In hindsight, it’s hard to see how Ellie & I could have missed until tonight the sterling work theatre production company 1927 has been doing for almost 20 years here in London. We just watched their latest play ‘Please Right Back’, at the Southbank Centre. The play premiered in German language as “Mehr als alles auf der Welt” (More than anything in the world) a little over two years ago in Vienna (it is a co-production with Burgtheater Wien). After a complete redesign the English language version premiered in July 2024 under the current title in Canterbury, which is lovely, because we have visited both cities during the past 3 weeks. Ever since July 2024, the play has been touring the UK (incl. a stint at the Edinburgh International Festival in August) and it’s only in London for two weeks until Sunday, 5 January. Tickets are still available and cost […]

Earlier this week, Ellie and I watched a series of very short plays called “Cutting the Tightrope: The Divorce of Politics from Art” at the marvellous Arcola Theatre in Hackney. We were almost feeling a bit ashamed that it had taken us so long to discover this gem on the London theatre scene, considering how easy it is to get to from central London. Dalston Junction is only two stops from the Victoria Line, for example, by London Overground (Windrush Line). Once you are at the station, it’s under a minute’s walk to the theatre.   Feature pic (c) Cutting The Tightrope Ltd; Pics 1 and 2 above (c) Ali Wright. FIRST STAGING WAS IN MAY THIS YEAR Cutting the Tightrope has first been staged at the same location in May this year, to raise awareness of the censorship and self-censorship in the performing arts and society in general, and […]

Ellie and I watched Craig Wright’s fabulous The Unseen at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith last night. Political theatre at its best! FACES OF RUSSIAN RESISTANCE AT THE UNSEEN AT RIVERSIDE STUDIOS Studio 3 with a capacity of 172, was perhaps filled to about three quarters with spectators, an okay turnout, considering it was a rather cold and miserable Monday evening far away from London’s bustling Westend. On your way past the box office and reception area to the theatre you pass by the excellent photo exhibition “Faces of Russian Resistance” by Elena Filina, which has already been shown around cities in much of Western Europe. It is particularly moving, because it does not only show the big heroes, like Navalny, but also many every-day people from all walks of life, some of whom not even particularly political and with no history of activism.    All pics incl. feature photograph (c) […]

Ellie and I had never heard of Nassim Soleimanpour or his play White Rabbit Red Rabbit, quite possibly to our shame. A week ago, I had stumbled across one of the many adverts all over social media these days. After a quick consultation with my dear wife, I immediately booked the last two tickets that were still available for the performance the following day. A STAR-STUDDED WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT LINE-UP It all sounded pretty fascinating. 46 actors. Many, like Rory Kinnear, Lenny Henry, Toby Jones, Catherine Tate, Paloma Faith, and Michael Sheen very big names (full list here). Each performance, a different actor takes to the stage. He or she finds a table with two glasses of water on it, as well as a chair with a sealed envelope on it, which contains the script. There is no director. The lighting remains bright and unchanged throughout. We are being […]

After 6 weeks at sea, I had somewhat been looking forward to watching the first play since my return to civilisation. Ellie and I have many fond memories of watching plays at the National Theatre. NOT ALL BAD The description of ‘The Other Place, after Antigone’ by Alexander Zeldin, didn’t sound all bad. A re-imagining of an ancient Greek play, roughly 2,500 years after its first showing. And not just any play, but one of the three Theban plays, which connect to the story lines of many more works of the day. Incest, fratricide, suicide, general homicide, grief, greed, insanity, those are all great building blocks for a fun night out at the theatre, as far as I am concerned.   All pics (c) National Theatre A BIT OF A HOTTIE, APPARENTLY: TOBIAS MENZIES My good wife, in particular, and our friend Eve, were very excited about the lead male […]