Reviews

When one 10 year old boy hits another with a stick in a park in Paris, their parents agree to try to settle the matter amicably. As any parent – and playwright Yasmina Reza – knows, such encounters can be a little hazardous! From a strained but polite beginning, the tenor of the meeting declines until the behaviour of the boys is almost forgotten as tempers rise, accusations fly and etiquette is forgotten.

In his reimagining of Macbeth, director Chris Hamley was inspired by elements of Japanese culture. He chose to feature live Taiko drummers, samurai-like warriors, ninja-like murderers, a geisha-like Lady Macbeth and five witches, creating a creepy and action packed Macbeth. These commanding and decisive new elements, especially the initial impact of the Taiko drumming, set the tone of menace and danger. Drum interludes, scene and act changes were riveting to watch and hear.

Tell Me on a Sunday is one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s less regularly performed shows, meaning when it is done – it is done well. Featuring the incredible talent of Lauren Lee Innis-Youren, this show takes you on a cycle of romantic misadventures from an English woman trying to find the love of her life in New York. Intertwined with wit, love and the evolution of a strong woman – this performance has been lifted above what you would expect from an independent production and taken into the realm of semi-professional theatre.

Verdi’s Traviata (‘fallen woman’) is a courtesan - so why not stage the opera in a strip club?  That’s what director Julie Edwardson and her Emotionworks Cut Opera have done.  The audience, attracted by the originality of the concept or perhaps the salacious nature of the venue, surrounds the stage where strippers and pole dancers do their thing at other times.  A four-piece blues’n’jazz combo, including Ms Edwardson herself on keyboard, supplies the music.  It’s not as Verdi and his librettist Francesco Maria Piave conc