On stage at the National Theatre's smaller venue they have recreated with incredible artistry what it would be like to live in some ghastly holding facility whilst you wait for council accommodation this Christmas.
Under harsh neon lights we watch a family of 4, with another child on the way, who have been made homeless by a greedy landlord and are now experiencing life in a tiny room next door to an incontinent old lady and her psychologically fragile son. They all use the same cheerless communal kitchen area shared with other residents and this space is our central focus, with the bedrooms and the one toilet, used by everyone, leading off of it.
As it begins to get colder and darker this December, English National Ballet’s Nutcracker is a refreshing reminder of festivity and warmth. However, despite some fantastic performances, the production felt slightly muddled.
This year’s pantomime from Theatre Royal Stratford East SINBAD THE SAILOR offers quite an altered version of a well-known Middle Eastern tale. But whilst the plot changes offer a new perspective on the story and the performances are of a top quality, SINBAD THE SAILOR doesn’t carry the spirit of a great panto and instead gets muddled in its lack of a clear message and directions.
As I got up from my seat at the interval the word I kept hearing around me as the audience filed out to the bar was "lovely" and that one word summation is a pretty good description of the Menier Chocolate Factory's Christmas Show.
Alone on a brightly lit stage for an hour and fifteen minutes Mark Lockyer bravely relates his real-life, horrific descent into manic depression, which resulted in the attempted incineration of an entire building of vulnerable people. It’s the stuff of nightmares, even of horror films.