The System ★★★★ Original Theatre Company (online) | Sep 8 - Dec 5, 2021


A man is murdered at his own birthday party and the police must interview the suspects. The premise is quite simple. But, starting from that point, Emily Head has set herself a formidable task as both an actor and a writer. It is not a small feat to individuate a wide variety of characters using only minimal props and without the help of costumes. Head does a brilliant job of capturing speech patterns and idiosyncrasies to ensure that the audience can distinguish amongst her creations. If we had any quibble with the production, it is probably with the 'whodunit' genre itself which, because it is plot driven, always makes character development seem secondary. Head creates some fascinating personae but the format and the time constraint left us wanting more. This show does not belong to Head alone, however. Ben Eeley's camera work is quite astonishing. Filming the production in a single shot, Eeley uses his Steadicam to take on the role of police interviewer while also acting as the audience's eyes. It is a masterful technical feat. A lot of the success of the piece is also due to the fact that director, Guy Unsworth, has embraced the hybrid of theatre and film born of Covid and does not present us with simply a filmed version of a play. This is a work that strives to provide the immediacy of theatre with the intimacy of film and it works. This one's a must-see!

Rated: ★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by James Findlay.

Want to save on tickets? See our Tips page.

When, Where, Getting there:

Most Popular

Your Lie In April – The Musical in Concert ★★★★★ Theatre Royal Drury Lane | April 8 & 9, 2024

Image
Based on the popular Manga of Naoshi Arakawa, Your Lie In April – The Musical in Concert tells the story of a young, prize-winning pianist who has lost his ability to hear the piano after his mother's death. The passing of his perfectionist parent has led Kōsei, played by Zheng Xi Yong, to abandon his vocation and to sink into despair. Although supported by his friends, Ryōta and Tsubaki, it is not until the enthusiastic and free-spirited violinist, Kaori, comes along that he begins to rediscover his aptitude for music. This is a modest little love story that is unabashedly sentimental, but it has a magic that will melt even the hardest heart. Frank Wildhorn has written a lovely score and songs like "Just Like A Movie" and "One Hundred Thousand Million Stars" are instantly relatable. The in-concert version of the show exposed a few wrinkles that still need to be ironed out, but the simplicity of this presentation nicely complemented the unpretentious nature of
Full Details »

St. Martin in-the-fields: Lunchtime Concerts ★★★★ FREE

Image
Maybe the best musical value in London. The lunchtime concerts at St. Martin's are always a wonderful way to escape the hustle and bustle that is London and the sensory overload that is Trafalgar Square. This is a beautiful setting with great acoustics, and a church pew hard enough to make sure you don't nod off. Reviewed by J.C.  Our score:    ☆☆☆☆  WHEN, WHERE, GETTING THERE: Mon & Fri: 1 pm - 1:45 pm ( occasionally Tues & Thurs)  St. Martin in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square Nearest tube: Charing Cross https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/whats-on
Full Details »

Player Kings ★★★★★ Noël Coward Theatre | Apr 1 - Jun 22, 2024

Image
Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I and Part II deal with young Prince Hal and the rather libertine lifestyle in which he indulges before he assumes the throne as Henry V. To the despair of his father, Hal has fallen in with a gang of wastrels centred around the notorious Sir John Falstaff. The narrative arc of Shakespeare's story then becomes about Hal's choices as he is torn between two worlds: the enticements of hedonism and self-indulgence, and his father's call to duty and honour. However, in Robert Icke's adaptation of the two plays, the central character actually becomes Falstaff, and Hal's dilemma and decisions seem more like simply a backdrop for the comic hijinks of one of Shakespeare's most enduring and endearing creations. As Falstaff, Sir Ian McKellen puts in an unforgettable performance. He lights up the stage whenever he appears as the drunken prevaricator whose cunning and cowardice are somehow completely beguiling. Indeed, on the occasions when
Full Details »

Life with Oscar ★★★ Arcola Theatre | April 2 - 20, 2024

Image
Life with Oscar is less a play than it is a personal and professional exorcism. The show is an exposé of writer/actor Nick Cohen's origins, ambitions and encounter with the hollowness that is Hollywood. The piece chronicles three generations of Cohen's family and his experience trying to get a film made. As the child of immigrants who have left their roots to pursue success in a new world, the little golden statuette of Oscar comes to represent for Cohen the ultimate symbol of achievement, not simply in a film career but in life itself. In his narrative, Cohen plays an amazing 29 characters, and he manages to bring them all to life. From the bombastic father to the self-effacing mother, and from the sleazy producer to his drug-addled daughter, all the personalities emerge as recognisable individuals. However, while the performance is dazzling, none of the characters are really developed. They remain simply nicely sketched types. The story itself is familiar territory: a tormen
Full Details »

Naked Boys Singing, The Garden Theatre at The Eagle - ★★★★ - Until October 25, 2020

Image
There is still a certain taboo around naked men on stage. Well, Naked Boys Singing firmly grasps the nettle and does exactly what it says on the tin. If the sight of naked guys singing and dancing is shocking for you, this musical revue should probably be avoided, but you'd be missing a lot of good clean fun. There is plenty of talent on display and the six guys perform splendidly; perhaps, one or two of the voices would be helped by microphones but the lack of costumes would make that difficult. So sing up boys! We're not watching 'great art' here, but several of the numbers stand out including "The Entertainer", "Robert Mitchum" and especially "Perky Little Porn Star." One hilarious song reminds a lonely man that the solution to his problem is in his own hands. There is also a beautifully sung chorale using the multifarious names for the male member! It would be invidious to single out individual cast members as all have plenty of opport
Full Details »

The Last Caravaggio ★★★★ The National Gallery | Apr 18 - Jul 21, 2024 (Free Entry)

Image
Caravaggio's innovative art and immoderate life remains a source of enduring fascination. Indeed, it is no accident that they are presented as the inspiration for the protagonist of the new Netflix show, Ripley . Caravaggio's realistic portrayal of saints and sinners and his frequent undertones of sensuality and violence tease his audience just as his extraordinarily tempestuous life intrigues them. This latest bijou exhibition focuses on the master's last known work, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (1610) which was only definitively attributed to him in 1980. That painting which is on loan to The National Gallery is displayed in the context of the collection's own Caravaggio, Salome receives the Head of John the Baptist (1609-1610). Both pieces focus on particularly grisly acts and the emotional responses to them of the principals and onlookers. In the former it is notable that Caravaggio has painted himself into the story. It becomes tantalising to try to read his exp
Full Details »

Power of Sail – A Moral Thriller ★★★★ Menier Chocolate Factory | Mar 20 - May 12, 2024

Image
The bon mot that academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small has various attributions, and its history of apparently being "borrowed" is not without some irony. Set in the context of a debate about free speech, Paul Grellong has written a piece that is less a moral thriller and more of a satire. It is really about the pettiness and lack of principle involved in navigating one's way through the choppy seas of academia. The play doesn't really do much to advance the debate about finding the line between hate speech and free speech, but it is a clinical dissection of the mendacity and petty ambition that infects the environment of those who are supposedly charged with exploring and refining that important distinction. Apparently under the rubric of free speech, Harvard professor Charles Nichols (Julian Ovenden) has invited a well-known white supremacist to participate in a panel at the university. The students are outraged and the dean is
Full Details »

The Comeuppance ★★★★★ Almeida Theatre | Apr 6 - May 18, 2024

Image
Faced with the twin threats of plague and war, the Danse Macabre was a common artistic subject in the late Middle Ages. In The Comeuppance Branden Jacobs-Jenkins revisits this concept in our own time of Covid and conflict. As they approach their twenty-year high school reunion, five friends are faced with the passage of time and its inevitable consequence. Death becomes a character haunting them at the feast of life and neither the doctor nor the artist can stay the inevitable result of time's pressing on. There's a lot to unpack in Jacobs-Jenkins' work, but first and foremost it resonates as a story of friends who are reliving their misadventures and memories. The existential question is nicely wrapped in humour and humanity, and we actually come to care about the members of MERGE, or the multi-ethnic reject group, as they were known in high school. In a wonderfully evocative set created by Arnulfo Maldonado, the action takes place on a porch, that space between home and
Full Details »

Foam ★★★★ Finborough Theatre | Mar 19 - Apr 13, 2024

Image
Based on a true story, Harry McDonald's Foam recounts the life of Nicky Crane, a young gay man who becomes a Nazi. We first meet Nicky as an uncertain 15-year-old loitering in a public toilet where he meets Oswald Mosley, the notorious British fascist. As part of the British underclass and driven by desires he can neither understand nor control, Nicky feels himself to be both socially and sexually powerless. Mosley's appeal to the youngster is to give him that sense of empowerment he so desperately lacks. In the ensuing scenes, we see Nicky play out his new persona and explore the erotic nature of his transgressive political posture in a series of encounters. His political choice gives him the sense of control he craves, but his sexual proclivities inevitably subjugate him. When his story concludes, he is succumbing to AIDS. He continues to rage and resists being put in a wheelchair, the final expression of his lack of control in a world in which he has struggled with self-loa
Full Details »

Underdog: The Other Other Brontë ★★★ National Theatre | Mar 27 - May 25, 2024

Image
To satisfy 19th century prejudices, the three Brontë sisters had to present themselves as male writers. In response to current fashion, this show presents them as feminists with serious sibling rivalry issues and the cursing capacity of truckers. Ironically, the play titled Underdog: The Other Other Brontë which we might expect to be about Anne (Rhiannon Clements) is, in fact, all about Charlotte (Gemma Whelan). In line with our current obsession with the notion of celebrity, Charlotte is seen through the lens of her remark that she wished to be "forever known." She is presented as ambitious to the point of stealing her younger sister Anne's ideas and actually maliciously suppressing publication of her sibling's work. It is hard to believe that this is the woman who wrote Jane Eyre with its deeply religious sensibility. In fact, the profoundly religious context within which all the sisters lived is completely ignored as the focus is on their career rivalry. Anne is
Full Details »

The City Life Magazine | Reviews & Ratings