Posted on

Review: Royal Court’s Living Newspaper #4

Raj Bajaj, Jason Barnett, Genesis Lynea, and Gloria Obianyo impress in the Royal Court’s Living Newspaper #4

“Crisis after crisis we persist”

Tackling, among other things, Black Lives Matter, Reclaim the Streets and the ongoing fury at the Tory government, the fourth edition of the Royal Court’s Living Newspaper burns with the spirit of protest. And on the front page Crisis After Crisis We Persist, Raj Bajaj, Jason Barnett, Genesis Lynea, and Gloria Obianyo capture this raucous, almost rowdy, emotionality with skill.

Elsewhere, the tension between the newspaper format and the range of content emerges as something a little curious. Annie Siddons and Rachel Nwokoro’s Wisdom Cards noodles around tarot card readings rather aimlessly whereas Stef Smith’s Confit is a fascinating look at Scottish identity and politics. It speaks to the model, that it doesn’t really matter if there’s sections you’re not keen on, as with an IRL newspaper, you don’t have to read every page…

Photos: Isha Shah
Living Newspaper #4 is streaming via the Royal Court until 18th April

Posted on

News: writers and cast for Living Newspaper #4

Bukky Bakray, Stacey Gregg, Tanika Gupta, Ellie Kendrick, Sabrina Mahfouz, Nathaniel Martello-White, Eoin McAndrew, Caitlin McEwan, Rachel Nwokoro, Annie Siddons, Stef Smith, Caro Black Tam, Ed Thomas, and Michael Wynne will write Edition 4 of the Royal Court’s Living Newspaper.

A sideways look at the people who govern us. A space for protest. Because we can’t party without protest and we can’t heal without it either.

Edition 4 will feature Rishi Sunak as your romantic Indian soap hero, sign language interpreters prepping for a Covid briefing at the Northern Irish Assembly, a teenager watching the End SARS protests play out on Instagram, a love letter to Nicola Sturgeon, an internet boy who becomes a museum piece, an unravelling of Peruvian independence day celebrations and a box office supervisor who tells it like it is. Continue reading “News: writers and cast for Living Newspaper #4”

Posted on

Review: The Three Lions, St James Theatre

“What’s the difference between a bribe and an incentive?”

With the fallout of FIFA’s decisions of where to have the 2018 and 2022 World Cups still percolating around footballing bureaucrats even now, one could probably find more than enough material for a verbatim play full of high drama – alleged bribery and corruption, the tragedy of migrant working conditions, war-mongering presidents, seismic calendar shifts from summer to winter. William Gaminara’s The Three Lions wisely sidesteps that potential controversy though, by imagining a behind-the-scenes farce involving the trio spearheading the English bid to host the 2018 competition – three blokes by the name of David Cameron, David Beckham and Prince William.

In representing three such well-known figures, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, Séan Browne and Tom Davey have to tread a fine line between impersonation and inhabiting their characters more fully and Gaminara’s script doesn’t always allow for this. Davey’s lanky Prince William becomes an improbable japester as he desperately tries to shake off his inbred stiffness and grammatical pedantry and be one of the lads. And Bruce-Lockhart gets the PM’s blustering and patronising tone just right, matching it with the overcompensatory physical language that belies innate insecurity. But they both get overshadowed by a work of comic genius in Browne’s footballer. Continue reading “Review: The Three Lions, St James Theatre”

Posted on

Review: The Westbridge, Royal Court

“Everyone lived perfectly happily round here together before you young ones try to integrate and confuse things”

First things first, Ultz’s staging upstairs at the Royal Court for The Westbridge is a piece of craziness. Most of the seating is in the centre with chairs pointing in all different directions and stages around the edge of the theatre. I found it highly frustrating as the structure of the show with its mutliple short scenes meant there was constant moving around in our seats and much huffing and puffing from a midweek matinee audience who generally weren’t up for it.

The play itself is very Royal Court Upstairs and I can totally see the logic in premiering it in Peckham as part of their Theatre Local initiative. I have to admit to turning down the chance to see it there several times as I was sure I didn’t want to see it. But I let people’s recommendations sway me and I’m glad I did, but I really do wish I’d seen it with a Peckham audience to see how it connected to a non-traditional audience (assuming it wasn’t full of regular Royal Court visitors going on the cheap!) Continue reading “Review: The Westbridge, Royal Court”