#Theatre #Review By Lou of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel By #DeborahMoggach #HaleyMills #RulaLenska #AndyDeLaTour #ShilaIbqual #NishadMore #PaulNicholas #TheBestExoticMarigoldHotel #TheatreRoyalGlasgow #UKTour #2022Tour #2023Tour

Review of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
By Deborah Moggach.

Based on the film, my heart soared with joy from start to finish when watching the stage version at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, Scotland. It is still touring and will into 2023. Find out more about the cast and my review below.

Review

Based on the film, The Best Exotic Marigold is stunning on stage. I saw it at the Theatre Royal In Glasgow. It is touring into next year. The cast is amazing. There is isn’t a single one who isn’t a strong member. I admit, I hesitated when I saw this was being made into a theatre play because I loved the films so much, but when the cast list appeared, I knew I had to give it a go and I also knew I may never see Haley Mills and Rula Lenska on stage again in this play, in Scotland. It is exciting that this is doing a tour before it even reaches London’s West End. That is so wonderful because it gives so many places a chance of seeing it now, instead of waiting. I love the Westend I hasten to add, but I often find this a genius way of doing theatre.
But, was the play good and my attraction to the storyline still there in my heart and soul?

The play was everything I had hoped for an more. Rula Lenska brought wit and glamour, Haley Mills brought charm, Shila Iqbal and Nishad More and Andy De La Tour played their parts with aplomb too and RekhaThe rest of the cast were also just as fabulous.

By and large it followed the film well and cleverly added updated references to means of communication, such as mentioning Zoom and in someways the highlighting to how the UK treat their elderly and comparing it to India was even more striking and also updated to reflect a bit of the political sphere.

There was humour, warmth and charm and everything the film has in droves and in some ways , certain points made and certain bits of humour was sharper, quicker. All eyes were on this fabulous cast. It was a cast of sheer skill as the cast made the audience feel involved, don’t mistaken this as an audience participation thing, it isn’t that, it was a hand gesture, a look, a sentence. I was captivated from start to finish.

The set was creative and awe inspiring for the hotel and it was ingenious to then become the call centre at various points.

This is a play I recommend you book if you can. It’s amazing and will remain in my heart and soul for a very long time.

The play is on a 2022/2023 tour in the UK.

#TheatreReview By Lou of The Dresser By Ronald Harwood Directed By Terry Johnson @captheatres #Terry Johnson #MatthewKelly #SamualHolmes #Review

The Dresser
By Ronald Harwood
Directed by Terry Johnson
Rated: 5 stars

I went to see The Dresser at The King’s Theatre in Edinburgh (Capital Theatres) on Saturday. It was packed of theatre-goers and no wonder. The cast and play was superb in this memorable, not going to leave you play. Ever since I saw the film version of The Dresser I had hoped it would be on stage. It, of course, with its subject matters, lends itself perfectly to actually being staged. This stage version is poignant, mesmorising, sad, funny and acted amazingly. Find out more about it below, including the rest of my no spoilers review.

The Cast

Matthew Kelly as Sir
Samual Holmes as The Dresser (understudy for Julian Clary for the day I saw this)
Emma Amos as Her Ladyship
Rebecca Charles as Madge
Natalie Servat as Irene
Pip Donaghy as Geoffrey
Robert Shaw Cameron as Kent
Peter Yapp as Gloucester
Stephen Cavanagh as Albany
Claire Jester and Michaela Bennison as the ensemble

Inspired by memories of working as Donald Wolfit’s dresser as a young man, Ronald Harwood’s evocative, affectionate and hilarious portrait of backstage life is one of the most acclaimed dramas of modern theatre.

Olivier award-winner, Matthew Kelly stars as an ageing actor-manager, known to his loyal acting company as ‘Sir’, who is struggling to cling on to his sanity and complete his two hundred and twenty seventh performance of King Lear.

Julian Clary (replaced by Samual Holmes due to illness for the day I saw this), stars as Norman, Sir’s devoted dresser who ensures that in spite of everything, the show goes on. For sixteen years Norman has been there to fix Sir’s wig, massage his ego, remind him of his opening lines and provide the sound effects in the storm scene.

Review

The Dresser takes place behind the scenes of the theatre during the war. The parts the general audience do not see. The portrayal is pretty accurate, there are attitudes, egos, tenderness and confidences. These and the memory loss (on-set dementia), was also portrayed perfectly by Matthew Kelly. The play gives great insight to behind the scenes moments into the life of a dresser and the relationship between the dresser and the actor.

The play has great poignancy and sadness, with some humour for those who perhaps recognise what is really going on and lived through such moments.

Matthew Kelly as Sir (the principle actor) plays lots of Shakespearan characters, that’s what he is known for. The decline in health is evident as he tries to remember his lines for King Lear and the frustration shows. His dresser, played by Samual Holmes had to take a lot of the flack, but the intensity of the relationship was evident. After seeing Matthew Kelly in The Habit of Art online as Covid and lockdowns struck in 2020, I was looking forward to seeing him in-person on stage and he was every bit as excellent as I thought he would be, even with a very different part.
Matthew Kelly and Samual Holmes in The Dresser were evenly matched and so charasmatic and both played their parts with aplomb!

This has now finished in Edinburgh, but if you ever get a chance to see this amazing play, I highly recommend it. This is a play I would happily see again and the company was fabulous!

#TheatreReview by Lou – A Cold Supper Behind Harrods @OriginalTheatre #DavidMorley #PhilipFranks #DavidJason #StephanieCole #AntonLesser #TheatrePlay

A Cold Supper Behind Harrods
By David Morley
Directed by Philip Franks
An Original Theatre Production

Innovative, Dramatic and wonderfully acted – I highly recommend A Cold Supper Behind Harrods. If you eer see this for a theatre near you or ever online again, I recommend you see it. When I saw this was going to be online, I just knew I had to buy a ticket and I wasn’t disappointed.
Here you can delve into the synopsis and further into the play and why it is so interesting, and I don’t just mean the plot…

Synopsis

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Fifty years after the war that brought them together, three Special Operations Executive agents meet to record interviews for a television documentary.

As Leo, Vera and John wait to be interviewed in a beautiful English garden, drinking tea and doing the crossword, pleasantries give way to deeper darker subjects. A web of self-deception, lies and guilt begins to emerge. Only when all three are about to leave for London in a taxi, for “a cold supper behind Harrods” does the disturbing truth emerge.

David Morley’s heart-stopping play stars national treasure and 4-time BAFTA Award-winner David Jason, Stephanie Cole and Anton Lesser with Saffron Coomber and Lucy Doyle.

Produced by the award-winning Original Theatre Company, whose recent successes include hit online productions of Birdsong and The Haunting of Alice Bowles and stage productions including the five-star revival of Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art.

Review

This was unusual and yet very interesting. The play was online and yet not just live, but in a theatre and those online were the audience. Cast came on with their scripts, but there was, amazingly, actual scenery and haunting imagery, that shown wonderful technical skill.

It started with conversation between the writer and director and ended with Q&A session that the online audience could participate in, with the 3 main actors involved in this.

What was fascinating was, because in a sense, it was done in quite a raw fashion, as a hybrid of theatre and radio play in a way, it allowed people to see even more of a purity in the inner workings of how actors work as they came on with their scripts. It wasn’t quite a reading, it was more than that and was fully acted out. There were some stumbles, but with so little time to rehearse, this seasoned cast did remarkably well and those moments really did not matter. It added something quite refreshing and the play just kept carrying on. This was just because instead of weeks of rehearsal, they had a day or two. So, no mean feat! There was a bit of a sense of comaraderie amongst them, which is heartwarming. All of the cast, but especially David Jason, Stephanie Cole and Anton Lesser were amazing and it was so good and exciting to see them on stage in a play.

The plot itself was intriguing. We all hear about war heroes or those that started wars, but rarely, to almost never hear of those who weren’t war heroes, but those, in that gap in history, as it were, who seem like ordinary men in wartimes, doing something that later comes back to haunt them. That’s what this play shows with great thought and consideration. David Jason’s character is convincingly a figment of the author’s clever imagination. Stephanie Cole’s and Anton Lesser’s characters were based on real people. Stephanie Coomber and Lucy Doyle were excellent supporting cast, but nevertheless, with important parts.

The play took its twists and turns into their personalities and lives and bit by bit, like droplets of water that get bigger and bigger, the web of lies comes out, until its pouring with deceipt about what had happened to a woman during the war. The technology to portray this woman every so often was expertly done, just enough to show her and depict the memory of her still lingering, still haunting. It all ends in a terrific crescendo and “revenge is best served cold”. When it does come to its conclusion, it may well stay, grasping you and swirling round your mind after it has finished.

If you ever see this play at a theatre, I highly recommend it. I hope that one day this and other plays from The Original Theatre Company tour to each nation in the UK. They are producing some stunning theatre. This performance was online from the Oxford Playhouse Theatre.

#Review by Lou of Love In The Wood – 5 stars for the entertaining play (still available) by William Wycherley, Directed by Hermione Guiliford @hermy1G @JSTheatre #theatre #TheShowMustGoOn #YouTube

Love In A Wood
By William Wycherley
Rated: 5 stars *****

Love In A Wood is a great night in! There is humour, intrigue, romance and jealousy in this entertaining play with a terrific cast from stage and TV. It premiered on Sunday 31st January and is available for a week. Find out more below in the plot and then my review. Throughout, you can also find the link.

Love In The Wood is a free online reading of a 1671 comedy by William Wycherley (The Country Wife), conceived and directed by Hermione Gulliford, is performed in aid of Equity Charitable Trust, supporting industry professionals in need of urgent assistance. There is an opton to donate on Just Giving.

Discover more about it in the plot and then you will come across my full review.

You Tube Link: Love In A Wood

THE PLOT

Lady Flippant wants a husband, while pretending not to, with her eyes on Dapperwit. Sir Simon Addleplot’s looking for a wife with a fortune, eying up Mrs Martha. Valentine only has eyes for Christina, but is jealous of everyone. Ranger has his eye on anyone, playing fast with his love, Lydia. And Vincent only has eyes on anyone if it’s in the dark. The night is young, and never has there been a better time for frolics and fun in the wood. —————- LOVE IN A WOOD By William Wycherley Directed by Hermione Gulliford STARRING Jo Stone-Fewings as Mr Ranger James Anderson as Mr Vincent Danny Sapani as Mr Valentine Ian Gelder as Alderman Gripe Nicholas Le Prevost as Sir Simon Addleplot Paul Chahidi as Mr Dapperwit Christopher Chung as Mrs Crossbite’s landlord, a waiter & servant Nancy Carroll as Christina Lorna Brown as Lydia Linda Bassett as Lady Flippant Ellie Fanyinka as Mrs Martha Debbie Chazen as Mrs Joiner Hermione Gulliford as Mrs Crossbite Shaofan Wilson as Miss Lucy May Walker as Isabel Jules Melvin as Leonore Stage Managed by Lou Ballard Edited by Daniel Morley-Fletcher.

You Tube Link: Love In A Wood

Review

Love In A Wood is a delightfully entertaining play in 5 Acts with a 15 minute interval. There is also a lovely surprise from the cast during part of that time.

You get a wonderful feel for who the characters are at the start to read about and then the cast come on. It clearly and ingeniously states character names as people come on and the setting for each act and scene.

It’s brilliant and witty and technically it works well with what they’ve got. It’s a wonderful script and one which I was not familiar of, but that’s one of the beauties of the arts. There are opportunities to explore something different.
The cast speak as though they were in character and on a stage. The characterisation of the households is sublimely played out.
You cleverly only see each character at the time you need to ie not all at once, which works so well and seems theatrical, even on screen. The timing from them all is perfect in all aspects, from comedic timing to when they appear on screen, to passing on coins. It would be no mean feat, but is expertly done and is so well directed by Hermione Guilliford.

Acts in St. James Park, has some lovely sound effects to suggest so. There are occasionally some props and inventive ways to create scenery and costume – pretty impressive for such times. The timely period music is used to great effect between scenes.

There’s some gossip and passing on information and some scandal to be had, which has some intrigue to see what happens next. Throughout they are able to create some changes of atmosphere from humour, to a bit of seriousness and trepidation to more comedy and the energy given, even in a reading is brilliant!

It is above all, such an enjoyable, entertaining Restoration Play that is well worth a look.

You Tube Link: Love In A Wood

#Review of Anno Domino By Alan Ayckbourn – Observational Audio Play at its best – rated 5 stars @Ayckbourn @thesjt #Play #LockDownTheatre #AnnoDomino

Anno Domino
By Alan Ayckbourn
Rated: 5 stars *****
Available Now Until 25th June

After listening to Anno Domino, I decided I would write a review for it. Discover the cast, synposis and review, then at the bottom, the link where you too can listen in this fabulous play. There are also captioned productions available. The Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, does ask that if you would like to donate, then feel free to.

This is an online theatrical treat to behold, which is an online exclusive for The Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, intorduced by Paul Robinson, the Artistic Director Not only is the play written and directed by Alan Ayckbourn, but it is also starring him alongside his wife, actor Helen Stoney. They play 8 characters ranging from 18 to their mid 70s. It marks Alan’s return to professional acting 56 years after his first stage performance. Since then he has written and directed plays such as:

Ten Times Table Life of Riley Seasons Greetings
Bedroom Farce The Norman Conquests Birthdays Past, Birthdays Present
and many more

This, however, is a momentous occasion as it is the first time Alan Ayckbourn has acted, written and directed in the same show.

Heather Stoney is known for shows such as:

Z Cars Raw Meat Masquerade and more…

Play List of characters and cast

Alan Ayckbourn plays Ben, Craig, Razz (Raymond) and Sam
Heather Stoney plays Ella, Martha, Cinny and Milly
Stephen Joseph Theatre Production

Synopsis

Sam and Milly are gathering the family together for their 25th wedding anniversary dinner at their favourite local bistro.

They’ll be joined there by Sam’s parents, Ben and Ella; his sister, Martha, and her new partner, Craig, and Martha’s son Raz. Also present – and she’s definitely caught Raz’s eye – is trainee restaurant manager Cinny.

But Sam and Milly have some life-changing news to share.

As the family prepares for the big event, we catch a glimpse into each of their living rooms and lives. Every couple has their tough moments: Anno Domino asks what happens when the strongest of us falls apart. How do our actions ripple out and affect those we love?

Review

The dominos (people) that stood upright in the certainties of life start to wobble. It’s a great premise and name to show how people can start to fall and if you imagine the domino effect, how one domino affects the next and the next and so on, this is what this play shows very deftly, with people. There is humour, sadness and cause and effect spanning throughout the different generations. It’s a masterful and observational of human life.

The play starts with Sam and Milly’s silver wedding anniversary. The getting ready to go out is full of humour and what everyone can relate to, supposed lost handbags, the fussing around the teen son, Raymond who is too into his music. They have a big announcement to make to Sam’s family. The lead up to it is well executed and revelations come out. It is nuanced as conversations play out about what couples do as life moves onwards to different life stages. It has everything that Alan Ayckbourn is a master at, when creating a play for the stage. This medium of online has not affected his writing, directing, acting at all. His wife Heather Stoney also plays her characters very well and the 2 have made this fabulous play come to life, and I should think, that’s no mean feat. The actors really do move seamlessly and convincingly between the age ranges and characters.

In the first act, listeners get to know the characters pretty well and the people the main characters know, with that sublime humour throughout.

Act 2 takes place in the garden, where plants and family bonding occurs.
There’s really interesting and sage advice to Raymond (Razz). It’s eloquent and also cleverly layers in a bit of background to characters.

Things get a bit heated over very strong, definite, but differing opinions are formed between some of the character.

In a twist, revelations about relationships come out and come to a head and bit by bit, the domino effect happens from a sole event.

In another twist, there is some heartwarming moments to be had in the play.

Link to the website –

Listen Here

Humble Boy By Charlotte Jones – outstanding, joyous, poignant and funny @OrangeTreeTheatre #Theatre #CharlotteJones #PaulMiller #Review #JohnathanBroadbent #BelindaLang #PaulBradley #SelinaCadell #RebekahHinds #ChristopherRavenscroft #SimonDaw

Humble Boy
By Charlotte Jones
Rated 5 stars *****

There is/was a podcast with Charlotte Jones about Humble Boy, shown at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond. Unfortunately there isn’t a filmed version of the play.
Humble Boy is just the most terrific play that I keep hoping to tour, but the director Paul Miller always seems to be busy, maybe one day as steps were being made in Edinburgh at one point after I asked if an Edinburgh theatre may get it. It’s a long story… so onto the play that I think is just so wonderful and that thought has never left nor has it changed.

Nominated for 7 Off West End Awards
Best Female Performance Belinda Lang – 2 Point 4 Children, Duet For One and more…
Best Male Performance Jonathan Broadbent
Best Supporting Female Selina Cadell – Doc Martin
Best Supporting Male Paul Bradley – Holby City
Best Set Design Simon Daw
Best Director Paul Miller
Best Production

My husband is dead and my only son, who has grown fat and strange, has just run away from his own Father’s funeral. I’ll be fine. Fine. At least those bastard bees are gone.

Felix Humble is drawn back to his family home after the death of his father, a biology teacher and amateur beekeeper. There in the garden he finds his waspish mother Flora, her downtrodden friend Mercy and suspiciously ever-present local businessman George Pye, whose daughter Rosie was once involved with Felix. A luncheon is arranged…

Felix is an astrophysicist who discovers that solving the riddle of his emotional life is considerably more challenging than the quest for a unified string theory.

Paul Miller directs Paul Bradley, Jonathan Broadbent, Selina Cadell, Rebekah Hinds, Belinda Lang and Christopher Ravenscroft.

Review

Humble Boy is just so much fun, poignant, emotional, clever with a 5 star cast. This is a play that I saw pre-blog and now, as The Orange Tree Theatre have been highlighting it, it seems wonderfully right to write about it and really just to say how brilliant it is.
It is poignant and the wit of the characters is just perfect. Belinda Lang was just as brilliant as I knew she would be. I had seen her on stage before in Duet for One and was so taken by her acting, so I knew a trip to London to see this, whilst visiting a friend, was going to be worth it. We were so lucky to have front row seats. For those who don’t know; The Orange Tree Theatre is off the WestEnd in Richmond, London. It is a small round theatre. The stage is on the level of the front row (we actually had to walk on the neatly cobbled stones that created a path, that was part of the set to get to our seats) and the seats do practically go almost all the way round the circular stage. The price was incredibly good being off the West End, so sitting on the front row, as brave as it was of us, as an actor once said, was a “real treat”.

The set was amazing, it was all set within a garden and some, if not all the plants were actually real, we were super impressed. The play starts with humour and some rather fun dancing with Paul Bradley’s character and Belinda Lang’s character, who is waspish and both are full of life.

Felix, played by Jonathan Broadbent, ensures, that you feel sympathy with his character. Felix is a largely unsuccessful guy in his 30s, and a university lecturer and has a passion for Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics. His father, was a biologist with a passion for bees. A beehive that was accidentally destroyed by Flora, a vain woman who has just had a nose-job (played by Belinda Lang). She is “Queen Bee” in the community and her son is somewhat of a disappointment to her. I know, it doesn’t on paper sound like it would be amusing, but with quick quips and the acting make it so.

All the characters meet for a picnic lunch and suspicious goings on occur with the foodand more dramatic, yet shocking humourous and more poignant scenes play out, courteous of Selina Cadell’s character – Mercy as she serves up her husband’s ashes within her gazpacho after being in a bit of a tizzy and well, you can imagine how much more so when it is realised what’s been done!

Christopher Ravenscroft played the gardener well, with an air of mysteriousness about him.

The play is emotional and poignant and yet full of humour about life, death and bees.

Every single cast member were strong and absolutely wonderful and exceeded all expectations in their parts and all those nominations were well-deserved.

My 5 stars are not swayed by anything, including that I was incredibly lucky to have met the cast, a moment I will always treasure, as I do with any actors I have ever been lucky to have met. It really is, on merit, from the writer to the cast, to the production team etc, an excellent play and definitely up there in my top 5 plays that I’ve ever seen. If theatres ever re-open and this tours on a proper UK tour, especially with the same principle cast, it would be amazing to see again.