The Walworth Farce
What a perfect choice to launch Southwark Playhouse's brand-new, purpose-built venue at London's Elephant & Castle: a revival of Enda Walsh's acclaimed 2006 play The Walworth Farce, set in Elephant & Castle.
Hamlet post-show video and photos: What happens when you get rid of the adults?
How central are Gertrude, Claudius and Polonius to the story of Hamlet? If you remove those adult characters and the scenes that revolve around them, what are you left with?
Doctor Faustus post-show video and photos: What would make you sell your soul to the devil?
What might entice you to sell your soul to the devil? Fame? Riches? Immortality? World peace? A rent-free London flat? Four pints of Guinness? At my post-show Q&A for a production of Doctor Faustus, that was an irresistible question to pose to the company.
Doctor Faustus
I love Lazarus Theatre! My long-time association with this visionary ensemble company continues with their 2022 season, which launches with their reinvention of Marlowe's classic Doctor Faustus, in a limited season at London's Southwark Playhouse.
The Lesson: If knowledge is power, does ignorance kill?
How do you cope in a world gone mad? That seems to me to be the central question in two of Romanian-French playwright Eugene Ionesco's one-act plays, The Lesson and The Chairs, written in the aftermath of the Second World War
Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon post-show video and photos: What advice would you give your 13-year-old self?
Rosie Day's wonderful rollercoaster ride of a debut play Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon, which she also performs, ends with the by-then 16-year-old protagonist writing a letter of advice to her younger self (and younger stepsister).
Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon
Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon, the sell-out solo show written and performed by Rosie Day that also spawned the non-fiction guide of the same name, returns to London for a limited run at Southwark Playhouse.
Operation Mincemeat: Oh my god, this World War II escapade actually happened?
I have a sneaking suspicion that we have not seen the last of this little musical gem, which is - incredibly - inspired by a real-life World War II espionage episode demonstrating British pluck and eccentricity in spades.
Indecent Proposal
Nineties gender-politics thriller Indecent Proposal gets a modern #MeToo makeover in a brand-new British musical - with book and lyrics by Michael Conley, music by Dylan Schlosberg - at London's Southwark Playhouse.