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Review: Misfits, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch

The four monologues of Misfits, streaming via Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, present slightly-too-disparate aspects of life in Essex

“I am the bastard love child of Chas and Dave”

The monologue has been a mainstay of lockdown programming so there’s something sadly inevitable that Misfits, commissioned in the first lockdown, finds its IRL run kyboshed by the second. But Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch were live to the risks and had already developed a model where audience members could choose whether to book an actual or virtual seat to see the show.

Misfits appears as part of their Essex on Stage season, and sees short plays by Anne Odeke, Guleraana Mir,  Kenny Emson and Sadie Hasler encapsulating something of the inimitable Essex spirit through its vivid characters. So there’s nights out in Romford or Southend aplenty with pints of Snakebite and canary yellow GTIs but also a great deal of heart and a defiant sense of identity, which sometimes has to be worked on. Continue reading “Review: Misfits, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch”

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An assortment of October theatre news

Full casting has been announced for Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch’s upcoming production of Misfits, an innovative new hybrid of live theatre and digital content, playing 12-22 November 2020. Bookers will purchase a ticket which will allow them the choice of watching the show be performed live onstage in front of a socially
distanced audience or streamed to their homes, right up until the day of the show.

Misfits intertwines four inspirational tales of Essex resilience to make an unmissable world premiere by four of the region’s most exciting playwrights: Anne Odeke, Guleraana Mir, Kenny Emson and Sadie Hasler and will be co-directed by QTH Artistic Director Douglas Rintoul and Emma Baggott. The cast is Anne Odeke, who is also writing part of the piece, Gemma Salter, Mona Goodwin and Thomas Coombes. Continue reading “An assortment of October theatre news”

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Review: Santi & Naz, VAULT Festival

The Thelmas’ Santi & Naz presents Partition through a much more personal, intimate lens at the VAULT Festival

“It doesn’t matter if you’re Muslim, or I’m Sikh or our friends are Hindu. We’re all the same inside.”

The recasting of historical narratives through the eyes of those whose stories are rarely heard is one of the most culturally significant things theatre can do, IMHO. So The Thelma’s Santi & Naz is certainly right up my street, as it explores Partition through the eyes of two young women.

They’re fast friends, the bestest of best, but as Santi is Sikh and Naz is Muslim, it’s a relationship that is destined to become more tangled. But where Guleraana Mir and Afshan D’souza-Lodhi’s play takes us, is into a more intimate, but no less complicated, version of their world. Continue reading “Review: Santi & Naz, VAULT Festival”

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10 questions for 10 years – Nastazja Somers

A self-described “European theatre maker infesting British theatre”,  Nastazja Somers pauses the patriarchy-toppling for just long enough to answer Ten Questions for Ten Years 

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Round-up of news and treats and other interesting things

In Bechdel Testing Life, Bechdel Theatre presents four short plays by Isley Lynn, Rabiah Hussain, Guleraana Mir, and Lizzie Milton. Each play is inspired by a real-life conversation between women.
 
The Experiment:
Inspired by the famous Bechdel Test, which asks: “Are there two female characters? Do they talk to each other? About something other than a man?”, women were asked to record their own conversations with each other – to pass the Bechdel Test in real life.
 
Their recordings were then given to a team of fantastic female playwrights.
 
The Result:
Four new plays exploring the relationships that make up our daily lives but are less often represented in fiction.
 
Bechdel Testing Life is a celebration of the complex, intimate, hilarious, and genius conversations that take place when women get together. It plays at the Bunker Theatre on 22nd and 23rd July.

Continue reading “Round-up of news and treats and other interesting things”