Of all the different theatrical genres, pantomime is the most traditional. When you go along to a panto, you know what you are going to see. A well-known story, dad jokes, songs, cross-dressing and an over-the-top dame. But it is the changes in panto over the years that are the catalyst for the action in…
Another classic novel gets the musical theatre treatment as, after a short break and with an updated score, From Here to Eternity opens at the Charing Cross Theatre. November 1941 and for the men of ‘G’ Company, based in Hawaii, life is pretty monotonous. Company Commander Captain Dana Holmes (Alan Turkington), in fact, the entire…
According to many detective stories, human beings make the most unreliable witnesses to events. Although they all may experience and see the same things, their perception of what has occurred will vary considerably depending on their own thoughts and personalities. I’m not sure exactly how true this is but it’s an idea that has been…
In 1995 when it was first performed, Terrence McNally’s play Love! Valour! Compassion! Won a Tony Award for Best Play along with a slew of other awards. After a long hiatus, the show is back on the London stage thanks to the new SEDOS production at the Bridewell Theatre. Gregory (James Daly), a renowned choreographer,…
During my time in the RAF, I met a few royals. It was always a special occasion when they came to visit the base and we worked for hours and hours getting everything ready so that the whole visit goes exactly to plan. Of course, you can’t plan everything and sometimes things go wrong, and…
In November 1978, an ex-policeman took up his gun and shot the mayor and a member of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. Nothing too exciting you may think. Such things happen all the time. Maybe so, but the reason we remember these murders is that Supervisor Milk, was the first openly gay man…
On the daily commute, do you look at the other people around you and wonder about them? What is their story, and what are their lives like? With no real information, except maybe scraps of an overheard conversation, do you then start making up stories about them? I used to be worried that I was…
In 2000, Felix Barrett founded Punchdrunk as a theatrical company with one overriding thought, namely that audiences should have greater freedom to select what they experienced in a theatre. In doing this, he took immersive theatre to a new level. Something I experienced when I had my mind completely blown by the production of The…