Theatre, Reviews and Anna Millar

Some Small Love Story

A gem with a young but talented cast

23 Aug 2011

Theatrical tales about love – particularly love lost – can so easily be overly saccharine, lacking the depth and sentiment to truly engage. Not so here. Stripped back simplicity is to the fore, as four excellent young performers reveal two great love…

Eight

Eight beautifully-written stories impressively told

23 Aug 2011

A selection of eight stories are impressively told here in monologue rotation. Among them are grieving art gallery owner Andre, Bobby, a struggling single Mum and Jude, a well-to-do lad coming of age on foreign shores. Ella Hickson’s characters are…

Doris Day Can F**k Off

Musical one-man experiment

23 Aug 2011

The concept for Greg McLaren’s show should certainly be applauded: for a number of weeks he went round the UK communicating to people through song, taping his experience as he went. Accompanied by a sound deck, guitar and gold lame jacket, this is the…

An Instinct for Kindness

Dignitas tale told with dignity

17 Aug 2011

Last year, Chris Larner accompanied his ex-wife Allyson to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland and watched as she drank a liquid that would swiftly end her life. Here, with just a simple chair as a prop, Larner recounts the days, weeks and years leading…

From the Fire

Tightly directed show based on New York’s Triangle Factory Fire of 1911

14 Aug 2011

There is some formidable talent at play in this tightly directed show, telling the story of New York’s Triangle Factory Fire of 1911, in which hundreds perished due to poor working conditions. Although set 100 years ago, the themes resonate today, as…

Shhh: The Musical

Enthusiasm let down by unoriginal script and forgettable songs

8 Aug 2011

There is little doubting the enthusiasm of this young cast, as they do their best with a ‘romcom’ script about finding love in a bookshop. Sadly their energy is largely wasted on a script lacking in originality and punch. The characters are roundly…

Minute After Midday

Pared-down performance based on Omagh bombing

8 Aug 2011

Pared-down performances resonate here as three very different stories are told, in overlapping monologues, from the day the Omagh bombing devastated Ireland. A young survivor, a widow, and the driver who left the car bomb on Lower Market Street, relive…

Toulouse-Lautrec: The Musical

Japanese one-man show dedicated but lacking in pace and musical gravitas

8 Aug 2011

Toulouse Lautrec’s life was a colourful one, worthy of musical exploration, and this Japanese company’s dedication is admirable, in a one-man show, helmed by Japanese performer/songwriter Jun Sawaki. But while Sawaki undoubtedly offers his all to the…

Über Hate Gang

Explosive and well executed play on terrorism

23 Aug 2010

The audience become (un)willing members of a terrorist act in this well-executed play, as the Über Hate Gang plan to blow up the theatre. A slightly meandering start gives way to some explosive confrontations as personal rifts and deeply hidden secrets…

Speechless

Giving voice to a powerful story

17 Aug 2010

As the familiar strains of ‘Jerusalem’ play out, a pair of twins, June and Jennifer, emerge onto the stage. Unable to find a language to communicate with the outside world they are almost silent, speaking only to each other, creating a fantasy world in…

The Man Who Was Thursday

Injects some far-fetched fun into a light-hearted romp

14 Aug 2010

This young, enthusiastic company injects some far-fetched fun into a light-hearted romp about the war on terror, in a noughties reimagining of the original novel by GK Chesterton. A cheeky wink to the left-not-knowing-what-the-right-hand’s doing is…

Elsie and Mairi Go to War

High on initial interest but short on the requisite drama

14 Aug 2010

This well-acted tale follows two heroines of WWI dispatched to Belgium as ambulance drivers. Using extracts from the women’s diaries and contemporary press interviews, the play is adapted from a book by Diane Atkinson, who here ill-advisedly narrates…

More Light Please

In search of further illumination

9 Aug 2010

The emotional and economic reality of emigration is fertile ground for theatre, and More Light Please provides another addition to the canon with its story of young Natalia moving from Poland to Dublin in search of a better life. The scene is set in…

Wolf is a innovative and well-imagined piece of theatre

Engaging exploration of human/wolf relations

9 Aug 2010

The audience heads into the Caves with a growing sense of trepidation. We’ve been told that the ‘wolves’ may want to touch, move or smell us. We’ve been told we should let them. We should also make ourselves comfortable; we’ll be standing…

Rain Man

19 Nov 2009

It’s a pleasant surprise to see how successfully Dan Gordon’s theatre adaptation of the screen classic starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman translates to the stage. The tale of city slicker Charlie Babbitt’s relationship with his long-lost…

Words with AL Kennedy

Meanders delightfully

25 Aug 2009

AL Kennedy proves herself a consummate storyteller in this sharp meditation on the power of words. A largely autobiographical look at her love affair with language, Kennedy meanders delightfully from paranoia about her recent Costa award win through her…

Almost Like a Virgin

Strikes an impressive pose

19 Aug 2009

The problem with pretending to be someone else is that there’s always a chance the audience will want more of them and less of you. This ode to the Queen of Pop is a case in point. Madge impersonator Evelyne Brink strikes an impressive pose as she belts…

King Ubu

Playfully robust take on power and its outrageous (mis)fortunes

12 Aug 2009

Runaground theatre adapts Alfred Jarry’s absurdist masterpiece, setting the scene for the rise and fall of their greedy protagonist against the inspired backdrop of a vaudeville theatre. A talented ensemble cast shamelessly over-plays it, capturing with…

Catwalk Confidential

70s fashion icon Robyn Peterson

10 Aug 2009

Talent-spotted by Valentino aged 14, 70s fashion icon Robyn Paterson jumped a plane from Miami to Paris in search of fame and fortune. While a familiarity with the lifestyle of 00s glitterati makes the shock value of this well-heeled one-woman show a…

I am Robert Mugabe

11 Aug 2008

Al Carretta is so fascinated by Robert Mugabe he’s writen two shows about the Zimbabwean despot, as Anna Millar discovers. The late, great George Bernard Shaw wrote: ‘We learn from history that we learn nothing from history.’ Never was a truer word…