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The finalists of The ONCOMMs 2021

The OnComm is the new award for online shows from across the UK (and beyond) and was introduced in
May 2020. 

1. Recording pre-lockdown (direct)
(i.e. with little or no editing)
Going Viral / Daniel Bye
Hysteria / Spymonkey
Jane Clegg / Finborough Theatre
The House Of Bernarda Alba / Graeae

2. Recording pre-lockdown (edited)
(i.e. with significant editing)
Bubble / Theatre Uncut
Cyprus Avenue / Royal Court & Abbey Theatre
SeaWall / Simon Stephens
The Encounter / Complicité Continue reading “The finalists of The ONCOMMs 2021”

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Review: Royal Court’s Living Newspaper #2

Sneaking in in the nick of time, I catch the delights of the second edition of the Royal Court’s Living Newspaper

“A slither of hope…hmmm”

I do love what the Royal Court are doing with their Living Newspaper series, rapid-response pieces being created with a limited shelf-life creating a sense of urgency that isn’t always present with digital content, but spreading the week of availability over Christmas does feel a little tricky even if festive plans for so many of our plans were forced astray.

Nevertheless, I was able to get stuck into the second edition before the digital shredder cut in and I’m glad I did as it continues to be an entirely fascinating and engaging disruption of theatrical form. Adopting the various elements of a newspaper (horoscopes, dating columns, cartoons as well as news and opinion pieces) and delivering them from various nooks and crannies around the Royal Court building (the originally planned in-person experience would have been conducted in promenade), the result is fierce and fresh. Continue reading “Review: Royal Court’s Living Newspaper #2”

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News: Cast announced for Royal Court’s Living Newspaper #2

Moronkẹ Akinola, Hammed Animashaun, Ayesha Antoine, Alex Austin, Lisa Hammond, Mariam Haque, Zachary Hing, Siu-see Hung, Wendy Kweh, Tasha Lim, Ntonga Mwanza, Rochelle Rose and Liza Sadovy have been cast in Edition 2 of the Royal Court Theatre’s Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative.

Living Newspaper is a weekly live newspaper running over six weeks. It is urgent, responsive and fast – with writers filing their pieces by Tuesday and actors performing from Thursday, script-in-hand, hot off the press. Continue reading “News: Cast announced for Royal Court’s Living Newspaper #2”

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News: Cast announced for Royal Court’s Living Newspaper

Michele Austin, Natalie Dew, Georgie Fellows, Zainab Hasan, Camille Mallet de Chauny, Rebekah Murrell, Amaka Okafor, Kimberley Okoye, Alexzandra Sarmiento, Irfan Shamji, Sophie Stone, Ragevan Vasan and Danny Lee Wynter have been cast in Edition 1 of the Royal Court Theatre’s  Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative.  Continue reading “News: Cast announced for Royal Court’s Living Newspaper”

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News: My White Best Friend goes online via the Royal Court

Writer Rachel De-Lahay and director Milli Bhatia have commissioned ten writers to pen letters that say the unsaid, for a new, online version of their festival My White Best Friend (and Other Letters Left Unsaid).

Produced by Tobi Kyeremateng with support by the Royal Court Theatre, the online festival will run over a week with a pre-recorded letter by Rachel De-Lahay read each night alongside two letters by some of the most exciting voices in the UK read live. Continue reading “News: My White Best Friend goes online via the Royal Court”

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News: Lockdown Theatre Festival brings four cancelled shows to radio

Plays by writers including Mike Bartlett and EV Crowe that were forced to close early because of the pandemic will be revived on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 as part of a festival created by actor Bertie Carvel.

Lockdown Theatre Festival will feature actors including Katherine Parkinson, Rachael Stirling and Nicholas Burns, who will record their lines in isolation, to reimagine their performances for specially created radio versions of the plays.

The plays, which will be broadcast on June 13 and 14, are: The Mikvah Project by Josh Azouz, which had been running at the Orange Tree Theatre, the Lyric Hammermith Theatre’s Love Love Love by Bartlett, Winsome Pinnock’s Rockets and Blue Lights, from the Royal Exchange in Manchester, and Crowe’s Shoe Lady, which was being staged by the Royal Court in London. Continue reading “News: Lockdown Theatre Festival brings four cancelled shows to radio”

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Not-a-review: Rare Earth Mettle, Royal Court

The opportunity to see Arthur Darvill and Genevieve O’Reilly onstage again would surely have made Rare Earth Mettle a must-see at the Royal Court

“You only have an attachment to ideas. But I am attached to this place. I know the history. This land is a part of who I am”

There’s not a lot of info around about Al Smith’s play Rare Earth Mettle which should have opened at the Royal Court this week. But an attractive looking cast had me intrigued and given the uniqueness of Hamish Pirie’s last two productions for the Royal Court (Instructions for Correct Assembly; Goats), I’m sure it would have been a good’un. Let’s hope it comes back.

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Review: all of it, Royal Court

Kate O’Flynn excels in a virtuosic performance of Alistair McDowall’s monologue all of it at the Royal Court

“Everyone dies”

Ahead of their collaboration on The Glow this summer and following on from 2016’s X, writer Alistair McDowall and director Vicky Featherstone’s fruitful relationship continues with all of it, a 45 minute monologue tucked away into a 9.30pm slot and a run of just 8 performances at the Royal Court (along with an advisory note that you can’t take drinks in – whether to stop the drunkenness or noise of glasses being knocked over, it’s a welcome decision!).

Also welcome is the casting of the rather marvellous Kate O’Flynn, an actress for whom the question is always ‘when are we going’ rather than ‘what is she in’. She doesn’t disappoint here in this short play, deceptively unassuming as it follows a woman through the journey of her entire life but with the fast forward button pressed. And the cassette player analogy (ask your dad) is particularly apt given the almost-gibberish with which the show opens. 

Continue reading “Review: all of it, Royal Court”

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Review: Poet in da Corner, Royal Court

I correct the error of missing the vibrant energy of Debris Stevenson’s Poet in da Corner at the Royal Court

“You writing lyrics about me?”

Debris Stevenson is a multi-hyphenate of a different order – grime poet, academic, dancer and now playwright as her 2018 hit show Poet in da Corner returns to the Royal Court ahead of a UK tour. I didn’t catch it then, not having ever listened to Dizzee Rascal’s album Boy in da Corner meaning that it didn’t have instant appeal but on this evidence, I was clearly wrong to have given it a miss, its vibrant energy thrilling to behold in this richly theatrical space.

Sitting in the realm of semi-autobiography, Stevenson’s story focuses on her East London upbringing in a Mormon household where schooltime meant working through being bullied, her dyslexia and the need to test her sexuality. At a moment of particular despair, she’s given a copy that Dizzee Rascal album and it is like a light is switched on, grime offering her a way to build her confidence and explore all of those feelings, discover who she really is. Continue reading “Review: Poet in da Corner, Royal Court”