MATT BOOTHMAN

Napoleon Noir: still neglected by history

1st June 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Written by Marcus Heath

Directed by Hannah Kaye

Starring Cavin Cornwall

Lost Theatre, until Saturday 5th June, £10-£30 (book tickets)

Poor Toussaint L’Ouverture – known in his native 18th century San Domingo (modern Haiti) as the Napoleon Noir – is apparently doomed to historical oversight. Despite being a...

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TR Warszawa take on 4.48 Psychosis

25th March 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Written by Sarah Kane

Directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna

Starring Magdalena Cielecka

Barbican Theatre, until Saturday 27th March, £10-£30 (book tickets)

4.48 Psychosis is a gift for a director.  Kane's text - her last - is more prose poem than script, lacking stage directions or delineated characters:  a nearly blank slate onto which a director can impose context, character and narrative.  To Grzegorz Jarzyna, of Polish company TR Warszawa, that creative freedom is a double-edged...

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The Noughties according to Theatre503

22nd January 2010 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

What do you remember about the Noughties?  (Yes, it turns out that is what we're calling them.)  Theatre503 asked that question to ten playwrights - five established, five as-yet unproduced - and the result is Decade, a collection of ten ten-minute plays, each one representing a single year.  So what do the Decade writers remember about the Noughties?

First and foremost, they remember global catastrophes.  Summing up a whole year in...

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Review: Lady Julia, Hen & Chickens Theatre

14th December 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Written by James and Ben Kenward after August Strindberg
Directed by Gabriella Santinelli
Starring James Kenward, Amy Rhodes, Annabel Topham

Hen & Chickens Theatre, until Saturday 19th December, £12.00 (book tickets)

In The Lamplight's Lady Julia brings August Strindberg's seminal Miss Julie<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--> bang up to date, throwing together high-born Julia (Annabel Topham) and her father's valet John (James Kenward) on New Year's Eve 2008. It's possible the company are hoping to replicate the...

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Review: The Stefan Golaszewski Plays, Bush Theatre

14th December 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

Written and performed by Stefan Golaszewski
Directed by Phillip Breen

Bush Theatre, until Saturday 9th January 2009, £15.00/£13.00 (book tickets)

Two one-act plays back to back don't usually make a successful two-act play. Right? Which suggests it's probably no coincidence that Stefan Golaszewski Speaks About A Girl He Once Loved and Stefan Golaszewski Is A Widower work so well as a double bill; it seems likely they were always meant to be performed...

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iTheatre not as “comprehensive” as it claims

30th July 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree

I can't contest the claim in the press release that iTheatre is "the first iPhone application dedicated to London theatres".  I am equally powerless to deny that the app features "reviews, seating plans, ticket availability and even mapping services".  But I will dispute to the death the assertion that it can keep users "up to date with all the latest shows" (my italics).

iTheatre was developed by Ubinow Solutions for BestOfTheatre.co.uk,...

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