The Circle ★★★★★ Orange Tree Theatre | Apr 29 - Jun 17, 2023


Somerset Maugham's The Circle deals with a young woman torn between two different paths in life. In the summer of 1920, Elizabeth Champion-Cheney (Olivia Vinall) is facing a choice: continuing with her stolid and rather prim husband, Arnold (Pete Ashmore), or running off with the alluring and ardent entrepreneur, Teddie Luton (Chirag Benedict Lobo). The options are duty, certainty and living in a secure past, or love, tumult and an uncertain future. And, just as Elizabeth is on the cusp of this decision, Arnold's mother (Jane Asher) who in similar circumstances previously left his father for her lover (Nicholas Le Prevost) shows up with said partner. Will Elizabeth see her future in this pair of expatriates and take the safer path or will she run off with her partner? Then, to complicate both her dilemma and the social arrangements for this weekend in the country Arnold's father (Clive Francis) is in residence and is happy to stir things up even further. The Circle is a clever comedy with some pithy insights into human nature. Maugham's sharp wit skewers and exposes human folly, and it is hard to imagine a better production of his work than the present one. All of the cast shine, creating fully rounded characters beneath the brittle repartee. Jane Asher gives an award-worthy performance and her work is well matched by Nicholas Le Prevost and Clive Francis. As the apex of the other triangle, Olivia Vinall also excels while Pete Ashmore is wonderful as her stuffy spouse. As the love interest, Chirag Benedict Lobo is appropriately breezy and impatient. Tom Littler's direction breathes life into Maugham's work, and the mimed opening sequence with its musical accompaniment delightfully sets the tone. Littler exploits the theatre in the round space beautifully, and details like the dog barking as the car comes up the driveway contribute to the credibility of the atmosphere. Throughout, the comic timing is spot on and the pacing is perfect. If you love good theatre, you need to put this production of The Circle in your diary.

Rated: ★★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Ellie Kurttz.

Want to save on tickets? See our Tips page.

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: 1 Clarence St, Richmond TW9 2QE, UK

Most Popular

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 »

Kyoto ★★★★★ @sohoplace | Until May 3, 2025

Image
Otto von Bismarck once said, "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." The challenge for the theatre in presenting such events is that the process is not only messy, it can also be both time-consuming and tedious. However, Kyoto does the next to impossible. It takes the audience inside the procedures of developing an international climate protocol, and it manages to make the dry arguing about language and the Byzantine political strategies absolutely fascinating. Stretching over years of negotiations, it exposes the dark interests at play in a game of political chess that affects everyone of us, while simultaneously presenting the manifold complexities of developing international agreements. To focus this rather abstract and convoluted tale, playwrights Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson have honed in on the character of Don Pearlman, who served in the Reagan government and who became a lobbyist for the major oil companies known as the seven sisters. Pearl...
Full Details »

FIREBIRD ★★★★★ King's Head Theatre | Jan 9 - Feb 9, 2025

Image
The late 1970s were the height of the Cold War between America and the Soviet Union. However, set against the backdrop of this simplistically bipolar world, FIREBIRD relates a love story that ultimately questions the binaries that are often equally, naively imposed on relationships. As the impulsive, charismatic and enigmatic fighter pilot, Roman, Robert Eades puts in a performance that beautifully captures all of those qualities. He is both daring and disarming, and ultimately opaque, as he relishes taking chances both personally and professionally. Eades' presentation nicely contrasts to the more timid and grounded Sergey played by Theo Walker, and the chemistry between the two of them is thoroughly credible. In this highly charged atmosphere, Sorcha Kennedy successfully manages to hold her own in the rather challenging role of Luisa. She succeeds in creating a character who is strong, resilient and an equal force in the triangle that emerges, although we never see her intimate...
Full Details »

A Good House ★★★★★ Royal Court Theatre | Jan 11 - Feb 8, 2025

Image
When a shack appears in the midst of the upper middle class neighbourhood of Stillwater, the residents of this enclave of suburban serenity are concerned. Will the appearance of these squatters depress property values or will their mere presence lower the tone of the community? How to deal with these interlopers raises questions about the values and the prejudices of the current dwellers in this bourgeois haven. What really are the ties that bind this community, and what are the compromises one should make to be part of it? Amy Jephta thoughtfully strips away the self-deceptions and hypocrisy of all of her characters forcing them, and the audience, to realise that community is a concept based on compromise and that by definition, it means that there are others who are outsiders. The bonds that bind people together are frail and the line between the assertion of identity and bigotry is not always as clear as we might like to pretend. As the manipulative and maladroit instigators of the ...
Full Details »

Canned Goods ★★★ Southwark Playhouse, Borough | Jan 16 - Feb 8, 2025

Image
Erik Kahn's Canned Goods recounts the story of the false flag operation that Hitler used as an excuse to invade Poland in 1939. The "canned goods" are three prisoners who will be used to impersonate Polish soldiers who attack a German radio station, thus providing an excuse for the Reich to retaliate. The prisoners who will be exploited in this gambit are a Polish farmer, a Jewish intellectual and a German petty thief. They are, no doubt, intended to be representative of the people Hitler used to his advantage in his plan to assert the Nazi hegemony. In prison confronted with an unknown and uncertain fate, the captives' conversations take a philosophical bent, questioning the purpose of suffering, the intervention of God in human affairs and the presence of evil. These existential and political meditations, along with the exposure of Hitler's theatrical propaganda and manipulation of public opinion, are clearly intended to resonate with current world events, and...
Full Details »

Love in Action ★★★★★ Sadler's Wells Theatre | Oct 31 - Nov 2, 2024

Image
Hideki Noda's Love in Action is a wonderfully wild ride into Japanese history centred on the bombing of Nagasaki in 1945. The piece which is based on Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov centres around the trial of Tomitaro, one of the Karamatsu brothers. He is accused of murdering his father as a result of a love triangle in which he shared a mistress with his parent. The story loosely follows the Russian author's original with Tomitaro's two brothers representing two contrasting perspectives on reality, the scientific and the spiritual, but in this version there is also a deeply political allegory. This is all broadly played for laughs, and the show abounds with wacky references to Western cultural touchstones from Leonardo's The Last Supper to Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire . There are also some brilliantly loony allusions to current pop culture. Who saw a quotation from Dirty Dancing coming? It is all a delightfully manic mishmash, and just...
Full Details »

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank ★★★★ Marylebone Theatre | Jan 20 - Feb 15, 2025

Image
Debbie and Shoshana were friends at school, but they later drifted apart, taking very different paths in adult life. Debbie and her husband, Phil, are now secular Jews living in Florida when they suddenly learn that they are going to be visited by the Hasidic Shoshana and her husband, Yerucham, who are visiting from Israel. Even before these visitors arrive, the combative liberal, Phil, masterfully played by Joshua Malina, is preparing to take on the unanticipated guests and their views. Indeed, as the play opens, wife Debbie (Caroline Catz) is commenting on his inappropriate shorts and warning him not to mention the war. However, no topics are off the table when the guests arrive. In a discussion peppered with zingers and fuelled by vodka and marijuana, Playwright Nathan Englander's characters debate faith, culture, politics, child-rearing and even what keeps them together as couples. This a no-holds-barred look at contemporary political issues, such as the Israeli-Palestinian con...
Full Details »

The Bowie Show ★★★ Lyric Theatre | February 10, 2025 & UK Tour

Image
The Bowie Show covers over twenty of the star's legendary songs, and it is not so much a tribute show as an attempt to create a rock concert experience. Indeed, the audience etiquette is definitely the latter. Loud talking, open mobile phones and walking about during the performance are all part of the ambience. The music itself is blasted out without attempting to achieve any of the nuance that characterises some of Bowie's work, and unfortunately the words are often lost in the cacophony. The experience features three singers, eight dancers and a five-piece band, plus some superb video work. In fact, it is the videography that carries, and almost steals, the show. The choreography is fun and nicely inventive while also clearly referencing the era. The costuming is terrific in numbers such as "China Girl" and then just becomes weirdly distracting on other occasions. There were some moments that hit the mark like "Rebel Rebel" and others that missed it like...
Full Details »

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ★★★★ Almeida Theatre | Dec 10, 2024 - Feb 1, 2025

Image
Big Daddy's birthday is a night to remember! There are some strong performances in Tennessee Williams' classic, but it does seem like an unnecessarily drawn out affair. Daisy Edgar-Jones takes on the role of Maggie the cat, and she does a lot of cat-like crawling to make sure we get it. She is matched in these feline frolics by Seb Carrington who plays the ghost of Skipper, the real love of Maggie's husband, Brick. However, the constant stage presence of Skipper's spirit does seem an unnecessarily heavy-handed way of reminding us of his haunting importance. While Edgar-Jones' portrayal manages to wring a lot of the fury and frustration out of the role of Maggie, her scenes with husband, Brick, played by Kingsley Ben-Adir, never quite rise to the emotional intensity of his interaction with Big Daddy in Act II. It is notoriously difficult to play drunk, and Ben-Adir does so in a masterful performance that is wonderfully understated. His searing, soul-baring, exchanges...
Full Details »

Macbeth ★★★★ Donmar Theatre | Cinemas from February 5, 2025

Image
If you missed the Donmar Warehouse's ground-breaking production of Macbeth with the incomparable David Tennant and a wonderful Cush Jumbo, it is now coming to the cinema screen. Tennant's Macbeth roars and rages, and Jumbo's Lady Macbeth is seductively sinister. Both actors put in compelling performances that are satisfyingly supported by Benny Young's sensitive Duncan, Cal MacAninch's steadfast Banquo and Noof Ousellam's steely Macduff. Part of the power of the original production was the use of binaural headphones to channel the sounds of the play and create an immersive involvement that, unfortunately, is largely lost in this cinematic version. Nevertheless, the performances shine, and we were captivated by Jumbo's purring persuasiveness and terrified by Tennant's ruthless ambition. The decision to project the voices of the witches as they echo in Macbeth's mind works exquisitely to heighten the eeriness of the situation, but the decision to rewr...
Full Details »

The City Life Magazine | Reviews & Ratings