Spectators expecting to receive an interpretation of Richard Foreman’s Pain(t) might be utterly disappointed, as this play is intended to be entirely devoid of meaning. This is by admission of Patrick Kennedy, the creative mind behind this European premiere of Foreman’s 1974 play, which is part of a triple bill, celebrating the author’s 50th anniversary of theatrical engagement. In 70 minutes a number of scenes follow each other, connected merely by the recurrence of the same characters. Each vignette revolves ...

Feed presents the surreal and dangerous of online life - high melodrama rather than social critique.”

It’s 1942 in a transit camp in Holland. Four Jewish detainees make up the camp’s concert party: impresario Victor (Lloyd Morris), dancer Anna (Faye Maghan), her sister Millie (Eloise Jones) and Anna’s lover Peter (Nick Devallé). When Millie discovers that their sick mother, Ette (Cate Morris), has been put on the notorious Tuesday List for transportation to a concentration camp the sisters form a plan of action: to ingratiate themselves with the camp’s commandant, Conrad (Mike Duran), in order to ...

Having connected online, a pretty young man (Thomas Flynn) and a bulky older guy (Antony Gabriel) meet for an unsuccessful sexual encounter. Then the pretty boy plays a strip game with a friend (and lover?) who tries to discourage him from moving to London to attend art school. Next, at art school we find pretty boy enamoured of an older student (Joseph Rowe) who’s about to abandon him to study in Paris. And so it rolls on… At first I ...

Entering the small space to the sound of gunfire we saw all four cast members on stage in poses hinting at their roles to come.  Some of the audience seating was a bit wobbly, but it was a short production and engrossing enough to detract from any discomfort.  Firstly, new teenage mother Leanne (Anna Hallas Smith) is being interviewed about her three day old baby son, Jax.  The interviewer (David Leik) is from DOLCO -Department of Life Choice Options – ...

Reminds us that the world can be such a wonderful place.

For Plays, three identical urns contain a man, his wife and his mistress as they relive their perspectives of the affair in rapid and eccentric fashion. It’s quirky, and so off the wall, but also captivating and charming. Three actors hide inside futuristic yet simple egg-pod like compost bins, with only their heads visible as they reel off Play’s dialogue. That everyone is covered in dusky blue paint, with unexplained aquatic-type scales adhering to their skin, provides an unplaceable yet otherworldly ...

A bare footed lady, head to foot in black, slowly walks from behind us to the stage. It’s a compelling sight to open any play. But it’s not the first thing that stands out for Everything Theatre’s first visit to Ram Jam Records in Kingston. Before the show even starts there is the delight of discovering this venue, hidden away behind the Grey Horse Pub, just a couple of minutes’ walk from both bus and train stations. For a lover of good ...

Drag theatre is an increasingly broad church and here it is used to serious political effect at Omnibus Theatre’s 96 Festival of queer theatre, which celebrates the iconic 1996 Pride party on nearby Clapham Common.  The drag, for fans, delivers. Lip syncing, pop covers, gay culture references (including a welcome nod to Kenneth Williams), fan dances and wounded glamour are all present and correct.  Everything looks divine too. Sam Wilde and Elizabeth Harper’s set design, in a reconfigured Omnibus auditorium, is ...

Mark (Sam Frenchum) is from a typical East End family, working class to the core.  Except Mark has gone off the rails with too many drugs, and has been kicked out of the family home.  After the death of his dad his mum (Sarah Finigan) wants him home, because after all, family is everything and it’s his duty to be at the front of the funeral; people have to see him there to show the family strength.  The problem is ...