Tag: Theatre

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Reliving Old Times & starting New Times One Step at a Time. (& Lego Dinos)

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of re-meeting a playwright I first met and worked with over 10 years ago; all with the power of Zoom. They were across the other side of the world, but we chatted about plays, film making, books, politics, life and their current plans for a play. Yes, I hope in the future to tell you more about their play, but for now the background work is continuing.

I know “contractually” I’m meant to constantly do the PR / Marketing of my career- it’s the bright and shiny demands of being in the Arts, but realistically that not always possible. The truth is a lot of what I do is in the shadows and can only be brought to the light when it’s entirely ready. So yes, I’m currently in post production of a short film directed in November of 2025, I’m sweating buckets as I write pitches for shows that may or may not happen and missing making live theatre badly. I’m obviously not a natural blogger but when I have something to show, I promise to share.

On a completely unrelated note, Reading had Lego Dino Trail over the summer and it made me very happy. So here’s a few photos of it.

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And now for little bit of extra…

In the background, in between rehearsals of few other projects and Stray Dogs (which sold out at the Bread & Roses. Thanks!!), I have been working on making a monologue to camera. We began working on it in April. It’s not a film, more digital theatre but admit it was always planned to be filmed. It was also really good to be behind a camera and get it in the bag. I filmed it with Ashleigh Loeb in on Friday night and with magic of editing you can watch it now ( link below )

It’s called A Stepmother Speaks. Jayne has definite views on Stepmothers and she’s insistent you hear her out. Why?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HoNx5UHxnac&t=50s

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Bright Choices of 2018 Theatre

So here I’m again, blogging like I promised. Yes a bit delayed. Life took a turn to the hard and rocky road. Family, loss, grief & the admin that goes round that. But delayed isn’t the same as not going ahead- so theatre / live events I saw in 2018 (in the order of recall) :

1) Fun Home (musical at Young Vic)
2) A Monster Calls (play at Old Vic)
3) Wise Children (play at Oxford Playhouse)
4) An Octoroon (play at National Theatre)
5) Amadeus (play at National Theatre)
6) Rasheeda Speaking (play at Trafalgar Studios)
7) Shabeen (play at Theatre Royal Stratford East)
8) Chicago (musical in West End)
9) Iolanthe (opera at ENO)
10) Play about a Bank Robbery (play in West End)
11) The Sweet Science of Bruising (play at Southwark Playhouse)
12) Girls and Boys (play at Royal Court)
13) Dick Whittington and His Cat (Panto at Oxford Playhouse)

A) Daniel Kitson work in progress (stand up at Bill Murray pub)
B) A Comedy Cottage stand up (multiple stand ups at Harlequin Theatre)
C) ShakeItUp improv (comedy Shakespeare improv at Ram Jam Records)
D) Bill Bailey Larks in Transit (stand up at New Wimbledon Theatre)
E) An Evening with Brian Blessed (talk at The Anvil)

So top 5 out of the 13 plays is…(DRUM ROLL!):

1) Girls and Boys by Dennis Kelly. Dir: Lyndsey Turner. One woman play with Cary Mulligan. Ohh wow. Writing, performance & directing. I didn’t regret the subsequent bad and long journey I had on the way back from the theatre. This is high praise! Yes it made me sad and mad at world, but that was it’s aim.

2) Fun Home. Music by Jeanine Tesori, Book & Lyrics by Lisa Kron. Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. Dir: Sam Gold. I’m not often a big fan of musicals. More because I’m fussy – I want them to contain triple threats and be great at all levels. That’s a big ask so… Fun Home was and is fab. Unusual too – lesbian protagonist etc.

3) Iolanthe by Gilbert & Sullivan. Dir: Cal McCrystal. Yeah, I wasn’t expecting to adore this one either, but it was so playful, colourful and joyous. Also not racist. Win!

4) Dick Whittington and His Cat by & dir: Steve Marmion. Yep, Panto was the totally on the mark. Funny, bright & bit bawdy. The children couldn’t get enough of it. I have also seen two other Panto’s since & it still won out by a long shot – even against Paul Merton’s Widow Twanky (in Aladdin at New Wimbledon Theatre) which was good.

5) Shabeen by Mufaro Makubika. Dir: Matthew Xia. Now the play isn’t perfect- in terms of plot – but the dialogue, characters, even the music, acting and direction telling a story about the Windrush Generation kept me engrossed. I cried a little.

I haven’t favourited any of the stand up, because I enjoy it all equally and frankly I got spoilt last year in my few but excellent choices. Though Brian Blessed is still MY NUMBER ONE!

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Half a blog & a mince pie or two.

I made a promise to you, that I would make an effort to blog fairly regularly. Yesterday, in full ‘ Ok, I keep promises mode’ I drafted a fairly long post on my 2018 – what I saw, my favourites and things I worked on. Then the phone I was writing on rang, I answered & talked etc. I hung up and noticed the entire post was gone! A lot of swearing happened. I ate a few mince pies & had a cup of tea. I wrote it again, but it was… dull. The inspiration had gone, so today I give you:

I saw this year; 12 plays, 1 Opera, 3 stand up comedy events, 1 Improv night, & 1 Brian Blessed (An Evening with BB). Obviously Brian Blessed is his own category & he won that by miles and he certainly topped some of the others too. Thinking on my other favourites.

I will come back ASAP with my favourites. Until then Merry Christmas! ???