Category: Theatre

  • Grimeborn: Alternative Opera at the Arcola Theatre

    The bar at Arcola Theatre, an exellent place for a glass of wine before the show. (You can take it in with you.) We love the Arcola Theatre, London’s most vibrant and ambitious alternative theatre. It’s up in Dalston, a maelstrom of multicultural life, once an area of dubious repute, but now verging on getting…

  • “The Beaux’ Stratagem” at the National Theatre

    National Theatre, London “The Beaux’ Stratagem” is usually thought of as a late example of Restoration Comedy, and that’s how I was thinking of it as we entered the Olivier. I didn’t know the play, but I was ready for a saucy, boisterous romp. It took a little while before I adjusted to its more…

  • “A Number” at the Young Vic

    Opera Singer Busking at Blackfriars Bridge The Young Vic is just a stroll east from the Old Vic, along the street called The Cut. (The two theatres have no connection with each other, by the way.) We like the Young Vic very well, for its adventurous programming and its pleasant and affordable cafe. So it…

  • Ensemble theatre company Idle Motion: Shooting with Light

    Shooting with Light. Photo by Richard Davenport Our biggest surprise in our recent London theatre binge was a production by an ensemble company called Idle Motion, at a small space called the New Diorama Theatre near Euston Station. The play was Shooting with Light, “devised, written and directed collaboratively by Grace, Sophie, Nathan, Ellie, Juian…

  • Arcola Theatre: Shrapnel

    Arcola studio 1 Our first night in London this visit: we’ve slept off our red-eye flight jet lag, and it’s time to get out! Why not go to our favorite alternative theatre, the Arcola, in wonderful, multicultural Dalston? Dinner first at the Mangal Turkish restaurant, lamb spare ribs (yum) and then a short walk to…

  • Learie Mc Nicolls in Transformation at Artword Artbar

    Learie McNicolls in Transformation at Artword Artbar Learie Mc Nicolls confronts the demons of poverty, violence and fear in his powerful new work, Transformation: a Journey of the Soul’s Healing, at Artword Artbar, March 25 and 26, 2015, at 9:00 pm. An Artword Theatre production, directed by Ronald Weihs, Transformation combines dance, spoken word, soundscape…