First-look production photos have been released for English National Opera’s UK premiere of ANGEL’S BONE by Du Yun. Directed by Kip Williams, the production opens May 12 at Aviva Studios in Manchester before transferring to the London Coliseum.
Adapting Toto the Ninja Cat and The Great Snake Escape for the stage has been both an honour and an enormous responsibility. Not only is the story clearly very close to Dermot O'Leary’s heart (the cats are inspired by his own) but the books are deeply loved by thousands of young readers. When children arrive at the theatre already carrying a story in their imagination, you have to treat that trust very carefully. The challenge is finding a way to stay true to the essence of the book while also allowing the creative team to make something genuinely theatrical and new.
After staging a charming version of Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer two years ago, the Orange Tree's Tom Littler brings us Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 250-year-old comedy The Rivals. Like She Stoops to Conquer, Littler, along with associate Rosie Tricks, has almost rewritten the play, updating much of the language and making the setting the Wodehousian 1920s.
There are many museums dedicated to disaster, but only Britain could create one in which the exhibits are victims of its own fiscal policies. Museum of Austerity, revived at the Young Vic, is a cool, technologically-slick indictment, a moral subpoena served directly to your eyeballs through augmented-reality headsets. Grimmer than a midwinter funeral, the show is misnamed and flawed but serves as a salient reminder of how man’s inhumanity to man never ceases to beggar the imagination.
Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo, arriving now at the Young Vic for its long-overdue European premiere, is ostensibly about the American occupation of Iraq. Really, though, Rajiv Joseph’s Pulitzer-nominated work is about two things: a gold-plated toilet seat stolen from Uday Hussein (son of Saddam and recreational rapist, torturer and murderer), and the sheer, unforgivable absurdity of existence.
You can now get a first look inside rehearsals for The Rivals at the Orange Tree Theatre. See photos of Patricia Hodge, Robert Bathurst and more in the production.
If you liked Evita at the Palladium, you'll like Carmen at the Coliseum
I’m looking forward to conducting Bizet’s Carmen for English National Opera (ENO) this autumn, alongside fellow conductor, Clelia Cafiero. Carmen’s extreme drama and memorable music makes it one of the best-loved operas by audiences worldwide.
Some Soho Theatre audience members at My English Persian Kitchen over the next month may be more enticed by what comes after the show than by the show itself. That’s because Hannah Khalil’s one-woman show has the distinction of featuring onstage cooking.
There’s a lot of pressure on an Artistic Director’s first production at a new venue, especially if they’re directing it themselves. Nadia Fall kicks off her tenure leading the Young Vic with a revival of a classic Joe Orton play, promising ‘seduction and devilish wit.’ But could this show seduce its audience?
Little Angel Theatre delivers a vibrant, triumphant and delightful production of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. This much-loved story by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, is transformed into a vibrant 45 minute adventure which captivates children and adults alike with its exquisite puppetry, charming music, and infectious energy.
Orange Tree artistic director Tom Littler first directed Howard Brenton’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s Creditors at Jermyn Street Theatre in 2019, in rep with Miss Julie. He has secured quite a coup in gathering such a star-studded cast of acting veterans with Geraldine James, Nicholas Farrell and Charles Dance in this wonderfully performed but underwhelming production.
Flora Wilson Brown’s six-hander examines climate change across 250 years of real and imagined history. In 1856, Eunice begins to question whether carbon dioxide might signal that something is going terribly wrong. In 2027 London, Clare falls for Dan as she faces impending heatwaves and floods. By 2100 in Svalbard, Ana endures an 86-day storm raging outside, questioning the doomed future of our planet.
Poor Clare, written by Chiara Atik and directed by Blanche McIntyre, tells the story of how Clare (Arsema Thomas) is influenced by fellow Assisi resident Francis (Freddy Carter) to abandon her life of riches and become devoted to God, founding the Order of Poor Ladies as a discipline of the soon-to-be Saint Francis. The play opens with Clare getting her hair done in a complicated style by two of her servants, Peppa (Liz Kettle) and Alma (Jacoba Williams), discussing the concept of poverty and what can be done about it.
Recently, we had the chance to speak with Liz Kettle, who plays Peppa, one of Clare’s servants. We discussed how she went from Art History to Shakespeare, the importance of the messages in Poor Clare and even what she hopes audiences take away from the show.
On 6 January 2021, while the US Congress gathered in Washington DC to confirm Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America, a mob waited outside. Demanding that their leader Donald J Trump be returned to power, they stormed the Capitol building to confront the lawmakers.
Overheard in a Tower Block at the Little Angel Theatre Studios is a raw and honest insight into young life, parental separation and the experiences of living in a high rise flat. The play is imaginatively crafted from the original poetry of the same name.
Terence Rattigan's work remains a stalwart of the British stage. Richmond's Orange Tree Theatre has a particular fondness for his lesser revived work; lighter, frothier plays such as French Without Tears and While the Sun Shines. In Praise of Love, Rattigan’s poignant penultimate play, is a different proposition.
IN PRAISE OF LOVE by Terence Rattigan will be presented 24 May – 5 July 2025. The cast includes Daniel Abelson (Mark Walters), Joe Edgar (Joey Cruttwell), Claire Price (Lydia Cruttwell) and Dominic Rowan (Sebastian Cruttwell). Check out photos from the production.
Satire bites even today, but a little more sympathy in the characters would strengthen its appeal
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