Reviews

I’m not usually a fan of rushing Shakespeare, even for comedy – not because the text is deserving of reverence and contemplation (though it is), but because there’s so much packed into the language. Of course, careful editing is often helpful for 21st century audiences, but slashing a three hour play to fifteen minutes must be missing something, surely?

Only a performer as skilled and versatile as Bernadette Robinson could possibly hope to inhabit the diverse lives of ten of the most famous musical divas of our time. From Maria Callas to Amy Winehouse; Judy Garland to Miley Cyrus; Dame Shirley Bassey to Amy Winehouse; along with Piaf, Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton and Karen Carpenter, Robinson takes her enthralled audience seamlessly from opera to pop, contemporary pop star to war time chanteuse.

The Greek Blues known as Rebetiko is a genre of music that became a lifestyle for the poor and disenfranchised during the nineteen twenties and thirties.  After the destruction of Smyrna in Asia Minor during the 1922 occupation, the residing Greeks were forced to immigrate to Greece. They survived and yet thrived during these arduous years to sing and dance their blues away in tavernas where their local musicians and artists would gather to entertain the crowds.

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling has been totally reinvented by Akram Khan (director and choreographer) with a futuristic script by Tariq Jordan.

Ultra-modern dance, animated drawings as projections, and original music by Jocelyn Pook bring the new folktale to vibrant but grungy life.

You see, Mowgli is reimagined as a modern-day refugee, torn from her home on life-threatening flood waters caused by climate change.