Cindy Marcolina - Page 29

Every year, thousands of playwrights respond to Papatango Theatre Company's call for their New Writing Prize. 2019 saw 1406 entries from across the UK and Republic of Ireland, from which only one was going to be chosen for a full production and a further commission from the company. The winner of this year's highly regarded and fairly ruthless competition is Samuel Bailey with his play Shook, which examines how three teenagers cope in a young offender institution after being shut away by the community.

Stefan Adegbola is currently starring in Hampstead Theatre's production of Botticelli in the Fire as Poggio di Chiusi, the title character's close friend. We caught up with him to have a chat about the show and the peculiar relevance of Renaissance matters.

Deep in the stomach of Soho, the Boulevard Theatre is the newest addition in the panorama of London's studio theatres. The exceptionally versatile and sleek venue has just opened its doors with the UK premiere of Dave Malloy's Ghost Quartet. The show is a celebration of ancestral storytelling: characters and storylines intersect and transcend time in what feels more like a song cycle or a staged concept album of sorts. The numbers push the narrative while Carly Bawden, Niccolò Curradi, Maimuna Memon, and Zubin Varla take their audience on a primordial journey.

The National Youth Theatre revamp Mary Shelley's masterpiece and update it for a modern audience in what should be a cutting-edge production at Southwark Playhouse. Carl Miller's rewriting of the first ever science fiction novel looks more like a translation for the 21st century rather than a faithful adaptation, setting the story in a nondescript future that doesn't look too far away. Director Emily Gray leads the stylish retelling: Garth (Sonny Poon Tip) corresponds with his sister Bob (Natalie Dunne) via radio, who details the rescue of Doctor Victoria Frankestein (Ella Dacres) in the Arctic and the obsession that's led her to that point.

After spending most of the year in its hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, the Royal Shakespeare Company's newest As You Like It kicks off their London Season at the Barbican Centre. Directed by Kimberley Sykes, the production is a delicate and inventive voyage into a Forest of Arden that feels truer than Shakespeare's fictional real world. It never forgets that it's a comedy at heart, and Lucy Phelps' precise physicality plays into the genre. She has Rosalind win the audience's fondness wink by wink, pulling them towards her side through chuckles and playful nudges.

Prolific duo Stiles and Drewe seem to be having a ball populating London with their works. While Mary Poppins - for which they wrote additional music and lyrics - looms large on the West End from the Prince Edward on Old Compton Street, director Will Keith opened another musical of theirs just south of the Strand at the Charing Cross Theatre. Interestingly enough, Soho Cinders serenades Poppins' address and is a proper celebration of Soho in all its idiosyncratic beauty.

Alex is struggling. She's 27 years old, everything is going well, she's planning her wedding and going to med school, and yet she can't cope with reality. She hides in a dreamlike universe to keep her past and present at bay, but by doing so, the boundaries between truth and imagination start to break and she finds herself wondering where she stands.

a?oeI've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to diea?? might be one of the most well-known speeches in film history, whether you're a Blade Runner fan or not.

The Renaissance is in full swing with Lorenzo de' Medici's (Adetomiwa Edun) modern policies and Sandro Botticelli (Dickie Beau) is at the peak of his success. Parties are held in his honour and Florence is thriving as the home of some of the most sought-after painters of their age.

The last time a Sam Shepard play was in town, London audiences got to see Kit Harington and Johnny Flynn take on True West directed by Matthew Dunster. Now, Alexander Lass is at the helm of Ages of the Moon at The Vaults, marking its premiere in the UK ten years after its debut in Dublin. It stars Christopher Fairbank and Joseph Marcell as lifelong friends, reunited in a cabin in the nowhere USA after life has done its best to burn them out.

Harley (Danielle Williams) is undergoing a psychological evaluation after having been charged for a bank robbery. While the Doctor (Sharon Duffy) tries to get to the bottom of her bruises and prove her subjugation to her partner in crime and life Jay (Joseph Blunt in voiceover), the criminal slowly shows her hand. Written by Lucy Walters and directed by Georgia Leanne Harris for Tripped Theatre, Harley & Me is, unfortunately, a flawed and inconsequential piece of theatre.

After an incredible run as Anne Boleyn in SIX and an Olivier Award nomination, Millie O'Connell is ready for a new musical adventure in Stiles & Drewe's Soho Cinders. Directed by Will Keith, the show is a modern take on the classic fairy tale. 

Originally written in the 50s by musical theatre duo of wonders Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for television but then adapted for the stage multiple times, Cinderella saw actresses of the likes of Julie Andrews and, more recently, Broadway favourite Laura Osnes take on the title role. Now, Cadogan Hall hosted a one-off staged concert of the piece that turned the venue into a bona fide enchanting scene. With the London Musical Theatre Orchestra setting the mood for Christine Allado and Jac Yarrow to fall in love directed by Jonathan O'Boyle, the production was a stunner.

When Queer Eye premiered on Netflix in 2018, Jonathan Van Ness was a successful hairdresser and star of the web series Gay of Thrones and never would have thought that his journey was going to take the turn it did.

Zawe Ashton's incredible 2019 brings to the plate the second piece she's written in her career. It took a long, winding road that spanned 11 years and more than a few attempts, but for all the women who thought they were Mad finally made it. Now, it's receiving his world premiere in London before opening almost simultaneously Off-Broadway too. Jo McInnes directs the play, which oozes with metaphors and allegoric meaning; the small, daily aggressions that black women have to endure are put together to form a universal experience infused with just the right amount of magic.

It's the beginning of the 20th Century in the Pacific Northwest and Linda Hazzard's sanitarium is under fire for her unusual practices. She founded Wilderness Heights with the aim of a?oecuringa?? her patients through fasting, which, in her opinion, would rid the body of toxins.

Eric (Steve Cooper) and Kylie (Sophie Osborne), a musical duo called The Doodlebugs, are embarking on their very first tour. However, the engagement is not exactly what Kylie expected.

Shake It Up Theatre's concept for their Improvised Shakespeare Show is very simple and follows the basic rules of improv - with an Elizabethan twist added to the mix. The audience are in charge of setting the scene, choosing the genre first and then moving to setting and protagonist, the weirder, the better.

It's safe to say that John Mayer's been keeping busy. After starting 2019 with Dead & Company (which features former members from Grateful Dead) and touring North America for the fourth consecutive year, he's finally filled The O2 with a new light. His Summer Tour comes to London after a two-year absence, having played the same venue in 2017 for The Search of Everything World Tour.

In the shadows of the Kennedy compound in Washington DC lives a peculiar family, the Pascals. Twenty years after JFK's assassination, Marty (Fergus Leathem) is coming home from New York to celebrate Thanksgiving with his mother (Gill King), little brother Anthony (Bart Lambert), and twin sister Jackie-O (Colette Eaton). What should have been a delightful festive reunion turns into a perverted evening of mind-games and manipulation when the young man shows up with his fiancée Lesly (Kaya Bucholic)