Seat Plan – a glance through the website

Theatre websites are two a penny today – bloggers commenting on theatre shows they see and review; publications discussing the theatrical landscape; marketing websites that offer you discount theatre tickets to the country’s hottest venues. Some people may find the sheer number of theatre-based conversations occurring a bit daunting, but I personally am a huge fan. The more we can discuss, highlight and note the plethora of talent in the industry that connects to its audience in a far more visceral way than TV or Film ever can, is all good in my book.

Review: Sex Worker’s Opera

This cabaret-style show has energy, passion and emotion in spades. It’s not a slick production; it doesn’t shine with bells and whistles, or a complex, sharply written narrative with intertwining, overarching themes and artistic devices. Some of the voices in Sex Worker’s Opera are strong, others lack diction or volume or musicality. But, this show is raw, real and exposed. This is how we should be tackling subjects that are so commonly thought of as taboo.

Review: Bad Roads

The pine tree design by Camilla Clarke provides a subtle serenity, juxtaposing the trauma of war in Bad Roads – a series of sparsely connected stories by Natal’ya Vorozhbit around her home country of Ukraine. Six scenes paint the picture, not only of soldiers disenfranchised in a time of civil unrest, but of the women caught up amid the horror and heartache that represents the fallout from the fighting. Vicky Featherstone’s powerful direction supports the actors’ portrayal – a constant rollercoaster of dynamic volume that nevertheless fails to consistently galvanise Vorozhbit’s overall conceptual picture.

Review: We Are The Lions, Mr. Manager

This is the story of Jayaben Desai, the 1976-78 Grunwick strike instigator who walked out of the North-West London factory in support of a sacked co-worker, uttering the memorable phrase, We Are The Lions, Mr. Manager. Neil Gore’s retelling of this story is one equally full of passion and guts; one which honours and pays homage to a poignant moment in socialist history, in a decade when striking was the only way for the working class to be heard. But, for all its ferocity and righteousness, this production does not conjure the same level of heightened emotion needed to effectively paint a picture of the struggle that the strikers faced.

Review: Three Mothers

Three Mothers, each with three stories; three relationships with their children; three reflections on their sense of belonging, of home – more specifically, on migration. One is a mother who sends her son away for a better life; one who herself returns to where she grew up; one is running away from her homeland to her motherland with her precious babe.