppression. But it did take some time to change tact, which is perhaps a criticism more of Athayde’s writing than it is of this production.

Miss Margardia’s Way by 5GO is well constructed, delivered well but there are moments of disconnect between audience interaction and the characters as well as taking quite a lot of time to pick up momentum in the narrative.

(4 / 5)

In true Hampstead Theatre style, the staging is impeccable and welcomes you as soon as you come in. All based in one bedroom, the room is traditional and like ones I remember my Grandmother having when I was a child. Above the staging is ever changing cloudy sky, that throughout the production, seems to reflect the mood in colour and atmosphere.

This set is only the beginning of this well thought out play. The Memory of Water is a story of grief, relationships and secrets. Of the passing of a Mother and the memories associated with her and their childhood. As things unravel, we see new sides of each character and the impact that both memories and relationships have on how we live our lives and think of our past.

The set of the bedroom not only makes this feel intimate, but adds to the sense of a broken fourth wall. The interactions between all the characters are perfection; they bounce off one another, are quick witted and natural. We certainly feel like we are going through the moments of grief between family members, and their estranged relationships, while their memories bring them back together. It is easy to feel relatable to and anyone who has lost someone can certainly feel their life reflected.

The performers move effortlessly around the stage, feeling at home, comfortable and all the while very naturalistic. Even when we see interactions with the deceased, this is meant to be hyper-realistic but there is a fine line between feeling whether this is real or not.

The Memory of Water is a very relatable depiction of family ties, of the importance of memories in how they shape yourself, your life and how you view others. It is also a very enjoyable production, feeling like an easy and immersed narrative.