John OBrien

Any chance to see a play by Alan Bennett is always a shot in the arm and so the opportunity to see a double bill is doubly welcome. The determined and dedicated Teddington Theatre Club based in Hampton have put together an intriguing couple of one-act plays. A Visit from Miss Prothero and An Englishman … Read more A Visit from Miss Prothero and An Englishman Abroad – Hampton Hill Theatre

To mark the centenary of the Amritsar massacre (1919) director Phil Willmott has set Othello (1601) somewhere in India. For a British audience familiar with A Passage to India (1924) or The Raj Quartet (1975) or indeed the film Gandhi (1982) this works. We can more readily get to grips with racial, social and gender … Read more The Phil Willmott Company’s Shakespeare’s Othello | Review

As we approach the centenary of The Armistice of 11th November 1918, the Jermyn Street Theatre is doing its bit by putting on a series of plays that explore different aspects of this world defining historical moment. The contribution of troops from across the British Empire has been insufficiently celebrated so it is most welcome … Read more Review: Billy Bishop Goes To War | Jermyn Street Theatre

The Taming of the Shrew is usually called a comedy but it seems to me more like a problem play. This is confirmed in the current production at the Tristan Bates Theatre, part of the Actors Centre in Covent Garden. Performed using the cue script technique used in Elizabethan theatres this version of The Taming … Read more The Taming of the Shrew at Tristan Bates Theatre

What do you do when your boyfriend dumps you because he sees you as a dumb blonde? Get a law degree of course! That, in a nutshell, is the plot of Legally Blonde The Musical. The show is an adrenaline rush of joy and fun that just keeps getting better and better. At the end … Read more Legally Blonde The Musical | Review | New Wimbledon Theatre