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HAMPSTEAD THEATRE
Eton Avenue
Swiss Cottage
LONDON NW3 3TU
BOX OFFICE: 020 7722 9301
website: www.hampsteadtheatre.com
THE HOUSE OF BILQUIS
BIBI
by Sudhar Bhuchar at Hampstead Theatre
Now playing until 14
August
To
celebrate the company's 21st birthday, Tamasha's
founders Sudhar Bhuchar and
Kristine Landon-Smith have created a radical and quite possibly highly
controversial new version of The House of Bernarda
Alba by Federico García Lorca.
Where
the Spanish playwright satirised out-dated attitudes in his own country almost
80 years ago, Miss Bhuchar who has written the script
while her colleague directs, identifies similar issues in Pakistan today.
Both
plays feature the efforts of a recently-widowed, tyrannical matriarch to
prevent her five daughters from fulfilling their destiny and getting married.
In
this case, Ila Arun plays Bilquis Bibi, who is named for
the Queen of Sheba. She is a jealous harridan intent on keeping the girls from
any kind of pleasure although the actress gives the impression of the weight of
the world on her shoulders, suggesting there may be a heart somewhere beneath
the tough exterior.
Her
rationale for repression is mediaeval in our eyes, the requirement that an
upper-class family cannot be seen to allow its daughters to marry beneath their
station - and with a single exception everybody in town falls into that
category.
This
unseen Adonis has been promised to stepdaughter Abida,
played by Ghizala Avan. She
may be rather too old to marry but Abida has
everything that her young suitor could wish for i.e. a satisfactory bridal
dowry.
Having
skewed the whole inheritance, it means that none of her four stepsisters has
any realistic chance of marriage. To make matters worse, with no alternatives,
it is inevitable that they might feel an illicit desire for her fiancé
and as a consequence the path of true love is unlikely to run smoothly.
In
fact, the major dramas of the play centre on the daily hidden passions of Mariam Haque's Sumayyah, appropriately the first martyr in Islam and
younger sister Aroosa, the bride in name if not
reality, played by Youkti Patel.
Indira Joshi in the role of batty old
grandmother Mehroonisa proves herself to be something
of a seer. Following her predictions, the Spanish tragedy plays itself out to
an equally convincing Pakistani denouement.
In
addition to the main players, Rina Fatania, playing ironically named Bushra
or good news, is particularly notable as a supposedly loyal family retainer who
never seems happier than when delivering morsels of scandal with inordinate
relish.
The
major problem that many audience members will face is a difficulty in
understanding the speeches of several actresses. A combination of various
unfamiliar accents, speech in the local tongue (Urdu?) and a failure to project adequately make intelligibility a serious
problem, particularly when Bilquis herself is
speaking. This means that those who are not comfortable with the accents and do
not know that the original might struggle to follow the plotting.
That
having been said, the story in this adaptation is faithful to Lorca and as
such, makes a powerful statement about the repressive attitudes that
traditional Muslims still hold towards their women.
Therefore,
for providing a novel reading of a classic play and making an issue that is
already causing headlines on a regular basis a subject for intelligent
theatrical treatment, Tamasha are to be
congratulated.
Reviews
by Philip Fisher for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
TRICYCLE THEATRE
Kilburn High Road (nearest underground - Kilburn)
BOX OFFICE: 020 7328 1000
Reviews by Philip
Fisher for Theatreworld Internet Magazine Internet Magazine
MENIER CHOCOLATE FACTORY
51-53 Southwark Street SE1 1TE
Box Office: 020 7378 1712
ASPECTS OF LOVE
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Don Black and Charles Hart
Directed by Trevor Nunn
Now Playing at the
Menier Chocolate Factory until 26th September
It’s back and yes,
“love, love changes everything”!
This is a wonderful
opportunity to see a piece of musical theatre that was a big hit first time
round (about 20 years ago).
Having
not seen it before I would describe it as a cross between “A LITTLE NIGHT
MUSIC”, the book “REBECCA” and the film “OBSESSION”
with a dash of “THE SOUND OF MUSIC”. The story, based on a book by David Garnett, is
very French with wives befriending their husband’s mistresses and
husbands happily living under the same roof as their wife and her lover.
There’s lots of glugging back of wines and spirits and puffing on gauloises while everybody nods and agrees that “life
goes on, love goes free”.
The two main characters,
who have the sweetest, most enchanting voices are; Alex Dillingham (Michael
Arden) a 19 year old English boy on the cusp of becoming a man and Rose Vibert (Katherine Kingsley) an older actress. It’s
1947 Paris, she’s starving and he’s got money (well, his
roué Uncle has) so off they toddle, having met each other 15 minutes
ago, down to “his” villa (his Uncle’s) in the Pyrenees.
It’s all blissfully wonderful for about 10 minutes then it all goes
horribly wrong pretty much until the end of the story. But just go with it,
you’ll like it.
The singing and music
are heartbreakingly soft and melodious. I couldn’t help but be moved even
if I did want to slap a couple of the characters. I wanted to grab Alex and
shake him and scream “If it ain’t working – move on, plenty
more fish in the sea”. But I guess this was all set pre-internet dating.
It’s a brilliant
production with a wonderful ensemble cast directed by the ever talented Trevor
Nunn.
A must see for anybody
who loves musical theatre.
Reviews by Sarah Monaghan for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
ALMEIDA THEATRE
Almeida Street, London N1 1TA
BOX OFFICE: (020) 7359 4404
THROUGH A GLASS
DARKLY
by Ingmar Bergman,
Adapted by Jenny Worton
Now playing at
the Almeida Theatre until 31st July
Jenny Worton's
stage adaptationa of Bergman's dark
psychological drama is somewhere on a line between Ibsen and Festen, two Almeida favourites.
The first sign of things to come is
Tom Scutt's set, which comprises washed out shades of
grey. This is the “holiday island paradise” location for a fated
family reunion from which no good can ever come.
The central character is Karin, a seemingly
happy, highly intelligent young wife played with absolute veracity by
TV’s Jane Eyre, Ruth Wilson, under the direction of Michael Attenborough.
The laid back surface hides a secret, as the pretty holidaymaker suffers from
an unnamed, hereditary illness that has already claimed her mother and
threatens her own sanity.
The symptoms are not pleasant. Karin
shows signs of being a manic depressive and has religious crucifixion visions
so convincing that the real world becomes no more likely than her imaginary
one.
If it were merely a portrait of a
soul in torment, this would be hard enough to take, but Ingmar Bergman then
shows the effect that her condition has on Karin's family.
Her weak-willed novelist father
seems to have spent most of his life in escapist denial. Ian McElhinney makes it clear that David is a lily-livered man
but even so, he is one of the most important port of
call as Karin weathers her storms.
It is the other two characters who
are most wronged. Justin Salinger plays Karin's doctor husband, Martin. This
character who was presumably at least partly modelled
on Bergman himself is kindness personified but as such receives the worst of
the abuse, since this illness not so much talks as shouts.
Finally, there is Dimitri Leonidas looking rather
too old as repressed 16-year-old kid brother Maxie.
He has to try to come to terms with his own teen problems, an unloving father
and sexual insecurity, at the same time as attempting to handle his sister's
unpredictable needs and wild moodswings.
Even for those that have never seen
the film, the ending of this highly intense 90 minutes may be inevitable from
the start but still shocks.
Through a Glass Darkly does not make
for comfortable viewing. With the knowledge that the story is based on Ingmar
Bergman's own marriage, this dark 90 minute long play takes on a chilling
relevance for anyone interested in deep psychological problems and their impact
on loved ones. It is also to be commended for showcasing Ruth Wilson's
undoubted stage talent, most recently seen when she played opposite the
award-winning Rachel Weisz in A Streetcar Named
Desire at the Donmar.
Reviews by Philip
Fisher for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
FINBOROUGH THEATRE
The Finborough Arms Pub
Finborough Road, SW10
(5 minutes from Earl’s Court & West Brompton Stations)
BOX OFFICE: 0870 4000 838
LINGUA FRANCA
By
Peter Nichols
Now playing until 7th
August
Lingua
Franca is billed as a ‘world premiere’, although when precisely it
was penned by Peter Nichols isn’t entirely clear. What is clear is that
Nichols has gone back to his early life and written this play based on his time
teaching English to Italians in Florence sometime after the war.
His
subject is, largely, what makes us different and what makes us the same. Nationality, belief, politics? Or just the
fact of being human?
Steven
Flowers (played with a lot of energy by Chris New) is the young man from
Swindon, an ex-Communist and war veteran despite his years, thrust into the
heady atmosphere of a sultry and historic Florence, still recovering from the
war. He falls in love with the city, and the stalwart of the school, Peggy
Carmichael (Charlotte Randle) a lonely girl whose nerves are as taught as
guitar strings, falls in love with him.
Flowers doesn’t make a good start,
insulting his pupils by calling them children, but (with two hours still ahead
of us) he manages to avoid the sack. Instead, the luscious Heidi (Natalie
Walker) arrives with her head still full of Nazi reverberations and the war
(‘we could have shared Africa!’), and proceeds to offer Steven a
heady cocktail of Aryan vitality.
In
amongst the newcomers, we have to add Irena (a supremely stately Rula Lenska) a Russian Jew who
married an Italian, the Australian lesbian Madge (Abigail McKern)
who will take on anything and anyone, and the saintly Jestin
Overton (Ian Gelder) an older Englishman who has
never married, never troubled to learn a foreign language and whose atheism
rests on a view that art is a better teacher than religion.
They
have a lot to discuss, these people, as Overton sways from gallery to gallery,
attempting to embody the grace he sees in pictures, as Heidi rushes from bed to
bed, and as the not altogether saintly Gennaro (Enzo Cilenti) tries to hold
everything together.
Flowers
resorts to teaching his hapless students popular, and less popular, songs, the
stately Irena and the serene Jestin hold
conversations, Madge tries to teach Spanish without knowing the language.
Something
has to give here, and the something is the patience of one of the students, and
almost simultaneaously Peggy’s nerves. Both
conspire to bring about the end of the institution.
This
is a rites of passage play in part, and you can see why the pressure-cooker
atmosphere in that wonderful city, at that time of Nichols’ life, would
have left him in awe. I’m not sure however, how much the play succeeds
beyond that. Lots of themes wash about, but the not totally likeable Flowers
and his dictum that the Americans are going to dominate the world,
isn’t entirely convincing.
It
is beautifully played in the most part though, and seeing Rula
Lenska on top form is wonderful.
Reviews by Michael Spring for Theatreworld
Internet Magazine
THE GATE THEATRE
(Notting Hill Gate)
BOX OFFICE: 020 7229 0706
Reviews by Lucy Popescu for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
KING'S HEAD THEATRE
Islington
BOX OFFICE: 020 7226 1916
Underground : Angel (Northern Line)
Highbury and Islington (Victoria Line)
Reviews
by Clive Burton for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
THE OVAL HOUSE
52-54 Kennington Road, London SE11
(Oval underground)
BOX OFFICE: 020 7582 7680
Oval House Theatre Upstairs / Downstairs
Reviews by Michael
Spring for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
THE BUSH THEATRE
Shepherds Bush Green
London W12
BOX OFFICE: 020 7610 4224
e-mail: info@bushtheatre.co.uk
The Bush Theatre is above the O'Neill's pub on the corner of
Shepherds Bush Green and Goldhawk Road W12
Reviews by Lucy Popescu for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
LYRIC
HAMMERSMITH
King Street
Hammersmith
BOX
OFFICE: 0871 22 117 22
Reviews by Lucy Popescu for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
NEW END THEATRE
Hampstead
BOX OFFICE: 0870 033 2733
(Nearest Underground: Hampstead [Northern Line] - 2 minutes walk
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