Chatterbox - still talking nonsense

 Maxim Gorky’s play, first performed in 1905, puts his own spin on dissolute Russians hanging out in the countryside, oblivious to the plight of the peasant class.  With period dress, but with the language ostentatiously modern (reworked by Nina and Moses Raine), and covering similar ground as Chekhov, (apparently this was written as a response),  for a moment or two I wondered if we had accidentally wandered into The Cherry Orchard or Uncle Vanya instead.   Varvara (Sophie Rundle) and Sergei (Paul Ready) are hosting a large party at their summer retreat, and they and their guests spend their time bickering, and idly talking about life’s pointlessness and poetry whilst in the background (and sometimes in the foreground too) love affairs are played out.  A famous writer is coming to the house, and the party are putting on their own performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream.   These people are not aristocrats, but born into poverty, self made, and edu...

The Other Bennet Sister - I wasn’t at all sure that this would work, but actually it was really enjoyable. It picks up the story of the Bennet sisters from Mary’s perspective. She is the butt of the jokes in Pride and Prejudice, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story from the point of view of the underdog, threaded through with in-jokes.  Starting off as awkward and overly serious, we watch this much maligned sister gradually unfurl and blossom. Short episodes too with lots of sharp insights and nods to P&P history.  Some of the characters get a bit of a redemption arc, including Mr Collins which was fun too, whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the  less than obliging take on the more glamorous Bennett sisters.  With Ella Bruccoleri as Mary, and Ruth Jones as Mrs Bennet, and a plot stuffed full of Easter eggs and outright theft from Austen, this was a bit of a treat. ( tv series, streaming on iplayer ) Under Salt Marsh -  a nicely atmospheric murder mystery thriller w...

Set in one room in a country house in Derbyshire, centuries apart,  the mysteries of the universe and those a bit closer to home are explored.   The set is in the round, a single circular space with circular lights and globes above, suggesting the universe; the staging really makes the most of this set up.  The two worlds  of the 19th and late 20th century overlap and sometimes intermingle in this clever, deceptively simple production.   In the 19th century, Thomasina (Isis Hainsworth) is learning about Euclidian geometry, Fermat's last theorem and latin, but also about love, and why a house guest has been discovered in a carnal embrace with her tutor, Septimus Hodge (Seamus Dillane). Their conversations are fond and bantering, and also pretty funny, as it becomes clear that Septimus is in the centre of plenty of romantic intrigue at the house and using his considerable charm to ensure he escapes any potential trouble.  He's also a conte...

It’s 1938 in middle class Brooklyn, the year of Kristallnacht, and Sylvia (Pearl Chanda), who has been taking a close interest in what has been happening in Germany, suddenly becomes literally paralysed with fear.  No-one can understand why she is so afraid - this is all happening the other side of the ocean, so her distress is incomprehensible to those around her.  In the meantime, her husband Phillip (Eli Gelb) continues to reject and hide his Jewishness, with internalised antisemitism, a defender of Hitler and insisting that his name is Gellburg not Goldberg.  Whilst he works hard to assimilate, at the same time he is proud of what his son has achieved as a Jew, and it is really his journey we follow over the course of the play.  The set is covered in newspapers, both historic and current, and there are four clocks on the wall showing times around the world which align by the end of the play, and the message is pretty clear, that we ignore the rise of fascism at o...

I caught up with an old friend to go to a comedy podcast recording of @TonsilHockey with Olga Koch and Catherine Bohart. It was lovely to see my friend again, and the show, which was a watch-a-long for an episode of Heated Rivalry, was a lot of fun.  There’s something great about being in a room full of people who are locked into the same thing, whether that’s a tv show, a theatre production, comedy show, gig, or even (I imagine, though I have no direct experience of this) for sport. The shared highs and lows, laughter, cheers and groans are so much more fun when shared, and it’s a good reminder of what pack animals we still are any time we get an opportunity.   Anyway, I laughed a lot, with Phil Wang as the novice tribute being inducted into the cult, having not seen the show, with the rest of the room the experts on every scene.  So far so good... but I'd like to know what is it about me that means I am the person that always gets picked on to talk?  Particula...

Dirty Business  - I think we all know that we were sold down the river when Thatcher privatised the water companies, and how badly we have been swindled, but I defy anyone to watch this docudrama and not be horrified and seething with fury about just how badly this basic human and environmental need has been managed by everyone involved.  The three part series takes a good look at some tragic human stories of how contaminated water has caused death, illness, and ongoing ecological disaster.  Alongside these, we see the real life data and sleuthing heroes Ashley Smith (David Thewlis) and Peter Hammond (Jason Watkins) digging up the dirt, doing analysis that no-one else was, to show what the companies and regulators had been up to.  Shocking - watch it then write to your MP at the very least, although I feel like getting out the pitchforks and marching down to Thames Water HQ.  Doing a similar job as Mr Bates vs The Post Office last year, this is important telly....

Man and Boy at the Dorfman I knew very little about this rarely performed Rattigan play beforehand but, for me at least, this one was a hit.  I last saw Ben Daniels being amazing in Medea a couple of years ago.  This time he plays Gregor Antonescu, a successful financier in 1934, with all sorts of financial interests including loans to the fascist movements in Italy and Germany, clearly moving in those circles.  We meet him at the moment his dodgy dealing has caught up with him and he seeks sanctuary in his estranged son’s basement apartment in Manhattan.  The murky world of the rich hits pretty hard in the light of the Epstein scandal, showing how disposable people are in this world, including his son, as he offers him up without his consent, to a closeted gay corporate boss.  In this world, people are no more than commodities and Antonesco states 'Love is a commodity I can't afford' .  What matters instead is how anyone or thing can help with the deal....