Stuart King
16 Feb
Reviews 
Review: DEAR OCTOPUS at National Theatre Lyttelton
By Stuart King Friday, February 16 2024, 09:35
Dodie Smith’s 1938 between-the-wars family drama is set at the rustic middle-class home of the Randolph family, where several generations have gathered to celebrate Dora and Charles’ golden wedding anniversary. On Frankie Bradshaw’s wonderful, pastel-jade revolving set complete with real smoking fires (who knew such things were possible on a theatre stage in these modern safety-conscious times?), the family pervades an air of stoic calm in the face of minor and not-so-minor familial irritations, as another European conflict seems imminent.
Dharmesh Patel (Kenneth), Ariella Elkins-Green (Flouncy), Billy Howle (Nicholas), Isla Ithier (Scrap) and Amy Morgan (Margery) in Dear Octopus at the National Theatre (c) Marc Brenner
15 Feb
Reviews
Review: NELKEN - A PIECE BY PINA BAUSCH at Sadler’s Wells
By Stuart King Thursday, February 15 2024, 11:55
Last seen at Sadler’s Wells in 2005, NELKEN is steeped in dance history and leans on a veritable smorgasbord of music drawn from the 1930s and 1940s. The eagle-eared will recognise, Richard Tauber, Gershwin, Franz Lehar and Sophie Tucker accompanying the troupe of over 20 performers as they deliver the walking dance which depicts the four seasons.
Nelken - credit Oliver Look- Luciény Kaabral, Andrey Berezin, Alexander López Guerra
06 Feb
Reviews
Review: JEFFREY BERNARD IS UNWELL at The Coach and Horses, Greek Street
By Stuart King Tuesday, February 6 2024, 09:08
More than 30 years have elapsed since this reviewer last witnessed a production of JEFFREY BERNARD IS UNWELL. On that occasion, Peter O’Toole played the eponymous Soho hack with a propensity for drunkenness and scandalous behaviour. So, how has this bizarrely incongruous beast, weathered the intervening decades? Read on…
05 Feb
Reviews
Review: TILL THE STARS COME DOWN at National Theatre, Dorfman
By Stuart King Monday, February 5 2024, 12:33
In a post-industrial East Midlands town where the largest employer was once the coal mines but is now a warehouse, three sisters prepare for the wedding of one of their number to a Polish immigrant. The scene is primed to unveil a gamut of familiar tropes — class disenchantment, resentment of immigrants, decades-old family feuds and of course the appalling spectacle of drunken wedding dancing en masse. But Beth Steel's caustic family drama also has some unexpected skeletons in its closet, and the excellent cast seem hell-bent on freeing them.
Sinéad Matthews (Sylvia), Lisa McGrillis (Maggie), Philip Whitchurch (Uncle Pete), Lorraine Ashbourne (Aunty Carol) and Lucy Black (Hazel) in Till the Stars Come Down at the National Theatre. Photo (c) Manuel Harlan
22 Jan
Reviews
Review: CRUEL INTENTIONS at The Other Palace
By Stuart King Monday, January 22 2024, 21:47
A pair of cynical step-siblings (arrogant jock and bitchy beauty) exude a barely suppressed sexual tension leading to unsavoury competitiveness. The result is a bet between the two which essentially determines which of them has the greatest capacity to deceive and manipulate. When it comes to victims, the many naive and unworldly attendees of the affluent school they attend, provide rich pickings.
Cruel Intentions - Pamela Raith Photography
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